Money seeds- Plant them or Lose them

“Money”…What is the definition of money? What is money to YOU? Chances are your thoughts toward money have a lot to do with how you feel (your emotion) and less to do with what you believe or know. So many people have an irrational emotional attachment to money. Has anyone ever taught you how to understand it?

Why is that?  I’m not sure why but so very many of us have disempowering beliefs and about and an illogical attachment to the concept of money.

A concept which is, after all, completely intangible.

Since many of us do have these irrational tendencies towards money,  I’m going to use a crazy metaphor to sneak around these limiting beliefs in your mind and introduce you to a way of thinking about money and investing you likely haven’t imagined before.

Money seeds- Plant them or Lose them

 Let’s be radical here. Take a second to set aside what you were told or have been taught— in short what we think we know— about money and investing.

You’re in for an interesting roll in the hay.

What if you were to think of the bank where you take your money and invest in a Certificate of Deposit (C.D.) as a “consignment farm”? Imagine the bank as the professional farmer who oversees everything, from the planting and the harvesting…to the distribution of produce.

 Let’s say you take your seeds (“money”) in to be planted in November for the planting and ask the farmer to sow (“invest”) your seeds for you.

He tells you to come back in six months when your seeds have “matured” into harvest, and even tells you UP FRONT how much to expect back as produce.

The cost? Nothing. You just can’t have any of your seed back once it’s sown into the ground— not until the 6 month harvest time is up and the seed has matured and grown.

So, feeling quite good about your “investment” as you look over the very professional-looking farm— with all of its expensive-looking machinery, big shiny equipment and tractors, barns, large silos, and dozens of laborers— you get in the car and drive away feeling safe enough in trusting that when you come back in 6 months everything will be exactly as promised.

As you’re driving away, you feel pretty darn good. You feel pretty good about all the hard work and effort you DON’T have to do, and all the details you don’t have to worry about understanding.

It’s so simple.

You don’t have to prepare the land.You don’t have to till the fields.You don’t have to time the seasons.You don’t have to understand crop rotation.You don’t have to know how to plant, or harvest, or reap or bale.

You don’t need a system to maximize harvest yields.You don’t have to worry about payroll.You have no need to think of workman’s comp.You have no overhead just giving your seed to the farmer.You don’t even need to worry about selling the harvest.

In short, you don’t have to worry about or do a single thing once you enter the consignment agreement with the farmer-manager and lend your seed to the operation.

Drop off seed. Pick up harvest in six months.

You can do that!

Fast forward six months.

You return to the professional farm in six months when your agreed-upon term is up and the farmer who is in charge of your money…

…gives you back the same number of seeds you gave him, and plus he gives you a much, much smaller additional amount: the produce.

You load it up in your car trunk and drive away with your “produce”, the proceeds from your “investment”.

The farmer-manager gave you back your seeds and he gave you the harvest produce promised— and you had to put in absolutely zero work to reap your return harvest…

…so why is it that as you start driving away having picked up everything you settled for, you start to wonder how MUCH of a return harvest did those seeds you entrusted to the farmer-manager REALLY reap?

How much money DID they make on your money?

Let’s rewind the tape.

Remember how when you first came to the farm operation you were so impressed with how professional it all was with all those pieces of machinery, barns, silos, dozens of laborers and big, shiny tractors?

Remember how safe you felt entrusting your seed into the hands of the farmer-manager, how confident you felt that everything would be exactly like you were told it would be and you would receive the exact return as promised— do you remember that feeling?

Now, though, as you’re driving away with your initial seed and your “investment” return proceeds, you start to see things in a different light.

You start to look now through the eyes of abundance rather than scarcity.

Not with the eyes of a consumer but as an investor, you start to examine what just took place

Now, you start to examine what took place through the eyes of an investor rather than just a consumer.

Now you remember how much land that farmer had and how there was a car pulling away even as you pulled up— and a car pulling in even as you were leaving. You start to think that when planted your seeds surely didn’t take up but a tiny portion of that farmer’s fields, the rest of which is used to sow the seeds for many other people.

Then you remember those huge, bursting warehouses full of produce the farmer has to load up and take to market every year. Wait a minute…what did you miss?

Didn’t the farmer sow YOUR seed? Doesn’t he also sow the seed for many, MANY other people? Why is it that you and the other people who deposit their seed to be planted with this farmer leave the harvest with only a trunkful of ears of corn?

And why does the farmer have warehouses literally BURSTING with TONS and TONS of corn?

The simple answer is you were given what you agreed you wanted.

When you handed over your seed it was based on an agreement that the bank would guarantee you a specific harvest plus your seed back (or you could replant the extra again next season).

You got what you agreed you wanted when you made the deposit. They did nothing wrong…so why is it that deep down you somehow feel cheated by this operation?

Interesting.

Let’s bring it full circle so you can realize why we used this “corny” analogy to illustrate a point.

The point is that because the farmer has all the tools, because the farmer has all the land, because the farmer has the working system, because the farmer has hired hands to harvest the crop…because of all these reasons, you felt comfortable trusting him and you like doing business with him because it’s easy and you know what to expect.

And you thank God that you don’t have to do ALL THAT WORK.

But you begin to ask yourself…what if I could find a place to sow my seed that is just as safe and secure as that farm operation, but that helps me harvest a better return?

What if I could invest my money in a place as safe as a bank certificate of deposit but with a much better return on investment?

You can, and one answer is private lending.

Private lending is where an individual loans money to an investment company secured by real estate property, about the same thing banks already do with YOUR money (loaning on mortgages and lines of credit) except that…now YOU are in control, and YOU get the higher returns.