Minding your own business! (MYOB!)

So he said, "I am Abraham's servant. The Lord has blessed my master abundantly, and he has become wealthy. He has given him SHEEP and CATTLE, SILVER and GOLD, MENSERVANTS and MAIDSERVANTS and CAMELS and DONKEYS...Genesis 24:34-35

A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it separated into FOUR headwaters Genesis 2:10

OK people, so what's Ms. Believer on about, what does minding your own business have to do with our finances. It's a term that we usually use to tell people to stop poking their noses into what does not concern them isn't it. Well yes, but this time I'm speaking to me and you for us to mind our own business. One thing I'm rapidly beginning to realise is that for wealth creation one has to begin to break a lot of mindsets previously held and begin to build new ones. Today I want to try and get us thinking on a different path, I truly believe that to become wealthy we have to go beyond the having a job mindset and begin to embrace the building a business mindset/becoming a smart investor mindset.

There is nothing wrong with having a job, I believe in working, everyone should work as I believe we learn from working on a job. We learn to respect authority, time management, honing skills like teamwork, negotiation and leadership. I'm always a bit wary of people who have never had a job and are in a perpetual state of waiting for capital for them to start their own business! Also, being on a job lets true entrepreneurs know that they're not just cut out for the 9-5 drill! I'm also not saying hand in your notice but to look beyond having a job to wealth creation through business ownership.

In our jobs, we mind our bosses business, we mind our shareholders business, think of this while we are working, our shareholders are sleeping because their money is working for them. I recommend everyone reads The Cashflow quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki. Mind boggling, I also just finished reading Duncan Bannatyne's biography 'Anyone can do it', totally mind boggling, requires a post of it's own but I'm very inspired. Except you work in the city and are expecting a bonus of half a million pounds or more, then for most of us who work in the real world, there is a cap on our salary, in most cases even with bonuses we cannot earn beyond a certain amount but when we mind our own business the sky is the limit.

The Bible says Abraham was rich in gold, silver,sheep, cattle e.t.c. I'm not a Bible scholar but I take this to mean that he was rich in assests, precious metals will always be valuable whether the markets go up or down and even more so when the markets are down because people realise how useless cash can be! Sheep and cattle, sheep provide wool, cattle provide milk, you don't have to kill these animals to gain from them, remember an asset is anything that puts money in your pocket. What are you accumulating? Women, we need to wake up. Shoes, bags e.t.c are good but I hope we are not using the money that could be working hard for us to amass things that the value drops immeadiately we step out of the shop. I'm not saying don't look good but take stock! All over the world, I hear people talk about womens rights and freedom but how can one be free if they are not financially free? Minding your own business doesn't have to mean opening a company, it is minding your assets, have you increased your assets this year? What are you rich in? Assets or liabilities.

The Bible also says that the river in Eden separated into 4 rivers, Tudor Bismark interpets this to mean that every believer should have 4 streams of income.Your salary can be one, but what else? Don't be so busy minding other people's businesses and forget your own. Remember for most of us there might be no pension because they are using our money to pay our grandparents now! I haven't done so well in increasing my asset base as I would have liked, I have to sit down and refine my financial plan. Part of minding my own business is getting the financial education I need to make wise investment choices and not just jumping on the latest bandwagon. One thing I firmly believe is not investing in ANYTHING or ANYONE I don't understand. Don't do it because everyone is doing it and please beware of very quick and very high return on investment. Usually by the time everyone is buying or doing something the educated investors have already made their money and smiled off to the bank.

An important thing to note, look at the richest people in the world, none of them are employees, they could have been at some point in their lives but they had to move to the business owner or investor side of the cashflow quadrant to make it to the big leagues. In the world we live in, wealth creation is no longer about being greedy or becoming a millionaire but the security that even if one were made redundant today, there is something somewhere that will pay the mortgage in the interim.

So I'm learning to mind my own business, what about you? I'll end this post with some words from two songs that show how the world is changing. When did it go from...

I will do anything for you
Yes I would
I'll give you all
the things you want
baby there's nothing in this world I wouldn't do (3T...anything)

...to

She's got her own thing
That's why I love her
Miss Independent

Lol! MYOB!