Money Psychology

Money: the center of our madness as humans, the reason why we run helter-skelter all day long and at times even night. The reason why we must find purpose and work towards making that purpose the best it can be. As humans, whether you agree or not, we are money driven.

But this generalized madness has to have a pattern, or is there no pattern to this madness? Read on to better understand the pattern to this madness.

A lot has been said about money and its concept. The argument will probably go on for generations to come. But should there really be an argument about it? What I think is that the concept of money and its psychology is just perspective, at the end of the day we are all saying the same thing. This has been said a lot of times. I will say it again here.

Money above all else is leverage. Money in terms of psychology can then be referred to as a tool that can be leveraged to achieve our needs and wants. It is a tool that can be leveraged to achieve freedom. It offers security and peace of mind. No doubt money can also bring you happiness by helping to tick lists off your bucket list.

Look at it this way, it’s the end of the month and you have just been paid your salary. After paying all your bills there is little or no money left right? Then you are already immediately looking forward to the next paycheck. It is how the cycle goes.

You are driving an old car and on your way back home in the evening you hear a noise from the car, you managed to get the car home without breakdown. The following day you have to take it to the mechanic workshop to check what is wrong with it.

On getting to the mechanic workshop, the mechanic runs some diagnostics and checks the car. You are then told it will cost you in the region of £700 to fix the car and get it to proper working condition and it needs to be fixed as soon as possible. Failure to do so means you risk the car breaking down on the road and it will cause more damage which will cost more money to fix.

If you have enough money saved for emergency or you have car insurance, you won’t have to worry too much. But let’s say you do not have any money saved you will have to resolve to the use of credit card or another form of borrowing. This is what I mean about money offering you security against unfortunate occurrences.

There is an adage in my mother tongue; here I am talking about the Yoruba language. “A janilaya bi ailowolowo, ailowolowo ohun gan ni baba ijaya (nothing frightens like lack of money, lack of money is the mother of all frights)”. This Yoruba adage is talking about having money to look after important necessities of life without having to panic to meet you and your family’s needs.

I have identified 6 things you need to know about money and I hope it will help you have a better understanding of the psychology of money.

Money Is Attracted By Idea

One idea can make you wealthy. Look, I am not talking about wealth in terms of health or relationship. I am talking about wealth in terms of money.

The good thing is that we all have ideas. Actually, an idea is very cheap. But your idea is worthless until you take action and turn it to money. A lot of wealthy people’s wealth comes from ideas, I am talking about self-made millionaires and billionaires who built their empires from scratch.

There are a lot of wealthy people that I can use as examples that you possibly have heard their name before but the obvious examples are Richard Branson, Bill Gate etc.

The even best thing about ideas is it doesn’t have to be fully original; it just has to be unique in its own way. Because trust me, I don’t believe in original ideas, an idea that strikes you as original is also being thought of by at least 6 million other people. The thing with ideas is that it favors the brave and the most determined.

Richard Branson wasn’t the first to think about hot-air balloons and airplanes, neither was Bill Gates the first to think about the idea of a supercomputer. Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even the first to think about social media and Steve Jobs wasn’t the first to have an idea of what a super smartphone and computer should be.

But the similarity between them all is that they all had an idea and they all worked hard to see it become a reality. Hastiness in ideas is wealth.

Their businesses that generate millions of dollars today started with an idea, whether original or not.

Money Can Get Bored

The economy of the world operates on money. Money moves fast, and the velocity of money is what makes economies grow and boom. Imagine if everyone keeps money under their mattress and in their wardrobes. The economy of the world will not grow, it will stagnate and there would be no need for banks.

With this concept in mind, we can agree that no one can get rich just by saving their money. I am not asking you to go and invest your money without first learning and inquiring about how investment works. What I am saying is that money must go round for it to be of any real value. You spend money to get money.

Money likes to reproduce; if you do not allow it the freedom to produce babies for you then it will go after people who will give it the freedom to produce babies for them.

Let me put it in another way, money likes to work so it does not get bored. This is the reason why wealthy people are wealthy because they know how to enslave money and make it work hard for them. The idea is simple; you spend money to get money.

