The Plain Truth about Money, the Accumulation of Wealth, and How Your Thinking about it…Changes Your Life
You surrender the majority of your waking hours, energy and precious time for the purpose of acquiring money. Isn’t it time to accumulate it? Isn’t it time to utilize the fruit of your labor…stop punishing yourself, and begin rewarding yourself?!?
Fact: Among other things, the money you accumulate is a symbol of…
You,
Your life,
Your work,
Your value
Your value of…your Self
When you hear the following sentence it doesn’t reconcile with the above facts.
“It’s only money, money isn’t everything.”
What do you think that does to the nonconscious brain and the mind that has to cope with competing philosophies?
Competing internal philosophies about money cause people to be angry, feel hurt, and perhaps worst of all, causes major resentment toward self and others, resentment toward your kids and parents, resentment toward friends and colleagues.
And that’s a true and factual statement that no one has ever shared with you.
Of course the implications of these statements to the unconscious mind are that your work isn’t anything. That is devastating and that is the beginning of self-sabotage.
No one says, “It’s only 40 years of my life that I’m working for them.” or, “It’s only 50 hours of high stress, highly intense work week after week to get enough money to survive and it’s only money.”
Then you will hear a THIRD competing philosophy that will challenge the other two currently at odds with each other in your brain.
“You can’t take it with you.”
“Money doesn’t buy happiness.”
“Money is the root of all evil.”
The way you communicate about money change
s what it means to you and confuses your nonconscious brain.
Here’s what you can remember I said money is: For the vast majority of people In 2018, money is at minimum a survival tool.
Question 1. Now, what causes people to verbalize odd phrases like, “it’s only money”? It’s all a bit confusing and strange at this moment.
I’m going to answer that question a bit later but first:
Let’s make a deal: You and me. Let’s rubber stamp this notion: The most important thing in life is the love and the richness of connection between you and those you deeply care about.
Today, I want to completely unplug any self-destructive beliefs you have about money and it’s accumulation. Then I want to give you a new plugin, a new psychology, into your mind about just how important those little green pieces of paper are.
I want to show you what those pieces of paper MEAN to YOUR UNCONSCIOUS mind.
Wealth accumulation may just be the most important concept you have ever had shared with you.
How you USE MONEY can and should become symbolic of you, your life, your value and your work.
Startling? Preposterous? Some people read that sentence with a darkly colored lens! Do you?
Until that sentence is a truism you are far more likely to fail in your relationships, your work and worse, fail in life. When it becomes true…you will invariably, ultimately succeed in family, in life, in love. It seems very odd. Almost uncomfortable. Why? I’ll explain it all. There is a powerful disempowering psychology that exists in the world about money and what it means. Now you see as you never have seen before!
Watch your mind begin to shift in it’s and feel the freedom from self destructive behaviors.
Question 2. Of the remaining top five values and needs in life, what might they be? What SHOULD they be?
I’ll answer that question shortly as well. Before we come to the key psychological principles involved in wealth accumulation, I want to open three doors for you into my life. I rarely talk about these experiences…Maybe you have had similar experiences. I hope not. If you feel a little uneasy at times as you read this, that is GOOD! One thing is certain, there is an enormous amount of value to be gleaned from these snapshots.
Snapshots:
Picture One. I was 4 years old when my parents divorced. My Dad never sent my Mom money to take care of three kids of which I was the oldest. When you are the mother of three kids and you have no job and no money, you have a challenge. Food, shelter and clothing all cost money. So do some other things you might want in life, like transportation, school supplies, birthday presents, Christmas presents, shoes and so on… I learned very quickly that without money, essentially, you cannot function without becoming an enormous burden to someone else…and you hurt.
Picture Two. Mom remarried when I was 6. (Thank god!) Then within two years my new Dad was bedridden with congestive heart failure. Hospitals couldn’t keep him because his condition would often get to the point where he couldn’t improve with treatment so he would be released and live in a hospital bed in our tiny little home. (and I mean SMALL) The 6 foot tall green oxygen tank always loomed next to his bed. Because of a fighting spirit, my new Dad would live until I was 12. There were four years without any real income. (Except what Mom would make at her “job.”) Here’s the money end of the picture: The family was over one million dollars in debt with hospital expenses for two years plus extended trips in and out of intensive care for the next four, as none was covered by insurance. Mom’s income was the equivalent of $16 per hour in today’s economy. Five kids, a million in debt, no assets…and we had to make payments on that debt every month. My “new Dad” died when I was 12. I learned very quickly that being unprotected financially makes for a life of absolutely no fun. Only work to pay the hospital. (There was never a doubt that the hospital DESERVED the money, they took very good care of this Dad when he was there.)
