ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD...

I have a few friends that I admire. I admire them because of what they all individually do for themselves. One of them owns and runs a very nice shop where she sells kiddies stuff, ranging from when the child is but a mere new born baby to about ten years or so. You get to see baby strollers, eating utensils, baby beds and rockers, lovely shoes for different occasions be they casual, sports or for parties. The list is endless. Another one of them owns his own IT and consulting firm. Still in its infant stages but yet making head-ways in the delivery of unique IT solutions and branding. Another owns his own mobile barbecue outfit, young but regarded as one of the undisputed best in the Federal Capital Territory, providing people with appetizing chicken or fish snacks that leave their taste buds itching for more. Another owns his own young but also thriving printing outfit, where he not only guarantees his clients quality prints of whatever they want that may range from letterheads, business cards, logos, banners, signage, etc, but also guarantees them a very creative design that befits their vision or dreams before it is printed. 

All of my aforementioned friends are very hardworking people, people with visions that burn within their hearts as they seek to fulfill all them so that they can always retire to their homes every day, with the hopeful pleasure of having achieved the plan for the day. And like them, I have other friends and acquaintances too, all daily pushing to better their lives, some running their own outfits, others working in offices of different kinds...but for sure, all hoping they could just have all the money in the world that would ease all their financial needs or plights. I feel them because I also have such dreams. Wouldn't it be so nice?

I believe it would be. But then, in reality, it isn't all that simple. For one, no one can ever have all the money in the world, so that desire is way off hopeless. For another, to really come close to having all the money in the world actually interprets to mean that we will always have the wherewithal to meet our needs our own selves without being under undue pressure. It's really the basis for which many, like my esteemed friends above, strive to have their own businesses, to gradually walk into the place of self-sustenance, the place where the sweat of financial hopelessness becomes a history that they can proudly archive and say they had conquered. Everybody seeks this level but, sadly (and I mean sadly) not many will ever get there. Why? 

Simple. Because they are poor.

Being POOR means PEOPLE OVERLOOKING OPPORTUNITIES REPEATEDLY. When we repeatedly overlook the many opportunities that come our way that are able to change our lot, we miss out on great life changing moments, moments that can empower us financially. The problem with most people in the poor category isn't the absence of money but rather the unwillingness to take advantage of chances to make some money, no matter how small. They keep dreaming, hoping and wishing for that day that the heavens will open up and rain down an avalanche of money into their laps that can change their lives and destinies forever. Such people will forever remain where they are because they have simply not understood that this life will always give everyone (and I mean everyone) opportunities to better their lot and that whatever they choose to do with it will determine where they may be per time, and especially as it relates to financial freedom. If they keep missing opportunities, they will keep being at the mercy of those who have more than they do. Always.

In contrast, being RICH means REASONABLE INITIATIVES CREATING HARVESTS. This is when people take time to mine the positive thoughts inside their heads that are able to create their financial change for them. When they spend time doing so, they create their own opportunities of making money or even eventually collide with other opportunities for which they have the mental solutions to and so are compensated by the owner of such opportunities. You don't need all the money in the world to get by, you just need to be RICH in your head and in your ability to recognize opportunities. 

Opportunities are basically needs of others, needs they themselves cannot meet but which you may be able to. The opportunities may be big or may be small but what matters is that you are able to recognize them and possibly able to take advantage of them by supplying a solution. And that is why I said at the beginning that I admire some friends of mine; because each one of them always have reasonable initiatives capable of creating harvests for them, which in turn, if sustained, can guarantee them financial freedom and free them from the mercy of those who may have more than them. Having the solution for pregnant women and mothers as regards their baby's wears or toys is an opportunity my friend took advantage of. Being able to provide IT solutions to individuals and businesses in the city in this present IT-driven dispensation is an opportunity my other friend took advantage of. Specializing in providing a great barbecue for parties, events and outings is an opportunity my other friend also took advantage of. And being able to tap into his creative ingenuity to give clients good designs and prints as value for their hard-earned money is certainly taking advantage of an opportunity. What reasonable initiative do you think you can come up with in order to provide a solution to someone that can in turn help change your financial landscape?  

In any case, financial freedom is simply always having the wherewithal to meet your needs whatever they are and whenever they arise. And when you eventually get to that level, it sure does feel as though you have all the money in the world!!!

The choice is yours.

  

FUN THINGS!

