Do you love money?
Are you sure?
If you're anything like me, or my clients, we've actually had to learn how to love money.
I used to think I loved money because I could spend it. I loved what money could buy. I loved the stuff that could be purchased with it. I loved the adventures that money could take me on. I loved the idea of shopping or spending.
So many of my clients have this same belief. Money is only good for what it can buy. Money is as good as what can be purchased with it.
To make it really simple.
The way I loved money was to get rid of it. And fast.
And, this.
Is not love.
We love our kids, right? And we don't want to give them away. (Ok, maybe sometimes we do want to give them away. But for the sake of the metaphor... follow me on this.) We want to spend time with them, take care of them, and protect them.
We love our pets. We don't get a puppy just so that we can quickly exchange it for something else. (Alright, maybe this isn't the best metaphor, either. But, hopefully you'll get the gist.) We love spending time with our pets, taking care of them, playing with them, and protecting them.
What if we loved money - in the same way that we love our kids?
What if we loved our money by spending time with it (saving it), taking care of it (investing wisely) and protecting it (not buying shit that we don't want and we don't need).
What if we respected our relationship with money - just like we respect our relationship with people that we care about? What if we treated it like something that meant a lot to us?
What if we saw spending money that we don't have (going into debt) in the same way that we would see having affairs with people who aren't our partners.
What if we saw debt as cheating on our own money?
My best friend says, "I love money."
Often.
Outloud.
To strangers.
And she really means it. She's the one who showed me what the love of money really means. She respects it. She loves to make it. She loves to hang out with it. She loves to give it, share it, keep it.
I want you to love money.
I want you to love your money.
Care for it. Respect it. Hang out with it. Take care of it.
It's yours.
You earned it.