Money is a very important topic in our life. I would go so far as to say that anybody who says that it isn't, are lying to them selves. The reality of our life is that over 70% of transactions in our life are monetary. If we do not learn how to properly manage this part of our being, we are going to be bound to life of lack and need - and nobody wants to have that kind of stress in their life. The only way to avoid this kind of existence is to become a monk and withdraw from society completely. But I do not think that a life of a monk is for everybody.



Here is a bit of background on me. When I was younger, I had a highly idealistic and almost snobbish point of view about money. I believed that money represented materialism. I, being a "highly evolved" spiritual being should not be concerned with finances. I believed that being poor or struggling financially meant that I am evolving even more. This just reinforced my conviction about being spiritual and my already inflated ego. In my opinion it did not help me be any more evolved then I am now. It did land me in debt however. So badly that I wasn't able to pay it off for years. Constantly worrying about finances brought me more stress and nothing else but that.

I think the only great thing about struggling financially, is realizing that you have to do something about it in order for it to stop, or it never will. I also think that we learn spiritually much more from doing something to improve our present situation (or our selves) rather then simply accepting our fate, and wanting for the change to come.

When I realized that I might have been wrong about how I view money, changes began to happen in my life. I changed what I do for a living. I changed how I look at finances. I began studying what it takes to be financially successful. These changes improved the quality of my life more then two fold, and I do not think I am more materialistic then I was before.

Here are a few things I learned through out this journey:

- You must know where you want to end up financially. In other words - have a goal.

- You must have a plan of getting there. Make a strategy that will allow you to achieve your goal.

- A budget must be a part of your plan. A bookkeeping and budgeting is like a window into what is happening in your financial life. How much you are spending, where, and how much of it you can actually afford. If you do not follow a budget you can look at it as driving blindfolded in a snow storm. You can do it, but you might get in trouble.

- Have a plan where you are going to divide your money as soon as it comes in. So as soon as you get a pay check (of any sort), separate it into categories (long term investment, short term savings, budget, charity, spending money. You can use how ever many categories your plan will require.) This way you will know where every single cent is at all times.

- Learn about investing your money. This is probably the best advice I can give. Learn as much as possible. If you don't have money to pay the "best" to do investing for you, you must take matters into your own hands and learn how to do it. Nobody will care about your money as much as you do. Learning different investment strategies will always give you a better result, then simply giving it to someone to do it for you.

Money can be compared to breathing. We don't think about it when it comes to us easily, but it sure is a problem if it doesn't. So, as it is important to learn how to breathe when we are born, it is also important to learn how to manage our finances. And the beauty of it all is the fact that there is a lot to learn. So let's get started.