Three Reasons you Might be a Hoarder

Do you know someone who has trouble letting go when it comes to material things?

We’ve all seen those shows about people who live a hoarding lifestyle. They’re too afraid to let anything go whether it’s for monumental reasons or because they just don’t know when “they’ll find another one” again. But what happens when it gets out of control? Instead of those same items making the person feel good, it has the opposite effect by literally blocking their lifestyle until they start to live in a smaller and smaller space - mentally, emotionally, physically. It literally becomes material suffocation.

Did you know the same can happen to your money mindset if you have a hoarder mentality? But instead of your physical space becoming smaller and smaller, your sense of financial security starts to become skewed. Want to know if you might be a hoarder when it comes to your finances? Here’s three reasons you might be:

The Hoarder Mindset

You love seeing large amounts in your bank account and are scared to see your savings go down. Hoarders sometimes believe that if you have a lot of money, you don’t need to spend time budgeting or knowing where your money is going. The Hoarder’s primary focus is on increasing their savings and investments and this provides them with comfort and security. As a Hoarder you believe it’s all about how much money you have, even taking pride in getting something for less if it helps the money to grow in your bank account. You can sometimes live in fear of "never having enough money", but that mindset is just as bad as not having any savings at all.

The Hoarder’s Spending

Hoarders tend to live in a false sense of financial security. Although you may have lots of money, it’s really not working to your advantage. You are scared to invest or take risks, regardless of the potential financial gain. You sometimes hold lots of debt at any given time because paying it down means seeing your savings balance decrease, no matter how much keeping the debt might actually be costing you. You can come across as being cheap or even selfish to others because of your difficulty with letting go of your money.

The Hoarder’s Emotional Connection to Money

Hoarders tend to be very ambitious workaholics who rarely take time to discover more of who they are or explore new ventures and hobbies to uncover hidden talents and abilities. Outwardly you make it look like you’re happy and have it all but on the inside, you feel lost and confused. Your identity is deeply attached to your career and you talk mostly about work to avoid conversations about yourself. You have convinced yourself that when you get that promotion or make extra money, then you will be truly happy and be able to fully enjoy life. But when the promotion or money does come, your focus shifts to maintaining it or not letting it go and you continue to neglect the joys of life. Due to your constant focus and attention on work and making money, you can sometimes compensate by “buying” your family’s love to compensate for your lack of presence.

Ok, so you might be a HOARDER

If all or most of that resonated with you, you might just be a Hoarder. Stop spending your time on only 10% of who you are. Your job, business or career does not define you. You are so much more!

Remember, you must always be kind to yourself. Start by repeating this out loud: