Law and Disorder

“Money is plentiful for those who understand the simple laws which govern its acquisition.”
~George Clason~

During the bubble keizai (economic boom) in Japan, I was fortunate enough to have won a government lottery enabling me to buy NTT stock when it was privatized.  That deal yielded me a cool one million yen in profits before I unloaded it three days after the purchase.

I wasn’t skillful in stocks, just plain lucky to have been in the right place at the right time with some cash to invest.  Since that windfall, I have stayed clear of investment brokers and stocks.  They don’t give a damn about you or me.

A fool and his money are soon parted, said a wise farmer some 500 years ago before stock markets, sub-primes, and derivatives were even on the horizon.

Through no fault of my own, I knew less about financial markets and the science of getting rich when I graduated from college than a slum resident in Bombay.

How could one know?  Nobody ever teaches fundamental finances.  Most of us grow up believing that getting rich or becoming financially secure is the result of working your way up the corporate ladder or flipping real estate or winning a lottery.  While others of us get brainwashed into believing that being financially secure is unholy or sinful or a surefire path to Hell.

There has always seemed to be a conspiracy among the rich to make the struggling middle class and the poorest of societies dependent upon the educated gentry to control our money in return for a  very modest return – commonly called table scraps.

Ignorance is the nightmare of most people rushing to the workplace at 9 AM sharp for umpteen years and others who trust governments and financial institutions to act in the citizen’s best interest.

What we didn’t learn in school or from our parents and loved ones about finance has left us in the dark about how money works and how it could and should work for us, even in recession or depression.

My go-to mentor, the late Jim Rohn, summed up what differentiates the rich from the strugglers and stragglers:

“The philosophy of the rich versus the poor is this: The rich invest their money and spend what is left; the poor spend their money and invest what is left.”  A slight nuance is the difference between millions in the bank and bankruptcy in the courts.

Earl Nightingale discusses this same dilemma in his phenomenal audio series The Strangest Secret. He came from a poor family in Chicago during the Great Depression.  Being naively confused about why people were so poor at that time, he asked many relatives and neighbors an innocent question:  Why are we so poor and how can we become rich?  These poor people hadn’t a clue, of course.  So he went to the librarian and asked her:  Are there any good books on how to get rich?   The librarian shrugged her shoulders and said she hadn’t heard of such a book.  So adolescent Earl combed the library for weeks before he found the bible of getting rich called Think and Grow Rich.

It is never too late for us to learn how money works, so that we can be at the controls.  Making more of it seldom makes one independently wealthy.  Money management has little to do with how much you make.

Moreover, knowing how and why to invest can allow us to breathe easier in these uncertain times.  Our newfangled knowledge will also make it possible to teach our children how to be financially independent, even without a regular job.  And subsequently our children can proudly pass on this legacy to future generations everywhere.

Let’s help each other out of the dark ages and into the age of enlightenment.