There is nothing sweeter than seeing the work that you have created being taught in another language changing children’s lives in another country as well as your own.
Here is a video about our Creative Wealth’s Brazilian licensee, Silvia Alambert, who has been busting her tush to get The Money Camp, which uses The Money Game, into Brazil. I am SO proud of her. I hope you are also!
Enjoy…
I got an email today and I’m not sure about its origin BUT it is such great advice that I decided to make it today’s blog post.
We often think that we’re not susceptible to things like muggings, car snatchings and purse pickings but you know what? We are and it’s better to prepare for an event and never have it happen than not prepare and wish we had taken the time to do it. Enjoy…and prepare!
ATTORNEY’S ADVICE – NO CHARGE
Not A Joke!! Even If you dislike attorneys..You will love them for these tips.
Loosing your money the hard way
Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company:
1. There seems to be an urban legend that says, Do not sign the back of your credit cards. Instead, put ‘PHOTO ID REQUIRED.’ Please note the information sent to me by an alert reader after I posted this…
The not signing of credit cards sounded like a great idea and I was about to send out to our staff here in the library (I tend to be the “go to” person for all things financial since I’m the library accountant). Then I found this on the web which leads me to believe that signing credit cards is actually required by the large credit card companies:
http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters80.html
So, the question is: is this the correct advice to reduce credit card fraud? Should you — or should you not — sign your credit cards? To answer this question, we called the fraud departments at MasterCard, Visa and American Express
All three advised that you definitely SHOULD sign your card. MasterCard told us that this idea — not to sign your card — is an urban legend that sounds sensible, but is not a good idea. American Express warned us that merchants are not supposed to accept your credit cards if they aren’t signed. Visa agreed — in fact, they said that the merchant is instructed to not finish the transaction until you sign your card!
So, not signing your credit card is an example of a very popular urban legend that is false. And we stand by our original advice – sign your credit cards immediately when you receive them.
Also found this: http://usa.visa.com/merchants/risk_management/card_present.html?it=Search#anchor_6
And this: http://www.askmrcreditcard.com/creditcardblog/should-you-sign-the-back-of-your-credit-card/
Thanks Wynette for the great catch! You never know exactly what is right or wrong and I love that you helped me clarify this!
2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the ‘For’ line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it.
3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a PO Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have It printed, anyone can get it.
4. Place the contents of your wallet on aphotocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.. Keep the photocopy in a safe place.
I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a Name, address, Social Security number, credit cards..
Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.
But here’s some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:
5. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.
6.. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).
But here’s what is perhaps most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)
7. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number.. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name.
The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit..
By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in). It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks..
Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, if it has been stolen:
1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
3.) Trans Union : 1-800-680 7289
4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line):
1-800-269-0271
We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything.
If you are willing to pass this information along, it could really help someone that you care about.
Let’s say that you’re reading a book one day and you begin to deeply ponder the information presented in that book. Let’s say THAT book leads you to ANOTHER book on the same subject and pretty soon, your entire life is surrounded by books on that particular subject, all you notice around you is people talking about that subject and every thought you have is centered on that subject.
This is one aspect of what’s commonly referred to as Reticular Activation. You know…that’s when your reticular is activated! OK, basically, RA is when you become aware of something to a point that you see it everywhere. Like when I was pregnant with my son, Andrew. Everywhere I looked I saw other pregnant women. Now I rarely see them at all unless they are right in front of me!
Financial literacy and money has been that way for me, and most others in this fascinating field of financial education. Well, fascinating and frustrating at the same time.
Fascinating because the ways in which money controls different aspects of our lives never ceases to amaze me. Frustrating because it seems like humanity is destined to relegate financial education to what I call ‘elective’ status and not ‘critical if you’re going to be responsible for yourself’ status. I have my opinions about why this is so but that’s not what I want to explore today.
All The Rage
Distraction Du Jou
What I want to explore is the all too commonplace rush to become rich quickly these days. Let’s call it the FINANCIAL FREEDOM RAGE and it’s everywhere. It used to be that people went to school, got jobs, saved up their money, did some investing, retired, blah, blah, blah. Now it seems that everywhere you look (I look) you see seminars on how to make a killing by investing in real estate or workshops on special stock market strategies or the latest and greatest internet affiliate marketing strategy.
Now don’t get me wrong. You CAN make money in all of these areas but it’s the RUSH, the FERVER, the HYSTERIA around it I’m referring to. It’s as if there is nothing else in our lives but this and until we get ‘this’, we can’t relax, enjoy our lives, remember we have families, take a breath or just chill.
The definition of ‘rage’ encompasses the idea of intense anger and sometimes madness. How fitting as it seems people are mad these days with the idea that they have to become financially free tomorrow or else.
