MONEY - DO WE SHOW IT RESPECT?

MONEY, MONEY AND MORE MONEY.......everywhere you look, we are asked to spend it. Buy this and you must have that and you need this and that. You are forced to spend, spend and spend. More and more we as a nation are spending billions and more and more people are over their heads in debt. Monies exchanged, currencies used. Plastic ways of negotiating and purchasing goods. Now we are moving to a new millennium. Bitcoin and such, untouchable and unseen but worth...how much? The rules still remain the same. The principles have not changed.

It does not matter what you use, it is how you use it. The principles never change

DO YOU RESPECT IT........HAVE YOU GIVEN IT THE RESPECT IT DESERVES........DO YOU UNDERSTAND IT'S PURPOSE?

THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS A HANDS DOWN NO.....WHY YOU MIGHT ASK. WE HAVE NOT BEEN TAUGHT.

We are told bizarre things from our parents, like:
Money does not grow on trees,
Money is the root of all evil,
What do I look like Rockefeller,
Stupid phrases like...if I had a dollar for everytime you give me that lip. blah blah blah and the list goes on.

Sadly a large portion of society measures it's success on obtaining a certain amount of material goods. Not at the quality of the person. Our measures of success have tipped in the wrong direction. We don't need bigger homes, faster cars and more electronics. We need love, shelter, warmth, food, family, friends and a little security for a rainy day. Basic human needs.

Money will not purchase you happiness or good health. What it does provide is security and peace of mind. It allows us some basic needs and hopefully a decent, clean way to live into retirement.

So if our parents did not teach us anything valuable, we hoped to turn to our teachers. The schools of knowledge. Right? How about Society.? OK....no...not there either.

Governments are in huge debt. Cities are in debt and society at large is in debt. Insidious debt, that eats away at the very soul of it's people. It eats away at humankind. People are starving not only at home but worldwide. Pets often live better lives than 1/3 of the worlds population. Emaciated images of starving children are seen on the television. War torn countries and damaged cities and homes and families.

An average home in Vancouver, Canada costs over one million dollars. How much debt do you carry to live in such a home. Yet people are spending more and more, with less and less. With plastic. Credit card companies are a multi million dollar industry. We have become a sick society.
There does not seem to be an end in sight. We can only start small, with our children and in your own home. What can we teach. That money is neither a sin, nor is it evil. If you keep saying you hate money, it will never do what you want it to do and you will never get it to work for you. It is a commodity that should be treated with respect but seldom is.

IT IS TIME NOW!!!!!!!!!!! TO CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE ABOUT MONEY

HOW CAN WE START

We can start by changing our attitudes about money. Give it the respect it deserves. Understand it needs to be nourished and treated accordingly.

There's a big difference between making a good living and enjoying a good life. You demonstrate respect and appreciation for money the same way you would anything else of value in your life, your family, your relationships, prized possessions, be it an heirloom rug, an expensive hand tool, a close friend, or cash in hand. If you want it to last, you've got to take care of it. Throw it around carelessly or ignore it completely and guess what's going to happen?

Remember, your goal is not just to put a fatter paycheck in your pocket. You want to achieve financial independence, which means making a good living and enjoying a good life, where money enhances your well-being, not exacerbates your stress. Financial independence does not come from what you earn. It comes from what you do with what you have. No matter how sizable your salary, the money will slip through your fingers if you bypass this step.

Yet this step is frequently neglected, even by the best and the brightest. It is the biggest surprise you will find when you interview six-figure earners. With earnings that ranged anywhere from $100,000 to $7 million, the whopping majority, as confident as they were professionally, were surprisingly insecure financially. They were so busy making money they didn't bother to take care of it.

Of all the people you will ever meet, I can safely say, the ones with the highest net worth were not necessarily the ones who made the most money. They were the ones who took the best care of their money.

Rampant, unintentional spending is often the culprit. Like Pavlov's dog salivating when it hears the dinner bell, as soon as people boost their earnings, 'Ka-ching,' they bump up their spending, then wonder where those extra bucks went.

THE CHOICE IS YOURS

Making conscious, deliberate choices about what you do with your money is precisely what this step is all about. And as I see it, there are only four choices you need to make to fully respect and appreciate money. I call these four choices the Four Rules of Money.

1. Spend Less (Only buy what you can easily afford)
2. Save More (Pay yourself first)
3. Invest Wisely (Put money in assets that grow in value over time.)
4. Give Generously (Use your money to make a difference )

Most of us have the giving generously part down pat. But unless you handle the first three, giving can become an act of self-sabotage. Not only do you jeopardize your future security, but you diminish the impact you can have with your money.

The success of this step rests in following the Four Rules in the order they're listed. That means, before anything else, don't spend money you don't have. And then make darn sure there's something left over for savings. Believe me, it's next to impossible to overcome under earning if you're still whipping out credit cards while bills go unpaid. Even if your debts aren't completely paid off, do not—I repeat DO NOT—add to them. Not only does debt drain your energy, but it lulls you into a false sense of sufficiency.

"If you use debt to meet your needs, you'll never be free of under earning," "Debt is the cruelest form of poverty. It gives you the illusion that you have far more than you do."

THE BIG MUST FOR OVERCOMING UNDEREARNING: STOP DEBTING NOW!