I remember years ago when I was thinking of what best to do with my life, financially. Bills aplenty on my hands to deal with, growing premature grey hairs from over-thinking on how to deal with them, knowing fully well that my take-home pay at the time would not in any way be of any help to me. I had to find a way. I really needed a way. Am sure you most likely must have had such an experience as well, or know others who have. It's no longer news that many of us tend to contend with so much heavy expenses in our present world despite our various 8 am to 5 pm jobs every week. Many of us feel all we need is a salary increase or a huge bonus for all the sweat we put into our jobs at the office. If that doesn't happen, then we'd prefer to have a job change and go somewhere else where we most likely would be paid like princes and princesses, kings and queens. After all, we are worth much more and the best thing would be to have a job with very adequate security. I thought so too for a very long time but was soon to realize something; that there's really no job security anywhere in the world. 

The only place you can ever have good job security is inside yourself. The truth is that every one of us is particularly very specially gifted and endowed. We have innate natural skills, talents and intelligence that we've all been blessed with and that were designed to help us stand our own anywhere on this planet. With what we've been blessed with, we all have the very job security we so dearly crave for that can comfortably provide for us all our lives. Our biggest challenge, therefore, would be to discover and then properly harness these gifts so that they can start giving us the desired results. 

Every gift we carry has its value. That value, once harnessed is what people will pay for. Once people start doing that and we can regularly always assure those who will pay for such value its continuous availability, then we can be guaranteed constant payment for it even when we are asleep! Most times though, such gifts we carry are mainly the fun things we love to do! The things we would naturally prefer to do even at no price. The things that come so easily to us that they look so simple. The things that we delight in and take great fun to do. Things that would give us far much pleasure than our regular office jobs. 

I call them FUN THINGS! 

Think about it... Wouldn't it make more sense for me to work on and develop something I derive so much fun from, enjoy and do with relative ease? Knowing that once am able to harness its value and present to the world, people would get to notice it and then gladly pay me for it? Your natural gift is really your job security in this world. Go ahead and pay more attention to it. It could change your financial destiny for ever and you'd just be having great fun doing it! You can turn that thing you love doing for fun into a serious money-making pipeline; the dancing, writing, acting, organizing or singing; helping  people out or just taking very good care of kids; teaching people how to study properly for their  exams or even teaching etiquette that can help people in social gatherings or private ones. The list is actually endless. 

  

Like every other venture in this life though, nothing good comes without a bit of challenge. But have you ever bothered yourself with any opposition whenever you're busy having fun? It's just simple...you always want to keep on doing it and you will hardly mind about the naysayers or detractors or hurdles that may stand in your way. I was greatly encouraged by a friend who recently told me how he will never give up until the business he set up almost seven years ago really begins to bear the right fruits. He has had several disappointments that have at times left him wondering if he took the right step by delving into that business, but he told me that he just realized that it would be very difficult for him to let go as he has always had a love for that very venture. It always made him feel alive and always gave him a sense of purpose. He knew he was good at it and only needed to find the right strategies to eventually ensure that his business was profitable. He was certainly having fun doing it and really deserved to be positively compensated for it because he knew he was providing a very good service that was of value to people. And so for that reason, he wasn't going to give up.

Doing the things you love to do as a business doesn't mean you should sink to the ground while doing so. It's a business and should be profitable. Yes, your immeasurable love for it is very good motivation and the needed foundation to give you a good boost, but you will definitely need more than  that. You will need proper planning. If you don't know how to go about it, seek help. There's no need to have an ego trip on matters like that, because if done properly and right you will be singing right down the line.

It's fun to pursue and run with the things you love and once your right plans start falling into their places, the profits that abound and that will start rolling in will surely guarantee you all the job security you can ever want. You can take care of your bills, go on holidays with the family and acquire some of the things you've always dreamed about. But most importantly, you will always go to bed with a big smile on your face and a warm fulfillment in your heart.

I WANT TO BE RICH!

We all desire to have money because of what it always can potentially do for us. The acquisition of things and settlement of bills will never be possible if we had no money. And we usually do have quite a list of things we want to have or want to do, and money is the center point of most, if not all. So, the trick is pretty simple, isn't it? We need to get as much money as we possibly can so that we don't have to try to explain to our lives why we can't afford our desires and make our stay here on earth comfortable. We just need to be rich.