Money Is Shy And It Likes To Be Attracted

I saw this concept in Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think and Grow Rich’. Poverty does not need to be attracted because it will come to you itself. Poverty is harsh and bold while money is shy.

If you want to get rich and wealthy, you need to attract money, it will not just come to you because it is one of its nature to be shy. You have to persuade it and know the way to attract it to come to you. Ideas, savings, and investments have proven to be money’s best magnet.

Money Likes Genius And Creativity

I am sure most of you will be thinking, I am not a genius, I’m not even sure if I have a high IQ. Well, I have good news for you, we are all geniuses, you only just need time to understand yourself and discover the area that you are genius in.

Somebody once said, take Tiger Wood in all his glory to the football pitch and see how he will perform. Actually, as at the time of writing this article, Usain Bolt has undergone a trial in Australia and he is now on his way to becoming a professional football player having achieved extraordinary things in athletics. This is an exception but really he is not going to be able to compete at the highest level in the top leagues.

Rumour has it that Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of the biggest social media platforms is a very poor programmer but look at the empire he has gone on to build.

The point here is to discover yourself, master a trade or develop a high-income skill. And thanks to technology, we are lucky to be living in the best time in the history of mankind. You could become an expert in a particular topic in less than a year and monetize your knowledge.

Money is attracted to creative people and the world now only cares about the value you can bring to the marketplace. It doesn’t matter where you’re from in the world, your color, sex, religion or whatever. People only care about the value you are offering them and they will be happy to part with their money for a valuable service or product. It’s just how the world is now.

Money Likes Service

What do I mean by this? This nature of money is biblical and it comes from your ability to serve other people. God loves it if we serve His other children. In the book ‘Business Secrets’ from the Bible, Daniel Lapin talks about the fact that serving others is something that God is really interested in.

Do you know what? The more people you serve the more money you make. Instead of chasing money, think about how you can serve by offering quality products and services that will solve a problem. That’s the easiest way to build a profitable business.

Our hands were designed to create things just like how our legs were designed for transportation. Traditionally, people will create a product with their hands and walk with their legs to the market to offer it to people in the marketplace for a price and they will make money. This is what serving means.

The money that comes from service is the evidence that you have served. It is compensation that you get after you have served.

Money is the consequence of serving other people. This is the spiritual nature of money.

Let me give you one example. Shea butter is mainly found in Africa. If you have taken time to source for shea butter in African and take it to Europe or America. By doing this you have helped take the product from a place that it is in abundance to a place that it is scarce. This is service and the more people that buy it in Europe or America the more monetary reward you will get.

Serving others can come in various forms. If you are ready to serve money will be attracted to you.

Money love people that respect it

There are a lot of people that live a high consumption life. One of the natures of money is that it likes producers more than consumers. That is why you see somebody on a lower salary having more net worth than somebody on a high salary.

Remember it is not how much you earn but how much you keep. A lot of people earn a high salary but they spend it all to finance their lifestyle, their status means that they have to buy expensive houses, cars, and expensive holidays abroad to maintain their status in the society.

Let’s compare a Doctor and a Civil Servant. A Doctor will normally ear more than a civil servant. A medical doctor sometime might think he has to look good in front of his patient, he might put himself under pressure that he needs a big house to match his status, he will go on expensive holidays. On the other hand, people generally will not expect a civil servant to own a big house and expensive cars. If the civil servant respects money, lives within his means, saves and invest the remaining, he can achieve financial independence before a medical Doctor who spends all his income to impress people.

Do not get me wrong here, I have a lot of Doctor Friends who know what they are doing and manage their money well and on the other hand, I know people on low income who do not know what to do with money.

The point here is that money does not care about your profession or status, if you understand it, respect it and treat it well it will stay with you and work for you.

Give an average person £1000. He will go and spend it all on gadgets, shoes, concerts, and cloths. But for people that understand money, they will turn that £1000 to £1010 and £1100 and it will soon grow into double or triple its worth within a few years.

Tell me. What will you do with £1000?