Financial Wellness
How are you wealthy? I do not mean wealthy in the only reason that most of us view wealth today, by amount of money you own. I mean, how are you spiritually, mentally, socially, environmentally, physically, and vocationally wealthy? Are you wealthy in your dreams and desires, your friendships, your family, your knowledge? It is important to expand your definition of what wealth means to you.
Discussing the sensitive topic of finances truly is a holistic approach to your well-being, because these matters are strong enough to end relationships and cause a great deal of stress. It is important to bring these concerns to the surface. By embracing the positive and negative in each situation you gain a feeling of empowerment and control.
Discussing the sensitive topic of finances truly is a holistic approach to your well-being, because these matters are strong enough to end relationships and cause a great deal of stress. It is important to bring these concerns to the surface. By embracing the positive and negative in each situation you gain a feeling of empowerment and control.
A main concept in financial well-being is fair exchange. Fair exchange is the harmony of a fair service for a fair price within a timely manner. There are people who always put their self importance above the importance of others. These people will drag others down in a chance that they might win themselves. They are called narcissists. On the other side of the spectrum, there are people who will sacrifice themselves so others can win. These people put the importance of others before themselves. They are called altruists. However, neither of these people are in fair exchange, because one party is always in power, while the other is dis-empowered. In reality, you are to "love thy neighbor AS thy self," no more and no less important.
People can become out of fair exchange in a variety of ways. It can be an imbalance with money, with gifts, with a service or even with romance in a relationship. The key, and goal, is to find a way to bring back that fair balance. Ask yourself, "What did I do to deserve what I received from them?" or "What can I do for them that would equal what they gave to me? "or "Am I getting enough back from this person to give them this much?"
Another difficult topic related to financial issues is the idea of rescuing someone else. This can be a family member, a loved one, or a stranger. The important thing to know is that the universe undergoes a process called entropy, which stated simply means that things break down. Eventually, bodies break down and become bones, trees rot, iron rusts, and energy escapes as a puff of heat. So, putting your money into a disordered system often leads to further dissipation of that money. When you rescue a person financially, you are robbing that person of an important life experience. They will likely not learn how to take care of themselves and end up in a similar situation. You are feeding their disorder. So, how can you help a loved one with financial issues? The power and importance of appreciation for someone is important and education on their situation will help them better understand it. They will either learn from and benefit from their situation, or stay stuck. It is all on their attitude and approach. Remember the 10 % rule that I discussed in the "Energy of Water" section. Life is 10% events and 90% of your reaction to the events. Meaning, you get to ultimately choose how you feel towards the events in your life. Another important key is that with more money comes more responsibility. We often forget that once we get a raise in our jobs, we often get added responsibilities. So by giving another person money, you are giving them more responsibilities that they may know what to do with (and essentially lose that money).
What are some basic principles of finances?
1. Live below your means (meaning spend less than you make)
2. Understand your wants are different than your needs
3. Delay gratification of your wants (control your impulses)
4. Simply let money sit (put aside some money and don't touch it again)
5. Give everyone of your dollars a job (money for food, money for transport, money for clothes, money for savings, etc.)
6. Save money for a rainy day (emergencies happen, so saving your money for that emergency really helps relieve the stress of the emergency).
7. Let your money be flexible (maybe your clothing money has to be used for bills this month, but every dollar comes from somewhere)
8. The ultimate goal is to be able to live on last month's income.
9. Another ultimate goal is to live in fair exchange by saving 50% of what you make (but start by saving anything at all)
One thing to note about finances is that everyone has their own value system of what is most important to them. When you assign jobs for your money it is really important to ask yourself is this how I choose to spend my money? Do not ask yourself can I afford this? You can have anything you want, but you cannot have everything you want. It is important to prioritize.
People can become out of fair exchange in a variety of ways. It can be an imbalance with money, with gifts, with a service or even with romance in a relationship. The key, and goal, is to find a way to bring back that fair balance. Ask yourself, "What did I do to deserve what I received from them?" or "What can I do for them that would equal what they gave to me? "or "Am I getting enough back from this person to give them this much?"
Another difficult topic related to financial issues is the idea of rescuing someone else. This can be a family member, a loved one, or a stranger. The important thing to know is that the universe undergoes a process called entropy, which stated simply means that things break down. Eventually, bodies break down and become bones, trees rot, iron rusts, and energy escapes as a puff of heat. So, putting your money into a disordered system often leads to further dissipation of that money. When you rescue a person financially, you are robbing that person of an important life experience. They will likely not learn how to take care of themselves and end up in a similar situation. You are feeding their disorder. So, how can you help a loved one with financial issues? The power and importance of appreciation for someone is important and education on their situation will help them better understand it. They will either learn from and benefit from their situation, or stay stuck. It is all on their attitude and approach. Remember the 10 % rule that I discussed in the "Energy of Water" section. Life is 10% events and 90% of your reaction to the events. Meaning, you get to ultimately choose how you feel towards the events in your life. Another important key is that with more money comes more responsibility. We often forget that once we get a raise in our jobs, we often get added responsibilities. So by giving another person money, you are giving them more responsibilities that they may know what to do with (and essentially lose that money).
What are some basic principles of finances?
1. Live below your means (meaning spend less than you make)
2. Understand your wants are different than your needs
3. Delay gratification of your wants (control your impulses)
4. Simply let money sit (put aside some money and don't touch it again)
5. Give everyone of your dollars a job (money for food, money for transport, money for clothes, money for savings, etc.)
6. Save money for a rainy day (emergencies happen, so saving your money for that emergency really helps relieve the stress of the emergency).
7. Let your money be flexible (maybe your clothing money has to be used for bills this month, but every dollar comes from somewhere)
8. The ultimate goal is to be able to live on last month's income.
9. Another ultimate goal is to live in fair exchange by saving 50% of what you make (but start by saving anything at all)
One thing to note about finances is that everyone has their own value system of what is most important to them. When you assign jobs for your money it is really important to ask yourself is this how I choose to spend my money? Do not ask yourself can I afford this? You can have anything you want, but you cannot have everything you want. It is important to prioritize.
One of the ways you can visualize giving your money a job based on your values is by putting your money into different buckets. For example, you may start with putting your money into the immediate bills bucket then find you have money left over for the irregular bills bucket. After that you may have money to save for your future and for your unknown events that you are sure will eventually happen. You may still have money left over to save into random events that you do not expect and even can save for your ultimate dreams. This assures that your basic needs are met first, then any extra money is always saved and only used for what they we assigned to do.