Bless the Money that you Spend

Did you ever receive a birthday card from a loved one with money in it and a short note wishing you good health and happiness?

Do you often frequent stores that give you small gifts when you make purchases of one kind or another?

Whether done consciously or unconsciously by the givers of these gifts, their acts of associating money with good wishes and gifts are the ABC’s of the attracting prosperity; these are the ABC’s of the Law of Prosperity.

The money and good wishes that you received with the birthday card, made you feel great and maybe you bought something with that money that added to your personal wealth (and happiness) and added to the vendor’s financial wealth. Or maybe you invested that money and the initial amount invested increased in value.

And

The store that you frequent because of its generosity is actually increasing its business because you and other like you want to return and make more purchases. We all like the warm feeling associated with receiving gifts and being appreciated.

Generally, when people think or pray for money and prosperity, they direct their thoughts on receiving money. We would like to suggest that you also focus your attention to the money that you spend as a way of creating prosperity; Bless rather than curse or resent the money you have to pay others; bless rather than curse or resent the recipients of that money.

This is not an easy task since our automatic, subconscious response is to resent our bills or the “hard earned” money we must give to others. How many times have you cursed the taxes authorities or your mortgage broker? If we stick to the theory of “what comes around goes around”, then if we send out thoughts of resentment, anger, jealousy and suspicion we will draw back to ourselves more of the same (resentment, anger jealousy and suspicion).

One of the ways that you can attract prosperity is to give respect to paying bills. Schedule a time to do it. Do it in a pleasant and confortable environment. Pay your bills with thanks and gratitude to all those who supplied you with goods and services. Every time you pay your mortgage, see it as a blessing on your home. Treat your taxes as a way of supporting and blessing all those who use the services that are created with that money.

Whatever you give or put out there, returns to you tenfold.

Why do all girls hang up on me?

This is a subject that I have wanted to address for a long time but because it is not directly related to money, I have been putting it off, but I can’t put it off any longer because I think about it all the time.

First a little background: My children are of the age where they have cell phones and their friends call them directly on their cell phones (the monthly expense of each phone is calculated and managed well within our budget – this is not the subject). Sometime when one of their phones ring and they are not in the area, I answer. When it is a boy who is calling, he is usually polite, says “hello” and asks to speak with one of my kids. When it’s a girl, she hangs up!

Why?! What is it in our cultural climate that causes the girls to hang up? I’m a girl. Was I like that?

Now, my kids are both male and female, so you can’t say that the girls are embarrassed to ask for the boys – this is not the case (and in addition, even though they usually are, they shouldn’t be).

Beside that fact that it is unpleasant to have someone hang up on you, I write about this because I am truly concerned. I really want these girls to grow up and dare to have challenging goals and be confident that they can achieve them. Not that this kind of automatic reaction dictates that they won’t, but…

I think that we should encourage confidence and assertiveness in our children – boys and girls alike.

I think that they should be ready for little and big “surprises” and know how to react quickly and confidently – boys and girls alike.

I see that even at a young age, the boys are already confident and assertive – they are already there - with no special effort. It’s the girls that need to work on it (and unfortunately it is work and not natural).

I wish that these girls were confident enough to know that they have a right to call their friends and that they were assertive enough to ask their rights.

A person’s rights come in all sizes and forms. The right to speak your mind or speak to someone (anyone) or ask for things that you want or learn things that you want or even manage your own money…

Girls ! Don’t hang up! Ask for what you want. The worse thing that could happen is that you get it J

Mindy

To stare temptation in the eye

How do we do it? How to we stare down temptation. This is not an easy feat and there is no easy solution.

This morning I went to a networking meeting with Biz Makes Biz. There were a lot of participants and there were quite a few who bought with them wonderful products for sale. The ones that most tempted me were the “thinking games” for children, the glass jewelry and the accessories for giving massages. There were other products there for sale, but thankfully, not all tempted me as the ones that I mentioned above.

