Many people live for the moment and don’t even think about their future with regards to their savings, financial planning, and retirement. The same is true with spirituality.
Our ego perpetuated and manufactured reality conditions us to live in the moment, consume and to purchase our way to an artificial happiness. Such a life style has led many to living a life that is from check to check. With a few things that go awry here and there, it doesn’t take much to push people to the point of poverty and become homeless. Even those who are wealthy can easily reach this point especially when they spend more than have. MC Hammer is an example of someone who was once on top of the world but later became bankrupt. It can happen to anyone of us. Hence, it is important that we save for those rainy days.
It is never to young or too old to save. Although most people’s first route of saving money is in the bank, it is probably the least effective way to make it grow due to low interest rates and the checking fees. However, we all have to start somewhere. Once we have accumulated a decent amount like one to ten thousand or more, it may be a good idea to consult with a financial planner or adviser. Always interview your financial planner thoroughly and make sure he or she has a proven track records with other clients. Just because you go into a brand name financial investment firm doesn’t guarantee that your money is being managed well. It is important that your financial planner is great at communicating any changes that need to be made with your investments due to poor performance of your stocks or mutual funds. If your money just sits in a firm with no communication at all despite the fluctuating money markets or your money is not growing then you might want to find another firm. If you find a good financial planner, your money could grow exponentially and even double or triple over time with proper planning and adjustments every year.
Money can only grow if we invest it in mutual funds, stocks or bonds ( this being the least yield but the most secure or conservative). A good financial planner can advise on which mix is best. Depending on your age, your adviser may recommend a conservative, moderate or high risk investment. Generally the higher the risk the greater the yield. A diversified investment plan is most likely the safest. The old saying that one should never put all eggs in one basket is a good advise with financial investment as well.
It must be noted that many mutual funds have transactions fees which ultimately chip away at the growth of your money. Most financial advisors won’t tell you this unless you ask. There are funds out there with low transaction fees.
Many people have a 401K retirement program at their work and this is probably the best place to start your financial growth and investment since many companies match a percentage of what the employee invest. Those who are self-employed can start a solo-401 K investment or other investment program with companies like John Hancock or Ascensus Trust but consulting with a financial planner will help one set one up.
Investment is meant for long term so one must not touch those savings until retirement age. With financial awareness and proper investment and planning, we can create a very comfortable retirement.
What about those credit cards? They seem so user friendly and innocent with their low introductory rates to lure us in. Before long, the rates increase to 20% or more. Many of us pay the minimum and become a prisoner of our growing rates that keeps us from paying it off. Best advice is not to use it or pay it off completely less you become a prisoner to credit card debt.
With regards to spirituality, most people are in spiritual poverty. Most people don’t have a clue of what spirituality is really all about. Many follow so called gurus, spiritual teachers or masters blindly. Many devotees worship these teachers as a God and become dependent on them without really growing spiritually and truly evolving as they were meant to. Millions of others become devout church goers using the church as sort of a spiritual gas station and refilling once a week the emptiness they may feel. This is good for church business but bad for spiritual growth. It is worse with performance than investing with bonds.
True spirituality is about discovering our true nature, finding that Divine Light and Love within us and all of God’s Creation and becoming one with God and his Divine Love and Consciousness which permeates all of reality.
We reap what we sow. If we invest in our self-discovery, cultivation and spirituality, the spiritual yield can be enormous and bring us eternal freedom or consciousness.
There is nothing wrong with being a devotee or church goer. I have met many great individuals who follow a guru, master or saint and are very spiritual. I have also met many people who are extremely spiritual and are church goers. I have even recommended people to attend a church to give them the initial support they need.
On the other hand, I have been to churches, temples, halls and have seen and felt so much ego and testosterone all around by the various leaders in the group due to their elevated position in the group. Many times these people think they are better than others and are self-righteous people. They forget that this way of thinking is straight from the ego and will stunt their spiritual growth. Hence, it is not the church, temple, shrine that makes us spiritual, it is beyond that and is more personal. In order for us to grow and prosper spiritually, we must have a devotional practice which include daily prayer, meditation, and reading or studying spiritual materials that would lead us to our true nature. Although all of us are busy, consistency with our spirituality and devotion is extremely important. Part of being spiritual is becoming more conscious and awaken of our true nature and that of all others and all of Creation. We must live out of love, compassion and forgiveness. We must practice random acts of kindness and allow love to guide our every thought, action an deeds. We must never stop our quest to finding our true self and ultimately finding God and then having communion with him or her.
The more time we spend with our spirituality, cultivation and growth, the more we are investing in our soul’s growth and eventual freedom and liberation where we transcend the laws of karma. We must invest our time and energy wisely to grow just like how we invest our money with our investments. If we don’t, we will continue to be in spiritual poverty and be bounded by the laws of karma and will return back into another incarnation with a clean slate consciousness until we awaken again.
We are bounded by negative karma when we think, act, say and do negative things to ourselves as well as others. We are bounded by it when we are slaves to our ego or live an ego perpetuated life. We may go to church, have a high exacted title or memorize all versus of the Bible or Bhagavad Gita but until we give up our negative thoughts and behaviors, we are unable to evolve spiritually and are are chained to the karmic energy we have created.
The more we live by love, acceptance, gratitude and non-judgement, the more we are able to grow spiritually. If we learn to trust and surrender to God, the Universe and our I AM Presence completely, the spiritual dividends and interest can have extremely high yield. Such a surrender will turn us into a spiritual billionaire where the gift we receive is eternal life as an Enlightened Being of Love, Light and Divine Consciousness. This state is where we can enjoy our next adventure in the next heavenly realm or we can even still help those on the earthly plane after our physical body is returned to Mother Earth but still exist with full consciousness. Those who are advanced enough may even transcend physical death and merge with their Rainbow Body and Light and become spontaneous light through Tibetan Buddhist practice; meanwhile, others can achieve other methods of ascension as well but all require spiritual investments of love, time, commitment, gratitude, devotion, meditation, prayer, kindness, and the relentless search for God and our true nature. When that happens we begin to lose attachment for the worldly pleasures and become more interested in the communion and unity with God, all of humanity and all of Creation.
Wishing you success with your financial investments as well as your spiritual investments. May both mature and give high yields of abundance of love, happiness and joy. There is nothing wrong with money and growth. It is especially helpful when we are financially strong enough to help those in need. May we use our money, time and spiritual skills to help one another find the beauty and spark of light within ourselves, others and all of Creation.
Namaste!
Blake Sinclair
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