Don’t you wish you learned serious life skills like how to invest or vote in school? What you know or don’t know about money is learned from how you were raised, what you learn from friends, what you read in the papers or Internet articles, or even your partner. Some of this information is ideal, while some aren’t.
You’d be surprised how the most basic things can help you regain a better outlook of your finances once you have your affairs in order.
Table of Contents
1. Never work because you need money
Before you scoff at this, just take a moment to understand this lesson. We all do something, and work for something or someone because it pays us money to purchase basic necessities, at the very least. The essence of this lesson is that we should never be slaves to our money because that will make us live paycheck to paycheck.
Apple CEO Tim Cook also echoed this in 2017, “My advice to all of you is, don’t work for money — it will wear out fast, or you’ll never make enough, and you’ll never be happy, one way or the other.”
Rather than getting a job or working to pay the bills, instead, look for jobs or start a career that aligns with your sense of purpose. Be passionate about what you do, and if you haven’t found it, keep looking.
2. Learning finance from our parents
There are plenty of things we can learn from our parents – what we want to be and what we don’t want to be. Our parents may have given us direct or indirect lessons when it comes to money; chief of all is to save money, and don’t overspend.
Depending on what generation they come from, our parents’ and grandparents’ financial habits are aligned to what the generation was going through at that time. Most of the time, you hear a frugal living, saving more, and not spending too much, from them because their generation went through wars, uprisings, segregation, and so on. Our generation? We’re a lot more fortunate – we’re here, and we experience the things we get to now because of the progress and events that happened in our parents’ time.
3. Learn to live frugally
We all need to learn to live frugally, especially when we’re fresh out of college and starting in life. Living with whatever minimal we have helps us live in challenging times. That said, some financial habits have made people in a deeper financial rut; for example, stashing money under the mattress, as opposed to keeping it in a bank.
For young adults, the goal is to avoid the financial pitfalls our parents fell into and learn positive ones. Living a frugal life helps you discern needs and wants.
4. Ask questions
A person who succeeds is the one that asks questions because they are always learning and always keen on rising. Always learn from asking questions, exploring ideas, and adapting as you go through life. You may feel that asking questions may be seen as you not understanding things, but so what if you don’t? It’s better to understand, and then work on implementing things properly instead of not asking questions, not understanding, and doing things wrong.
5. Look for ways to generate money
Devote at least 20 minutes of your time to generating ideas for financial freedom. This financial freedom isn’t some ‘get rich quick’ scheme. It’s a long-term financial plan that can help you gain the freedom you want.
When it comes to generating money, think about what good financial habits you can create to save money. This is especially crucial if you don’t have an income.
Skipping your daily Starbucks to save $5 a day is a good practice, but it isn’t going to give you a fortune. Save first by cultivating good money habits. Once you have enough, look into investing in assets that can bring you money.
6. Training your mind to think positively
How to generate money has a lot to do with our mindset as well. When we lack money, we end up thinking of scarcity, and when this happens, we begin to be pessimistic. The scarcity mindset creates a negative space in our heads, and we think that there’s never enough money to go around to live our daily lives. When you find yourself thinking this way, do whatever is in your power to move out of this pessimistic mindset. When you find yourself thinking negatively, be the steward of your thoughts and jar this negative thought out.
7. Invest in you
One of the best returns on investments you can have is investing in yourself. When investing in yourself, think about learning a new skill that can get you closer to your goal. Invest in developing yourself, whether professionally or personally. You need to put your needs above someone else’s sometimes. Nobody will be able to work on you except your own self. It’s our responsibility to take time to develop ourselves using the gifts and talents given to us. Developing our talents and skills enables us to serve the people around us and become the entrepreneurs we want to be.
8. Trust in your abilities
Trust in your own capabilities and skills before you can expect other people to trust your skills. Work to learn things and enhance your skill set. Don’t work just because you need the money, unless you’re happy with the simple life. Material values aren’t important because wealth is really about investing your money in assets to receive long-term returns. In whatever you do, set out to learn and create experiences and expertise. It will help you in the long run when you’re ready to turn your cash into investments.
9. Be bold
Bold people stand out and are noticed. Bold people are courageous, confident, and directed. By cultivating your boldness, you inspire people around you to step up to the task, learn things, and upskill themselves. Bold people also don’t wait for someone else to lead the way. Want to be a bold entrepreneur? If so, then craft your business plan, so that each action takes advantage of the previous successes. Take advantage of any success that enables you to gain respect, attention, and popularity. Activate your team, cultivate relationships, and build buzz.
10. Take risks
To reach financial success is to hold the horns of uncertainty and reign it in with all your might. You need to play to win, which also means you need to take risks. Intelligent risks are the boon for rewards. This is why experience, technical knowledge, and financial knowledge are needed because they can help you make smart risks and improve the odds, so that it’s always in your favor. Visit this page for more info if you’re looking for ways to calculate your taxes. Every bit of financial knowledge you acquire now will help you in the long run.
