| Copyright (c) 2008 Stephen Lau | | | | life, that value will be reflected in your |
| | | | attitude towards your financial success and |
| We are living in a stressful world: stress | | | | financial priorities, and hence your |
| comes from all directions - health, work, | | | | financial decisions. |
| relationships, and, above all, money. | | | | |
| Financial stress is responsible for other | | | | You will do all you can, and do it. You will |
| stress factors in life. For example, if you | | | | make the commitment to do it. You will become |
| have a hard time making both ends meet, most | | | | more flexible to change in order to make it |
| probably you have frequent arguments with | | | | happen. You will acknowledge that you can do |
| your spouse over how much money to spend, | | | | it in spite of the difficulties. Integrity |
| what to spend on, and when to spend. | | | | makes money become a means to an end, but not |
| Financial strive is the root cause of many | | | | an end itself. Integrity puts your focus on |
| breakups and divorces. If you are financially | | | | efforts, rather than on results. This takes |
| strained, you may not have full health | | | | away much of your financial stress. |
| insurance coverage, and any major medical | | | | |
| bill incurred due to medical emergency will | | | | Financial stress is often caused by financial |
| put more strain and stress on your finance. | | | | problems, which are inevitable. Don't spend |
| | | | time on reacting to a financial problem: |
| Stress is an underlying cause of diseases and | | | | reacting would only exacerbate the stress. |
| disorders. Stress ages an individual hard and | | | | Integrity will make you seek a solution to |
| fast. | | | | any financial problem you may encounter. You |
| | | | will not leave it to chance, nor will you |
| To overcome your financial stress, you must | | | | ignore it. You will do everything you can to |
| begin with your core values in life, which | | | | solve the problem. For example, if you find |
| should have little to do with money. However, | | | | yourself in debt, you will not ignore it. |
| your core values in life affect your | | | | Instead, you will have a plan, a budget, and |
| financial priorities and your financial | | | | a roadmap to get yourself out of debt. |
| decisions. Therefore, your core values must | | | | Integrity alleviates your financial stress. |
| not be compromised under any circumstance, | | | | |
| because any compromise will generate conflict | | | | Because of integrity, you value money, not |
| and undue stress in your life. To illustrate, | | | | because it can buy you things you may not |
| if you value your health, compromising it | | | | need, but because you can use money to help |
| with poor eating habits will only create | | | | others who are in need. Because money has a |
| disharmony in your health. | | | | value, you will spend less, and save more, |
| | | | and thus the financial stress due to |
| One of the most important core values in life | | | | overshooting the budget can be avoided. |
| is integrity. Life is all about living - it | | | | |
| comes with some hard work and simple | | | | What is the real value of money to you? |
| integrity. Integrity is an important personal | | | | |
| value that has nothing to do with money. | | | | If your financial priorities are based on |
| Integrity is an important value that God has | | | | accumulation of wealth, then all your |
| bestowed upon each of us, and its | | | | financial decisions and priorities will be |
| availability is the choice of an individual. | | | | based on that flawed value system, which |
| This important personal value can influence | | | | inevitably will lead to financial stress down |
| your own value of money. Essentially, it is | | | | the road. |
| the value of what life has to offer, not the | | | | |
| value of things purchased with money. | | | | Changing yourself - especially your attitude |
| | | | towards the value of money - can take the |
| If integrity is an important value in your | | | | financial stress out of your life. |