Some blog posts I have to do a little ranting. This is one of those types of blog posts. You will either love me or hate me after this, but someone has to say it, and I've never been one to bite my tongue. In other words, I don't mind telling the truth, and the truth is, bad money habits lead to poor money results.
Let me preface with two quick points:
1. I CAN HELP. If you need help with anything in this blog post, please reach out to me. I WANT to help and I don't mind helping or offering some advice.
2. I've done every last one of the things on this list. I'm not perfect and never profess to be above doing wrong with money. But I didn't start winning with money until I eliminated each one of these things from my vocabulary and my thought process. I changed my thinking, and thats when I made serious strides financially.
So Lets jump into it. Here are some bad habits that lead to poor results:
1. Flossin. Let me just say it like this: Materialism leads to poverty. Real money speaks softly, while fake money is flamboyant and loud. Impressing people you don't like, or don't even know, with clothes, cars, shoes, bling bling, and other stuff, is not something people who are winning with money do. I'm not saying image doesn't matter. I believe that image matters a lot, but you don't have to spend a bunch of money to impress people. If most of your time is spent around people that judge you and your friendship based on what you have, you need to change your circle of friends. I'm saying get out of the habit of trying to impress people with stuff. That leads to incredibly poor decisions with your money.
This is for all of the people who are buying $700 Coach purses, or purchasing $1,000 alligator shoes, and don't have life insurance. Or the people who are driving the $50K Range Rover while renting their home and swimming up to their eyeballs in debt. If your car cost more than you have in retirement account, then this is something you should think about. If this is how you choose to live, you are certainly free to continue, but you are absolutely destroying your future wealth. Like it or love it, it's just the truth!
2. Accepting, looking for, and depending on charity and handouts. Positioning yourself to accept charity of any kind is a weak position. Stop living life with a mindset of a sad puppy, as if your progress is dependent on something someone else (i.e. the government) should be doing for you.
YOU HAVE THE POWER WITHIN YOURSELF TO DO EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL
When anyone gives you something, they can can always take it back, and they ALWAYS expect a favor, or some type of loyalty, in return. You are always left unarmed when you accept charity. Develop strategies in your life that have nothing to do with any form of help from others. That means no student loans, no section 8 housing, no grants, no financial assistance, no donations, no go fund me campaigns, nothing! If you are poor and need temporary help, be sure to make it TEMPORARY, and vow to never need it again.
Get creative, be patient, curb your appetite for excess, and find ways that don't involve the bondage of charity! You may be saying "you never know what can happen", and that's true, but it's a scarcity mindset to live a "you never know what can happen" life. The way you circumvent the whole "you never know what can happen" argument, is to be obsessive about PREPARATION, CREATIVITY, and YOUR DIGNITY. Feel free to stop reading now if I've offended you. It may get worse.
3. Trying to get rich quick. Money takes time. Every generation has a healthy share of money and wealth gurus. Whether it's Carlton Sheets, Tony Robbins, Rich Dad Poor Dad, or whomever. People have a tendency to want to believe the whole get rich quick stuff with all of their heart. I don't blame people for that. I would love to believe that you can get rich quick. The bible says in Proverbs that "A faithful person will be richly blessed, but one eager to get rich will not go unpunished". In other words stop chasing riches to line your pockets quickly. That is a recipe for heartache, disaster, pain, and poverty. A thief seeks to be rich quick.
Instead of getting rich quick, seek to capitalize on your uniqueness, which will help you become VALUABLE. The sooner you become valuable, the sooner you will make more money.
Also, please stop blurring the lines with the notion that "building a business is the same as trying to get rich quick". It's not. Going into business and seeking a profit is not the same as trying to get rich quick. The point of a business is to give something back or provide a service, as an exchange for something. That is different then throwing your money at bitcoin and hoping to become a millionaire next week.
Money takes time, and developing a good solid business also takes time. You have to have some patience and some perseverance to build a business. Any guru out here telling you to strive to "get rich quick" is selling you a lie. If your goal is to "get rich quick" you need a new goal. A better goal is to help as many people as possible. Do that, and over time, you won't have to go seeking quick riches, because wealth will come.
4. Over consumption. Consumption is a weakness, not a strength. Consumption means to "use up a resource". Constant consumption is a depletion, a taking, a withdrawing without replenishing. It's squandering, wasting, draining, and dissipation. The late great Dr. Amos Wilson said many years ago that you cannot consume your way to wealth. When you take your money that you earn and you use it to consume, you are literally devouring your most precious resource, in return for stuff.
