Money coach Gina Judge on how to conquer a scarcity mindset

For this week’s MVP, we’re chatting with Gina Judge.

Last weekend, about 250 money-minded women gathered in Toronto for financial inspiration and professional growth via workshops and keynote speakers at The Wealth Summit. After five successful years on the West Coast, the event launched a national tour, with stops in Vancouver on Nov. 1, and Calgary on Nov. 14.

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The day-long Toronto event was planned and hosted by money coach Gina Judge, the 32-year-old founder of the Millennial Money Guide. MMG is a financial literacy company for women, helping them overcome the system and stereotypes that can hold them back. Judge knows all this first-hand, having transformed herself from homeless teen to newbie bank teller to powerhouse entrepreneur in a mere decade.

In this week’s MVP, I asked Judge how she changed her mind—more specifically, the money mindset that holds so many of us back—to change her life.

What are your earliest memories about money?

I was raised by a single mom living paycheque to paycheque. She was always doing so much but was only able to provide the absolute basics. We really struggled. Eventually, my mom remarried, so things in some ways got easier because there were two incomes in the household.

But my stepfather was an alcoholic and became very abusive, and I was on the receiving end of that. Around 18, I left home and ended up homeless.

I’m South Asian, so in our culture you don’t leave your house until you get married, so my leaving was extremely taboo. I was completely abandoned by my family.

Wow, I’m sorry. How did you manage?

I left with some savings I’d had since I started working at 14, but that quickly drained. I was working full-time and going to school full-time. I actually put my tuition on credit cards, probably the dumbest thing to do because of the interest rates, but I had no idea.

I had no adults in my life that could help me learn; I didn’t have an older sister or a mentor. So, I studied commerce and, by fluke, started working as a teller at a bank.

Being privy to other people’s bank accounts was such an eye-opener to me. Just because someone looks rich doesn’t mean they actually are rich. You can’t profile people based on how they look or even what they do for work. People assume that if someone’s a lawyer or doctor or dentist, that income equates to wealth.

But your ability to make income and your ability to generate wealth are two very different things. It’s not about how much money you make, it’s about what you do with the money you make.

Were you doing something wise with your money at that point?

Absolutely not. I was still in a vicious cycle of debt in my early 20s that would keep me up at night. I was so depressed and anxious about it that I became determined to become debt-free.

That’s when I started immersing myself in the world of financial literacy, which I found to be a heavily male-dominated space. Men have dominated this realm for so long.

For example, the average woman couldn’t have a bank account in Canada on her own until the 1970s. Women were left out of the conversation.

I wanted to encourage women to join the conversation and demystify money, so in 2020 I launched the Millennial Money Guide podcast. It started gaining a lot of traction in the self-improvement and education categories, and it ended up ranking as one of the top 50 podcasts in Canada.

How did your bosses at the bank feel about that?

Half of them thought what I was doing was great, but the other half saw it as a conflict of interest. When encouraging women how to best build wealth, I would discuss financial products from all institutions, not just ours. I would suggest other banks’ credit cards if they were a better fit. That’s when I got called into HR.

I was frustrated because I thought, I’m doing something good here. I’m helping people.

One day, someone said, “You know that someday you’re going to have to choose one or the other.”

Even though the idea of starting a business never even crossed my mind, I handed in my resignation and started building my company.

How hard is it to pivot and change your mindset?

Patterns are so deeply ingrained in us, and much earlier than we think. The average woman’s relationship with money forms as early as the age of seven. That seven-year-old can drive the decisions you’re making as an adult today.

My mindset was scarcity, but there are many others. People with an anxiety mindset often have lots of money saved in a TFSA (tax-free savings account) or RRSP (registered retirement savings plan), but they don’t do anything with it because they’re scared to lose. Other people are avoidant; they don’t want to see their bills and find it difficult to look at their accounts. Other people associate wealth with greed so they self-sabotage.

Even if someone has all the right tools, their mindset in the wrong place can hold them back. I always say you can’t outlearn a “broke” mindset.

What’s something that someone—particularly women—can do right now to challenge a problematic money mindset?

It may sound silly, but I’m a big believer in manifestation and positive affirmations. Think about the script that plays in the back of your head and challenge it. Mine was “I was dealt the worst hand, and there’s no way out.”

Telling yourself a new story can rewire your thoughts and let you take your destiny under your control. But you can’t just tell yourself, “I’m going to be a millionaire,” without actually doing something about it.

So, my next tip is to automate a savings goal and to set and forget—even a really small one. Just like you pay your rent or mortgage every month, pay yourself first and invest it in something, even if you never touch it.

A passive approach, in the long run, can be a good thing and women thrive at this—stats show we’re more patient and more methodical and we don’t make hasty decisions like men tend to do.

Consistency builds wealth, and women are great at it.

Read more from this issue of The Get:

1. Should you ask Meta’s Muse to help manage your money?
2. Where are the fallback and bridge jobs in Canada?!
3. The real costs of daylight saving time for Canadians
4. Is cash still king? The pros and cons of fiat currency