A Better Way To Look At Money

Money, What do you feel when you hear that word? Do you feel accomplished? Perhaps you tell yourself it would be nice to have some. Maybe you feel as if you don’t have enough money. Then again you may feel that you have plenty of money and you are quite happy.

There is a whole lot of discussions on money whether it is good to have or the root of all evil. People have been arguing about money for almost as long as people have been using seashells as promissory notes.

If you look around you see people claiming to be one of two camps the “haves” and the “have nots”. Which camp do you fall under? So let’s start like normal and see what money is

What is money?

What is money in all reality? Rabbi Daniel Lappin best describes money as little green notes of appreciation, and I take much of the same view.

Money or any form of currency is a note that represents a value. In the old days, the US dollar was equal to one dollar’s worth of gold. This was called the gold standard. There, for a while, money was also on the silver standard.

Then the US government decided to take the US dollar off of the gold standard and this created a whole other mess of problems but that dollar was still a representation of a value earned. That is the key phrase many people fail to see. Money is a representation of value earned.

Why do some people view that money is bad?

Many people see money as a necessary evil. You hear some people say money is the root of al evil, or they don’t need money to survive. You instantly see that these people don’t believe this because ask them to hand over all their money and you will see them be ready to fight for that money.

People say this because they want to feel like they depend on money. They think money is bad because they may have seen their parents fight over bills, and the lack of cash on hand. How many times did you hear that money doesn’t grow on trees? I heard it all the time. I heard that money was scarce.

Perhaps they have seen someone who has money go someplace they want to go. Maybe they want to go see far away lands but they see how much it would cost and tell themselves they don’t have the funds.

People with the wrong view of money often rage against people who have taken the time to save

Media

The media does nothing to help people have a good view of money. They watch movies where the bad guy is a rich CEO who is doesn’t care about people they only care about getting their hands on more money no matter who they step on.

There are is an ongoing false narrative about money being a limited resource. Much to the likening of a pie. Where 1% of people have the most of the pie while the rest of the world has to do with the crumbs. Again this is a huge lie and is used to help further the “have” and “Have not” victim-based narrative.

Churches

How many times have you heard a pastor refer to Matthew 19:24

And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God

Matthew 19:24

You often hear people use this passage of the bible about how rich people are no good. Funny thing is they are correct if you think you can buy your way into heaven you cant. Your actions get you into heaven. Yet this verse isn’t talking about how horrible wealthy people are. I believe God wants you to have money. He wants you to be wildly prosperous. Now prosperity isn’t solely about money but that is a part of it.

Many churches preach from a victim mindset. They give sermons about how it is better to give your money away and that it is nobler to be poor. If that was the case then the poor would be content and not strive to have cash. Heck Churches are so avoidant of money that they don’t even try to make a profit. They work from actual donations. Now I do get that there are some tax benefits for being a nonprofit.

Yet I wonder how better churches could be if they were to find a way to operate in a profitable space. There are examples of these around Joel Olstein’s church appears to be rather profitable and look at how many he can serve because of it.

Education

Schools are another place that they stifle glory of money. I am sure you have heard times when there was some entrepreneurial kid who found a way to make money while at school be it making customized paper footballs or selling candy bars from his locker. Even our local government doesn’t want kids to learn how to make their own money. Schools often are indoctrinating our kids in the evils of business instead of encouraging them to learn how to make sales.

We use to have competitions on selling different items in school now you can’t sell and they are just called fundraisers. Which is just a weak way of saying, you are selling products for no profit. This doesn’t help your kids understand that being told “no I’m not interested” is an important part of learning how to make your own money.

Money isn’t a Limited resource?

Nope, not at all. There is plenty of money to go around. It is just that those who complain about not having money want to have money they did not earn. They want to have as much money while giving away a little value as possible. In other words, they have a scarcity mindset. They see money as a scarce commodity and want to hold onto as much as they can while claiming that money is not important.

In all, money is an unlimited resource. Yes, it is unlimited, believe it or not. It is created every time value is exchanged. It isn’t somebody taking advantage of another person. It is given to one person who had provided a valuable service or product. A sale is an equal exchange of value. Hello, it is called making money. You cant make something if it is a limited resource.

OK, I hear the screams of protest right now and I will stick by what I said and I will pose you a question to help scramble that egg. How would it benefit a shop keeper if they sold crappy items for way too much money? The truth, it doesn’t benefit them at all. Eventually, word would get around that this shop keepers products are worthless. Did you notice that last word? Worthless. They are a piece of crap. Not any good. These are terms to describe something of no value. We use these words all the time. If those words are associated with a product the shopkeeper will eventually not make any sales and then go out of business.

But what about greed?

What about it? The baker doesn’t open a bakery for the benefit of the village, he does it to make money. He has a good product, warm delicious bread, and pies. He does out of greed. Greed as a whole isn’t bad. When you let greed consume you then it becomes a problem. Much like drugs and alcohol if you let them consume you you fall into a dark area. Look at Enron, they collapsed out of greed. They start lying to those they worked for and were then gone. That is because greed consumed them. After all, they let fear dictate their actions.

Even big corporations don’t become centers of greed. People have invested in them and because of that, they have given up some control of their business. Again that is a value for the value proposition. People invest their property, or money, into a company in hopes that they will get a return on their investment. That isn’t greed that is helping another entity out so that they can grow.

