Money Skills: Everybody Must Deal With It

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Money. It seems to take up a lot of our mindset. Let's dive a bit into it and again see it as what it is: a tool. Here's how you can deal with it.

I don’t think that there is a single person in the world that does not have to deal with it. It may be in a different shape, form or concept but in the end, everybody exchanges objects of “value” for the things they need or want. Nobody can escape from it. Money is the currency that moves our society either we like it or not.

Since many centuries ago (oldest coin found is from 2.700 BC Greece, click here), money has been a part of our daily life and yet, for some reason, after such a long history, we are never taught how to work with it. I don’t know why but, nobody teaches us in school how money functions (nor how to do taxes even though everybody has to pay them). We are handicapped from the start. We are simply expected to learn about it on our own as we grow; the problem is, that the majority of us never really do! We find it boring and confusing to learn about money, we just don’t quite get it. So instead, we pretend that is not necessary and go through our lives thinking that all we need is a higher salary. That is exactly where we fall because instead of learning how to make money work for us, we become slaves of it by working for it.

Money Is Nothing But A Tool

Money is fake, money doesn’t exist. It’s just an instrument that allows us to pay for the things we need and do the things we want! It’s the bridge between our reality and where we want to be. It allows us to live the lifestyle we want and do the things that we are PASSIONATE about. It doesn’t matter what they may be, your goals have a close relationship with money whether you like it or not.

I’m not saying that if you learn how to work with money, then your dreams will come true but, for sure, things will be easier. I’m not saying that you will become a millionaire but, if you learn how to get organise with your money, you will be able to get the most out of it. There is a reason why many times we hear people say “there is a lot of month left at the end of their money.”

The Sooner You Start The Further You Will Go

I have seen it many times. Either young or older. Personal finance enforces us to control the things we can do and the ones we can’t do, of course we HATE IT! It’s like been on a diet. Always regulating what you can eat and what you can’t, making sure that you never take in more than you can burn. It sucks! But only for a while luckily. Don’t tell me that once you get to your desired weight, you don’t enjoy it? You worked hard for it. The diet that you hated is not a diet anymore but it’s now your lifestyle. It became a habit and it’s easier to stick to it.

Money works the same way, we just have a little problem. The social pressure doesn’t work the same way. Physically, the pressure pushes us to be healthy, cut down on the smoking and drinking, exercise more and so on. But with money, the social pressure is to spend more and more and more. Buy, Buy, Buy! How are we supposed to control ourselves? As if this was not enough, then we have our internal fights. We think that we are still too young for it plus we tell ourselves that we don’t really make enough money yet. Or even worse, the present me vs the future me. Buy it now since I have the money, I will figure out the university tuition later when the time comes.

Back when I was in University, many of my friends, who were working as servers in restaurants during their studies, making around $18,000 a year, suddenly graduated and their salaries when up to $65,000 for some engineers. Yes, just like that and what happened? 1st thing they did, repaid student loans?? naaaahhhh, lets get a Mercedes instead. You see, the thing is that the human being is the hardest thing to satisfy. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, you can always find a way to spend it all and it will never be enough. My friends were living okay before their awesome raise but now they had more to play with and since they were not organised with it, they burned it all every month. It sounds like a lot of fun, but it catches up with you.

This is were our goals come into place. Money is just a tool that bring us closer to them and yet for some reason we turn it into an obstacle. We let it control us by giving it power through our innocent ignorance. The sooner we understand how money works, the more we will be able to achieve by making the most out of the financial resources we have.

The Game Changer

People are amazed when they see the things I’ve done so far and the places I’ve been. I don’t really have money and I don’t come from a rich family either but somehow, I’ve always managed. How? Well at first, I had no clue but after a while I started seeing a pattern on the way I approached my life.

Imagine I invite you to join me on a world adventure. I’ve been planning this trip for about a year now and it goes like this. 60 days around the world, 35 cities, 28 countries, once in a lifetime kind of thing. We will be in every continent in the World, meeting people from every corner. From the Himalayas to the Andes, from sunrises to sundowns, the whole world! And all for just $10,000.

Lets say you love the idea, this is something you have always wanted to do but you are not sure about it. You have two choices. You can tell me that you want to do it but that you don’t have the money nor the time for something like that; therefore, you can’t do it. Or, you could ask yourself “how can you make it?” With whom can you talk with to lend you the money? or what extra things can you do to make it happen?

Many times, we just focus on the big obstacle, we get overwhelmed by it and block ourselves. The moment you say to yourself that you can’t because you lack the money or the time to do so, you automatically kill every creative process that could have happened. But, if you tell yourself, let’s see HOW can I find the money, then is a whole different game. Your mind will just rush through every possibility until it finds it. And it’s those who think like this who normally are able to find a way, to find a solution to the obstacles between them and their goals. Don’t let money be one of them or you will not make it very far.

As We Move Forward

I will continue to develop content on the area of personal finance but not because I want to teach you on how to handle money, I just want to help you see how you can make money work for you, so you can achieve your dreams and feel eager to follow your heart.

 

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