Respect your money

I recently finished reading “The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom” by Suze Orman. One of the steps that she mentioned in the book is being respectful of yourself and your money. I’ve heard this phrase many times before but Suze explained it in a very simplistic way. According to Suze, one of the laws of financial freedom is that respect attracts money and disrespect repels money. If we don’t respect our money, we will never have financial success in life. This is the primary reason why the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. This is a similar concept behind what you focus on expands.

So ask yourself this: Why do you want more money in your life?

Is it because you want to show off your money by buying expensive “toys”?
Is it because you want to make other people jealous of your life?
Is it because you want to keep up with your neighbours?

Imagine growing a fruit tree. Ask any farmers, they’ll tell you that in order to produce tasty fruits, you will need a fruit tree with healthy roots. To do that, you need to provide the fruit tree with good soil, good nutrients, clean water, sunshine, and a lot of caring. Without any of these, you cannot produce tasty fruits year after year.

Your financial successes are like the fruits from a fruit tree. You grow your financial successes on your financial tree. You are fueling your financial tree with reasons why you want to be financially successful. If the reason why you want to be financially successful is scarcity, fear, or anger, these reasons will show up in your fruits, resulting in no financial success or only momentary financial success. You will never able to achieve sustained financial success if you think this way. Your motivation for being financially successful should be based on purposes and joy rather than fear, anger, or proving to other people.

Perhaps you want to be financially successful so you can pursuit in non-profit works to help people in your community.
Perhaps you want to be financially successful so you can leave a legacy once you’re no longer in this world.
Perhaps you want to be financially successful so you can spend more time with people that you care and love.

We all live in a physical dimension but often we fail to realize that there is so much more out there than what we can see and touch. Our physical dimension cannot exist without mental, emotional, and spiritual parts. Our physical part is like the tip of an iceberg sticking out of the water. Underneath, there is a giant mass that we cannot see. The tip of an iceberg cannot exist without what is underneath. Similarly, how we think about money, how we feel about money, and how we rationalize about money will shape how money is presented in our physical dimension. It is exactly why we need to have great respect and thoughts about money and feel emotionally and spiritually good about our finances. If we do not respect our money emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, we will never achieve financial success.

How do you respect your money mentally?

Think positively about money and reject/avoid all negativity around money. Have the same feeling toward a penny, a dollar, a thousand dollars, and a million dollars. The actual amount should not influence how you think about money. You should think positively about having money, regardless of the amount. Believe in yourself that your life is filled with abundance and lots of it. If you don’t have such abundance today, believe that abundance will come in the near future. Make it a possibility and a priority.

How do you respect your money emotionally?

Be appreciative about where you are in life right now. If you’re in debt, feel positive that you are saving money to eliminate your debt in the very near future; if you’re growing your net worth, feel positively that your net worth is heading in the right direction. Feel good about the subject of money. The thought of money should make you feel at peace and calm, not chaos and anger.

How do you respect your money spiritually?

Finding the money balance in your life and control the inflow and outflow of your money. Understand that money is just a vehicle that helps us to get somewhere in life. Money does not govern our life and it should not overtake it. When we were born, we didn’t bring any money with us, when we die we won’t bring any money with us either. Realizing that there are other things, like love, joy, and peace, that are more important in life than money.

 

How to start respecting your money?

Step 1 – understand inflow and outflow of your money. Have a monthly budget and stick with it. Without knowing what’s coming in and what’s going out, you simply cannot respecting your money. So many people think that having a budget is boring and they don’t need it. That is the wrong mindset. It doesn’t matter what kind of system you use, the most important thing is making sure that you establish a consistent pattern where your money inflow is much greater than your money outflow.

 

Step 2 – think positively about money and recondition yourself. Stop using negative phrases like someone’s dirty rich, money is the root of all evil, money is the cause for all problems, I can’t manage my money, and etc. Use positive phrases instead, phrases like I manage my money well, my money works hard for me, I allow my income to constantly expand, I always live in comfort and joy, and etc. Using positive phrases toward money will allow yourself feel and think positively about money both consciously and subconsciously. If we don’t re-program our subconscious mind, we will naturally go back to the old pattern (i.e. think negatively about money).

Step 3 – Value money but at the same time prioritize other things in your life that are important to you. Realizing that money is just a tool that allows you to do things, not an end in itself. Be appreciative the amount of money you have today. You are where you are financially today and tomorrow can only get better. Step back and enjoy life.

Respecting your money is easy, you just need to get started and practice on a daily basis. Why wait? Start today!

Share on:
.

15 thoughts on “Respect your money”

  1. OK, another interesting book to read now. Don’t know how, but it ‘skipped’ my radar so far, I’ll take a look, it’s clearly worth the effort.

    Reply
  2. Thanks for sharing this Tawcan, I’ve been meaning to read this book. I’m always fascinated by the emotional and behavioural aspects of personal finance, so thanks for highlighting this – it’s simple but incredibly important stuff!

    Reply
  3. Tawcan, starting today, I start respecting my money. I know this produces good results. Thank you for making me realize this one important thing about money.

    Reply
  4. Excellent post. It was Suze Orman as well as Mary Hunt and a good friend who turned me onto these authors, that really helped me learn about money. Back when I had debt I used to be upset, then I learned to budget and that to be positive about the good decisions I was making rather than berating myself about the past mistakes. Thanks for the reminder!

    – HMB

    Reply
  5. I have tons of respect for my money! I also was a big Suze Orman fan, and am quite sad she retired from her show. While I did not like all her advice, I had to remember she was giving advice to the masses and not people as financially sophisticated as this community 🙂

    Reply
  6. Tawcan,

    Great/deep article you have here. Respecting your money, being positive about your future and current situation will go a long ways. Understanding your feelings surrounding it will help in the journey. Thank you.

    -Lanny

    Reply
  7. I definitely didn’t respect money or have an appreciation for what I had even when buried in debt. It wasn’t until I started focusing on what we spent it on, and what triggered us to spend for our wants and not needs that I got a WAY better relationship with money.
    I’m now appreciative of what I have, and don’t feel the need to buy things to make myself feel better. It was a hard road to get to, but I like that I’m on it now.
    Great article!

    Reply
  8. I simply want to tell you that I’m newbie to weblog and absolutely liked this web blog. Most likely I’m likely to bookmark your website . You definitely have very good stories. Cheers for revealing your web page.

    Reply
  9. Thanks for the article Tawcan. Thanks for the book review. Definitely backs up our plan on Positivity and road to success. Bottom Line: Just gotta think positive and envision success for yourself.
    Keep it up and enjoy the journey. Always a pleasure stopping by. Take care bud.

    Reply
    • Hi Dividend Hustler,

      Think positive and envision success for yourself is very important. If you always think negatively you’ll most likely end up with negative results. Keep it up on your journey too.

      Reply
  10. Nice post, Tawcan. I hadnt heard of the book from Suze Orman…will have to check it out. Thanks for sharing and the review

    R2R

    Reply

Leave a Comment

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.