Corporate Welfare

[DaVinci 0]

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When in poverty every single decision you take must be the right one - you cannot afford to make a single mistake.

Nonsense, my parents were poor when I was growing up. My parents made bad financial choices. After my Dad starting making good money.... They still made bad choices and my Dad died poor (I had to pay for the funeral). My Mom? She died poor as well, but she was living off of my Grandfathers money and it paid for her burial.

And I made PLENTY of bad financial choices. I bought skydives on credit, gear on credit, went to boogies on credit. Bought new cars... Etc.

And yet, I am not poor today. Some would consider me 'wealthy'. I have more toys than I can play with and investments that make me money. In 5 years I should have my first million in liquid assets.

It is about choices and making good ones, not 'fun' ones.

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For instance you get a job offer but have to pay to relocate or get a car. You do not have the immediate money to do either. What do you do?

Find another job that requires neither. I have moved several times in my life. Most times, I sell everything I can't fit into a trailer and move. Owning lots of 'stuff' means that stuff owns you.

Every day you have a choice. You can make crappy decisions and stay in the same rut you are in right now. This is what most people do. They blame everyone and everything for WHY they do stupid things, but in the end THEY make the choice. Or, you can make smarter choices.

For example, my car I just bragged about. Well, this weekend it went into the shop. Just taking apart the engine to look at the problem will be 721 dollars. But since I have not made a car payment in over 5 years I have a fund that is over 30K dollars sitting aside waiting for these kinds of emergencies (500/mth X 12 X 5). If the repair is too high, I'll just continue to drive it while I look for a 'new' used car and trade it in..... Saving 500 dollars a month instead of paying for a new car has given me LOTS of freedom. I have ZERO debt other than my house and I bought MUCH less house than I can afford.

My wife and I both work, but we have budgeted our lifestyle that we could live on only one of our salaries. No car debt (1000/mth positive), no credit card bills, smaller house than we could of afforded (2000/mth positive)... and on and on. Others bought the 400K dollar house and are driving two new BWM's. They made different choices. When these couples ask how we can afford to travel the world.... I point at the new shiny BMW's in their driveway, and our nice, but older cars in the street.

You can blame everything around you, or you can decide that YOU decide how to spend your money.

The biggest reason people are poor, they make bad choices and those choices are often because they do not feel they can do anything about it.... So they buy the new smart phone as soon as it comes out (I have a 4S), they buy a new car (2006), and they spend money on alcohol and 'fun'.

They talk themselves into helplessness.

The biggest problem is education. People never learn they can make better choices. Even if they never 'move up to the big leagues', they can still do better by making better choices.