Why did those three products temp me so much? Well, I will start with the thinking games. I love thinking games and my kids have a closet filled with them and believe it or not we do play with them. I was never one for pretend but offer me to play a board / thinking game – I am in and even though my children are not that young anymore, we find ourselves sitting down to play a game a couple of times a week.

The jewelry tempted me on a less emotional level but still I felt a strong need. My son is in the 6^th grade and the Bat Mitzvah celebrations have begun. The mode today is to give money. My son insists that we give money, but I would prefer to give a present. I think that a present is more personal and will have more meaning an use for the Bat Mitzvah girl. Money, at best, gets put in the bank for a later date and in many cases is used to pay for the extravagant production. Also when giving money there is a feeling of competition – “how much did you give” becomes the question of the day and sometime “how much did you get” is the second question. Not for me. I have been looking for a nice piece of Jewelry, which fits into our "Bat Mitzvah budget” and I think I have finally found something to fit the bill.

The other products that tempted me were the accessories for massages. The developer of these products demonstration one on me and it was great. With very little physical effort, I got a great massage!

I had a real problem. The temptation was great. All the more so because each item had a strong connection with my values – education, family and loving myself So what could I do to face the temptation?

First, take a step back and think! No purchase needs to be made immediately. Speak with the sales person, collect information on the product and the price, thank the sales person and then go sit with myself for a couple of minutes and ask myself if I really need the product? If the answer is yes then the next question I should ask myself is if I have the budget for it – was the planned for. If the answer is yes, then I can go for it! Easy, huh?

What should I do if the answer is NO? Meaning either I do not need it but really want it or I need it but it is not within my budget? Here, the answer is easy, too, but it requires discipline. I should start saving for it. It may require that I do a little shuffling of the budget for the next month or two (or three, depending). If I REALY want it then shuffling will be worth it.

There are 2 other possibilities: 1. I might realize that it is not really worth it and that I do not want it as much as I thought, or 2. I might find a substitute that meets my needs to the same (or better) extent and is more economical.

Well, what do you think that I did in the face of such temptation?

Mindy

How to decide on what to spend your hard earned money

Your buying options are endless and there are so many pushes and pulls! Industry spends so much on advertising, some direct and some subliminal, and there is NO way NOT to be influenced. And if you manage to maintain some level of discipline, you can’t guarantee that those in our family will. Ever heard of the children’s book "The Bernstein Bears Get the Gimme’s"? Well, I know that my little bears get the gimme’s all the time and it is not so easy or pleasant to be the one to say "no". More than that, maybe you do not want to be that kind of person. Maybe you want to be able to get yourself and your family whatever they want as long as it is within reason.

OK. So the first thing to do is to determine what is within reason and what your limits are. You can look for the answers in your monthly budget. How much disposable income is left over after all your fixed expenses are paid for? Also, you should include a category in your budget for purchases that you want to make "Just Because".

Once you determine how much you have to spend, you can then focus on priorities.

Deciding on priorities is easy: Determine if the item is NEEDED or WANTED. A NEEDED item is one that you can’t manage without and a WANTED item is one that is "Nice to Have" or "Just Because. Of course, the items that are NEEDED have a higher priority than those that are just nice to have.

Once you have determined that the item is NEEDED, then check if there is an alternative. An alternate can be a different item that has the same function or the same item by a different manufacturer or supplier. Always look for the best deals with the best quality for price ratio (a lot of times something cheap turns out to be quite expensive in the long run) – but don’t spend too much time exploring your options. Time is money, too.

If you determined that the item is "Nice to Have", then check how much money you budgeted in the "Nice to Have" category of your budget. If you have enough money then go for it, but remember that if you do buy it, you may not have enough money left over in that category to buy something else that is "Nice to Have". What are the opportunity costs for spending now? Is it worth it?

