Week 11 Attitude On Money

• What is your attitude toward money?

My attitude about money: I wish that my family had a better understanding of money, how to make it, and that having money or being affluent does not make a person evil, and conversely, being poor doesn't make one virtuous. I believe that money is a powerful tool that can bless the lives of those who use it accordingly to bless lives and create opportunities. It becomes a problem when the making of money takes precedence over people and relationships or fosters a situation of judgment when other people don't make the same decisions that you think they should have made.

• How can your view of money affect the way you live?

If you have a belief that having "too much" money leads to illegal and unethical behavior, which leads you down the road to becoming a bad person, you will subconsciously sabotage acquiring and "having" money because having money will never feel safe or comfortable. Things will come up that "need" attention and drain savings. Spending will increase, and so forth until the person is back to having an amount of money that is "comfortable".

An extended family member has worked really hard, saved well, invested well, inherited well, and is quite comfortable financially. However, they are not comfortable spending money at all and tend to put money over people. They would often rather not spend time with extended family than spend money to gather together. In 27 years, there have been only two family reunions, and that was because extended family came to them. Even then they weren't happy about the money that was spent and complained about the money that was spent by those who "couldn't afford to come" in their estimation. Additionally, there is a "fear of never having enough", because when they reach a goal of "net worth", the line keeps moving higher and they focus on acquiring more wealth. In this case, it definitely is true that "money doesn't buy happiness".

As a social worker in a nursing home, I met a man in his 90s who was admitted to the nursing home and had a public guardian appointed to manage his finances. In doing my intake assessment, I learned that he hadn't had contact with his son for 30+ years because he felt that his son was always after his money. He was at the end of his life, alone with no family or friends to help him, with millions of dollars that he was going to donate to a local animal shelter. His paranoia of people wanting to be around him for his money left him alone and lonely in the last years of his life. I don't have the back story, and perhaps he had been used for his money by family and/or friends. Perhaps he had some mental illness in the form of paranoia. I just found it sad that he was estranged from his son for 30+ years because of money. And he was going to die alone because that rift hadn't been mended or healed, and he couldn't take his money with him. He had lost sight of that which is of more worth - people and relationships.

• What rules are recommended for prospering?

There are six rules for prospering found in the article:

#1 Seek the Lord and have hope in Him.

#2 Keep the commandments, that includes the temporal ones, tithing and offerings.

#3 Think about money and plan how you can become self-reliant.

#4 Take advantage of chances for learning so you will not be ignorant of these matters. Education, as taught by President Hinckley, is the key to opportunity.

#5 Learn the lase upon which the blessings of wealth are predicated.

#6 Do not send away the naked, the hungry, the thirsty or the sick or those who are held captive.