Money Isn’t The Problem; It’s YOU

When I was a kid, I read ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ as a bedtime story. We had a library in our room. Two shelves stacked double-layered with books. On top of that, we had more books in our wardrobe, in case of emergencies.

My mother would go to second-hand stores and buy them all for the equivalent of about $1 or $2 each and then return them after we were finished with them. We read voraciously, my little brother and me.

And by we read voraciously, I mean I read voraciously; he slept. My biggest concern at that time of my life was being caught going to the bathroom at 3 or 4 in the morning in case my parents found out I’d been reading on a school night.

But I learned a few things from that book. Firstly, do not try to mint coins out of old toothpaste tubes. Robert Kiyosaki tried it, and it doesn't’ work. And God knows that guy would try anything.

Aside from his current Multi-Level Marketing schemes, which I will not go into, Robert Kiyosaki’s main message is that most people like spending money. They do not like investing money.

So how did that apply to me? First, I noticed my own spending patterns. This might be familiar to some people. I had already started helping in a bar, and I was being paid for it. I was paid $20 per day, and soon that added up. I noticed that if I ever got over a $100 net worth, my mind would explode with dopamine. Not because I had the money, but because of all the things I could BUY.

I suddenly noticed a DEMAND in my life for things I didn’t need before. Your mind bases your needs and wants on what it thinks you can afford. Obviously, this doesn’t mean food and that. You’ll need those anyway. I’m saying that when you have money, your mind seeks to bridge that gap between you and empty pockets by making you feel good about the things you buy.

Surely, they’ll raise your social status. These football cleats are the best on the market. I already have three of them.

So you go and buy things, and suddenly, you don’t have any money, and the things you bought lay forgotten the next month when you buy new things.

It’s not consumerism. I don’t blame the advertising industry or the Freemasons for my problems. I think it’s a natural human instinct to want more.

This problem was compounded as I got older. When I got my first corporate job, I started being paid a lot more. I suddenly had thousands to spend. The first time I had that amount of money, I called a Self Help company and paid for a product that my mom had purchased and not finished paying for… 2 years ago. They had forgotten about it, so had we, and the company usually had to give many refunds, so they were used to customers not paying the full amount. I felt like I had done a good deed. And I had. And now I had empty pockets, which was what my subconscious was most happy about.

Next, I tried to advertise for a company called SFM. I don’t particularly care for them. I had again built up my net worth to over a grand. In the back of my mind, a little voice yelled, “YOU HAVE MONEY,” so I got careless and let all my Google Ads run unlimited. It was my first night trying them out. That night, I ran up a bill of $1,500. I felt like an anvil had fallen on top of my head and flattened me into a pancake. (I was depressed at the time, but I still couldn’t help thinking cartoon imagery)

SO GUESS WHAT! It’s not that easy to curb your spending and be wise about your financial transactions. It’s just not!

So do I continue to live like this for the rest of my life… having money and then blowing it?

Here’s what I did. I was going to Business College at the time. It was the best in the country. I had learned about investing in stocks, which I by no means endorse or recommend to you. (I was surprised to find out that Tony Robbins trades stocks, by the way)

I also brushed up on that Self Help course that my mom had purchased 2 years ago and started trading. For me, it went well.

I noticed that once I invested my money into something, I didn’t feel like I had money to blow anymore. AND NO, I DON’T RECOMMEND YOU BUY CRYPTO. For a few people to become millionaires, hundreds of thousands of people had to lose money…

Invest that money into your business, your email list, your farm, your garden. I don’t know. All I know is, it’s not enough to just avoid liabilities like cars, boats, planes like Rich Dad/ Robert Kiyosaki said. It’s not enough to hoard it, which is what I tried doing. If you try to save and find you can’t, try to put it to use in such a way so that you can see returns — I learned that from ‘The Richest Man In Babylon.’ Otherwise, you’ll just blow it frivolously. Or that’s what I did.

So the only way to break the cycle of having money and then not having it is to put it to use.

“Confuse not the necessary expenses with thy desires.” ― George S. Clason, The Richest Man in Babylon

So if you feel like blowing your money, invest it. That’s how you can make your gold coins have babies and grandchildren etc. — that’s a bad paraphrase from ‘The Richest Man In Babylon.’

By the way, when my mother returned the books, as I mentioned at the start, she didn’t do it for anything in return. She gave them back to charity shops.

Have a nice day.

This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.