I was talking to a friend today who mentioned that that his investment portfolio has dropped by about 20% in recent weeks due to the economy issues. While many would agonize over that, he simply brushed it off as he mentioned it will bounce back up eventually and on top of that he is confident that since he is smart with his money he will find other ways to invest it if need be.
That was a very good attitude to have I thought and reminded me on how when it comes to managing money it’s easy to overlook the fact that you have to fix the way you think about money first and foremost. Like in this case, he clearly has the attitude that he was in charge of his finance and whether he makes more or less is mostly based on his own decisions.
I guess a big factor in developing this attitude is to be independent. I know a lot of people would say things like “What are you talking about? I’m an adult…I pay these bills†and so fourth. At the same time, most people are very dependent on say making sure government pensions will take of them, relying on their jobs to never change, etc.
In many ways, it almost is like your teenage years still when you think about as sure you may be busy going to school and have maybe a part time job to earn an income, but ultimately for most teenagers they will rely and bank on the fact that the parent will pull them out of a sticky situation in need or that the family’s financial situation will always be the same. If anything does happen, the mentality would be that there is nothing they could do to fix it as they relied on their parents.
So while obviously that is a little bit more on the extreme side in terms of an example, I think as an adult it is important to build the mindset that anything that happens to you financially is for the most part your own choice. You shouldn’t have to be financially dependent on any outside sources when you think about it. Any tools and resources should act mainly to help accelerate your financial growth that you control I’d say as oppose to be being dependent on it where you follow it instead.