Value System

Hello everyone! I know it has been a long time since I have written a blog, but believe me, between the holidays, the economy and keeping a business moving it’s very hard to find time to do anything else but sleep when I can. The cold weather is definitely not helping me much by making me more sluggish and making me not want to get out of the house much.

I have to say that my business is going great, and I am learning new things every day. I have already hired 2 new people, made great network connections with NJ senators, councilwomen and assembly men and I am learning very well how to get and stay organized. Everything I do I feel is a lesson to me because most of the time it’s something I have never done before. You learn discipline, being confident as well as picking your battles and brushing certain things off.

What I have been doing recently is reading many different books on self improvement. Face it, I would like to say I am perfect, but I know that I am not. There are certain things in your personality that area easy to change and others that take a while and some realization on your part so you can make changes in your life. Working in finances and teaching people about money, how to spend it and how to save it, it’s important to me to understand the reason of money in a person’s life and what they really want out of life. By knowing what you want out of life or what is important to you will allow you to plan accordingly in order to make those goals come true.

One of the most important things I believe I have recently learned is the Values Ladder. What the Values Ladder does is makes you realize what is important in your life about money. By knowing what’s important about money to you, you are able to allocate your money in a way that fits your needs and desires. How the Values Ladder works is you ask yourself “What is it about money that is important to me?” The answer has to be a value such as freedom, security, independence etc. Then you ask yourself what is it about that value that is important to me? You keep asking yourself why until you finally come up with an answer that you can no longer answer why to. For example, my value was freedom. Why do I want to have freedom? I want to have freedom so that can travel whenever and wherever I want. Why? Because I want to spend more time with family and friends. Why? Because I want to have memories and stories to tell. There is no more answers as to why I want to have memories and stories therefore my core value is to have memories and stories of the people I love and care about.


The story that inspired me is about a woman who was a very wealthy woman, who worked very hard for the things that she had. She had 2 kids, a loving husband and a career that she loved. She worked 12 hours a day to keep her family going and to earn enough for all the things that she had. The problem was that she never got to spend time with her family because of the long hours she worked and the time that she had to commit to her business. She drove a beautiful car, bought new clothing every week, ate out almost every day and bought herself whatever she wanted. When she did the Values Ladder her core value showed that she wants to spend more time with her kids and husband and be able to travel with them. When the math was done, she was shown that each day she spends 4 hours working to earn the money for things that mean absolutely nothing to her core values. She could easily downgrade her leased car, buy less clothing each week and cook food with her family at home. Putting this in perspective made her realize what it was that she was doing and how she can improve her situation. Working 4 hours less a day lets her cook a meal for the family, give the kids a bath and put them to bed at night as well as spend breakfast with them in the morning. That’s a very big difference in lifestyles for a mom.

Try the exercise yourself and see what your core value is. Are you spending money in the right places?