Without thoughtful, careful, and detailed financial planning, your life can be 100% destroyed by lack of money. Not hurt…devastated. Worse:
When this kind of disability happens and you watch someone die every day for six years, the other parent must work almost all waking hours. That’s a single parent family of the most difficult kind. Most single parent families are in tough enough shape…often like a time bomb waiting to go off. Imagine working 60 hours per week while your life partner lays in bed and there is only a 12 year old taking care of all FIVE kids in the house. How do you feel at the end of the day? No money? Makes a painful problem devastating. You become an enormous burden to other good hearted people who try and help you through these difficult times. It was at this point that we had the conversations about which children would be orphaned (“put up for adoption” is the phrase used in 2018) and which would not.
Picture Three: Mom remarries when I am 15. There is financial stability for the first time in life until…two years later Dad number three is in a head on collision, most of the bones in the body broken, and ultimately confined to a wheel chair for two years. (See same pictures as above…the guy was uninsured that hit Dad three…and Dad three carried “full coverage” at the minimum rates.) Yes…More of all that you see above…and the lesson: You become an enormous burden to other good hearted people who try and help you through these difficult times…and even they will burn out eventually.
Now, I give you these three snapshots not to encourage you to feel anything, but to begin a process of thought inside you about accumulating wealth and preparing in advance for these kinds of life events. (Did you know you are 7 times more likely to suffer a LONG TERM disability than you are to die this year?)
These movies stream through my mind perhaps once every month, and they provide the impetus to prepare, be wise in investment and protect those two kids so they never have to endure similar circumstances…and in fact…it would be tough for that situation to happen. (Though as I have experienced in life, NOTHING is impossible…good…or bad!) The movies of other people having helped in my life have given me the stimulus to help others for the rest of my life.
Now: Let’s read the statements that I started off with:
“It’s only money.”
“Money isn’t everything.”
“Money is the root of all evil.”
How do you respond to those statements now?
“Of course it’s not everything, and if you don’t have it, you could end up with literally nothing.”
“Who are you fooling?”
“You gotta be kidding.”
“You can say that when you don’t have to endure something like this.”
Now, let’s take this to the next logical step.
Millions and millions of children are starving to death in Africa, India, and even a couple of Middle Eastern countries which are oh-so-wealthy and give oh-so-nothing to their people, and though China is so much better in 2018 than just 20 year ago, they still face a population size that is impossible to care for. For one billion people on this planet ever day there is literally no food on many days. Little drinking water if any. And kids are dying every single day….usually needlessly.
Now, if those children had money, they could eat. They could live. But they don’t and they won’t. It’s that simple.
“It’s only money.”
“Money isn’t everything.”
“Money is the root of all evil.”
To that child who will die in about twenty minutes, he could live and grow up and be healthy and maybe even happy if he had one thing: Money to go to town and buy food, water and medicine. But he doesn’t, and he won’t and there is little…nothing… that you can do about it…you know why? Because you don’t have enough money. It’s that simple. If you had the money Bill Gates does, you could give away a BILLION dollars this year as well, and save hundreds of thousands of lives…real lives. Real people. But giving at that level is rare.
Now, let’s bring this back to you and your family. If you don’t stabilize your family for the long-term, there is nothing you can do to impact the world in any meaningful way. So put aside that picture of that beautiful child that will die in a few minutes. Let’s get YOUR life planned for and cared for so you have the ability to help change the world.
“It’s only money.”
“Money isn’t everything.”
“Money is the root of all evil.”
Wealth accumulation is the only way you can protect yourself and those you love from everything we’ve been talking about. That’s it. It’s not complicated.
You have an absolute right and moral obligation to accumulate money so you can guarantee your family will be safe, secure and literally have an opportunity for happiness…long-term. You have that right and that privilege.
Don’t blow it on a stupid ideology, belief or a meaningless catch phrase.
Here is how people have been programmed to think, and I guarantee you, I’m going to unplug every single one of these beliefs so that you don’t limit yourself as to who you can become, what you can do and most importantly: how you can contribute to someone else’s life in a MEANINGFUL fashion.
* “Kevin, I look at my paycheck and there’s nothing left….they took money for my 401K…” I’ve told this story a few times at live events. Here it is: I once had to say this to a loved one…who I was a bit upset with: “Look you idiot, that 401 K is the only money YOU actually get paid for out of all the hours you work. That $30 is all you really are going to KEEP from your 52 hour week you put in. That’s the only money that MATTERS. The rest of it will be blown on something that will never get you anything in life…like your car payment. That money is YOURS. You are paying yourself first and you deserve it. So does your family. In 20 years you won’t be able to be doing what you are today, in fact Bill (different name), you have a one chance in 15 of living a better life when you are 65 than you are at today if you don’t have that $30 taken care of and nurtured….and…. is the way you are living today the way you want to be living when you are in your sixties, seventies and eighties??”
