Money won’t make you rich
I had two father, a rich one and a poor one. Both offer me advices, but not the same things – one of the rich man, and one of the poor man. The problem was, the rich man was not rich yet and the poor man not yet poor!* (“Rich Dad, Poor Dad” – Robert Kiyosaki)
Nowadays, people are highly obsessed with money and … money ($). With “How to make money”; “How to earn more, work less”; “Make money fast, get rich quick” and many, many more, MONEY has become a buzzword. Because of its high profile, money is also at the heart of many debates over the notions of wealth. “Will money make us rich?” is one of those…
@pen-olson.com by Sarah Chong |
Money is inherent in everyone’s life. We all want it. But will money really make us rich? Contrary to popular belief, the answer is probably and surprisingly NO. This article will go further and give you an intriguing point of view about the paradoxical question.
Although it’s a bit long, I hope you enjoy and benefit from it.
Rich!? Say it Right!
By convention ‘Rich’ means having a lot of money. The rich likewise are those who have a lot of money and properties. Truth be told, many so-called “rich people”, who earn and possess plenty of money, can’t stop working. Some even have to work harder! In contrast, many people who live “normal” lives enjoy doing what they love without working nor worrying about money. In other words, they’re financially independent! Are those two kinds of people different? Are those “rich” people whom we desire to become? Probably not.
Until now rich is always accompanied by money and money alone. Is it the time for us to give “rich” a better definition, a better name which doesn’t just sound right? Well, financial Freedom!? Why not? Who dare claim those with financial freedom don’t possess lots of money? If so, should a person have financial freedom first before being considered rich?
Keeping this in mind, money won’t make you rich. But the lack of money makes you poor!
Money is essentially important:
- Many people are dying of starvation in Africa because they can’t afford food and medical services.
- Many kids are growing up with low self-esteem because they don’t have what they deserve.
- Many marriages are broken because of stresses and arguments over the lack of money.
and many, many more examples…
Zig Ziglar once said “Money isn’t the most important thing in life, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale!” Yes, money is undoubtedly indispensable. But…
Money won’t make you rich
Many people are taught and believe that money will make them rich. That is the reason why they all go to school, getting good grades to go on to University; getting good grades to become doctors, lawyers and other professionals that will earn them a lot of money (have you well followed this path?). They think the more money they earn, the richer they become. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really work out that way. To illustrate, let’s me give you an example:
Let’s say, you income is ($) A. You also work part-time at night. So you multiply your income by 1.5 times. What’s more, you’re fortunately promoted for your hard working. Altogether all your income is 2*A.
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With money, girls are surely around you but… |
In such wonderful situation, would you think you will be become richer? – Probably. But in most of cases, you won’t. Why? Your income dramatically increases, but so do your taxes and expenses. You’re also likely to spend more money for your joys, your interests and much, much more. Still remember, the basic necessities’ costs (for food and clothing, etc.) would remain unchanged, if not increase as well. Hence, your cash flow would be:
Income (increases) – Taxes (increases) – Expenses [luxuries (very likely to increase) + necessities (unchanged/even likely to increase as well)]
At the end of the day, you may have nicer cars, bigger houses, impressive luxuries (with lots of beautiful girls/men around :D) and even become a bit richer for your very hard endeavours. But you know what? You have to keep working harder and harder because your taxes and expenses keep increasing more and more. In all likelihood you will continue to struggle for the rest of your life for money. Sure, money makes you comfortable but it won’t make you rich!!
Money won’t make you rich. The ability to mange money helps you rich instead!
Most of people fail to realize that in life, it’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you can manage that matters! (Robert Kiyosaki). Yes, money does make you “financially rich” but only in the short term (or even a moment)! And such a big amount of money doesn’t guarantee you wealthy for your whole life. You’ve probably heard of stories of lottery winners who are poor, then suddenly rich, then …poor again. They won millions and are soon back to where they started. There are also some other stories of several World Cup champions – notably, Nobbly Stiles and Alan Ball who sold their medals to “secure the future of my family”. Lamentably yet unsurprisingly, these guys have big problems in their cash flow management (what I mentioned a bit above) before they championed or won the lottery. And those problems were obviously never fixed. Hence, no matter one dollar, one thousand dollars or one million of dollars you have, if you don’t know how to manage it, you’ll lose it sooner or later… I love Harv Eker’s example given in his famous book, Secret of Millionaire Mind: “Saying “I’ll start managing my money as soon as I get caught up” is like an overweight person saying “I’ll start excersing and dieting as soon as I lose 20 pounds.” In essence, you will most likely never get rich unless you know how to manage your money!