Debt SUCKS. It weighs you down. It drains your energy, your resources, your peace of mind, and your quality of life. Until you get rid of your credit cards—tear them up, hide them from sight, or freeze them in ice in a tin can—and start paying down your bills, you'll have a very tough time reaching the next level of your life that you aspire to.

For a person to do what it takes to get out of debt, they need to have a total mindset change about money and start thinking about their finances differently.

That mindset change can be a very long time coming as I know from personal experience! The impact of debt can be easy to ignore, until it sort of sneaks up on you and hits you right where it hurts.

I was thinking recently about some of the things people in debt often say or think when they can’t see how much of a problem their debt could cause them, in the future, if not already.

I know I have personally said some lame things. None which make sense.

Don’t accept that debt will always be a part of your life. It really doesn’t have to be and the world could be your oyster if you don’t have debts to take care of.

BEWARE OF GOING TO EXTREMES

Careless spending or continuing to debt is like boarding a train traveling the wrong way. You'll never get where you want to go. At the same time, you do not want to head in the reverse direction—DEPRIVATION—where your emotional and/or physical needs are not being met. Important message to all underearners: Spending less does not mean misery and hardship.

Deprivation is endemic to under earning, being both a symptom and a source of the condition itself. Doing this step does not require either scarcity-thinking or severe self-denial. But it does require a certain amount of delayed gratification. There is a difference. Cutting back is not the same as cutting out completely. And financial prudence does not imply forsaking necessities, or even some pleasures. The distinction is critical. Discernment is the key. Cut back by taking little bits out of each category. Otherwise, budgeting becomes like crash dieting. Deprivation creates a hunger that will drive you right back to the stores on a buying binge.

ALLWAYS, ALLWAYS PAY YOURSELF FIRST.

You!!! are afterall the most important person in the equation. You and your family. Pay yourself first. Treat yourself as the most important bill in your househould. Ten percent is perfect, however anything will do as long as you do it.

MAKE YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU!

But budgeting is only the beginning. You've got to be willing to take some risks in order to make a little extra. In truth, our biggest financial risk is not market volatility. Our biggest risk is to do nothing at all. Sure, the market's ups and downs are scary. But you can significantly cut your losses with due diligence, a long-term approach, and adequate diversification. On the other hand, if all your cash is sitting in the bank—or worse, under your mattress—you don't need a crystal ball to predict your future. Your purchasing power will shrink like a bunch of steamed spinach. Unless a portion of your savings is in assets that grow faster than inflation and taxes eat it away, your greatest danger is that you'll outlive your money.

For instance, say you've just gotten a $1000 bonus. You're smart enough to save it, so you put it in the bank, where the return is guaranteed and it earns about two percent. In about 20 years, your original investment, adjusted for inflation, will be worth a grand total of $500 (assuming inflation doesn't rise above three percent.)

But if instead you put that $1000 in a stock mutual fund earning ten percent and never add one cent to it, in 20 years you'd be looking at over $6,000. Big difference.

What if you don't have $1000 lying around? Here's the truth: You don't need a lot of money to create wealth, not when you consistently set aside small amounts over a period of time. Mere pocket change adds up surprisingly fast with the magic of compounding (where you're earning interest on your earnings as well as on your original investment). For example, if every day you aside 50 cents to put into a mutual fund earning eight percent (a reasonable return today), in 20 years, you'll have $10,000.

THE GOVERNMENT WILL NOT LOOK AFTER YOU WHEN YOU ARE OLD.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I must repeat that. Completely so you understand. The GOVERNMENT WILL NOT AND I MEAN WILL NOT look after you in your old age. Despite what you did, what you gave and where you worked. They will not take care of your most basic needs. Old age security is a joke. You can not live on that and you will barely get by. By the time our children are old and their children's children are old all Pension Plans will be non-existent. You need to take care of your own needs. Starting NOW!

The Cost of affordable and decent and clean Retirement Homes is skyrocketing and it will only get worse. Low cost facilities are not very nice,overcrowded and lack staff and many basic human needs to live comfortably. They are bursting at the seams. The waiting lists for a one room facility for those with zero financial aid is years. You may or may not need medication and/or special tools to get by, such as wheelchairs or walkers etc. These are not facts meant to alarm, but to tell you like it is.

THE MONEY APPRECIATION GUIDE
Check the statements which are true for you.

• I am clear on my financial goals.
• I know my net worth
• I have no credit card debt.
• I have enough savings to live on for three to six months.
• I have money invested in a retirement account.
• I have investments outside a retirement account.
• I understand the investments I own.
• I will have enough money to live on in retirement.
• I have a will.
• I know where all my financial documents and records are.

This is what respect and appreciation of money looks like. Pay special attention to the statements you did not check—that's the work you need to do next.

IF YOU CAN DO FOR TWO YEARS WHAT NO ONE ELSE WILL...............YOU WILL HAVE IN TWO YEARS WHAT EVERYONE ELSE WANTS.

(we can multiply that out)

IF YOU CAN DO FOR TEN YEARS WHAT NO ONE ELSE WILL...........YOU WILL HAVE IN TEN YEARS WHAT EVERYONE ELSE WANTS.

REMEMBER PAY YOURSELF FIRST REWARD YOURSELF LATER

Source:
https://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/How_to_Respect_Money.html

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