Money Management 101: Financial Basics



If you read my blogs, you know I am a believer in spirit. You also are aware that my thinking about money is not quite common. So, in this respect, my vision about how to manage the financial equation in your life is not very common either.



“With spirit we are all children of the cosmos; without it we are orphaned and adrift” – Deepak Chopra



I consider money as one more type of resource, with the same value as any other resource. Resources, in my conception, are any living or non living organisms on earth that are available for the sustainability of life on earth. This means that being available to sustain life, makes you or any organism, a resource.



In this sense, money is a resource while serving to the sustainability of life. Otherwise, money is only a piece of paper with lots of chemicals on it, which is not easy to degrade, and is not useful for eating either. Crude reality. Hard to accept. Still, very true.



One of the components of poverty is the lack of money. People usually call themselves “poor” because they don´t have money. In my case, there have been times (about 13 years of my life), when I didn´t have money, not even to take a bus. Many times I would have to walk with my two kids, one in my arms and the other one barely walking, through crowded streets, through bad weather, or even being hungry.



I never called myself “poor”, though. So this is the first lesson on MM 101: never call yourself poor. Money, at those times, was barely keeping me alive. I needed more of course. I had one thing on my mind: I didn´t want to be moneyless ever again. I would do whatever it took to overcome this phase. Necessity is the mother of all inventions. I tried to think of all kinds of businesses, and soon I realized I needed to have some tools available to me.



Scarce money, was to be well spent. I decided to use my money wisely. I put order in my life. First I set rules at home for my husband, who was really violent to my kids. I said enough. If he wanted to be violent, he would have to leave, or otherwise, one of us would die. Crude, simple, yet very hard to do. It was very needed though, in terms of achieving order.



I took all the opportunities that came to me



Once I saw a person walking in the streets looking for a birthday cake, and asked her how much she would pay for one. When she told me, I offered myself to make her one, for a little less. Soon I had an ad in the local newspaper , offering “special cakes for special people”. Then I would begin distributing cakes to restaurants, and hired three women who shared my situation to work in the business.



It took a long time to make the business work. And here comes lesson number two: never give up too soon. Businesses are like people. They need time to learn how to walk, but you need to feed them well and make them practice a lot, otherwise they could end up dying. Be patient. I had one big problem. I used to hire ovens to work. I didn´t have money to buy an oven for myself. It took me around three years to save up the money to buy one second hand oven, big enough to make the business really grow.



In the fifth year of the business, I was also in my fifth year of college. Yes. I was studying at night. Business Administration, of course, as I said before, I had realized I needed some tools. I was going to study whatever, because I knew knowledge would give me power. And by chance I met a nice middle aged who advised me to sign up to that career. He happened to be the Director. Nice coincidence, or the Universe working to favor my willingness to work on the tools I needed?



To finish up my studies, I needed time. So I sold the business for a good amount of money, that helped me through the process of getting my thesis done, and set the basis for new businesses. From there on nothing could stop me, I never was moneyless ever again.



Many coincidences, many miracles, came to my life after opening my arms to the love existing in the Universe for me. This gave me strength. So these two lessons are enough for this first session on MM101: Be rich in spirit (never call yourself poor), and don´t give up easily, keep trying hard.



“With spirit we are all children of the cosmos; without it we are orphaned and adrift” – Deepak Chopra

Like this story?
Join World Pulse now to read more inspiring stories and connect with women speaking out across the globe!
Leave a supportive comment to encourage this author
Tell your own story
Explore more stories on topics you care about