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You Can Stop Worrying About Money and Here is a Hint: You Do Not Need a Rich Daddy

 

Do you wish you could stop worrying about money all the time?

Do you go to having palpitations, thinking that there are two weeks to the end of the month and money for one week of groceries in your bank account?

Do you wake up before sunset, covered in a cold sweat, thinking about your mortgage?

Life is hard, I know. It is tough now when a health threat keeps us in our houses, many of us furloughed from our jobs. (I am not furloughed. I work on-line. I don’t have children to home-school yet…There are days when a wave of misery and desperation high enough to challenge top surfers washes over me. I can just imagine how hard it is for you if your job is threatened and your children study at home.)

Despite the hardship, I believe that what we do about our lives and our money is up to us. We can choose to worry about money or decide to keep a cool head and get on with life as it is.

A couple of years back, I decide on the latter – I chose not to worry about money at all. As is my habit, I wrote about it and shared exactly what I did to stop worrying about money (you can read about how to stop worrying about money here).

It is one of the top articles on The Money Principle during the Covid pandemic.

Today, I’m not going to rehash what I already said – you can go and read it.

I will respond to a comment on my article – not because I feel the need to defend myself. No.

Quite the opposite. I believe that my mission is to provoke people to start thinking for themselves. Hence, receiving critical comments means that I have done an excellent job!

The comment I would analyse is different. It is an example of a very particular way of thinking, and I thought it might be helpful to show you what it is and how to change it (if you wish to do so, naturally).

Let’s start. Here is the entire comment:

“Nothing new here. What if you are in a job that does not allow you to pay off debt or build investments or build income (I mean, come on, how many people per hundred have the option to build income or play the wheel of fortune and risk investment). In the real world, income is entirely reliant on what job we can get, and there’s no such thing as negotiating a wage rise for the vast majority of us – we take what we are given, and that’s usually not far off the minimum. This article reads like a middle-class housewife who is contemplating going to work because she is bored of being a housewife and not strapped for cash by the third week of each month. Build investments – wow, I must go see Daddy in his big mansion for some investment chips and work on a proposal to take back the company. Absolute tripe waste of time article. One other thing. Would you please get to the point?”

Now, let us look closer at the statements.

Nothing new here.

worrying about money

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Well, you could read the article and judge for yourself. And usually, when I write, I tell a story, share wisdom, inspire and entertain. I don’t set out to astound the world.

What if you are in a job that does not allow you to pay off debt or build investments or build income (I mean, come on, how many people per hundred have the option to build income or play the wheel of fortune and risk investment).

I believe that anyone has the option to build income (and to increase their income). You don’t need to be a highly-skilled maverick – you just need to think of doing something that contributes value to other people’s lives.

I was talking to someone who gardens for other people. He has been making a decent income for decades and, he told me, it is entirely up to him to increase his income. You just must stop thinking about ‘jobs’ and start thinking about ‘work’. You can clean, cook, mend appliances, and collect rubbish.

As Muhammad Ali said, if he were not the best boxer in the world, he would have been the best rubbish collector in the world.

Most people don’t have the option to build income because they think about it the wrong way and accept that they can’t.

As to the ‘wheel of fortune’, investing is very far from it; and not a trivial thing to do. I’d accept that the commentator is correct here – not everyone can do that.

In the real world, income is entirely reliant on what job we can get, and there’s no such thing as negotiating a wage rise for the vast majority of us – we take what we are given, and that’s usually not far off the minimum.

Wrong – see my previous comment.

Furthermore, you can always upscale your skills, learn new skills and competencies, and change jobs.

Learn how to spot opportunities and question that status quo – if you wish to change your situation, examine the conditions for it and think about changing them.

This article reads like a middle-class housewife who is contemplating going to work because she is bored of being a housewife and not strapped for cash by the third week of each month.

Okay, friends. I am many things.

A stuck-up bitch? Maybe.

High Asperger’s scorer who doesn’t do feelings? Yes.

But a ‘middle-class housewife’ I am not.

My readers know that I have been the sole breadwinner for close to twenty years. My ingenuity helped us pay off a massive debt in a very short time and build a sizable investment portfolio (all in seven years).

I have not been strapped for cash by the third week of the month recently, but this is because I worked very hard to change my circumstances.,

There!

“…wow, I must go see Daddy in his big mansion for some investment chips and work on a proposal to take back the company…”

This is absolute rubbish, and you all know it. You don’t need a rich Daddy to build wealth (I certainly didn’t have a rich Daddy though he did invest in my education).

It is merely that this person needed to offload a bit of angst, I believe.

Still, this statement indicates an interesting way of thinking where building wealth is not a consequence of your skills, initiative, and grit but is inherited. Or you win the lottery.

(Now, you know what I think about that, don’t you?)

Absolute tripe waste of time article.

worrying about money

Photo by todd kent on Unsplash

There is so much anger in this statement; it chills me through.

My article may be ‘tripe’, may not be – you be the judge.

One other thing. Would you please get to the point?

Fair enough. I’m a woman of the word – sometimes too many words.

I enjoy words, though, so just be patient with me.

What do you think?

Do you share these beliefs about opportunities?

Photo by Nik Shuliahin on Unsplash

2 thoughts on “You Can Stop Worrying About Money and Here is a Hint: You Do Not Need a Rich Daddy”

  1. I’m not as hard on the commenter as you are because there are many people who have not found a way to exploit their native talents in a way that makes a living wage. And life is tough if the minimum amount of money it takes to exist is just out of reach. However it is just as likely that this pessimistic person spends more than they need to and earns less than they could because they never put the kind of effort into planning a career or business that could make them more than enough money. I was already planning my technical career in my early teens into a field that was almost certainly going to make me rich if I stayed reasonably frugal. I doubt this person did that. But then again I had the border line freakish intelligence and reasoning skills he probably lacks. Not everyone finds talents they can monetize. And just because you and I did doesn’t mean we are the norm, we might be the exceptions? I have a hard time judging the commenter because that may be his reality. I applaud your success but I wonder if there aren’t a dozen other “you’s” out there who tried just as hard as you did but just ran into one closed door after another. Its very hard to get reliable data on something like this. I know that there were several times I had two paths to choose from and had I taken the other one I wouldn’t be here with no money worries. I attribute an awful lot of my success to pure luck. The original and this post are both extremely thought provoking, great writing and great thoughts!

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  2. @Steveark: Thanks for that – I like a long, thoughtful comment. Maybe, I didn’t make something clear. I agree that for many people what the commentator mentions is their life and this is not what I judge. What strikes me is the closed thinking – this can never be done – which is the basis of the comment. I was also taken aback, by the (mild) aggression and offensiveness – when someone tells me they did something, I listen, assess, and respectfully make a decision. How can you get inspired when you disdain what others have achieved?

    A set of interesting issues to discuss, I think. (Oh, and agree that a lot of success is luck – e.g. be where opportunity is and be ready for it.)

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