What does the hidden power of money really mean? Well, it means quite a few different things to quite a few different people. You will have plenty of people that talk endlessly about the power of hidden money without really telling you what it is. Does it really mean “hidden”, like it’s hiding in your shoe or in a strange drawer that you’ve never seen before? Not at all. It refers to the idea that money has a lot more power than we think it does.
Take for example the time value of money — if you save money over time with compounding, you’re going to have a lot more money than what you started with. Investing in yourself is the name of the game here. So why do so few young people honestly do it? There’s a lot of different reasons for that. The top reason is that it’s more or less “out of sight, out of mind”. We are usually so busy having a good time with friends and family that we don’t think about the future. We feel that there’s going to be a time and place to think about personal finance, and when you’re 21, you’re just not thinking about things like that. There’s something important about getting everything wrapped up pretty neatly, so you don’t want to skip over that either.
You just need to realize that going with the crowd on this isn’t going to give you the future that you ultimately want. Sure, it’s nice to go out once in a while, but the youth of today need to be doing better than their parents did. The time to party at all costs is long over. The recession is going to be around for a while, and that means that money is going to become incredibly tight for a lot of people. If you find yourself getting affected by not having enough money now, why would you ever want to put yourself in a position where you’re not going to have money later? That’s just absurd. What you have to do from here is make sure that you’re thinking about all of your options. It might sound hard at first, but it’s always worth thinking about. It’s always worth doing. It’s always worth working on. It’s going to be completely up to you to figure things out and try to get your head in the game. If you don’t do that, then you’re going to get left behind as other people move ahead of you.
The biggest reason why young people don’t tap into the hidden power of money — aside from the “priority” issue that we just covered — is that they don’t really know how to get started. Unfortunately, financial education for young people is still very hit or miss. Some youth have indicated that they learned it all from their parents, who had great financial habits. But this can also backfire — you will need to think carefully about where you get your information from. If your parents are always in debt, then they already have a negative attitude about money. How could they not? It’s a tough situation that has trapped a lot of families. Thankfully, you can break out of that. You can rise above it. You can do better than what your parents did.
The information is out there. You cannot play online and connect with your friends without realizing that there’s a lot of free information on getting things together with your finances. Even though most of the information is geared towards an adult audience there are still things that you can do now.
You can indeed open up an account at your bank — your parents will just have to help you set it up. They will want to do that anyway, most likely. The best part is that you’re going to be showing your parents that you can take responsibility over your life.
If you’re already over 18, you can open up your account on your own. Not only do you want to have a normal checking account, but you also want to have somewhere that you can save money. This should be collecting interest, but that’s just the bonus. The power comes from the psychological changes that you’re making.
By choosing to wake up and save money, you’re leaving behind your friend and embracing something powerful here. Sure, your friends may support you, but are they really on the same page that you are? Are they really committing themselves to the same goals? If they’re not, then they might not really be able to connect with you on this topic. They’re still great people — after all, they’re your friends and they care about you — but they just have different goals. What you’re ultimately doing is getting yourself mentally aligned with the idea of saving money. It means that you might not spend as much money as someone else. It might mean that you are investing in yourself rather than a lot of junk on the side.
Speaking of junk and clutter — changing your spending so that you can save more money ahs other benefits. You’re not filling your life up with a bunch of stuff that isn’t going to really do you any good. You have to always be looking at all of your options when it comes time to save money. Do you really need that item that you’ve been going on and on about, or can you table it? If you just skipped eating out with your friends a few times a month, you could have money set aside to do the things that you really want to do.
Saving for the future can be hard when the future isn’t here yet. However, twenty years from now, you will pat yourself on the back because you started earlier than most people. If you were to just keep doing what you’ve been doing, you’re not going to have the results that you ultimately want. Don’t you want to have your own home someday? Don’t you want to have a new car? We hate to break it to you, but you can have things at any time. Now, having the money for them…well, that’s a different story. Saving now can mean that you are able to access these things a little faster than everyone else. Why wouldn’t you want to check that out? Good luck!
