Wish I knew this about money 😬

Do you want to be financially prosperous?

Ever find yourself being jealous over what someone else has?

I have.

Jealousy and coveting what our “neighbor” has is a miserable end. Yet, that mentality runs rampant in our society.

In the next few minutes, I will lay out principles I wish I had known about financial prosperity.

Prosperity is thriving. And I believe it’s closer than you think.

Today, I won’t talk about increasing income or building wealth (although that could become a byproduct).

Instead, I want to talk about the money we already have and the psychological and philosophical aspects of how we manage it.

First, I want to establish two essential thoughts.

1. “Don’t wear yourself out getting rich.” (Prov. 23:4)

2. “Don’t love money.” (1 Tim. 6:10)

My experience has taught me that there are two positions we can have concerning money.

#1. You can be its steward.
#2. You can be its slave.

If you are the steward of your money, you rule over it.

If you are a slave to your money, you are ruled over.

Stewardship frame:
You operate from abundance and sufficiency
You aren’t worried about getting more
You’re generous with it

Slavery frame:
You operate from lack and insufficiency
You’re worried about never having enough
You’ll try and get as much as you can as fast as you can

10 Principles for Financial Prosperity:

1. Set pre-determined investing rules.

• When I first started to invest, I didn’t have rules. I had assumptions that everything would go right.

• The problem with not having rules is ego and bias.

• Inflated ego and bias don’t want to be wrong.

2. Set pre-determined spending rules.

• Spend less than you make.

• Establish your reserves.

• Consider the 80-10-10 rule.

• Don’t worry about the Joneses.

3. Create a personal board of advisors.

• Establish your board to help you with #1 and #2 above.

• Stay accountable in your investing and spending.

• Get help from your board to create your rules.

4. Operate an up-to-date P&L.

• Understand and know your important numbers at all times.

• How much are you making, spending, and investing?

5. Operate an up-to-date personal P&L.

• Do you know your bottom line?

• Track what’s coming in and going out, and operate according to your rules above.

6. Don’t avoid any financial obligations.

• Taxes (ugh 🤣).

• Any payables.

• Credit card payments.

• What are you avoiding financially? Face the facts and take care of business.

• Avoidance doesn’t keep you safe (which is why we do it).

7. Live from contentment.

• Joy is discovered in realizing you don’t need more than you need.

• Contentment is something most rich people haven’t experienced.

• “More” will never fill you.

8. Don’t make purchases to support an identity gap.

• Purchasing something to secure a status level is ineffective. It never satisfies.

• Millionaires and billionaires are often still insecure and feel unloved. Why?

9. Be generous with your finances.

• It’s better to give than to receive.

• Give not to be loved or expect anything in return.

• Give at least 10% of your earnings to a good cause.

10. Slow and steady wins the race.

• Don’t worry about how “slow” you’re going.

• Instead, It’s more important that you’re doing what you enjoy.

• Instead, having holistic health (marriage, kids, emotions, physical, spirituality, etc.) is more important.

• Most people you’re comparing yourself to have problems you don’t want.

• Good things take time.

I’m in the process of practicing what I preach.

I’m minimalizing my life; everything that encumbers me must go. I’m selling things that don’t align with my values or that I don’t need anymore (I’ll be talking about this in more detail soon).

I will no longer own things for what they represent.

I want to live entirely (personally) debt-free. To me, that’s true freedom.

Prosperity does not require much to be successful. It also means having the time and space to be with those I care about.

When you seriously consider it, you might be closer to that position than you think.

What do you think?
Is there anything I missed?
What would you add?

I’d love to hear from you.

Much love,

Chris