The Perfect Idea of Money...

http://www.lavishcheapskate.com/

How important is it to have the "perfect idea of money" and what does that mean?

With the plethora of messages from a multitude of sources (ones we used to rely on and abandoned when we saw the "red print" with negative losses in our investments), we realized that responsibility came down to two letters... "ME."

Money talk nowadays sounds more like chatter, yapping, confusion, and chaos... the mixed messages become so overwhelming that most every American has resorted to doing zero, zip, nada. So as we sit on our hands, less moves. So is this the perfect idea of money? To sit on our hands and hoard it until something moves?

If so, when will it move, when will we move, and the most important slice... well, we'll get to that in a moment.

The "perfect idea of money" comes down to you. With the recession here, we have become so much more aware of unconscious spending that there is an anxiety, a little white buzzing noise in the back of our mind that makes us feel guilty to buy anything.

There are little statements like, "The new fashion statement is frugality..." and articles showing celebrities adorning simple and less expensive fashions. Snippet after snippet, ad after ad, everyone is boasting of this new frugal trend.

Could it be that most people who are still making just as much today as they were before the recession hit are feeling guilty about spending? And those who have endured job losses... have they replaced the old "road rage" antics with "lack of money rage?"

When we pay full attention and remove all the "outside influences" from the equation, we have found out, on a deep level, that money can serve incredible purposes in life yet many things we have witnessed for the past few years has displayed how many choices turned money into a run-down workhorse.

And just like a workhorse, it can only take so much.

We've watched that workhorse breakdown under the tremendous beatings through the stock market fiasco, the mortgage crisis, the credit-card debt highs... and so on.

Take good care of your workhorse, i.e.-the money in your life. Nurture it. No one else can do a better job than you.

Just as you would treat any person who's important to you, treat the money in your life as you would treat a loved one.

Here's how simple it is...

1. Honor every dollar spent.
2. Use it to consciously buy the best value for the leanest cost.
3. Wipe out the blockage (debt).
4. Build up your paycheck extension account (the time you can live without a paycheck).
5. Invest in a net worth of liberation (rather than a mere net worth).

What is your net worth of liberation?
It's simply what it says... It is your statement, money wise, that creates liberation of choice in your life, rather than having financial circumstances dictate what you have to do.

I was speaking with a client who had a net worth of 4.5 million. It dropped to 3 million this year. He was more stressed than ever even though he doesn't really have to worry about financial security.

As we visited his finances, there was a reflection of his relationship with money-- his money had become a workhorse, and so had he.

When we identified it, he was teary eyed and started to reminisce back to the days of being a college student and a lifeguard on the stands. He enjoyed the sun, watching the kids play, and training other young lifeguards to be what they signed up for... to guard life.

He said, "I often wish I could go back to the lifeguard stand..."

I smiled, "Maybe it isn't the lifeguard stand you want back, but perhaps it's your life. Isn't it interesting that this is the job you miss the most? To guard life?"

He asked, "What does that mean?"

I responded, "Perhaps it's showing you that it's time to add liberation to that raw number. You simply need to add "life" to that net worth balance sheet of yours."

"Yeah... I have done it for so long I don't know what it means anymore..."

The truth is that the little adventurous kid in us isn't gone, it's peeking around the corner waiting to be rediscovered. It doesn't mean retirement, it means it's time to add some recreation (re-creation) to the equation.

We are amidst a time of re-creation, and that, my friends, can be a powerful and worthy shift.