Sunday, June 19

Money is NOT important: How a song in a Disney movie--Princess and the Frog helped me with my finances.



Money is not important.  Handling Money Well is.

I just watched the “Princess and the Frog" for the nth time with my daughter and I can’t get this song off my mind—
"You gotta dig a little deeper by Mama Odie” & it goes like this;

You got to dig a little deeper
Find out who you are
You got to dig a little deeper
It really ain't that far
When you find out who you are
You'll find out what you need
Blue skies and sunshine guaranteed...
Prince Froggy is a rich little boy
You wanna be rich again
That ain't gonna make you happy now
Did it make you happy then? No!
Money ain't got no soul
Money ain't got no heart
All you need is some self-control
Make yourself a brand new start
You got to dig a little deeper
Don't have far to go
You got to dig a little deeper
Tell the people Mama told you so
Can't tell you what you'll find
Maybe love will grant you peace of mind
Dig a little deeper and you'll know

*If you haven’t watched this scene yet, go ahead and watch it at the Mickey and Wondrous Book, Hong Kong Disneyland.

When I started thinking of my finances, I said to myself "Money will solve all my problems” but just like the Frog Prince, I got it all wrong.
This movie teaches you about money and life's purpose like a sharp knife, it goes straight to your heart.

"For the ultimate purpose of wealth is to help/love others."
-Bo Sanchez

Where do we start?
This is the question everyone asks and it's no different with me.
I took hold of my finances and got creative on how to handle it well with proper, consistent budgeting of it.  Learned from reading Books, following Personal Finance Blogs and attending Seminars and quite a few Webinars about the topic.
I have existing loans to start with and with less spending power I got more creative in sorting our monthly income to fit into our lifestyle.  I started to Invest in myself.  In my mindset.

I always thought that with proper knowledge, I will be invincible and will be successful in achieving Financial Freedom.  That's how all success stories start --- How to achieve freedom.  And who wouldn't want to be free, right?
And then I came across a book by Bo Sanchez entitled 8 Secrets of the Truly Rich and I hit a road block.  For at the end of the book it says that the first step ( actually Step 0: ) is to Give.
Give? "What are you talking about?" I said to myself aloud.
What I intended is to gain money not to give.  How can you ask me to give first?  So I put the book aside and read more books.  I learned so much and felt very equipped to start acting on it but at the back of my mind I felt guilty on just focusing on getting money.  So I prayed and actually asked our pastor for guidance, stayed after service and approached him and asked about money.  He then recommended a book called A Purpose Driven Life then I was sold.
I told myself I will give first.
Let me see what will happen.

And as part of Giving, the Spearhead Mission was born.  Then, I did not stop.  I began with myself. I began with learning. 

"Learning is the beginning of wealth. Learning is the beginning of health. Learning is the beginning of spirituality. Searching and learning is where the miracle process all begins." --Jim Rohn

The title of this post says "How a song in a Disney movie Princess and the Frog helped me with my finances." so let's follow what the song says and a few things I learned from it.