Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew.

–Cicely Tyson

One of the cardinal rules about Mastering Money is that our income MUST be greater than our outgo. In simple words, spend less than you earn.

The way to initiate is to keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of our life. There are many ways to do this, and so there is a method that will suit almost everyone:

Personally, I keep receipts of every purchase I make in my wallet. At the end of the day, when I come home, I transfer the receipts into a folder I have created for expenses for that month. For example, ‘Expenses Nov 2006’. For those items that I don’t get a receipt for, I write down the expense on a small slip of paper and put that in my wallet.

At the end of the month, I add up all expenses in the folder for that month, under the appropriate categories. Now I know exactly where my money is going. If I happen to spend too much money in one area, I will know immediately and can make necessary changes in money allocations for present and future months.

I have been doing this for years and it works incredibly well. It’s really useful to get an idea of what my total monthly expenses usually look like, as well.

You can use any category structure that you like for tracking expenses. I like to keep things as simple as possible. I use the 10 category structure that I got from Robert G. Allen:

1. Giving (Charity, Donations, etc.)
2. Self (Savings)
3. Taxes (Income tax, property tax, etc.)
4. House (Mortgage, rent, etc.)
5. Household (Household expenses like groceries, etc.)
6. Auto (Auto expenses like gasoline, etc.)
7. Fun & Entertainment (Dining out, buying toys, etc.)
8. Insurance (Insurance premuim expenses)
9. Miscellaneous
10. Business (Business expenses if you own a business)

Once you know how much is going out on a monthly basis, you will have the necessary data to know how much you need to bring in on a monthly basis. It’s common sense and a very simple mantra.

If you don’t follow this simple mantra, you will not be able to see exactly where your money is going, and where you can curb expenses if you need to.

Warren Buffet has 2 rules about money:

1. Never loose it
2. Never forget rule number 1

There are 2 things that I will continue to do as long as I can live. One is to keep a journal and the other is to always, always, always pay myself first.

How about you, Wanna Master Money?

Love is the royal road to salvation. It doesn’t matter what race, religion or gender you are, love is available to everyone as a way of getting yourself up out of the problems in your life and finding the road to happiness. One thing that many people fail to realize, however, is that marriage does not equal love. You can get married as many times as you like but love doesn’t come out of marriage no matter what religion, church or spiritual organization you come from. In order for marriage to work, love has to be there first and it has to be something you can nourish and help to grow or it will surely dry up and fade away. Marriage needs love the way a flower needs water. Without love, you have nothing.

When we talk about love, what is it we are talking about exactly? What can we do to get this love and keep it? Self help in marriage is all about finding the way to feed your love and make it grow. Love isn’t something that just anyone can maintain although it is available as an option to everyone. Maintaining love is something that only a few select people are capable of and the percentage is surprisingly quite low. It is estimated by some of the greatest psychiatrists in the self help field that love is really an energy that can only be maintained by something close to two percent of the population! Do these numbers sound low to you? They sound low to a lot of people and yet, statistics often show that the feelings people identify as love often turn to discouragement and resentment after only a few short months and breakups are a dime a dozen in the game of love. If the numbers sound low, there is no need to feel discouraged. Although love may only be possible for a small percentage of the population, it doesn’t have to be you who loses out. Seeing the pitfalls ahead of time and developing a sober attitude toward the difficult challenges of love can be the very thing that saves you from the overwhelming statistics. This is especially true if you discover this valuable information early. Most people don’t learn this until after their first marriage is over. Even divorce doesn’t have to mean discouragement as people’s second marriages often tend to be more successful than their first. This is because some sobering lessons are learned the first time around that were just to difficult for most people to swallow in the beginning.

One of the most sobering truths about successful marriages that most people don’t want to admit is that money plays a much bigger role in the outcome of the marriage than was ever expected by newlyweds. The number one topic of argument among married couples is money. Money plays a role in everything we do, from our self esteem in our careers to the much needed vacations we take when the stress becomes too much. If the money is short, the tensions tend to rise and then the arguments begin. Married couples who have no money ordinarily need to be exceptional individuals with great inner strength and determination to make things work. This is already a great truth for those who already have a lot of money so it is even more true for those who don’t.

