We are all wired, wired to follow, told what to say, when to say it and in what tone and here’s the danger of this… You can’t escape a prison if you’re unaware you are in one.
We have been educated and in a way, brainwashed to follow a system, save hard, live below your means, stay out of debt. All these messages have been provided to us by people in authority all our lives, your parents, guardians, school, higher education, in fact, the best and most prestigious universities in the world never actually educate you how to make money. We all live in a prison, a prison we have no knowledge about, the way you act, the things you say and the way you live your day to day life is what you have been conditioned to do.
But what if everything we have been told is all wrong? What if you begin to realise you’re living life locked away, confined to the system that your loved ones and authority figures have told you to lead? What if I could show you a way to change all this?
Let’s look at the save for a rainy day scenario, you work hard to save which incidentally means you are living within (if not below) your means so you’re living for the future which means the present is slipping right past you. It’s always about tomorrow, or next week or the month after that and you find yourself saying I WILL BE REALLY HAPPY when I achieve “X” or when I get that car or house but guess what? That house or car or financial freedom in most cases will never happen and can you guess why? Because you’ve been living within your means and after a period of time that’s all you know how to do what money you have been saving hard soon becomes your retirement fund because the pension that was promised to support you when you’re old hasn’t performed how you thought, so all that hard work and saving soon needs to be used just to get by. How many people do you know who actually saves and get what they want? I personally don’t know that many, but let me tell you what else happens… Your bank uses the money you have saved and invests it to return them huge profits and provides you a measly 2% return at the end of the year.
Let’s look at the don’t get into debt scenario. Debt has been talked about as a bad thing and for most people it is scary. Let me tell you something DEBT is your best friend but you have to be careful what kind of debt you get into. What you really want is to have lots and lots of good debt, this is debt that produces income for example if you have a £80,000 loan for a buy to let property and the debt costs £300 per month to service, but the rental property produces £550 of rent then you are cash flowing £250 every month. You only need to have 6 of these properties and your earning what most people in Sheffield earn from working hard 5/6 days a week all year long. Sure almost half a million pound of debt sounds scary but only because all your life you have been told to not get into debt. What you don’t want is BAD DEBT, this is when you buy a TV on a credit card or a loan to purchase a new kitchen or holiday. This takes money out of your pocket and never puts anything back into it, in fact, the only thing bad debt does is make you work harder for longer hours.
Which leads me on to the final point I want to mention today WORKING HARD. Nobody wants to work hard, especially me. Working hard causes stress, family problems and generally leaves you feeling unhappy with the life you lead. If I asked you to be honest right now answer the following question “ARE YOU 100% HAPPY WITH YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW?” How many of you would answer “YES?” Truth be told you are 100% happy with your life because if you weren’t you would do something to change it, you wouldn’t work as hard, you would save for another day, you wouldn’t wish you could have the things you dream of. We have been told all our life work hard and you will lead a successful life, get a good job and climb the ladder to a long-lasting career. But let me tell you working for money is the worst possible way to earn money, in fact I have heard many times that JOB is an acronym for “Just Over Broke” and for most people, this is very true. You should work for satisfaction, you exchange your services for money.
Which brings me to close this blog for today, we are all living in a prison and we have no way of escaping it until you actually realise you’re in one.