PERSONAL FINANCE
CENTS AND SENSE
04/01/2008
Selected Article No. 2 by GeorgeChege@AjabuAfrica.com
BE CAREFULL WHAT YOU THINK! – Do not talk yourself out of wealth!
Last week we made a simple yet bold suggestion – that your life is a direct result of the choices you make. No matter what life throws at you, you get to choose how to perceive things and how to react to them. Acquiring wealth is a result of making deliberate choices concerning money; how to earn it, how to spend it, how to save it and how to invest it.
This week we will discuss “HABITTUDES”. That is, our habits and attitudes towards money and wealth. However, let us revisit the homework from article 1 – just to make sure we do not lose the lesson. Did you write yourself a $1,000,000/= check and put in your wallet? Congratulations, if you answered yes. You have the right attitude and you made a good choice. You are ready to be coached.
I am sure there is a good reason why some people chose not to do their homework. Let’s consider 3 common reasons below:
- Why should I? What’s the point? – Well, did you write to ask the author why? Could it be that wealth opportunities are passing you by because you have not gathered enough courage to seek help? QUOTE: The significant problems you have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which you created them - by Albert Einstein.
- It’s too simple and easy. –haven’t you heard it’s the simple things that we continuously ignore that eventually bring us down? Could it be that you still ignore simple things like – pay yourself first, protect your investments with insurance, it pays to increase your knowledge – just because they sound so simple and obvious? Well, 65% of the people who retired broke last year wish they had done those simple things.
- Whose check, mine or someone else’s? A real check or a cancelled check? What if I write $10 instead of $1 million? It is not a surprise that you never seem to get money matters sorted out. Why do you complicate things so much that you end up either doing nothing or rushing at the last minute? QUOTE: What you can do or think you can do, begin it. For boldness has magic, power and genius in it – by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Please do homework number 1 and also number 2 at the end of this article. Dr. Kevin Hogan put it very well, “Abundance happens on purpose”. There is a definite purpose behind every assignment - even though you may not see it.
There are more than 8 million millionaires in America. 91% started with almost nothing. Those are 7 million rags to riches stories that you can learn from. Seven million reasons why your excuses cannot hold water. Seven million reminders that you too can make it.
There is a millionaire inside you. But the millionaire is strangled by fear, discouragement, bad money habits and old knowledge.
Some people are bogged down by negative perspectives about money and wealth. They may think the rich are just crooks. Or wealth belongs to others. Or they can never earn enough to be rich. Or that wealth is a matter of being lucky and they sit waiting to be lucky or hope their offspring will be lucky.
Most people think money is just for spending and they do not know the need for a wealth-building plan. They stay buried in debt as they auction their future earnings to high-interest-charging lenders.
Others may have encountered a few obstacles and few “NOs” and they gave up all hope and resigned to fate. Who said anything is easy. Even being poor is not easy. To toil all your life in low paying jobs and live like a pauper in retirement is not easy. Continuous worry about money keeping you awake at night is not easy. God forbid that you or your child gets a chronic disease. Being unable to pay for available medical care and watching your loved one pass away is not easy either.
You may have met those who hold on to old knowledge that does not work anymore. Your grandpa meant well when he gave financial tips during the great depression. But that was 70 years ago. Please accept some things have changed and that you need to tweak grandpa’s tips too!
The good thing is that as long as you are reading this, there is hope. You need to acquire new knowledge and strategies that apply to the current economic situation. It will seem very much like learning how to drive a car for the first time. There are times you will be afraid to act on your knowledge. You may need a mentor to ride with you on the road to wealth –to give you confidence and may be give you a little push along the way. There will be new rules to follow and you will experience a lot of personal resistance. This all very natural. If you have been doing the wrong thing for 20 years, we don’t expect you to change overnight.
In the course of these series of articles on Personal Finance, we are committed to helping you get on the right track to creating and building wealth by;
- Expanding your thinking about wealth and how money works
- Helping you set SMART financial goals
- Helping you make a wealth-building plan
- Encouraging you to put the plan in action.
James Allen, the great philosopher said, “You are today where your thoughts have brought you. You will be tomorrow where your thoughts will take you”.
Please be careful what you think and do not talk yourself out of wealth. Send your comments and questions to GeorgeChege@AjabuAfrica.com .
HOMEWORK NUMBER 2 : Please make a donation to a charity of your choice this week. This donation should be in addition to other donations you normally make.
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