Financial Literacy Overview

 The first step to achieving financial freedom is to get out of debt. Until you clear your debts, especially the ones that have high interest rates you are on the line and are in debt to someone or some organization. For me being in debt gives me an uneasy feeling of no security. The feeling of being in debt to others limits my choices and greatly influences my choices. If I have a mortgage on my house and I stop making payments the loan provider will come knocking and take the house away. They will not hesitate foreclosing on me and auctioning the house out to the next buyer. I am forced to continue paying the mortgage or else I will lose the stability of my shelter, so I am going to work in order to keep up with my obligations and live a stable life. The goal of getting out of debt is to have a positive cash flow or increase your cash flow.

The next step is to start saving your money for the future. When you start to get out of debt you will see your cash flow start to increase. Having more money is your bank account is a great achievement. This extra money is great to have and you might be tempted to treat yourself, by buying something nice. However please think twice and refrain from instant gratification purchases. Like I mentioned earlier, life is full of unexpected events and having money saved for a rainy day will help you when you are faced with an unexpected bill such as a medical bill, car or house repair.

Now that you have some extra money saved and are crawling out of debt. You can begin to focus on building your credit more successfully. It is important to remember to use your credit for making purchases or acquire things that will be beneficial to you in the long term. It should not be used to buy a new fur coat or luxury item that you will regret purchasing sometime afterwards because the money could have been used in a better way.

Truly you will have more options and opportunities in your life due to your financial health. You may decide that you should invest your money and have your money earn you more money. Remember that money is important in life but it’s not the most important part. Money is a resource which we use to acquire other products and services to improve the quality of our and our loved ones lives. 

Although investing your money could be viewed as a risk or liability and goes against the principle of getting out of debt if you invest in a big item such as a car or a house. Many times risk brings benefits and rewards in life. A car once drove off the lot depreciates in value rapidly, compared to a house which might appreciate in value over time. Although these items can be viewed as risks they allows us to have a roof over our head and a place to be safe and a place to eat and lay our heads. A car can also help us get around, travel with our family or on our daily commute to work. These two items also bring expenses with them overtime such as insurance, taxes and repairs. Having your money in a savings account is not as risky as other investments with no extra cost and little reduction in value. Many people don’t realize it, even having money in a savings account or hiding it under the mattresses is losing value because of inflation. So smart investors invest their money in order to maintain their wealth and grow their wealth over time. There are many investment vehicles and we will go over that when we analyze all the different classes of investments.

Finally we will talk about achieving financial wealth and freedom. We will look over the benefits of having the resource of money in our lives to help us improve the quality of it. Many people say that money can’t buy happiness and that might be true for some but for me money can buy products or services which will bring happiness into my life. The green dollar bills will not bring me happiness, it’s just a paper but the value of it, along with the things I can do with this resource will bring me more opportunities and help me get more experiences from my life here on earth.

Most of the topics I will cover are not taught to us by the school system because having uneducated people making poor choices and decisions is more profitable for big corporations and firms. Also if people were more smarter in using their money the more they would be able to save and the less they would be giving to the big corporations. After these readings you will have a better understanding about financial literacy and the benefits of having knowledge and wisdom so that you can apply it in your life. 

Once you become more informed and in control of your finances you can begin to help others take the proper necessary steps to do the same for themselves. Having more control over your finances and getting out of debt can open the doors to more opportunities in your life. Becoming an entrepreneur or traveling the world to new places and helping others by donating to charities or volunteering your time for organizations to help people less fortunate, providing others with what you are passionate about.

The Attitude of Gratitude

Why Gratitude?

    Having an attitude of gratitude can take you a long way because it is essential to having a positive perspective and outlook in your life. To practice gratitude successfully you need to be grateful for what you have consistently, constantly, and daily. This is very useful when you are facing tough times, when it is difficult to count your blessings and the negativity is in the forefront blocking your ability to see the good things you have in life.

    Being able to hold an attitude of gratitude will help you be optimistic instead of falling into the trap of being pessimistic. You will be able to get through the day with the cup half full instead of half empty mindset. Murphy’s Law states that if anything can go wrong it will go wrong. This law is known and recognized by many, it has a great deal of significance and is a very wise and powerful law. I do not want to undermine this law or reduce any of its significance. However I have an altered variation for Murphy's Law, my variation states anything that can go right will go right. I tell myself this constantly and I like to start my day by reminding myself about this. Especially in my self-talk early in the morning when I get up and am getting ready to begin my day. This helps me get up out of bed in the mornings and look forward to the day.

How to Show and feel Gratitude? 

