Financial Pressures

Can you take it when the pressure is on? How about when the pressure is financial? Right now, with millions out of work due to business closures because of the efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it seems appropriate to be talking about financial pressures. Money problems cause pressure when there isn’t enough or when there is more than enough.

If we’re interested in becoming successful in a material sense, we need to be able to handle financial pressure. That means knowing how to give, receive, earn, spend, and save. Being broke is one kind of financial pressure, but if we think it ends when the money starts coming in, we are mistaken. In fact, the more we earn, the more the pressure builds, and we need to be able to handle it.

One book that provides a good read is George S. Clason’s, “The Richest Man in Babylon.” It’s all about how to handle and accumulate wealth. One of the things it teaches is to take 10 percent of all you earn up front and give it away. Then, take another 10 percent to reduce your debts, and a third 10 percent to build up capital to invest. That’s right, what’s left is 70%, and while many of us may say we couldn’t live on that, a good percentage of us would be incorrect.

Furthermore, Clason posits that if we don’t make this type of change, we will find ourselves on the same financial treadmill years from now, going nowhere. There is one additional piece to this: Don’t wait for someone else to fix your situation. It’s your life, your finances, and it is up to you to make the changes you want for your future.

Think of it this way: If you do as well in the next ten years as you have in the last ten, where will you be? Does something need to change? If so, then what needs to change? The possibilities for you are nearly endless, once you set your mind to achieving your desired future. But you need to set the vision for the future, first.

Why not pick up a copy of “The Richest Man in Babylon” – try the local library, a used bookstore or your favorite online book retailer (there is an ebook version available) – and see how you feel after reading it. If nothing else, there is a good chance it will get your mental wheels turning.