“Honor, courage and commitment, the core values of the Marines, define how every Marine in the Corps thinks, acts and fights. Throughout the evolving battlefields of the 21st Century, every Marine in the Corps must be confident in the abilities of themselves—and each other. In the chaos of battle, character matters.” Taken from the Marines.com
The following definitions of Honor, Courage and Commitment are from Dictionary.com. They are here for you to read and reflect upon. I will delve into why and what they mean to me as a former Marine and the Badge and Budget Investor.
“In the chaos of battle, character matters.”
Wow, what a powerful idea that is. Character truly does matter when we are facing a chaotic, financial battle, and character will get us to the wealth building phase. In order to win the financial battle we must hold true to our core values of honor, courage and commitment.
Honor [ on-er ]
noun
Honesty, fairness, or integrity in one’s beliefs and actions: a man of honor.
A source of credit or distinction: to be an honor to one’s family.
High respect, as for worth, merit, or rank: to be held in honor.
verb (used with object)
To hold in honor or high respect; revere: to honor one’s parents.
To treat with honor.
adjective
Of, relating to, or noting honor.
Honor is an interesting word. Like the definition of honor says above, to have integrity in one’s belief’s and actions. In order to hold our finances in a position of honor, we must first write down our money beliefs and understand how we act with money. Some common money beliefs are:
It takes money to make money
The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
Money is the root of all evil
I can’t live a balanced life if I want to make a lot of money
My financial success depends on the job market and the economy
You must take huge risks to make more money
Money is the measure of my success and worth
Life is hard
Most wealthy people are penny pinchers and never give
If you are like me, then we have both had thoughts and beliefs like these before. We will win the financial battles and ultimately the wealth war, but in order to honor our finances we must first disprove these common money beliefs.
By changing our beliefs about money we will ultimately change our actions with money. This in turn will allow us to grow our wealth. Below I’ll take the previous common money beliefs and flip them over:
It takes effort and discipline to make money
The victors get richer and the victims get poorer
How we handle money can be the root of evil
Balancing your financial life will increase your wealth
Your financial success depends on your stewardship
You must take calculated and educated risks to increase your wealth
You are already worthy
Life is a stock chart, there highs and lows, but it always goes up
Wealthy people are some of the most generous people
The simple path to financial freedom is changing your beliefs and honoring your money. Everything starts with a belief. First, believing in your success and worth. Secondly, taking action, taking control and becoming a good steward of money. I believe that I want to be the very best person I can be for my family. I want my children to honor us and how we handled our finances. I hope one day I have given them a model to copy.
I noticed something about my children–they are little copy cats. I come home from work and put board shorts on and my son runs to his room and immediately changes into boards shorts without me saying a thing.
They will also model the financial example that we set. Honor is the first Marine Corps value and it’s a great financial value. The second Marine Corps value is Courage.
“It’s not that we have little time, but more that we waste a good deal of it.”
-Seneca
Courage [ kur-ij, kuhr- ]
noun
The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.
Obsolete. The heart as the source of emotion.
Courage is hard. It is scary to sit down and critically look at your debt, especially when your student loan debt sits at $120,000 like ours did. When I write down all the things we spend money on, it’s difficult to look at, $100 at Starbucks, $1,000 at Amazon, and so on.
It can cause a lot of danger and anger if we are spending over and above our financial means. We must lean on courage and be brave enough to courageously care about our finances. If we begin to care about our money, then our money will begin to care about us.
If we continue paying little or no attention to our money, then our money will treat us the same way.
We must have the courage to take the first step and start discussing our finances with a coach, with a partner, with our spouse, or all of the above. You cannot be successful alone. Starting to talk about money will relieve stress and allow us to make a difference in our finances.
I know you have the courage. It’s like hearing gun shots at a school and your parked across the street. You would turn towards your fear and you would go in to stop the threat and save lives! So start saving your own financial life!
Courage is the second value, but not the last value. Commitment is the third and final value of the Marine Corps.
Commitment [ kuh-mit-muhnt ]
noun
The act of committing.
The state of being committed.
The act of committing, pledging, or engaging oneself.
A pledge or promise; obligation: We have made a commitment to pay our bills on time.
Engagement; involvement: They have a sincere commitment to religion.
Perpetration or commission, as of a crime.
What are you committed to? Commitment has a trickle effect. When you are committed to something small it gains steam as it moves downhill until eventually it can’t be stopped like the “Debt Snowball”.
We commit to paying our bills on time, so why not commit to paying our savings, paying our retirement, paying our deferred compensation, paying for our future, paying ourselves? Why not? Sacrificing and committing now, will pay enormous dividends in the future. You are worthy and you are worth it. Pay yourself first and attack debt. Debt will be the leach to your wealth. Rise up and commit to destroying your debt. This is a call to action.
With honor, courage, and commitment you can win the financial battle and ultimately the wealth war.
“You don’t hurt ’em if you don’t hit ’em.”
-Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller, USMC, Marine, 1962
You do not hurt debt if you do not hit debt, so attack debt with honor, courage and commitment!