Call Our Office
(559) 384-2900 | Fresno
Your Money
Your Life
Your Way
You are now leaving the Strong Valley Wealth & Pension, LLC ("Strong Valley") website. By clicking on the "Schwab Alliance Access" link below you will be entering the Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (“Schwab”) Website. Schwab is a registered broker-dealer, and is not affiliated with Strong Valley or any advisor(s) whose name(s) appears on this Website. Strong Valley is/are independently owned and operated. Schwab neither endorses nor recommends Strong Valley. Regardless of any referral or recommendation, Schwab does not endorse or recommend the investment strategy of any advisor. Schwab has agreements with Strong Valley under which Schwab provides Strong Valley with services related to your account. Schwab does not review the Strong Valley website(s), and makes no representation regarding the content of the Website(s). The information contained in the Strong Valley website should not be considered to be either a recommendation by Schwab or a solicitation of any offer to purchase or sell any securities.
If we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves, we never reach the satisfaction of true wealth. Many of our expectations can be generated unconsciously by the people we are surrounded by, combined with that age old stumbling block of comparison. Often our feelings of poverty or wealth have nothing to do with a balance sheet. How do you define wealth? This article offers some interesting perspectives to consider.
What you do think it really means “to be rich"? Some people live by the balance sheet, some die by it. Others don’t even know what a balance sheet is. How do you define wealth for yourself?
Our feelings about wealth stem more from our life decisions and social circles than from the numbers we see on our statements.
Feeling wealthy means feeling you have enough, of wanting what you have rather than being consumed with what you want.
Acknowledge who you are and your limitations. Most folks just hang out with smarter people, but instead of trying to learn from them these folks try to prove they belong.
This concept continues with money. Feelings of wealth correlate to our surroundings and the proverbial Joneses in our lives.
If you simply want to feel wealthy, hang out with people poorer than you. If you want to feel poor, keep trying to live the life of folks wealthier than you.
Your first challenge, however, comes in recognizing those who are truly wealthy versus those projecting an image of wealth. You must stop showing that you belong and instead understand how to turn money into a supporting element of your life rather than the driving force – whether you’re worth $100,000 or $10 million.
We move from a modest neighborhood to a high-end community and find ourselves falling from feeling wealthy to feeling extremely uncomfortable overnight. More living space, a better school district or a safer neighborhood may motivate the move.
But in the old neighborhood, we provided our family with everything friends and neighbors provided to their families. In the new neighborhood, however, extras are now basics. Social pressures surrounding community outings, kids’ class trips, sports and extra-curricular activities exceed those in our previous life.
If we set unrealistic expectations for ourselves and our financial lives, we never reach true wealth. A certified financial advisor can help you with finding a realistic perspective of where you’re at and what your goals can be, without the emotions that often skew our view.
