Your relationship to money started way before you got your first credit card or signed for your first student loan.

It began forming around the time you started to realize how those around you, most likely your parents, related to money.

Answer the following questions to help you figure out which combination of steps will be best for you:

• What’s my first memory of money?

• How does that memory make me feel?

• How did I get money to spend growing up?

• When I did have money to spend, what did I buy?

• What are my financial concerns today?

• Why do I have these concerns?

• How did my parents talk about money when I was a kid?

Was I told that asking about money was rude or inappropriate? Are you worried about money running out? Being in debt forever? Needing to help out your family financially? Then your financial mindset may be one of fear.

Did you ever get to have healthy conversations about finances growing up, or were you instructed that money is a dirty conversation akin to discussing your sexual proclivities in public?

If talking money still seems as dirty as handling the currency itself, then you may have a financial mentality of anxiety or naïveté. Did you know? You have a choice, you can either let money control and define your life, or you can control it.

Most of us would pick the latter option, but unless you take charge of your finances, the money will call the shots.