Why we are financially poor.

Do you think rich or poor?

How do people really get rich? Yes, rich as in Financially Independent which means whether you work or not, you will always have money to spend. How? This question has been asked for thousands of times and there are even more answers to the questions themselves but have you ever wondered why only a few people are able to become rich? I wish I knew. I’ve got a lot of solutions but I know it might or might not work for you because the truth is we both have different ways to solve it. Most people think that education (academic) can make you become rich and well, it really depends. Now I’m not saying that I don’t believe that education couldn’t make you one and this topic is arguable (I might create a different article for this). Of course it can make you rich but only in the right field. Education about a specific field will make you rich in that specific field. If you are studying (or being educated) about how to wash the dishes then certainly you will become a good or better dish-washer, but not financially rich. Surely it can lead you somewhere between the lines dividing the rich and the poor but if you are not financially literate, I’m pretty sure you’ll be back to square one. How do I know? Simply because I’ve experienced it. There were times in my life where I’ve acquired great fortune then a few days after I’m back to my usual budgeting method (which doesn’t work anyway). You and I both know that your allowance for 2 days can last for a week or two before the payday while your pay (salary) can last for only 1 or 2 days after you received it. It doesn’t matter how big your paycheck is, it might be ranging from 4 up to 7 digits- it’s all the same. The problem lies not on your job, but on your mentality and how you handle money.

Many people define rich as being able to earn (or acquire) great amount of money. Some people define rich as having the most expensive clothes, being updated with the most popular gadgets, eating in a fancy restaurant, owning a car (or even two), having a large house with swimming pool, billiard hall, basketball court, tennis court, and all the possible courts combined. On the other hand, some people define rich as being able to run multiple businesses, having more assets and fewer liabilities, going to work not because they needed to but because they wanted to – they can work or not work and still have money for them to spend. How about you, how do you define rich?

I asked you this because just by defining it can change how you look at it and determine how you can achieve it. As for me, rich is a state. It’s like your knowledge of the basic elementary Mathematics - addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. These things won’t be erased from your brain until you die (or until your brain ceased from functioning). For me, being rich is a state where you have the knowledge and you know by heart how to get to the point where you can be financially independent. Being rich starts by thinking rich.

Do you think rich or poor? Have you ever noticed why a lot of people are poor? It's simply because they think poor.

Let me give you an example.

Jowaskakrevush Babalush is a call center agent whose salary is around $900 a month. Now Jowa (for short) likes drinking a lot and partying with the rich people. He spends $400-600 a month buying suits, expensive clothes, hot kicks, different gadgets, clubbing, drinking, bar-hopping, and even hotel-hopping. In return he knows a lot of rich people and has pictures of different actors and actresses and athletes with him. He’s quite popular in Facebook and other social media sites and always has friends who are envious of his achievements or shall we say “popularity”. Of course this is because he constantly posts pictures of everything he does. Jowa is almost quite happy with his life. However there are just some things that worry him every night when he comes home. He has bills to pay and on top of that he isn’t getting any younger.

Now there’s this taxi driver, Canor Menyakuenta, who earns around $400 a month. Canor likes eating noodles and drinking coffee (keeps him awake during working hours), talking to people, and reading the business section of the newspaper and almost anything financially related. He doesn’t buy expensive clothes because he knows that the moment you wore them you lose almost half its price. He also doesn’t have the newest gadgets because he knows there’s always something new coming up every month. Also because he doesn’t have all these appliances and gadgets, his bills are always low because he doesn’t need to buy blu-ray discs because he doesn’t have a blu-ray player, and he doesn’t have a player because he doesn’t have an HD-TV, and he doesn’t have an HD-TV because he doesn’t want to pay for the HD-channels he’s not interested in watching so he doesn’t have a cable as well. This makes his electricity bills below the average consumption. He is interested in something though; something where he puts the $300 that’s left after he paid the $100-house bills. He likes paying for his financial security (insurance etc. saves money in the bank only for emergency) and financial growth (buying stocks, expanding his house-rental business, and funding for another business). On top of that, Canor works 8-12 hours a day but in anytime of the day even at night giving him chances to speak to the customers in all walks of life, even people like Jowa and his rich friends thus giving him opportunities to talk about business while working, with pay.