To be rich, however, means we need to have loads and loads of money, or that we should at least have more money that can overshadow our desires, money that is always available when we are in need. It means that we have to be money magnets, that we have to be rich as much as we possibly can because it is the only way to answer back those constant desires that keep pulling at us endlessly.

But being money magnets isn't ever going to be enough if that's only how we think our money issues are going to be solved. If you're hoping to fill up a bucket with water and you put it under a tap gushing endlessly with unrestrained gusto, you will be guaranteed that in no time the steady flow will hit the tilt of the bucket and possibly overflow. But that, in truth, will only be possible and realistic if there's nothing wrong with the bucket, if the bucket isn't tilted, has no holes or isn't damaged in any way whatsoever. If that can be guaranteed then we are also equally guaranteed that our bucket will be filled with time. However, with us and our money...hmmmm...it's quite a story we all seem to have from time to time.

And why is that so?

Personally, I think it's because we constantly always tend to overlook certain realities about us and our money. Realities that we should stop overlooking and make the concerted efforts to monitor. And below are a few of the realities we must face if we are ever going to have any remote hope of being rich ( at whatever level) in our lifetime. Quite a number of us:

OVERSPEND

Overspending simply means how it sounds. Sometimes we buy more than is necessary or needed. We acquire things we really don't need or get ourselves indulgent in things that at most will leave us with fleeting satisfactions. We long for so much and our desires far outweigh our capacity to meet them and so we are spending on items and things that really may not have any lasting value to our lives but instead will leave our accounts empty and our minds wondering....

HAVE TOO MUCH DEBT

Chasing after things we don't have the capacity to acquire often leads us into borrowing money from others. The moment we borrow, we are indebted to the person we got the money from. Now, borrowing isn't really the problem, over-borrowing with little or no strategic plan to cut down the mounting and crushing weight of that ominous load is. Quite a number of us just seem content in asking for loans here and there under the illusion that our luck will soon change and that when that happens our money problems would be over. Better wake up from whatever fantasy you've walked into and realize that life is real. Debt is serious bad news. And if you're ever going to make any headway with your money, you need to start taking concrete steps to cut down your debt to the barest minimum. Otherwise, you'll possibly be rich, but only in your dreams.

ARE NOT SAVING ENOUGH

You must learn to save. And not just once in a while but constantly. Don't be too fooled to think that the rich only have money wells and money taps that constantly and ceaselessly release money for them without measure. Aside from those who have made it their career to steal what doesn't belong to them by cheating either people or organizations out of their money, the rich actually save part of all that seemingly ceaseless flow of money that they are making. In fact, I dare say that it's because they've mastered the art of savings that it seems like they always never ever run out of money. You will need to save enough and that takes quite some serious effort to attain. But unless you don't consider savings as a vital and veritable means of building a rich portfolio, then you're free not to be serious about it. Take my advice though...be serious.

DON'T HAVE A PLAN

Our money, am sure, would pretty much love it if we could always take out some good time to plan how it should be used or spent. Good planning is more often the best way to direct our money in the right path. Granted, things we like or we consider we like will from time to time pop up into our desire range. But if we always have to allow that to be the norm rather than the exception, then we surely can't be serious about this being rich business or dream. We must learn to lock up our emotions and free our heads. Taking out quality time to plan how best to spend our money often times yields great and glorious rewards. And the satisfaction that comes with that too is inexplicably immense. Planning helps us to curb overspending, reduce our debt and also aid our savings. We should put some good work into planning our money.

PUT ALL OUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET

One of the best ways through which you can start building yourself into the rich level is to never put all your money into one income generating basket. Always look for multiple others. The rich don't only increase their money by simply doing just one thing or having just one source of income, they strive to have others, Yes, you can start with a primary source, maybe like your job or your business, but you must then learn how to gradually diversify what you earn into various other investment possibilities. This is so because as life isn't perfect, so also is the world's economy; and from time to time each possible income generator could have issues or go through a low patch, and when that happens it could adversely affect your money. You can imagine what happened some years ago when the property market crashed almost worldwide. Many people and individuals who had sunk in their life's savings purely and wholly into properties never recovered. Before the bust, they no doubt were making good returns but because they didn't seem it fitting to diversify some of the good money they were making, they paid the terrible price when the unthinkable and unimaginable happened. Always thoughtfully look for different places to put your money where it can steadily grow for you.

