Ignorance is Never Bliss

Ignoranace-is-bliss-in-clouds

There is an old saying that “Ignorance is Bliss.” If it is ever true, and I have my doubts, it is certainly not so when it comes to money.

If you want to succeed with money you need to first know and understand money.

Knowledge is Required in All of Life

No matter what area of life we are engaged in we assume and accept that there is a prerequisite amount of knowledge and/or skill required for success. Big task, small task, complex or simple, there is consistently some element of knowledge needed.

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The Danger of Limited Knowledge

There is an old saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. When it comes to money this is not only true, it can be very consequential.

Partial Knowledge Affects Us Negatively

No matter what area of life we are talking about, knowing a little often leads to misguided thinking and poor decisions. We see it every day.

getting fit on weights

For example, I have a site where I explore fitness topics, especially from the perspective of senior adults. I don’t have to tell you how opinionated people are about subjects like weight loss or nutrition. Everyone you know is willing to tell you all you need to know about many topics—each one knows the facts, but everyone’s facts are different.

The reason all this is so dangerous is that when we make quick decisions based on very limited knowledge it is easy to make mistakes. Sometimes it is of little consequence, but at other times it can have disastrous effects on our health or well being.

The Danger of Our National Debt

What led me to discuss this topic today is a conversation I had yesterday. Because one individual involved was so strongly advocating a particular idea I decided the situation was not conducive to education and let it go, but I will share it with you here.

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Financial Freedom in Half the Time

You’ve all heard the competing insurance commercials. In one you can save 15% in 15 minutes; in the other you can save more in half the time.

Remember Suzie Orman’s book titled, Nine Steps to Financial Freedom. Well guess what? Now you can achieve your financial independence goal in half the steps! How? By following the plan in my new guide, Five Steps to Financial Freedom.

With Apologies to Suzie Orman

Suzie Orman book - 9 Steps

What’s up Suzie? Why make people go through nine steps when they could achieve the same thing in just five?

Naturally I am having some fun with the titles. Suzie’s book is great and I can recommend it. It has gone through at least four editions and sold over 3 million copies which tells you something of how well received it has been.

In her book Suzie cover 9 basic principles that will affect your chances of success. For example, one is Trusting Yourself More than You Trust Others. This is a very important principle as are all the others.

When you get a chance you might want to read it. It is a classic.

The Five Steps to Financial Freedom

On the other hand, my five steps are an introduction to the five practical steps that are involved in getting the job done. It is not a book but a concise eight page description of exactly what you need to do to achieve financial independence.

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Whether the Job Be Great or Small

Often high achievers are plagued with a combination of two conflicting interests, a sense of perfectionism and a wide range of desirable activities. Perhaps most successful people experience this to some degree. What should we do when this is the case?

Perfectionism Drives Achievement

Obviously, taken to the extreme, perfectionism can be a negative. We are all familiar with what is called the “paralysis of analysis.” But a significant degree of perfectionism drives us to achieve high marks in school and success in our work.

Man thinking

When young I was indoctrinated with the old saying, “Whether the job be great or small, do it well or not at all.” It drove me to achieve reasonably high grades in school and eventually to continue my education until I earned a doctorate.

This attitude contributes to the degree of success the perfectionists have in all of life’s activities. Look at the Olympics. We watch in amazement at what some of these athletes can do, perhaps even more at their ability to focus for years on honing their skills.

No One Can Do It All

Here is the big problem with perfectionism. It inevitably leads to a great conflict that can affect life in a very negative way

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Skills and Habits that Pay

Sometimes it is the little things that count most. A small cut on your finger can be a real irritant. Of course a cut finger will heal in a short time, but there are a lot of other little problems in life that keep us from doing the work we need to do, things that won’t fix themselves.

cut-finger

If we want to achieve more success with money or anything else, we need to increase our productivity. In this post I thought I would mention one of the little things that we can do to help us get more done.

Information Overload

As a person who is committed to learning generally I have long subscribed to newsletters and similar information on a variety of topics. I have been very selective about what I choose to sign up for. Even so the number of emails arriving in my inbox every day has become overwhelming to the point that I have decided something has to be done.

I know I am not the only one to find myself in this predicament. We all know this has become an information world. We all want and need to learn. Some of the best information is on the internet and some of these newsletters are among the best educational sources available.

But even if you are careful you can easily find yourself receiving so much email you will be swamped. This is not a good thing.

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I Built This Site Myself!

Now that's not a political headline. Just a fun (I trust) parody of one. However, it is intended to draw attention to one fact: what you read on this site is written by me, growing out of my own education, experience, and real research.

That is one reason why, in my opinion of course, I believe you can trust what you read on Success With Money to be the truly valuable information you need to help you reach your goal of financial success.

This post is a little different than most. It is not about money as such; it is about my philosophy of work when it comes to writing the content you find here. It is intended to give a little insight into my approach and purpose for the site.

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Your Outlook on the Economy
Determines Your Success!

One of the most important truths you can ever learn in life is that your thinking determines everything. The way you think shapes your life.

In no area is this more significant than in your financial life. You will never be successful with money until you see yourself and your opportunities as filled with potential rather than failure.

Mike's Money Success Attitude Story

Recently I read a great post by Mike McGroarty dealing with the economy. It isn't his particular field of interest—he promotes growing plants for sale as he has done himself—but he makes some great points in this…

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