I have yet to find a person who will sincerely say that he does not want to be wealthy. While there may be those who claim they prefer not to be wealthy, I really doubt that they really meant what they say.

Being in this line of profession, I’ve met a lot of wealthy people. I’d like to believe that many of them seem happy, although some aren’t. I also noticed that it is not the level of wealth that dictates their level of happiness. Why is this so? This got me wondering and prompted me to write about it in this blog.

A few years ago, I read the book Till Debt Do Us Part by Chinkee Tan. I hope my friend will not mind if I take out a few words from his wonderful book (I highly recommend the readers getting a copy of this book).

“Wealth gives people a sense of security. The philosophy behind it is the more money you have, the more secure your future will be. That life will be easier and be more stress-free because you don’t have to worry about money and the things that money can buy.”

When you read Chinkee’s words, it really sounds logical. How many times have we worried about money? How many times have we been so stressed because of our need for money? If you are like me, that’s a lot of times. However, Chinkee disproves this philosophy.

“Actually, this is a myth. This myth takes many forms. Usually, it takes the form of ‘If I only had a newer car, if I only had a larger house, if I only had another few millions per year, if I only had a new phone, if I only had some better clothes, if I only had a better education.’”

If the purpose of wealth is that it gives you a false sense of security, you will never have real peace of mind.

Wealth is important not because of wealth, per se. Wealth becomes important because of the purpose of wealth itself. It is why we need to be wealthy that really gives it true importance.

For some, wealth is associated with something evil. Many people find power with wealth. There is even a common saying that money is the root of all evil and a majority of crimes being perpetuated are due to the need to accumulate or the need for money.

Well, money is also needed to survive. Even primitive civilizations saw the need to use money for many things. Yet, money and wealth seem to have always had a bad reputation.

Is accumulation of wealth really a bad thing? If you look at the Bible in Matthew 19:24, it is written: “Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

If you take this verse to heart, you will never want to be wealthy. I am not a theologian, I’m not even religious… but I think what was really meant in that verse is about our real purpose of acquiring wealth. If the accumulation of wealth is something that consumes you, then maybe wealth can be considered as evil.

In my opinion, wealth and money are amoral. It is neither right nor wrong. Just like a knife—in the hands of a chef, it is a good tool; but in the hands of a criminal, it is a bad tool.

Besides, money being the root of all evil has often been misquoted. The correct verse is found in 1 Timothy 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grieves.”

The wealthy people who seemed to be genuinely happy are those who are not consumed in their quest to accumulate wealth. The wealthy people who seem unhappy despite their wealth are those that are consumed by money—finding happiness in what their wealth can afford them. Wealthy people aren’t really bad people, even our Lord Jesus Christ had wealthy friends like Nicodemus.

Being wealthy is important. We need peace of mind. We need to provide for our family. We need to have enough so we can share. For us to give, we need extra. For us to have extra, we must provide more than our needs. Having more than our needs is having wealth. Having wealth allows us to live the life we deserve, a victorious life that each one of us should be enjoying.

I sincerely doubt that God wanted us to live a life of hardship and a life of mediocrity. In fact, if you read Deuteronomy 15:4, it says, “However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, He will richly bless you.”

So what I am saying is, wealth is not bad. In fact, it is important. How we acquire our wealth and what we do with it will speak about our character—it will define who we really are.

How does one become wealthy? Well, that would be a nice topic for another day, but here’s some basic tips that I am sure you’ve heard or read already: spend less than what you earn; be disciplined in your money management; save – invest – save – invest; take risks (calculated ones)—and, most important, follow simple common sense in dealing with your finances.

There are a lot of folks out there who’d settle for a 2-percent per annum placement but will not think twice about buying something through his/her credit card and use the deferred option that charges five to eight times more than his/her savings placement—or worse, use the revolving scheme of his/her credit card that will be charging more than 15 times his/her placement’s yield! You can check out the other entries in this blog site for more tips on personal finance.

Be wealthy, but do it for the right reasons. If we have the resolve, many of us can be wealthy. All we need is the right attitude, the passion and, most important, the time. Did you know we are destined to be wealthy? Don’t doubt my words. Pick up the Book and read Jeremiah 29:11, which says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord. “Plans to prosper for you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Enjoy your quest for wealth; it really is important if you your purpose is godly and noble… and we must also understand the other things that are likewise important.

Oh… most importantly, you should know where the real source of wealth really comes from.

… conclusion

Let me go back to the economic gibberish once more. Whenever we curb our consumption, assuming that a substantial number of us do, we can actually prevent prices from rising and even cause it to decrease. It’s called the Law of Demand & Supply. Let us be refreshed on what this fundamental economic principle is all about – nosebleed courtesy of Investopedia.