DON'T HAVE AN EMERGENCY FUND

An Emergency Fund is like savings but not entirely like it. It demands we consciously put aside some of our money quite right but also demands that we consciously regularly ignore it except there is a serious emergency.

Now, this is very important. While savings are good, they actually are there to take care of certain issues that may be recurrent but that we really need to plan for; like holidays, school fees, wardrobe upgrades, etc. With the Emergency Fund, it's slightly different but equally important. As the name already connotes, it's for emergencies only. What may constitute an emergency may definitely differ from person to person but then it should only be an issue that is so bad and demanding that we will have no choice but to break into our Fund to rescue.

We must plan for our money and an Emergency Fund surely has its merits and positives. And if we are ever going to look at ourselves and say we are rich, we must start using our heads more and our emotions less. We need to stop complaining more about our financial status and start committing more to personally changing it. We need to stop living for today only and start thinking for tomorrow. Being rich really isn't about how better the other person is than me but how well I have arranged my own resources to ensure that what I need is always taken care of by me.

So, the ball is in your court. What are you going to do?

THE BUSINESS OF DREAMS

Every one of us wants to be financially free and secure now or possibly sometime in the future. Am sure there’s no argument about that one. And more often than not, owning your own personal business that ensures you never have to worry about your finances tends to be one of the best ideas around. Yes, to have healthy finances, a good business with good, steady income is very necessary and would be most appreciated. At least I know I’d appreciate it BIG TIME! And I have a few good ideas on how you could make that happen for yourself. 

Owning your personal business is always a dream for many but it’s not always that easy to start and run. And that’s usually because of a few things we tend to overlook in our quest to be business owners. In this article, I’ll pay more attention to the small business owner because that’s what I am primarily myself and the little I’ve learnt over time will definitely be of benefit for you. So, the following tips are key: 

1. YOU MUST LOVE THE LINE OF BUSINESS:

Never go into a business you have no love for. The reason for that is because, being a new business, it needs plenty of attention and work and all of that will stretch you. So, if you have no love for it, should you not be getting the kind of immediate results you expect in time, it will frustrate you and possibly demoralize you to the point of an early quit from that line business. Is it a business that you've had building up in your head for some time? Is it your creation or an idea you've always wanted to work on and see come into fruition? This is important so that you're not just jumping into a business simply because someone down the street started a similar one and is doing well. There's something apparently driving that person's success; make sure you have yours.

2. DECIDE WHAT YOU REALLY WANT:

Running a small business can be a sweet dream, yes. But if you already have a job, you need to decide whether you are going into it as an aside/additional source of income or whether you intend to make it your mainstay of income and quit your job. Why so? It’s because the logistics and time for each are not the same and whichever one you choose will play out the choices you have to make in its daily running. So, be sure.

 3. BE SURE THE BUSINESS IS LEGAL:

You certainly don’t want to go into a business or an industry that doesn’t have the approval of the Government. That won’t be nice. Also do all you can to obtain whatever permit or license that is mandatory for that line of business so that you don’t run into trouble with the regulatory authorities over your operations. 

4. AGGRESSIVENESS IS NEEDED:

Let me not kid you; to run your own business isn't as easy as A-B-C. But it has its rewards. However, you will need to be aggressive in running it, especially in the early stages of the business and at the points when expected or proposed dividends aren't rolling in. You must understand that you aren't the only person in that industry and that it takes quite a lot to gain customer confidence, loyalty and continuous patronage. So, you must aggressively keep at it and not be slack in all your business operations. 

5. SEARCH OUT RELEVANT RESOURCES:

Like I said in Point 4 above, you aren't the only one in that industry; there are others who equally desire to make hay, as it were, when the sun shines in that area. So to help you build your business, you must constantly look for relevant resources/information that relate to it. Changes occur almost daily in this life and more so in business and having access to the right kind of information will help you stay in the game and also help boost it. In our world today, the internet itself has become a veritable source of very vital information; make use of it. 

                 

   

6. TIME MANAGEMENT IS VITAL:

Proper planning and organizational tools are very important and can help you plan and execute your daily activities as regards to your business. You can’t afford to toy with time when it comes to business. It is one key element that binds your business with your clients, the goods or services you provide and your possible profits. Therefore, the best management of your time would make all the difference to you and where you hope to see your business get to. 

