When you read an exciting book, you only highlight the parts and lines that inspire you while you skim through areas you don’t find appealing or disagree with. Similarly, you only take note of a few insightful words from influential people while discarding things you disagree with.
The case isn’t different when dealing with people you consider nuts or dumb. We all tend to completely shut out what these people say, which is understandable. After all, we are a product of the information we expose ourselves to.
But there is always that rare occasion where someone we consider a nutjob makes a lot of sense. It might be an offhand remark, a point of view, or an observation they make- but somehow, it just makes so much sense.
I had one such experience with someone I consider a nutjob. And frankly, thanks to him, what he said set me on a part to work on my finances. This and other similar things are what I have discussed in this article.
A NutJob And His Amazing Observation
It was the fall of 2007, and I visited this fellow who was a friend of my friend. He was too talkative, fat, dusky, and short. He was all over the place and seemed to have opinions about any things. And then, out of nowhere, he suddenly yelled out to me,' You can't be a crorepati" ( 10 Million Indian Rupees) with your salary.
“We all will die poor, and our salary is nothing but a dime,” this man continued. Mind you, this fellow knew anything about investment, and if he knew, he would probably have rubbed it at our noses, as he knew we were all struggling.
This man’s statement was accurate and scary all at once. I calculated and found out that with my current yearly gross, it would take me 25 years to become a millionaire, and that is without removing taxes and monthly charges. I figured out that I would never achieve that goal with my take-home salary. This was a harsh but actual fact. And most people never accept it.
So I asked myself a rather profound question, do I want to retire rich or poor? Of course, nobody wants to. But according to research, 90% of Indians will retire poor. This means even though nobody wants to retire broke; most people are not ready to do anything about it.
But for the few who want to, they often do not know how to.
How To Get The Things On Track
We always expect miracles while forgetting to do the basic things in our lives. When changing your financial status, we rely more on gurus who promise quick gain and seemingly low-risk but high-profit investment.
The good news is anyone can improve their lives financially. I realized that I had to improve my financial condition. I was wasting more money than I was earning. I never had money in my bank account after a few days of getting my salary.
I was in debt; I smoked a pack of cigarettes and drank daily. To say my future was bleak. And unfortunately, this is the same for most people. They live in a world they created, one that is self-destructive.
So, how do you set yourself up to retire wealthy? How do you become an investor and get the most from whatever you earn ( earning more is not the only criteria to become rich by investing)? Let’s see.
Take Responsibility
Many need help to sort out their issues because they can easily link their financial woes to other noticeable issues, like low minimum wage, inflation, or unemployment. Even though this attitude is inexcusable, it is entirely normal.
According to the Book” Introducing Evolutionary Psychology: A Graphic Guide,” a terrible occurrence happened in Italy in the 1980s. People were dying, and there was no apparent cause. There was a daily record of 121 deaths per day.
The Government and other observers were clueless and could not determine the cause of death. They concluded that the cause of that death was poisonous olive oil which everybody was eating daily.
But was it olive oil that caused so many deaths? Of course not. It became apparent it was easy to link the death of people with poisonous olive oil simply.
But in actuality, further studies suggested that pesticides contaminated potatoes caused those deaths. So, people were dying because of the mistake of others. Going back to the basics and looking at farming processes solved the problem.
And this happens all the time in our lives. If our investments fail, we blame the stock market, not our decisions. Instead of taking responsibility, we gaslight. We should ask ourselves the right questions.
Did we do our homework before investing?
Did we know anything about the company we invested in?
Or did we invest because we got a hot tip from someone?
Similarly, If I am not getting paid well, I have two options, I can blame my employer or, better yet, find another high-paying job or get more skills to increase the value I offer, increasing my income.
Listen To Expert
There's a place for being receptive and seeking great advice to build your life. However, most people's problem is the inability to identify “great advice.”
So, what is excellent advice?
Great advice comes from an experienced and successful person. This person’s success must be verifiable and transparent.
So, If I have to improve my financial life, I need to follow the advice of someone who is financially doing better than me. This is the person whom I want to imitate.
How many people follow the advice of experts? Why are people not buying when everyone is selling and selling when everyone is buying, as the great Warren Buffet advised?
Ironically, more people do the exact opposite. The biggest reason people lose money in the stock market is that they instead follow the advice of quacks—the hot tips of so-called financial gurus.
The primary reason most people ignore experts' advice is true experts teach the truth. And one fundamental truth about financial success is that it takes time. All financial experts agree that the earlier you start investing, the better. I discussed the power of investing earlier in your career in this article.
Conclusion
In the end, our financial success lies in our hands. There are things we can do and must do if we want to be ever successful. We should focus on these rather than a million things beyond our control.
How do you intend to take care of your financial life, don't forget to share?