If you have to not watch commercials, avoid looking at the Taco Bell sign when you drive, or simply stay out of the malls and the local Target, do that. Stop consuming so much stuff. Most people have stuff they don't want, stuff they don't need, stuff they never wear, a pile of stuff they are going to throw out, and stuff they wish they get rid of. Get rid of your stuff you don't need and stop buying more stuff.
5. Expecting something when you haven't risked anything to get it. Rewards go to the people that risk the most. If you want a big reward, take a big risk. Start a business, make an investment, sew into someone else's start-up, or just do something that forces you to walk out on a limb. It doesn't even have to be about money. How about study long hours for a certification or give a speech in front of 50 people. Take a risk, any type of risk. If you want to reap heavily you have to be willing to risk heavily. This "something for nothing" mentality is self-destructive! Stop looking for a "hook-up" when you haven't hooked anybody else up. Until you put money on the table, time on the table, help on the table, incredible amounts of effort and heart onto the table, then stop expecting to get the same benefits as everybody that put their life on the line to get a piece of the table.
6. Taking without giving. We used to call these people couch potatos. Don't be that person. An abundance mindset is about providing for others, giving to people, giving to the earth, paying your fair share, adding to whatever you are involved in, and using your resources and capital to make life better for someone else. You get nothing when you are constantly taking from every situation you are in. Add value without extracting something sometimes. Try giving without expecting something in return. The world is here for you to add to it, not spend all of your time and energy extracting from it. People don't simply exist for your pleasure, and the world does not revolve around you and your needs. God's principle is that you reap (get back) what you sew, not to just keep reaping and reaping and reaping.
In other words, you will get back what you give. If you give nothing, then you get nothing. Period. That is the law. If you could take this one principle and live your life by it, it will make a ton of difference in the quality of your life!
7. Non producing. When you produce nothing you are like a helpless child. Here's the challenge: Create something. Make or Manufacture something. And then sell it. If you don't like to create, produce or sell, then be prepared to remain in last place forever. We live in a capitalistic society where everyone is selling you something everywhere you look. Selling isn't evil or morally wrong. Own or be owned. No exceptions. You will be sold to, so you might as well make something and get to selling yourself. When you produce nothing, it makes you vulnerable. When you produce nothing, it makes you needy. Throughout the history of this world, people have not lived by relying on other people to hand them everything. That is a new phenomenon that is destroying the average persons ability to take care of themselves.
Grow vegetables, fix cars, make plastic cups, or anything. God gave everybody hands to do something for themselves, not to sit idly by and rely on others to make and produce everything for them. That is a helpless and hopeless life! Your hands weren't made to produce wealth only for your employer at a job. What about YOU? What can you produce for you? What can you make? What can you build? What can you start? What can you sell?
8. Lack of ownership. I really don't care if it's a piece of dirt, just please own it. Own a business, own resources that have value, own your car with no payments, own your own house with no payment, own an acre of land, own a tree, own a patch of grass, own something, anything. Why volunteer to stay powerless all of your life when you don't have to? Take out a piece of paper. On the left side list the things you own outright with no payments. On the right side write down the things you owe payments on. If the things on the right side of the paper have a greater value then the things on the left side, you've got some work to do!! What you owe payments on, you don't own! What you owe payments on should not be worth more than what you actually own free and clear. That means you are "upside down" and have a negative net worth. That is the purest definition of pverty. Make it a point in the next week to take steps necessary to own something! If you need help with that, contact me, and I will help you think through it.
9. Watching too much TV, YouTube, and Social Media. Read a book. Stop watching other people live out their dreams. Educate yourself, educate your children, and focus on self improvement. The good thing about this is you are already starting this by simply reading simple blog post. Continue the self-education. Simply start by reading a good non-fiction book a month on a topic you like. Education should not just be somethingthe government gives you, like charity, from age 5 to 18, and then you are done. That type of education gets you a job, and earns you just enough money in life to get to where you are right now.
Self education builds your inner person and can change your mindset so that you are on a path to more joy, more fulfillment, more value, higher self-esteem, and empowered. When you care more about who is better between MJ and LeBron, what Housewife is throwing shade at who, or the latest episode of a drama on Netflix, then you have less time to spend on building yourself and your own empire! Leave your "shows" alone and start "showing your work" in your own life. I've been a Landlord for 20 years, and it's actually true - the poorer the person, the bigger the TV.
I've been guilty of doing all of these things, but I can help.
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