By “managing money”, I mean what we do with our money – some choose to spend it all; some, save and some, invest. Although each of us may spend our money in many different ways, the average people without any financial intelligence apparently tend to spend almost all on their interests and other extravagance that would compensate for the hard work they’ve just spent to earn that money, which lamentably push them deeper into the “rat race”…
Personally I think earning money is hard but managing money is even harder.
Money won’t make you rich. Your “stupid emotion” and ignorance about money likewise make you not rich!
the fear
It’s the fear of not having enough money for paying bills, taxes, daily expenses, etc. that makes most of people working hard from day to day. The same fear makes them stressed all nights yet try waking up early to earn few bucks everyday. Some realize that hard and boring work, but keep working because of the same fear – the fear of not having enough money!! That old fear continues to scare them, make them stick to their work, hoping (in vain) that money will calm their fears. But it doesn’t! “Fear has them in this trap of working, earning money, working, earning money, again hoping the fear will go away. But everyday they get up, that old fear wakes up with them…” (Robert Kiyosaki). A vicious circle continues without ends. Their fears make money be running, controlling their lives. Thus if you continue to be afraid of money, you would become a slave to money.
… and greed
I tend to agree that “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works!.. ” (Gordon Gekko – Wall Street movie). But many people work it out in the wrong way. Instead of letting money work for them to achieve their greeds (dreams and ambitions), people work for money to satisfy their greeds. They desire money for the joy they think it can buy. Nonetheless, nothing money can buy lasts forever! In fact, the joy that money brings is often short-lived. As a result, they soon need more money for more joy, more pleasure, more comfort, more security. So they keep working, thinking money will satisfy their desires. But again it doesn’t! Money won’t make you rich nor satisfied. A friend of mine once asked me “what and when is enough?” And I have no answer to that difficult question. Nothing is definitely not enough. But “everything” may be still not enough.
Money, in short, will not solve our problems. And if you don’t first handle that fear and greed about money, once you somehow get rich, you’ll only be a high-paid slave of money – no more, no less! (Robert Kiyosaki) The examples keep coming around. I know a friend who keep working hard even though he has plenty. Additionally and amazingly, there are many so-called “rich people” actually living fearful lives. They did think that money could eliminate the fear of not having money, of being poor. Now they’re, albeit rich, terrified of losing it – losing their money, their cars, their houses, their luxuries.. Some are even more afraid and scared now than when they were poor, although they look rich and have plenty of money.
Basically Ignorance causes Fear. But in many cases, the reverse also holds true. It’s the “ancient fear” that makes many so-called “highly educated people” fall into the trap of “money emotion” that they may never be able to escape!
Conclusion
You may now have a lot or just very little of money. But the fact is that money itself won’t make you rich. The ability to manage money will make you rich instead. Knowing what to do with your money determines how hard it will work for you. With a strong financial literacy, just a little bit of money can work very hard for you. Otherwise, you have to work for it (because it’s very important). Once you work for money, it’s very hard for you to stop working for it! Do remember, the rich never work for money! (Robert Kiyosaki) Sunday Adelaja in his same-title-book also confirms that: “It is time for people everywhere to understand that money will not make us rich, and it will not make us happy. True prosperity will come when we know the laws of money and learn how to abide by them – You can control your money without letting it control you”…
Hopefully, after reading the article, you would say “I’ve big dreams and I’m chasing them” in lieu of “I’ve lots of desires and I’m chasing money” at the very least.
I’m really stoked that you’ve reached here. But it’s not the end yet…
True Prosperity comes in
Heath and Happiness are the keys to true success and prosperity
We’ve tried to give a better name for “rich”. How about prosperity? What’s true prosperity? Do prosperity simply mean rich? Well, as someone has said- and I tend to 100% agree that if you wanna be truly prosperous, you must be:
- Healthy
- Happy
- Wealthy
Two out of three are not bad (for many people, one is even enough!!). But true prosperity, I believe, takes all three!
“If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it” – John D. Rockefeller (the richest person in the history of mankind)
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* Most of the quotes cited above are paraphrased
* You can read its previous version here.
Rewrite some ideas/sentences; but I’m kinda amazed that I could write this article at that time (Review on March, 15, 12, April 14, 2013)