Still Thinking That Wealth is in How Much You Make? Think Again.

Many people still think that more money is the solution.  

A solution for finding their happiness, (who convinced them that it was lost?) or for ending their financial challenges.

Sadly, as many lotto winners can attest, money is not a cure for all that ails you.

When it comes to financial challenges, the critical thing, as Robert Kiyosaki wrote in his book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", is not how much money we make, its how much money we keep.  To help illustrate the idea, let's imagine the following scenario:

The ballad of Chuck and Jet...

Imagine that we have two guys, an American guy working for $1000 dollars a month, and a Chinese guy working for, say $500 a month.  

Every month Jet Li lives on $400 dollars and saves $100. Chuck Norris, on the other hand, spends about $1100 a month. (Chuck has well paying job, so the Bank generously gave him a credit card with a $2000 limit, and the minimum payment is so affordable.) So imagine that this pattern continues unchanged for the next year. How are Jet and Chuck doing financially now?

Jet is still living on $400 dollars a month, but he has $1200 dollars put away in savings. Chuck's salary is $1000, his monthly expenses are $1100, he has no savings, but he does have a basic credit card debt of $1200 dollars.

That's not even considering the 24% interest that Chuck's Bank has kindly charged him on his card balance.
For simplicity's sake, let's call that another $288 dollars. (24% of $1200) So Chuck's total debt is about $1488, we'll round that up to $1500 dollars flat...
Now imagine, if you will, that there is a recession that results in both Jet and Chuck losing their jobs.

With $400 dollars a month in expenses, Jet Li can live off of his $1200 in savings for the next 3 months, while he looks for a new job. Possibly longer, with some belt tightening. 

What about Chuck?

With his last paycheck, Chuck would not be able to survive the month.  His $1000 Salary doesn't cover his current expenses, and he also has the Bank at his door for their money too.  And savings?  Zip, zero, nada, not a black cent. Chuck now faces major financial problems, even though he was making twice Jet Li's salary for the last twelve months.

Why? Maybe because Jet had lived within what he could afford. He had established the habit of consistently spending less than he earned.

Can our minds find all sorts of reasons and justifications why we can't spend less? Of course it can. 

To counter that, we need to take a step back, and take some time to closely examine some of those reasons. Challenge whether those justifications make logical sense.

Are they based on the facts? Or are we being driven by emotions, wants, desires and 'have-to's?  If the answer is yes, what we have there is not a financial problem...that's faulty thinking.  Until we get our minds right, even winning the lottery won't help us.

"The Quickest way to DOUBLE your money is to fold it over, and put it BACK IN YOUR POCKET" - Will Rogers 

Anyways, that's our BS. It's your choice, do you wanna be Chuck Norris or Jet Li?

Leave us a comment below and tell us your thoughts!