Its a Mind Thing

Proverbs 17:16
Of what use is money in the hand of a fool,
since he has no desire to get wisdom?

"What's the difference between rich folks and poor folks?"

That's generally the first question I ask in my financial literacy classes. 80% of the audience screams "MONEY!" as the number one answer; 15% muster up a few answers that never make any sense whatsoever to me (SMILE); 3-5% answer correctly and those that don't answer at all are usually only there because their wife made them come!

In my opinion, the only difference between rich people and NOT rich people is the mindset towards money. Its the way we process or think about what money really is (a tool) and how we can use it to work for us (leverage). There are some experiences that we've all had in life, generally as a child, that have shaped the way we relate to money. I categorize them as:

1. verbal influences - what we heard
2. modeling - what we saw; and
3. specific incidents - an experience we lived through

Although we may believe we want to be wealthy, one of these three are creating unsupportive memories that live in our subconscious and cause us to act in the exact opposite way of the behavior that would bring about that goal.

Think about lottery winners, sports figures or entertainers. How often do we hear about these three groups of people going broke and/or filing bankruptcy? Quite often, right? Contrary to what 80% of class attendees initially believe, having the money at your disposal has nothing to do with who ultimately maintains wealth. Many people have had millions slip right through their finger tips because they did not change their mindsets about money. The same bad decisions that were made with modest salaries, ended up just being bad decisions with larger sums of money. Its a mind thing. Make a decision to change your mind towards money today. If you win the lottery this year, at least you'll already be ready!


Seek Wisdom, Find Wealth & Be Blessed!