Vision – the missing link between you and your wealth

Do you know anyone, who doesn’t care about their own finances?

There once was such a man. When asked about the interest rate on his mortgage, he gave it a thought, but couldn’t recall it. So he called the bank. They assumed the customer has been offered a lower rate by the competition.

Then he bluffed: “Yes, actually I did get a offer!”. The bank didn’t want to lose a client and they promptly cut down the interest rate. So he realized the value of his own “fiscal” control.

However you feel about your personal finances, read this article. We believe there’s something to be learned, and more importantly – to be done about it right now.

A matter of balance

Surprisingly, many people go to the extreme in their attitude towards money. On one hand are those who find it the most important thing. In the name of earning more and more, they tend to neglect everything else. On the other hand, there are those who argue the material stuff doesn’t matter. They value doing what they love instead of acquiring wealth.

Both are wrong. Neither would money itself make you happy nor could you be happy without it. It’s best to have a balanced point of view.

Finances are important. They alone are not an end goal, but they will help you achieve many of your goals.

Or, as put by W. Somerset Maugham, „Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five”.

What do you need money for?

You have probably heard the saying “Money can’t buy you happiness”. And there is the one to counter it: “…But neither can poverty.” The truth is, financial security can improve your quality of life in many different ways.

Three things matter the most and you’d better build a long-term vision for them: health, relationships, and personal finances. Maybe you’re thinking: “But the first two have nothing to do with the other!”.

It is true… but only to a degree!

Money and health

Consider this: if you have enough, you can afford to take a good care of yourself. Thus you will be able to accomplish what you envision for your haleness in the long run.

Let’s say you wish to be in perfect physical and mental form throughout life. This is possible when you take care of yourself. Like when you can afford food of high quality, exercise, recreation, and when needed – adequate medical attention. Well, wouldn’t you agree that all of the above require some expenses?

Money and personal relations

You can have a good use of it in your family life. Love alone is not enough for you to fulfill your plans and take your responsibilities. You will need cold hard cash when organizing family vacations, ensuring a comfortable home or good education for your children.

But that’s not all.

Money can buy you time. If you are rolling in it, you won’t have to take any job in order to make a living. Instead, you could spend quality time with your close ones, gathering happy memories. Or invest in personal or professional development and reaching for some other dreams of yours.

It is even more appealing case when one wants to earn big out of pure altruism. Let’s see.

The value of money

Has it ever crossed your mind:

Sometimes cash is the one thing you need to bring true value to others’ lives.

Like in the story about the old millionaire, who signed up for financial courses. Everyone was thinking: “What more could this greedy old man possibly want!”. Anyway, he found it useless to bring light to his true mission. Namely, it was to donate even more to his charity foundation. Helping more people was what he wanted to do – and what he did in fact.

Mission possible – but at a price!

Talking about missions, let us share our own with you.

We, the creators of “Goal Buddy”, strive to help a lot of people reach their goals, in order to live happily and carefree. To do so we fight on many fronts. We develop a mobile app, organize workshops, create meaningful content for our website, record podcast series… All of these take time and hard work, as well as they require some budget. If we weren’t able to invest in this endeavor, we couldn’t be of any assistance to you.

To put it differently, money can open doors for you as well as your ideas and thus be helpful to many.

Finances may do the work of a magnifying glass of your positive impact on society. They help you spread your ideas.

Vision for finances

So far so good – hopefully you are fully convinced how important is to take a good care of your financial status. Actually, this was the easy part. Let’s move on to the more important stuff:

It’s good to have a clear idea of your desirable financial future in the long run. This way you will be confident in your everyday choices and will stay on track. If there’s anything you can do right now, this is building your vision for wealth.

In fact, it’s different from one person to another. And still, you can find the right approach. See our brief stories below and maybe – just maybe – you will find them inspirational.

The (relatively) rich also cry: starting from scratch

To be honest, although today we are well off, we both went a long way. Here is how things were before.

For one of us the high wage used to ensure a comfortable life, happy experiences, vacations and luxuries. What’s wrong with that, you would ask! Well, what flew in, more flew out. Overspending led to piled debts and maxed out credit cards.

The other had to deal with limiting beliefs regarding money, programmed in his mind since early childhood. Thus the attitude that “wealth is not for people like us” was the unconscious obstacle, preventing him from getting rich.  It took a lot of purposeful effort to firstly embrace the willingness to earn money, and then to develop the actual capability of making and eventually managing it.

