2.5 Million Dollars Capture a Piece of It

Money is funny stuff. Money… is all around us; we earn and spend great amounts of it. A $60,000 salary over a lifetime will generate over two and a half million dollars. Yet many people, after working hard for forty-five years, end up with little more than their personal possessions, a car and a house with a mortgage. Hopefully after 45 years the house has been paid off!

The trick with money is to grab hold of a little of it as goes by and put it to work. The old-time miller use to set up his mill near a fast flowing stream. He could not stop nor wanted to stop the water. He just slowed it down so would a little, enough to turn his wheel. The goal throughout life is to find ways for controlling the flow of money through the family pocketbook, for diverting a part of it and putting it to work. That little steady drip, drip, drip, if properly handled, can swell to a modest fortune over the years.

Learn From The Miller

However, before the miller could make things happen he had to construct a dam, a canal, a gate and a wheel. Even after getting everything assembled he he had to keep a watchful eye on the flow of the stream and the mill race. In the same manner the handling of money requires time and attention to get results. Money will not behave on its own. If allowed to run its own path it simply goes down the drain. You need to set up and install some “machinery” to control it and then take time each month studying its behavior.

Nobody should be ashamed of spending the time required to understand money and the flow of their finances. It is true, the love of money has been claimed and slandered to be the root of all evil, portrayed by cartoonists and in the game Monopoly as a fat cat millionaire in a top hat and fur coat. Young people like to say there are more important things than money and that is very true. But, money can also be converted into many good and wonderful things; a house in the suburbs, a college education, a needed operation, a vacation, a trip back home, given to the church, helping someone in need, peace of mind for old age. If those items are worth striving for, then so is money.

Efficient Money Use and Financial Perspective

One of the first things required is to understand how to use money efficiently and how to get perspective on your finances. This will help you in your quest to capture some of the stuff (monwy) each month and put it to work. If you are fortunate enough to be doing this already, good for you. But it never hurts to go back and review what you are doing and see where things can be improved and get some new ideas.

Protection, security, emergency or rainy day fund to handle a financial emergency is just about as important as money management, so that should be a top priority. Before even considering buying stocks, mutual funds or a house, a family should make itself reasonably secure against the possibility of sudden death of the breadwinner, loss of his job or an expensive illness or injury. With proper planning such protection is not too expensive. Funds in a budget needs to be earmarked for life insurance, health insurance and methods of setting aside cash reserves in a safe place. These safe places are generally banks and money-market accounts.