According to Merriam-Webster, to “manifest” means “to readily perceive by the senses” or “to make evident or certain by showing.” For example, you can see happiness or sadness manifest on your friend’s face. However, what does it mean to manifest money?
Manifesting money isn’t merely thinking about dollar bills. It’s also not wishing you had that Lexus or BMW that your friend has. Moreover, it’s not dreaming you could suddenly win the lottery.
Instead, manifesting money is a way of thought to help you become wealthy and achieve financial freedom. Don’t envy others. Focus on yourself, and forge your own path through the world.
I’ve had the opportunity to fix how I manifest money throughout my lifetime. Coming from humble beginnings myself, I always dreamt of owning a private jet. Sought to travel the world. Studying at an Ivy League only furthered these “rich” thoughts. Thus, I thought I was manifesting money with these thoughts.
However, as I grew older, I realized that I was manifesting money incorrectly. I discovered it wasn’t something that I had to dream about. Furthermore, I found it was something I could do, something I could get started with.
And so, I did. This article covers the tangible, real techniques that I used to manifest money.
Think Wealthy, Not Rich
Your mindset is the first thing to work on to manifest money.
There’s an enormous difference between being rich and wealthy. Not every millionaire is wealthy. Not every millionaire is rich.
Go ahead: ask your friends what the difference is. You’ll be met with blank stares.
At first, I didn’t know the difference between the two. However, as I grew older, I realized the critical distinctions.
In brief, the difference between rich vs. wealthy is that the former focuses on investing, while the latter focuses on spending.
What Does Being Wealthy Mean?
Wealth is the accumulation of assets. Those who are wealthy focus on investing.
To begin, a wealthy individual follows most of the principles in this beginner’s guide to personal finance.
They save at least 15% of their paychecks, owe little to no debt, have their retirement portfolio in smart investments, and live well within their means.
But the most important distinction is that a wealthy person has a huge net worth. Wealthy people use their assets to generate passive income for them.
What Does Being Rich Mean?
Being rich simply means having a high income without corresponding assets.
Having a lot of money doesn’t make you wealthy because rich people also spend a lot. Someone who earns $1 million per year while spending $999,000 on a flashy lifestyle will have less money at the end of the year than you. That expensive car looks nice in the driveway but could spell disaster since they have so many other bills piling up.
Rich lifestyles spend most of their income, resulting in little investing activities.
That’s the stereotype you think of with professional athletes. Instead of investing their money, they buy expensive cars and jewelry, frequently using loans.
You’d be better off only making $60,000 and saving half of it!
Never judge a book by its cover. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people see a brand new Lexus and be like, “wow, they must have a lot of money.” They might have a lot of income, but that doesn’t mean they have any money saved.
How Do I Think Wealthy And Not Rich To Manifest Money?
You can start thinking wealthy by changing how you view the world.
Going back to my example, every time you see a BMW cross the road, don’t think that they’re necessarily wealthy. For all you know, they could have spent their entire yearly paycheck for just the down payment. They could even be struggling to pay their monthly bills as a result.
If you want to explore more about how to deepen your wealth mindset, continue reading into our rich vs. wealthy article. In short, it’s essential to:
- Remember that this is a long term game
- Cut unnecessary expenses
- Put yourself in a supportive environment
- Envision a successful life
- The longer you wait, the harder it is
By thinking like a wealthy person, you’ll realize that you can achieve your dreams of financial freedom.
Is This Mindset All I Need?
Having the correct mindset is one thing. Being positive and energetic about achieving your goals is another.
If you foster negative thoughts, they can become realities. For example, there’s a world of difference between saying:
“I’m not smart enough to do this assignment,”
versus
“I have the power and capability to complete this task.”
Positive affirmations are statements that can help you overcome negativity. You can literally “speak it into existence.” Research has even revealed that thinking about your best traits can improve performance before a high-pressure meeting.
Your mind is an extraordinarily powerful tool. By simply thinking positively, you can kickstart your journey towards manifesting money more effectively.
There will be highs and lows throughout your journey. However, it’s crucial to stay positive throughout and keep your eyes on the prize: manifesting money for financial freedom. Otherwise, you’ll stop believing in yourself and your dreams.
Establish Short And Long Term Goals
Now that you’ve started thinking with a wealthy, positive mindset, it’s vital to make goals for yourself. These targets shouldn’t be impossible to reach but should be hard enough that you have to work for them.
You want to make these goals difficult enough that when you hit them, you can pat yourself on the back and smile. You’ll only then realize how much money you’ve manifested along the way.
Making monetary goals can best be solved with a budget. Using a 50% needs / 30% wants / 20% savings split, you can aim to save a certain amount of money within a few months.
For example, say you make $1,000 every month, and you set a goal to save $600 in the next three months. You might set aside $200 every month in your budget for the next three months and add it to your high-yield savings account. Once you hit that goal, you’ve built a savvy emergency fund. Well done!
Goals on a monthly timeframe are pretty short-term. What about long term goals? Do you want to start saving money for your kid’s college aspirations? We can do that too!
I know my parents did their best to set aside some of their paychecks every year to help get me to college. Maybe you want to aim to save $25,000 over the next ten years. While that might be a daunting number, the math makes it more achievable.
To save that amount of money, you’d need to set aside $2,500 every year. Or about $210 every month. Not including the interest you’ll earn or the profit from investing smartly.
These goals can seem lofty at first, but break them down and realize that they can be achievable.
A Key To Manifesting Money Is Surrounding Yourself With Positivity
“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” – Oprah Winfrey
Few things impact our lives as much as those that we surround ourselves with. Being at an Ivy League university, I’m immediately surrounded by classmates who study around the clock, push themselves, and talk about their dreams.
