In these economic times when workers are losing their jobs and business owners are struggling to survive, I believe that both business owners and workers alike need to adopt the mindset that they are willing to do Whatever It Takes (WIT) to maintain their money management goals and their own economic well-being.

Now, I’m not advocating doing anything illegal or unethical in terms of money management. I’m just making this comment because I have noticed a curious attitude among some workers here in the U.S., whether employed or unemployed, who are in debt and struggling. There seems to be a prevailing attitude that:

1 – The business owner is my enemy.

2 – I’m a victim and everyone else is to blame for my financial situation.

3 – I don’t need to practice smart money management. I’m in debt, but I’m too good / educated / valuable to get a second job to pay it off.

4 – The current government is my money management savior and they will take care of me.

5 – I can’t make the payments, but I have to keep my expensive car / house to keep up my image.

6 – If I work a second job to make it financially, it would damage my image and my own self-esteem.

7 – Buying and owning ‘stuff’ is more important than investing in my own financial security

8 – I cannot cut expenses anywhere.

9 – I cannot afford to put any money into savings to take care of the smallest emergency.

10 – My Boss is my enemy.

I was an employee for the first 27 years of my career, while I also owned small businesses to supplement my income. I believed I was responsible for reaching my own money management goals. In 1995 I left the corporate world to become a full-time business owner. In every positions I held, whether employee or business owner, I always knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I was the only one who was responsible for taking care of me financially, and that there will always be unproductive people with their hand out and the idea that they are entitled to part of my money even though they have contributed nothing to help me earn it.

I recently received an email from a friend, and while I have no idea who the original author was, I believe that this should be required reading in every high school economics class and for all adults. Here is the email from a business owner’s point of view.

To All My Valued Employees,

There have been some rumblings around the office about the future of this company, and more specifically, your job. As you know, the economy has changed for the worse and presents many challenges. However, the good news is this: The economy does not pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is the changing political landscape in this country.

However, let me tell you some little tidbits of fact which might help you decide what is in your best interests.

First, while it is easy to spew rhetoric that casts employers against employees, you have to understand that for every business owner there is a back story. This back story is often neglected and overshadowed by what you see and hear. Sure, you see me park my Mercedes outside. You’ve seen my big home at last years Christmas party. I’m sure all these flashy icons of luxury conjure up some idealized thoughts about my life.

However, what you don’t see is the back story.

I started this company 28 years ago. At that time, I lived in a 300 square foot studio apartment for 3 years. My entire living apartment was converted into an office so I could put forth 100% effort into building a company, which by the way, would eventually employ you.

My diet consisted of Ramen Pride noodles because every dollar I spent went back into this company. I drove a rusty Toyota Corolla with a defective transmission. I didn’t have time to date. Often times, I stayed home on weekends, while my friends went out drinking and partying. In fact, I was married to my business — hard work, discipline, and sacrifice.

Meanwhile, my friends got jobs. They worked 40 hours a week and made a modest $50K a year and spent every dime they earned. They drove flashy cars and lived in expensive homes and wore fancy designer clothes. Instead of hitting the Nordstrom’s for the latest hot fashion item, I was trolling through the Goodwill store extracting any clothing item that didn’t look like it was birthed in the 70′s. My friends refinanced their mortgages and lived a life of luxury. I, however, did not. I put my time, my money, and my life into a business with a vision that eventually, some day, I too, will be able to afford these luxuries my friends supposedly had.

So, while you physically arrive at the office at 9am, mentally check in at about noon, and then leave at 5pm, I don’t. There is no “off” button for me. When you leave the office, you are done and you have
a weekend all to yourself. I unfortunately do not have the freedom. I eat, and breathe this company every minute of the day. There is no rest. There is no weekend. There is no happy hour. Every day this
business is attached to my hip like a 1 year old special-needs child. You, of course, only see the fruits of that garden — the nice house, the Mercedes, the vacations… You never realize the back story and the sacrifices I’ve made.

Now the economy is falling apart and I, the guy that made all the right decisions and saved his money, have to bail-out all the people who didn’t. The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed a decade of my life for.

Yes, business ownership has is benefits but the price I’ve paid is steep and not without wounds.

Unfortunately, the cost of running this business, and employing you, is starting to eclipse the threshold of marginal benefit and let me tell you why:

I am being taxed to death and the government thinks I don’t pay enough. I have state taxes, federal taxes, property taxes, sales and use taxes, payroll taxes, workers’ compensation taxes, unemployment taxes, taxes on taxes. I have to hire a tax man to manage all these taxes and then guess what? I have to pay taxes for employing him. Government mandates and regulations and all the accounting that goes with it, now occupy most of my time. On Oct 15th, I wrote a check to the US Treasury for $288,000 for quarterly taxes. You know what my “stimulus” check was? Zero. Nada. Zilch.

