Why do some people feel the need to tell others what to do with their money? I see it all the time on Facebook. Someone is reported to have won the lottery and in the comments are people acting all concerned, telling the winners what to do.
“Help the poor”
“Donate the money to church”
“Do not forget the people who helped you”
Noble and holy as all these suggestions might appear, anybody who understands money moderately well can easily see through the dishonesty in these suggestions because anybody who really understands what money is, will know that it is too valuable to just throw around, regardless of how good our intentions are.
Secondly, the effort that it takes to make and keep money, is such a long process that it is offensive to see the entitlement that other people have over another person’s money. To make money and to keep it takes a complete exertion of one’s mental, physical and emotional energies. It takes complete change of character and mindset to actually be able to save money, and multiply it.
Interestingly, the character required to keep money is quite different from the character required to multiply it. That is why you can find someone who knows how to keep money but does not know how to multiply it in much the same way you find someone that knows how to multiply money but can hardly keep it. I am the former. I can keep money but can hardly invest it to make more yet there are people I know who have business savvy but are hardly able to keep their money. Then there are those who I know who are able to do both. These are the people I want to learn from.
That these two scenarios exist means that the dynamics of money are a lot more complex or easier than we might know, depending on where you are in your understanding of money. On the surface, it looks like it is just about money but anybody who has worked to get their financial life together knows that it is more than just money, but a complete adjustment of one’s character; a call to be better.
For many people, the decision to “Help the poor”, “Donate money to church” or to “remember the people who helped you” is a decision that derives from fear. It is in a deep rooted fear of the opinions of others and fear to be called “selfish” “mean” or “evil”
If this indeed were true, is it any holier to sacrifice your own well-being to meet another person’s financial burden? To literally pull food from out of your children’s mouth to do the same?
To carry on others’ financial burdens on your own broken financial life is akin to running with a broken leg. It only makes things worse for you. You can never fix your broken financial life by continuing to carry on others’ financial burdens.
Just like you need complete rest for a broken leg to heal, you need to cut out unnecessary financial obligations for your financial life to slowly rebuild. Money operates on principles, the most basic of which is saving. If it is all going out of your pocket, it does not stay to accumulate.
Kind regards,
Anna Grace.
