Having Money vs. Not Having Money

Having Money vs. Not Having Money Money is a funny thing. Its interesting to read all of the opinions about how to make money, how to get rich, the unjustness of people being wealthy, the abhorance of people hording their wealth, what people should do with their money, what the responsibilities of wealthy people are, what the responsibilities of poor people are, luck vs. hard work, silver spoon and entitlement vs. worked my way up from the bottom, etc. Opinions are across the board. A few days ago I merged my pondering on money with my pondering on something else: vehicle maintenance.  Specifically, checking the oil level in my familys two vehicles. Im not very good at it, and more than once Ive had a mechanic shake their head, look at me with that look of shame, and say you had no oil in your car!  You have to check it! Yep, Im that guy. Ive worked on being better, and I think about oil in my car more than before.  Oils purpose is to lubricate the rest of the engine so that parts dont grind and ultimately destroy the entire engine.  A costly mistake, for sure.  Without oil, or not enough oil, bad things can happen.  The integrity of the engine can be compromised.  The engine might not run as well, it might be loud, it might be costly (reduce gas efficiency), it might pollute more (I just made that up, I have no idea). I was thinking that money in a family is like oil in an engine. If you dont have enough money, well you know what happens.  Stress in yourself, your marriage, with your kids creditors coming after you, bank fees for NSF (insufficient funds), higher interest rates on credit cards and overdrafts, poor eating and shopping choices, etc. Your family doesnt function as smoothly as if you didnt have that problem. I was chatting with a friend of mine and he sent me this image: When I first looked at it I thought cool, he got paid and then went to the beach!  But then I looked a little harder and realized that the beach (or, the rest of the month), is him finding fish to eat, by a dirty shopping cart, and without fishing gear.  Payday is when you are well-oiled, the rest of the month is when you dont have enough oil to function properly. Heres  another image  he sent me: This is how I felt when I was out of a job.  Not on day one, but as my massive savings of $1,000 dwindled (both cars were in the shop the Saturday after I got laid off, amounting to almost $1,000), and as I realized that the job search would take longer than I thought it would, I felt like that, out of energy, barely going to make it This feeling of being out of money sucks.  I know it does. I also know that money is something that we can get if we want to get it. I wrote a book on alternatives to a real job, which include things that many of you probably wouldnt do.  A day care, a dog walking business, painting house numbers on curbs, etc.  Nothing glamorous, especially if you did your time at a university, but in each of those alternatives I found people who made more than $5,000 a month doing those things. Maybe getting a job is elusive. Maybe were not cut out for it.  But that doesnt mean we cant have, or earn, money. Having a healthy relationship with, and attitude towards, money, is critical.  Once we get it, and abide by the principles, we are prepared to make decisions that will position us to have a lifestyle we are okay with. Here are two resources that might help: The Richest Man in Babylon. I read this book many years ago, and honestly cant remember what the storyline is, or the main learning points, but I remember it helped me understand money much better than I did before. Dave Ramsey Millionaire Hour. These are snippets of Daves show where people talk about how they became a millionaire. It is refreshing to hear people talk about how they accumulated wealth from saving coins to blue collar worker who just managed his money really, really well (while not making much money).  These stories are really cool because they are of people who were just smart with their money, and very stingy with their spending.  Stingy, by the way, doesnt have to mean Mr. Scrooge. Look, Im not saying we all have to be wealthy to be happy.  We dont even have to have a lot, or much, money.  That has been proven to not provide happiness.  What Im saying is that not having enough money STINKS. And we can do something about that! Having Money vs. Not Having Money Money is a funny thing. Its interesting to read all of the opinions about how to make money, how to get rich, the unjustness of people being wealthy, the abhorance of people hording their wealth, what people should do with their money, what the responsibilities of wealthy people are, what the responsibilities of poor people are, luck vs. hard work, silver spoon and entitlement vs. worked my way up from the bottom, etc. Opinions are across the board. A few days ago I merged my pondering on money with my pondering on something else: vehicle maintenance.  Specifically, checking the oil level in my familys two vehicles. Im not very good at it, and more than once Ive had a mechanic shake their head, look at me with that look of shame, and say you had no oil in your car!  You have to check it! Yep, Im that guy. Ive worked on being better, and I think about oil in my car more than before.  Oils purpose is to lubricate the rest of the engine so that parts dont grind and ultimately destroy the entire engine.  A costly mistake, for sure.  Without oil, or not enough oil, bad things can happen.  The integrity of the engine can be compromised.  The engine might not run as well, it might be loud, it might be costly (reduce gas efficiency), it might pollute more (I just made that up, I have no idea). I was thinking that money in a family is like oil in an engine. If you dont have enough money, well you know what happens.  Stress in yourself, your marriage, with your kids creditors coming after you, bank fees for NSF (insufficient funds), higher interest rates on credit cards and overdrafts, poor eating and shopping choices, etc. Your family doesnt function as smoothly as if you didnt have that problem. I was chatting with a friend of mine and he sent me this image: When I first looked at it I thought cool, he got paid and then went to the beach!  But then I looked a little harder and realized that the beach (or, the rest of the month), is him finding fish to eat, by a dirty shopping cart, and without fishing gear.  Payday is when you are well-oiled, the rest of the month is when you dont have enough oil to function properly. Heres  another image  he sent me: This is how I felt when I was out of a job.  Not on day one, but as my massive savings of $1,000 dwindled (both cars were in the shop the Saturday after I got laid off, amounting to almost $1,000), and as I realized that the job search would take longer than I thought it would, I felt like that, out of energy, barely going to make it This feeling of being out of money sucks.  I know it does. I also know that money is something that we can get if we want to get it. I wrote a book on alternatives to a real job, which include things that many of you probably wouldnt do.  A day care, a dog walking business, painting house numbers on curbs, etc.  Nothing glamorous, especially if you did your time at a university, but in each of those alternatives I found people who made more than $5,000 a month doing those things. Maybe getting a job is elusive. Maybe were not cut out for it.  But that doesnt mean we cant have, or earn, money. Having a healthy relationship with, and attitude towards, money, is critical.  Once we get it, and abide by the principles, we are prepared to make decisions that will position us to have a lifestyle we are okay with. Here are two resources that might help: The Richest Man in Babylon. I read this book many years ago, and honestly cant remember what the storyline is, or the main learning points, but I remember it helped me understand money much better than I did before. Dave Ramsey Millionaire Hour. These are snippets of Daves show where people talk about how they became a millionaire. It is refreshing to hear people talk about how they accumulated wealth from saving coins to blue collar worker who just managed his money really, really well (while not making much money).  These stories are really cool because they are of people who were just smart with their money, and very stingy with their spending.  Stingy, by the way, doesnt have to mean Mr. Scrooge. Look, Im not saying we all have to be wealthy to be happy.  We dont even have to have a lot, or much, money.  That has been proven to not provide happiness.  What Im saying is that not having enough money STINKS. And we can do something about that!