I keep hearing stories about how people who are aware and active about their personal finance are improving their life, and getting more out of it than just debt and mortgage.
Come to think of it, personal finance may really be a conceptual metaphor for personal discipline. When you start working out on your financial situation, you are not just putting your money in order, you are also putting you life in order. You are reigning in out-of-control spending temptations, rigorously tracking your expenses, paying your bills on time, trying hard to get out of borrowings….. in a generic sense, you are trying to set up a “getting-rich” plan and making efforts to stick to it.
But in a way, you are just trying to be more self-disciplined. When you calculate the benefits of this discipline in terms of money, it becomes personal finance and the end result is that you become “rich”. Try extending this discipline to other walks of your life and indeed the end result again will be “rich”…not just in terms of money, but also in terms of other important things that matter.
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Being able to forgo immediate gratification for greater future gratification also helps
Super saver: I know you are right….but sometimes I wonder if we are not enjoying certain things in life when the time is right and that it might be too late if we wait too long.
Very true. I have noticed that wealthy people I know (who have had to work hard to obtain their wealth) generally prosper in other areas of their life. It would make sense that the same discipline and determination that it takes to succeed with money would spill over into other areas of life.
Oh absolutely!
This is precisely why most Americans will not ever be well off financially… because they lack self discipline. We live in a Twinkie and TV society.
Just found your blog and you have a place on my RSS reader
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