News and articles that the United States has accelerated its money printing (also known as “quantitative easing”) made the headlines last year. The money printed in the last 200 years only amounts to 20% and about 80% of the money that is circulating right now in the U.S. economy was only printed in the last two years. This crazy injection of trillions out of thin air drove US Inflation into a 40-year high.
The US Federal Reserve’s addiction to quantitative easing has fueled inequality, widening the gap between the rich and poor. At the time of writing, the stock market, Forex, and cryptocurrency space are hitting record highs, keeping the party going for Wall Street, while the wages that an average-earner receives are the same.
Having too much money in the economy isn’t a good thing. If you think that doesn’t matter that much, then you probably haven’t heard the lightning that strike Zimbabwe back in 2006.
In 2006, the government of Zimbabwe has printed so much currency to the point that their currency became obsolete that a trillion-dollar banknote couldn’t buy a person a loaf of bread. Similar to Zimbabwe, German also suffered hyperinflation back in the 1920s.
Now, what are we trying to point out here? Simple — money has its own set of rules and principles. If you go beyond borders and try to do things that are subpar or beyond these rules, the entire nation would be affected.
Didn’t you notice that the world is full of dedicated and hardworking people? Yet, despite these good attributes, many of them still end up having a lot of financial struggles. Obviously, it is not for the reason that they are lazy, but rather because they are not paying much attention to the rules of money. In fact, there are lazy people who seem to earn bigger bucks than those who are hard-working.
Rather than blaming life for the displeasing economic inequality, you should master the rules of the money game instead. If you won’t put any effort to do so, then you should be ready to wrestle against poverty for the rest of your life.
Here are the rules of money that you should follow:
Master the economic system
Although you might have already heard of the word “capitalism”, you might still be puzzled about how it actually works. But the word (“capital”) tells us everything we must know about it. If you would look closely at today’s millionaires and billionaires, you would notice that they all possess income-generating capital. The bigger the capital they commit into a business, the more it makes them money, and vice versa.
Not everyone has been blessed to have capital, but there are many other avenues to make money. Whatever source of income you have, you should make it your goal to save up some bucks to acquire capital.
However, today’s society doesn’t have a clear view of the true value of having capital, so when they get their hands on a six to seven-figure salary, they would rather buy a new car or house than invest money.
Money won’t give your time back
There is this famous proverb that says, “Time is money.” This phrase isn’t entirely true, though. Money may be as valuable as time at some point, but if you look at both of them closely, you will probably realize that time is far more precious.
Money spent can be earned again, but a time consumed can never be reversed — it can never be earned back. Once time passes, it’s completely impossible to turn back the clock. For instance, when the moment of your youth passes, you will never become young again. That period of time will remain frozen in the past.
However, young people tend to take time for granted, thinking that they would be completely happy if they would just have a lot of money. You have to keep in mind that the clock is ticking and it’s not going to stop just for your sake. You need to understand that time won’t wait for you.
Living in a very capitalistic world doesn’t mean you have to live life running after money. If you would broaden your sight, you would realize that money is just one out of the several aspects of life.
Money won’t ever satisfy you
If you are thinking that having your salary increase two to three-fold will make you feel like a satisfied king, then you are getting it all wrong. In fact, the more your money grows, the more you are likely to yearn for more. Greed is all part of us, so it’s pretty hard to stay away from the desire of wanting more and more.
As human beings, we always thirst for better things, and there’s no end to these milestones. Well, maybe until you create that “end” and determine your maximum level of satisfaction.
Of course, there is no need for you to stop earning money. The point here is, there is so much more to enjoy in life than money. Set your focus on other things aside from earning fortunes.
Saving for the sake of saving is foolishness
What’s the point of saving money when you don’t know when the gift of life would be taken away from you? You cannot take all your savings to the grave! That is utter foolishness if you are just saving for the sake of saving.
Identify your reasons why you want to save money and establish a well-defined goal or purpose in saving money. If you badly want to be financially independent, then you should create a detailed plan and measured timeline at which you will consider yourself financially free.
Reaching your financial goals will be much easier if you know your target and the course of action you have to take in order to get there. For instance, you are saving to have the capital for your business. Once you reach your target amount, then you won’t need to deny yourself all the pleasures that life has to offer.
Money grows on trees
Back when you were a kid, you must have heard from your parents or from relative elders that money doesn’t grow on trees. However, the truth is the other way around — money does grow on trees. The idea of capitalism is highly similar to the concept of trees.
Planting a tree takes a lot of time and effort. You can’t lay it down in the soil and expect it o be grown overnight, so you could reap all the fruits. It could take years before you could finally enjoy the fruits. Trees are just like investments. You need to exert utmost effort while waiting for it to grow over the years before you can finally harvest the fruits of your labor.
