Over the years I have noticed that there is a certain prepollence attached to money that affects the typical person in one of two ways. When you talk money, most people will appear to feel either uneasy/defensive, or boastful/competitive. I bring up this observation to shed light on the similarity that each emotional reaction creates, and that’s isolation. If someone is very reserved or defensive about speaking on finance, they isolate themselves by treating the topic as taboo subject matter (usually out of shame, pride, fear, or ignorance) and prevent themselves the opportunity to swap insightful ideas/lessons/experiences with others. Someone who acts boastful and/or competitive on the topic of money becomes isolated when their competitive nature combined with their pride of “doing it on their own” holds them back from willingly working with others to reach new goals and new heights of prosperity. I assume they feel like the accomplishment will mean less, just because it’s not achieved on their own individual merit alone. I believe these are the two main reasons why investment clubs/collectives, and the benefits that come along with them, eludes so many folks/families.
Money Will Not Call You Back
Learn how to detach your emotions from your money. Money doesn’t get better with age, so staying committed to “investing” via savings accounts, bonds, and certificates of deposits with average interest rates under 1%, when the national rate of inflation is over 1%, is the same as giving your money away. Your money sitting in a bank gives a false sense of security (again, an example of emotional attachment), but loses value. Money really just wants to be objectified and used, so that you may get what you really desire. It makes no sense to stay committed to cash for the long term, when in reality the value of the relationship is steadily degrading.
You will know when you are prepared to become an investor, when you see money for the village bicycle that it is. Treat it as nothing more than an investment vehicle used in trade for a means to an end. Now, there are two points that are stressed often but are rarely understood when it comes to investing and risk:
1. Any time you make an investment with your money, there’s an understood risk that your investment could lose value.
2. Any time you save your money in a bank account or invest in a bank’s “investment products” (cds,bonds,etc), there’s a false sense of security but there’s also a guarantee that your money will lose value.
Trick or Treat?
So in my final attempt to create a useful example of personal emotional preparation in considering the move to participating and/or setting up an investment club, or investing individually, I want you to focus your attention on the following keywords from the statements above. These two words are all you should ever have to think about the next time you begin to ponder whether or not you are ready to start making investments of your own or act as a participating investor within a collective. The words are:
1. Risk
2. Security
Risk, as in are you willing to take a risk of loss in order to receive a return, or have a feeling of security from loss by guaranteeing it. Hmm, why is it that the word that’s associated with investment, which is an action that has built great empires and generations of wealth, is “risk”? Yet, the word that is associated with saving, a method of “investing” that guarantees loss, is “security”? Talk about brainwashing mind blowing irony! The day I became aware of this wordplay magic that has been indoctrinated by the institutions, is when I made the decision to rewire my brain to treat money as a tool that works for me, instead of a treat that tricks me into being a tool that works for it.
Learn how to detach your emotions from your money. Money doesn’t get better with age, so staying committed to “investing” via savings accounts, bonds, and certificates of deposits with average interest rates under 1%, when the national rate of inflation is over 1%, is the same as giving your money away. Your money sitting in a bank gives a false sense of security (again, an example of emotional attachment), but loses value. Money really just wants to be objectified and used, so that you may get what you really desire. It makes no sense to stay committed to cash for the long term, when in reality the value of the relationship is steadily degrading.
You will know when you are prepared to become an investor, when you see money for the village bicycle that it is. Treat it as nothing more than an investment vehicle used in trade for a means to an end. Now, there are two points that are stressed often but are rarely understood when it comes to investing and risk:
1. Any time you make an investment with your money, there’s an understood risk that your investment could lose value.
2. Any time you save your money in a bank account or invest in a bank’s “investment products” (cds,bonds,etc), there’s a false sense of security but there’s also a guarantee that your money will lose value.
Trick or Treat?
So in my final attempt to create a useful example of personal emotional preparation in considering the move to participating and/or setting up an investment club, or investing individually, I want you to focus your attention on the following keywords from the statements above. These two words are all you should ever have to think about the next time you begin to ponder whether or not you are ready to start making investments of your own or act as a participating investor within a collective. The words are:
1. Risk
2. Security
Risk, as in are you willing to take a risk of loss in order to receive a return, or have a feeling of security from loss by guaranteeing it. Hmm, why is it that the word that’s associated with investment, which is an action that has built great empires and generations of wealth, is “risk”? Yet, the word that is associated with saving, a method of “investing” that guarantees loss, is “security”? Talk about brainwashing mind blowing irony! The day I became aware of this wordplay magic that has been indoctrinated by the institutions, is when I made the decision to rewire my brain to treat money as a tool that works for me, instead of a treat that tricks me into being a tool that works for it.
