A study of thousands of financially successful and unsuccessful
individuals revealed that the difference between them derived more from the
difference in their personal financial philosophy than from the work they did
or the particular investments they made.
So, what is a personal financial philosophy? The definition of philosophy is a love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual
investigation and moral self discipline.
A personal financial philosophy
then is our personal relationship to money and how we intend to use it to
achieve the things or situations we desire, or that make us feel good.
From birth we have been preoccupied with acquiring wealth, from toys to
houses, helping define our current financial philosophy. For example, you may have been raised with
all the money and possessions one could want, or maybe you came from a single-parent
home where money was tight and you had less than most of your peers. You may have injured someone using the power
that money and wealth can give, or
you may have been injured by someone using financial advantage in a ruthless or
unprincipled way. All of these
experiences have helped define your personal financial philosophy. Other common beliefs that may have helped
shape your philosophy are: money is the root of all evil, money doesn’t grow on
trees, he who has the GOLD makes the rules, it is easier for a Camel to fit
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven and so on.
Each of us has a unique financial philosophy either
because we were given one by our parents or developed one through our personal life
situations. Regardless of how our
philosophy evolved, each of us has the personal responsibility to identify what
our personal financial philosophy is, and then ask ourselves if our current philosophy
is inline with our goals and desires.
Gandhi stated, “A man is but a product of his thoughts, what he thinks
he becomes.” It is our responsibility to project the feelings, emotions and thoughts
that reflect the results we desire in life—this is how to put mind over money.
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