by David Lim
Have you thought about your attitude towards the earning of money? Are you the kind to work a second job, or even a third job, to make some extra cash? Or do you tend to join the latest money making fad or business opportunity on the Internet when you are looking for some extra pocket money? Or are you always looking around for a better, smarter or more productive way to get your job done or to make your money?
What you do to make your money, and how you spend your money, can say a lot about your attitude towards money. And knowing your attitude towards money can go a long way to helping you manage and make more money.
In general, there are 3 main attitudes towards the earning of money:
The Hard Money
How many times have you been told that there is no such thing as a free lunch? Or you may have cynical friends that tell you if something is too good to be true, it probably is.
Basically, the attitude is that we don't get something for nothing. If we get something, the giver expects something in return. Similarly, to get a certain amount of money, we are expected to give a certain amount of time and/or effort.
Most of us are earning the Hard Money. We get paid based on the time spent or effort needed, whether it is on an hourly wage, a monthly salary, or for projects completed.
The Easy Money
Ever joined a site that claims to have Internet marketing down to a T? Absolutely nothing is required except your $9.95 per month subscription. And you do have to log in occasionally to check how many thousands of dollars you have already earned.
That's an Easy Money site. Chances are you are still paying Hard Money but not seeing much of the Easy Money yet.
There are also ponzi, pyramid and chain letter sites. You put in $5 and in time, you get tens, or even hundreds of thousands back. Do take note that a lot of these schemes are actually illegal.
And there are the rest of the sites offering a combination of products, ponzis, games and what-have-you. They are all characterized by the fact that the returns promised are grossly disproportionate to the time and/or skills required.
Offline, you have your lotteries, sweepstakes and bingo sessions.
It is also worthwhile to note that if you have the charm, and are willing to fight off hordes of other girls, a rich husband is also a good way of earning Easy Money.
(Note to self: a rich wife will also work equally well. Now, which pretty lady do I know who is also rich and single?)
The Smart Money
Take the case of Mr HardWorking. He's a very hardworking insurance agent. In the mornings, he does cold calls, during lunchtime he distributes flyers at busy intersections and in the afternoons, he will send out mailers to prospective clients. But his sales are, at best, average.
Mr Vacation works in the same office. Half the time he's on vacation at some exotic locale, and the rest of the time he spends on the golf course, or at his country club. But it seems that every time he steps into the office, he has closed another million dollar policy.
What Mr Vacation does is to vacation at spots favored by the rich, join clubs favored by the rich and do stuff favored by the rich. He gets to know rich people, finds out about the policies they have and lack, and at the opportune time, makes a convincing proposal. Half the time he gets the sale.
Needless to say, although Mr Vacation "works" much less than Mr HardWorking, the sales of Mr Vacation is far superior. Mr Vacation is earning the Smart Money.
The Smart Money focuses on results. Not how many hours you worked, or how much effort was needed, but what result you got. Or, to put it in another way, the Smart Money focuses on getting the best results for as little time, money and resources as possible.
There are actually many ways that Smart Money can be earned, all of which will leverage on a resource or resources that you have to generate cash.
Mr Vacation above is leveraging on his contacts to be able to close lucrative policies.
You can leverage your money by putting it in a bank and earning interest.
An employer leverages on the time and talent of his employees to make money.
Conclusion
There's no harm in buying a lottery ticket or two, so long as it does not snowball out of control and you end up spending a significant portion of your income on lottery tickets.
There's nothing wrong with earning the Hard Money either. In fact, unless they are born with a silver spoon, most rich people start by working their butts off for an employer. Employment does put food on the table and gives you some money to spend, but we all have only 24 hours a day, and wages can only go so high, so how much you can earn will have a limit.
And that limit will not allow you to have the time nor the money for all the things that you want in life.
The purpose of this article is to get you to focus on the Smart Money.
Start by just earning the Hard Money. Work as hard as you can, but also learn, and keep your eyes and mind open. Look for ways in which you can do things better, and with less time and resources. In no time at all, you will be doing things that smart way instead of the hard way.
David Lim is the webmaster of http://QuittingYourJob.com, a business resource for the entrepreneur looking to start, or grow an online home-based business.
This article may be reprinted freely, provided no changes are made, and provided the resource box above follows the article.