As I shared with you last week, I recently renovated my office space. With new office came the need for a new look. I decided that I wanted a more contemporary look and bought some additional furniture and accessories. One of the items I bought was a new business card holder- It’s a black meshed cardholder with a “V and L” combination shape. I really like it and was very excited to put it on my desk, to see what it looked like with my business cards in it. So I tried setting it up but could not quite figure out how to place the cards as every position seem awkward and my cards would just fall out. This seemed rather ridiculous. So I had a few other persons look at it for me. They turn it and placed it in every conceivable position but the cards continued to fall out. Finally we decided on a position that seemed right, since only a few cards fell out- And this is how we left it for the past week.
On Monday while sitting at my desk reworking my “To Do List” it hit me and immediately I turned the cardholder over and to my surprise it was finally right side up. You see the “V” shape was actually the base and the “L” side was where the cards should be placed.
This experience demonstrated clearly to me that, it is not what you have, but what you do with what you have that determines your failure or success. You see, there was nothing wrong with the cardholder. It performed the function that it was designed to do. It was me who did not know how to use the cardholder. Therefore, I had problems storing my business cards in it.
And so it is with life, each of us has resources or access to resources. But we are not getting the success we desire because we do not know how to properly use what we have.
Two such resources are Time and Money – We all have some of both but we don’t quit know how to use them to get the maximum benefits for our family and ourselves. We constantly allow others to negatively influence what we do with our money and time and in the process aren’t able to achieve the success we desire.
We can desire to succeed but unless we do what is needed we will never achieve our desire. It’s up to you to determine what you want out of life and up to you to achieve it. To paraphrase a quote “you can be on the right track and still get run over if you are not moving.”
You are the only “thing” standing between you and your financial freedom. It is what you do with your money and time that determines whether you will achieve this freedom or not. Once you realized this then it becomes your responsibility, if you don’t know what to do with your money, to get the help that you need – And once you know that you need help to get it now! Because it is so easy to put it off for another day.
I know, I know, you want financial freedom and someday you will get around to it but today something else is more pressing. You are too busy with work, the children, piano practice, cleaning the house and back to school shopping, but some day you will get around to this financial freedom stuff.
The problem is “someday” you will run out of “somedays”, and every day you delay you have fewer “someday” to actually get it done.
When you are 20 years old you think retirement is 40 years off so you wait until 30. When you are 30 you have a mortgage and a family and spend money like crazy so you wait until 40. When you are 40 the children are in college or need money for weddings so you wait until 50. By 50 you would have lost your greatest ally, Time! So much time has been lost that your desire for financial freedom is handicapped.
The reality is, there is no right or convenient time to start building your dreams of a secure retirement. It will never be easier than today. It will only get harder because there is less
time. Don’t put it off another day because putting it off is a sure way to kill your dream.
Start now. I can’t overemphasize this fact. Use coaching to get on the path and keep you on the path, so that your dream of wealth and financial freedom become a reality.
It’s not money that builds wealth…it is what you do with the money and the time that you have that builds wealth.
“Don’t let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was.” – Richard L. Evans
By Glenn Ferguson, a financial planner who specializes in retirement coaching.