Now, after 10 years, who do you think became rich? Is it Jowa or Canor? We both know the answer. After 10 years, Canor became a successful businessman owning three 5-door apartments and one taxi, with a passive income of $1900 for the apartments and $400 for the taxi giving him $2300 passive income. He still drives his taxi whenever he wanted to because he loves talking to people while making sure they get to where they want to go. Jowa on the other hand, is still a call center agent working at different schedules, hating his job everyday and looking for ways to relax – hanging out with his rich friends and spending money. He also acquired a new hobby, taking care of his cute little baby boy.

So, why are we poor? It’s not so much about the conditions that we have nor our lack of education, it is because of how we think. We are poor because we want to look rich. Little did we know that those rich people that we look up to are actually poor people too (they just have more money and they have someone to supply them with it). Poor people become poor because they think poor by trying to “look rich” - they only want to “look rich” instead of “become rich”.

Starting off: Getting to know some...

Hello! My name is Bryan, a freelance photographer and a full-time dish-washer (no kidding!). My interests are very broad just like everyone else. But also just like anyone else, I have at least top three things where I am genuinely interested in: Self-development, Jazz music, and History.

I think one of the reasons why I’ve created this noob blog is because of self-development. Writing has never been one of the things where I’m good at and I’m pretty sure this blog reflects that. I do like reading though. I like reading self-help books especially from Dale Carnegie. I think people need self-development at any point in time because it serves as guidelines or as others say “the right path”.  I’m always interested in things that would make me (and people in general) a better person. Now, I’d be happy to expand this and explain my point of view but I think it’s better to put up a different blog for that. You can expect it in the next few weeks.

Jazz music has never failed to make my day. I used to jog to the music of John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald. It’s a perfect music to listen to on a rainy day while drinking hot black coffee. Don’t get me wrong but I’m not a hardcore jazz fan. I’m even having difficulties remembering the titles of some of Miles Davis songs because they don’t include lyrics. I’m more of a “jazz explorer” – just starting out. The reason why I’m interested in this music is it always captures my attention especially when played at weird places. We normally hear this music at a coffee shop or in a fancy restaurant - nothing unusual there. But when I start hearing it in jeepneys (the most famous public transportation vehicle in the Philippines), rock clubs, or even wet markets, it just excites me and makes me stop and listen. Also I think it’s a genre that somehow divides or distinguishes its audience. Think of it as people who know how to read paintings than those who don’t, the former people have more of an “artistic side” than the latter.

I never really liked history. When I was a boy about 14, I used to hate reading history books. I always had this argument “Why read the past when it doesn’t have an impact on your future? And why memorize the dates?” which puts my grades below the belt. However, this changed when I started reading self-help books. As we all know, the best self-help books provide stories, true stories, of lives of people and usually all of these events happened in the past – 20 years ago or more. This made me like history not only because it tells or gives us an idea of where we came from, or what we can do about ourselves but more importantly it gives us the blueprint or an explanation of our present conditions. And ever since, I started reading things like autobiographies because I want to know how people achieved what they achieved in life.

And these three things completely define my current influences and my point of views in life. These influences impact my everyday life, how I decide, how I act, and how I reach my goals. I’ll be posting more about each of these interests of mine in a few days.

Random thoughts about traditional education

One thing I don't like about traditional education is that it limits my creativity. School tells you to be "afraid" to do mistakes. Students who commit less mistakes (by following exact instructions instead of thinking out of the box) are treated gods while exceptional dancers, musicians, and "true artists" are considered "low-level academic creatures".

People teach their children to "study hard, get good grades, and find a stable high paying job, with excellent benefits" (like Robert Kiyosaki once said but not agreed upon) not knowing that excellence in what you really want to do is the key to success (a very underrated way to get rich too), and not those damned formulas which you don't really use everyday. Don't get me wrong, I like maths. But when numbers bring me down...