The question I have is this: Who is stimulating the economy? Me, the guy who has provided 14 people good paying jobs and serves over 2,200,000 people per year with a flourishing business? Or, the single mother sitting at home pregnant with her fourth child waiting for her next welfare check? Obviously, government feels the latter is the economic stimulus of this country.

The fact is, if I deducted (Read: Stole) 50% of your paycheck you’d quit and you wouldn’t work here. I mean, why should you? That’s nuts. Who wants to get rewarded only 50% of their hard work? Well, I agree, which is why your job is in jeopardy.

Here is what many of you don’t understand … to stimulate the economy you need to stimulate what runs the economy. Had suddenly government mandated to me that I didn’t need to pay taxes, guess what? Instead of depositing that $288,000 into the Washington black-hole, I would have spent it, hired more employees, and generated substantial economic growth. My employees would have enjoyed the wealth of that tax cut in the form of promotions and better salaries. But you can forget it now.

When you have a comatose man on the verge of death, you don’t defibrillate and shock his thumb thinking that will bring him back to life, do you? Or, do you defibrillate his heart? Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate it, not kill it. Suddenly, the power brokers in Washington believe the poor of America are the essential drivers of the American economic engine. Nothing could be further from the truth and this is the type of change you can keep.

So where am I going with all this?

It’s quite simple.

If any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, my reaction will be swift and simple. I fire you. I fire your co-workers. You can then plead with the government to pay for your mortgage, your SUV, and your child’s future. Frankly, it isn’t my money management problem any more.

Then, I will close this company down, move to another country, and retire. You see, I’m done. I’m done with a country that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive. My motivation to work and to provide jobs will be destroyed, and with it, will be my citizenship.

If you lose your job, it won’t be at the hands of the economy; it will be at the hands of a political hurricane that swept through this country, steamrolled the constitution, and will have changed its landscape forever. If that happens, you can find me sitting on a beach, retired, and with no employees to worry about….

Signed,
Your Boss

Pretty enlightening money management point of view, I’d say.

Will Obama-nomics and the Obama economic plan work? That remains to be seen. However, with the new Obama administration and the financial “experts” telling us it may be years before we see an economic recovery, most of us don’t have time to wait for the politicians to get their act together. We, as a nation, need to take the economy into our own hands and speed up the recovery as quickly as possible.

But how do we do that, exactly? With figures in the trillions of dollars, it would seem impossible for any individual to have much of an effect on our current economic crisis.

“The answer is correct money management and the correct handling of our finances,” says money management expert Sandra Simmons. “We got ourselves into this situation because we, as a nation, have violated many of the basic principles of sound financial management. No matter what the government does, in the end, all of us need to change the way we handle money and credit in order to truly get the economy back on track.”

In particular, Simmons takes aim at America’s over-indulgent love affair with credit. Credit, she says, is an all-too-seductive trap that has lured an entire nation to shipwreck upon hidden fiscal shoals. Almost everyone, from the largest of companies to the individual consumer fell into the credit trap and began living a false lifestyle that was way above its means. This false economic condition was a ticking time bomb just waiting for the right set of circumstances to explode.

“At any given point-in-time, we are all in a certain financial condition,” explains Simmons. “And it is easy to fool yourself into thinking that you are in a better condition than you are actually in. The basis for this false financial condition is usually an over-reliance on credit to supplement your income. Too much credit and too much debt inevitably leads to a financial crash.”

Although Simmons has been writing and lecturing on the dangers of credit and debt for years, the recent U.S. Economic crisis has brought the point home with historical force. Financial pundits and politicians may complain that this “Economic Tsunami” was unforeseen, but Simmons disagrees.

“If you analyze the histories of economic bubbles, you will find at their root violations of sound money management principles. Whether it’s herd mentality or some other phenomena, group-think drives people to take actions they intuitively know to be unsound and overly risky,” she says. “But the terrible truth is that people know when they’ve extended themselves too far and national confidence begins to wane.”

Confidence, says Simmons, is the single most important hallmark of any strong economy. The question becomes how confident can anyone be when they know that they owe their lifestyle and economic standing to a economic foundation based on credit. Like any structure built on an unstable base, it’s only a matter of time till it comes tumbling down.

“Conversely, an economy with little debt, operating on very little credit and strong reserves is an economy in very good shape and one that is very stable and hard to disrupt,” states Simmons. “The kind of money management system that I am talking about is actually the kind of system that is very old-school and traditional. That is a tried and true system. It works and it’s the road to financial freedom and wealth.”

According to Simmons, this is the real way to build the economy from the ground up. The goal should be to get every American applying the tried and true money management policies to their own lives and this would serve to create an extremely strong economic base on which to build an unshakable economy.

Simmons’s plan to grow the economy from the ground up would include:

1.Start using cash instead of credit.

“We have to break the cycle of using our credit cards for every financial transaction,” says Simmons. “Instead, use cash or your ATM card. If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Instead, save up for it if it is something you really want.”

