Get A Fresh View of Your Financial Landscape
I am grateful for the internet and the many other resources where we can learn details related to managing our personal finances.
However, I feel there needs to be many more voices. So, I am adding mine. I speak from many years of experience, and even though I have an MBA, many of those years included learning steps to recover from poor financial decisions. During that time, I learned a better mindset for money!
Who Has Control?
Not all elements of your personal finances are within your realm of control. However, your work on self-improvement will enhance your ability for self-control related to your budget decisions.
My hope and goal are to provide some guidance for better money decisions and commentary as to why you want to avoid poor money choices. I have a lot of pain points to share!
A Good Living?
There are several categories of information that I want to speak to. They include Evaluating Money, Income Options, Spending Controls, Learn to Earn, Make the Time, Healthy Wealth, and Asset Investing.
The key to making a good living is to have an income high enough to provide your basic living needs and allow you to set some money aside for investing in your future.
What Is Enough Income?
Your basic living needs will vary by person and the area in which you live. Some areas of the country just cost more to survive than other areas, for reasons we will discuss over time
Some are very fortunate to have short work careers due to business ideas or inventions they were able to sell or get royalties from. The great majority of us, however, are expecting to work jobs with the hope of providing a “good living” for ourselves and our families.
I propose that it will take time to grow yourself and your income to a level that results in providing living comforts and satisfying your wants.
How Much Time?
Most of us, in the United States of America, base their working careers on the age they will be eligible to draw their Social Security payments. The age at which you will be eligible for Social Security can be found on their website, https://www.ssa.gov.
However, I would like you to consider expanding your mindset regarding what your career efforts should look like. I will write about what it takes to be self-employed versus employed.
Wages Or Wagers?
Employment is not to be considered a bad thing. Though it has limits.
Self-employment can be a gamble. However, a well-thought-out plan and a service or product which is in demand can enhance your probability of success.
Factors such as education, related experience, local opportunities, and your competition will greatly affect your options and income potential.
You Are What You Become
You control your future as far as being prepared for potential opportunities.
What will you do to prepare yourself? This is where I must remind you that you will bear the fruits of your labors. That is a purposeful reference to my early farm experience.
My grandparents were farmers. I got to see first-hand the work involved to get crops and meat to market so you and I have something to eat.
If they do not work hard, then, they do not eat. And, if enough is not taken to market, then, we will not have enough to eat.
How about a shout-out to those hard-working farmers!
The point is, you will have to work hard to learn and how to perform in your chosen occupation in order to provide a good living. To quote Jim Rohn, a motivational speaker and entrepreneur, “You need to work harder on yourself than you do your job in order to succeed.”
To Help You Improve
This post is the first of many posts to come, whose purpose will be to help you improve in many aspects of your personal finance management. I want you to look forward to making important decisions that are strategic for your future. How much easier those decisions are to make from a position of strength.
Very few of us start our independent lives, leaving our parent’s household, in a position of financial strength.
Most of us, including myself, started out with very little, renting small apartments, eating the cheapest and often unhealthy food, and driving an old car (which barely runs). Furniture is used and décor are hand-me-downs. New clothes are out of our price range. Thank God for thrift stores!
If that is your status, it is my hope to help you develop a plan to grow your capabilities to improve your situation, through self-improvement.
Learn. Seek the knowledge you need, not just the degree that is required.
Stupid is only the lack of knowledge to make better decisions. Let me tell you about how I recovered from my mistakes (my stupid) and how to avoid making the same mistakes!