Or else what, exactly? Where the heck do we think we’re going so fast and quite honestly, what would you do it you WERE financially free tomorrow?
Before you answer that question, let’s just put the definition of financial freedom on the table. According to Robert Kiyosaki, and others, financial freedom occurs at a time when you have more money coming INTO your life from your investments passively (in other words, you aren’t trading your time and energy for the money anymore) than you have going OUT for the expenses of your CHOSEN lifestyle. That means there is no set dollar amount that means you are free; it’s all completely arbitrary.
So back to the question…what WOULD you do it you didn’t have to go to work tomorrow? I mean, really think about the answer(s) to that question. What WOULD you do? And for how long would you do it?
Let’s say you start to paint. How long would that last? What would happen if you got really good at it? What would you do with all of the paintings? Would you start to sell them to friends, start a gallery, start teaching others how to paint? See where this is going?
Or you’d travel. Once you visited every country on Earth, then what? Would you do it again? Would you write a book on how to travel safely, learn how to market the book so that others could have your great experience, do little seminars on your adventures?
Or maybe you’d just spend more time with your friends, volunteer your time to help the homeless kids in your city, get fed up with what wasn’t being done and start your own nonprofit (this is sounding familiar) so that you could do a better job and pretty soon you’re ‘working’ 60 hours a week again!
Wait! I though you were FREE now, free to do exactly what you wanted with your time and energy? What happened? I think that if most people actually woke up financially free tomorrow they’d have no idea what to do with themselves.
You see, we’re ALWAYS free to choose what to do with our time and energy, every moment of every day. And if you don’t think so, sit down with Viktor Frankl’s “A Man’s Search for Meaning” sometime in the near future. This book will stop you in your tracks (I’ve been stopped here for a long time:-) and provoke very deep questions for you to ponder along every step of your journey here on planet Earth.
So where IS the fire and what IS the rush?
Josh Shipp, aka Hey Josh, said it best in one of the little videos I saw him in. He said, and I paraphrase, “Bad things are going to happen to you.” And when those bad things happen, it’s who you choose to be during those time that really matters.
The older I get the more I observe others rushing around, not seeming to enjoy their lives (their words) and it just makes me question where the fire is and what all the rush is about.
So I’m just going to leave you today with these questions:
1) Where is the perceived fire in your life? Is is real? How do you know it’s real and how would your life be different if you changed your belief about this perceived fire.
2) What is the rush in your life that keeps you from enjoying what is right now? My own belief is that ‘the rush’ is the distraction du jour and that it keeps us from pondering the important questions and more importantly, having to deal with the answers to those questions.
Taming Your Own Financial Freedom Rage
Here’s some simple tips on how to deal with that little voice (sometimes it feels like a BIG voice) inside of you that says you must become financially free soon or else:
Most people I know and watch just don’t seem happy and content when they are rushing around constantly putting out fires and it’s very challenging to be around those people sometimes as well. By slowing down, breathing, continually taking inventory of what’s really important to you and those you love, you might just find that the fire you think you have to put out isn’t very hot and the rush to get ‘there’ ceases altogether, replaced by a quiet contemplation of simply what is at the moment.
So right now, stop, take a few deep breaths, ponder your latest rush to get to or accomplish this or that, notice any fires you think you must put out, or else, and just let it all go in exchange for a little peace and enjoyment of right now.
Now THAT is freedom.
Just something else to think about.
Where did Piss Poor come from?
They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery…….if you had to do this to survive you were “Piss Poor”.
But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot……they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” & were the lowest of the low.
The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ….. .. Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!”
Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof… Hence the saying “It’s raining cats and dogs.”
There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.
The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, “Dirt poor.” The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.
(Getting quite an education, aren’t you?)
In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.
Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.
Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would
Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.
England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive… So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.
And that’s the truth…..Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !
Yesterday, I had lunch with my BFF, Peggy, at our favorite little hole-in-the-wall Mexican food joint that we’ve frequented for decades (literally) and I made a choice that affected the remaining part of my day and virtually the entire night.
The choice? Having a diet Coke with lunch. You see…we both LOVE diet coke with tons of lime juice squeezed into it and it goes sooo well with the food. (And yes, I KNOW it’s not good for you which is why I rarely make this choice.)
The consequence? Well, I’m not good with caffeine (if you know me, you understand why…I WAKE up ready to go and have never relied on coffee to jumpstart my being). That drink made me physically shake for the rest of the day AND kept me up most of the night.
The Choice
The result of that choice? I am fuzzy and tired today and certainly not at my best.
