Keeping with the theme of income, money is the most universally recognised/accepted means of exchange of value and income, I will therefore spend some time talking about money.
In businesses, you often hear the phrase “cash is king”. If the business possesses assets worth millions, but can’t service its day-to-day financial commitments (because its assets are not liquid) it would be at risk of folding up. It’s more or less the same in our personal lives, without money, we don’t fold up, but we are limited to what we can do and how we live our lives would be different from those who have surplus money.
Paraphrasing a statement I have come across a few times in the last few months, “money is not the most important thing in life, but it is up there with the air we breathe”. I have come to agree with this belief as over the course of my life, it has been very clear to me that the rich and the poor live a different quality of life and in my opinion, the difference between these two groups, is the money they have at their disposal (and what they do with it, perhaps). So yes, money is not the most important thing, but it is a major determinant of the options and choices available to us.
Anyone who has lived a difficult life or gone through a phase in their life where things were really tough (I mean no roof over their head, barely able to eat once-a-day, etc. type of difficult life) would tell you that money is the most important thing and is king!
Something else I have come across in the last few months, is what is described as limiting beliefs about money (also described as our money mindset). I didn’t have a clue what this meant the first few times I heard this, until people began to give examples. Some such examples we Africans grew up hearing are; “you should be content with what you have”, “you have to work hard to make money”, “money doesn’t grow on trees”, “money won’t make you happy”, insinuations that all rich people attain their wealth through dubious means/by cheating others. In addition, “The love of money, is the root of all evil” is a phrase most Nigerian children (at an impressionable age of between 12 – 14 years) in secondary school in the early/mid 1980’s came across in their English literature text (The Pardoner’s tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Tale of Two Cities). The text had to be analysed and this statement evidenced from the text, thus further embedding the belief that having money is a bad thing. These beliefs have inadvertently, without our being aware of it, impacted our relationship with money over time e.g. someone shared, as an example, that because of their limiting beliefs around money, even when they make a lot of money, they end up over-giving or spending the money on unnecessary things because they believed that having a lot of money was not right. So work needs to go into changing one’s limiting beliefs around money, in order to be able to grow one’s wealth and eventually achieve financial freedom. Below is the extract of a pic from www.harveker.com which shows the millionaire mindset in comparison to some common limiting beliefs
I believe that money is important, but it is important not to be a slave to it, so much so that you will go to any length to acquire money and then just stash the money away without it being of any benefit to you or others.
My view is that money is a tool to be used; it accords one options and choices. It affords one the ability to help others and to live a life of comfort; and the confidence and freedom to embark on passion projects, thus living a rich and fulfilling life.
For that reason, I believe it is important to grow one’s money (income); do you agree?
Below is an instagram post which aptly depicts the steps to growing one’s money.
📝 Originally shared under my first blog, bitalks; part of the journey that shaped Life’s Riches.
I’m revisiting and resharing it here as part of the Money Basics series — a space to reflect, relearn, and reframe our understanding of money, together.
🧠 What money belief did you grow up with that you now question?
💬 I’d love to hear your reflections in the comments.
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