It may seem as if this is time consuming process, however it’s not. Mostly the matter is solved as soon as you ask yourself if the item is NEEDED or WANTED.

Happy spending!

Mindy

Why is the monthly budget so important?

Why do we need to be so detailed and log all our income and expenses? Isn’t it enough that we know how much we earn and control spending?

No, it is not enough. Knowing what we earn and controlling spending does not take into consideration future spending, periodic expenses, unexpected expenses (although there is no such thing as unexpected expenses since ALL expenses can be forecasted), future plans, goals and dreams. If we do not plan and manage a budget, but only control spending, once any of these future expenses come into play, we will not have enough disposable income to cover them and we may be forced to either give up on our plans or go into debt – psychologically, going into debt is much easier, also practically it is much easier because the bank can be very generous with its money since the payback is big.

Not fulfilling our plans and dreams is a much more difficult proposition. What? We’re not going to take that family vacation to Europe? What? Not trade in our 3 bedroom apartment for a beautiful house with a yard? What? Not drive around in a brand new Jeep or SUV? No way! Not after we have invested so much! So much time and money and sacrifice! No, we want something to show for all our hard work! We want all those around us to know that we have succeeded and that we are "movin on up".

When these emotions start welling up, it is very difficult to take a moment and think about the consequences: About the insidiousness of debt and it ever growing nature. True, we accomplish our plans but at what price? Not only are there the associated bank charges and interest, but now that we have debt, we have less disposable income to pay for the everyday things that we used to be able to manage just by "controlling spending".

If we have a budget, we know exactly what our current expenses are; we know for what future expenses we are saving and when the cash will be available. Trip to Europe – budgeted and the funds WILL be available next summer. New car - No problem. Every 5 years like clockwork. We will be prepared for those "unexpected expenses" like repairing or replacing your refrigerator or car or TV and we will be able to support ourselves when we retire. Knowledge is Power.

Planning and managing a budget gives us the ability to set priorities on our spending. Putting top priority things first (including future plans) and getting rid of the waste.

Our money is hard earned and limited so we must use it wisely.

We need to control our money and not have our money control us!

Mindy

The Insidiousness of Overdraft and Debt

It has been a long time since I wrote a post and I apologize for that. So much has been happening around the launch of our new course that I just couldn’t get my head around it. But now I am back and I want to share some thoughts with you about overdraft and debt.

They both are so sneaky! They seem as though they are your best friends, but really they are your worst enemy – almost like a drug – you become addicted – you just can’t get away from them, as much as you want to. The temptation is too strong, the feeling is too good!

We all want to buy new and pretty things. We all want the little (and big) pleasures in life and the easiest and fastest way to get them is by taking money from the bank – and the bank gives it to us so generously. “It is only temporary. “Soon I will be making or coming into more money and I will return ALL the money to the bank”. “I am already in debt so what’s a little more” we say to ourselves. The cycle is endless and the debt only gets bigger.

The pressure grows. We don’t make more money, or we do, but our expenses increase as well. We don’t come into the windfall that we expected, or we do, but it is not the amount that we expected or Big Brother has eaten up half.

The stress begins to get to us. Headaches, indigestion, blood pressure raises, can’t sleep well at night. More and more fights about money and priorities with you partner, you kids, your parents. There’s additional stress at work – now you’re stuck – like it or not, your continued salary is your goal and job satisfaction goes out the window.

As I go on, the situation sounds more and more like that of an addict. Scary! How did we get to this horrible place? How do we get out of it?!

The answer is as simple as it is hard – go cold turkey! Just like with drugs. You stop. No. It is not easy. Withdrawal is not easy, but it is the only way.

Stop spending more than you earn! Learn the proven rules of good money management, join a support group (Over Spenders Anonymous - :-)) and get a financial education!

Healthy Finances is your “Over Spenders Anonymous” you just need to be ready to make the change.

Withdrawal is not easy, but with the right tools and support, it can be done.

Mindy