The Roots of Your Money Tree
Money trees are clever illustrations of our human desire to have a magical plant that we could pull money from when needed. Similar to finding gold buried in the backyard or oil while hunting game, like the Beverly Hillbillys. However, we all have our own money trees that we are gardening through our money decisions. We have incomes that if properly managed can result in new branches and leaves through wealth accumulation. At the same time, we could be choking our money tree from proper nutrients through poor financial decisions of over spending, taking out debt (which acts as a weed), and never seeing the green bloom of cash leaves. We could also be controlling our money decisions with great success by spending less than we make, investing wisely, and see much wealth accumulation, but have rotten roots and rotten leaves that poison the next generation of money trees. With that analogy in mind, we created this podcast. To not think at the end (the transaction level or leaves), but at the roots. The roots are the foundation to how healthy our tree will grow up to be and if it can withstand its own growth.
The roots are your convictions. Convictions are what you believe is really true. Not at the belief level, but underneath that belief. An example could be that I believe in God, which is a belief. But why do I really believe this to be true, what are the principles and reasons that are concrete to my foundation. These are unshakeable truths to my life.
My convictions lead to my belief system. My beliefs may change slight form during the different seasons and environments of life, but they never change from my convictions. Convictions grow to belief and belief results in my actions and behaviors. A first step to understanding your convictions is discovering what is going on in the soil.
The soil is all we surround ourselves with, such as, information, news, people, influences, and education. Our convictions can be formed or ruined by this soil if it is contaminated. Think of the proper nutrients that plants need in their soil to survive, or proper fertilizer. These are the things we listen to, read, and watch. We live in the information age, but we lack wisdom to apply all that knowledge and discern all the information. When you take a roots based perspective and develop convictions you can better apply wisdom to decipher that information into your belief system and eventually your behavior. Unfortunately, we rarely focus on the roots and just hold weakly to our “belief” that is shaken, fearful, or changed depending on the every changing soil of our lives.
Action and Behaviors are the fruit of your money tree, the branches and leaves. If my branches are weak or my leaves are browning, then my roots may be suffocating or growing in the wrong way. It is easy for people today to shout out what they believe, but their behaviors do not match. This always comes back to the roots, a “roots check moment”.
This flow from conviction to belief to behavior is important not only to our daily life with relationships, work, and community, but with our money decisions. How we handle money and think about money has major effects on our overall well-being, our family, and those who are in our sphere of influence. What if someone was watching every purchase you made? Surprise, there most likely already is. If you believe in God, there is one eye on your spending decisions, but if you have a spouse, children, or even friends there are a few more.
Now get started!