4 Abilities to Be Financially WISE and Happy

Wealth Management – Prioritize Health, then Money

When we think of wealth, the first thing that comes to mind is Money. But there can be many types and forms of wealth. Some Types of Wealth are:

1. Financial Wealth
   • Money
     • Liquid assets that are like cash
     • Illiquid assets that can take time to convert into cash
   • Possessions
     • Tangible
     • Intangible
2. Physical Wealth or Physical Fitness
   • Physical Health & Fitness
   • Lifestyle & Comforts
3. Emotional Wealth or Emotional Peace
   • Good Relationships -Family, Friends, and people in general
   • Love – Love people and attitude to serve
   • Social Wealth
     • Status
     • Name & Fame
   • Humor and Laughter the powerful stressbusters
4. Mental Wealth or Mental Clarity
   • Knowledge
   • Growth – Personal Growth
   • Freedom of Choice and Expression
   • Time – Control over personal time.
   • Happiness – Sense of Happiness
5. Spiritual Wealth or Spiritual Awareness
   • Sense of Purpose in Life

Manage Money -Money is Important

Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make complete use of the other five.

W. Somerset Maugham

Without money, life can be very difficult. Managing money is a key component to be financially wise.

• First, we may need the skills to be able to make money, unless we are born with a golden spoon.
• Second, we need the skills to manage money. Managing money well can help one weather many storms in life.
• Thirdly we should also know how to reskill ourselves as needed.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) organizes events as part of its Global Money Week (GMW) initiative. It is an annual global campaign to raise awareness of the importance of ensuring that young people, from an early age, are financially aware, and are gradually acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve financial well-being and financial resilience. They have activities like visiting banks, stock exchanges, businesses, schools, universities, and other educational activities to improve financial literacy.

Invest in Health –Health is First Wealth

The first Wealth is Health

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Even the richest men die. Money can help us buy the best healthcare. At the same time, lifestyle diseases can make life difficult and even cut it short. One has to take care of one’s own physical health, emotional health, mental health, and spiritual health. Only a person who has led a healthy life can be considered truly wealthy.

Income Management – Manage a Sustainable Lifestyle, then Comfort

Money is the instrument of exchange in this world that helps us to maintain our lifestyle and comforts. If we can manage money to give us a lifestyle and comfort and keeps us happy, we are on our way to financial wisdom.

Manage Present Lifestyle

We have to learn to manage what lifestyle and comfort we can afford in the present circumstances. We can also take the steps necessary if improvements are needed in lifestyle and comfort. However, getting carried away with one aspect of being financially wise can lead to serious financial challenges over a period of time.

Invest Money – First Manage Expenditure, and Liquidity

Investments can help create unearned income of income with minimal time commitments. It can help a person becomes wealthy. However one has to strike a balance between the present and the future. Being wealthy is also a mindset. We have to start feeling wealthy in the present. The mind will always want more.

Overzealous investment for growth or overspending can create a liquidity crisis at the global or personal level. It is important to maintain a balance between expenditure, savings/investments, and liquidity. Imbalance can spiral into multiple problems over time.

Plan for Stages of Life

Right from birth, education, work life, retirement, and death, money changes hands to give us the lifestyle and comforts in the different stages of our life. If we are financially wise, we need to plan for the different stages of our life and our loved ones, the ones that affect our emotional health.

Self-Growth Management – Invest in Yourself

Lifestyle and comforts help us become happier. However, we seek more and more, until we realize that beyond a particular point, incremental money does not translate into higher levels of happiness.

Invest in yourself

Growth is possible only if we invest in ourselves.

The best investment you can make is an investment in yourself… The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.

Warren Buffett

When we invest in ourselves, we grow. This growth could be in different aspects of our life which ultimately lead to the main focal point which is increasing our happiness in life.

Invest in Good Relationships

More than 80 years of research at Harvard says that good relationships are important for a happy life. They have come up with the amount of money beyond which incremental happiness is marginal.

“When the study began, nobody cared about empathy or attachment. But the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships.”

George Vaillant

We started with Health as our priority which includes emotional health and good relationships. Our priorities keep changing with the stage of our life. Typically they may go from learning, to earning, to lifestyle/comforts to growth and happiness.

Evolve in Happiness

Self-Growth makes us happy. However, we want to be happier. We may feel happier by sharing with others or doing what we love.

Reclaim Your Time

Money can come and go, however, time is the only limited resource for our life.

The most precious resource we have is time.

Steve Jobs

Financial Freedom

Many people seek financial freedom so that they basically have more control over their own time. They can do things that they like and avoid things that do not like.

Self-Love

We are all a bundle of likes and dislikes, each a unique being. We are similar in the sense that we feel happy when we can do what we want. We seek happiness and try to attain it by doing what we love.

Many people complain that they do not have time for their own selves. Some may think that they do not have time to pursue their desires and hobbies or do things they wish to do. Some have bucket lists for life and want time for doing stuff for themselves. They may put off many things until they are financially better off. But can lost time be gained back? When is a good time to take time out for your self-care?

Desire, Opportunity, Time, and Money all need to fall in place for our desired experiences to manifest. You will notice that both money and time are both important for the fulfillment of personal goals and desires.

Control over Time

There are things that we have to do and there are things we want to do. The more we do the things that we want to do, the happier we feel. Many people endure the work week to enjoy the weekends. In a good job market, the attrition levels go up. Some people switch for money, some for work they love, and some for the flexibility of time. Time to pursue other things that you want in life.

More than money, time becomes very important for self-care, self-love, or expressing your love for others by sharing your wealth.

Share Your Wealth

We are social beings and many of us want to spread happiness to a wider social community. Sharing helps them feel happier. There could be a baser quality of name and fame for some, or it could be pride, or maybe it was born out of compassion. Spirituality teaches us that the nobler the intent, the greater will be the happiness.

Summary

Being financially WISE is rooted in using money as a resource in life, to improve the quality of our lives, our loved ones, and the world around us.

It starts with various aspects of personal health management and then moves to income management to sustain personal health management. As self-growth takes place, our circle of happiness includes encompasses our relationships. When we feel full, we share our wealth for greater welfare.

Wealth may unite or divide. Only the one who is financially wise can wield the power of wealth to unite self, family, and communities and grow in happiness.

You may like to review the 8 Habits or the 4 Abilities that can help become financially wise and a happier person.