Ignorance is Never Bliss

Ignoranace-is-bliss-in-clouds

There is an old saying that “Ignorance is Bliss.” If it is ever true, and I have my doubts, it is certainly not so when it comes to money.

If you want to succeed with money you need to first know and understand money.

Knowledge is Required in All of Life

No matter what area of life we are engaged in we assume and accept that there is a prerequisite amount of knowledge and/or skill required for success. Big task, small task, complex or simple, there is consistently some element of knowledge needed.

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Where Does the Time Go?

Clock

How easy it is to let the hours, even days and weeks, slip by.

While I knew I had temporarily deviated from my former work schedule a bit, as I will discuss, I was frankly shocked as I prepared this post to see that I had gone three months without a blog post!

I will try not to let that happen again.

Time Flys When You Are Busy

One thing amazes me because I simply cannot understand it at all. There are the folks who sometimes say, “I don’t have anything to do.”

Every day there are dozens of things I would like to do and never get around to doing even though I keep busy all day, every day. Working on this website is only one of them.

When you are busy, time goes by quickly. Mine certainly does. I know I cannot do a thing about this but try to limit the activities I undertake as much as I can and prioritize the ones that I deem most important—like the basic educational areas of this site (even if I have not always focused on the blog).

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While I have been busy in other areas of life as well, I have been working on projects related to this site a great deal over these three months.

Aside from the blog, I have posted…

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Living on the Financial Edge

One of my favorite financial blogs is The Simple Dollar. Its founder and contributing writer is Trent Hamm who just wrote an extended, terrific post he titles, Ten Steps To Turn Financial Disaster Into Financial Independence. I encourage you to check it out.

People Do Live on the Financial Edge

Trent Hamm portrait

Introducing his post, Trent points out some of the facts about financial life in America today. The statistics are not encouraging:

    76% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
  • 50% of Americans have less than three months of living expenses in total savings.
  • 26% of Americans have no savings at all.

Looking at these facts he comments, “Most Americans are walking a dangerous tightrope. A single injury, a single job loss, a single unexpected child, a single automobile accident could very easily unravel their life, causing them to lose their homes, their automobiles, and leave them unable to even get the simplest of loans.”

Living on the Edge Kills Peace of Mind

Only those who are oblivious to the realities of our economic conditions today, or have let feelings of being unable to change things anyway, refuse to face the implications of these facts. But it is not necessary to let our fears prevent us from finding a better course for our future. There are steps we can take to make financial success possible.

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Whether the Job Be Great or Small

Often high achievers are plagued with a combination of two conflicting interests, a sense of perfectionism and a wide range of desirable activities. Perhaps most successful people experience this to some degree. What should we do when this is the case?

Perfectionism Drives Achievement

Obviously, taken to the extreme, perfectionism can be a negative. We are all familiar with what is called the “paralysis of analysis.” But a significant degree of perfectionism drives us to achieve high marks in school and success in our work.

Man thinking

When young I was indoctrinated with the old saying, “Whether the job be great or small, do it well or not at all.” It drove me to achieve reasonably high grades in school and eventually to continue my education until I earned a doctorate.

This attitude contributes to the degree of success the perfectionists have in all of life’s activities. Look at the Olympics. We watch in amazement at what some of these athletes can do, perhaps even more at their ability to focus for years on honing their skills.

No One Can Do It All

Here is the big problem with perfectionism. It inevitably leads to a great conflict that can affect life in a very negative way

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I Built This Site Myself!

Now that's not a political headline. Just a fun (I trust) parody of one. However, it is intended to draw attention to one fact: what you read on this site is written by me, growing out of my own education, experience, and real research.

That is one reason why, in my opinion of course, I believe you can trust what you read on Success With Money to be the truly valuable information you need to help you reach your goal of financial success.

This post is a little different than most. It is not about money as such; it is about my philosophy of work when it comes to writing the content you find here. It is intended to give a little insight into my approach and purpose for the site.

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The Government and Economic Stimulus

Nowhere is the need for better education more apparent than when politicians talk about “economic stimulus.” And it doesn't matter which political party we are talking about.

Ignorance About Economic Stimulus

The other day I heard a person with a business background suggest that if he could pass just one law he would require all members of congress to take a basic course in economics! That might be a good idea.

One party seems to think that spending money on almost anything is a stimulus to the economy. The other seems to think that cutting taxes on almost anything is a stimulus. But will either of these help?

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