Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.~ Arnold Schwarzenegger
One major struggle many families have is money. Somehow, no matter how much we make we never seem to have enough of it. Whether we are just starting our or are working parents, or retirees we are always grasping for more. We burn ourselves out slaving for the next promotion, putting in longer hours, working, working, working. If you want to walk the high road to financial freedom, the first point should be clear. Repeating the behavior of those around you will make you exactly like them. This could be for better or for worse. For many, it is for worse. They have soaring credit card debt and they do not know how to pay it back. They have to work long hours just to make ends meet. So choose your friends wisely.
Here, are a few points of collected wisdom that should help point you to the path to success and happiness.
Work Smarter Not Harder
Many people attribute success to sheer effort. Billionaire Warren Buffett disagrees. Buffett believes a lot of his success can be attributed to just taking a breather to think more frequently than his colleagues. In 2016, Warren Buffett made over $32 million PER DAY … EVERY DAY of the year! That’s almost $12 BILLION. Does Buffett work that much harder than the average coal miner in West Virginia making $55,000/yr.? Of course not. The reason that Buffett is paid more is because he has specialized knowledge and has used that knowledge developing streams of passive income. Pay is not proportional to work effort. If that was true, the most laborious and busy professions (think fishing, logging, or construction) should be paid the most. But they aren’t. Believe it or not, many average Americans earn a higher salary than Warren Buffett. His actual salary is only $100,000/yr. Buffet didn’t get rich being paid by the hour, he gets richer every year because his investment increase in value. His money works for him and compounds itself.
Live Below Your Means
This requires humility. Living below your means hurts. You have to settle for the normal used car lot when your friends are piling into the Lexus dealership. Several years later, your reliable import is not costing you a dime but your friends are still making huge payments on their highly depreciated luxury vehicles. Buying low is merely being flexible with the value of your purchase. You decide what is essential. You remove what is not. Once again Buffett is the perfect example. The average person spends about 2 years salary on a house (and takes 30 years to pay it off). So Buffett could easily spend one year’s earnings on a new house and never miss it (that’s $12 Billion remember?). But he doesn’t. Why?
Warren Buffett bought his house in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1958 for $31,500. or about $250,000 in today’s dollars (when adjusted for inflation). He has added a bit to the original 1921 stucco structure over the years as many homeowners do and so it is now 6,570 square feet, but it’s still a few thousand square feet short of being a mansion, which is usually considered to be about 10,000 square feet. The current tax assessment on his house at 5505 Farnam Street is $706,400 i.e. considerably less than $1 million or about the amount Buffett makes while eating lunch.
Get Good Advice
If you’re not as good with money as Buffett and don’t have the expertise or experience to handle your money find someone who does have the expertise. The experts at Family Financial Partners say that “professional management of your finances is the driving force behind long-term financial stability.” And “Your hard earned assets exist to provide a safety net and income for the rest of your life, and if you wish, an income stream for generations to come.”
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