The Scarcity Mindset: How Feeling 'Never Enough' Keeps You from Investing in XEQT

I grew up in a house where the thermostat was a battleground.

My mom kept it at 17 degrees in winter. Not because she liked the cold – she was always wrapped in a blanket on the couch – but because the gas bill was the difference between groceries lasting the week or running out by Thursday. I remember her standing at the thermostat like a sentry, turning it back down whenever my dad nudged it up. “We can’t afford it,” she would say, and that was the end of the discussion.

Money was never openly discussed in our house, but its absence was the loudest voice in every room. I learned early that there was never enough. Not enough for new shoes when the old ones wore through. Not enough for the field trip everyone else was going on. Not enough for the things other families seemed to have without thinking twice. That feeling – that low hum of not enough – became the background music of my life. I carried it into adulthood like a piece of luggage I didn’t remember packing.

So when I first opened a Wealthsimple account and stared at the “Buy” button next to XEQT, every cell in my body screamed at me to close the app. I had $200 in my chequing account, $1,400 in savings, and I was thinking about putting $50 into the stock market. Fifty dollars. The price of a week of groceries if I shopped carefully. And the thought of that money disappearing – dropping into some invisible machine that might spit back less than I put in – made my hands shake.

I bought $50 worth of XEQT anyway. And for the next three days, I checked my account roughly forty times. It went up eighty cents. Then down a dollar twenty. Then up forty cents. Each tiny fluctuation felt enormous. Each red number felt like confirmation of what I had always known: I couldn’t afford to do this. This wasn’t for people like me.

That was the scarcity mindset talking. And it took me years to understand how deeply it had shaped my relationship with money – and how close it came to keeping me poor forever.

1. What Is the Scarcity Mindset?

The scarcity mindset is not just “feeling broke.” It is a well-documented psychological phenomenon that fundamentally changes how your brain operates when you believe you do not have enough.

Researchers Sendhil Mullainathan (a Harvard economist) and Eldar Shafir (a Princeton psychologist) spent years studying what happens to people’s cognitive function when they experience scarcity – whether of money, time, food, or social connection. Their findings, published in the book Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, are both fascinating and heartbreaking.

Here is the core insight: when you feel like you don’t have enough, your brain enters a tunnel vision mode. It focuses intensely on the immediate shortage and loses the ability to think about the long term. Mullainathan and Shafir found that financial scarcity literally reduces cognitive bandwidth – the equivalent of losing about 13 IQ points. Not because people in scarcity are less intelligent, but because the stress of not having enough occupies so much mental processing power that there is less left over for everything else.

This means:

• Long-term planning gets crowded out. When you are worried about making rent this month, thinking about retirement in thirty years feels not just irrelevant but insulting.
• Decision fatigue sets in faster. Every spending decision becomes agonizing when you feel like every dollar matters. By the time you get to “should I invest?” you have already used up your decision-making energy on “can I afford this grocery bill?”
• Risk tolerance drops to zero. When you feel like you are one emergency away from catastrophe, any action that could reduce your cash – even temporarily – feels reckless.
• Present bias intensifies. A dollar in your hand today feels infinitely more valuable than a hypothetical dollar growing in a brokerage account over twenty years.

This is not a character flaw. It is your brain doing exactly what it evolved to do: prioritize immediate survival over long-term optimization. The problem is that in 2026, “survival” and “thriving” require different strategies, and the scarcity mindset keeps you locked into survival mode even when you have enough to start building.

2. How the Scarcity Mindset Shows Up in Investing

If you have ever thought any of the following, the scarcity mindset is probably running the show. And I say “probably” because I have thought every single one of these myself.

“I don’t make enough to invest”

This is the most common one, and it feels completely logical. If you are earning $40,000 or $50,000 a year in a Canadian city where rent alone takes half your income, the idea of “investing” sounds like advice from someone who has never had to choose between a dentist appointment and a car repair.

But here is the thing the scarcity mindset hides from you: you do not need hundreds or thousands of dollars to start investing. On Wealthsimple, you can buy fractional shares of XEQT. That means you can invest $1. One single dollar. Not $1,000. Not $500. One dollar.

The scarcity mindset tells you that $1 is meaningless, so why bother. But $1 is not about the return – it is about breaking the psychological barrier. It is about proving to yourself that you are a person who invests. That shift in identity matters more than the amount.

“I can’t afford to lose this money”

This one kept me up at night. When you have $1,400 in savings and you put $50 into XEQT, that $50 feels like it could evaporate. The scarcity mindset conflates investing with gambling – as if buying a globally diversified index fund is the same as putting chips on red at a casino.

