We all set financial goals that we want to achieve with all our heart: growing our income, saving more money, investing in assets. But how many of us actually succeed? A very few.
The lack of financial literacy can be held liable for a small part, but there are other reasons why even the seemingly financially literate people fail.
First, managing money is not only about knowing or getting educated about money. It demands skills that lie outside the realm of financial knowledge.
Skills that are emotional, mental, social, and spiritual are sometimes what make the difference between a financially successful and a not-so-successful person.
Today, we’re talking to someone who’s not only a forerunner for women in finance but also a master of the skills that make a person financially successful.
Suze Orman needs no introduction. She’s one of the most recognized experts on personal finance in America and currently hosts the popular Women & Money podcast.
Today, we’ll be learning about the 5 super tips or the rules that Suze Orman lives by that make her the “America’s favorite financial advisor,” according to New York Times.
5 Tips From Suze Orman
These tips include financial tips that help you build more monetary wealth, and tips that help you build more social as well as internal wealth. So let’s begin.
Nobody Cares About Your Money But You
This is a quote directly from Suze and it says that nobody cares about your money more than you do. Not your financial advisor, not your banker, not your life insurance agent. Nobody but you.
Don’t think that your money is safe if it is in the bank, or with your financial advisor, or with your broker because they don’t care. What they care about the most is their money, not yours.
If you want to keep your money safe, then the safest person or institution to keep it with is yourself. Until you don’t learn to manage your money by yourself, you can’t be completely free in life.
Suze says you will never be powerful enough in life until you are powerful over your own money- how you think about it, feel about it, and invest it.
Many people think of managing money as some rocket science that’s best left to the experts. But that’s only until you realize that these so-called experts have no responsibilities towards your money.
The 2008 financial meltdown was also a direct result of putting too much trust in these “experts” on the wall street.
So Suze’s first tip is: Everyone should learn how to manage and invest their own money, just like everyone learns how to drive.
It’s fine if you don’t know how to trade futures and options of different securities, but you should at least know how to generate enough returns on your money that you can beat inflation and protect it from getting devalued with time.
Only You Can Be The Obstacle in Your Journey
If you want to know who is your best friend, look into the mirror. If you want to know who is your biggest enemy, look into the mirror.
Sure, some people will attack and try to bring you down in life. The more successful you’ll get, the more hate and haters you will attract.
But it’s still in your hand whether you want to let the negativity flow into your life or ignore it and move forward in your way.
According to Suze Orman, No matter if people are praising you or hating on you, you don’t wanna get attached to people’s opinions because opinions change.
Today, if everyone is singing your praises and you’re getting addicted to it, tomorrow the same people’s opinions will change, and you’ll lose control of your life and happiness in the hands of people you don’t even know.
If you don’t pay attention and you don’t waste your time on what other people are saying, then there’s nothing for you to be afraid of because you’re not part of their craziness.
People can say or do whatever they want, but they can’t stop you. Only you have the power to stop yourself from being what you want to be.
And while it might sound like another quote from a random page on Instagram, Suze is a living example that this mentality of not caring works.
Also Read: How to Pay Off Credit Card Debt Fast
Include Others in Your Financial Goals
One of the key lessons Suze mentions in her book Women And Money is that money does not exist in just your life alone. There are other people in your life that deal with you and also end up dealing with your money.
So you’re always going to have to be in a position when it comes to money to be inclusive of others and not exclusive of them, especially if you are in a relationship.
As per Suze Orman, we all need to understand more than just money. You need to understand how your spouse, your children, and others in your life react with money, and therefore how they’re going to react with you.
Because what happens when one spouse is very educated about money while the other one is not is it lead to a power struggle between them.
If you’re financially literate and you know what you’re doing with your money, but you’re in a relationship with somebody who doesn’t know what they’re doing with their money, they’re going to get afraid, and before you know it, you’re out of a relationship.
Thus, it can be scary if you are on this mountain all by yourself. But when you start to include everybody with the desire of educating and empowering them and having them learn alongside you, then you’re not so alone, and things are not so hard.
Be Clear With Your Intentions
Staying clear with what your intentions are and what you want to achieve is crucial to achieving your dreams and goals.
If your intention is to get rich, that’s great. if your intention is to get seriously rich, that’s great too. Who cares what anyone thinks. If that’s what you want, then that’s what you should have.
In every action you’re taking, you should be clear about what you want to achieve by doing this. What your intentions are, and what will it result in.
Once you’ve set your intentions and decided that this is what you want to do, do it. Do it against all odds, do it even if other people are passing judgment on you.
Be proud of the decisions you make and the path you’ve chosen regardless of how other people judge you. It’s about being unapologetic because as long as you know that you’ve done nothing wrong, you should not be apologizing.
When you start living like that and make your every move just like that, somehow, life starts going in the right direction.
And it goes in the right direction because you have your hands on the wheel, your feet on the gas pedal and the break, and you direct your own life.
This way, even if you meet with an accident, you will have no regrets because at least you were in the driver’s seat going on the way of your choice versus someone else taking you to his destination without your will.
