14 Lessons on Money November 29, 2006
Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Financial Literacy, Goals, Society, Independence, Personal Growth, Productivity, Beliefs, Responsibility, Wealth, Work, Assets, Investing , 5 comments
1. Money is an idea. In other words, money is what you think it is. It’s whatever your own reality is telling you that it is. If you think having a lot of money is evil or a topic you shouldn’t talk about then that’s the kind of relation you’ll have towards money. If you think money is fun to acquire and you love talking about how to get better at it, then that’s the role it plays in your life. I’m not saying one relationship towards money is better or more accurate than another. That’s entirely up to you to choose. But make sure it really is a choice and not something that you automatically accept as being true based on what you were brought up to believe that money is.
2. Money is exactly as important as you make it. Continuing on the previous insight it’s again a question of your own context. If you think money is an unimportant part of your life, then becoming rich isn’t important either. If handling money in a productive way is important to you, then financial abundance is a logical and natural goal to achieve. However, there’s a difference between being broke and not wanting to become wealthy, and being broke and not knowing that you have the power to become wealthy. Everyone has the potential to make a shift in their relationship towards money.
3. Money doesn’t make you rich. Money has the power to make you both rich and poor. Being rich, poor or middle-class is a question of mind-set. The way you handle money simply shows what kind of a mind-set you’re equipped with. A perfect example of this is when somebody acquires a great sum of unexpected money. Poor people will just end up poorer and rich people will end up richer.
4. Money doesn’t solve money problems. This is closely linked to the lesson above. There are certain people I definitely would not lend money to because I know it would make more damage than good - for both of us. The person would only get further in debt and have an even poorer mind-set, I would suffer from having my money jeopardized and our relationship might suffer in the end even though the initial intention is of a good nature - to help a friend in need. Giving money simply doesn’t help, but giving advice that proactively eliminate money problems in the first place is easier and a more productive way to help.
5. Everyone has money problems. The poor, the middle class, the rich, the government, the church, the old, the young, all the companies, everyone has money problems. Simply having or not having money isn’t free from responsibility to think things through. It’s just a question of which problem you rather have - the problem of no money, or the problem of too much money. Different financial situations simply have different degrees of money problems. Having more money in contrast to having less money is usually much less urgent and problematic to deal with.
6. The lack of money is the root of all evil. This statement is much more accurate than the statement that money is the root of all evil or even that the love for money is the root of all evil. Think crimes, riots, unsafety, emotional instability, selling drugs and weapons, poor health care, ignorance due to poor education and much more. People have to address their primary needs to live, and the more basic they are, the easier the leap is to give in on their values and break the law.
7. The link between money and happiness. Money alone does not dictate happiness or unhappiness. There are happy and unhappy rich people just as there are happy and unhappy poor people. However, unexpectedly not having any money would make me unhappy and unexpectedly getting more money would make me happy. But these are temporary feelings and have nothing to with the overall happiness towards life as a whole. Therefore, it’s pointless to generalize rich people as unhappy or even relatively unhappy compared to their wealth and make this notion stop you from becoming rich. You alone choose the level of happiness and the general opinion about this issue is nothing else than what you think that other people are thinking.
8. Money isn’t linked to personal values. Having a lot of money or having very little money doesn’t relate to what kind of values a person has. But, money has the power to take those values from within and out into the daylight. It has the power to reveal a person’s true nature and intentions once the bets are getting higher. The tough thing about it is that if the values and intentions are bad, they might not show up until it’s too late. Accordingly, a truly good-natured person might not show their worth either until the money sums are getting really significant.
9. The more money you get, the more money you end up giving. If you think being rich is seen as hoarding money and being greedy, then remember that it can’t be taken into the afterlife. It doesn’t matter how much money you make during your lifetime, every single penny will be passed on to others sooner or later. The richer you are, the more money you keep circulating out from your expense column into someone else’s income column. Eventually it will all go into other people’s pockets, but that’s not as important as the lessons you can give in life or lessons you can give on how to handle money.
10. Money comes to those who know how to handle it. This is a question of education. The better your education about money is, the more it will flood into your life. The school system doesn’t teach it and whatever you think is right is what your family has passed on to you. It’s up to you how financially literate and intelligent you want to become. People knew the very basic laws of how to handle money as far back as 4000 to 6000 years ago and they are just as valid today.
