Posts Tagged ‘Money Management’

Recently a woman was recounting her experience of going from having very little to being able to buy a house, something she thought would be impossible. “Before everything turned around,” she said, “my whole life fell apart and I thought I’d never recover.”

What she didn’t understand at the time was the life-falling-apart experience was an essential element on her path to prosperity. People don’t realize that in order to alter their lives significantly, there is often a period where the old crumbles in order to make way for the new.

That’s what’s happening in the world right now. We are going through a major transition that is causing lots of chaos as the old is replaced by a new paradigm.

You can feel and experience the chaos in our politics, finances, education system, and other areas of our lives as the entrenched economic and financial systems are falling apart.

For many, these changes are confusing and frightening as institutions and systems that gave an apparent sense of certainty are falling apart. In many cases they are not being replaced by anything that guarantees certainty. Manufacturing jobs, pensions, health insurance, and even city services such as police protection, can no longer be taken for granted.

As the chaos intensifies, our only choice is to learn how to deal with what’s happening in the moment and to work together to get through difficult times.

Here are five suggestions for dealing with the chaos of change.

1. Get out of the child position.
It’s a time to grow up and stop waiting for those in apparent power to provide you with solutions. Facing reality and taking responsibility for your own outcomes is a way through the darkness.

2. Stay focused in the moment
The future is entirely unknown. Whatever you are afraid of is a fairy tale that you are making up. Why not imagine a positive future and stay focused in the moment. Right now, do you have enough to eat, a place to stay, and people to support you? If any of those are missing, what can you do to improve your situation.

3. Meditate to find the answers inside of yourself
Quite time with yourself allows you to connect to the universal consciousness and your true creative powers. Fear and complaining prevent you from doing this. Even if you only sit quietly for a few minutes each day with your eyes closed, breathing deeply, you will begin to train yourself to quiet down. Mediation instructions are at http://ProsperityPlace.com/articles/gethigh.html

4. Pay attention to your numbers.
During tough financial times people tend to stop taking care of their money because looking at the numbers brings up all sorts of uncomfortable emotions. Yet during tough times, it’s especially important to keep track of everything and make sound financial decisions, even if it seems that there isn’t enough to work with. Basic money management instructions are available in Build Your Money Muscles. http://ProsperityPlace.com/bymm

5. Join with others to find solutions
The days of “me first” are coming to an end as we learn to develop systems that support “we” rather than “me.” Rugged individualism may have worked in the past, but the new paradigm requires cooperation and teamwork. You may need to develop communication skills and join groups in order to learn the new foundation for thriving.

Ongoing, affordable help is available for those who wish to rise above what looks like a bad economic environment and find ways to prosper. Read about the Peace of Mind & Prosperity Program.

I hear it over and over again, “I don’t have enough money for _____________ (fill in the blank).” The lack may relate to funds for expanding a business, improving one’s wardrobe, fixing one’s house, or perhaps just paying the rent and monthly bills on time.

Many people function at a chronic non-enough level. Although there may be brief periods of healthy cash flow, these are often followed by the familiar state of lack when unexpected expenses seem to appear out of nowhere or income unexpectedly drops.

Interestingly, I hear the not-enough complaint from people at all income levels. I’ve had clients with millions of dollars of net worth who felt they needed more in order to feel successful. It’s not unusual for me to hear the not-enough complaint from people earning six figures a year.

At the same time, I know people who seem to be satisfied no matter what they are earning. I remember reading a story about a school janitor who managed to save enough money from his salary to help fund a college education of a number of students. He perceived his life as abundant and experienced great satisfaction. Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to thrive in this economic environment and prepare for a prosperous 2010, it’s time to pay attention to your finances and create a strategy for the new year. Even if you already keep good records, you can learn to go even deeper into what you can learn from your own numbers so you can get the most value from your money.

I hope that if you suffer from any level of Financial Vagueness Syndrome, you will decide that this is the time to hunker down and get real about your finances. One thing is for certain: Money doesn’t take care of itself. Without care, it’s like a wild child that needs to be tamed.

I’ll have to admit that I avoid talking about this because I know that people would rather have a magic bullet that fixes something and makes their money fine. But without money management, you limit your own prosperity.

Here’s what I suggest: Read the rest of this entry »

 Let’s assume, as I suggested last week, you’ve set an income goal that includes an amount you’d like to earn and you have set a date by which you’d like to reach your income goal. Now it’s important to make sure that you have a realistic container into which the money can flow.

If you are a business owner or practitioner, what is the designated income stream into which the money can come? A coach, for example, needs to have a website to draw people in or some sort of marketing that makes it clear what that coach has to offer. There also has to be a clear way for potential clients to contact the coach as well as an established payment system.

With products to sell, an entrepreneur needs distribution channels for the products and a manufacturing system that ensures prompt delivery. Without these, maintaining an increasing cash flow is difficult.

For those who have a job, have you upgraded your skills or done what is necessary in order to earn more? If you are on commission, do you have a system in place for increasing your client base or selling more to existing clients? Read the rest of this entry »

In my book, Build Your Money Muscles, I talk about Financial Vagueness Syndrome (FVS) as a key stumbling block to financial comfort. If you don’t know what is going on with your money, it’s difficult to plan, strategize, and make rational financial decisions.

If you have been listening to the gloomy financial news, then you probably know that one of the main reasons the system is falling apart is that no one really understood the sophisticated financial instruments such as mortgage back securities and credit default swaps that were being traded in the markets.

Recently we learned that when billions of dollars of TARP funds were distributed, no one kept track of where the money went and what it was used for.

On top of that, no one was watching the store. When the SEC was warned about Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, for example, the warnings were ignored. No one really wanted to know what was going on.

You could easily conclude that Financial Vagueness Syndrome played a significant role in the global financial crisis. Has it played a role in yours?  Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, I received a balance transfer offer from Bank of America for one of my cards that has a $0 balance. The offer is for 5.9% fixed for the life of the loan.

At first, the balance transfer small print looked like the usual–3% of the balance transfered with a minimum of $10. But it was called a Cash Advance Fee, not a balance transfer fee. Then I noticed some new fine print. Here’s what it says:

"This fee will post to your account as a cash advance fee and receive the Standard cash advance rate. "

I called BofA and asked what that rate is. The answer: 24%. And, of course, payments are applied to the lowest rate part of the loan first.

Let’s assume you transfer $5,000 with this offer. The fee will be $120 and the interest on that $120 will be $28.80 for a year. If you take a year to pay off the loan, you’ll pay that $28.80 plus the 5.9% interest,  plus the 3%. At the end of a year, you will have paid around 9% interest.

So would this be a good offer. Only if you are paying more than 9% now on the $5,000 you are transferring.

 

If you’ve been working and playing hard, keeping track of your money is probably not something you look forward to doing. But the simple act of writing down what you spend and earn can help you move to a better financial position.

Money, like people, goes to those who love and take care of it. And what money likes best is to be counted. Financial Vagueness Syndrome, which many people suffer from, does not encourage cash flow.

Taking care of your money stimulates feelings of empowerment as well as increased self-esteem and self-trust. Avoiding the task does the opposite and often enhances feelings of shame.

If you’d like to improve your cash flow and can see the benefit of paying attention to your numbers, it can take a while to build up a habit. The decision you have to make is to start and to do something with your money as many days during the week as possible. Five minutes a day is often enough to keep things up to date.

On ProsperityPlace.com, you can download a PDF file with instructions for Basic Money Management.

My book Build Your Money Muscles also has instructions and can help you work through the shame that may be coming up when you think about your financial situation. That shame can be what is holding you back.