“Supply and demand is perhaps one of the most fundamental concepts of economics and it is the backbone of a market economy. Demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by buyers. The quantity demanded is the amount of a product people are willing to buy at a certain price; the relationship between price and quantity demanded is known as the demand relationship. Supply represents how much the market can offer. The quantity supplied refers to the amount of a certain good producers are willing to supply when receiving a certain price. The correlation between price and how much of a good or service is supplied to the market is known as the supply relationship. Price, therefore, is a reflection of supply and demand. “

Simply put – increase in demand will result to a lower supply, therefore prices go up. A decrease in demand will result to an increase in supply which will drive prices down. Juxtapose this with a national consumption level, say on the way we spend on mobile communication. If we curb the way we use our mobile phones, the telecom companies will be alarmed with the reduction of their revenues and will entice subscribers with more promos, discounted rates and the like just so that consumption will revert to more comfortable levels. We can use the same argument for other goods and services like chicken, electricity, water, gasoline, etc. This should work, well at least in theory. History will reveal that some industries have reduced their prices because the demand level dipped and the only way for them to survive is to cut down prices. Many of the things we consume have disproportionately high profit margins such as soap, shampoo, detergent, toothpaste, etc. If we can only educate the consumers on how they can prevent prices from rising by manipulating our consumption, we can actually have healthier bank accounts.

If the others will not see the light and affect an epic change in the national scene, we can still do so on an individual level. All we need is the resolve to be more prudent, stay away from having a consumer lifestyle, care less about what our nosy neighbors think of us, practice delayed gratification and so forth and so on. Prices will always rise whether we like it or not but we will only be victims if we allow it to be so.

Let’s check our lifestyle: “Some who are poor pretend to be rich; Others who are rich pretend to be poor.” – Proverbs 13:7, NLT

Let’s be diligent: “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. – Proverbs 10:4, NIV

con’t.

I realize that the preceding paragraph (in part 1) shows such a defeatist attitude so let me try to redeem myself and offer some enlightenment on the subject matter.

When prices rise steeply, there are two things we can do to combat the rising prices. The first thing we can do is to earn more. Rising prices is a natural economic reality; one can’t expect prices to remain constant as one can’t expect income to remain constant as well. Assuming inflation is at 5% but your income rose by 8%, you can actually counteract the effects of rising prices and still have some of your income left for you to either spend or save (I urge you to do the later) despite the higher cost. The simplest way to combat rising prices therefore, is to increase your income. I said it was simple, I did not say it is easy. Increase in your income will happen but the question is when? It usually takes time before your income registers some growth. If you are an employee, you will need to wait for a raise and most of the time, those raises happen towards the beginning of the year and that’s assuming your company is profitable. Since it is only April, you will have to wait for many more months before you can get some financial relief from the scorch of high prices. If you are in business, it also takes time for you to realize a higher profit margin – there are way too many variables for you to undertake before you can see an improved bottom line.

While you are waiting for your income to rise, you may want to pay attention to what you spend on. To have a better cash flow, you need to ‘make more money’ and ‘spend less money’. Curbing consumption, in my opinion (as if there are people who actually care to hear my opinion, haha!) is the most sensible way of combating inflation. A closer look at what you spend on and how you spend will be your best bet in battling the mystery of the vanishing purchasing power.  As many personal finance books will inform, as well as finance experts and even those self-proclaimed finance gurus will pontificate that there are two kinds of expenses: needs and wants. When we do try to reduce our spending, we often try to do so by cutting down on some of our needs because cutting down on wants seems to be more difficult. Why? Because spending on wants is pleasurable while spending on needs is a drag! To articulate (my friends say I ‘articulate’ too much) my point — do you know anyone who screams of excitement every time his Meralco bill arrives? If you know anyone who does, please bring him to a doctor and have him checked. On the other hand, do you know people who are ecstatic whenever their favorite store or mall is on a big Sale? I proved my point.  Cutting down on necessary expenses is not the wise thing to do; there is a reason why they are called necessities in the first place. Cutting down on wants, though harrowing to some is the prudent thing to do. I recommend that you list down all your expenses and I mean all – including those branded coffees that seem to be so addicting and those new fancy and costly milk teas everyone seems to be going gaga over lately. Once you have written everything you have expended on, start determining which of those are ‘needs’ and ‘wants’. Don’t try to fool yourself by trying to be coy and justifying your wants and masking them as needs. I once heard someone say that going to a salon is a need because if she does not look really good, she can’t sell enough life insurance, thereby the salon costs are really needs and not wants – yeah that sounds so right (I’m actually attempting to be sarcastic here).

… to be continued.