11. Money doesn’t have to require effort. You can generate income both from trading your time and effort for it as well as not trading your time and effort for it. This is the concept of either working for money, or having your money work for you. But, you can do both until you’ve reached the point where you don’t have to work for money, a.k.a. reaching financial independence. It’s also important to note that people who are financially free don’t automatically equate as being either productive or unproductive towards society. Being free from having to work for a living can both mean that such a person is now doing no service to others as well as being actively involved in helping others 24/7 to the best of their ability.
12. Money has the power to give both security and freedom. Sometimes I stumble upon the concept that freedom and security are each others opposites. I’m not saying that this statement is incorrect, but I want to emphasize that money, or more specifically financial independence has the power to give both security and freedom in life. There’s the freedom of doing what you want as well as the financial security of not being concerned of how to get along and stretch your pennies.
13. More money doesn’t mean you have to work harder. With most of the lessons gone through, this is a bit of a summarizing statement to the previous ones. It’s the ‘working for money’ model of reality that enforces the notion that in order to get more money, you have to work harder. It states that the income is directly proportional to how much you labor. One step past this is to start skewing that proportional scale to a greater leverage, but the ultimate step is acknowledging that generating income might not need any form of labor or effort at all.
14. Money is infinite, not limited. This statement is to bust the myth of fixed resources. More money to you doesn’t mean less money to others. Money and wealth grows and expands for every minute and becoming wealthier isn’t just about receiving other people’s money, it’s also about creating more money and abundance all together in the world. Destroying things of value is what eats up wealth while creating assets is what feeds more wealth.
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Measuring Wealth November 23, 2006
Posted by The Probabilist in : [Articles], Financial Literacy, Society, Independence, Wealth, Work, Assets, Investing , 17 comments
When it comes to riches, most people set goals like acquiring a million dollars. My goal is to be financially independent. It’s not that I wouldn’t mind getting a million dollars, but I’d still use it to become financially free, which sounds to me like a much smarter goal in life when it comes to personal finances. To some, or maybe even most of you this concept might be unfamiliar, so what are the major differences between these two goals or perspectives in detail?
The underlying question lies in how you define or measure wealth. Most people simply measure it by the amount of money in their savings, total net worth, or monthly/annual income. With measures like these it’s no wonder why about 90 percent of the population:
- define their wealth by the money they have/make.
- conclude that only by working harder, their income will rise.
- believe that investing and entrepreneurship is hard and risky.
- pray that their savings will pay for all their retirement expenses.
- keep on playing the lottery to some day get their million bucks.
- trust their money to strangers who diversify, diversify, diversify.
- borrow money to buy cars and houses to keep up with the Joneses.
Most people do all of these things and it’s socially the “normal and sensible” way to live out your life. But nobody has actually told me why it supposedly is, and if there are any other options. After reading a few books I realized it all boiled down to how you measure wealth - and therefore setting goals according to this improved perspective.
Wealth is measured in time. That’s all there is to it. It’s so simple, yet it has the potential of helping you discover numerous new doorways and paths for you to explore. Ask yourself this question: If you stopped working today, how long could you stay within your current standard of living? In other words, if you did nothing but pay the same bills you usually pay, then how long would it take before your money ran out? Don’t add the option of borrowing money. If your answer to this question is below six months and it’s not improving then this article is specifically aimed for you.
My own answer to that question is approximately 24 months at the moment. But it’s not easy to calculate and estimate since I’m a student and have fluctuating expenses depending on the month and studying is not something I’ll be doing indefinitely. (Hopefully 
) Additionally, my passive income (income generated without effort) is constantly moving upwards so my wealth in time is improving each month. When your passive income is greater than your expenses, you’re financially independent, out of the rat race, retired, free to use 24 hours of the day on whatever you want for the rest of your life. And to me this would be used to live my life purposefully.
The greatest part about this perspective and goal setting is that it gets easier and easier the closer you get to financial freedom as you’ve got both your regular and your passive income surpassing your expenses. You then continuously load what’s yours to keep into your asset column for more passive income or other streams of income - like a part-time business. If this is getting over your head, stay updated on this blog.
The bottom line is that if you keep doing what most people did in the industrial age - get a degree, work, buy a home, raise a family and retire at age 65, then you’ll probably also feel awkward handling money and your personal finances. These are the kind of people that win the lottery and end up feeling miserable and filing bankruptcy a year or two later. Wealth is a phenomenon just like most others as it doesn’t come to those who aren’t ready for it and show financial intelligence to handle it. And a partial reason why this occurs is that most people don’t even think through how to define and measure it.
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