WE have just started 2023, schools are opening on Monday. The pleasure and the leisure that came with the festive time is quickly being replaced by the hustle and bustle as people get ready for school runs.
The truth is some people are crouching and scouting for the next dollar already. The January disease is affecting people. Where is your money?
The money is yours, not for showing off
There is this inexplicable feeling that sits on most people when they handle large sums of money. To some, it drives them to indulge more.
During the past festive holidays, most people spent more than they had. Some people, in their younger selves, would buy toys when their parents gave them money, now they have grown to love bigger toys such as posh cars.
Those are indulgences that have kept them stuck to concurrent money problems. That has made them to even accumulate bad debt so as to satisfy those pleasures.
You break the rules, then rules break you
Money has rules that must be mastered. Benjamin Franklin had this famous quote: “An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest”.
Learn the rules of the money game and you will excel. The greatest step toward your net worth is money education. Robert Kiyosaki in his book, You Can Choose To Be Rich, says: “There is gold everywhere. Most people aren’t trained to see it”.
Don’t sink again
With money, everyone is tempted to spend on all niceties, but it takes self-control to be wealthy or rich. Most of the problems we see around us are centred around money issues.
Married couples are at times fighting because of money matters. Management, saving and investment of money is one of the things that must be included in the school curriculum.
Our money mind blueprint has to be re-conditioned. Avoid at all costs all spending traps, unnecessary debts, and impulse buying.
The money mindset is the money magnet
Some people think money is the cause of the problems around us. Some say money is the solution to the problems around us. Whichever way you think of money, money is always neutral; it takes the mould of the holder.
With the same money one can spend it on drugs and alcohol and the other can spend it on charity. The misconception with most people is that they have misinterpreted a Bible scripture by saying money is the root of all evil.
Citing verbatim, the Bible says: “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6: 10). Note “love” in that sentence.
- Harve Eker, in his book Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind, wrote: “If you want to move to a higher level of life, you have to be willing to let go of some of your old ways of thinking and adopt new ones”.
Because “Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought”, wrote Napoleon Hill in his book Think And Grow Rich.
You the boss, pay yourself first
Of every income, we should endeavour to pay ourselves 10% first. Most people pay things such as water, phone and electricity bills first and they have nothing left to pay themselves.
Robert Kiyosaki in his book You Can Choose To Be Rich says: “By paying yourself first, you’ll become financially stronger and better equipped to vanquish the bullies.”
This 10% is money you put aside not for pleasure, but for growth.
Give money
The Bible says give and it shall be given back to you. Money is also meant to be given to others. The more you don’t give money the higher you clog its flow.
Joe Vitale (2003) in his book Greatest Money-Marking Secret In History says: “The key is to be in the flow. When you give and receive, you are participating in the flow of life.”
Money is in relationships
Money seems to be in specific relationships. Do you know that there are friends that are constantly looking for means to syphon money from you?
What they think of is where to find the next beer spot to drink the money away. Because of mindsets, people you associate with will have a larger saying in your financial life. Just a quick survey: what’s the income range of your friends/associates?
Add their earnings monthly and divide it by their total number. How far is it from your monthly earnings? If you are always the only one with money in your group, I would advise you to look for a better group.
It is said poor people work for money; wealthy people make money work for them. You should not be a servant of money, but money should be your servant.
Poor people are constantly spending money; rich people are always looking for opportunities to invest money. Rich people grow their income, poor people guzzle their income.
With rich people when money is not enough, they see it as seed money and reinvest it. Poor people eat the seed and they have no harvest at all.
Poor people are blaming their surroundings, situations or circumstances, rich people create a life they want.
Rich people have an inner locus, meaning they use their inner potential to be wealthy or make life happen to them. Poor people think life happens to them. They have an outer locus.
They blame everything else to justify their poverty, leaving themselves out. Rich people work towards their riches, while poor people only wish to be rich some day. Rich people see obstacles as a means to a solution and reap from it.
Poor people see obstacles as true impediments. Why not associate with the rich? T. Harve Eker said: “Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.”
- Jonah Nyoni is an author, speaker, and leadership trainer. He can be contacted on Twitter @jonahnyoni. Whatsapp: +263 772 581 918