Personal finance is all about our money mindset. It doesn’t matter how much you are told about money we have to put our knowledge into practice. It doesn’t matter how much you make, the principals of personal finance can still be applied. You can make $30,000 a year and you can be rich and you can make $100,000 you can be broke. Due to the importance of the money mindset this week’s blog is going to be a commentary on how greed is present within all of our lives and how important it is to be grateful during every step our journey. It may sound cliche but it is about the journey and not the destination.
The formal definition of greed is “an intense and selfish desire for something”. Today as a society we are very greedy. We can ask the people around us if they are grateful for anything within their lives and they are sure to respond “of course I am”. The issue is from day to day all we do is complain about everything that we don’t have and every way we have been unequally treated. There is so much to be grateful for every single day but we are never content. This mindset can be beneficial but also a self-detriment when it comes to material items. Being greedy and chasing monetary items will not only cause you to be unhappy but burn a massive whole in your pocket. For some reason we can have 300 articles of clothing in our closet and still complain about how we have nothing to wear. We can our friends get $500 gifts and complain about our $250 gifts. Partially due to the influence of the media and advertising we have been brainwashed to believe that we constantly need the bigger better and often more expensive version of what we already have. We not only justify buying the new item but keep the one we have because it carries sentimental value or maybe “I’m saving it for that one special occasion” I’ve heard it all. I have spoken about it in previous blogs (Telling Your Money Where to Go, Start Saving Today) but we are so good at justifying new purchases and we are sometimes even better at justifying not getting rid of something. If we are to put things in to perspective and with a little bit of work we can change our mindset to realize that clothes are just that. CLOTHES. People genuinely don’t care about what you’re wearing. If we shrink our wardrobe it will not only save us time in picking out an outfit but we can pick up a few more dollars from selling some of our possessions and put that money towards things that will truly bring us happiness.
We love to make conversations all about ourselves. We come home from work we talk about how bad our day was and how often is the response “Yeah that sucks my day was bad too”. Every time we complain there is something positive on the other end of that complaint and we should try to emphasize and realize that within our conversations. “I had a bad day at work” be grateful you have a job. “Why do we always order pizza” be grateful you are able to order pizza. The fact of the matter is we are living in the best time ever to be a human and a lot of our problems are extremely insignificant to the point where we fabricate our own issues from day to day. This was really illustrated for me as one day I went to work and on the hottest and most beautiful day of the year I entered the office and was so ecstatic about the weather outside only to have my coworker say “it’s nice but it’s kind of windy outside and I heard it was going to be windy tomorrow” sometimes we just need to give our head a shake and realize how lucky we are to be in the position we are in.
Changing our money mindset to be more content with the items we have will bring you more happiness, save you money, and reduce our negative comments from day to day.
Make sure to leave a comment and follow our Instagram!
The Rich College Student 