The money game

Hi steemians,

Yesterday I shared how an advise made me improve professionally and now I want to share how some money advise can also improve how you live and how you handle some situations.
I was once told that if you are going to play the money game you must see it as a long game. I believe that is very accurate and most people who struggling financially are just messing the order of things.

Let me tell you how to get rich the long boring story

First you must understand that money is just a way to store value for future purchases and no matter how you handle it you will always loose some. If the money you save will buy you future items there is another paradox when you should enjoy things. Most people will fall into the enjoy it now and pay it later trap that most financial institutions will try to make you fall into.
I know some might discuss how you should travel or do X or Y thing before you are too old to do it (another lie from the media)
So now lets think that you just got a job and you are getting paid to spend a third of everyday at work doing something that you love. It doesn't really matter if you love or not what you do, at the end of the day you are trading 8 hours a day for some money to do future things. I do not really want to get into details how to get rich and in fact I do not believe you have to be rich. Try to follow this rules and you will eventually do better than most:

• Pay yourself first, save and invest.
• Spend less than you earn
• Create an emergency fund and try to plan carefully major expenses (vacations included)

I know how easy this might sound but you don't really know how hard following this can be. Not following a rule will deeply impact you sooner or later. I don't want to get into loans or ** major life changes** which probably I will do later, but for now lets keep this simple. It doesn't really take into consideration how much you save, how much you have as emergency fund or how much you earn. This should be applicable to every type of economy and lifestyle.

But why so many people fail at it?

This a mindset shift and empowerment and something that usually will frighten us, because we are in charge, we are in control and we are not used to it. Most of the time people will prefer doing the easy things first rather than doing it the hard way. If you are starting too read some best selling books about money and personal finance you will find the same set of things.

• Budget
• Savings
• Invest
• Make a business
• You are rich

In reality, most will not really have a budget and less will attach to it and even less will have some savings and almost none really retire early. But who will write a book about how broke you are or how you have lost that much money, we are just trying to have the easy version of it. Most will want to go to Europe, a Caribbean Cruise or African Safari and no matter how much money you have you will likely pay it and still be in debt. Most will get a loan to travel today and pay it later, but the reality is that even if you were born rich or have all the money to pay for it you will end up loosing.

Time is money but is not equally proportionate

You can work 8 hours a day for 5 days a week for lets say 50 weeks a year for maybe $20 hourly rate. That should be around 40 thousand dollars, but I'm sure almost everyone will agree that most of us will pay whatever amount of money to spend 1 day with a loved one that passed away or something that we really like but cannot really do for some reason. I've heard people saying I wish I had more time to go to the gym but I almost never heard them negotiating a flexible schedule or a reduction in working hours.

Instant gratification

Most will like the dream house but fewer will build it themselves if the materials were given and land was given and just labor had to be done by yourself, I can even hear: _ I don't have time or skills or ... whatever reason to say they are not going to do it_. If you are living from high to high you will never enjoy being happy. In fact, I will say most will not be just happy accepting that their lives are plain and normal, simple yet common and that nothing they will do will put them in magazines. What do you want to do to be happy? Is that something you really like or want? Or is it something you have been told that should make you happy?

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I'm still thinking how to keep on talking about the money game but I'm sure I need to start thinking of the long term strategy that will get you a happy life with freedom and stress free regarding money.