Episode 870 Stop Using Money to Signal Worth
[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: [00:00:00] Thanks for joining me on episode 870 of the inspired stewardship podcast.
[00:00:06] Winston Clements: [00:00:06] I'm, Winston, Clements, motivational speaker, and limitation breaker. I challenge you to invest yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world using your time, the talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
[00:00:23] Having the ability to recognize your limitations are an illusion and develop. Resilience is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this inspired stewardships called podcast with my friend Scott Maderer.
[00:00:39] Scott Maderer: [00:00:39] some research and they found that most of the people that quote drive the newest car live in the biggest house aren't actually doing as well as the person right down the street from them, who's driving a two or three-year-old car and who's not living in the biggest house in the neighborhood. Most people that are actually doing very well financially don't [00:01:00] necessarily look like they're doing that well financially.
[00:01:04] Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true color. In the inspired stewardship podcast who will learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
[00:01:31]And today's episode about developing your influence through stewarding your treasures. I talk with you about why we often use money as a signal of worth. I share how this will always lead to financial issues eventually. And I also talk about how we can view money instead as we talk about stewarding your treasures.
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[00:02:18] One thing that happens for a lot of us is we tend to use money either directly or indirectly as a way of signaling our success, our value. It's a way of showing other people that we've somehow arrived or done. Sometimes that's directly by talking about the money that you make or how much you earn, how much you've gotten investments.
[00:02:41] How much you've got in savings, all of these sorts of things. And other times it's actually indirect it's by living in the biggest house. Having the newest car, having the newest toys or various items that you can have as well. [00:03:00] Things like having the newest iPhone or the newest set of clothes or having anything that is obvious to other people that it takes money to get.
[00:03:12] I saw an article the other day about somebody buying this great big jot and. Those sorts of items can just be about the fact that you've got a lot of money and you're buying a toy and something that's good for you or something that you have fun with or something that you enjoy. But sometimes they're done in a way just to signal to other people that you somehow are more worthy than them.
[00:03:37] And there's a subtle difference between that. If you're just buying something because it gives you enjoyment. There may not be anything wrong with that. However, if you're buying it and going deeply into debt to do it, or you're sacrificing for other things that you really are more important to you where you're working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, just to be able to have [00:04:00] the newest toy.
[00:04:01] Then maybe you're actually more worried about what other people think than what is actually the thing that's giving you benefit. You're not really aligning your spending with your priorities and values instead, you're aligning your spending with trying to prove to other people. That you somehow are worthy.
[00:04:22] And usually that comes out of a sense of pride and a sense of competition, a sense of showing other people that somehow or another, your better than them you're worth more than them. You've got a higher value than them, or it comes out of a sense of pride of proving to everyone else that you've somehow arrived.
[00:04:44] And the truth is that almost always, whatever you do, this sort of thing, when you have that mindset of, I have to have the biggest house, I have to have the newest car. I have to have the fanciest clothes. I have to have the latest and greatest of technology. [00:05:00] It creates some level of financial difficulty, because it usually means that you have to live beyond your means, by the way, this isn't something that has to do with how much you make, as much as it does with your mindset, your philosophy, and how much you spend, because I've had people that make 250,000 plus a year that still are deeply in debt because they live in a way as if they made five times that.
[00:05:29] I've had people that make 35 or $40,000 a year that have no debt at all and managed to completely change their lives because they live below their means. And over time as their means come up and they continue to do that. They end up in a much healthier situation. It's not about what you make. It's about how you view, what you make.
[00:05:52] Do you view what you make as a way of helping. Others and helping yourself and caring for [00:06:00] you and your family, or do you view what you make as somehow providing you security, providing you worth providing value in a way that you need to signal to others? Is money a score card for you, or is it simply a tool?
[00:06:15] If you look at it as a score card, where if you don't have a lot of money and you don't signal to other people that you have a lot of money, usually even more than you actually have, that somehow means you're failing at the game of life. Then instead you can view it as a tool. You can view it as something that is just one more tool in your tool box to help you help others and to help you care for and take care of your own priorities and values, your family, your friends, yourself, and others around you.
[00:06:51] If money is simply one tool out of many, then you begin to change your mindset. You begin to care less about what [00:07:00] other people think. You begin to care less about giving off the signals that you have money in a way you stop acting rich and you become rich. There's actually a great book called stop acting rich, that where they did some research and they found that most of the people that quote drive the newest car live in the biggest house.
[00:07:20] Aren't actually doing as well as the person right down the street from them, who's driving a two or three-year-old car and who's not living in the biggest house in the neighborhood. Most people that are actually doing very well financially don't necessarily look like they're doing that financially because they end up.
[00:07:39] Usually living below their means not above them. It's the people that are pushing so hard to show everyone else that they've arrived. That ended up stretching themselves way beyond what they can really support. And eventually that house of cards always collapses. I've seen it time [00:08:00] after time.
[00:08:00] And it's not about how much you make it's about how you view it. Are you viewing money as a scorecard? Are you viewing money as something that shows your worth to others? Are you viewing money as just one of many tools in your toolbox to help you succeed at getting your priorities, getting your values, serving others, serving God and serving yourself.
[00:08:26] Thanks for listening.
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