Why are you not rich?

[Dusty]

What is the B.S. story you've been telling yourself?

I'm not rich because I tell myself money is hard to make. Money is always "out there" and not here and now.

With everything we want in life, we must be a vibrational match for it (LoA)

I'm asking all of you what stories you are carrying around that are preventing you from enjoying a life with financial abundance. Maybe some of your stories will trigger some of my blockages that I'm not aware of.

So who would like to go first?

[Dusty]

I have a better question... why do you want to be rich in the first place?

For me, it was to enjoy security, never having to work for anyone else, enjoying all the fun toys (cars, yachts, vacations, etc etc) The main reason for me right now is security.

Money doesn't equal security though... because when you have it, you'll always be concerned about guarding it.

The only security I can see is surrender. Cool. Another layer peeled.

[Plato]

We're all rich. We just forget it every now and then.

[TheIronStar]

Originally Posted by Dusty

Why are you not rich?

I could question this with the counter-question of "What is your definition of rich?", but I don't feel like doing that right now. Any positional definition will soon reduce the answer to this question to basic mathematics.

I'm not rich because I haven't learned how to identify any opportunities of significant magnitude. They obviously don't teach that skill in schools, and even for most people it results in a trial and error sequence that not everyone successfully completes.

I often ask myself similar questions, along the lines of "I was a tech-ish kind of guy most of my life. Why can't I figure out a way to become an internet millionaire?", or even something on a less grand scale ("Why can't I come up with something that makes me money equal to, say, apartment rent in a "global superstar city", and have it working in the background as I do something else during my days?") or the like. But I haven't a clue how to identify highly profitable niches and gain advantage in them of any worthwhile scale, let alone of the scale that makes one rich.

Originally Posted by Dusty

What is the B.S. story you've been telling yourself?

I'm not rich because I tell myself money is hard to make. Money is always "out there" and not here and now.

I feel you. I'm no different; in fact, sometimes I'm even more scared because I don't even know if I'll be able to arrange to have money when "out there" becomes here and now (e.g. the farce that most retirement planning seems to have become).

What gets to me is that beyond a certain level of income (which isn't rich by most people's standards), the paths to the next socioeconomic stratum become more and more nebulous and/or low-percentage; it's not really certain what path in life will truly have a high probability of making one, say, a multimillionaire in today's real terms.

Therefore, oftentimes I just don't really know what to do next, or even first. I'm unable to formulate a plan of any kind towards becoming rich.

Originally Posted by Dusty

With everything we want in life, we must be a vibrational match for it (LoA)

I'm not a fan of "LoA". Positive thinking is good, but it certainly has its limits.

What happened when I followed The Secret's advice for two months. - By Emily Yoffe - Slate Magazine

Boxing and The Law of Attraction

Those aren't new, but still quite relevant on this board which still seems to be hung up on the "Law of Attraction" hokum.

[The David]

I don't want to be.

I want to be independent and financially resourceful, but I never want to be so wealthy that I stop looking at the ground and finding cool stuff. (I found a $50 bill in a field on the way back from Wal-Mart last month! )

[Cosine Jeremiah]

Originally Posted by TheIronStar

I'm not a fan of "LoA". Positive thinking is good, but it certainly has its limits.

What happened when I followed The Secret's advice for two months. - By Emily Yoffe - Slate Magazine

Boxing and The Law of Attraction

Those aren't new, but still quite relevant on this board which still seems to be hung up on the "Law of Attraction" hokum.

Having just read both articles linked above for the first time today, I see no evidence for or against the Law of Attraction there. They just describe some events that happened and the authors' own theories on how the Law of Attraction was involved or disproved.

The Law of Attraction is very real, but people that do not understand arithmetic are not authoritative on the topic of calculus. In particular, people frame their idea of the Law of Attraction into their own belief system--it is impossible for it to be any other way--and the most common result is a lot of confusion until the belief system sufficiently expands to accommodate how things actually work.

[MartialDev]

Originally Posted by Cosine Jeremiah

Having just read both articles linked above for the first time today, I see no evidence for or against the Law of Attraction there. They just describe some events that happened and the authors' own theories on how the Law of Attraction was involved or disproved.

And what, hypothetically speaking, would you consider to be conclusive evidence against the Law of Attraction?

If no such evidence can exist, that would not signify the truth of the Law. Actually, that would illustrate its utter lack of value.

[Cosine Jeremiah]

Originally Posted by MartialDev

If no such evidence can exist, that would not signify the truth of the Law. Actually, that would illustrate its utter lack of value.

What is the connection between the ability to prove something and its value?

Zero.

Those that artificially assign such a connection are just prone to throwing out babies with bathwater.

[MartialDev]

Originally Posted by Cosine Jeremiah

What is the connection between the ability to prove something and its value?

Meaning (linguistics) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Falsifiability - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tautology (logic) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Enjoy!

[funchy]

Define "rich" ? High income? High assets? Or lots of power and influence?

I define rich as having everything one needs in their life -- which doesn't always require money. I can be happy without $ millions.

[TheIronStar]

Originally Posted by funchy

Define "rich" ? High income? High assets? Or lots of power and influence?

I define rich as having everything one needs in their life -- which doesn't always require money. I can be happy without $ millions.

Yeah, as I had also mentioned, the thread doesn't really come up with a definition for what constitutes being "rich".

If one takes a positional view (e.g. being "rich" is being in the top x percentile of income or assets or the like within or as compared to a given population), then the reason why some are rich and others not is simple mathematics; in anything, only 50% of us can be above median, and only ten can be in the top 10.

