This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedanta.

Around the world, when you ask people what keeps them awake at night,

they'll invariably tell you money problems.

Our challenges with money are varied, but we generally tend to have a fixed way of thinking about them.

Most of us point to external factors as the root cause of our money problems.

The price of higher education keeps increasing and tuition hikes at many colleges and

universities are expected to continue.

Sales of existing homes slumped last month.

The National Association of Realtors says July sales were down almost 17% from a year ago.

Every American is feeling the bite of inflation.

Groceries cost more.

Gas costs more.

Everything seems to cost more.

It certainly is true that a layoff or an unexpected medical expense can send our finances into a

tail spin. But it's also the case that psychological factors within us can play a powerful

role in determining our financial successes and failures.

All I know is I have these beliefs around money that are banging around in my subconscious and in our studies we have found that these beliefs, most of us aren't even really aware of them, they have a profound impact on our financial outcomes.

Our money and our minds, this week on Hidden Brain. Many of us struggle with money. We have a hard time saving it. We spend more than we earn and we blow through budgets.

Others of us have the opposite problem, focusing so much on saving for the long term that we never commit to spending on

things that will give us pleasure in the short term. One thing we don't do, few of

us stop to think about how we think about money.

We don't notice the psychological patterns in our behavior.

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