Updated: October 24, 2020
Did you love your finance subjects when you were in college?
I recall my economics class, and how I and most of my classmates found it boring. My accounting class was no different, as I felt it was a waste of my calculator’s power to do an endless stream of additions and subtractions.
Today, April shares with us her similar story, and the change in mindset that she had, which eventually made her love personal finance.
As a follow-up to The WHYPOWER Attribute, here are her “Eight Reasons Why”
Undeniably, there were times in our lives when we meet people who are highly, strangely and mysteriously fascinated with the topic of finance. And often, we think they’re insane, weird, or boring.
Of all the things to be interested in, why personal finance?
We all dreamed of having financial freedom. We want it so badly, but we fear the subject because it’s difficult, and worse, learning it is not interesting. And anything that doesn’t interest us will never bring out the best in us.
How can we be fascinated about it when it’s all about numbers, computations, budgeting, and living below your means (which many interpret as having no fun in life)?
Back in college, I almost dropped my finance subject because it was so boring that I couldn’t find any passion to learn it.
But later on, I realized that my future is at stake, and either I work for the rest of my life to earn money, or learn how to make my money work for me.
Either I let other people manage my money or I empower myself to do it on my own. Either I give up because it’s too difficult to learn, or at least try to understand it because it is an essential part of life.
Admittedly, I hated it at first, but I eventually learned to love personal finance. And now, it’s an advocacy for me. Here are the eight reasons why.
1. It’s about growing your money.
I realized that money has a huge role in my life, but of course, life is not all about money. It’s accepting the fact that it is a necessity because it helps you in following your passion, securing the future, helping your family and the community, and having more opportunities to make other people happy.
2. It’s about knowing how to grow your money.
Investing is not about memorizing formulas as most people think. It can be just about having a simple understanding of life’s financial obstacles, and knowing how to overcome them with just a little common sense and self-discipline.
3. It feels practical.
It’s knowing that you don’t have to work all your life to achieve your goals. It only takes one great idea, and the wisdom to bring life’s odds in your favor, to change your financial life. To learn how to work smart instead of just working hard.
4. It gives you pride.
You know that you couldn’t easily be fooled anymore by false promises from financial crooks. People love reading books about relationships because it gives them insights on how to find the right person, on how to make romance work. If that is so, then the same applies to your finances, right? One can also learn how to manage money.
5. It’s fun.
People go to casinos for entertainment, but the risks they take are beyond their control with often irrational expectations. I discovered that investing can be as exciting and fun, but with the right strategy, you can tilt the odds in your favor and win more often.
6. It’s challenging.
To become poor is easy, but to live as a poor person is a challenge. Meanwhile, to learn how to be rich is challenging, but to live like a rich person is easy. So if given a choice, I would rather challenge myself to be rich, and live an easy life. Which one would you choose?
7. It feels right.
Matthew 7:13 says, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few find it.” So Are you going to be with the popular and easy norms yet possibly detrimental? Or be with the challenging and less known yet certainly beneficial?
8. It’s all about your life.
It’s understanding that personal finance is not just about money and luxury. That it is inevitably a significant part of our life and that learning and applying it is a responsibility. Awareness doesn’t guarantee happiness, but it does guarantee us more options for our life.
Sometimes, we just have to understand things deeply to appreciate it. Objects were not invented for the sake of having it. It must have a profound reason for existing. Like humans when created by God, must have an overwhelming purpose on Earth.
Personal finance was conceived to solve some human problems, and we have to recognize it to maximize its potential, otherwise, we’re wasting our chances of having abundance in life.
Indeed, it only takes courage and humility to accept the truth that we need to learn it, and we would realize the blessings that have always been in front of us.
About the author:
This article is written by April Ann Ramirez. She is working as a credit analyst in a bank and an active member of the IMG Wealth Academy since Feb 2014.
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Photo credits: alancleaver, lendingmemo and teegardin
Thank you for sharing article! It’s very interesting. Hope to hear more from you.
thank you for this article ^_^
Once again, thank you very much ate April! It really inspired me a lot.
Keep it up! :))
There certainly is an abundance of truth in the eight bullet points within this article. Clearly, there are two major groups that you may make make the choice to join. Those who will never do much more than the minimum to have the basics of life and then those who will learn to make the wise and correct choices in life that leads to wealth accumulation. Two people born in the very same circumstances of poverty and disadvantage will often end life’s journey in very different financial conditions and I think many of us have seen this in our world travels.
One thing I find amusing is the retired EX-pats I have contact with here in the Philippines. The vast majority celebrate when they get a small increase in their SS check and will be telling me ” what I’m gonna do with it.” Soon, they find out that inflation will eat that small increase. BUT, when you bring up the subject of investments that beat inflation, building a retirement business or other things related to wealth building at retirement age, the conversation quickly tapers off. Time to crack another beer and get back to sports talk, the weather or for the bold and adventurous, politics.
It was for me, honestly both sad and comical how only one EX-pat I have encountered so far here in the Philippines actually wanted to discuss and learn about what others are actually doing to earn and build wealth. Guess what, that gentlemen was a self maid millionaire several time over!!! He really did not need more money. Until the day he passed away, he still loved the challenge of building out new opportunities and watching something prosper. He got a thrill from observing his new Filipino neighbours create a business starting with a new idea and grow it just like he had done many years ago after discharge from the Army. It is a MINDSET folks, and we can all develope that if we choose to.