Chapter 4: Transcendental Money, Wealth, and Assets
We live in a world where money creates the value of your labor, the price of your commodities, and fuels people’s desire to accomplish things or scam their neighbors. It is both seen as the root of all evil and the root of all success. Just as not all people who have money are evil, not all people who have ill intentions, do so as a result of money. Very often money is just the medium with which we transfer our deepest fears and desires. There is nothing wrong with believing that you have value in this world. This also means that you have to be able to say “I will not work for free. My skills are valuable to the man who does not have them, just as the ones he has are valuable to me.” Even in barter and trade, you equate what you have with a value system. Using money to determine what your abilities amount to another person, does not make you evil. Understand that if very few people are doing it, you’re going to get paid for it in some form or another. Even if you believe that is just through karma. Physics states very simply that we cannot create or destroy energy. We can only recycle this. Understanding this will help you understand how people reach a certain status. Very simply, wealthy people invest, rich people sit, and broke people spend. This can be seen with energy or with money as the medium to convey the idea. Consume less and there will always be plenty. If you live a modest lifestyle, you will find there will always be more for later.
The key to embracing your potential and becoming financially stable, is to mark realistic goals every day, instead of constantly being obsessed with unrealistic goals. You will find that those “unrealistic goals” that you see people attain are actually a string of realistic goals that built up to that reality. Money is merely a marker. Just stay humble and don’t try to sell yourself short. If you spend all your time idolizing another person’s achievements, you will miss the chance to make your own and only find disappointment in the end. Money can’t buy happiness or love, but your love is in happiness, and the work you do can get you to money, if you so desire it. If you embrace waking up and being happy with who you are and what you stand for, stay true to yourself and recognize that at the end of the day your heart is all you have, you will be able to attain financial stability when you apply yourself.
When you start to bring in monetary desires, by embracing your true potential, you are ready for the hardest part of it all…keeping track of it and investing wisely in your experience. There are lots of tips and tricks that will help you save, invest and spend your money; or that will help you do things that you have always desired to do, but couldn’t afford to. Most people need less money than they believe they need in order to live. Great tips and tricks include:
*Keeping track of how much you are spending versus what you are bringing in.
*Starting out a year by putting a dollar into savings, followed by 2, then 3 and so forth for a year, until by the end of the year you have savings that would have been difficult to put aside as one whole piece.
*Looking at what you spend on necessities and what you spend on wants.
*Buying necessities in bulk.
*Looking into free entertainment alternatives for your free time.
* Don’t spend more than you can afford to lose.
*Buy used and save the difference.
Keep Moving Forward: An Obstacle Philosophy by Charles William Smith Sr. “In your lifetime, you’re going to get knocked down and you’re going to get knocked down repeatedly. There will be things that knock you off your feet. You must pick yourself up, refocus and see as merely an obstacle. With an obstacle you can go over, under it, around it, or through it even! When you get to the other side, you refocus on your personal objectives, and KEEP GOING FORWARD. Keep this in mind, and life will NEVER defeat you
MANTRAS
I will not allow money to be the root of false motives in my life.
I will be grateful for crumbs and humble when I am blessed with a feast.
I will honor my wants today with my needs for tomorrow.
My life is abundant! I always have more than enough of everything I need.
I will abandon my obsession of what I want and focus on how to get it.
I will live simply with modesty and embrace gratitude.
Joy comes from within.
QUOTES TO LIVE BY
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.” – John Lennon
“Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.”- Paulo Coelho
“Some say I am blessed just because of the amount written on my check, not because of the amount of my happiness- is the reason why I am so blessed.” – Destiny’s Child
“You can get the money, you can get the power, but keep your eyes on the final hour… Let me be patient, let me be kind, make me unselfish, without being blind…” – Lauryn Hill
Live a modest lifestyle and there will always be more for later.
“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.” – Maureen Dow
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” – Earl Nightingale
If you never chase your dreams, you’ll never catch them.
Only an open heart will catch a dream.
“What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?” – John Green
“How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” – Trina Paulus
No one can do it for you. Choose to use your wings.
“Somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known.” – Carl Sagan
“Eventually I discovered for myself the simple prescription for creativity be intensely yourself. Don’t try to be outstanding; don’t try to be a success; don’t try to do pictures for others to look at – just please yourself.” – Ralph Steiner
“I don’t care too much for money, ‘cause money can’t buy me love.”- Beatles
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
“Make visible what without you might perhaps never have been seen.” – Robert Bresson
If your path is more difficult, it is because of your higher calling.
“Everything I need I already have, everything else will come when I’m ready to receive it.” – Anonymous
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” – Unknown
“If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine. It’s lethal.” – Paulo Coelho
“Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” – Seth Godin
Why do we buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like? No matter how much one exerts themselves, ego shall never be satisfied, for its appetite increases as it feeds. You steal from yourself when you buy what you don’t need. Less equals more. Less stuff, less work, and less expense equate to more money, more time and more joy.
Based on my calculations, I can retire about 5 years after I die.
These high expectations can be detrimental; all anyone should ever expect is that you do your best.