    Gratitude can also be shown in the form of showing appreciation for others in your life, also for the circumstances in your life. If you have people in your life looking out for you, supporting you to become better and they have been there for you when no one else has. It’s time to return the kindness they have shared with you so that you can show them how important they are to you, this will allow you to continue to have them in your life.

    Being kind in all relationships is important. If you pick and choose and are selective with the people you chose to be kind to, it will not work as effectively. If you unconditionally show kindness to everyone it will improve your habit tenfold. If this is an attitude you want to instill and master I suggest you to interact with everyone this way even with the less informed people, who at times are difficult people to deal with.

    Thankfulness is another term that can coincide with gratitude. Being grateful and thankful for people in your life, and for the circumstances in your life. Instead of thinking about your circumstances such as your income or the neighborhood you live in as a limiting factor that is keeping you limited. You instead choose to be grateful and thankful for what you have because these are the exact things keeping your life going. Thinking in this way will help you make the best of what you have.

    Also remember to be thankful for life and for having a conscious, being alive today breathing, living life and experiencing it in the moment. To be optimistic, it is important to think of every day as an opportunity to change your circumstances if you choose to change. So if you desire to increase your income or move to a better neighborhood you are blessed with a new day to try and work on achieving your goals.

My Lack of Gratitude

    I was not a very grateful person, I was very fixated on having nice materialistic possessions. Instead of being grateful for the things I did have in my life, I thought more about the things I did not have and the things I wanted, sometimes didn't even need. Every time I thought about the materialistic things I was missing in my life, I was making myself feel unfulfilled. I did not realize this at that time and this was a very negative thought cycle I was caught up in.

    Instead of appreciating the things I did have and counting my blessings which would have led to positive thoughts and constructive thoughts. The positive thoughts would have made me feel better about myself and would have most definitely helped me to be in a positive mindset and manifest it into reality.

    I made the mistake of wasting my time, energy and my physical and mental resources focusing on materialistic items and living what I call the consumer lifestyle. I was the perfect target for advertising campaigns from big corporations trying to sell a bunch of nonsense to make a profit. I was being dependent on materialistic products to feel instant gratification, it was a trick to make me feel like I am achieving success and progression in life. This was a very negative illusion and misconception I had. It caused me to not value the things that I did have in my life, more importantly the people in my life. I was a fool just trying to keep up with the Jones.

    The sad part about me trying to keep up with the Jones was that the generation I grew up in saw a great deal of technology updates. In my transition over the years I’ve seen it go from flip phones to blackberries, sidekicks to the iPhone. Now every year you have Apple releasing a brand new model so by the time you’re done paying one off you have a new one to buy. This is just ridiculous but if you think about how important these things are in our lives it’s sad to see how important they are and how dependent we are on them. I remember times when I would go out to hang out with friends, instead of talking to one another with interest, everyone was plugged into their phones, physically we were together but mentally we were all somewhere else.

    I was not grateful for the people in my life and things they did for me. After my car accident in 2014 I was hospitalized, I had surgery on my left leg because I had fractured my femur. The strongest bone in my body was fractured and I had to get a surgical correction in order to let the bone heal. I had to build myself up to be able to walk again. This was a very difficult time for me and it was very hard for me to be grateful because I had a broken leg. I couldn’t walk and I was on a wheelchair.

    I remember I had to go to school because I was taking college classes at the time and one of my teachers did not believe me and told me that I could not miss the test. If I missed the test I would fail the class and would have to retake the course. My parents were very supportive during this time and my mother helped wheel me into school. My classmate saw me and took over and helped me into our class.

    This was a very embarrassing and emotional time for me, I hated all the feelings and thoughts that were going through my head at the time. My self-talk was like “man everyone must be feeling pity for me and laughing at me behind my back”, “damn everyone’s going to be talking about this.”

    I am thankful for my parents and my classmate for helping me. Without them I would have not been able to make it to my class and pass the test. That was the only class which made it difficult for me during this time, especially because I had to face all my friends and all the other students in school. During this time I was very grateful for my family, they supported me through this and many other difficult times and I am blessed to have such a great family.

The Lesson I learned

    I lost a lot of so-called “friends” during this time, they say that when you need help and are not in a favorable light in life you realize some of your so-called friends were really not your friends. I know now that if I focus on the blessings in my life instead of my injuries and losses I will come out stronger and better when I face setbacks.

    I was very grateful and lucky for having the support of my family, I really appreciate them for this reason. However I did not ever tell them or give back the respect or love to my loved ones, I did not return the same help they had showered me with when I was in need. I never said thank you and never spent the time with them to let them know how valuable they are to me. I appreciated them, I felt the need to return the love they had shown me. However just thinking about them and thanking them was not enough, I had to take action because actions speak louder than words.

