Tag Archives: becoming wealthy

Do You Think You Are A Victim Of The Wealthy?

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What if I told you the people who are complaining about the wealthy are the same people keeping your from becoming wealthy yourself?

I think there is misinformation floating around that casts the wealthy as if they were all evil like the old evil stepmother depiction that was oh so popular in the Disney movie classics (I wonder what they had against stepmothers?  Perhaps childhood issues, or an easy target?).

Now just in the little that I wrote so far I’m sure some readers put their hands over their ears, closed their eyes and started chanting “I’m not listening, la la la”.  If you have made it this far read each of the points below with an open mind.

Pink Dolphin

  • 8 out of 10 people who are rich today came from a middle class or lower background.  This means that 80% of those that are rich are just like you and me!  Look around and in the mirror, practically everybody you see, including yourself, can or may already be rich.  Don’t believe the crazy people they have on “The Real Desperate Housewives” as representing the rich.  As much as they say it’s real, it not really representative of the rich.  Those TV shows are about as representative of the rich as a pink dolphin is representing the average dolphins.
  • There are both good and bad people who are rich.  Bad is a relative term, perhaps good and (aggressive, mean or selfish) people who are rich is a better way of describing them.
  • There isn’t some magic that happens to these people who come from the middle class that makes them more prone to be successful other than drive, belief that they can do it, and the willingness to try.
  • Most rich people (at least the ones that I know) give money away to causes that improves everybody’s lives, whether they realize it or not.  Parks, recreations centers, the Arts (yes, liberals that protest the rich benefit greatly from people being rich… surprise), medicine, hospitals, and quite literally the list goes on and on.
  • Big media like to portray the rich as bad guys (which is ironic since they themselves are super rich), but if you read blog sites and their interviews with the rich, you’ll see that they aren’t really the way big media like to present them.  Big media just want you to watch their shows because it makes them money.  I wonder if they think we are all slow?  Just remember when you listen to one of those shows trashing the rich, that the people pulling the strings are richer than you or I can imagine.  A bit hypocritical huh…

The wealthy are the ones that bought apple products, enabling the android devices to take off and become popular at a much lower price.  If it weren’t for the wealthy buying both calculators and computers of yesteryear, computer still might be giant behemoths of past, or so expensive that they never become mass-produced and exist only in the government world.  I don’t  know about you, but my computers and electronic devices has made a huge impact on my life, and might be a way for me to someday advance to the wealth level of the rich, even on a middle class income.

Think you are still a victim? The try the following:

  • Grow your own food
  • Stop buying products that the rich provide
  • Start bartering more
  • Make your own clothes
  • Start a side business on the cheap
  • Think and exist outside of the box
  • Experiment
  • Become more socially active and make new friends
  • Live life well…

The thing is you are a victim only because you let people tell you that you are.  You are only limited by your desire to be wealthy and your determination to get there.

I’ve been asleep for years, not really believing or even trying to become wealthy.  Now I’m awake and trying things.  I think life will slip by too quickly if you let it.

If you don’t play the game, how do you expect to win?

MR

Progress on Achieving Financial Independence – Swimming To Shore

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After I paid off my house a few years ago, I wrote about the experience (via the post:  Stop Drowning in Debt, Start Swimming To Shore) using a swimming analogy.  In the swimming analogy, I compared “being in debt” as being similar to being underwater and swimming straight up to get desperately needed air.

In the under water analogy, there were no complex choices, you had to swim straight up on the quickest and shortest path to get the prized air.  Instinct practically took over so there was no thinking, just a constant and quick paddling to get to the surface.  Much like debt, it makes the decision very easy because every movement up was a direct contribution to your end goal which was to breathe or reduce your debt.

Once surfacing (or getting out of debt):

  • at first you catch your breath,
  • rest a bit,
  • then start looking where to go from there!

In a later post called (Getting Wealthy By Swimming to Shore), I wrote that I plotted a basic course to follow and that I started implementing my loose plan.

I’ve discovered that following that plan is hard because of so many other options that are out there once you get out of debt.  I’m constantly wondering about the direction that I should be swimming and if current path is the best…  I miss the days when every payment on debt was instant feedback on how my financial position has improved.  The wealth producing opportunities are not anywhere near as predictable making debt payments.

The feedback can be false depending on how you act on your investments.  For instance, 3 years ago I would have never guessed that gold would be as high as it is today.  In a unsure economic climate and the increased consumption from developing markets on a scarce resource, it makes sense that gold would rise as it has but it’s hard to see this sometimes because of all the variables involve.  To bad I didn’t buy any back then!

Interestingly (and not really related to the point of my article), I recently saw on TV that we can make gold out of lead.  The process requires massive amounts of energy that make it too expensive, but it is possible.

Achieving financial independence and my swimming analogy:

So I’ve plotted a course to follow that I will try to achieve financial independence, but it’s a tough course and I’m constantly making small adjustments.  I think as long as I don’t swim in circles or suddenly decide to swim the opposite way, I’ll be okay.  I have learned that my journey won’t be a straight path as it was with getting out of debt.

There will be times when I go backwards because of the currents or I’ll have to swim around obstacles (like stinging jellyfish).  I think the important point is to keep swimming, because after you stop swimming for too long, eventually you sink.

So in conclusion, it looks like I’m in for a long, hard swim until I develop a pace to swim/invest by…

MR

Staring at the Financial Crossroads

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Some days (this one in particular), I feel like I am staring at the financial crossroads in my life.

I’m debt-free (including my mortgage), I have a 401K that is coming along nicely, a Roth that I haven’t contributed to yet this year, and a regular  brokerage account.  By most measures, I’m doing okay.  I’m well past Get Rich Slowly’s First State of Personal Finance, but not even close to the stage where he quit his job, and I don’t know if I ever will be anytime soon, or perhaps not even before retirement age!

While it’s true that I am debt-free, I still have expenses that are like debt, so even though I’m debt-free, I don’t really feel like it.  And to make matters worse, lately I’ve been getting the urge to say screw it, and start to spend some money on my kids and on more grande vacations.  I would love to get my son a mini-bike, and schedule a trip for us to go to Paris or Hawaii someday soon (not to mention another Disney Trip).

I’ve also been tempted to go to some of the fancier restaurants… the ones that  are a bit better than the popular food chains (like Olive Garden) that we typically frequent!  I’ve been admiring this little dated steakhouse called Diamond Grille that everybody swears by.  Yeah, the meals are over $100.00 for 2, but well worth it from what I’ve heard.

 

I’m kind of tired of living so frugally, and would like a new fancy car, then perhaps my friends would stop thinking that I am poor in comparison to them?

I could do all of the things above, and still be somewhat ahead of the curve, but I won’t.  I know what got me here, and I know that staying the path will get me to the next level. 

So, I’ll plod on, being the frugal guy that I am, with specific savings goals per year!  If I meet those financial goals successfully, then the excess money will go toward enjoying life a bit more.  That said, I’m sure if there is excess money, at least part of it would go towards investments too!

So yes, I’m still on the path to become financially independent, but I choose to do so while enjoying life just a little bit more! 

How about you?  What is your strategy?

-MR