It is fundamental to my increasing trajectory to financial success that I gain in financial literacy. I have just turned 50 and to date I have allowed myself to get side-tracked and distracted - or I've taken the scenic route. For the past 17 years I have helped others before I have helped myself - too much volunteering and not enough dispatching of invoices.
In an effort to lose my non-profit money programs and turn towards saying "Welcome" to financial independence, I bought a gem of a book:Rich Dad, Poor Dad by R. Kiyosaki. Here are some thoughts on financial winners and losers - adapted by me but based on Kiyosaki's financial savvy:
"People are so afraid of losing that they lose [because they refuse to engage in the game of making money in case they sustain a loss]
For most people, the reason they don't win financially is becase the pain of losing money is greater than the joy of being rich.
Winning means being unafraid to lose. Winning usually follows losing. Failure inspires winners. And failure defeats losers.
The secret of winners is failure inspires winning; thus they are not afraid to lose. There is a big difference between hating losing and being afraid to lose. Winners hate losing so losing only inspires them to become better. Poor people play not to lose; they don't play to win.
Stacking your assets column is easy but it's a high-attitude game. It takes guts, patience and a great attitude towards failure. Losers avoid failing and failure turns losers into winners."
For my part I've been too busy volunteering to play any financial games. To business Kiyosaki says that the busiest people are often the laziest. Well, I've never seen it from that perspective, but I now freely admit that I have been very financially lazy.
2010 will see me raising the financial stakes, and my focus is on generating capital. Let the game begin!
