Archive for Mindset

Cool article! Billionaires explain their charity pledge

You make more money if you spend time building relationships and nurturing them, not by chasing the money itself. We all know, or at least we hope that you will learn, that money is just a by-product of the successful relationships you develop. Don’t be afraid of money, embrace it. The money will come as you harmonize all areas of your life and genuinely work towards being happy!

Reuters.com came out with an interesting article today highlighting “The Giving Pledge” launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. So far, 40 billionaires have pledged to give away most of their fortunes during their lifetime or after their deaths. As a part of this, they’ve asked these billionaires to publicly state their intention with a letter of explanation. Below, I wanted to share with you a few of the excerpts:

Laura and John Arnold, hedge fund manager: “We view our wealth in this light — not as an end in itself, but as an instrument to effect positive and transformative change.”

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “If you want to do something for your children and show how much you love them, the single best thing — by far — is to support organizations that will create a better world for them and their children. And by giving, we inspire others to give of themselves, whether their money or their time.”

Philanthropist Eli and Edythe Broad: “Those who have been blessed with extraordinary wealth have an opportunity, some would say a responsibility — we consider it a privilege — to give back to their communities, be they local, national or global.”

Investor Warren Buffett: “Were we to use more than one percent of my claim checks (Berkshire Hathaway stock certificates) on ourselves, neither our happiness nor our well-being would be enhanced. In contrast, that remaining 99 percent can have a huge effect on the health and welfare of others.”

Banker George Kaiser: “I had the advantage of both genetics (winning the ‘ovarian lottery’) and upbringing. As I looked around at those who did not have these advantages, it became clear to me that I had a moral obligation to direct my resources to help right that balance.”

There are plenty more excerpts that you can read! Just click here.

Change of mindset

If you live in constant need of creating security, no matter how exciting or rewarding your life gets, it will only be a matter of time before you seek a new adventure. Now, that doesn’t mean that new adventures are bad. By all means, learn new things, get more degrees, travel to new places, progress!

Human beings are programmed to progress. We are encouraged to be ambitious, to reach for the stars! But the difference is the state of mind you are in. When you live in this constant state of fear and insecurity, nothing is ever enough and the more you get, sometimes the emptier you are.

When you are making a million dollars, that state of fear will tell you that a million dollars is not enough and you have to keep going. It becomes this unhealthy addiction of acquiring more and more and often leads to a life of criminal activity.

Change your mindset, replace fear and insecurity with the desire for progression and ambition then your life will be more about enjoying what you are experiencing rather than hoarding the results of your “successes.”

Delayed Gratification

When I started working for REIC, I read one of the earlier draft’s of Kris Krohn’s latest book. At the time I was not married yet, but had been dating my current husband for almost four years. So, in all of my relationship wisdom, carried this philosophy around with me:

Boys fool around while they are single and girls, well, they shop.http://www.wxyc.org/blog/uploaded_images/shopping.jpg

So, obviously, with that mentality, I over-treated myself on occasion and became a practitioner of retail therapy. I was doing pretty good for myself after college. I landed a really good job right out of school (especially for the job market and especially for Utah county) and was spending a little too much—not more than I made, but almost!

Anyways, as I read through the book draft, one thing stuck out to me. Spend less now and make the sacrifice to not spend for a few years in order to create room for building wealth! So save, invest and skip out on the stuff that you don’t need.

This isn’t a new idea, but reading that concept in the context that it was in (a book talking about making money, legitimately) struck a chord. To me that meant, stop eating out, stop compulsive shopping, stop buying things that I “need” (cause let’s face it, girls “need” everything for everything). And me, being in love with fashion, should know and accept that fashion comes in cycles and that if I miss a season, I’ll see quite a few of the same styles in a few seasons or in the thrift store.

For those of you who read the blog, know that I love getting my news updates and editorials from MSNBC. They had a great article called “How to Escape a Shopping Addiction” with 10 steps Gotta have your steps. For those of you who have shopping addictions, be it in retail, electronics, big masculine toys, this might be a fun read. Enjoy!

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