Are you struggling with money? Do you feel like your life is going nowhere? Do you feel being financially free would give you more abundance in your life? Is your lack of money holding you back? Then this article is for you.
Why Am I Writing This Article?
(caution soul striptease ahead)
I was struggling with money for years, and my lack of money was causing me major pain. 2 years ago I hit financial rock bottom. I was struggling big time. I could not pay my rent anymore because I was technically still a student at that time, and welfare would not cover for me. To pay my rent, I rented out my own apartment on Air BnB becoming technically homeless for months. It was bad. I was crashing at my friend’s places, and I had a 24/7 gym where I could sometimes sleep. Years later, it still gives me the shivers in what a poor broken mental state I was in during that time. I began to live off my credit card and indebted myself badly. My poor financial state was causing me major pain, and I was in a vicious circle. I needed to do something. I was in a downward spiral.
If you want to change the fruit, you have to change the roots. If you want to change the visible, you have to change the invisible first”. T. Harv Eker
I realised that to get out of this state; I first need to take ownership of my situation. I was the problem. I was spending more than I was making. My financial habits were dysfunctional, and to find a solution, I needed to become the solution myself. I started changing everything about me and around me. I switched bad habits for healthy ones. I changed my appearance, throwing away all my clothes and everything that reminded me of the old broken me. I realised that I had built by accident a completely dysfunctional ecosystem of people around me. So, a lot of my friends had to go, and I began to look for ways to accelerate my growth and escape forwards. Since my lack of money was a big cause of pain in my life, I started to look at how I did things.
I realised that I knew nothing about finances! So, I began to deconstruct my own financial psychology. What habits and beliefs were governing my financial behaviour? What is the money software that is running on my brain? What was my relationship with money? Who put it there? How can I change it?
Since the software in my brain was giving me horrible results, I began to view it as flawed, so I had to look for updates. I needed a new brain. I needed new financial habits, and I needed them fast because staying broke, was causing me so much pain that I needed to escape. I felt like my behind was on a hot plate, and my only thought was to get away from it. Every action, every interaction I had was to get me somewhere else. Somewhere safe. Somewhere forward.
Where Do You Get A New Brain?
I started to read books, listened to podcasts, ted talks, I went to seminars, took classes, and drove to start-up conferences, and slowly things were starting to change. I was in an upward spiral. In this article, I am going to show you a money management habit that I have found that completely changed my financial world, a free money management system. I learned about this technique when I was taking a webinar at Mind Valley Masterclass by T. Harv Eker.
Study Harv’s work as if your life depended on it because financially it may” Tony Robbins.
T Harv Eker is the author of the bestseller “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”, which I highly recommend. If you want to buy it, click here. Harv taught over 1.5 million people through his online courses on how to create financial freedom through his different financial online seminars.
Harv is a self-made millionaire, and I first stumbled over one of his courses when I was surfing on Mind Valley. Harv has devoted his life to studying self-made millionaires, and he has identified replicable commonalities from the ultra-rich that he teaches in his course ”The Spiritual Millionaire”. I was first super sceptical, because of the high cost ($250), and the scammy title.
I love the Mind Valley guys, and I trust them and their products, and I was in desperate need to find some answers that would help me get control of my finances.
One of my major takeaways was that all successful people had some kind of money management system. I did not have any system at all, and I was spending more money than I was earning. I did not even look at my bank account because it was frustrating me that I had so little, and so I used my credit card until it would not work anymore. T. Harv Eker introduced me to the 6 Jar System, and ever since, I had no money problems, and I know that I will never have money problems again in my life. So, what is the 6 Jar method?
The 6 Jar Method
Basically, in the 6 jar money management system, you split your money up into six different accounts. You have a certain percentage of your money to put into each account. You can use bank accounts or actual jars. Think of it as a self-induced tax system.
So What Are The 6 Accounts That You Split Your Money Into?
The single biggest difference between financial success and financial failure is how well you manage your money. It’s simple: to master money, you must manage money”. T. Harv Eker2
1. Necessities Accounts (NEC – 50%)
This account is to manage your everyday expenses. This includes your rent, debt, food, clothes, gas etc.
This was a gamechanger because before, I only had one jar. All my necessities were coming out of my one bank account; whenever I was travelling around the world, I depleted that one bank account completely. The Idea that I need to give 50% of my income away was super radical to me, but I made the decision to do everything this course was teaching me.
2. Play Account (PLY- 10%)
Money that comes out of the play account you use to have fun. T Harv Eker believes that to become financially free, your soul needs to be happy. The whole purpose of this account is to bring joy to yourself. An expensive bottle of red wine? A massage? An epic road trip with your buddies? Use the play account for everything your heart desires. But, do not use 1 euro of this account for anything else but fun!
Financial Freedom Account (FFA – 10%)
This is your golden goose. This jar is your ticket to financial freedom that will make you rich eventually.
The money that you put into this jar is used only for investment and building passive income streams. YOU ARE NEVER ALLOWED TO SPEND THIS MONEY. NEVER!
