诚实金钱和幸福(The truth about money and happiness)(2)

　　to me this makes no sense. if other people become wealthier than you, that is no reason to be unhappy. if other people are prosperous that is good; don’t feel miserable just because you cannot keep up with the joneses.

　　5. don’t live to work. do you find yourself working overtime in the evenings and at the weekend? if you spend all your time working, you will have no opportunity to spend your earnings. don’t feel guilty for turning extra work down; it is important to give leisure time as high a priority as work. it is good if we can gain satisfaction from work, but if we only spend time working then our life lacks a proper balance.

　　6. understand why are some people always poor i’m sure most people will have good friends who always seems to have money concerns. no matter what happens they always seem to be short of money and they frequently share tales of financial woe. the lack of money makes them unhappy, but they don’t know how to change the situation. giving them money doesn’t solve the problem because they continue to make bad financial decisions.

　　part of the problem lies in their mindset. it is easy to become accustomed to being poor and then half expecting the poverty to continue. with this mindset, it becomes difficult to attract money into our lives and easy to develop feelings of self pity and regret. however, while we might be unfortunate it won’t do anything to resolve the situation. the secret is to try and change our habits and approach to money. also, be wary about trying to convert others to better financial habits - it is almost guaranteed to fail.

　　7. ignorance is not bliss another attitude to money is to try and avoid thinking about it. we ignore the true extent of our debts, spending and leaving unpaid bills. we frequently miss out on moving to better financial deals and make late payments which harm our credit rating. by ignoring money like this, we merely create more serious problems for the future.

　　also, when we put off dealing with financial problems we carry the problem in the back of our mind. we can get no peace of mind because we permanently have a long list of things to deal with. it is better in these circumstances to promptly deal with things like paying bills and sorting out your accounts - then we can forget about them.

　　8. develop a new perspective the following are some money related questions you should ask yourself:

　　am i happy with my financial situation? would more money make my life better? do i always have financial problems hanging over my head? is money the most important thing in my life? is the pursuit of money making me miserable? would i sacrifice principles to make more money? even just answering these questions honestly may encourage a new perspective towards money.