It is not. When you buy XEQT, you are buying tiny pieces of over 9,000 companies across 49 countries. The only way you “lose everything” is if the entire global economy permanently collapses – at which point, your savings account would not be worth much either.

Can your XEQT investment go down in value temporarily? Absolutely. Over months or even a year or two, it can drop significantly. But over 10, 20, or 30 years, globally diversified equity markets have always recovered and grown. You are not gambling. You are participating in the long-term growth of human economic activity.

“The market is rigged for rich people”

I believed this for years. And honestly, parts of the financial system are tilted in favour of the wealthy. Hedge funds, private equity, tax loopholes, financial advisors who only take clients with $500,000 minimums – the traditional wealth management world was not built for people like you and me.

But here is what changed: index investing democratized wealth building. XEQT gives you access to the exact same global stock market returns as a billionaire. The same companies. The same growth. The same compounding. The 0.20% MER means you are paying $2 per year for every $1,000 invested – not the 1-2% that a financial advisor would charge for often worse performance.

The market is not rigged against index investors. In fact, index investors beat the vast majority of professional fund managers over the long term. The data on this is overwhelming.

“I need every dollar for rent, bills, and emergencies”

This is the scarcity mindset at its most persuasive, because it is partially true. You do need money for rent and bills. You should have an emergency fund. These are legitimate priorities.

But the scarcity mindset uses this truth as a permanent roadblock. There is never a month where everything is perfectly sorted. There is always a bill, always an unexpected expense, always a reason to wait. “I’ll start investing when things settle down” becomes the refrain of someone who never starts, because things never fully settle down.

“What if I need this money and it’s down?”

This is a time horizon problem disguised as a scarcity problem. If you might need the money in six months, then yes, investing it in equities is risky. But money you will not need for ten or twenty years? That money is being wasted sitting in a savings account earning 2-3% while inflation eats it alive.

The scarcity mindset cannot distinguish between “money I need soon” and “money I am building for the future.” It treats all money as emergency money, which means no money ever gets invested.

3. The Cruel Irony: Scarcity Mindset Keeps You in Scarcity

Here is the part that makes me angry on behalf of everyone stuck in this cycle, including my past self.

The people who feel they cannot afford to invest are precisely the people who most need to invest to break free. The scarcity mindset creates a self-reinforcing trap:

1. You feel like you do not have enough money.
2. Because you do not have enough, you keep every dollar in cash “just in case.”
3. Inflation erodes your cash at 2-4% per year, making your money worth less over time.
4. Your purchasing power shrinks. You feel even more strapped.
5. The idea of investing feels even more impossible.
6. Go back to step 1.

Meanwhile, someone who started investing even small amounts years ago is watching their money compound. Not because they started with more. Not because they are smarter. But because they broke the cycle at some point and started putting even tiny amounts to work.

The gap between the “saver” and the “investor” does not feel significant in year one. But over a decade, it becomes a chasm. Over two decades, it becomes life-changing. Over three decades, it becomes the difference between financial security and financial anxiety in retirement.

The scarcity mindset tells you that you are being responsible by holding cash. In reality, you are slowly falling behind.

4. The Math That Breaks the Spell

Numbers do not care about feelings. And the math of consistent, small investments is powerful enough to break through even the deepest scarcity conditioning.

Let me show you what happens when you invest modest amounts into XEQT consistently, assuming an average annual return of 8% (which is conservative for a global all-equity portfolio over long time horizons):

Read that table again. Twenty-five dollars a week – the cost of a couple of takeout coffees and a sandwich – turns into over $140,000 in thirty years. You are not putting in $140,000 of your own money. You are putting in $39,000 over those thirty years ($25 x 52 weeks x 30 years). The other $102,000 is compounding doing its work. Your money making money making money.

And at $100 per week? You cross the half-million-dollar mark. From $400 a month. Not from a tech salary or an inheritance or a lucky stock pick. From consistent, boring, automated contributions to XEQT.

The scarcity mindset says $25 a week is nothing. Compound interest says $25 a week is $141,761. One of them is right, and it is not the scarcity mindset.

5. Why XEQT Is Built for People with a Scarcity Mindset

I am not saying this to be a salesperson for BlackRock. I am saying this because XEQT specifically addresses almost every barrier the scarcity mindset puts up.

No minimum investment. On Wealthsimple, you can buy fractional shares. There is no bouncer at the door checking if you have enough money to enter. You have $5? You can invest $5.

