Talk Money Café

Money can work for you or against you. Everyone has the potential to learn how to use money skillfully.

Here are a few simple yet powerful analogies which illustrate the need to have a healthy respect for money.

In the hands of a skilled chef, a sharp knife is a useful tool. But the same knife in the hands of someone inexperienced or inattentive can cause serious harm. Money is like a sharp knife. If you handle it skillfully, it’s a useful tool. But if you’re not careful, you can get hurt! In their pursuit of wealth, some sacrifice friendships, family relationships, and other matters that should be taking a higher priority. As a result, they “stab themselves” all over with many pains. Learn to use money skillfully. Respect it, but don’t love it!

Money is like manure – if you pile all of it up in one place, the results will stink … if you spread it around, things will grow.

On a final note, here is a quote from Arkadi Kuhlmann, the CEO of ING Direct.

Everyone has their own ways of talking about and relating to saving and what it means to their lives. Sure, saving is not as exciting as buying things like new cars and the latest computers, but it’s still true that most people do not budget their money. Too many live from paycheck to paycheck, rich and poor alike. The bigger issue, though, is that few really understand the concept of compound interest, the idea that your savings can actually work for you. Interest is rent on money. You are either paying it or earning it. The cost, or how much the rent is, depends on the interest rate. That rate of interest combined with how much you borrow or save determines the size of the savings mountain you build, or the depth of the debt hole you dig. You have money control with a mountain of savings, but you’re wearing a ball and chain in the money hole you create when you borrow.