Money = Life Energy

/ 4 Perspectives of Money /

❤️The Practical, Physical Realm

more, better or different

❤️The Emotional/ Psychological Realm

money as security, power, social acceptance, evil, etc.

❤️The Cultural Realm

growth is good, more is better

we judge our own and others' importance by material yardsticks

❤️Personal Responsibility and Transformation（！！！）

money is something we choose to trade our life energy for.

/ 3 Results of FI thinking /

❤️FI1: Financial Intelligence

Be able to step back from your assumptions and your emotions about money and observe them objectively.

——Does money really buy happiness?

——Does everyone really gotta make a living?

——Is money really something to fear or covert, to love or hate?

——If I sell the majority of my time for money, will I really be secure?

❤️FI2: Financial Integrity

Learning the true impact of your earning and spending both on your immediate family and on the planet

——What is enough money and material goods to keep you at the peak of fulfillment?

——What is just excess and clutter?

❤️FI3: Financial Independence

Have an income sufficient for your basic needs and comforts from a source other than paid employment. (the experience of having enough and then some)

/ 9 Steps to Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence /

❤️Step1: Making Peace with the Past

1. How much have you earned in your life? Find out how much money you have earned in your lifetime.

2. What have you got to show for it? Find out your net worth by creating a personal balance sheet of assets and liabilities.

❤️Step2: Being in the Present- Tracking Your Life Energy

1. How much are you trading your life energy for? Establish the actual costs in time and money required to maintain your job, and compute your real hourly wage.

2. Keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life.

❤️Step3: Where Is It All Going? The Monthly Tabulation

1. Every month create a table of all income and all expenses within categories generated by your own unique spending pattern.

2. Balance your monthly income and outgo totals.

3. Convert "dollars" spent in each category to "hours of life energy", using your real hourly wage as computed in Step2.

❤️Step4: Three Questions That Will Transform Your Life

On your Monthly Tabulation, ask three questions of each of your category totals expressed as hours of life energy and record your responses:

——Did I receive fulfillment, satisfaction and value in proportion of life energy spent?

——Is this expenditure of life energy in alignment with my values and life purpose?

——How might this expenditure change if I didn't have to work for a living?

At the bottom of each category, make one of the following marks:

——(-) Mark a minus sign if you did not receive fulfillment proportional to the hours of life energy you spent in acquiring the goods and services in that category, or if that expenditure was not in full alignment with your values and purpose or if you could see expenses in that category diminishing after Financial Independence.

——(+) Mark a plus sign if you believe that upping this expenditure would increase fulfillment, would demonstrate greater personal alignment or would increase after Financial Independence.

——(0) Mark a zero if that category is just fine on all counts.

❤️Step5: Making Life Energy Visible

Create a large Wall Chart plotting the total monthly income and total monthly expenses from your Monthly Tabulation. Put it where you will see it every day.

❤️Step6: Valuing Your Life Energy—Minimizing Spending

Learn and practice intelligent use of your life energy (money), which will result in lowering your expenses and increasing your savings. This will create greater fulfillment, integrity and alignment in your life.

HOW

——Ask the three questions in Step 4 every month

——Learn to define your true needs

——Be conscious in your spending

——Master the techniques of wise purchasing. Research value, quality and durability

❤️Step7: Valuing Your Life Energy—Maximizing Income

Respect the life energy you are putting into your job. Money is simply something you trade your life energy for. Trade it with purpose and integrity for increased earnings.

HOW

——Ask yourself: Am I making a living or making a dying?

——Examine your purposes for paid employment

——Break the link between work and wages to open your options for increased earnings.

❤️Step8: Capital and the Crossover Point

Each month apply the following equation to your total accumulated capital, and post the monthly independence income as a separate line on your Wall Chart

(Capital × Current Long-term Interest Rate) / 12 months = Monthly Investment Income

❤️Step9: Managing Your Finances

Become knowledgeable and sophisticated about long-term income-producing investments so that you can manage your finances for a steady income sufficient to your needs over the long term.

HOW

——Empower yourself to make your own investment decixions

——Temper the prevailing irrational fears about inflation with clear thinking and increased consciousness. Think for yourself.

——Set up your financial plan using the three pillars:

（1）Capital: The income-producing core of your Financial Independence.

（2）Cushion: Enough ready cash, earning bank interest, to cover six months of expenses.

（3）Cache: The surplus of funds resulting from your continued practice of the 9 steps. May be used to finance your service work, reinvested to produce an endowment fund, used to replace high-cost iterms, used to compensate for occasional inroads of inflation, given away, etc.