Another extremely sobering truth for married couples is that partnerships often survive because of a common project of goal that each partner has with the other. Oftentimes, couples bond for life because of their children who, after the initial joy of the marriage begins to fade, the children come along to bring a renewed sense of purpose into their lives and keep them together no matter what the problems are that they face. Couples who share a business together or similar careers can also find mutual respect and joy for each other. Even these commonalities, however, are often not enough to sustain the marriage in many cases. Many marriages have failed even though the two are from similar careers start with children early on.

All is not lost! The most common factor which is identified in successful marriages is an importance which is placed on spiritual growth and self help between two people. This spirituality that exists between two people is hard to define and may even come in the form of two people being driven in their careers. Underneath all of this, however, is a commitment to better themselves and the belief that love is a great power which is deserving of respect and reverence. The mystery of love and marriage may never be solved but it certainly benefits a person early on to know the stakes and to be aware of the many pitfalls. Only in this way can you make your chances much better for finding and fulfilling love in your life.

Self Limiting Elephants

Elephants born in captivity are restrained by a chain that attaches one leg to a metal spike driven into the ground. This prevents them from roaming. They become accustomed to the fact that, as long as the chain and spike are next to them, they are unable to move.

As they grow older, their minds become programmed. When they see the spike and chain, they “believe” and accept that they will not be able to move. They become so conditioned that when their owners place a small rope and wooden peg next to them, they make no effort to step away from it, because they “believe” they are unable to.

In truth, their actual power as adults is so great that they could easily pull up a chain and spike of any size. Their programming or “belief,” however, allows this tiny rope and wooden peg to limit their movement.

We are all very much like these elephants. We allow the weaknesses, fears and rejection we experienced as children to program us into a life in which we lack power, peace, love and happiness. We become controlled by false childhood assumptions we have made about our ability, strength and self worth.

We can move away from these “pegs” of self-limitation, but we must chose to do so.

The Lion Cub

The story about the lion cub more graphically describes this process.

Once there was a great lioness that went hunting with her newborn cub. While chasing and attacking a flock of sheep, the she-lion made a wrong move, fell off a cliff and died.

The cub was left without a mother and grew up in the midst of the sheep. As the years passed, the cub became a full-grown lion, but it was instinctually conditioned to behave as a sheep. It ate grass, made a bleating sound, and just like the sheep, developed a fear of all other animals.

One day, another lion attacked the flock, and in the chase, was shocked to see the ridiculous sight of a full grown lion running away with the sheep bleating “bah bah” in fear.

He caught up to the sheepish lion, and asked, “What are you doing? Why are you acting in this ridiculous way? You a great, powerful lion acting like a lowly powerless sheep? What has come over you? You should be ashamed of yourself.”

The sheepish lion explained that he was a sheep, and that the flock had taught him to fear and bleat and run in horror from the powerful lions.

The adult lion took the sheepish lion down to the river and asked him to look at the reflection of his own face. He saw that he was like the lion and not like the sheep. The lion then woke up from its ignorance and discovered its previously ignored inner courage, strength and majesty.

We are like the sheepish lion. The sheep represent our human nature, our personality, which moans, fears, complains and worries. The Lion is the spiritual aspect of our being, which is a source of great power, wisdom, creativity, goodness and love.

Great spiritual teachers have appeared throughout history with the same message of our “LION NATURE”, the untapped spiritual power and greatness that dwells within us.

Our Life Purpose

Our life purpose is to manifest our unlimited inner power, beauty, creativity and love. We will never feel totally satisfied until we fulfill this inner need to become who we really are. Just as every flower feels a basic need to bring forth its flowers and fruits, we too have an abundance of gifts to bring forth to the world around us. We can do this in many ways.

What are your challenges, which you would like to meet today with greater confidence in your inner power and ability to cope?

1. Dealing more positively with a relationship problem?
2. Healing yourself from an illness or weakness in the body?
3. Dealing with the loss of or separation from a loved one?
4. Solving an economic problem?
5. Bringing up children with love and wisdom?
6. Manifesting social changes?
7. Facing death with inner peace when the time comes?
8. Forgiving someone?
9. Confronting fears?
10. Transforming our belief system.
11. Coping with a law case or some injustice?
12. Creating something that requires all your inner resources?
13. Finishing school?
14. Making a new step in life?
15. Making an important decision?

Whatever our present challenges might be, we need to move forward and meet them on all levels with self-confidence, self-esteem, humility, love and clarity. In addition, we need to be detached from the final outcome. It is the motive and effort which count and not the result.

We will also need to develop patience and perseverance.
We must preserver while also being patient for the results.