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!

Take stock!

It's been a minute I know, I am the busiest I have ever been in my life and I am loving it. Learn to love being under pressure, it reveals all. The good, the bad and the ugly. I have allowed procrastination to steal a lot from me, if not for pressure I wouldn't know but now I am actively fighting W.A.P, war against procrastination! Lol!

Today's post is about taking stock, the more I read my Bible, the more I am aware how it covers every area in our lives. There's nothing you need to know that is not in the Bible. Today I came across this passage in Proverbs 27;

Be sure you know the condition of your flocks,
give careful attention to your herds;

24 for riches do not endure forever,
and a crown is not secure for all generations.

25 When the hay is removed and new growth appears
and the grass from the hills is gathered in,

26 the lambs will provide you with clothing,
and the goats with the price of a field.

27 You will have plenty of goats' milk
to feed you and your family
and to nourish your servant girls.

What I learnt from this passage is the importance of taking stock. With our finances, especially these days we can't afford to be careless or mess around. In my last post I asked about the difference between assets and liabilities and which of them we were acquiring. Isn't it interesting to note that we are not asked the condition of our clothes or shoes but the condition of our flocks and herds? To me this means, take stock of your assets because your assets should fund your liabilities. From your herds you get money, wool from the sheep, milk and meat from the goats (i don't like goat's milk but you get my drift). If you take care of your assets, your assets will take care of you.

To get to a destination, one needs to know where they are. Financially, where are you? Right now, I am in an ok place but I'm definitely not where I want to be which is debt and financially free. Although my debt was used to fund an asset, it is a debt nonetheless and I want to learn how to reduce it. I ask again, where are you? What are the assets you posses, cashflow from real estate, dividends from stocks/shares e.t.c and what are your liabilities; monthly bills, credit card bills e.t.c. Are you living within or above your means?

For those with assets, how are they doing? I must admit, I'm a bit careless here, i want to trust what the stockbroker is saying, what the mutual fund manager is saying, what the real estate guy is saying BUT I need to do some underground work as well because in my experience, professionals talk posh and sometimes rubbish to those who don't know what to ask. So now, I'm making more effort to see how my assets are doing and how I can create more in this climate!

Remember the future you dream of is being created today. Is what you are doing today ensuring a better tomorrow for you.

Selah.