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”.