Getting away from the instant gratification mindset that we have all become used to may go contrary to popular culture but it is the way to dig ourselves out of this economic mess.

“As a nation, it is not difficult to see the immediate effect it would have if we all stopped using credit cards and started using cash,” she says. “Many would argue against this, especially with the holiday season approaching. But we have to get off our credit addiction at some time, and now is as god a time as any to get into the right spending habits.”

2.Pay down your debts

Another unacceptable money management habit is carrying a large debt load.

“Somewhere along the line, it became acceptable to carry a large amount of debt,” notes Simmons. “Maybe this comes from Madison Avenue advertising campaigns, but this is completely wrong-headed. The goal should be to be completely debt-free. It doesn’t do to pay the minimum amount owed on debt. Additional money should be applied to debts to pay them off quickly.”

Debt, it could be stated, is at the root of all financial evil. Debt, by its very definition, carries with it, risk. That risk of course, is financial failure.

“I think the lessons of the Great Depression faded so far into the past that most of us forgot what could happen when you allow debt to accumulate,” Simmons observes. “The risk-taking by some of the largest financial institutions and our own government would have been unimaginable a generation ago. We can all get out of debt, but it does take a certain amount of planning and discipline. “

3.Build Reserves.

The road to wealth begins with putting money aside little by little into reserve accounts that are not touched except for emergencies.

“Unfortunately, the very concept of saving has gone completely out the window,” Simmons says. “Saving money is just not a popular concept anymore and is possibly viewed as old fashioned by some. As a result, the U.S. Ranks far down the list of countries whose workers and business owners regularly put money aside in savings, and this makes us very vulnerable when we can no longer work or when a crisis occurs in our lives.”

In fact, if anything, the messages in typical advertising and commercials is spend, spend, spend. If there are any suggestions in society about putting money aside, it certainly gets lost.

“In truth I think we’ve lost touch as a society with what it takes to build wealth and gain financial freedom,” says Simmons.”The fact of the matter is that anyone can become wealthy if they apply the right money management principles. It’s really not how much you make. It’s what you do with your money that counts.”

And Simmons has the client list to prove it. Despite the devastating economic storm, Simmons’ clients have weathered it rather well because they have applied her principles and were prepared.

Simmons is anxious to spread the word and is currently touring the U.S. giving seminars on the secrets of wealth building and financial freedom. Her next seminar is scheduled for the weekend of December 13th in the Tampa, Florida area.

If anyone thinks that we cannot change our collective financial habits for the better, Simmons cites one very prominent example.

“Just look at what we did with the gas prices,” she says. “The so-called experts said it couldn’t be done, but America, through our combined efforts, changed our habits and dramatically lowered the prices. It can be the same with the economy if we change our money management habits from the ground up. “

So you want to be broke and stay in the economic trap? Here are the top 7 Money Management Mistakes you can make to insure you have NO MONEY and are living in poverty.

Money Management Mistake #1. Spend every dime you make and deny yourself nothing; buy stuff whether you need it or not.

Money Management Mistake #2. If you have any money in the bank or room on your credit cards, go out and spend it. Don’t worry about emergencies that may come up. When they do, borrow more money to handle it.

Money Management Mistake #3. Work to make just enough money to barely pay your bills and be sure to spend your free time out spending money. Don’t stress over the yearly increase in the cost of living.

Money Management Mistake #4. Use your credit cards to pay for essential items like gas and groceries, and to do impulse shopping for things you want but don’t need. Max out those credit cards.

Money Management Mistake #5. Pay only the minimum payment required on your credit cards each month, and don’t worry about the extra charges for paying late or spending over your credit limit.

Money Management Mistake #6. Never put any money in savings, and if you do, feel free to tap into those funds when you can’t pay your bills.

Money Management Mistake #7. Rely on the Government and Social Security to take care of you when you can no longer work.

These actions will guarantee that you are being controlled by the money and are broke and living in poverty.

If you don’t care that you’ll constantly be worried about money and plagued with money problems, then you’ll be able to spend those sleepless nights out spending more money on credit cards or shopping on-line on the computer for entertainment. Heaven forbid that you should be working on ways to take responsibility for your own financial survival instead of relying on someone else to take care of you financially. Isn’t that what friends, family and the Social Security system are for?

Now that I’ve given you all this advice about how to live broke and die penniless, I should also tell you that there is a money management system that you can use to control your income and debts to get on the road to financial freedom. Just in case you change your mind and decide you want to take responsibility for improving your own financial condition, visit www.moneymgmtsolutions.com.

Almost 100 years ago, a minister and outspoken advocate for liberty, William J. H. Boetcker, published a pamphlet of principles. These sound money management principles still hold true today. In light of our current economic crisis I think it appropriate to share Reverend Boetcker’s 10 Cannots with you.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.