I have heard many a person call a business owner greedy. Yet is it greedy to give people money for a day’s labor? Is it greedy to pay a person the wage they agreed upon? Why do they make so little? Well, I would look at their pay stubs and see who takes over 30% of the money. Then The interesting thing about this is that the employee doesn’t see all the other funds that go into hiring them. So why doesn’t the business owner higher more? It has to be a profitable endeavor. If you have a bunch of people who aren’t creating value but just pushing a button then there is no need for them.

These same people who curse companies for not paying people enough also cry foul when that company leaves or lets many of the employees go because they aren’t producing enough value to warrant them staying around. So companies as a whole are very much a martyr to the community they help. Because it is damned if they do and Damned if they don’t.

You would think that the people who are complaining about businesses letting people go would be happy that the company didn’t shutter their doors. They let 30% of the employees go, that may be true. Yet that means that there are still 300 other people who still have jobs.

If the company leaves they again curse the company for greed yet the true finger needs to be pointed at the local government who made running a business in that area too difficult to make a profit.

Money is earned

This often sounds so cruel to people who wish they had money. The truth is people who don’t have a lot of money don’t have the money because they don’t see that value in themselves. Look at Lottery winners. In a couple of years they many lottery winners have thrown that money away and have nothing to show for it. They quickly go back to living at the same level they had before they were blessed with those millions. Many lottery winners say they wished they had never won because of all the troubles they experienced from it.

This is all because they didn’t earn the value they received. It pushed up against their upper limit and because they didn’t see the value in themselves. If you believe you are a $30,000 a year person you are going to live right in that area. While if you believe you are a $100,000 or even a $1,000,000 a year type of person you will also rise and find that million dollars a year venture. It is all about how valuable you see yourself.

This goes with people who are negotiating their salaries at a new job. If you are wanting to get a $15/ hour job you will just settle for that $15 an hour position. While others will actively haggle for more. This is often where the wage disparity comes from people cry that they aren’t paid enough, yet they left money on the table because they just said Ok to the offer of $15 an hour, instead of asking for $18. Is it the evil corporation’s fault? No, it is the employee’s fault. They didn’t make a counteroffer. Then these employees want to play the victim card saying they are getting short-changed

The Victim Mindset

Yeah as you can see when it comes to money there is a lot of victimhood being tossed about in today’s society. They claim it isn’t fair that they cant do all the things they want to do. These victims of circumstance refuse to see that they are the cause of their circumstances and changing it. All because they have bought into a lie about what a “Have” and “Have not” is.

Money shows you what is actually in a persons heart. Again much like alcohol. It amplifies the very nature of that person so if there is a person with a scarcity mindset, they will hardly give any money to a charitable organization. While an abundant mindset person will use the money to help other people. They give their money away as long as they see there is a value. Kind-hearted people who are wealthy give away more money than anybody who thinks they don’t have enough. You can look at past presidents to see what type of mindset they had when they were in office.

So how do you change your views on Money?

That is surprisingly easy to do. Though anything worth doing isn’t really easy. I say it’s easy because you don’t have to do years of schooling to make money just work on yourself. Change you mindset is always a work in progress but you get better with each step you take.

Change your words

One of the biggest ways you can change your view on money is to change your words. Your mind is like a computer and with each input you give your mind, that sets your mental programming. Like Henry Ford famously said, Whether you can or you can’t you are right.

So instead of seeing someone with money spending their hard-earned dough and saying something to the effect of, “It must be nice” change that to, “That Looks Nice”. You are giving acceptance to their wealth and this allows you to be accepting of yours.

When you feel the scarcity mindset trying to take hold as you are spending money on something remind yourself that there is more where that came from. Telling yourself that your money isn’t limited and you can make more will help you shift out of that scarcity mindset.

Budget

Just because you have money doesn’t mean you just spend it willy nilly. Far from it. Wealthy people budget their money. They have a certain amount that they are going to invest in. A certain amount they are going to donate. And a certain amount of money that they can spend on whatever they want.

You can do the very same thing. Assign every dollar a task. Get out of debt. You can live free and easy if you are beholden to a debtor. Spend time-saving away some money. Take that money and invest in some hold on to some for emergencies. Also, allow yourself the ability to spend some. Yet don’t use buying of stuff as a means to buffer against some type of stress.

Forgive yourself of those minor transgressions

You are going to screw up on your budgeting from time to time. Maybe your spouse loses a $100 bill. Don’t be hard on anybody about this. It is a struggle for everybody involved in getting your financial house straight. So, Be kind to yourself there is more where that came from right?

Stop comparing yourself to others.

The thief of joy is always on the lookout. If you find yourself comparing yourself to another person who has more, then start listing off things that you are grateful for. Change that scarcity mindset with the elements of gratitude. Find ways to celebrate his wins for him. You can tell yourself that is where you are going to be. Instead of wishing what you had, be glad that you have the ability to get what you want.

Find a way to serve others.

Serve, that is at the heart of any business. The more you serve and the better you serve the more you get those little green certificates of appreciation. The best businesses serve those buying from them. They are coming up with a solution to a problem. Because of those actions, people are way more than happy to say thank you by handing you money in return.

Serve people this helps you with your mindset while also the law of reciprocity makes sure that people wan to help you in return for doing a great job for them.

So you see money is not bad. Money is wonderful. It isn’t a limited item there is more around than you think. The rich are rich because of their mindset and how they look at money. You can do the very same with a little work and providing lots of value.