Zero commissions. Wealthsimple does not charge you to buy or sell XEQT. In the old days, a $10 trading fee on a $50 purchase would have eaten 20% of your investment before it even started growing. That barrier is gone.

0.20% MER. The management expense ratio on XEQT is two-tenths of one percent. That is $2 per year on a $1,000 investment. Compare that to:

When you are coming from a scarcity mindset, every dollar lost to fees feels like theft. With XEQT, you are keeping almost everything.

Automatic diversification. You do not need to research stocks, pick sectors, or understand balance sheets. XEQT holds over 9,000 companies across 49 countries. One purchase gives you the entire global stock market. The scarcity mindset already has you exhausted from daily financial stress – the last thing you need is another complicated decision. XEQT removes that entirely.

No ongoing decisions required. Buy it. Hold it. That is the strategy. No rebalancing, no sector rotation, no earnings calls to follow. The fund rebalances itself. For someone whose cognitive bandwidth is already taxed by financial stress, this is not a small benefit – it is the whole point.

6. Shifting from Scarcity to Abundance (Without the Toxic Positivity)

I want to be careful here because the internet is full of “abundance mindset” advice that sounds great in a motivational Instagram post and means absolutely nothing when you are staring at a $47 bank balance on a Tuesday.

I am not going to tell you to “manifest wealth” or “believe in abundance” or “change your vibration.” That is not how money works, and pretending it is feels insulting to anyone dealing with real financial constraints.

What I am going to suggest is a set of practical mindset shifts that helped me – slowly, over years – loosen the grip of scarcity thinking without pretending that real financial pressures do not exist.

Separate “tight right now” from “tight forever”

The scarcity mindset collapses time. It makes your current financial situation feel permanent. If you are struggling now, it feels like you will always be struggling. But most financial situations are temporary if you are making even small forward progress.

Ask yourself: “Is my income likely to be exactly the same in five years?” For most people, the answer is no. Careers progress. Skills develop. Opportunities emerge. Your current paycheque is not your permanent paycheque.

Redefine what “enough to invest” means

The scarcity mindset sets the bar impossibly high. It tells you that investing is something you do when you have “extra” money – hundreds of dollars that you do not need. But there is no law that says investing starts at $500 or $1,000.

If you can find $5 a week – one fewer coffee, one fewer impulse purchase – you can invest. It is not about the amount. It is about building the habit and breaking the psychological barrier.

Stop treating your savings account as a security blanket

I kept way too much money in a savings account for years because looking at the balance made me feel safe. But that safety was an illusion. Inflation was eating 2-4% of its value every year. My “safe” money was slowly losing purchasing power while I congratulated myself on being responsible.

A savings account is essential for your emergency fund. Beyond that, cash sitting idle is not being responsible – it is leaving money on the table.

Acknowledge that investing is scary, and do it anyway

I am not going to pretend that buying XEQT for the first time is comfortable. It is not. The first time money leaves your account and enters the market, it feels like jumping off a cliff. That is the scarcity mindset screaming at you.

But courage is not the absence of fear. It is acting despite it. And with XEQT, the action itself is so simple – buy and hold – that the fear fades faster than you expect. After a few months of automatic contributions, it becomes routine. After a year, it becomes normal. After five years, you wonder what you were so afraid of.

7. The “Tiny Steps” Framework for Scarcity Thinkers

If you are reading this and recognizing yourself, here is a practical, low-pressure framework for getting started. No big leaps required. No “just invest 20% of your income” advice that ignores your reality.

Step 1: Start with literally $1

Open a Wealthsimple account. Buy $1 of XEQT. That is it. Do not invest more. Do not stress about it. Just prove to yourself that you can do it and the world does not end. You are not going to get rich off $1. That is not the point. The point is identity change – you are now a person who invests.

Step 2: Automate $25 per paycheque

Once you have survived the $1 experiment, set up an automatic contribution. Twenty-five dollars per paycheque. If you get paid biweekly, that is $50 a month. You probably spend more than that on subscriptions you forgot you had.

The reason automation matters is that it removes the decision. The scarcity mindset attacks hardest at the moment of choice – “should I invest this, or do I need it?” Automation bypasses the question entirely. The money moves before you have a chance to talk yourself out of it.

Step 3: Do not check your portfolio for 30 days

This is the hardest step for scarcity thinkers, and it is the most important. Every time you check your portfolio, you give the scarcity mindset ammunition. Down $3? “See, I knew I couldn’t afford to lose money.” Up $2? “That’s nothing, this is pointless.” The scarcity mindset will find a way to make any number feel bad.

