MONEY LIE: I Just Need To Make More Money
Welcome to the “Money Lies” series here on the wildly popular JosephSangl.com. In this series, I will be sharing many common money lies that people believe.
MONEY LIE #1: I just need to make more money to be able to win financially.
This is a terrible lie to believe. Here’s why: It gives us an excuse for not winning with our current income!
You see, if we buy this lie, it allows us to accept mediocrity right now. We have an excuse that satisfies us so we stay right where we are without making financial progress.
I’ve actually found that more money just amplifies my current financial behavior instead of improving it. The same is true for most people.
Here’s the MONEY TRUTH: You CAN win with the money you earn right now.
Have you been believing this money lie? If so, here are some practical steps you can take right now to begin winning with your current income:
- Prepare a written budget every single month BEFORE the month begins – use one of our FREE BUDGETS to get started.
- Set up an automatic contribution to your savings account of any amount (it could even be just $25) – set it up to be automatically taken out of your check!
- Begin automatically contributing to your company retirement account (or set one up for yourself if your employer doesn’t provide one) – contribute enough to obtain the full company match!
Read the entire series (available after 2/20/2013)
SERIES: Money Lies Many People Believe
When I was a kid, sometimes as I would be sitting in the back seat of the family 1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale along with my five brothers (probably sitting on the hump because I was the youngest), my parents would say, “Look! There’s a falling star!” We would all scramble around the back seat of the big land barge to see it. I remember that most of them appeared to be greenish in nature.
It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I realized I was believing a lie. I believed that the falling star was just that – a falling star. The TRUTH is that a “falling star” is just space junk entering the earth’s atmosphere. It’s probably a bag of Doritos that fell out of the space station! Disappointment fell upon me for a few minutes as I made the realization I had been believing a lie until I realized its probably a good thing it isn’t a star falling – that would be really bad!
I believed a LIE was the TRUTH.
When I was broke, I believed a lot of things to be true about my finances. But they were lies. Big lies.
But I thought the lies were truth. I could even explain why they were true. Regardless of my ability to rationalize, it did not change the fact that the truth I was believing was actually a big bundle of lies keeping me broke! Now that I’ve won with money, I see that many people believe the same lies I did.
Money Lies Many People Believe:
- I just need to make more money to be able to win financially.
- My spouse will never work with me on our finances.
- I’ve made too many financial mistakes to win with money.
- I can’t save and invest money.
- I can’t budget – I don’t have enough … (choose one or more) time, money, I have unpredictable income, etc.
- I can’t give money away and still make it financially.
Over the next several days, I’m going to be sharing why each of these items are LIES and provide practical ways to overcome each one.
This will be fun!
Read the entire series (available after 2/20/2013)
10 Signs You’re Becoming Financially Fit
The journey to financial freedom can become laborious at times, and it can be difficult to know whether or not you are really progress. Here are some signs you can use to help determine if you are truly becoming Financially Fit:
- You prepare a monthly budget – every single month!
- You know what “net worth” means – and you track it at least once a year.
- You value saving and investing more than spending.
- You have eliminated all high interest debt.
- You have funded at least one personal dream in the past 12 months.
- You have been labeled as “odd” or “weird” by friends and family because of your focus on taking your finances to another level.
- When a friend shows off their new financed car, you feel sorry for them instead of excited.
- You know the interest rate that Capital One 360 bank, Ally Bank, HSBC, and Emigrant are paying!
- If married, you and your spouse are able to have a productive conversation about money – without arguing!
- You don’t have to check your bank account balance every morning or even think about it on a daily basis because YOU KNOW there is more than enough money in the account to cover the bills. In fact, you know your balance to the penny.
What other signs would you add?
The Importance of a Financial Coach
I recently asked the following question on Twitter (via @joesangl): “What does it mean to be a “COACH”? What does a COACH do?” The responses were awesome and are shared below:
- @Shelton_22: @joesangl A coach must Love, Develop, Motivate, Construct, Encourage, Prepare, and Inspire an individual for the future.
- @peteraug: @joesangl brings out the potential in others
- @CynnamonClinton: @joesangl A coach, teaches, leads, motivates, and instructs based on their own achievements, mastery & experiences!
- @RealAustinHall: @joesangl to lead, motivate, be an example, inspire, encourage, discipline, show compassion, challenge and direct towards a common goal.
- @PaulJolicoeur: @joesangl A coach comes along side, to push you beyond where you thought your limit was!
Every single successful person I know has had someone in their life who provides coaching to them. So-called “self-made” persons KNOW that they have achieved greatness because of the help and coaching of others!
This is why I have three financial coaches.
When I was broke, I realized I was seeking advice from broke friends! It was like accepting long distance running advice from a sumo wrestler.
Proverbs 15:22shares, “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”
I was broke, and I knew wisdom was necessary for me to change my financial life. I established desired criteria my coaches should possess:
- They had to love me.
- They weren’t interested in selling me anything.
- They had availability to mentor me.
My financial coaches helped me change my life!
Do YOU have a financial coach?
5 Reasons Why Budgeting Is Important
“You need a budget.”
Chances are pretty high that you’ve heard that statement before.
If you are a saver, your heart started beating wildly (because you LOVE budgets). If you are a spender (like me), you probably felt the hair raise on the back of your neck and immediately felt flashes of frustration.
So this post is written primarily with the spender in mind. Savers: feel free to print out and show to your spender spouse or friend!
5 Reasons Why BUDGETING Is Important
- It maximizes every dollar you earn. As a spender, I can “accidentally” spend money. Preparing a monthly budget (and an annual budget once each year to cast vision for the future) allows me to know that money is limited and ensures that I maximize every dollar I do receive.
- It makes you aware of your impulsiveness. This is not the most pleasant feeling, but it very helpful to be reminded that it is much easier to remain broke than it is to win with money. My budget ensures that I am continually aware of my impulsiveness and the danger that presents to my long term goals.
- You can buy stuff without feeling guilty. This is probably my favorite reason for budgeting! I used to play a round of golf and feel guilty because I knew it wasn’t in the budget (because we didn’t have a budget). I’ll never forget the day that I was able to just go enjoy a round of golf and KNOW it was in the budget and I had planned for it! It didn’t help my golf score, but it did help me and my marriage!
- You have probably married a saver (or if you aren’t married, and hope to be some day, you will most likely marry a saver) I married a saver. Jenn is a beautiful and amazing bride, but she just does not have any desire to go spend all of our money. So when we didn’t have a budget, I nearly drove her crazy with my random ATM cash withdrawals and surprise expenses. I am certain she was the one celebrating the most when I finally “got it” and began participating in the monthly ritual of planning our spending and following that plan!
- Budgeting will fund your dreams faster. I know that I said #3 is probably my favorite, but I’m taking it back. This one is my favorite! I love funding my dreams. Because of budgeting, my family has been able to give more money away than we ever thought possible. We have been able to take wonderful cash-paid-for-in-advance vacations, pursue our dream of launching this organization, and pay off our house! All in 10 years and 1 month! I can’t WAIT to see what happens in the next 10 years!!!!
There’s my list. What would YOU add to it?