7. TRY TO ENCOURAGE YOURSELF:

Running a business will get to you, make no mistake about that. It has its pressures and you must guard against that. You must understand that you are actually competing against yourself and not necessarily against others even if they are in the same industry as them. So constantly endeavour to tell yourself that as a way of encouragement especially when certain business goals aren't being met as originally planned.

8. PLEASE, GET A MENTOR:

For where you want to get to in business, you will need to learn from others; especially those who already have gone that route before and have proven testimonies of achievements that you can lay hold of. They may be physical mentors, those you can meet one-on-one and get good tips from, or those who aren't around your vicinity but can be reached via emails or phone or books or CDs or DVDs. The most important thing is that you can learn a lot from them concerning the line of business you have chosen to make your living from. 

9. FIND TIME TO RELAX:

Try to relax and rest whenever you are tired from all the push you give yourself as regard your business. It helps a lot to have hang outs with friends or you visit pleasure places like a beach, an amusement park, a zoo, etc, because it allows your head to breath.

P/S:

Your comments about this post will be greatly welcomed. Thanks loads.

DO YOU HAVE A PIG?

We've looked at at how to ensure we get our finances right by the way we think, because the way you think is responsible for the way you act. Therefore, how you handle money or what you do with it is mostly due to how you think. So, let me try and put this in your mind, if I can...

You need a pig!!!!

Yep! You heard me right. You need a pig. A money pig. A pig that helps you hold your excess money or change, if you have any. And you should have!!!! You must have!!!! If you choose not to have one, please stop complaining that you have no money.

The mentality of savings must be a top priority for you regardless of whether you are making regular income or not. You must entrench that habit into your mindset so that you don't get swept away when whatever you describe as good money eventually falls into your laps. So, my friend, get yourself a pig...a Savings Pig.

Aside from getting yourself hooked on a workable budget, which is very important if you must be financially free, the best way to even run that budget is to have all your spending organised into percentages. And do all you can to stick to those percentages no matter how your income fluctuates. It will do you a whole load of good.

I had my first encounter with the Savings Pig mentality as a young boy when my stepmother gave me a small raffia basket that we used as part of our sitting room decor at the time. I converted it into my own personal savings bank and often would actually put it on the pedestal above the window and many thought it was just a decor element in my room and hardly paid any attention to it. Risky, I know, but it was the only way I could disguise what it really was and what I was actually doing with it. It worked.

At the time, being pretty young, I didn't really understand money; I just wanted to have control over mine since I realized that my parents won't always give me money for what I craved for from time to time. And it always gave me satisfaction to see and know that I had money stashed away from the little pocket money my parents would give to me and my siblings for school every day. I used to pick out the very shiny coins from the money my parents gave me and dropped them inside my savings basket. It felt so good. 

Today am a whole lot more matured, more educated and obviously more enlightened and I've discovered that the best way to handle your money is to always have a percentage of it saved. The usual rule-of-thumb is to constantly put away between 10 - 15% of your income into your savings box or container or bank account or whatever else represents your Savings Pig to you. Please, hear me....you need to have your own pig. It's the best way to lock up some extra cash that will come in very handy for you in the future.

Nobody will ever plan your life for you except you yourself. Give this a pig a little test. It could save you more than you ever know. I still have my pig. It's no longer in the form of a small raffia basket but it still does the very same thing for me now as it used to many years ago. And am pretty glad indeed.

LET IT FLOW!!!

I used to think that the true meaning of being wealthy is to have loads and loads and loads of money. You know, an abundance of it, so much so that I will never have to complain of not ever having enough; so much so that I can always afford what I desire and at any time I want. You agree with me, right?

But if I do have loads of money and I also have loads of spending power, it means buying becomes an effortless and unrestrained venture. And if I get to keep on spending anyhow I want, it means that I will most likely be spending as much as am making. Now, what kind of wealth would I have if am virtually spending almost all I have simply because I think I have plenty money?

A serious word of caution. Nothing is perfect in this life, especially you. And so to think that you're altogether super just because you've started making some steady flow of money is a very serious error. It's the mistake many have made. One moment they have tons of money and the people around them plus the world will no longer hear anything else than their wealth; the next moment they are down and out and they so earnestly pray that the people around them and the world would stop noticing their plight.

Wealth is not defined by how much you make but by how much you retain from how much you make. How much you retain is the pot of gold you can always rely on because it is there for you unlike the channels of making money that may not always be available for you. And this is where you need to try to hone your money making skills on...practice the art of retention.