    I noticed that I only spent my time with others that benefited me. The least I could have done for these people was show them how important they were for me but I failed to do that. I did not praise these people enough and did not shower my gratitude and appreciation towards them through my actions or my words. Possibly that’s why I did not have many people around me after my accident. The worst part about the situation is that I overlooked my chances to change.

    Every day I woke up to a new blessed day instead of thinking about the change that I could make to better myself so that I can have more meaningful relationships or take care of and nurture the positive relationships I did have in my life.

Key Points to Walk away with  

    Practicing gratitude daily will contribute to your overall success and help you become an optimistic and positive constructive thinker. Giving back your time and support to others is important because courtesy is contagious. Every time you perform an act of courtesy you influence and encourage others to do the same. It creates sort of a domino effect of courtesy. Now imagine if you started this effect at home with your family and then with your neighbors and your coworkers. Behaving this way you can create a bigger impact and make the community around you a better place because now others are also following the positive trend that you have set. You could potentially turn your neighborhood into a great place to live or your workplace into a great place to work and your home into your heaven.

    Sometimes all people want or need is a little support and appreciation in their lives. You can encourage them to be better and feel worthy. This will not only help you build a better relationship with others, it can cause a positive ripple effect into their life and the others in their lives. Knowing this now I would like to encourage everyone to give thanks to your team members and people who support you. I encourage you to give recognition to others so that people know that they have done something right. I believe that after you have given thanks and recognition to the people in your life, they will be more willing to deal with you and be around knowing you will acknowledge their importance and respect what they provide to you.

    Being grateful for being alive on this planet and in your own shoes is the key to a more meaningful life that is filled with positive emotions. Use your time, resources, energy to help yourself, help others, grow, and learn. After my tragic life-threatening accident I was left physically damaged with a broken leg and damage to my rotator cuff in my shoulder. I was mentally damaged and left with negative emotions and trauma. I had felt guilty for putting my family through the negative emotions of almost losing my life and the burden of having to support me when in return I did not listen to them and give them the time of day because I was carrying around this baggage of resentment, anger, guilt and shame.

    Looking back now, if I was more focused on being grateful towards them and thought about how lucky I was for surviving this tragic accident and for still being alive I could have made this setback into a more meaningful life lesson and positive wake up call. During this time I did spend more time than I usually did with my family, despite being handicap I did my best to support them to the best of my abilities. However, if I had a more tentative and focused attitude of gratitude I would have had a more positive outlook on my life and taken advantage of the opportunities to change. I could have built more positive habits, which would have led to a more successful recovery. This would have also allowed me to eliminate and cut down my negative emotions.

    Although I gained this knowledge after experiencing some major setbacks in life, I'm glad I have this knowledge now. I can use it today to make sure the future is better.

Benefits of Controlling your Attitude

Is Attitude a Choice?

Many people would agree that life is an emotional roller coaster which is full of ups and downs. Most of our experiences are shaped and molded by our choices. Our choices and the decisions we make will lead us down a path to success or distraction and possibly failure. Many people don’t view it this way and continue to blame their issues and problems on others or on the circumstances in their life. The people who do this fail to take the necessary actions to change the negative situation. With this type of thinking, the person believes that the source of the issue is external and in their minds it is caused by others or things outside their control. For this reason it might falsely lead a person to believe that the solution is also outside their control. 

If instead a person takes responsibility for their actions, choices, they will begin to see that they are in control. The situation and environment around can be altered by our actions and by the way we manage our thinking. If we learn to control our attitude we can have positive thinking, emotions, perceptions, behaviors for success. This power will improve every area of our lives including our relationship with family and friends, intimate relationships and with colleagues or business relationships.

Is it really out of your control?

Some of life’s tragic and sensitive events such as the death of a loved one, or an unexpected accident, earthquakes, or natural disasters are out of our control having a positive attitude can help us better coupe with the event. Having a positive attitude even when we are struggling can help us think more logically rather than emotionally, get through to weather the storm. It is important to remember we only have control over our attitude and not others. 

In your journey to improving your attitude you may come across other less informed individuals who do not have this awareness and do not know about this thinking. Sometimes these people will test your patience and your attitude. These altercations or events are the best times to practice using the new tools that you will learn from reading these writings. My goal is to inform and equip you with new tools and attitudes. 

This new mindset and way of thinking will make your experiences more pleasant and worthwhile. It will also help you open new doors in your life. New opportunities that you may have believed were never available or possible for you, will be within your reach. You will be able to make a new and meaningful connection to the world around you by working on yourself. It does not matter where you are in life, your age, gender, nationality.

