Every decision you make in your life involves a trade-off of some kind.
When you started your first job, you had more money, but had less free time.
When you went traveling, you had exciting experiences, but your bank account balance got very close to zero.
Financial life is not free of trade-offs.
For example, you might not want to take risk with your investment: the trade-off is that you probably won't make as much money as you could if you were willing to take some risks.
And the other hand, if you decide to take risks, you can have really nice profits, but you also can loose a lot.
However, trade-offs don't mean you necessarily have to gain something, and on the other hand, to loose something else.
Trade-offs can be used to your advantage.
Small business owners and farmers often find themselves in a cash-poor/asset-rich situation: this means they don't have a lot of disposable income, as all their income goes to improving their business or buying land.
It is easy to feel poor in this situation, but you must remind yourself that this is your choice: you decided to make those improvements and buy land rather than have some extra money to spend.
And on the long run, this will bring you closer to achieving your goals.
Another typical trade-off it is likely to encounter is the free time versus money issue.
A 2008 survey made by the Pew Research Center show that Americans choose time over money: 67 percent says the top personal priority is to have enough time to do things they want to do, while being rich has been rated very important by only 13 percent of respondents.
Actually, everything else, having children, being involved in charities or professional success was ranked "very important" by half of those who answered the questions.
This means people want most what they don't have: rich people wanted more free time, while poor people were saying more likely wealth was important to them.
The thing is, you can exchange time for income: you can work more and have less free time but more money, or you can work less and have less money but more time for yourself.
The priorities may change over the times: there will be years when you will need the money more than you want to have free time, and vice versa.
It is very important to understand that this is a trade-off, which means it can be changed every moment, so you shouldn't feel bad or guilty about this.
You just have to decide which is more important to you at a given point.
When you started your first job, you had more money, but had less free time.
When you went traveling, you had exciting experiences, but your bank account balance got very close to zero.
Financial life is not free of trade-offs.
For example, you might not want to take risk with your investment: the trade-off is that you probably won't make as much money as you could if you were willing to take some risks.
And the other hand, if you decide to take risks, you can have really nice profits, but you also can loose a lot.
However, trade-offs don't mean you necessarily have to gain something, and on the other hand, to loose something else.
Trade-offs can be used to your advantage.
Small business owners and farmers often find themselves in a cash-poor/asset-rich situation: this means they don't have a lot of disposable income, as all their income goes to improving their business or buying land.
It is easy to feel poor in this situation, but you must remind yourself that this is your choice: you decided to make those improvements and buy land rather than have some extra money to spend.
And on the long run, this will bring you closer to achieving your goals.
Another typical trade-off it is likely to encounter is the free time versus money issue.
A 2008 survey made by the Pew Research Center show that Americans choose time over money: 67 percent says the top personal priority is to have enough time to do things they want to do, while being rich has been rated very important by only 13 percent of respondents.
Actually, everything else, having children, being involved in charities or professional success was ranked "very important" by half of those who answered the questions.
This means people want most what they don't have: rich people wanted more free time, while poor people were saying more likely wealth was important to them.
The thing is, you can exchange time for income: you can work more and have less free time but more money, or you can work less and have less money but more time for yourself.
The priorities may change over the times: there will be years when you will need the money more than you want to have free time, and vice versa.
It is very important to understand that this is a trade-off, which means it can be changed every moment, so you shouldn't feel bad or guilty about this.
You just have to decide which is more important to you at a given point.
Source...