Do you know your Money "Why"?

Written on the 23 February 2021 by Parkside InvestorPlus

No doubt you've heard the Bible saying:

Money is the root of all evil

But did you know this is incomplete.  The actual saying from the Bible is:

The love of money is the root of all evil

This is an interesting point.  Why? Because for one, many people feel guilty about having or acquiring money.  And second, there is a sense that if you do acquire money, it will lead to ruin and ultimate failure.

No wonder talk of money in many families and households is still regarded as somewhat of a taboo subject.

The accurate Bible saying, "the love of money is the root of all evil" infers that if you simply go after money for the sake of it, then, yes, possibly no good will come about.

I just won $20 million in Powerball!

How many times have we read about people who acquire an insane amount of money in an instant either through winnings (lottery, Powerball, Lotto etc) or through an inheritance only to find out that after about 5 years, that person is in more debt and in a state of rack and ruin.

Why is this?

Well, simply because 1) when you acquire money in an instant, you are not mentally prepared to manage that amount of money and 2) you were not clear about WHY this is important to you.

Your Money "Why"

Simon Sinek, a revered and practical motivational speaker talks about Start With Why.

The basic premise is that if you don't have a burning WHY for what you do, then you may not do it to your best ability or even be successful.

The same is true of acquiring money you really need to dig deep and uncover the WHY do I want this money?

The question, Why Do I Want Money can often drudge up very uncomfortable feelings with one of the most typical reasons being that 'I don't want to be like my parents, struggling through life'.

The trouble with relating your desire to have money with a negative past experience is that your WHY or motivation is now linked to 'away from' feelings; meaning, you are trying to get away from some past experience, e.g. being poor, living in poverty, being deprived etc.

Your Values Can Drive Your Money "Why"

One of the simplest questions you can ask yourself is:

What's important about money to me? (Bill Bachrach).

The easiest response to this question is freedom and security.

However, this may not be emotional enough for you to really understand and fuel your drive for acquiring money, or wealth.

To fully understand why having money is important to you requires you to delve deeper into your thoughts and feelings about where you are right NOW.

So, if the first response to 'what's important about money to me' is freedom and security the next question needs to be; 'what's so important about freedom and security to you'?

This process requires you to keep asking questions about what and why is this 'thing' important to you until you reach a point of truth.

As an example, after asking yourself many times why this is important to you you might come up with the ultimate truth that more money = being a parent/father/mother who has more time for your children you will know when you reach the truth when it feels truly emotional.

This is when your desire for money is now aligned with your core values.

And when your desire for money is aligned with your core values your happiness quotient goes up because simply having money does not equate to a happy life and simply having strong core values does not equal a happy life.  The two must come together.

As professional financial advisors at Parkside InvestorPlus our objective is to make a positive, significant and enduring difference in people's lives, to align their wealth with their values.