You can’t take it with you
If you’ve lost direction, ask yourself some searching questions. The answers might change your life.
Money is only of value if it is spent. Saving is nothing more than delayed spending. The purpose of money is to provide the means to enjoy life.
For these reasons, it is really important to be clear on what gives you enjoyment. Knowing your passion helps you set goals in life which motivate you to use your money in the most effective way, that is, to maximise your enjoyment of life. So the starting point for any financial plan is to uncover the things that are really important to you – your passion.
If a good sleep is eight hours long, then we have nearly 6000 hours a year or somewhere around half a million hours in a lifetime to allocate between work, family, community and personal needs.
The purpose of earning money and creating wealth is not just to survive, but to thrive and enjoy as many of those half a million hours as possible.
It is easy to lose sight of your passion. Life has a habit of taking over. Work, family and community commitments somehow use up all our time and energy leaving a feeling of being stuck or trapped in a situation where life is no longer enjoyable.
The things we really want to do get pushed to the bottom of the priority list. It is only when you find out what your passion really is that you will make the changes needed to start enjoying life again.
To find your passion you need time for reflection; to investigate and prioritise, and finally to make your passion a reality.
Ask yourself these searching questions and think creatively to get the answers. What did you love to do in your childhood? Children are driven by curiosity and creativity.
Childhood fantasies are often source of clues for what your true passion is. What are you good at? If you don’t know the answer to this question, your friends and family will tell you.
What activities make you feel happy? These are things you probably need to do more of. What have you secretly dreamed of? Imagine there are no barriers of time, money or fear of failure.
Your secret dreams will point you to what your passion is.
What do you read or learn about in your spare time? This is most likely what really interests you.
If you have answered these questions, you should have a long list of possibilities for your passion.
If not, keep thinking. Start with the first two activities on your list and decide which is more appealing. Now compare your choice with the next activity on the lists and decide which is more appealing. Work your way down the list in this way to the bottom. Write down your final choice on a new list and cross it out on your original list.
Repeat this process twice more until you have your top three choices on your separate list. These are your top three passions.
Ask anyone why they are not following their passion and the excuse will no doubt be lack of time and money. Dig a bit deeper and you will find it is really fear that gets in the way: fear of change and fear of the unknown.
If you know your passion and feel it strongly, you will overcome fear and the time and money barriers will fall away.
Your priorities will become much clearer, and your time and money will be used on the things that bring you the most joy. It is not the measure of how much time and money you have that matters, it is how you use them.
❚ Liz Koh is an authorised financial adviser and author of Your Money Personality: Unlock the Secret to a Rich and Happy Life, Awa Press. The advice given here is general and does not constitute specific advice to any person. A disclosure statement can be obtained free of charge by calling 0800 273 847.