Our premises were different; however, we had something in common. We both realized the urgency to take control over this aspect of our life – namely to build a vision and work on it.

And that’s what we did!

Examples of a vision for money

Again, although we had dissimilar starting points and perspectives, our visions are quite the same – acquiring financial freedom.  We phrase it as “passive income, higher than monthly spending”, or “a large amount, sufficient to live off throughout life.”

Don’t get us wrong: retiring is not what we want. We desire to be free – free from the necessity of working for our living.

If you already have a definite concept for your desired financial outcome – that’s great. What should your first step be? Let’s find out what kind of goals you need to reach.

How to clarify your vision

In the beginning, we faced this common problem: we wanted financial independence, but we didn’t know how to get there.

While one of us had sufficient resources he couldn’t manage at all, the other one – although earning well, couldn’t control his spending. Anyway, we had to start from somewhere since there was a long road ahead of us. We had the same intuitive approach. We recommend doing what we did: start by educating yourself on the subject. This will enable you to make informed decisions and undertake the right steps.

We don’t always have a specific vision. Some of the 90-day action goals could be for its clarification in any way, shape or form. Like doing research, getting an expert counsel, or enrolling in courses.

First, commit to learn more about the topic and devote 90 days for gathering as much information as possible. Some effective means are:

• Signing up for a financial course;
• Reading relevant books. /If you are interested, find out more about what we the recommend you reading here[1]./;
• Consult with financial management experts on how to develop your strategy.

In any case, investment in knowledge gives the highest return. That’s why improving your understanding of finances is an excellent basis to build on. Afterward, it is high time to do something.

Action time – how to set goals for financial freedom

After defining your vision and enacting your strategy for gaining some literacy on the subject, now you are ready to start getting things done. The modus operandi is to formulate 90-day action goals each quarter, and then to make one weekly step towards them.

Revise your vision every three months to define your next 90-day goal.  Sometimes it could be a small one. Nevertheless, your mind operates on a new level: improving your “fiscal” situation.

Our approaches differ here – we have diverse perspectives and masterplans. It may be interesting for you to know what goals we have reached so far.

The first problem for solving was the loans. A very good example is the “90-day action goal to form a system for paying off debt”. Did it work? It sure did! A 10-year loan melted down in 5 years just with the help of a simple trick: an extra EUR 200 a month went into the repayment account. And the result is astonishing: more than EUR 7000 were saved from the bank interests! On top of that, a good credit rating was regained.

Another illustration: 90-day goals for investments. Our choice in this instance was real estate. So the first objective was to locate and purchase a good property. In the next three months, the house had to be renovated and prepared for renting. And the last 90-day action goal was for finding tenants.

You will never guess how much time this whole process took! Not more than a couple of hours a week.

We started from nothing and attained everything with a vision, 90-day action goals, and small weekly steps. This is the power of our system. Something people find hard, we accomplish with ease and little weekly effort. Nothing can beat perseverance! You just need to plan small steps and keep the pace.

Nothing is impossible

You can achieve anything like this. Think about how you envision your wealth in future. In the beginning, acquire information about what you can actually do. Determine your field of action. And reach one goal each quarter.

Don’t just take it for granted – try it and you will see it yourself!

We would be pleased to know your story, your thoughts about money and your intentions in that matter. Keep us posted and stay tuned for the other topics on our website!

[1] We highly recommend you reading the following books:

• „Your Money or Your Life“ – presents intriguing concepts, which may challenge your perception of your income and your spending’ allocation;
• „Secrets of the Millionaire’s Mind“ – reveals the psychology behind richness and poverty: why you gain exactly what you unconsciously want, what limiting beliefs burden your advancement, etc.;
• „Automatic Millionaire“ – advises on how to practice a better self-control and self-discipline in the financial area, and provides strategies on how to get rid of your mortgages and debts;
• „The Richest Man in Babylon“ – aspirational stories of successful people’s strategies and accomplishments;
• „Rich Dad, Poor Dad“ – suggests a new perspective on the nature of assets and liabilities, as well as a strategy how your money to work for you instead of the other way around. The extremely popular theory om saving up your wage and investing it, so that in a while your investments turn into your income to live off of.