Love Your Money Practice
Replace financial shame and scarcity with care, repetition, and abundance.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 91%
The practice begins by treating money as a useful part of life that can receive care, respect, and healthy attention rather than shame. Saying “I love money” is used as an experiment, not as a claim that money outranks people or values. When paying a bill or sending money out, a repeated abundance cue interrupts the instinctive contraction that accompanies scarcity. The person then challenges the zero-sum belief that another person's gains necessarily create their loss and defines an appropriate financial appetite based on their own responsibilities and ambitions. Repetition is intended to alter habitual reactions over time, but the mindset shift must support concrete financial stewardship rather than replace it. The desired output is a clearer, calmer, more confident relationship with earning, pricing, spending, and sharing.
Origin
Forleo began discussing the idea publicly after seeing audiences react strongly when she said she loved money and after witnessing the stress created by unhealthy financial patterns in her family.
Core principles
- 01Money is a tool rather than a measure of human worth.
- 02Love can replace shame without outranking relationships or values.
- 03Repeated language can reshape habitual financial reactions.
- 04Another person's prosperity does not inherently diminish yours.
- 05Different lives legitimately require different levels of wealth.
How to run it
- 1
Observe the conditioning
Notice the pain, shame, guilt, or scarcity beliefs that appear when you discuss, earn, charge, spend, or manage money.
Pro tip Record the exact phrases that arise automatically.
Watch out Do not shame yourself for having absorbed common cultural beliefs.
- 2
Experiment with love
Privately say that you love money and observe the reaction it creates. Define love as attention, care, respect, and responsible use rather than worship.
Pro tip Start silently if saying it aloud feels too provocative.
Watch out The practice does not place money above health, values, or relationships.
- 3
Reframe outflows
Whenever money leaves, interrupt contraction by repeating an abundance-oriented cue.
Pro tip Attach the phrase to recurring bill payments so repetition becomes automatic.
Watch out Abundance language does not justify spending money you do not have.
- 4
Challenge the fixed-pie belief
Identify moments when you assume another person's gain leaves less for you and test that assumption against economic reality and value creation.
Pro tip Look for ways cooperation, innovation, or enterprise creates new value.
Watch out Do not use abundance rhetoric to ignore genuine inequality or exploitation.
- 5
Define your financial appetite
Choose goals according to your responsibilities, desired lifestyle, and intended contribution rather than someone else's number.
Pro tip Distinguish a simple secure life from ambitions that require a larger financial base.
Watch out Comparison can inflate or suppress the amount that is genuinely right for you.
- 6
Act with financial care
Apply the healthier relationship through clearer pricing, attentive bill payment, saving, planning, and generous sharing.
Pro tip Pair each mindset practice with one observable financial behavior.
Watch out Mantras alone cannot correct an unsustainable financial system.
In the wild
A business owner notices a wave of fear whenever a supplier invoice is paid. She pauses, acknowledges the value received, repeats an abundance cue, and then reviews the account balance and cash-flow plan. Over time, the ritual reduces panic while preserving responsible oversight.
→ Payment becomes a calmer act of stewardship rather than an automatic scarcity trigger.
One entrepreneur wants a simple business producing a comfortable personal income, while another wants to finance a larger company and build schools. Instead of ranking the ambitions morally, each defines the amount required for their own responsibilities and purpose.
→ Both can pursue financial harmony without copying or condemning the other's goal.
Common mistakes
Confusing love with worship
Loving money as a tool does not mean placing it above relationships, ethics, health, or purpose.
Using abundance to ignore arithmetic
A positive mantra cannot replace budgeting, cash-flow management, or honest attention to financial constraints.
Adopting someone else's number
Financial needs and ambitions differ, so comparison can distort what enough means for a particular life.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for people who experience guilt, anxiety, or moral conflict when earning, discussing, charging, or spending money.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal as a substitute for budgeting, debt support, income generation, or professional financial advice.
From the transcript
“But what would happen if you poured the energy of unconditional love into and onto your financial life?”
“Anytime money goes out and I know most of us like we can clench, right?”
“Here's the mantra. There's always more where that came from. There's always more where that came from.”
From the episode
The Power of Clarity: Success, Money, and Mindset Shifts with Marie Forleo
Marie Forleo