Money can be your best friend or your worst enemy.
It really depends upon how solvent you are or how much you are in debt.
If you become caught up in the debt cycle, you will always be struggling to pay your bills and more and more reliant on your job security or other regular or irregular income.
This is not financial security. It is basically flying by the seat of your pants.
We do not always require loads of money. However, the other facets of the Whole Health Wellness Wheel (Family, Faith, Fun, Leadership, Physical and Emotional Health) can be much easier to achieve if we are solvent, have a good income and even have investments which produce passive income.
In past decades there was an emphasis on savings. Today, because of endless choice and voices pushing you towards spending, debt is the winner over savings.
Although no one can control what governments or businesses do, individuals can stop being seduced into debt slavery. Is it possible to live debt-free and still live the life of one’s dreams? Yes, it is, but it requires delayed gratification, patience, and a plan to achieve your goals and your essential purpose in life.
Let me note that Borrowing for investments that will accrue return and are able to be paid on time are to be considered. BUT only if they can be repaid on time without heartache.
Here are some ideas to help you avoid the Financial Cycle
• Live within your income limits, right from today.
• Continue to look for opportunities to improve yourself, your value and your income.
• Produce a personal budget to remove all unnecessary purchases or expenses. You will be surprised how much you are able to cut out
• Each week set aside money for accounts that need to be paid, money for living, and up to ten per cent into a savings account plus a little for a charity or a cause you admire.
• Your credit card may need to be locked up or cancelled and cut up.
• The best financial discipline would suggest that you begin by looking at your gains and not your losses. If you cannot afford it, don’t buy it, or (worse still) take out a loan. You pay high interest rates on personal loans.
- Understand the difference between an expense (money lost) and an investment (potential to produce an income).
- Your savings account allows for future investment of your principal and the accumulation of interest.
- Stay out of uncontrolled debt and focus on building assets.
The Financial Cycle is today’s killer of wealth and dreams because you are encouraged to become a slave to debt. This means you may never have the money that gives you the freedom to make the choices you wish to make for your life. Take control of your finances and improve your Whole Health Wellness Wheel and your life specially Emotional and Spiritual – from where Happiness, Kindness, Generosity, Forgiveness, Helping others – comes from.
Just look at the panic and chaos deliberately caused by RBA and Media with the quick high in Interest to reduce Inflation (which is also has panic status). Don’t you feel you are being conned?
A golden rule of thumb For every dollar of after-tax earnings:
Spend up to seventy cents on living daily,
Save ten cents in an interest-bearing account that you do not touch and that allows interest earned to be compounded,
Give ten cents to a charity or contribute to good works,
And use the last ten cents as capital to invest in an income-producing venture.
It takes discipline, patience and delayed gratification to make these choices. However, the financial and personal character that results are astounding, This is the Compound Effect.
Consider this profound advice:
This would be a much better world if more couples
were as deeply in love with each other as they are in debt.
Earl Wilson
The chains of habit are too light to be felt
until they are too heavy to be broken.
Warren Buffet on debt
13 THINGS YOU CANNOT BUY WITH MONEY:
- Meaningful work
- Character
- Wisdom
- Self Esteem
- Friendships
- Inner Peace
- Health
- Love
- Respect
- A clear Conscious
- Loyalty
- Happiness
- Another chance at a lost opportunity
Whether you are saving money, investing money, spending money, earning money – giving generously with money – it helps to remember that while we need money to survive in this world the things that make us thrive cannot be bought with money.
We do however require enough financial backing to be able to live the life we were meant. Ending uo Homeless or struggling to pay the essential bills month after month is no way to live.
Do yo best to change this – if indeed you are in this position.
