Money Lesson #4: It's A Journey
Mistakes Will Be Made
This post is 893 words, about a 4-minute read. Enjoy!
This is probably the most confusing phase of managing money. It is also the phase of money where we can either change our life positively or destroy it.
Because it is such an important part of our journey, we tend to seek out wisdom and advice from anyone we believe to be having success. The problem is those people are not us. The advice they share may not fit our life. This can lead to frustration as we try to fit their square shaped advice into our round shaped life.
This is why I have two rules of money to deal with this exact feeling:
Good Advice is Not Always Good for Me
Have Fun but Don't EFF IT UP
There are two extremes we can fall into when we get into this part of life:
YOLO - essentially stick your head in the sand, spend recklessly, and hope things go well.
Hoard - always anxious about money, saving for some never coming day in the future.
Neither give us the joys we all should feel when we enjoy the fruits of our labor.
I fall into the Hoard category. I am constantly anxious about not having enough money. I wear it as a badge of honor to not spend money on anything. However, this is not very fulfilling. It leaves me constantly chasing for more in the hopes that one day in the future, I will finally feel safe and feel good with my finances to begin to enjoy life.
But Here is the truth I run from: No amount of money will ever make me feel better about money.
This Money Lesson #4 is a guide on how I am learning to manage my anxiousness around money. So that I can do as Ramit Sethi says, "Live a Rich life today and an even RICHER life tomorrow." Or the way King Solomon said it which is so poignant:
"that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction in their toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot. Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. They seldom reflect on the days of their life, because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart." - Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
So, let's talk about it.
Security and Fulfillment
Unless you are a virtuoso, someone who is so special that you create an unfathomable amount of wealth in a short period of time. Think of athletes, artists, creators, entrepreneurs, inventors, etc. This is the 1-5% of the population.
Most of us will spend a large part of life in the "Security and Fulfillment" phase. Learning to live today with minimal to no regrets while also taking care of our future selves. Essentially, learning how to balance enjoying the present while at the same time ensuring we don't eff things up.
In this phase, we have a lot of wiggle room to decide what we want our lives to be. This is the part of life that Money Lesson #2 is so important for. We must take the time to formulate a vision for our life. This will mean trying out different things to find the things that fit the lifestyle we want. This is the “Fullfillment” portion of this phase of life. It is the experimentation and discovery of the things that bring joy to your soul. The things that spending money on is your way of expressing yourself.
For example, a core part of living my rich life is being able to buy boxes of plantain chips. I spend hundreds of dollars amont and thousands of dollars a year on plantain chips. To anyone else, this seems insane and meaningless. And it should because it is not their life, it is MY LIFE. This is an aspect of my rich life that is so well tailored to me. People around me just assume that I have a bag available at all times.
Is it a weird part of my rich life? YES! Your rich life should sound weird to anyone else who is not you.
However, there are three non-negotiables in this phase:
You must never return to a debt stricken and controlled life.
You must have or be working towards a full emergency fund.
You must be consistently investing above the 401(k)-match amount.
These three are the "Security" portion of this phase of life. If you can do these three things, you will set yourself up for Financial Success. You cannot enjoy the process of finding the things that fulfill you if you do not have security.
So the question is how do we secure our today to have enough freedom to find fulfillment in life?
We will be discussing that next week. I will break down each of the non-negotiable of Security and what exactly I think of when I say Fulfillment.
Thanks for reading. See you soon
God Bless You
Remember Generosity>greeed
✌🏾