In earlier posts I did speak about having a good budget and the great benefits that it carries. However, a budget only works based on two telling factors:

(1) Sticking as much as possible to the budget you have prepared

(2) Making sure you don't spend at any whim the difference between your income and your expense, which is a result of you sticking to your budget.

That difference is actually your Cash Flow. And it is what you need to really take care of what you need to take care of should the need ever arise. If you keep on spending at will just because you seemingly always have money coming in, you will never have the cash to fall back on or use when the need arises. Your ability to manage how you release what you make is the best way to always lock up your funds and ensure that you can always have money on your hands. It's no magic, just pure discipline applied.

The money you work hard yourself to make or save is the one you will value and take seriously, because you knew the sacrifices you made and the efforts it took to make that happen. It's time to stop dreaming and instead wake up to face reality because the last thing you want is to suddenly come up short and then realize that you goofed when you truly could have been a whole lot better of.

Guess what? I don't have much but am never broke. Now, why do you think that is?

Please, pause and ponder a little about this. It will save you loads of money headaches in future. That's a promise.

You are free to leave comments on this post and the others before it. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

THE PROBLEM WITH MY MONEY

Have you ever been in a situation where you wanted to embark on a project so you decided to either save towards it or borrow money from somewhere or someone for it, only for you to have the said needed money for the project and later discover that you could no longer do the project because the money is either no longer enough or no longer available? And your next reaction may be to start wondering what the problem is with money that it just wouldn't stay in your hands? You conclude that you may never be able to embark on that project because you may never have enough money. If only you had more money than your original estimate.

Or you work quite assiduously to earn a living every month but your eventual take-home never seems to be enough. If only you had more money than you currently earn. Ah…there must be something wrong with money. It must prefer some people more than you. Money must run in the veins and families of others and not in yours. How come others can have it the way they want and you can’t? All you have are bag of stories to tell of how you didn't have enough for this or for that, or how you really can’t afford this or that because you don’t have enough. There must be a problem with money.

You are right. The problem with money is you!

Surprised? Please, don’t be. Haven’t you noticed that money can never leave your hand without your permission except it is taken away from you by force? Money cannot stand up from where you left it and walk away except you remove it from there yourself or if someone else does without your knowledge. Money will always move in the direction that it is made to move to. Nothing less, nothing more. Money doesn't spend itself to buy things, you do. Money doesn't spend itself to pay for anything, you do. Money doesn't spend itself to pay for a car, house, trinkets, jewelry, or anything else, you do.

The biggest problem with money is actually its owner or handler because it will ALWAYS take the likeness of the person in whose possession it is. Before you start protesting, please take this to heart…there are those who seemingly have very little compared to others yet they seem to be achieving more with the little they have. No matter the amount of money you have, you must take responsibility for it because EVERY amount of money has VALUE. When you recognize that every amount of money has value, you will treat it more with respect. And once you start doing that, the money in your hands naturally will take your likeness and subsequently also treat you with respect. If you stop being a problem, so also will your money. Change the way you look at money to change the way you treat money, and you are very well much on your way to riches and wealth.

And one of the best ways to show your respect for money is to put in place a structure or platform that will allow it to flow in the possible right way. My suggested structure is a BUDGET. And you need to make the effort to have a personal working budget; you owe yourself and your money that much.

With a very good budget in place, your money will only go to where it's meant to go. If you set up one that you will make concerted efforts to respect, you are guaranteed that your money will be safe. Don't forget what I said earlier....that, "Money can never leave your hand without your permission except it is taken away from you by force." So, control your money by preparing a budget; it's the right structure your money needs in order for it to be safe.

Please note that a budget is not just meant for the Federal, State or Local Governments in your country but for everyone who truly wants to have a sound sleep every night without the worry burdens of insufficient funds to live on. And a good budget helps you to shut the door on unnecessary spending and helps to open doors of opportunities instead.

The budget doesn't kill; it just helps trim your financial health and helps to give your finances some good balance. And with it, you can easily take proper stock of your income, expenses and cash flow (which is the reason for most of our headaches anyway, when we can't lay hands on ready cash to sort out what we determine as immediate or urgent needs.

So, the problem with money isn't money itself but you...as well as your lack of a good budget structure that will help you effectively control your money.

Please take out some quality time to pause and ponder on these thoughts. We shall continue next week.