“No.”
“Right.”
Key Point: Start today. Fifteen years ago, I developed a rule of thumb. If I could write off a purchase as an expense, it might be an expense that might be worth making. Roth IRA, education, books, investments, a house, and then something or really anything….that would give you a lifetime of benefit and growth instead of something that makes you feel good for the next three hours. The over arching theme: Make your expenses something that will make you happy for your life-time and not for the next few minutes. And that isn’t to sell “fun for today” short. It’s just that in the U.S. we have been programmed to buy “fun for today” everyday….and sell everything else in life out to die in that nursing home…if you can even afford to be there.
* Less than 1 in 4 adults reads a book after they get out of high school. And reading, learning and most forms of educating yourself are directly correlated to your level of income and accumulation of wealth. We live in a society of people who have an opportunity to learn, to help make a difference in the world, to make an impact but they don’t and won’t because they won’t take the time to learn HOW. They won’t invest in the book about Ben Franklin, or the entrepreneurial exploits of Sam Walton, the leadership of Abraham Lincoln, the love and emotional wisdom of The Dalai Lama. There isn’t enough time to read because they are too busy spending three hours today on anything rather than investing their time so the rest of their life can be a dream come true. Selectively reading, listening and watching the wisdom of the greatest minds and hearts in the world will change your life. Choose wisely…but do choose.
* “It’s only money.”
Ready for the answer…the “why?” Here you go:
No.
Wrong.
It is not.
Never say or accept this ignorant statement from anyone ever again. You work 30, 40, 50, 60 hours per week! You work hard. You do NOT get to be with your family while you work for the company! You are not engaged in meeting the needs of those who love you the most. You come home exhausted and you are given a paycheck. Now, listen to this carefully and always remember the next 10 paragraphs.
People who communicate with this horrific program are humans with normal intelligence. They really believe that a paycheck is something they are “given” and not something they have EARNED. When you earn something you want to keep it and judiciously invest it! When you are given something, it normally has substantially less value.
Casinos wisely exchange currency…real money from the player and give “chips” back in return. Chips are like Monopoly money. They only carry a percentage of the emotional value that currency does.
But here is what you have never thought of before:
When you receive a “paycheck,” you get a little tiny piece of paper. Insignificant. Why did you get that? Because of 50 hours of stress! 50 hours of devotion and dedication to your work. 50 hours of problem solving, selling, therapy…or whatever it is you do. And the piece of paper “is only money.” But what you DID to get it is NOT! You WORKED HARD! Money is what you receive in exchange for HARD WORK. IT IS HARD WORK. It is VALUABLE WORK and YOU are VALUABLE. YOUR WORK IS WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR LIFE and THAT means everything to your self esteem!
When you receive money you receive it as a cause/effect.
Hard work/smart work = Currency.
250 years ago someone gave you a goat, you gave them corn, they gave that guy a cow, that guy helped build another person’s house. You can’t do that in the 21st century. So we have a cashless society, essentially. You get a piece of paper or a direct deposit…in exchange for the 50 hours of LIFE you gave to someone else. In the best situation, where you love what your work is: Your work is your life is your money is your value.
Further, little pieces of paper are symbols. They are symbols of the value you have created for someone else. When that person perceives you as having created a lot of value you receive a lot of currency. This is YOURS.
You surrender a big part of your life for the SOLE PURPOSE of acquiring that currency.
THE MONEY YOU ACCUMULATE IS a SYMBOL of…
YOU,
YOUR LIFE,
YOUR WORK,
YOUR VALUE
No one says, “It’s only 30 years of my life that I’m working for them.” or “It’s only 60 hours of high stress, highly intense work.”
But the negative program is that it’s “Only money.”
And the “only money” is precisely what you are working to accumulate. But then you have programming running in your brain from people who didn’t know better…They didn’t know that currency isn’t important. It is DE-VALUED. Thus YOU are devalued.
Do you think your unconscious mind hasn’t figured this out? It did long ago, and that is a big part of why YOU often feel devalued.
Money is absolutely NOT everything but money you receive IS the equivelance of your lifework. Your life is worth investing in, growing, creating, developing. Promise yourself that you are going to utilize the money you acquire to accumulate wealth. You will learn, invest, leverage, and contribute. You will ultimately do what you love in exchange for money and when this happens you will acquire wealth faster than you ever dreamed.