How Valuable is your Attitude?

Your attitude is your most valuable asset so why not work on it daily? Investing in your attitude will bring you the greatest return on investment, and open doors for you to accomplish success and greatness that you desire and always wanted for yourself. Whether it be to rebuild a relationship or accomplish a promotion in your career. You will need to work harder on yourself so that you can grow and others will notice the growth without you needing to tell them or needing to showoff. They will want to be around you and promote you into positions you have grown into.

So before we begin this journey, it is important for you to develop a personal definition of attitude. These new attitudes which I will introduce may have already been in your life, just overlooked or unexplored. These new attitudes and your personal definition will not only be the foundation to your change, it will be a new outlook and perspective on life. It will serve as a reminder to why you are continuously working on yourself and why you decided to change and grow into the successful person you will be.

How can improving my Attitude Help me?

The question I would like you to think about is what your attitude towards life is? And how does your attitude reflect you? Are you a person who looks at life as a cup which is half empty or half full. Are you a pessimist or optimistic? If you picture these two types of people, one that looks at the cup as half empty, you could associate negative thinking, feelings, perceptions and behaviors. Just an overall bad attitude and someone that you might not want to be around for too long. Someone you will distance yourself from. On the other hand is the person who looks at the cup half full and you might automatically visualize a person who is smiling and ready to take on the world no matter what comes his or her way.

Although this example may sound very simple. It is the truth and the same pattern of thinking and self-talk we have about events that take place, will become our habits and will spill into every aspect of our life and others around you.

Another major factor I would like for you to think about is if you positively affect the lives of those you interact with? Think of the individuals in your life that affect you in a positive way and those who affect you in a negative way.

I know for a fact that you would rather be with the people who make you feel positive, so you should do the same and be a positive person for yourself and others. You can be a role model for others if you follow the positive attitudes and practice using them.

I would much rather be the person who has control over my attitude, instead of making bad choices and decisions because of my negative attitude. Think back to the last time your negative attitude created a negative impact or consequence. It's okay if you have made mistakes and bad decisions, I'm sure we all have and can relate. No need to beat yourself up, you are just making things worse and rubbing salt on your wounds. I suggest to relax and be forward thinking, give yourself time and you will heal and eventually move forward. 

Now please think about the positive choices you are going to make in order to help you respond better to situations. Also think about the proper actions and changes needed to keep cool and keep a positive productive attitude.

80/ 20 Rule - The Pareto Principle

What is the Pareto Law?

The Pareto Phenomenal also know as the 80/20 Rule, Law of vital few, and Principle of factor sparsity. It is a generalized phenomenon developed by an Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto in 1896. The reason I say generalized phenomenon is because it is not a formal mathematical equation like 1+1=2. Mr. Pareto worked with lots of numbers, data and statistics. He noticed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. He also noticed that in his garden 80 % of the fruits were coming from 20% of the plants.

Was this a Coincidence?

No this was not a coincidence. Mr. Pareto worked with a lot of statistics as a economist. He dealt with numbers and statistics from many different industries such as population, real estate, food production, and many other demographics and industries. Pareto did not discover a coincidence, rather he discovered a relationship between two quantities.

Why does that matter ?

 The 80/20 rule was a concept I learned and it taught me that 20% of our daily actions we input, outputs 80% of the results in our life. The other 80% input we intentionally put into things gives us the rest of the 20% in results.

The reason I found this interesting is because its remined me of something that my parents told me growing up. They told me that the small choices I make create a big impact. When I reflect on my past choices, I agree with this point and it is a valid point that I can apply to make better decisions in life overall.

So if you are working towards change and making your financial life more successful the small decisions and choices you make are just as, if not more important than the big decisions. For me this would look like doing food prep and eating at home which is healthier. It would also be staying at home on the weekends and saying no to going out with my friends.

Taking Control of your Financials

    Another reason I chose to write was to help others get a grip on their financial life. Having control over your financial life will help you get rid of some uncertainty and stress in your daily life. Although life is unpredictable and spontaneous at times and can leave you feeling or thinking that everything might be out of your control, take a deep breath and keep calm, focus on your plan. If you don't have a plan right now its okay, that's something you can work on in the near future. At least you are aware of it and can take action.

    Failing to plan is planning to fail, so with these writings we will help you build a mindset of preparedness by giving you knowledge and wisdom about your finances and help you get a plan in order.

    These writings will in essence be a financials 101 class. No matter where you are in life it is never too late to learn and grow. 

