10 Rules To Improve Your Financial Life (Part 2).

10 Rules To Improve Your Financial Life (Part 2)

Hey, guys! Welcome back to one more reflection. Last week, we began the discussion of the 10 rules to improve our financial life. Then, if you haven’t read part 1, I strongly advise you, before continuing to check our part 1, since part 2 will build upon that previous reflection.

10 Rules To Improve Your Financial Life (Part 1)

Thinking about money and its use is extremely important for the simple fact that we exchange our most precious resource…

So, now we’re good to go. Let’s continue our discussion on the 10 rules to improve our financial life, shall we?

Rule #6: Set Tangible Goals

For a better financial life, be realistic about how much you can actually save. It’s no use setting a very high goal simply not to meet it the following month since it was from its beginning impractical. So, set tangible and realistic goals. Furthermore, this rule refers to, rather than simply thinking, “I want to get rich”, which is very vague and simply meaningless, setting measurable goals, for instance:

“I want to have invested the amount of [x] by date [y]”.
“I want to have my bills reduced to [x]% by date [y].”
“I want to increase my income by [x]% by date [y]”.
Whenever you set goals, make them tangible and built on some objective metric, not simply a vague subjective desire. Establish some real numbers and a specific date. By the way, following this rule, even if you don’t reach your goal 100%, you’ll be much better off than if you hadn’t clarified a precise goal from the beginning.

Rule #7: Think Of Money As A Tool

Money is like a knife. In the hands of a sushi chef, it can create delicious dishes that will delight and bring joy to those who eat them. However, in the hands of a child, it can cause a very serious accident. Money is blameless that most people don’t know how to manage it, take care of it, or multiply it. It is simply impartial. The moment you understand this and stop complaining about life’s injustices, you will see that you do have a responsibility to improve your financial skills and that this initiative must come from you because no one else will do it on your behalf.

Learn how to handle the tool, learn the best way to sharpen it, learn its best uses, and learn its limitations. Remember, as every tool has one, or a few, specific uses, money can’t solve all your problems. Money can only solve money-related problems. It is pointless to want a knife to perform the same function as a cup.

Rule #8: Don’t Seek To Impress Others

In a society immersed in social media, many of which are built on mechanisms for making people compare themselves to each other, wanting to impress others, being more than who we truly are, has become the norm. In any case, this behavior is not only emotionally destructive but also financially harmful. As long as you try, with the things you buy, to impress others, you will be like a little mouse, running on its wheel, not giving one step ahead. As long as we stop caring about what others think, we will not only take a step towards greater emotional intelligence, but we will also develop one of the most important behaviors towards financial independence. Buy what you need, within your budget, in a way that is sustainable for you, not just to look “cool”.

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Rule #9: Find Other Ways To Make Money

Another cardinal rule is to change your perspective on the limit of how much you can earn. If you’re happy with how things are, happy to receive your fixed salary on a specific date of the month, that’s fine. However, you are making life more difficult than it would need to be. Take the next step and start identifying other potential sources of income. Write down your greatest and best abilities on paper, asking yourself:

What do I know how to do well?
What are my skill sets?
What would people pay me to do?
How many hours could I dedicate to these activities other than my job?
We live in a social moment with a lot of challenges, but for those who are determined, there are many possibilities and opportunities, both in the analog and, especially, in the digital world. You can do freelance work, write texts, record videos for youtube, teach specific content, sell items in your home that you no longer use, create an e-commerce business, rent a room in your house that you are not using, and so on. Try not to depend solely on your salary, think of other ways to earn money, either through investments or through your own work. Use your creativity and execution to open new doors. The moment you adopt this rule of paying attention to other ways to make money, as you open your mind to new possibilities, you will see that many doors will begin to open.

Rule #10: Replace Procrastination For Action

The last fundamental rule to be financially successful, the golden rule, is to stop talking and start doing. This is what will allow you to put all the rules we’ve seen so far into action. Although we all know people who have incredible ideas, imagining different possibilities, businesses, and solutions, when push comes to shove, these people do not act. Talking is cheap. Having ideas is easy. It is difficult to execute them consistently and effectively. So, replace saying for doing, replace procrastination for acting.

If you want to improve your financial life by creating a budget, for example, start writing it today. If you want to develop a skill, take the first step towards mastering that skill today. Let’s be honest, procrastination can kill who you could become. How many skills, achievements, and opportunities do most people miss out simply by procrastinating, by putting off until tomorrow? A tomorrow that never comes. Do not let it happen to you. Put a stop to it, don’t accept procrastination as a modus operandi anymore. Be part of the select group of those who get to work instead of talk.

Conclusion

We learned 10 rules that can substantially improve our financial life. The moment you adopt them, you will have greater financial freedom, quality of life, and prosperity. These rules are like natural laws that orchestrate the workings of money. Ignore them at your own risk. Adopt them for your own prosperity and growth.

CONTRIBUTED BY Mateus Fontoura

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