Choices and Consequences
Most of us make choices every day that have consequences. Sometimes those consequences are positive, sometimes they are negative and sometimes they are inconsequential…i.e., don’t make much of a difference at all.
We make choices about food, drinks, alcohol, activity (to exercise or not), work, relationships, and yes, we make tons of decisions about money; ours and other people’s (credit card companies).
And often, those financial choices have both short term and long term ramifications in our lives, and the lives of others who may be depending on us for their well-being.
We have a Creative Wealth Principle that we teach in our programs that goes like this…
“People aren’t judged by their abilities but by the sum of their choices.”
I do my best to practice being nonjudgmental but, as creatures, the act of judging is inherent in our behavior, and it IS inherent for a very good reason…pure, unadulterated survival.
We must be able to judge healthy from unhealthy, good from bad, safe from dangerous, etc. When we carry those judgments into other aspects of our lives, we suffer.
What Consequences Have To Do With Truth
Consequences point backwards to our choices. Choices point backwards to our thoughts and feelings about situations in our lives; thoughts and feelings ultimately point backwards to our beliefs about everything that life entails. I use the word ‘backwards’ because, in order to evaluate your life, you must ultimately aim to uncover the root of those choices and the root is almost always tied to our deep-seated beliefs.
In the case of money, and the consequences (both good and not so good) of our financial choices, it is invariably our financial beliefs about money that cause us to choose.
Looking back at my choice yesterday to have a diet Coke at lunch with Peggy (and we won’t even talk about why we make poorer choices with others than we’d perhaps do by our lonesome!), the choice came out of my ‘feeling’ to have fun with her and from our history of enjoying the drinks with our food. The ‘feelings’ came from my thoughts that I’d like to really enjoy our lunch together and my ‘thoughts’ came from my belief that often times people have fun when they’re sharing the same sorts of things that might not necessarily be the healthiest for us (I’m NOT alone in this belief by the way! Ice cream anyone? Drink after work?).
The truth in the consequence is that my belief about our friendship can lead to an unhealthy choice on my part. The truth in the consequence of not sleeping well last night tells me that I need to work on that belief. The real truth, though, that I DO know in my heart, is that the enjoyment we have in our lunches together has absolutely nothing to do with what we do or do not drink together or do or do not eat together.
How Consequences Can Help Lead You Home
Let’s go back to the conversation about money choices. We can look at the sum total of consequences essentially as the result that we call ‘our lives.’ If you don’t like the sum of the consequences, it’s going to take a little private investigator work to figure out where the consequences came from.
In other words, this is what you’re going to do…
1) Look at the consequence that occurred from a financial decision you made.
2) Ask yourself what action you took that led you to that consequence.
3) Look at the action and ask yourself what you were feeling right before you made the choice in question.
4) Look at the feeling and remember what you were thinking.
5) Look at the thought and ask yourself what you’d have to believe about money (or whatever it was you made the choice about) in order to have the thoughts you were having.
6) Final CRITICAL step: do the necessary work to change the belief that ultimately led to the consequence you didn’t like.
Final Step is the Most Challenging Step
Realizing that human beings are creatures of habit, you already know that sometimes changing who we are choosing to be can be downright difficult, if not impossible. But you CAN change if you WANT to change badly enough.
I’m going to recommend that you read this book…Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. I’ve mentioned it before and I’m sure I’ll mention it again. It is by far the easiest, simplest, most profoundly life-changing book on financial beliefs that I’ve ever read. Do yourself a favor if you haven’t read it and go get it. If you have read it? Read it again. I read it every year! It’s that important.
OK, it’s your turn. Start looking at your life as consequences to choices and start doing a little inner work. Only when you’re willing to do the inner work will your outer life begin to change.
Let us know how you’re doing and tell us what you think about all of this. We really want to know!
Just something else to think about…
First, thank you ALL for your kind words of wisdom and appreciation and more. I had no idea I would spend the entire day in tears off and on!
Wisdom for Wednesday
Wise Ole' Abe
I read this this morning (do two thises make a that?:-) and thought it wise to pass along to you…
“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”
~ Abraham Lincoln
A note to parents: one of the biggest hinderances to becoming a responsible adult is having everything done for you as a child, including having all of your purchases and all of your needs and wants provided to you at any sort of a simple whim.
Do NOT do things for your child if he or she is old enough to do that thing for himself. When my son Andrew was growing up, as soon as I saw him try something, I knew he was, 1) ready to learn to do it and 2) ready to do it himself. At that point, I taught him and fully empowered him to do it himself simply by allowing him to do it AND refusing to do it anymore for him.
At 27 years old, he is a responsible young man who is delightful to be around. I take partial responsibility for that.
Just something to think about…