It inspired me to work harder and to explore what I want to do with my life. So as you look around, find people that encourage you and lift you.
You’ll manifest money more easily if you surround yourself with the right people. These people can help keep you motivated, serve as a resource, and ensure you stay on the right path.
Be An Investor
An investor is someone who puts their money into things intending to make a profit.
They would never leave their money under a pillow or in a piggy bank. Instead, they’re always looking for ways to make their money grow. Investors are constantly researching and putting their cash to hard work. They typically think long-term as well.
How can you be an investor to start manifesting money?
The first thing to realize is that investing is not as daunting as it can be. Movies like “The Wolf of Wall Street” or “The Big Short” make investing seem risky and chaotic. However, in reality, investing can be simple.
In fact, you don’t even need a finance degree or to have worked in Wall Street to invest wisely. I speak from experience here!
One of the easiest ways to get started is to invest long-term in your retirement. By choosing to invest in retirement, you’ll ignore many of the challenges that make investing hard. Moreover, by thinking about retirement early, you’ll manifest enough money to retire comfortably.
Remember: this is a long-term game. Nothing in life comes instantaneously, and the rule holds for manifesting money.
Perhaps the next easiest way is to invest long-term into exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or index funds. We talk more about them in our index funds article, but in simple terms, they are a very safe investment that even an investor like Warren Buffet recommends.
I highly recommend you start thinking about what you can do with your existing cash. Make sure you’ve thought about putting your funds towards retirement. Explore what and how exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and index funds can be used to your advantage.
By acting like an investor, you can manifest money right before your eyes.
Get A Hold Of Your Current Situation
To manifest money, it’s paramount to look at what you have now and make sure you’re covering all the gaps. Why?
You wouldn’t want to miss out on easy opportunities to manifest the most money possible. For example, moving your money from a standard to high-yield savings account will instantly grant you interest rates about 15-20x higher than the norm. And this simple action takes less than 15 minutes to do.
Manifesting money can be as simple as looking through your current situation and seeing what easy things you can do to maximize your passive income. That might mean cutting debt interest rates or finding better savings accounts.
Tackle Your Debt
Do you have debt with extraordinary high-interest rates that strip all your monthly income? Private student loans that ask for every dime of money you have left? Is there credit card debt hitting you hard?
If any of these apply to you, then you aren’t alone. About 55% of all Americans say they have some degree of credit card debt. About 10% even report having over $5,000 in credit card debt. Considering that most credit cards have interest rates ranging between 10 to even 25%, that’s a lot of interest.
To manifest money the most money possible, you must remember to lower your expenses and monthly debt repayments.
Your first play should be to look into loan refinancing (refi). Refi can help you save tens of thousands of dollars. Furthermore, just looking at your options is generally free and only takes a few minutes.
Consider refinancing your student loans with Earnest, LendKey, or ELFI. They offer low rates, and you can get a quote for free.
Open High-Yield Checking, Savings, And CD Accounts
As I like to put it, not opening a high-yield checking, savings, or CD account is quite literally like leaving free money on the sidewalk.
If you don’t have a high-yield account right now, I recommend you open one right after reading this section. They have interest rates 15-20x higher than standard accounts.
To put that rate in perspective, say you and your friend both had $10,000.
You open a high-yield savings account with a 2.00% APY, whereas your friend opens a typical savings account with a 0.05% APY. Over 10 years alone, you’ll have made about $2,100 more than your friend.
The only difference? You read into high-yield savings account for 15 more minutes than your friend. There’re no differences in maintenance, reliability, or security.
High-yield variants exist for checking, and certificate of deposit (CD) accounts as well. By placing your funds in these accounts, you’ll start manifesting money.
Build An Emergency Fund
We’ve been talking a lot about ways to physically manifest money. However, it’s important to secure yourself against the unexpected. Otherwise, you won’t be manifesting anything.
An emergency fund is simply money set aside in case of an emergency. An emergency is a bill or unexpected expense that can’t be delayed. Like needing to fix your car so you can go to work. Or paying for a medication that you need to stay healthy.
To manifest money, you must build yourself from the foundation. Consider opening the CIT Bank Savings Builder account to embrace a high-yield account that encourages good savings habits.
Pop a tire in a huge pothole driving to work? Your emergency fund can help cover the cost. An unexpected event can cause a lot of trouble. If your car breaks down and you can’t cover the repair costs, you may lose the ability to get to work and lose your job. This incident alone will cause a flurry of other problems we won’t delve into.
The point of emphasis is clear: to manifest money, you must fill in all the gaps. That includes making sure you can stay firm against the storm of life.
Act Now
None of what you’ve read will come to life if you don’t act on it.
The most crucial step to manifesting money is to do something today. Looking through this article is simply the first step. Remember the short and long term goals section: you have to set yourself up for success.
Don’t just say you’ll do it tomorrow. Chances are you won’t do it tomorrow, next week, or in a month. I know I’ve said this to myself before and never acted on it.
The easiest time to start something is now, but the most effective day was yesterday. Don’t fall another second behind. This is your life we are talking about.
John Ta is an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder of Penn’s first undergrad personal finance club, Penn Common Cents. As a first-generation college student, he had to learn everything about personal finance on his own and seeks to mend the financial literacy knowledge gap seen almost everywhere. John is currently studying for an MS in Chemistry and a BA in Physics (business & tech concentration), Biochemistry, and Biophysics and is interested in the intersections of finance and healthcare.