Here are three important questions about money I was asked this week:
- What is your attitude toward money?
- How can your view of money affect the way you live?
- What rules are recommended for prospering?
I’ll answer each of these questions here.
What is your attitude toward money?
I think my attitude toward money has changed through the years. When I was a young adult, money was not easy for me to get my hands on. I had to work in basic jobs to earn a minimum wage.
This meant that I couldn’t do many things that others were doing, and that I would like to do. Even so, I was never really dissatisfied with my life because I always believed that one day I would have all the things I really wanted, and I’m a patient person.
I used to believe that you had to exchange your time to earn money, until I read a book that changed my way of thinking forever – ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad‘ by Robert Kiyosaki.
After reading that book, I realized that I needed to change the way I did things. I started to view money as something I could earn passively, and any amount I could believe imaginable. It really expanded my horizons.
Since that day, almost 20 years ago, I have worked on building passive money streams. Today, I no longer exchange my time for money. We have a digital marketing agency with 14 team members.
Our plans are to continue to build our agency. How big it will grow is only really limited by how hard we are willing to work, and our own imagination.
How can your view of money affect the way you live?
As my view of money changed, it dramatically affected the way my family and I have lived. When I viewed money as something that could only be earned as you exchanged your time for it, my time and resources were very limited.
I had to leave my family most of the time to go to work 5 days a week. The money we had was enough to survive on, and that was great, but there were very few luxuries.
When I changed my view of money to being something that could be earned passively, I was able to quit my job and work from home. This allowed me to able to spend much more time with my family – which brought me a lot of joy as they are the most important thing to me.
Being able to be home to see your children grow up, and to not miss a thing is the most precious thing in the world. I’ve been very blessed to be able to have had that experience.
And it only came about because of the way I changed my thinking about money.
What rules are recommended for prospering?
To prosper with money requires understanding, effort, discipline and patience. It requires being willing to delay the gratification of your desires.
One of the best books on setting out the rules for prospering with money is George Clason’s ‘The Richest Man in Babylon‘. It’s not a long read, but one of the most important books any person can read, and should read.
In summary, here are the steps outlined in this masterpiece:
1. Start thy purse to fattening. Save 10% of your annual income to start building up your wealth.
2. Control thy expenditures. Refrain from luxury expenditures that ultimately become confused as necessities.
3. Make thy gold multiply. Invest and compound the investment return from these savings.
4. Guard thy treasures from loss. Don’t risk investing in get-rich-quick schemes.
5. Make of thy dwelling a profitable investment. Buy, don’t rent, your principal residence, and to use your residence to establish a business.
6. Ensure a future income. Establish a private pension and future retirement income.
7. Increase thy ability to earn. Continue developing your own skills to increase your investing wisdom and also to increase your earning power.
I am following these time-tested rules and have found that they not only worked back in the 1930s when they were first written, but also today.