Living with Less.

I woke up this morning with another day being different from my younger age of 20 and 30's where money was not a very big issue because I made it faster than I could spend it. I have to say that as I got to my late age of 30 something my life started to change radically because I started to learn that all that extra stuff in ones life that I had bought and collected over several decades just no longer had as much value to me as it once did have when I was younger. I started selling things that I did not need and giving away stuff to other people that I no longer used in my daily course of life. I have found that I sort of have adopted a more minimalist attitude being middle age which is completely different from my earlier decades which I spent tons of money on every new gadget that came to market in the local retail stores. I could afford most anything I wanted back then unlike now so I had a money no object attitude that made me eventually poor with credit card debt of $33,000 and other things like cars and two homes all at the same time. I sit here reflecting on how life was back then seeing now the mistakes I made with not investing properly in my personal life needs and a good future money investment plan which has gotten me to where I am now. I should have been serious about about how I invested and what i invested my money into so that I would be much better off today than what I am currently. I have done some things right over the years with my multi business ventures but left my personal life needs on the back burner which I now see is a big mistake that I seem to have made and instead I should have done it differently with more emphasis on making my personal life better. For decades I have put my business career and venture capitol investments as a top priority in my life instead of my family,wife and my own self for which has eventually made me become a unhappy person as it that way now. I could say that living with less of everything teaches you the greater value of everything including wife,family and friends that makes you really realize all that you have lost in the pursuit of the almighty dollar bill. I know that probably some person reading this can identify with what I have done wrong but I dare say most people would rather talk behind closed doors than air it out on a public places. I guess that makes me different in the fact that I hope my stories help other people to not make the same stupid mistakes that I have done and actually do things that opens up ones self to more opportunity to become a better person. If you learn how to live with less material things it still does not mean that you will be unhappy this is something that I have had a learning curve in the last 10 years. Living within your own means that you appreciate other things more now than when you have mega money in your pockets for which you can buy the world with anything you want that your heart desires. When you lose that financial fortune which happened to me it really changes who you are and makes you think about what is really important in ones life from this new prospective of being poor compared to being rich as I once was in my life. You begin to see that most material things you put a high value on are now disposable and what is more important is God, Jesus family,wife,children,dog and your life time friends. I was in church on Sunday and the minister was talking about how you should be as a man on this planet and what you should be doing to better your life so that you lead by example of what what Jesus taught us in the book of James and other books in the Bible. He explained that all the wealth on this planet is a temporary thing which you can have it all and then lose it all if you don't follow the teaching from Jesus in the Bible that life is a short term gift. He went on to say that if you adopt God and Jesus in your life then your need for worldly things is no longer the primary focus of your entire living existence this minister then shocked everyone by saying "Hey folks the fact is it sure is nice to have comfort with tons of gadget and 20 castles and 30 exotic cars one for each day of the month that you can drive but you don't need it to be in favor with God". Sure, he said having a certain level of material wealth is ok but don't go to the ridicules excess that so many people have done only to find out later that they are totally miserable and unhappy with life. He used the example of the rich man was not able to pass through the eye of a needle like a camel and the poor man had a direct trip to heaven. He pointed out drawing a diagram on a blackboard which one would you rather have a trip to heaven or be insanely rich for a short time on earth. You could see the entire congregation really pause in silence to think of that one, then someone had the guts to speak up and said I would follow Jesus. The Minister said your right this is the whole point of what you must do living on earth which is to learn that you can still live a happy fulfilled life with less of certain things but you had better start putting your God,Jesus wife,family children and friends before your material comforts or your going to be a miserable person every day of your life. Unfortunately, I never got that point until middle age where I am now and that is why most things in my life have failed as I certainly wish I would have learned this lessons much earlier in my life instead of now so that I could have made the changes that I needed to do to better myself and the close people around me. I guess the old adage is live and learn but these lessons are much harder ones and more impacting on the overall viewpoint I have about my life now in general. I hope that whoever reads this will find themselves thinking about what happened to me and what the minister at my church was talking about on Sunday and decide to improve their life with the story I have talked about here today..
Have a Really Blessed Day....
J.N.