Adjusting the focus

 Sun, 05 Jan 2025 20:42 UTC

Adjusting the focus
Image: CC BY 4.0 by cybrkyd


There was a time when, if asked, I could not answer two simple questions: (i) how much money is in my bank account and, (ii) how much money is in my savings account. Therefore, how could I possibly know what I’m spending on and how much? And how much I’m saving and how often?

With my budget spreadsheet in place I now have the tools at hand to keep tabs on my earnings and spend, right down to the last penny. I am able to forecast and plan, anticipate and budget. I suppose I became my own accountant and why not? If I want to make more money and save more money, surely I need to know about money — my money — a little bit more?

And that, I realised, was the trouble with me and my relationship with money; I spent so little time thinking about it. How can I get more of the stuff if I pay it no attention and just let it tick over, and come and go as it pleases? Am I really in control of it or is it in control of me?

Many questions! But a valuable answer was in there, too: I badly needed to develop a closer relationship with money.

Rap music and the focus

I grew up on rap music; the classics. But even then, my favourite rappers were always talking about ‘the hustle’ and ‘cash money’ and getting ‘paid in full’. It was almost as if they only had one thing on their minds. From the very first days of the genre, they were saying:

Hear me talkin' 'bout checkbooks, credit cards, more money than a sucker could ever spend

— The Sugarhill Gang, Rapper's Delight, 1979

What I have learnt throughout my time is that the more focus I apply to something, the more of it I attain. Perhaps me learning to focus my mind began all those years ago, listening to rap music cassette tapes and CDs. Who knows? It certainly lent something to my mindset about money.

Laser-focus is the key; be about it, breathe it, live it, dream it.

And that’s exactly what I’m doing.

With my mind on my money and my money on my mind

— Snoop Dogg, Gin and Juice, 1994