Five Things to Know to Make Your Money Grow
Earning money is a skill; this is why some people are good at it and others aren’t. Money management takes a lot of time, energy, and attention because money is how we trade value. Money can create stress; it can also create moments of happiness. While money doesn't ultimately buy happiness, not worrying about money can help reduce a lot of stress that you spend a lot of time and energy on.
Money is one of the things that you need to have clarity and balance on in order to thrive and live life on YOUR terms, so here are five things about managing money that aren’t taught in school.
#1 Earned Money Isn’t All YOUR Money
Money you earn isn’t all the money you have. When you’re starting in the workforce or in entrepreneurship, and you get your check, it feels great! Then you realize that a large portion of your check is gone because of taxes. One thing that isn’t always clear is how taxation works for entrepreneurs and how to benefit from understanding how it works. Five Things to Know to Make Your Money Grow
Nobody teaches you these things, and you can end up overpaying if you don’t learn them. You can go to Legal Zoom or find business programs and learn these skills from lawyers and accountants. Or you can hire an accountant who really explains things; it can certainly be a full-time job to do it yourself.
It's important to understand where your money is coming from, where it’s going, how it’s being paid, how it’s being spent, and how to preserve the most you can for yourself.
#2 Money-Earning Skills Aren’t Taught In Schools
You can look at earning money or generating business as a real-life game. You have a certain number of XP (experience points) and when you earn more, you level up. When you get to that first level, working up the corporate ladder... you may realize you can create your own job, and not have a ladder.
From there you may realize you can create jobs for other people, create more value, and reach a broader marketplace to make more money. These are different levels in the game of earning money, and each one requires a certain level of experience, which no one teaches in school.
#3 Be a Creator, Not a Consumer
One of the best ways that you can level up your money-making skills is by spending your time creating rather than consuming. When you open your laptop and you're looking through the internet, are you consuming things? Are you reading blog articles, watching TV shows, watching TikTok, etc? Or are you there to create, work, research, and develop something of value that you can offer to society? This is one of the baselines that allows you to switch from not having enough money to having more than enough.
#4 Remember That Money Stores Energy
What money has evolved to today is a storage of energy. If you work a job or create a product, you put a lot of energy into it, and you're transferring the energy into monetary notes of value.
Just like a seed that contains energy, money can be planted to grow. Most people are taught that money is to be used; use it to buy consumer goods, housing, entertainment, etc. But money can also be a seed that you can grow to bear more fruit. The problem is most people aren’t taught this and don’t know how to garden with money seeds.
#5 You Have to Say “no” A LOT
Lastly, having money means saying NO a lot more. This circles back to minimalism and stoicism. You must be diligent in assessing what really adds value to your life, and what is worth that transfer of energy.
You should absolutely enjoy the fruits of your labor, but you shouldn't eat all the fruit that you have. If you’re worried that you're not going to have enough fruit in the long run, then it's time to really buckle down and identify what adds value for you.
The more you can implement these tips, the more you will be able to appreciate the life that's in front of you. If you identify what adds value and stop spending time and wasting money on things that you couldn't care less about, the more money and fulfillment you will have!