The only time you are allowed to spend this money is once you become financially free. You are financially free when you make your desired yearly income without having to work. And even then, you are only allowed to spend your returns. Never the principal.
Education Account (EDU – 10%)
This jar is to sharpen your saw. Successful people all have in common that they sharpen their saw (their brain). Therefore, to emulate the results of successful people, we copy their behaviour. Click here to read my article about 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This account is to educate yourself and make yourself better. This can be books, online courses, tickets to online courses, language apps etc. If you are a student, your tuition fees do not come out of the education jar, but out of the necessity jar.
Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know”. T. Harv Eker
Long-Term Saving For Spending Account (LTS – 10%)
Money in this account is for bigger purchases. This jar is for your next vacation, or your new car etc. This jar is like your play jar, but for things that are more expensive and take a bit more to save.
I use this jar mostly for my vagabonding expenses, but if you want to get some more expensive toys like a new watch, a PlayStation or a new gaming computer god bless you, but you need to wait until you have enough in your LTS Account.
One thing that causes people a lot of problems is to mix the jars. If you spend your entire jar on your new car, holiday, or luxury item, you will experience major discomfort. When I was travelling the world, I was always dead broke when I came back because I depleted all my jars. If you choose to manage your money like this, you will have to deal with constant worry, and you will start to question the trip itself eventually.
Having a different account system frees your mind because the system is doing the thinking for you.
Give Account (GIV- 10%)
The money in this jar is for charity. Use the money to do some good. Send it to a charity organisation you respect, or buy some food with it and cook the food for the homeless. This is up to you. T. Harv Eker believes that by giving away money, the universe will reward you by giving you back more. I believe, however, that as long as you are a charity yourself, that you can use this 5% on your own family if you have poverty inside your circle.
The mark of true wealth is determined by how much one can give away”. T. Harv Eker
What Do You Do If Your Income Is Not Enough To Split It? (Trick Question)
A lot of people say, ”I would love to have this money management habit, but I cannot do it! I don’t have enough money coming in to split it“, or statements like ” My expenses are too high, there is no way I can afford to split my money into different accounts“.
Harv would get infuriated! I usually say to these people: “Shut it!“. You tried your system for years. Did it work? If you are broke, then it did not work!
So, you have to switch your old money management software to a better one. Nobody said that you had to put $1,000 into your account every day.
If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you are going to keep getting what you’ve always got. You gotta switch it up!” T. Harv Eker
Do not fool yourself with statements like “ I don’t have any money to manage“. That is losers talk.
It does not matter if you make $10,000 a week, or $1 a week. The habit is possible for every person because it works with a percentage and not a fixed amount.
The habit is much, much more important than the amount” — T Harv Eker
How Does The 6 Jar Method Work?
The idea is that you let the 6 jar system do the thinking for you, and T. Harv Eker believes that the fastest way to become financially well is to manage the money that you have well.
Storytime <3:
Imagine you are a parent and you go to the shopping centre with your beloved child. It is a beautiful sunny day and on the way out you buy your child a scoop of ice cream. Your child looks excited, but your child is a goofy one, and they drop the scoop of ice cream on the floor. Your son now asks you to buy a new one. Your child is sad, and he asks you to not only buy you a new scoop of vanilla, but he wants a second scoop of chocolate ice cream.
What do you do? Do you buy your child 2 scoops of Ice-cream after he just dropped the first scoop you bought him?
If you would buy your child 2 scoops after he just dropped the first one, T Harv Eker would probably slap you right across the face.
The correct response would be to say: ”I love you son, but before I buy you 2 scoops you first need to show me that you can handle 1″.
This is where I go all spiritual on your ass.
If you show the universe that you can handle the amount of money that is given to you right now, it will give you more. If you mismanage your money, you will not get any more.
Why the heck should the universe give you more if you cannot even handle the money that you have right now. Show the universe that you can handle what you have, and it will give you more.
To this day, I cannot really explain how this principle works, but it does. Since I started the 6 Jar Method, magic started to happen. And, I went from borderline homeless to living a life on my terms, in a big ass apartment where I live with my best friends, and I feel like the universe has my back.
Decide Right Now: Are you going to get 6 jars and start managing your money today?
Call to Action
- Go out and get 6 jars (or six bank accounts).
- Start splitting your money.
- Write down what your money blueprint is (what is money for you, what is your relationship with money, how do you feel about money).
- Write down what your parent’s money blueprint is/was.
- Write down 25 answers on how you can make more money. Then take micro action and do one of the answers today!
- Write down five reasons why you deserve to be financially independent
vallav omni patel
excellent piece of work while others talk about it you actually practise what you preach.
Joleen Mosty
Thank you for the article, you are an inspiration to us all.
Dr Veena
Excellent knowledge I was searching how to do which all expenses come her .
Thank you so much
Shiva Verma
Thanks. Luckily I found an App on this 6 Jar method. It really helped me.
It’s called Mugs, you can find it here.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.programmer.mugs