Money, Money, Money

Most people are obsessed with money.

Having it, making it, saving it, winning it

We live in a culture where money is king – everything seems to revolve around money.

But the thing is, that idea is the wrong way around.

Because what really circulates is money.

It’s as if we’re back in the days when everyone believed the Sun revolved around the Earth and the Earth was the centre of the universe – and you’d have been burnt at the stake or at least locked up if you said anything different.

Everyone (well most people) now knows that the Earth revolves around the Sun, and in the same way it could be said that money makes the world go around.

Because as money circulates it enables everything to happen, but, money doesn’t cause anything, it just enables it when necessary.

Other than that, money is absolutely useless.

When it’s standing still, sitting in a bank vault or stuffed in a pillow case, or anywhere it’s just ‘sitting around’.

The only use for money when it’s not ‘in circulation’ is perhaps to be burnt as fuel or melted down to make something more practical.

Now of course, the way most societies work is to make use of this ‘lubricant’ called money to facilitate the exchange of things that you and I as individuals have, for other things that we don’t have but need or want for some reason or other.

To do that we exchange what we have for money which we give to whoever has whatever it is that we want.

The question is – where does the money come from?

Robert Kiyosaki in his book ‘The Cash Flow Quadrant’ identified four sources of income. not ‘money’ but ‘income’, or in other words the inflow of money required to sustain the corresponding outflow in the exchange process.

Most people are locked into a paradigm whereby they sell their time, skill and knowledge for money which they then recirculate in exchange for the things they really want. Kiyosaki calls it ‘employment’ or ‘self-employment’.

They’re really the same thing, it’s just how the income is paid and who pays it that’s different.

Now that would be fine if the income from this source matched the person’s particular requirements for money to exchange. But it very rarely does.

So another paradigm has developed. In fact, there are two, they are called ‘borrowing’ and ‘saving’.

If income is insufficient for our needs we borrow more money from somewhere else, if the income exceeds our needs we are persuaded to save it – ‘for a rainy day’.

This is where another of Kiyosaki’s income sources plays its part. It’s called ‘investment’.

In this system those with an ‘excess’ of disposable income ‘invest’ in something, maybe just a simple savings account, in return for a small income in the form of ‘interest’.

Those who need extra income can, again through the concept of interest where this time they pay a fee, borrow money from wherever other peoples’ ‘savings’ are held.

In the same way people with excess money can invest in a business which then pays back a ‘dividend’ based on the income that it generates through carrying out its business operations.

Now a business is a curious thing.

It’s an independent entity in law, but it can’t exist without at least one person operating it.

There are many reasons why someone might want to set up a business as explained in my book ‘What They Don’t Tell You About Starting a Business’, but if the business ‘works’ it will generate income.

The important thing to remember if you own a business is that the income it generates is not directly your income, it’s treated quite differently in law and by the tax authorities.

At the end of the day though, and as Kiyosaki explains, as a business owner you receive income from that source to fund your own outgoings.

The thing is, that it’s not the money itself that’s important, and really, it’s not the income either.

It’s the flow that matters.

It’s the flow of money that makes the world go around.

This is where one of those Laws of the Universe comes in. Often referred to as the Law of Attraction (which is something else) this one is the Law of Reciprocity, sometimes called the Law of Compensation or Abundance – but put more simply – – –

What goes around comes around.

This Law applies to many things, money is just one element, and what it means is that what you and I give, either as a gift or in return for some service or product will, one way or another, be returned in equal or greater measure as income.

But there’s an important point to take note of, and this is where we need to have faith in the Laws if the Universe.

You see, you and I must give first in order to receive, and especially to receive in abundance.

Of course, as usual, this goes against how we are educated to behave in this context.

‘You have to have the money first before you can spend it’

But this is receiving before giving, and although it ‘works’ in a sense it will not lead to abundance.

All it does is generate stress.

Stress to focus on ‘income first’, savings, money in the bank, and not being able to ‘afford’ the things we need or want.

I appreciate this may be a difficult principle for some people to grasp as it really does ‘go against the grain’.

But I have always found it to be true and I’ve always had faith that that would happen.

Give (or pay up front) and you will receive. Don’t wait for the income to be generated before you move forward.

You and I have to be sensible about this of course in that we should have a sustainable source of income in mind, even if it’s only an idea, before we embark on any major expenditure.

And of course, this doesn’t only work with money: time, love, friendship, knowledge and so on. It applies to everything.

Give and you shall receive.