Date: March 20, 2002
This Week's Focus: Success is more than money

Mariette
mariette@bizcoachmde.com
770-751-9672

Question of the Week:
"I've been reading your articles and a lot of other stuff about money, too. I wonder though, what is it that makes some people successful with their money and others just can't seem to make it at all? Most of all, I want to know how I can be successful."

Answer:
First of all there has to be the opportunity to be successful and since I don't think you live in some other country, you are already in the best place in the world for being successful. The good old USA is the best place in the world for being or doing anything you want. Opportunity!

That doesn't mean that just because you're here that you will achieve success. You must have desire to be successful and that is a lot easier said than done. You, and everyone, is surrounded by obstacles every day that can lead away from what is best, to what someone else says you need or should have. In other words, you must define what success is for you before you can achieve it. If that gets defined by listening to all the ads on TV and in print, then the odds aren't great for success.

Success is different for everyone. Knowing and understanding that one thing is probably the hardest thing to get. Also, you must understand that success or the idea of success, can and does change with the passage of time. Many people define success as having lots of money but I'm here to tell you emphatically that it doesn't. Having enough money is a part of success, but money in and of itself is not the answer to achieving success.

Loving and being loved is success. Being respected is success. Knowing yourself is success. Understanding the responsibility of success is success. Being able to freely help others is success. Having a plan and applying it is success. Not giving in to every whim and fancy that comes along is success. Being educated is success. Respecting others is success. Living life the way you want, is success.

As for success with money, which was your main question, there is only one way. Success in that context is to have the discipline to spend less than you make and invest your money so it works for you. That discipline is embodied in all the other facets of life as well. Get educated about money. I don't mean a college degree in "money", but being well read and keeping your actions with money confined to what you know and understand.

At a some certain age you will realize that you could have a made a lot of money "if only" something. If you had gambled that Dot Coms were going to boom and also realized the right
time to get out of Dot Coms. If you bought a house when you were twenty instead of a car you wanted. If you had saved an extra dollar every day for the last ten years you would have an extra $3650. If you had started an IRA twenty years ago, if you had started your own business, if you had budgeted better or if you didn't spend all that money on a big wedding you would have lots more now.

So, here are the secrets to success with money:
· Know where you are right now (how much you have and how much you owe)
· Have a budget (spending plan)
· Follow your budget every month
· Save regularly
· Have a reserve for rainy days
· Buy a house
· Invest in the stock market (for the long term)
· Don't buy junk you don't need
· Get rid of stuff you no longer need
· Don't let money manage you, you manage it
· Give some money to worthy causes
· Be willing to take some risk
· Don't make money your god or an "end all" for success

Don't ever, ever make money the only benchmark for success and remember that "success is a journey, not a destination".

"Eighty percent of success is showing up."
-Woody Allen

Charles T. Burton is currently Executive Director of Neighborhood Housing Services of LaGrange, Inc. a NeighborWorks® Organization. He publishes Money-Essentials as a free, weekly "ezine". To subscribe, e-mail money-essentials@pobox.com or phone 706.882.2780.
Money-Essentials©2001 by Charles T. Burton

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