Give yourself a 30-day blackout period. Let the contributions happen automatically. Do not open the app. After 30 days, check in – you will likely find that you survived just fine without those dollars, and your portfolio has started to quietly grow.

Step 4: Celebrate the act, not the balance

When the scarcity mindset runs your financial life, you tie your self-worth to your account balance. A higher balance means safety. A lower balance means danger. This makes every fluctuation emotionally loaded.

Instead, celebrate the fact that you invested at all. You did something that every instinct in your body told you not to do. You prioritized your future self over your present anxiety. That deserves recognition regardless of whether your portfolio is up or down this week.

Step 5: Increase by $10 when something feels comfortable

No rush. No targets. No “you should be investing 15% of your income by now.” When $25 per paycheque starts feeling normal – and it will – bump it to $35. When that feels fine, try $50. Small, incremental increases that your scarcity mindset barely notices.

Over a year or two, you might go from $25 a paycheque to $100 a paycheque without ever experiencing the gut-punch of a big commitment. That is the power of tiny steps: they sneak past the defences that the scarcity mindset has built.

8. When the Scarcity Mindset Is Actually Right

I need to say this clearly because I believe in honesty more than I believe in motivation: sometimes, the scarcity mindset is telling you the truth.

If you are in any of the following situations, investing should not be your priority right now, and that is completely OK:

• You cannot reliably cover rent, utilities, and food. Basic survival comes first. Always.
• You have high-interest debt (credit cards, payday loans). Paying 20-30% interest on debt while earning 8% in the market is a losing proposition. Attack the debt first.
• You have zero emergency fund. Before investing, build a small buffer – even $500 to $1,000 – so that a flat tire or a broken appliance does not send you into a debt spiral.
• You are in a genuine financial crisis – job loss, medical emergency, family emergency. Focus on stabilizing. Investing will be there when you are ready.

The difference between a healthy awareness of financial constraints and the scarcity mindset is this: healthy awareness says “not right now, but soon.” The scarcity mindset says “never, because I’ll never have enough.”

If you are dealing with one of the situations above, address it first. But please do not let temporary hardship become a permanent identity. The goal is to reach a point where you can start – even with $1 – and then build from there.

9. The Cost of Waiting

One more table, because this is the number that finally broke through my own scarcity conditioning.

Let us say you can invest $200 per month in XEQT. Same amount, same return assumption of 8%. The only variable is when you start:

Look at the “Money Left on the Table” column. Every five years you wait costs you six figures. Not because you are investing less per month – the monthly contribution is the same. But because you are giving compound interest less time to work.

The scarcity mindset tells you to wait until you feel ready. Compound interest does not care about your feelings. It only cares about time. And every year the scarcity mindset convinces you to wait is a year of compounding you never get back.

10. You Do Not Need to Feel Ready

I want to end with something I wish someone had told me when I was twenty-three, broke, scared, and convinced that investing was for people who had their lives together.

You do not need to feel ready. You do not need to feel wealthy. You do not need to feel confident. You do not need to understand the stock market. You do not need to have a financial plan. You do not need to wait for the “right time.”

You just need to start.

XEQT exists precisely for people like us – people who do not have a finance degree, who do not have thousands of dollars lying around, who do not want to spend their evenings researching stocks, and who feel a knot in their stomach every time they think about money.

It is one fund. It holds the whole world. It costs almost nothing. It requires no expertise and no ongoing decisions. It is available to anyone with a Wealthsimple account and a dollar to spare.

The scarcity mindset will tell you a hundred reasons why you should not start today. It will remind you of every bill, every uncertainty, every time money was tight. It will whisper that you cannot afford it, that the market will crash, that investing is for other people.

It is wrong. It has always been wrong. Not about the fear – the fear is real, and I respect it deeply. But about the conclusion it draws from that fear. “I am afraid, therefore I should not act” is the logic of scarcity. “I am afraid, and I am going to start anyway” is the logic of someone building a different future.

I still check my thermostat sometimes and think about my mom. She did the best she could with what she had, and I am endlessly grateful for the sacrifices she made. But I do not want to live my financial life the way she had to live hers – making every decision from a place of fear, treating every dollar as the last line of defence against disaster.

XEQT is not going to solve the housing crisis or make groceries cheaper or fix the structural inequalities that make life hard for so many Canadians. But it can do something the scarcity mindset says is impossible: it can help you build wealth quietly, steadily, and without needing to be rich first.

Start with $1. Start with $25. Start with whatever does not make you feel sick. Just start.

The scarcity mindset has had its turn. Give compound interest a chance.