When it comes to money, you must be able to identify the predators that can eat your wealth alive, which can kill you softly. I call these financial predators. The thing about that, is they will always be around no matter what we do. The Good news about it, is that it is manageable and predictable. In other words, you may be able to confront your money predators if you knew who they are and where they are coming from. In addition to that, you may be able to run faster towards wealth. Who and what are the predators? These can be internal (you) and external.

Being Impulsive: Yes, one of the predators can be you! Being negative and having negative values can create huge impact on you, including all your finance. That cannot just hinder you from financial freedom but in all aspects of your life. Being negative every time, being lazy, being pessimistic, having fear in facing difficulties, failures, and the lack of financial intelligence can be your worst enemy that will beat you down for you not to succeed in life. This is a mental habitual attitude. When I was young, I often used to go to flea market and bought every little stuff that I wanted not even knowing if it’s worth buying it.. Things that I don’t even need. I also use to go to thrift shop, because I knew every Friday, I would find new toys that are bargained. Often times, when I’m on this situation today of buying something, I only ask myself two questions. Is that a “want” or a “necessity”? In that way, I would knew if I’m on an impulsive momentum of buying or not. Now that I have a better understanding about money and how to the rich get richer, while the poor remain poor and poorer, I can say I’ve grown towards money intelligently. I want you to realize that you have to be conscious when spending your money, or else you are creating yourself to be your own predator. The solution and success are all up to you, so be cautious!

Lack of discipline: In any situations, if you do not have the discipline, it won’t be easy to reach financial freedom and build wealth. The truth is, it is very impossible to be rich if you spend much more than you currently earn. In other words, if you spend more on shopping than what you save, then you are already off track. So track your income and know where it’s going. If you want to spend more, then you have to think how you can earn more or how you can attain mo re assets that put money into your pocket. That’s how simple it is.

False Belief On Money: Money is just a like a leverage that we need to obtain for things we want or need. Money is nothing but a leverage tool for an exchange for services to obtain goods you need or want. It is a tool of agreement of trade.

Being Materialistic: Remember, that any material things will not enrich your life, even if you are rich. If you’re the type of materialism type, that only shows that your discontent. Being able to train yourself to focus spiritual and intellectual pursuit are the real fulfillment.

Debt: I know many people who are afraid to have debt, but I can tell you that I also know a lot of people who take debt as leverage. This is why I can say debt could be either good or bad, depending of what the person would do. In case you don’t know. A smart investor may loan money from the bank for a down payment to property, they are willing to invest in, while their tenants pay the rent on a monthly basis. That is an example of what I call a good debt. If a consumer buys anything that does not generate money higher or is not an investment, then you can be a bad debtor. For Now, simply think about credit card. This is considered predators.

Inflation. With that, people are not able to enjoy their money enough. This happens anytime your cash flow stays the same, while the cost of living goes up. It may take a long time before you can depend on a higher wage, and when approved, the prices were already triple as high. That is why I always say, educate yourself financially and be in control over your money. Inflation is a quiet wealth predator. It won’t kill you once, but it will always be there. These are predators you are not in control of. In able to continue or get better with your own wealth, you definitely need to seek a method that can overcome inflation.

Lack Of Financial Literacy and Investing oversight. Most of the time we spend a lot of money on things or assets that we think are assets, which in reality are a liabilities. Instead of buying only what we need, most of us buy what we want. Many of us never both what is really important. To be rich, you must apply our common sense. Knowing the difference between assets and liabilities. You must train yourself how to use leverage for your money, you must know what cash flow quadrant, balance sheets, good debt and bad debts are all about. You must learn how to create business systems, system management and so on. I lost lots of money when I was just starting out as I did not know any of it. I had so many investments and trusted people around. I though I knew a lot but was not enough. What I have learned before was not enough. So my lesson is to be financially literate and a have a higher degree of financial intelligence and leave your emotional insights behind. Having a personal development growth, seminars and others tutorials are big factor that can help you too. Do not listen to poor advises or asking wrong people, instead surround your self with people who are or been in that situation before. These kind of predators can easily eat your investment without knowing it. So watch out!

Emergencies. I hate emergencies. It is always un expected; It could be illness, distrust, unemployment, separations, health issues or death. If you haven’t prepared yourself for this, then you might as just cry or beg. The solution here is to pay yourself first, by budgeting your finances, including your emergency fund. The second important that you need is to get insurance, even if you are not using them, emergency is an emergency and sure will always pop up sometime. These are predators that can make you insane if not prepared and equip.

Government Taxes. Can you imagine, before you even get your hard-earned money, it is already been deducted by the predators? Now tell me who got your hard-earned money first? Yes, it was the Government. To know that the different taxes and how you can passively minimize it. Know the differences between passive income vs. earned income, and vs. portfolio income. You can’t control these big predators, but you can minimize it.

The habitual Procrastination. This habitual procrastination means, putting or delaying something in a later time. Either laziness is involved or we are into something better or important. Get rid of that habit now, and see how you can get things right. You may want to look at my goal-setting articles? I’ve written that may help you overcome this habitual procrastination.

Bankers. Banks may take in command of your money and may charge you a lot of fees several for transactions, then they will work to let you borrow money with much higher interest rates.

Business. This can be your enemy if not invested well, even tough we know it has risk, and we have to take the risk. This is very risky when people are being uneducated. This can make you struggle and poor if you buy items that will only make you poor and make themselves much poorer by paying into that item for years with very high-interest rates using credit cards.

Lawyers of consumers. If you are in business and especially on food business. Then this is for you. Do you know that many restaurants or establishment can be sued from any customers just to rip of money from the business owner? This is kind of people who are just waiting for the right circumstances to sue you. If you have time to research franchises and many other more. To avoid this but insurance and protect your values and assets in legal entities.

Friends, Family and Relatives – Sometimes friends, families or relatives have a lot of expectations that we need to give as a support unreasonably. This is not bad at all. The problem is that many of them abuse it because of kindness. There are often times unreasonable demands from families, relatives of friends who sometime we cannot resist. In able to overcome this, we must be strong to ourselves about our boundaries and educate them as well to let them know that you have boundaries. So go ahead and plan well your wealth and properties so that this cannot go to someone you don’t want to get it.

Spouses – In this information and modern world, you can’t play safe enough. I have just learned this from one of the books I have read. If want to get married, then marry wisely, then get yourself a prenuptial agreement. (Prenuptial agreement is a contract who is intended to their your own wealth to remain for themselves in case of separation. – Each part will not receive anything from each other’s wealth) See it on a positive way – If you got married just because someone wants your wealth. Then he or she can have everything, and you can lose everything in case of separation/divorce.