178. Your Brain Wasn’t Designed to Build Wealth (And That Changes Everything)
episode
Becoming The Wealthy You | How to Save Money, Stop Overspending, Get Out of Debt, Budgeting & Personal Finance for Women
24 min
1 speaker
4 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You are listening to the Becoming the Wealthy You podcast with Jermaine Foley.
If you're a woman who makes good money in your career or business, but you're not building wealth like you want to, then you're in the right place. In this podcast, you'll learn how to stop overspending, break free from the cycle of debt, save lots of cash, and become the wealthy woman you were born to be. Let's dive in. Well, hello, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. So last week, we talked about how wealth building is actually simple. Because when you really break it down, all you really have to do is master what I call the five core areas of money. And as a reminder, here they are. The first one is income. The second one is spending. The third one is debt. The fourth one is savings. And then the fifth is investing.
If you literally master those five core areas of money, there is no limit to the wealth you can create. So if you haven't had a chance to go back and listen to episode 177, I highly recommend that you do so after you listen to this one. Because for today, I want to talk about why even though wealth building is super simple when you break it down the way I just did, it can actually feel incredibly hard. And I really want to talk about why that is today. Because if wealth building is really as simple as I explained, why do so many smart, capable, high-earning women still struggle with it? And the answer is this. Your brain was not designed to build wealth. I'm going to say it again. Your brain was not designed to build wealth.
So let me break that down for you right now. I've talked about this many times on the podcast, but your brain has different parts with different jobs. The oldest, most primitive, the simplest part of your brain is actually called the primitive brain. It was not designed for wealth building. It was actually designed for survival and survival only. And when you think about survival, that's about staying safe, staying comfortable, avoiding pain, seeking pleasure, conserving energy, staying with the group, repeating what's familiar over and over and over again, because your primitive brain is wants you to be safe. And familiar, this is a key right here, you all. Familiar to your primitive brain equals safe, even though a lot of times what's familiar isn't good for you, isn't healthy for you, it's not helping you, and it's not actually what you want.
So I always like to tie that back to the fact that with money, we can find ourselves repeating the same patterns over and over and over again. And we wonder why this is why, because your primitive brain prefers what's familiar. So it prefers familiar discomfort over unfamiliar comfort. So instead of growing, that's unfamiliar. Instead of being someone who's debt free, that's unfamiliar. It just wants to continue to do the same things over and over again. So this is, again, why people repeat the same patterns. You pay off your debt and you run it back up again. You spend impulsively, even though you swore you were done doing that. You avoid looking at your money over and over again, even though you know what the repercussions are.
You sabotage your savings, right? You spend it down. You borrow from your 401k over and over again, even again, after you said you wouldn't do it again. So your brain is pulling you back to the familiar state. So if you get to a place where you're debt-free, you don't have any credit card balances, that is unfamiliar to your brain. So it's going to do everything in your power to pull you back. If you have money saved, let's say you got a windfall, a bonus at work or something else, a tax return or a new client, and you put that money in savings, you're like, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep this money in savings. Before you know it, your primitive brain will have you spending that money down and you'll look up and be like, okay, what happened?
I had all this money and now it's just gone. It just slipped through my fingers. It disappeared. It's because your primitive brain is just trying to get you back to that comfortable, familiar place.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:56
2
Why does building wealth feel hard even when the steps are simple?
6:56–10:28
3
Which part of the brain is responsible for survival and familiar money patterns?
10:28–13:32
4
How does the primitive brain prefer familiar discomfort over unfamiliar growth?
13:32–24:07
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Becoming The Wealthy You | How to Save Money, Stop Overspending, Get Out of Debt, Budgeting & Personal Finance for Women
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187. Making Good Money Isn’t the Same as Building Wealth
186. Why Making More Money Can Still Leave You Feeling Behind
185. Your Past Money Habits Created Your Current Financial Life
184. Why Money Keeps Coming In and Going Right Back Out