You have survived Christmas Day and boxing day.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s those odd days in the middle while we wait for New Year.\u00a0 They feel weird don\u2019t they, what do you do with them? If you like the English comedian Michael McIntrye, he has a very funny story about the days between Christmas and New Year.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I digress.\u00a0 I thought to help you fill in the time, I would share a fun exercise with you.<\/p>\n
Have you ever wondered what your true money mindset looks like, not the version you tell yourself you have, but the one quietly driving your decisions when no one\u2019s watching?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a simple, imaginative exercise I use with clients. It\u2019s fun, a little revealing, and shows a surprising amount about how you feel about earning, spending, and holding money.<\/p>\n
The exercise<\/p>\n
Pick any starting amount\u2014it could be $1, $10, $50, $100\u2014whatever feels right. Your challenge is to spend it all in a single day. Tomorrow, the amount doubles, and you spend it all again. The next day, it doubles again. And you keep going for as long as you can. Just a caveat here, you need to spend the money, not give it away. The day you give it away, is the end of the game for you.<\/p>\n
The question is: at what point does your brain throw up its hands and say, \u201cI can\u2019t do this anymore\u2014this feels impossible\u201d? That moment is your personal stopping point, and it reveals your real money mindset. And here\u2019s the kicker\u2026 it\u2019s rarely about the money itself.<\/p>\n
Why this works<\/p>\n
Your money mindset isn\u2019t about how much you earn. It\u2019s about how safe, capable, and deserving you feel when money moves through your life. This exercise forces you to imagine receiving more money than you usually handle and doing something most people feel uncomfortable with: spending it freely and without restriction.<\/p>\n
That discomfort often surfaces as thoughts like, \u201cThat\u2019s too much money,\u201d \u201cI shouldn\u2019t spend this much,\u201d or \u201cWhat if I run out?\u201d The rules of the exercise make running out impossible, but your brain doesn\u2019t care about rules. It\u2019s tuned into safety, familiarity, and identity. That\u2019s where the insights come in.<\/p>\n
Where most people stop<\/p>\n
Many people start small. maybe $10. Day one feels harmless. By day ten, that\u2019s $5,120, and suddenly, the wheels come off. Thoughts like \u201cI can\u2019t justify this,\u201d \u201cThis feels wasteful,\u201d or \u201cWho do I think I am?\u201d start creeping in.<\/p>\n
Notice a pattern? It\u2019s not about the math. It\u2019s about your money mindset. One of the most common money blocks I see is this: your comfort with spending reflects your comfort with receiving. If spending $5,000 in a day feels \u201cwrong,\u201d receiving $5,000 easily will feel \u201cwrong\u201d too\u2014even if you say you want it.<\/p>\n
What your stopping point reveals<\/p>\n
Your stopping point tells you a lot about your money personality. It shows your upper limit\u2014the invisible ceiling of what feels like \u201cenough\u201d or \u201ctoo much.\u201d It shows your safety threshold\u2014what triggers fear when spending or receiving. It shows your money identity\u2014if you\u2019ve always seen yourself as someone who doesn\u2019t need much, spending or receiving large sums can feel like pretending to be someone else. And it shows your comfort with expansion\u2014how far your nervous system can stretch before overwhelm sets in.<\/p>\n
Your stopping point is not a failure. It\u2019s data. It\u2019s an opportunity to see the stories you\u2019re telling yourself\u2014like \u201cI don\u2019t deserve this,\u201d \u201cThis is too much for someone like me,\u201d or \u201cI shouldn\u2019t want more.\u201d These beliefs weren\u2019t random. They were learned, inherited, or absorbed. And once you see them, you can start to change them.<\/p>\n
How to work with your result<\/p>\n
Start by noting the dollar amount where you hit \u201cSTOP.\u201d Ask yourself why that number felt too big, and keep asking why until you uncover the belief underneath. Then imagine spending just one day past that point. You\u2019re not trying to become a reckless spender, this is about expanding your capacity to receive, handle, and direct money. Pay attention to what comes up: guilt, anxiety, excitement, resistance. That is the real work of money psychology.<\/p>\n
This exercise isn\u2019t really about spending. It\u2019s about uncovering the invisible limits you\u2019ve placed on what feels \u201cacceptable\u201d for you financially. Your brain only allows in the amount of money it feels safe handling. If you want to grow your income, build wealth, or break old money patterns, your stopping point is the perfect place to begin.<\/p>\n
The last time I did this exercise, I started with $100 a day, being a natural spender, I was having so much fun, buying cars, diamonds, holidays. Then as I had more every day, I started looking at private islands to buy, castles in the UK and Europe.\u00a0 I think I even bought and F1 racing team.\u00a0 It opened a whole new world that I had never even considered. By the time I got to day 16, when I had about $16.5 mill to spend, it was getting pretty hard.\u00a0 I valiantly carried on to day 26 when I decided I just couldn\u2019t do it anymore and donated all the money to charity. \u00a0That was the end of the game for me.<\/p>\n
Have some fun with this, see what your upper limit is, I would love you to share in the comments how many days you were able to keep it going.<\/p>\n
*Lynda Moore is a Money Mentalist coach and New Zealand\u2019s only certified New Money Story\u00ae mentor. Lynda helps you understand why you do the things you do with your money, when we all know we should spend less than we earn. You can contact her here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You have survived Christmas Day and boxing day.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s those odd days in the middle while we…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-221318","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}