The long road to riches
My own journey to riches was long and arduous. When I was 29 years old, I set the goal of retiring early at 45. It took me four years longer than the set goal and when I stopped working I was very afraid that I had made an irreversible mistake. I left a good career and moved from the big city to an economic haven. There were no jobs in my experience in the area I moved to, so changing your mind about the entire company would be like changing your destination at sea in a leaky boat.
I got rich by doing essentially two things: going back to school and starting a career in a field that was in high demand, and then developing an incredibly cheap monastic lifestyle, forgoing the luxuries that most people in developed economies afford. for granted. Initially, the difference between my low living expenses and my higher-than-average salary in a new career was faithfully invested at every opportunity in low-risk, low-yield current investments. Finally, I developed a modest level of investing skill. On average, I estimate that I got 10-12% pre-tax returns each year.
That average is better than you can expect from most professional financial advisers or mutual funds. With each passing year and increasing leverage, one begins to learn to invest safely, just like one learns to drive a car, taking only acceptable risks and not driving off a cliff in Monaco in a hair twist.
I see ads everywhere for people to buy products or books that tell how you can make money almost overnight. They’re selling a get-rich-quick premise, boldly stating that if you buy their product, you’re virtually guaranteed to get rich beyond your wildest dreams. Buy our software, you will choose winning stocks as if by magic. Buy my advice letter, I made 1.013% in one year, and you can too. What these folks are whipping is a dream: a money-for-nothing scheme that only requires you to step out of the paradigm long enough to see yourself in fabulous wealth, all available if only you think it can happen to you. If you buy these dreams, what you want is something for nothing, and it is probably because you believe that people with money got rich by using a scheme. You believe in the underlying dishonesty of the scheme and you intend to get it right, leaving all those other suckers in the dust as you quickly walk away from the exchange with a suitcase full of money.
On How I became a millionaire I talk about my journey in a biographical way because what led me to my goals, I feel, were my values. I learned about life from the wrong parents and friends with the wrong values and had to make a lot of adjustments to my thinking as a young adult before I began to be successful. There is no money at all, sorry, I just work hard. Get up at six, make a brick, sell a brick, a ten cent net profit, repeat. Accumulate and invest. I’m pushing the novel idea that wealth arises when you decide to give more than you get when it comes to a transaction, that added value brings counterparty satisfaction and thus a satisfied employer or customer. I sell the idea that there is no quick plan, no magic formula for stock selection, just honesty, self-denial, willpower, and character.
Self-denial is a big part of the discussion because even if you make a million dollars a year, there are many ways to spend it. Most professional athletes who earn huge salaries at a young age retire in their thirties practically bankrupt because they never learned how to manage their money. Self-denial has to happen then, no matter how much you earn! Whether you make a hundred thousand a year and really want that Porsche or you make 35,000 a year and really want that new Honda, it’s all the same regardless of who you are; you must deny yourself what you want and limit your purchases to what you need. If you’re making 35,000 a year and you really want a Porsche, well, you’re in trouble. Maybe you should read Dr. Phil!
To achieve self-denial and still feel good about yourself as a human being, you must learn to become cynical, because every commercial on television, every magazine ad, every billboard you see will work to undermine your goals. You want to retire at age 50 or younger, but if they have their way with your psyche, you will work into your 90s. Advertisers are aiming to get you to substitute what you NEED for what you WANT. Once they make you want a product, it is a safe bet that you will become a customer. That subversion of your needs for your wants is counterproductive to your goal of achieving enough wealth to retire early, so you will have to learn to identify your techniques. Some of them, the dirty scoundrels, will even use your sexuality against you; they have hired expert psychologists to delve into his brain.
How they did it? Some are very subtle behaviors and, in my opinion, reprehensible. Product placement in movies and TV shows is everywhere today, but what if an entire segment of a business show were dedicated to connecting a product? What would you say to that? Would you believe that a high-tech smartphone manufacturer would buy a segment of a business reporting program to include their product in what appears to be a legitimate news report? They showed rows of people struggling to pay $ 500 for a smartphone, pushing each other to become the first to own one, creating an alignment mindset for the faint-minded. I can guarantee that none of those people who stand in line in front of a store at midnight and struggle to have a smartphone have control over their finances. If this is you, I apologize, please go back to my comment on Dr. Phil.
Truth be told, most people who want to be rich need a psychoanalyst rather than good stock picking software or an instruction book, because actually getting rich independently is more about changing your mind. than any other factor. I wrote the book as a guide for young people who struggle in life due to a series of wrong principles passed down to them by their parents and peers. I know the story well, I was one. The goal of becoming a well-off person must be based on the need for self-actualization above all else. The need to define the purpose your life is supposed to serve should come up before setting financial goals. It will give you the foundation for all your future suffering, self-denial, and ego hits when those closest to you question your behavior. Since you have given yourself the ultimate goal of the meaning of your life, you will not feel the need to justify yourself to others.
Only weak people feel that need. Let them buy the mountains of consumer goods that prevent them from retreating from the rat race and getting on with what they really want to do with their lives. The sad reality is that most people don’t have a personal fulfillment goal. And without a clear goal in life, how will you know if you have reached it? If your goal is to impress people with what you can buy or how much money you have accumulated, you can do it, but unfortunately only idiots will be impressed by you! You need a supreme goal that is above all that, and divine in purpose, that gives your life and others in it some meaning and joy. When you have that goal of self-fulfillment, it gives you the strength you need to live a life of deprivation and hard work that leads you to achieve your goals in happiness.
The money you accumulate will help you do what you really want to do with your time on Earth, and simply working toward that goal will make you feel satisfied and fulfilled. Your Gross National Happiness will skyrocket no matter what stage you are in on the project, whether you are in school starting your new career or retired and volunteering for those in need. You will even be happy when you deny yourself something, knowing that you will reach your goals sooner. Other people may be impressed with you and your accomplishments, but in the end, their opinion is low. In the final analysis, you just have to feel satisfied with what you have done with your time, which is really the only resource you have been given to exchange for the things you want in life.