Money101: Lesson 13 EFFECTIVELY SOLVING MONEY PROBLEMS Everyone has money problems whether rich or poor. There are two main categories of money problems; too much money and too little money. The rich have to deal with money problems in the first category – too much money. Challenges associated with too much money require a completely different set of skills to deal with. However, the majority of people have to deal with the second category of money problems – too little money. This is where I will focus. First of all, you need to understand that we don’t solve money problems with money, but with creative ideas, attitude and behavioral change. Lack of money is not the problem, but rather, the symptom of the problem. When you are broke or in perpetual consumer debts, your problem is not lack of money per se. If you are given more money, it will just give you some temporally relief. Within weeks or months, you will be back in deeper debts. There are root causes to most money problems key ones being; lack of consistent income sources, inability to earn more than your current expenses, poor budgeting, lack of, or poor spending priorities. late or delayed payments, lack of creative ideas and laziness to think of practical ways to earn more money, laziness to implement ideas that can generate you money, inability to say “no” when your resources cannot afford to spend or give and the “blame it on the devil” syndrome. Let us closely analyze a few: Most people believe that if anything is not working in their lives, the devil is to blame. As a result, they don’t take responsibility for their shortcomings and fail to deal with the underlying causes of the problem. But God says, “See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction” (Deuteronomy 30:15). It is up to YOU to choose life and prosperity. If you fail to make that choice, don’t blame it on the devil. Inability to earn more than your current expenses is another major cause of money problems. If you know that your current salary or income is way below your total budget of basic needs, DO SOMETHING to supplement your income. Getting a loan is not a permanent solution because the following month, your problems will be compounded as you will have to repay the loan and finance your recurrent budget for basic needs with much less money than you had the previous month. Many people think the only way to earn money is through a salary, but this is wrong. Most jobs demand that you work eight or ten hours. That leaves you with at least fourteen hours. If you sleep seven hours, that gives you another seven hours to do something productive. Spare at least four hours each day to do your private income generating activities. Inability to say “NO” when your resources cannot afford to spend or give is probably one of the most common causes of money problems for many people. There will always be people with needs around you. Jesus even said, “the poor you shall always have”. So never think you are the “savior” to all the people you meet with monetary needs. If your resources cannot permit you to spend or give, learn to say “NO”. People will always misunderstand you, but listen, once your financial position improves, you will be in a better position to help people. I got a revelation from air hostesses. The cabin staff explain about oxygen masks that will fall from ‘above’ in the unlikely event of loss of cabin oxygen. Then they issue a serious warning: “Make sure your own oxygen mask is fitted securely BEFORE attempting to assist others”. Most of us are struggling financially because we are too busy trying to assist others before “our own financial oxygen masks” are fitted securely. This is why we are “dying together with those we want to assist”. Learn to say “NO” if your financial survival is in jeopardy. (to be continued)
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 09:19:30 +0000
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