You may or may not realize it, but you might need to change your money mindset. When you think about a million dollars, are you thinking about what you would buy and where you would spend it? Or by contrast, are you thinking about how to invest it, and more specifically, how to make one million into two million dollars?

What is Your Money Mindset?

Your money mindset is your attitude toward money and your context for its purpose. Your money mindset is what you believe about money and how it should be used.

Your money mindset could be closely connected to God’s purpose for wealth:

My needs are met and I am content.
God has given me the power to get wealth and be fruitful for His glory.
God’s purpose for my money is to bless others and make a difference.

Your money mindset could be confused and fear based:

I can’t afford to tithe because I’m afraid I can’t pay my bills.
Money is evil.
It is more spiritual to be poor.

Yours may be a combination of the above, but it is a solid certainty that the way you think about money will affect how, why and what you do with your money. Billy is frequently heard saying, if you want to be a millionaire, you better become a millionaire in your thinking first. What does thinking like a millionaire look like?

Related Post: 6 Money Mindset Changes

A Millionaire Mindset

Developing a millionaire mindset begins by understanding and embracing financial stewardship skills. These skills take time, practice, and a measure of risk that most people don’t see the value of. It explains why people who receive sudden, unexpected wealth, generally don’t have it for long. For example, lottery winners are three to five times more likely to go bankrupt than the average American, and upwards of 70% of them end up broke. You must be a millionaire in your thinking before you can sustain being one in your bank account.

In addition, he required his sons to study finance. When they started a new business, they were required to document and report on it to the family bank. This was an extra means of passing knowledge on to future heirs. Rothschild had five sons who moved to five different capitals in Europe. As of 2015, the Rothschild family still has an enormous fortune, because Amschel Rothschild understood the importance of financial stewardship. People must be taught how to handle money, especially when there are massive amounts of it.

“Inherited wealth is a real handicap to happiness… It has left me with nothing to hope for, with nothing definite to seek or strive for.” —One of Vanderbilt’s grandsons.

“It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have got it, you require ten times as much wit to keep it.”

—One of Rothschild’s grandsons

An inheritance gained hastily in the beginning will not be blessed in the end. Proverbs 20:21 ESV

Wealth for Generations

The Rothschild and Vanderbilt family stories show the importance of financial stewardship and giving your children a healthy money mindset. Cornelius Vanderbilt was the well-known patriarch of the Vanderbilt fortune. At his death in 1877, he had amassed a fortune of $105,000,000. He was the Elon Musk of his time.

Almost 100 years later, a group of Vanderbilt’s heirs met in Nashville, Tennessee. At this meeting, it was discovered not a single millionaire remained. Cornelius Vanderbilt had left his money behind, but he hadn’t taught his family the value of money or how to sustain that kind of wealth. His companies continued to function, but his untrained descendants squandered their financial legacy. One hundred years after his death, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s fortune was entirely gone!

Then there was Amschel Rothschild who lived in Frankfurt, Germany and died in 1812. The Rothschilds are a banking family in Europe. Rothschild gave his sons a healthy money mindset through two options when they were looking to start a business. With the Rothschild fortune, he formed a family bank and the sons could either:

borrow money and pay back the bank on terms or
allow the bank to take an equity position in their company and provide equity instead of debt.

How to Change Your Money Mindset

There is a process to building wealth and it begins with a healthy money mindset. The children of Israel’s deliverance from Egypt is a good picture of this process. God miraculously brought them out of Egypt, but they had been slaves for hundreds of years. God’s first task was ‘getting the Egypt’ out of them. When a little discomfort had them asking to go back to Egypt, God fed them from heaven every day for 40 years (Exodus 16:2-3). They learned of God’s unceasing faithfulness through manna, but they still had some maturing to do.

When they arrived in the Promised Land, the children of Israel still had to take back the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Deut 31:21). Although God could have done it supernaturally, He taught them to fight for what was theirs. He also taught them things they had lost during generations of slavery—an appreciation of ownership and the joy of working for themselves. God changed their mindset from slavery to manna to warrior to owner much the same way He changes our mindset from new believer to confident follower to champion to servant.

Strategic Rather Than Sporadic Giving

Very likely you separate your thoughts about money into two categories: devotional money and transactional money and these categories greatly affect your money mindset. Here is a solid definition of both before we unpack what this means.

Devotional Money: The tithes, offerings, and donations that are freely given and received.

Transactional Money: Money you earn or create through your job or passive income.

Many believers base their devotional giving on the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-19) although this passage is not about financial return, but spiritual fruitfulness. The misconception happens when giving a seed faith offering they believe God will multiply their money and return it to them. Many people think that after they give, their money will come back to them devotionally. In other words, they think someone will randomly hand them cash or they’ll receive an anonymous check in the mail.

Often a believer’s money mindset causes them to expect a harvest without doing the hard work of tilling the soil. In reality we must work the land if we want a return! By partnering with God, He often blesses us transactionally through the work He has called us to do. The blessing could come in the form of a bonus at work or the growth of our business. God is a Provider who wants to partner with you to build something successful. Begin using your generosity for strategic rather than sporadic giving and watch the Lord develop something sustainable.

Not everyone is meant to be a millionaire. Financial stewardship on that level takes a lot of work, as stated by Nathan Rothschild. Each person has their own giftings and callings which God has purposed to bring prosperity. Ask yourself, what do I need to become to do all God wants me to do? And in the process, watch Him transform you into everything you can be for the Kingdom.