    It’s very sad that our public school system and society in general does not place importance of learning about financial literacy as much as it does on sports or fashion and others things that bring sensationalist feelings and instant gratification . Instead people are encouraged to be materialistic, and to continue to be great consumers who will continue spending their hard earned money with the big corporations. As a young adult I was a part of this system of living paycheck to paycheck despite being told by my parents to live within my means.

    I remember when I first started working, the minimum wage was $7.25, working part time I would save all my paychecks and only spend the tip money I made. From a years worth of part-time working I was able to save a little over $3000 and all the money was spent in one day for two airplane tickets for me and my mother. I was in high school at the time so I did not have many expenses and it was my way of showing love and appreciation for my mother. I learned a very important lesson that day. Which was it takes a long time and lots of effort to save money, however spending it takes no time.

    At the jobs I took on afterwards I found it difficult to save money, I noticed that most of my money was going to food and transportation and bills that were always going up. Whatever was left over I spent on the weekends and I was back to zero. I did not come up with a plan to reduce my expenses or increase my income so that I can save more money. Eventually being able to buy a house and a car in order to improve the quality of life and have more opportunities . I believe at that time I needed a lifestyle adjustment so that I would use my money wisely. 

    When I finally did pay attention to my expenses and started setting up a budget, I noticed that most of my money is spent on food. This is when I became aware of my financials. Now the correct thing would be to problem solve and figure out a solution to better use my resources so that I can achieve more with my money. The solutions I came up with after some analyzing was to reduce my cost by preparing meals and eating at home more often. This option did have its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were better healthy clean eating. The disadvantages were that I needed to spend time meal prepping and cooking.

    Now that we have examined this small example we can use the same or similar steps in order to get positive results. Each and every person has their own set of preferences and to be more aware and spend some time thinking would help find a effective solution. I encourage you to be creative because that might be a Home-Run factor for you.

    One final point I would like to make is to remember that money is a resource just like your time, and in different situations you might value one over the other. So its important to be aware of the situation and your options so that you could make the best option. Also be kind to your self because sometimes we might make the wrong choice and we end up getting a learning opportunity from the situation.

Perspective, Mindset, and Attitude

-Not Impossible, I'm Possible 

    It is my perspective and belief that everyday on this planet is a blessing. It is filled with opportunities and endless possibilities. We are given a chance everyday to learn, grow and become better individuals. 

    Everyday is a chance to improve and maintain our relationships with our loved ones and colleges. We can invest our time to improve our skills for our careers or study hard so that we can have the credentials we need to attain the career or business of our dreams.

    In order to gain and be successful we must have a developed and disciplined mindset. We must have the wisdom and knowledge to view the world from a perspective of abundance. Having appreciation is important because the way we feel is going to influence the way we view and interact with the world. 

    Do you view every day as an opportunity to accomplish goals and succeed? Or do you view it as another day filled with struggles and problems? 

    Regardless of life's ups and downs, it is your attitude that will determine your success or failure in the events that take place. The goal is to be disciplined and mentally strong and in control so that no matter what the external factors of your life are, you can keep the peace within and make it through the ups and downs of life successfully reaping the opportunities and benefits of the events taking place.

Health Wellness, Get Eminent Now

Hello Everyone,

     I'm glad you were able to make it to this page today. I'm grateful for having the opportunity to share my experiences, thoughts, and knowledge with you. In this day and age we are able to use the Internet in order to communicate with others instantaneously. It's amazing how small the world has become with the inventions and constant improvements to the technologies that surround us everyday.

    The reason I have chosen to create this blog is to create a community and resources for individuals to connect with other like minded individuals. In this blog, I hope to cover topics that interest people from all over the world. No matter where you are in your life its never too late to improve your life or the quality of life for others around you. 

    The primary inspiration for this blog was my desire to give back to the world in a positive way. To help motivate and improve the lives of others. I believe that our Health is one of the most important and valuable asset we have. Sometimes people neglect their health out of ignorance or not knowing. Maybe because they don't have the time or resources to do so. 

    Whatever the reason may be, its never too late to change or improve. Better Now than Never.

    Our Health consists of many parts some of which include Physical Wellbeing, Emotional Wellbeing, and Social Wellbeing, and Spiritual Wellbeing. The topics we will discuss in this blog are not limited because life is complex and we as humans have multiple wants and needs in order for survival.

    We as individuals have our own stories and path in life, which include some good times and bad times just as each and everyday includes sunrise and sundown. Our past is there to learn from so that we can grow from the mistakes or poor decisions and hopefully not repeat them. 

    Although the past cannot be changed the Future can, depending on your present. That is why we would like you to know your Eminent Now.