Why you are still financially unhappy right now?

Whether you are trying to make ends meet living life from paycheck to paycheck or living life like you're attached to a time bomb of debts, you're definitely making wrong financial decisions which need to change A.S.A.P.

Below are some tips on how to reverse your fortunes when it comes to money making you happy in life instead of getting stressed always with your financial problems.

1.) Get rid of credit cards.

2.) Calculate monthly expenses and get rid of unnecessary expenses. Make sure there is an excess.

3.) Get rid of liabilities or avoid them. If you're a couple and just got married and you don't have any savings, you might want to postpone making a baby. Having a baby in this case will be an added financial responsibility. It's better if you can put yourselves in financial stability before adding another financial responsibility.

4.) Invest on insurance. A lot of filipinos doesn't know how important an insurance is in building ones financial portfolio. Many of us have heard stories of properties, cars getting sold because our family member got hospitalized.

5.) Educate yourself financially. This is very important. We would often say "if I only knew that my life would have been better" but we never ask ourselves if we really tried our best to search for ways to better our financial situation in life. Enough of those "bahala na si batman" attitude.

6.) Stop procrastinating and take action.

The Story of the Father and Son and their Carabao

One day a man who lived in the outskirts of the Cebu province was going to market with his son and his carabao. They met a couple on the way.

“Why walk when you have a carabao to ride?” called out the husband, “seat the boy on the carabao.”

“I would like that,” said the boy, “help me up, father.” And the father did that willingly.

Soon they met another couple in the sari-sari store. “How shameful of you!” cried the woman to the boy, “Let your father ride; won’t he be tired?”

So, the boy got down and the father rode the carabao. Again they marched on.

“Poor boy,” said the next person they met, “why should the sluggish father ride while his son is walking?”

So, the boy got onto the carabao, too. As they went on, they met some foreign travellers. “How cruel of them! They are up to kill the poor carabao,” cried one of the travellers.

Hearing this, the father and the son got down. Now they decided to carry the carabao on their shoulders. As they did so, the travellers broke into laughter.

The laughter frightened the carabao. It broke free and ran away.

Moral of the Story: You cannot please everyone.

(Source: http://www.philstar.com:8080/cebu-lifestyle/2014/06/01/1329764/man-and-his-carabao)
(Original: http://www.kidsgen.com/moral_stories/you_cannot_please_everyone.htm) 

Sharing my thoughts:

Everyone will have their own opinions about what they see in you. 

We live in a society where behavior is mostly dictated by the media. We try to conform on what we see on TV or what we see in social media (e.g. facebook) without realizing whether our actions are aligned to our values and principles in life.

No matter what you do or how you do it, people will have something to say about it. Some are bad and some will be good. But the bottom line is people will always have things to say. It's up to you if you let it affect you or not. You cannot please everybody however you can please yourself.

So get out and enjoy life to the fullest. Live each day like it's your last day but make sure that you do things you want to do in life and not from the expectations of other people and be smart with your decisions.  What's important is you're happy and you don't step on someone else's toes in whatever you do. 

We can associate this to investing and peer pressure in a way that even we know how important investing is to better our financial standing in life and yet not even the majority does it. 

Majority of our friends and families wouldn't understand us if we take action and invest for our future. But as long as we know that what we are doing is right and we don't harm other people in what we do, then that's all that matters. We don't have to be bothered with what other people would say about us. 

We don't please anyone. We only please ourselves.

Poor Mindset VS Rich Mindset

The big difference between the poor and the rich is actually their mindset.

Even if you are poor but you have a rich mindset you will prosper in life. That's what my mentor would always say. And I truly believe in it. Are people born with this mindset? I don't think so. It can be learned but the trick is you have to want it. This desire to learn will open up opportunities for you. You grab those opportunities. You open your mind to learning and you'll see yourself attending seminars and learn from people you want to emulate. You surround yourself with positive wealthy people or people that are in the same journey like yours. And next thing you know is that you become like them. This is how I cultivate my own rich mindset. It doesn't happen overnight. I had to attend tons of seminars year after year. I was open to new learnings. Slowly I was becoming like them.

Let me share with you behaviors I observed from people that have poor and rich mindset.

Poor Minded People

1.) They are financially illiterate.

2.) They are comfortable where they are in life. They just continue to do the same mundane things over and over again expecting a different result.

3.) They see money as a means to reward their selves or to make them happy.

4.) They have bad debt or they're having a hard time to eliminate their bad debt.

5.) They love to practice instant gratification. They upgrade with the latest gadgets, cars and go for travel even though they don't have any emergency fund or life insurance or debt is not yet fully paid. They upgrade their lifestyle every time their salary increased.

Rich Minded People

1.) They understand financial management is vital in one person's life because they know that finances properly handled also positively affects other areas of your life and responsibility is also lessened when you know how to handle your finances.

2.) They have that burning desire to prosper in life may it be to achieve financial freedom, tremendous wealth or anything like that. This desire keeps them open minded for learning new things and to the opportunities that come their way. This desire pushes them out of their comfort zone to try new things that will lead them to achieve their goals.

3.) They see money as the storage of their time value. Our employers buys our time through the form of a paycheck or salary. A rich mindset understands that if we spend all our time value (paycheck) we will never get it back because time lost is irreplaceable. This is the reason the rich mindset saves and invests.

4.) They have zero bad debt.

5.) They delay instant gratification knowing that greater things will come for those who wait.

There you go! Be sure not to follow what poor minded people do. A poor minded person will never get out of the rat race cycle. Turn yourself into a rich minded person and soon you will become one.