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I hope everybody is doing great on these first days of 2011!

I just read a very interesting article on the renewal of the mind from the January edition of the newsletter “Food, Fitness & Faith.” What I learned from it could be applied to all my activities, on health and financial issues, for this bright and exciting year ahead.

Usually, what comes to mind at the start of each are resolutions – what we ought to be and what we ought to do for a better us in the future. But do these resolutions really work in the end? The fact is, they don’t usually last as we expected them to. The main reason? We tend to change things around us first, before we even change ourselves within. Look at the people who are fond of quick weight loss schemes. They change their eating habits to their own detriment. Instead of eating what is nutritional to their body, they restrict themselves of certain types of food, favoring fad diets (I admit. I was one of them!). Another example, compulsive buyers of exercise equipment and gadgets. After a while, their purchases become mere displays in the garage or the attic. Easy come, easy go!


So what is the problem? The problem lies in the mind.

This is the same for finance. There are two types of people with different mindsets: the savers and the investors. Savers focus on yield, on short-term, and timing. He is a one-time investor and believes that investing is the same as gambling. On the other hand, the investor simply focuses on achieving his investment goals. The problem is that we want so much, so soon, and so fast, while investing takes process and has to be for the long term. In the newsletter I just quoted, the author says “Valuable and long-lasting change starts in our mind. Until we open up and allow this shift of mindset, most attempts will fail.” Investing is not just making your money help you make money. It is a continuing process. It is not all about investing, your attitude is more important. The bigger issue is not to earn more, but to save more.

This year, decide to change from the inside out. Develop a habit of creating your dream financial future first. Make it a plan to educate yourself more on the current trends and financial solutions. Realize that you cannot do things on your own, and so find mentors or a support group to coach you especially in times when you are tempted to go back to your old self. You may read a lot of parenting books, but unless you have a child you cannot understand what parenting is all about. Likewise, unless you have investments, you cannot fully understand what investing is all about. So learn from the mistakes and experiences of financial experts. Lastly, if your plans from the past years didn’t seem to work, why do the same things all over a gain? As a favorite quote of mine for this year goes, “If you want something to be different, you must do something different.” – Anon.



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