Money doesn’t cure money problems

Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.
Ogden Nash
1902 – 1971

You were probably puzzled when you read the title of this lesson. The majority of Americans have financial difficulties. They live paycheck to paycheck; they’re one unfortunate incident away from economic disaster.

If you asked these people what would fix all their problems, most would answer money. But money will not cure money problems.

I’ve worked with countless individuals who believed that a few thousand dollars would solve their problems. I’ve worked with hundreds of businesses in financial distress; they thought a loan or an infusion of capital was the answer to their predicament. Yet even when they got more money, the problems remained.

Money simply delays facing the real issues. Lack of money is never the true obstacle; it’s a symptom of the underlying problems. An influx of cash may give you breathing room, but if you don’t address the cause of the shortfalls, those new funds will soon be gone and you’ll be right back in the same position.

My friend Dave Krueger has written a book called The Secret Language of Money. In it, he talks about how interwoven our money story is with our lives. We use money to represent many different things and we try to use money to do things that it can’t. We spend money in attempts to “alter our moods, increase our self-esteem, and control others. We use money to try to soothe emotional pains and to buy the respect of others and ourselves.” The more we try to accomplish with money, the less we understand it.

Our money story is so complex that we often refuse to fully examine how we think about money. There are countless people who are afraid to face their money beliefs — and if you aren’t aware of your money story, you’ll be powerless to change it.

This concept is so important to understand: money cannot cure a money problem because the money is not the problem. The problem is how we use or misuse money in our lives. The root of the dilemma is in the objects and experiences we deem vital to our businesses and our lives; our difficulties rise from the beliefs we hold and the choices we make based on those beliefs.

If you have problems that manifest in a shortage of money, examine what changes you need to make in your business or your life. Unless you make fundamental shifts in your thoughts and your actions, getting more money will only lead to bigger problems.

There is nothing so degrading as the constant anxiety about one’s means of livelihood.  Money is like a sixth sense without which you cannot make a complete use of the other five.
W. Somerset Maugham
1874 – 1965

Copyright © 2011 John Chancellor