14 Lessons on Money

1. Money is an idea.
In other words, money is what you think it is. It's whatever your own reality is telling you that it is. If you think having a lot of money is evil or a topic you should not talk about then that's the kind of relation you'll have towards money. If you think money is fun to acquire and you love talking about how to get better at it, then that's the role it plays in your life. I'm not saying one relationship towards money is better or more accurate than another. That's entirely up to you to choose. But make sure it really is a choice and not something that you automatically accept as being true based on what you were brought up to believe that money is.

2. Money is exactly as important as you make it. Continuing on the previous insight it's again a question of your own context. If you think money is an unimportant part of your life, then becoming rich is not important either. If handling money in a productive way is important to you, then financial abundance is a logical and natural goal to achieve. However, there's a difference between being broke and not wanting to become wealthy, and being broke and not knowing that you have the power to become wealthy. Everyone has the potential to make a shift in their relationship towards money.

3. Money does not make you rich. Money has the power to make you both rich and poor. Being rich, poor or middle-class is a question of mind-set. The way you handle money simply shows what kind of a mind-set you're equipped with. A perfect example of this is when somebody acquires a great sum of unexpected money. Poor people will just end up poorer and rich people will end up richer.

4. Money does not solve money problems. This is closely linked to the lesson above. There are certain people I definitely would not lend money to because I know it would make more damage than good - for both of us. The person would only get further in debt and have an even poorer mind-set, I would suffer from having my money jeopardized and our relationship might suffer in the end even though the initial intention is of a good nature - to help a friend in need. Giving money away simply does not help, but giving advice that proactively eliminate money problems in the first place is easier and a more productive way to help.



5. Everyone has money problems. The poor, the middle class, the rich, the government, the church, the old, the young, all the companies, everyone has money problems. Simply having or not having money is not free from responsibility to think things through. It's just a question of which problem you rather have - the problem of no money, or the problem of too much money. Different financial situations simply have different degrees of money problems. Having more money in contrast to having less money is usually much less urgent and problematic to deal with.

6. The lack of money is the root of all evil. This statement is much more accurate than the statement that money is the root of all evil or even that the love for money is the root of all evil. Think crimes, riots, insecurity, emotional instability, selling drugs and weapons, poor health care, ignorance due to poor education and much more. People have to address their primary needs to live, and the more basic they are, the easier the leap is to give in on their values and break the law.

7. The link between money and happiness. Money alone does not dictate happiness or unhappiness. There are happy and unhappy rich people just as there are happy and unhappy poor people. However, unexpectedly not having any money would make me unhappy and unexpectedly getting more money would make me happy. But these are temporary feelings and have nothing to with the overall happiness towards life as a whole. Therefore, it's pointless to generalize rich people as unhappy or even relatively unhappy compared to their wealth and make this notion stop you from becoming rich. You alone choose the level of happiness and the general opinion about this issue is nothing else than what you think that other people are thinking.

8. Money is not linked to personal values. Having a lot of money or having very little money does not relate to what kind of values a person has. But, money has the power to take those values from within and out into the daylight. It has the power to reveal a person's true nature and intentions once the bets are getting higher. The tough thing about it is that if the values and intentions are bad, they might not show up until it's too late. Accordingly, a truly good-natured person might not show their worth either until the money sums are getting really significant.

9. The more money you get, the more money you end up giving. If you think being rich is seen as hoarding money and being greedy, then remember that it can't be taken into the afterlife. It does not matter how much money you make during your lifetime, every single penny will be passed on to others sooner or later. The richer you are, the more money you keep circulating out from your expense column into someone else's income column. Eventually it will all go into other people's pockets, but that's not as important as the lessons you can give in life or lessons you can give on how to handle money.

10. Money comes to those who know how to handle it. This is a question of education. The better your education about money is, the more it will flood into your life. The school system does not teach it and whatever you think is right is what your family has passed on to you. It's up to you how financially literate and intelligent you want to become.