Welcome to 2022! To set the tone for a great and fruitful year, I want to share a mindset refresher. One that will allow us both to kickoff the year right with our financial goals and confidence. So here is the story.

Recently in a board meeting I heard local a wise businessman who I highly respect use the phrase “Scared Money Don’t Make Money,” in response to our hesitation over an organizational investment decision. A lightbulb went off, and I knew that I had just looked through a window into his mindset. I took that phrase to heart and later researched its meaning and origin.

Scared Money

This phrase has been around for many years and the intent of the message behind it is that fear in financial decision making does not bring productivity. The root of the issue is the scarcity mindset versus the abundant mindset. Many of us, including myself, have spent their entire lifetimes death-gripping resources. Sure, this is better than unending spending, but this fearful grip on cash – essentially burying it in the ground – is not the way to live.

This situation is actually referred to in Matthew 25:14-30 in the Bible, when the wise teacher Jesus tells a story of a master who left resources to his workers for them to manage until his return. Two of the hired workers invested those “talents,” and one fearfully put his in the ground, preferring to protect it versus reinvest. When the master returned, the two who invested were praised and given more, and the one who buried his talent in the ground was rebuked for his foolishness. The master told him that he could have at least put the talents in the bank where he could earn interest.

Making Money

From this ancient story, we can see that concept of money making money has been around since the beginning of time – and so has fearfulness. There are only two ways to live:

1️⃣ Holding onto things in hopes of never losing them

2️⃣ Trusting that we can use our skills and network to multiply resources

Real life examples of the decision among these two choices is whether to continue saving your cash or to finally decide to make a different type of investment (business, stocks, real estate, etc.) to increase the returns. This only happens through conscious decision making. The fear may always be there, but habits form from repetition.

We are blessed!

You have likely been blessed with so many talents in this world: a high-paying job, good skills and talents, passionate and entrepreneurial ideas… Why would you hide those? Why would you dig a hole and place them into the ground? Instead, let’s be like the two wise stewards that had talents and made more. After all, Scared Money Don’t Make Money.

Safe Investing!

RRII