The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life
Quotes from the Book
There are just three things that you can do with Money: save, give, or invest. Somehow in here in America, with all our creativity, we have invented a fourth use for money: we can squander it
If you can live with less of what you have. You can be more of who you are.
Poverty is a result of poor choices not of poor luck
Remember, buying something is not the problem. The problem comes when we believe, for that moment, that the object we’re buying is going to make us happy.
There is much more to wealth than simply a bank account with many zeros. A well-balanced, whole life is made up of wealth and success that comes from many facets; family, friends, work, faith, it is the complete person who works on each of these areas and creates the whole,
One of the great differences that set Jews apart from other cultural groups is that we see our wealth as a means to partner with God, as a way to bring God’s kingdom into this earth, a concept that we call tikkun olam – perfecting the world. We perfect the world by using our God- given wealth to further God’s realm on this planet. So what you see is that the Jewish people’s pursuit of wealth is often paired with the pursuit of charitable works, not only for selfish purposes.
Cheap people often are not very happy because they love money more than they love their families
In the Bible, when God made a covenant with Abraham, He removed Abraham from the pagan world. The pagan system was such that if you were born poor, you were poor all of your life, and if you were born rich, you were rich all of your life. However, in their covenant, God said to Abraham, “You are going to increase and prosper.” This became the blessing, the rare and dramatic change that took place in Abraham’s lifetime, making Abraham different from the pagans. The pagans did not understand prosperity. They lived from hand to mouth and knew no other way of life.
In bad countries the government takes care of everyone. In the best ones that's not necessary!
In the end of the day it matters much more how wise you spent your money than how much of it you have gathered. Because the most important tool to measure your financial maturity is based uniquely on the first part of the question and the ability to keep money is more important than the ability to make money. Rabbi Celso Cukierkorn
This is the secret of how the Jewish people have created a hedge against chaos in their partnership with God. Sharing creates room in your life for more blessings to come in. Giving creates an endless circuit. You earn, you give, and then you earn more.
When you sacrifice everything for your family, and you’re committed to changing your lifestyle to secure a better future, it is not an act of greed, but rather an act of faith.
The world always pays you less than you are worth. Don't sell yourself short even further.
You can also look at your body and think about how the blood flows and the fact that your body is in constant renewal. It is a miracle of creation happening within you every second of the day. This is something to be thankful for.
Some of us aim at being good I prefer to aim at being better
After the Jews crossed the sea and the desert, they reached the Promised Land. Scouts were sent to look at the land before settling. When the scouts came back, they reported that the people in the land were giants. “We looked at them and they looked at us as if we were grasshoppers,” they said. Sometimes when we make a decision to make a change in our lives, we feel just like those scouts. However, if you pay attention to the words of the Bible, it was not the giants living in the land of Israel who believed that the Jews looked like grasshoppers. It was the Jews’ own perception. When they looked at the giants, they believed they were the grasshoppers.
In my mind, the function of the bank is to save your money. The bank should not cost you money.
I believe that the true definition of wealth is loving what you have rather than what you don’t have.
In today’s world, people are born into different circumstances, but unlike the pagans, each of us has an opportunity to change our circumstances based on our actions. Some who are born into families who are at the lowest end of the economic spectrum, but manage to create enormous wealth and prosperity for themselves and their families. Others are given tremendous wealth and opportunities, but squander them by making poor choices. Many of them let their inner Beast gain control, and they end up with nothing.
When I counsel people who have been following God’s principles and have reached a point at which they can afford to drive any car that they want, they often ask me, “Rabbi, since my budget is not the problem, how do I know if I have bought too much car?” My answer is that if, when you buy the car, the picture that comes to your mind is other people seeing you in the car, you are buying too much car.
Far too many people are signing up to become slaves to their credit card companies.
Today, we are the only people who are more likely to own a professional sports team than to play for one.
We use money that we don't have to show off to people that we don't even like.
Until now, your money has told you what to do and how much to work. Now we’re going to turn that around. You’ll learn to tell your money what to do and how much to work for you.
God sent the Egyptians ten plagues that became increasingly harder, one after the other, starting with blood, and ending with the death of the first born. Similarly, debt sometimes starts with charging just a couple of extra dollars to our credit cards when we want something we can’t afford to pay cash for. Before long, it might turn into a second mortgage on our house. Debt can kill our future and take our house with it.
One of the best lessons we can learn is humility. You should define your material possessions; they shouldn’t define you. #
When I was a small boy, I used to play with toy cars and dream about the day I could own a real one. Many people still play with their cars today. They are in their 20s, 40s, maybe even 70s, but they still behave like little children when it comes to purchasing an automobile. There is a simple law at work in the universe: if it has a motor, it’s going down in value.
All our lives we measure ourselves based on our height, but during a crisis we should measure ourselves in-depth.
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About Celso Cukierkorn
Book details
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- Celso Cukierkorn
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- Literature
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