Thinking-Rich.com

How much money do you need?

Sometimes the scarcity mindset can afflict us when we actually have more money than we realize. This feeling of “not having” naturally leads to wanting… and usually to splurging on something we don’t really need and feel bad about buying.

I’m not sure if the scarcity mindset leads to an avoidance of analyzing how much money we honestly need or if the avoidance of analysis leads to feelings of scarcity. Either way, it sucks, but there are some easy steps to take to break this cycle.

Here’s one: Grab your checkbook or your copies of last month’s bills and make a list. Don’t fight it, this isn’t as bad as it sounds. To begin, list the things that you need to stay safe and alive:

• Rent/Mortgage
• Utilities (Gas, electric, water, sewer, trash)
• Groceries
• Car payment/gasoline, oil, etc.
• Telephone
• Health
• Student loans, credit card payments – anything that would get you in trouble if you didn’t pay on time
• Insurance
• Whatever else

Add all that up and see how much you have left from your income.

You’ll notice that I didn’t have you add in cable/satellite, movies, entertaining, dining out, clothes shopping, music, hobbies and so on. You probably think that’s because I’m going to tell you to give them up if your paychecks are being stretched too thin. Wrong. Giving up things you enjoy doesn’t lead to feelings of abundance, just to more fear of scarcity and lack. Our goal in this new life is not to spend less, but to make more.

OK, back on track. Did your household income cover the things you absolutely need to stay alive? Does it cover at least some of the extras? If so, congratulations. You no longer have an excuse to feel as you don’t have enough money to get by.

If not, you need to do some soul-searching. Is there a place where some of your money is leaking away that doesn’t feel good to you? Something you’re doing or buying that’s not giving you the satisfaction you hoped it would? You have my permission to ditch it, if so. Are you or your kids involved in something because you feel you should be and not because you enjoy it? Kick it to the curb. There’s no excuse to do anything just because your friends/neighbors/co-workers/enemies are doing it. And you’ll be teaching your kids a valuable lesson in independence and diversity at the same time.

To give you an example, a co-worker of mine invested in digital cable and TiVo so she could capture every broadcast worldwide that matched her home decorating interests. After only a few months, she realized it would take most of her time outside work just to watch a quarter of those shows. Not only was this “luxury” taking a good chunk of her money, it was taking time she could have been using to create bonus wealth outside of her day job and creating anxiety because she was “wasting” that money and time.

Now, if you review your spending, have no expenses you’d feel relieved to unload, and still come up short, you know it’s a good time to start looking seriously at your employment situation and see why it’s not meeting your needs. If it’s a job you absolutely love but it doesn’t pay so hot, don’t just give it up. Consider adding a part-time job. If it’s a job you don’t absolutely love, it’s time to cast your net wider for better opportunities. Leaving a job that doesn’t meet your needs is your right. At least get up the nerve to ask for a raise significant enough to put you on the plus side after paying your bills. If you’re self-employed, take look at whether you need to pick up more clients or charge the ones you have a bit more.

I hope this post helped give you a better sense of where you stand. You need a good foundation and comfort with money to attract more of it into your life. And if you are seriously struggling with scarcity, maybe this exercise can help you see that changes need to be made and it’s not just a crappy mindset that has you stuck. You can take action, both mentally and physically.

We can overcome scarcity and achieve abundance by focusing on abundance. A great place to start is Deepak Chopra’s “Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.” Borrow it from the library, read it at least twice, then copy all the exercises on 3×5 cards or in a notebook. If you follow this book’s ideas, you will see changes for the better.

Having multiple streams of income is another solution and we’ll be delving deeply into that soon. Until then, continue thinking rich.

As a fairly new blog, Thinking-Rich’s Blogroll is still in its infancy. I think having StartUp Spark as the first link is supremely appropriate. Benjamin Yoskovitz has some great ideas for entrepreneurs, the posts are well-thought out and written. This is not a blog with a bunch of pointless “Me too!” posts, when he links you out it’s because the post is worth your time. And time being money, these posts could potentially get you making more.

“The Top 6 Ways to Create Thousands of Successful Entrepreneurs” is a great place to start. Visit and see what kind of spark you might get.

What’s your salary?

No, really, you can tell me.

Has the money you’ve put into your education paid off in a big way or would you have been better off using it to buy a Taco Bell franchise?

What about your years of experience? Think about the past year you’ve spent at your job, all you’ve done, all you’ve put in, what you’ve learned - most often on your own time - that you’ve acquired to do your job better.

Now try putting a value on that and think about what kind of raise you’re going to get for your efforts. Will it be three percent above the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)? Four percent? Ten? Or will you consider yourself lucky if your employer actually honors the cost-of-living adjustment at all?

Let’s get wild and pretend I make between $35,000 and $45,000 depending on overtime and moonlighting. Can I live on this? In the area where I live, yes, I can for now. Not a real pretty or adventurous life, but I’m sure not living under the bridge.

But is that amount really worth a year of my life? And looking at my raise, I’ve been told I can hit a high of four percent if I’ve put sufficient time into certain tasks that were not a part of my job when I was hired and are not even hinted at in my job description. Not to mention, this was just decided from On High and applies to this year - whether it’s two weeks to my evaluation or six months. I can’t promise you I’ve been a good enough worker bee to get that raise, because it depends on something that can not be quantitatively measured. And I’m still waiting to hear if that’s above the COLA … I think my email must have been misrouted or something.

So, I’ve laid it pretty bare. What do you think of my financial situation? How about that fast track, huh? Don’t get me wrong, where I live, jobs like this are the upper end for someone like me and I’m sad to say that there are people who live in my neighborhood who would think selling their soul for my job would be a sweet deal.

Letting me wallow in this scarcity mindset a bit longer, let’s go back to my raise. If all works out, I could be looking at a hefty $30 a week increase. I’m just dizzy thinking about what I’m going to do with it. (And did we discuss whether I feel at all spiritually or emotionally enriched by my job?)

Thinking rich tells me that settling for this for a year of my life is as senseless as cutting off a body part to stave off hunger when there’s a free all-you-can eat rib shack down the street.

Yeah, giving your time for money is like donating your organs before you’re dead.

So what about you? Are you letting someone pay you to hate your life? Is the pay worth it?

Enough of that, now. Shake it off. Let’s look at abundance. If you’ve done any reading or even a tiny bit of soul-searching, you know you’re not going to reap the full abundance of the earth by tilling someone else’s field. I can say with complete confidence that I’ll never receive wealth without striking out on my own. And I kind of doubt you’d still be reading this post if you didn’t feel somewhat the same.

The choice of breaking out is yours, of course (Unless … well, let’s not speak of the unspeakable.). And whether you take the big plunge, do it one sneaky step at a time, or content yourself with moonlighting is up to you. It depends on your personality, your savings account, your support system and a raft of other intangibles that you may dream of or fear. But if we’re really going to think rich, we’re going to have to step out of any perceived zone of comfort. Fortunately, we are nowhere near the first to do this. There are true gurus of the “rich life,” well-known and not-so-known, who we can study and pick and choose what works for us. That’s what this blog is intended to provide, but don’t assume that I’ll ever stop asking prying questions about nasty things like your salary and what an hour of your life is worth.

And if you want to stay in your job and focus on enriching other parts of your life, that’s perfectly valid. We can work on that, because abundance will never be obtained by money alone. Just do me a favor and don’t stay in your job banking on security or harboring the fear that you can’t afford to leave it.

And promise me you won’t start planning your retirement on how much you can get from that extra kidney or lung, OK?