How to Change your Financial Worldview
Financial Education Course #2
Changing your financial worldview is a much larger task than what you may first anticipate. It requires a tremendous amount of dedication. It requires you to make drastic changes to how you approach life. It usually also requires you to do the exact opposite of what most other people are doing around you. You may feel like a loner, the only person in the crowd with vastly different financial goals.
The best way to explain how to change your financial worldview is to give some examples that will start moving the way you think in the right direction. Remember, changing your financial worldview is something that takes commitment. Massive changes to your life will be required. Below we have explained five examples of how your financial worldview will may need to change.
1. Be Productive and Make “Work” Your New Best Friend
There are no limits to those who choose a good attitude about work and business. The popular personal finance book, “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George Samuel Clason, gives an example of someone who worked from the bottom to the top by making work into a “best friend” instead of a mortal enemy.
If we fear work or make it our enemy, we will never be able to open a business or be successful in our employment. If we drop all our fears and bad attitudes relating to finances, we can start truly be productive and excited about financial things instead of dreading them.
2. Make it your Goal to Learn About Money the Same Amount of Time That You Work for It
How many people do you know that will punch in and out faithfully everyday for work, spending at least 40 hours towards working each week? Out of those people, how many people do you know who spend even 15-30 minutes each week learning about money or how it works? The answer is not too many – almost none at all.
Why is this? Learning about business, financial skills, and how money works – these are all very easy and enjoyable ways of making your financial life much easier. If you spent as much time learning about business, new skills or abilities, and money as you worked each week, your net worth and financial understanding would drastically increase in a short time.
3. The Working Hard and Working Smart Equation
After you have decided to gain financial knowledge, you can start putting that financial knowledge into effect. Two parts exist in the financial equation. In this equation, your hard work is essentially multiplied by the “smartness” of your work. These two factors multiplied together are what determines how financially successful you will be.
How many people have you seen working hard but getting nowhere financially in life? How many easy-going, intelligent people have you seen who have some financial knowledge but are unwilling to work to be successful? These two factors, hard work and smart work, must always be used in conjunction with each other in order to achieve financial success.
4. Decrease Personal Expenses and Increase Income
Many people are thrilled to purchase a beautiful house on mortgage and new financed cars whenever they find themselves able to make such payments. Unfortunately, such thinking usually leads to either financial mediocrity or even financial failure. Instead of such goals, your primary financial goal should be to decrease your personal expenses to as low as possible.
With the goal of decreasing your personal expenses, you can still many times achieve the purchase of such items such as nice accommodations and vehicles. However, the route to these desired items is vastly different. Many financially successful people pay very little (or virtually nothing) for the lifestyles they enjoy. Their corporations or rental income frequently offsets all of their personal expenses.
With your expenses as low as possible, you can use anywhere from 50% to even 80-90% of your income for investing in new sources of income. The process of wealth accumulation never ends in such an equation. However, if you start out with high personal expenses, you will never be able to break free of the monthly bill payment cycle that dominates the entirety of most people’s income.
5. Do Not Care About Appearances. Do not “Keep up with the Jones’s”
Many people purchase automobiles and houses in order to help their self-esteem. They know that they work hard and feel like they “deserve” some nice things in life. However, this way of thinking is very detrimental to gaining financial knowledge and breaking out of the monthly-payment cycle.
The only thing that ultimately matters is the reality to your finances. If you have hundreds of thousands saved but drive a modest car, does it matter what other people think? From now on, judge how much your net worth is gaining each year in order to determine your financial or other “worth” you desire. Remember, financed items are really only “on rent” anyway. You do not own any part of them unless you are taking drastic steps to quickly pay off the debt. Do not let financed items be your self-esteem booster. Make responsible financial choices that will lead to genuine accumulation of wealth.
Assignment: Read or Listen to the Book, “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George Samuel Clason
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To move on to Financial Education Course #3 click here!
Stay tuned for Indianapolis Attorney John Bymaster’s next Financial Education Courses!
Income UP – Expenses DOWN! – Course #3
Get Dynamic! Get Serious! – Course #4
Never Take the “Easy” Way – Course #5
Do the Opposite of Everyone Else – Course #6
Action Plan – It’s Game Time! – Course #7
