Investments Versus Income

Money is certainly a hot topic these days!  Even when folks have a fair amount of it, they can easily get distracted, worried or totally shut down when the markets are going up and down like a roller coaster.  When people start counting on their investments to keep them alive and thriving, it’s not uncommon to see them get really shaky when the markets do their inevitable swings.  A similar thing happens for employees who do not have significant investments but are emotionally as well as financially dependent on their employer for their security.  If their employer’s business hits a downturn, they can easily get distracted or worried.

To make matters worse, when someone is out of balance in such a key area as money, it’ll tend to affect other areas of their life.  They’re not calm and centered or able to focus clearly.  Symptomatically they might get edgy, procrastinate, kick the cat, or otherwise be “off their game”.  Who wants that?

To overcome these tendencies, my advice is to focus on income versus investments.  By income, I’m referring to the new money that we pull in through our efforts, our ideas, our productivity.   Even if we have only one penny in our pocket but stay aligned, willing to produce and see things new, we can make fresh new money every day!  Knowing we can “pull it in”, we’ll tend to feel more balanced and present.  Focusing on income means “I’m making money today and am open to new opportunities.”

Your investments are monies which have already been earned in the past, sometimes by others not yourself (which applies if you inherited a Trust or had some other windfall). Typically, those monies are put into the marketplace somewhere.  It’s easy to get distracted with whether it goes up or down, right?

“Back in the day” many of us lived in a world where our parents got a job for life and that was their primary source of income.  Today, with the internet and our global access to ever so much, there are multiple ways we can earn “Fresh Cash”.  Yet we tend to overlook that when we become worried.  Instead, we’ll over-rely on our current employer or the money we’ve earned in the past and put into those investments.  From there, the spiral can keep going down if we lose our sense of freedom and move into survival-consciousness, holding onto what we’ve got and afraid to spend.  That’s not a great place from which to make decisions or see things fresh and new!

If this sounds like you, ask yourself, “What am I focusing on? How to make a profit today, or trying to squeeze extra pennies out of my savings?” It’s hard to do both well, which is why people leave the investment stuff to a professional who can watch it every day.  Personally, I have found that the more I focus on the investments, the less joy I feel.  Focusing on generating income and selling my new ideas, that’s where the thrill and the fulfillment are!

If you were to get wiped out by a market crash, would you feel shaken and worried, imagining doom and gloom, thinking “it’s over” as many folks do?  Or would you have the heart and courage to stand back up, to start generating new ideas and monies?  You can have just two dollars in your pocket and start magnetizing in more of those dollar bills!  Let’s stay focused on that!

 

This content is provided courtesy of Marie Moran’s Biz Savvy blog. To see more of her personal insights, visit her blog at www.biz-savvy.com.

©2018 Marie Moran