Ways to Become Richer

I always am informed by my friends who keep complaining about money not enough. They are living in a life of paycheck to paycheck. Their happiest day of the month is the pay day and their face turn sour two weeks later. They blame employer, company policy, inflation, taxation etc in order to express their dissatisfaction.



Meanwhile, I attempt to explain to them the importance of money management skill so that they will be able to control their money but not vice versa. Sadly to say that they just give whatever excuses or reasons they can think of in order to allow them to live the same old way they want. For them, money management is totally redundant as they have no money to manage. As for my point of view, we have to see this problem from the other angle. That is, why you have no money to manage.

Based on my years of observation, following are some pitfalls I detected that keep people poor and poorer.

1. Don’t know where your money goes – As most people don’t keep track of their spending, they do know where they did spend. More often than not, they spend more on wants than needs which is a total disaster. One of the reasons for them to do that might be to impress others. What a waste.
2. Don’t have budget – Budget is a good guide on your expenses. It is your spending plan. Without budget will lead you to no way. Just like a traveler without a road map.
3. Don’t pay yourself first – This is the cruelest way you treat yourself. The meaning of pay yourself first meaning that you should save a percentage of your take home income first before any spending. The purpose of this savings is to create emergency buffer or investment. It means you are creating future security for yourself. If you don’t do that, good luck.
4. Lack of self-discipline – This is an extreme critical pitfall. You will fail even though you have budget to follow because of this pitfall. It can be explained in terms of lack of strong DESIRE. A strong DESIRE is mandatory to create strong SIGNAL to your SUBCONSCIOUS MIND so that it can generate FORCE to action. Please note that your SUBCONSCIOUS MIND will not respond on weak SIGNAL.
5. Not invest early – People who have mind of enjoy first should beware. Compounding effect is the most powerful tool in financial world. The only requirement for this is time. More time is given, more impressive return can be generated. In other words, if you enjoy first, you are not only wasting your money, also your time.
6. No control over debt – The debt here means “bad debt”, especially consumer debt. We should avoid it forever. Please refer to my previous post on “Debt – a Tool or a Woe”
7. No goal – It is impossible to have goal without DESIRE. Your goal must be REALISTIC and SPECIFIC. Say you have a DESIRE to visit Italy within next 5 years. So, your goal will be to have $10,000 travel fund to visit Italy by the end of year 2015. With this GOAL in mind, you are telling you SUBCONSCIOUS MIND to generate action plan. This is how GOAL works.
8. Lazy and close minded – A person’s potential can only be developed when he/she willing to step outside their COMFORT ZONE. Only when he/she is outside the COMFORT ZONE, the uncomfortable feeling will force you to grow until the new areas become part of your COMFORT ZONE. This can only be done through aggressive learning with open mind.
9. Not having frugal life – It is different from stingy. Being frugal spend on necessities only. Any want will be gratified.

So, check yourself whether you have inherited these pitfalls. If so, rectify it at no time. Your bright future is waiting for you.