A few weeks ago, I wrote about saving versus earning more to build wealth. Many of you wrote in saying how much you appreciate the article, but I also got a little negative feedback.
One comment that stood out to me was “Seems like elementary school math. Duh.”
Wow. Well, yes, yes it is simple. I've been dealing with personal and basic business finances for over 30 years. I've even been on the board of directors for a bank, and frankly, other than some statistical analysis, I've never once had to resort to anything beyond elementary school math to figure this stuff out. It's like losing weight. Eat less, move more. Easy to understand, hard to do.
We talked a bit, and I love this response as to why finances are so simple, yet so many people are still unable to save up enough so that they break out of the cycle of living from paycheck to paycheck.
It's not because they can't do math. It's because the culture around them (and BIG BIG advertising industry) tells them that they won't be happy without spending money they don't have on things they don't need. They realize they're broke. They're fine with it. All their friends are broke too (or they think they are).
Then occasionally they have a conversation with someone like us who is debt free, on track for retirement, has a full emergency fund, and NO financial worries and it gives them a new paradigm to consider. At least that's been my experience.
I don't preach financial responsibility, but I'm not ashamed to talk about money with my friends when it comes up because I think I have a lot of wisdom to share to people who are interested and I was shocked when I learned about this responsible way of living.
I was about 30 when I learned that not everyone has student loans and debt hanging over their heads their entire life. I'd never met someone who wasn't uber wealthy that said they were debt free and had an emergency fund.
I basically went OMG WTF THAT'S A THING??? and immediately started changing my financial situation.
Are you ready to change your financial situation? If so, it's really easy to understand how. I've even condensed the process into 10 steps which you can read in a few minutes in my article 10 Steps to Creating Wealth.
It's simple to understand, but it'll only work if you realize that changing your situation is actually possible, and are willing to do the work. That's step 1 by the way, realizing it can be done, or as one of my readers put it “OMG WTF THAT'S A THING???”.
I'll leave you with a question. If you are already on your way to building wealth, what was your breakthrough moment?
