Fifteen years ago, my mother and I went to Costco for grocery shopping. Vitamin Water was all the craze in drinks at that time. Since Vitamin Water costs more than $1 each at the supermarket ($2.29 today), it was cheaper per bottle of Vitamin Water bought in a case at Costco.
When my mother told me that she won’t buy the case of Vitamin Water because it was expensive, my mood soured. As if driving a Toyota Corolla CE (which I jokingly called the “Cheap Edition”) and living in an apartment weren’t already enough to make me feel insecure that my parents weren’t rich, especially since my father was no longer in this world.
In Robert Kiyosaki’s book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, Kiyosaki discusses about two fathers with different mindsets: Rich Dad and Poor Dad.
Poor Dad tells himself, “I Cannot Afford It”, when he sees something expensive.
Rich Dad, on the other hand, asks himself, “How Can I Afford It?”, when he sees something expensive.
The phrase “I Cannot Afford It” implies accepting defeat and having a victim mentality. It is what it is. Asking ourselves “How Can I Afford It?”, on the other hand, takes responsibility of the situation and comes up with solutions, regardless of many factors working against him/her (rapid inflation, overpriced houses, high taxes, and added expenses).
How can I afford a nice place so that my mother can sleep better? 😇
How can I afford a nice car so that my girlfriend will enjoy riding for long trips, and so that ladies will be even more impressed with me? 😂
Then, I asked even more questions to break it down even further:
How can I add more value at work, so not only does my manager give me a bigger raise and bonus, but doing so also gets me recognized by other companies and earns me an even higher salary? Lead a project to reduce the security vulnerabilities of our application and do the work no one else is willing to do!
What projects outside of work can I do for extra money on the side? I can work on websites for friends and not sell my Apple stock!
What expenses can I cut? Not buying carry out food every other day to save time and money is a start!
There are days when answering “How Can I Afford It?” that I miss the money saved from driving the Corolla and living in an apartment. However, the confidence of driving more than 80 mph on the freeway without the steering wheel shaking and heated seats keeping my back warm on cold evenings makes the money spent worth it. And the accomplishment of having my own home office and space to hang pictures from my adventures, shows how far I’ve come and makes the money spent worth it.
No new content for Noy Sauce has been shared the past few weeks because we’ve been working 10+ hours day at work getting new features added to our website. There were days I ate my meals during conference calls, skipped working out at the gym, and missed praying the rosary with my mother, because we were troubleshooting issues and testing our new code to meet tight deadlines. However, the fulfilling feeling of not only getting the job done, but also being appreciated by leadership in our company for our efforts, was worth it in answering the question, “How Can I Afford It?”.
This past Sunday’s gospel tells the story of Jesus sharing the Beatitudes with His disciples:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.”
“How Can I Afford It?” is not about earning money just for myself and to stroke my ego. “How Can I Afford It” is about earning more money so that the present and future for my myself and those who matter most to me are better than the past. “How Can I Afford It?” is about making a stand in sharing my resources with those who don’t have the resources, so they don’t spend years struggling the same way I did in being confident to attract the right partner.
“How Can I Afford It?” is about not using our problems and bad experiences as excuses as to why we cannot live the life we desire. “How Can I Afford It?” is about answering God’s call to build a relationship with Him and Jesus. None of what I had shared in this post matters if we don’t have a relationship with God and Jesus through sharing our love, generosity, brokenness, shortcomings, and our experiences with our fellow brothers and sisters in this world.
When it’s all said and done in this world, the question asked won’t be “How much money and accomplishments did we make?”, but “What did we do to help and make a positive impact for others using the money and accomplishments that we earned?”
Did we face our fears and take action to leave a legacy bigger than ourselves?
Did we share our stories and wisdom through vulnerability to the younger generation?
Did we serve others without expecting anything in return?
Did we make the new person joining us at work or in our group feel welcome?
Did we spend a couple of dollars extra to make that gift even more special?
Ten years ago, in preparation for our Spiritual Seminar, my Spiritual mentor encouraged me to reflect on the weekly readings. As the weeks progressed, my written reflections got longer and deeper. By the time our Spiritual Seminar came after preparing for almost three months, he encouraged me to write reflections for the community because our gifts are meant to be shared with others and cultivated for others, not kept to ourselves. And that was the seed that started Noy Sauce and answering “How Can I Afford It?” to make a difference.
I encourage you to share your talents and gifts the best way you can through service. In the process, you will attract the right people and right partner in your life. Life will be richer, not only in your wallet, but also in God’s eyes. You can afford it 😉