Learning to Flourish, Even in a Financial Crisis
The mindset that the safest way to live in the working world is to have a good career and a steady paycheck is one that many of us have been raised with. However, the current financial crisis is challenging that for many people. Even if you had or have a steady job, you have seen how quickly the security offered by that job could disappear overnight.
A recession often can reveal our negative thoughts and internal monologues about money. A common perception is seeing money as a scarce resource and income as something beyond your control. Money can trigger feelings of guilt and shame in many people.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The truth is, money is a tool that you can access and multiply, independent of anyone else’s permission. Even if you do have anxieties that keep you from seeing how money can be a positive part of your life, that can change.
Sure, other people may react to this period of uncertainty with the same, old-fashioned advice: live within your means and keep 3–6 months’ worth of income in an emergency fund. If you have a secure job that pays you well and that you enjoy, this is great advice, but if that’s not what is true for you, you may be looking at this time as a great opportunity to make a shift and create your own financial security.
Consider this: what if you weren’t relying on a check from your boss (or the unemployment office, as the case may be)?
A shift in how you see money could change your relationship with it and set you on track to secure you against economic highs and lows in a way you never even dreamed possible or that you have been dreaming about it, but hadn’t known how or where to start to move it all forward.
This financial crisis doesn’t have to be a crisis for your family and can instead be a time for you to begin your next level of growth. Invest in yourself: in your gifts, skills and talents. Learn how to harness these to help and serve other people so you don’t have to depend on anyone else to sustain you.
Day-job or not, take this as a wake-up call. It’s time for you to take stock of your greatest resource—yourself. What can you do that other people can’t? What can you give that other people need? Once you start exploring the resources within you, you’ll realize that you’ve found your way of contributing value to the world.
Everyone has something to offer, and that offering goes far beyond just the products or services you give your potential clients. If you use your talents to become a higher earner, you can establish yourself as a leader in your community and affect change in areas that you care about. You can contribute to the growth of your local economy by employing people and be part of what helps pull the larger economy out of the rut that it may be in.
Even in the lowest of times, even in recessions, there have been many, many people who were able to forge their own paths and grow their wealth through entrepreneurship. You can be one of them.
Things have been tough for our lives and livelihoods, it’s true, but we shouldn’t let this moment go by without considering what we can learn from it. I hope that you are learning about how to be prepared for an emergency when it comes to your savings, investments, and income, which might not necessarily be in the way we’ve been taught in the past.
As we go forward, the most important thing you can have is a high-value skill that is needed and wanted. The next step is to create the systems and structures to offer that skill in a way that you can rely upon, no matter the ups and downs of the economy. This is a lesson that will benefit you, and that you can encourage in your family and friends and serve as an example for your children—raising a new generation of economic and community leaders.
We are in a time when your best investment is in your resourcefulness, your creativity, and your community. Bring these together and your family can rely on you and what you’ve created, and you can trust that your children will be great.
If you need help figuring out your next step, please call us and we can help.
This article is a service of Levi Alexander, Personal Family Lawyer®. We don’t just draft documents; we ensure you make informed and empowered decisions about life and death, for yourself and the people you love. That’s why we offer a Family Wealth Planning Session,™ during which you will get more financially organized than you’ve ever been before, and make all the best choices for the people you love. You can begin by calling our office today to schedule a Family Wealth Planning Session and mention this article to find out how to get this $750 session at no charge.
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