Personally, I'd want to have money on the order of millions of USD in my future (several millions in today's real terms) at least for when I retire in my older age (regardless of whether my retirement turns out to be voluntary or not). I'm finding that it's harder to calculate what would be required to have any given specific standard of living in the future in a post-Medicare, post-Social-Security, etc. world than one might think, especially when assumptions about predictions about asset returns are thrown away.

Not like I have a clue about high-percentage tactics to reach such a goal, though. That's definitely one reason why I'm not anywhere near even my first million so far.

[Andrew Brunelle]

I'm not rich because I choose not to be rich. When you're rich, it's harder to connect to the common man. Most rich people look down on poor people as sheep, as a lower form of being than them. Just because they don't have as many pieces of green paper as they do. I have no problem being rich myself, however because I wouldn't really change my life so much. I probably wouldn't spend much more than I do now.

If I can make money doing what I love, then I will. I'm not going to sell out though. I'm not going to do whatever it takes to get money. If I spend my life doing what I love, what does it matter if I have a large bank account?

Money is like a game. Some people view it like a competition, to see who can have the most. Money changes people. They act like everyone should be living the way they are, with six plasma TVs and four computers in one household for two people. They benefit greatly from the exploitation of third world countries where a teenager is paid 15 cents an hour to put together your television and/or computers. And don't tell me that these people are being voluntarily exploited. They have no other option where they are. The ideas presented on this blog or of any self-improvement courses are out of reach. Their options are either work or starve to death and they're kept thinking that way.

I know when most people dream of being rich, they dream of all the stuff they can accumulate and all the vacations they can go on, using the lower rung of society as their servants. Most rich people don't even know how to change their own oil or grow their own food. They are dependent on the lower class for survival, especially those exploited in third world countries.

When you buy a piece of fruit, realize the exploited worker who had to spend 10 hours in the hot sun or starve to death. Most rich people are consuming machines. If I want to become rich, I won't ever become one of those people.

When Steve dropped his Adsense ads, I was happy for him. When he wrote how he doesn't care about money anymore, I was happier. When he said he wasn't into material possessions, I was ecstatic. It's not about the money. It's about the value you provide. It's too close-minded to say, "Why aren't you rich? Stop B.S.ing yourself." Money is nice to have, but never essential to have your dreams come true.

[TheIronStar]

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

Money is like a game. Some people view it like a competition, to see who can have the most. Money changes people. They act like everyone should be living the way they are, with six plasma TVs and four computers in one household for two people. They benefit greatly from the exploitation of third world countries where a teenager is paid 15 cents an hour to put together your television and/or computers.

It's not that simple. It's not that only the rich or those changed by greed are those who are beneficiaries of third-world labor. Even those of modest first- or second-world means pay less for manufactured goods or the like. For that matter, the computer one is typing on very well may have been manufactured in second- or third-world Asia for a fraction of what it would cost to do so in a first-world country.

Some people in this world have asked themselves how much of what they utilize is "Made in China" or some other such country.

[TheIronStar]

Originally Posted by Dusty

I have a better question... why do you want to be rich in the first place?

For me, it was to enjoy security, never having to work for anyone else, enjoying all the fun toys (cars, yachts, vacations, etc etc) The main reason for me right now is security.

All right, here's one answer to the better question:

I'm pretty much in agreement with you here. I hope to become quite rich in my future, basically in order to eventually be freed from money worries (and, which may very well be related to money worries for us all later in life, health care worries), and to be able to enjoy some things in life (living in desirable areas in desirable housing, vacations, some types of hobbies and experiences, even some personal vanities, etc.)

Originally Posted by Dusty

Money doesn't equal security though... because when you have it, you'll always be concerned about guarding it.

I think we should ask the questions of "what sorts of security?" and "security from what?".

Security from further money problems and from possible spiraling caused by, say, an immediate unexpected problem requiring cash or the like, such as a car breakdown, personal emergency, or the like? Security from worry about that sort of thing? Or being able to buy one's own physical security by being able to afford living in a safer neighborhood? Or some other form of security? (My education cost a lot of money; as a result of having had it, I was able to be employable in a field where the labor is not hazardous [computer programming], for an example.)

I'd say that generally the problem of guarding money is a better problem to have than not having money, though.

[saif]

I think the reason I am not rich is down to mainly my procrastination.

I don't know why people have to choose between being rich and being a good person. Who says just because you're rich you also have to be stupid and/or ignorant. Also I cant understand why some people say having money is not everything and wake up the next morning working for money. Having money gives you more chance to do effective charity work.

[MisterEThoughts]

This is a great thread! Thank you for starting this.

[cnwoods]

I am rich.

• I live in a free country
• I have a job
• I have running water at the flick of a tap
• I have my own place to live and sleep
• I'm surrounded by amazing people
• I have a connection to the world via my computer
• Anything I want is there for me to reach out and claim

Doesn't mean I don't want to be richer, just because it'll show that I've 'got it' and am getting higher scores in the game of life.

[alexplatups]

Why are you not rich?

imo...most people are not rich...who really want to be rich...of course...because

#1 reason = not using a slow approach to building wealth, instead, believing
in get rich quick schemes, or once you build some momentum, taking risks
believing that if you succeeded on a small level = that you can succeed on
a big level also

...and reality shows time and time that this is the exception, not the norm

later

Alex Platups

[rosesmith]

Getting rich requires a lot of specialized knowledge and skill, yet I see people who claim that they want to get rich and have never spent a single day of study on how to do that. When I quiz them on why this is they tell me that those courses are so expensive.

Just how rich are you planning to get? If you don’t think that you are going to earn back the money for a course or two then your financial ambitions must be at rock bottom.

It is amazing to think that an otherwise intelligent person can stay broke year after year and never work out that investing a few thousand dollars in the right type of education could be the best investment of their life. I couldn’t afford the wealth education when I stated out but I did what it took to raise the money to get the education.