Wealthy Wednesdays: Complaining About Your Bills

“The sole purpose of money is to express appreciation.”

Arnold M. Patent, author, “Money”

Gratitude is this decade’s overused buzzword. But let’s look at what this quote by author Arnold M. Patent really means. (I credit author Dr. Joe Vitale for bringing this quote to my attention.)

Let’s say you have to pay a bill, and you are stretched on money this month. 

So, your automatic response to this particular bill is to moan and groan and complain and grumble about paying it.

So, then you feel like crap about this bill that you have to pay. You’re mad at the company that’s trying to take your money. And your emotions and mood pretty much plummet. You start to really feel that lack and scarcity when you hate paying a bill, don’t you?

Is that any way to live??

Complaining about paying your mortgage?

Complaining about paying your water bill?

Complaining about paying your oil bill?

Complaining about paying any bill?

Now you pretty much feel like life sucks and everyone is out to get you.

Sound familiar?

Aren’t we taking things for granted with this attitude?

Now…think about what you would do if you didn’t have a house?

Or running water…hot or cold.

Or oil to heat your house.

Or the internet.

Or doctors.

Or grocery stores.

Starting to appreciate those things a lot more, hmmm? If you didn’t have water, you wouldn’t have a bill to pay. No grocery stores, no food. No internet service, no great reading! I bet now you’ll gladly write out those checks!

Even if you are late with a payment, realize the company is somewhat patient with you. Appreciate that a supplier gives you a month’s worth of electricity/water/housing/etc. and THEN asks you to pay for it. They think enough of you or your credit to give you the service before you even have to pay for it.

This is a mind and attitude shift. And a serious one. It took me until I passed 50 years of age to “get” this.

I would dread paying bills. For example, I’d be so mad that I had to give up my hard-earned money to the oil company of all places! So I’d resent them. And what do you think happened? Our water heater broke, we had problems with our oil tank, and on and on and on. I finally “got” this principle about appreciating their service, the fact that they came out at the drop of a hat (oh, on Christmas morning, to be exact) when our water heater died. That day, we had a new one! How can I not appreciate that? And it’s been noticed. Since my husband and I feel genuinely grateful to them, they are grateful that they have a decent customer who is actually kind to them! And so our dealings with them go smoothly. (It wasn’t like that…a few years ago I screamed at them over the phone for something dumb…can’t remember exactly what, and I thought I hated this oil company so I resented everything about them. It came into fruition last year when we had all those problems.)

Now, different year, different attitude, different story with the oil company. Imagine having this attitude with all of the bills that you pay?

Building wealth goes beyond just knowing where to invest or not, or how to save or not. It starts with the psychology behind your feelings about money. Feeling like money is an expression of appreciation changes your attitude toward money and how you handle it. No longer are you feeling negative about money. This change in attitude eliminates the fear you may have of money, the hatred of money, the anger towards money. It transforms your relationship with your money. It makes you see money for what it is…a number or piece of paper. It is not “the root of all evil.” It’s just a tool to enable you to do or buy something. It’s simply a means of exchange! And you are simply using it to give thanks for what you have in your life.

Money is the world’s way of thanking you for adding something of value to someone else’s life, too!

When you start to see all of this unfolding in your world, you’ll see more of all that unfolding in your world. Appreciation attracts more appreciation. Like attracts like. You are more comfortable with money and what it really does for you and for the world. When you “get” that mind shift, you have just put in place one of the foundational building blocks of wealth building.

(And you won’t be so angry anymore when you have to pay your United Illuminating bill, LOL!)

If you want to read more Wealthy Wednesday posts, click here, here and here.

~Marilyn, TFF