Posted by André Nosalsky :: May 3, 2009 @ 6:16 am

If you watched the movie Fight Club, you’ll recall Tyler Durden (the main character) making his famous speech at the pub. He says “...you're not how much money you've got in the bank. You're not your job. You're not your problems....” Equating yourself as a person with how much money you have in the bank or how much money you make is one of the biggest “sub-problems” that people have with money.

This is a “sub-problem” because it usually lurks underneath the surface and cannot be directly identified. It has many different manifestations that show up as clues to this problem. Some recent tragic examples of this problem are the increase in suicide numbers as a result of the financial crisis. When the financial houses that these people built collapsed, some people thought that their entire lives collapsed and were no longer worth living.

The suicides are an extreme example of this problem; many other people suffer from this problem on a much smaller scale. A person losing a job and becoming severely depressed; holding onto a bad stock when it keeps on crashing; allowing the size of a bank account to dictate daily moods; inability to cut losses and put an end to financial bleeding are also examples of this phenomenon.

All of these problems, either big or small, come from combining your view of who you are with your financial situation. When faced with these types of circumstances, many times people end up making irrational decisions -- decisions that can end up costing them dearly. They view losing money as losing a part of themselves. So they have a hard time letting go and thinking critically about money, and have difficulty thinking about money independently of themselves.

One way to quickly tell if you have this problem, at any level, is to close your eyes and imagine a catastrophic experience. Do your emotions get stirred? Do you feel overwhelmed? Or is it just an intellectual exercise that starts you thinking how you will recover from this experience?
If you answered “intellectual exercise,” then you’re on the right path. If you answered with emotions and feelings, then read my next post in which I’ll discuss how to overcome this problem and separate how you view yourself from how you view your money.