Get Rich Slowly

Change your attitude change your life.

You are never going to get rich quick.  You can get rich slowly but most Americans don’t have the patience to get rich slowly.  It takes perseverance and staying power, putting off pleasure for today to save for tomorrow.

The fairy tale told by Horatio Alger to every American is that; by your bootstraps you can pull yourself up, and join the upper social class.  Alger was from the upper class he wrote about something we would all like to believe is true, but is not truth and has little basis in reality.  Horatio Alger wrote fairy tales to children about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives plenty.  The tragedy is this fairy tale has entered into American culture as a truism.  Your odds of raising your class up one level are more than a million to one; your odds are better buying a lotto ticket.  The truth is the greatest influence on your social class is the family you were born in, not your intelligence, not your job, or your talents.

You can become an entrepreneur?   Really, what bull crap!  The odds are stacked against you.  At least 80% or entrepreneurs fail the first year, and of the 20% that go on to their second year half fail during year two.  I will take the opposite side of that trade any day.  You take your startup money and we can roll the dice, I have a 90% chance of winning.  You will not get into the upper class by making more at work or getting promoted.  The best jobs are all spoken for by those in the know, or who know someone.  The odds are you will get laid off first.  You will not get there by inventing the new great got to have gismo in your garage.  You most likely will not get there by being a contractor, and building homes, roads, fences, etc.  Odds are you will go bankrupt once or twice.

There are only two sure ways I know to raise yourself upward in the social food chain, real estate and stocks.  Please read Dave Ramsey’s “The Total Money Makeover” for instructions on the real estate route.  You need a positive cash flow to be a landlord.  I have known people who are successful landlords and they all have a positive cash flow.  Positive cash flows equal you own your own home and your rental property, so that when you get a bad renter you can repair and keep your real estate.  Everyone I have known lately has lost their rental property and in some cases their homes too.  Many try the easy way flipping houses.  Again like being an entrepreneur and opening your own business flipping houses looks like it is the fast and easy way to wealth.  The system is rigged for the few with money, can you buy the house you are flipping and fund the repairs yourself?  In the past twenty years the top 1% have improved their net worth by a gargantuan 157% while the middle class has improved theirs by a tiny 10%.  Twelve years of oil millionaires from Texas in the White House, and their economic policies for the rich.

Read Jim Cramer’s books on stocks, real estate is more mistake prone than stocks.  There are other good books on stocks that read like college textbooks, Jim’s are easy to understand.  Have a plan and the discipline to follow it.  In ‘The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham it says “If you want to speculate do so with your eyes open, knowing that you will probably lose money” Chapter 8.  I have made money speculating on stocks and real estate; got out too early, or too late, or rode it up then down to zero.  In comparison I purchased Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) 4 years ago and it is up 55%, I have 28.6228 shares of stock from dividends and I forget how many times I sold upside calls that have expired as worthless.

The only way I know for you to raise your social class is to slowly work on stocks or real estate.  Pay off your house and buy a new one rent the old one, or buy high quality stocks with dividends with one or two growth stocks.  Pay off all your debt.  I know it takes years and is not quick and easy.  People like the quick easy fix, thanks to Horatio Alger (who was in the upper 10% himself at birth).  This way is slow and steady.  It means going without to save and invest. 

It also should mean voting for people who will build up and not destroy the middle class, for that is where you are now.  Vote for the 99% of Americans not the 1% über-rich, if you looking for a positive change in your financial life.  The GOP is only interested in lowering the percentage they pay in taxes and increasing your tax bill.  Be aware that when you pay more in food and gas that is a tax, when you pay more for healthcare and insurance that is a tax.  The only thing you need worry about is your disposable income, not your net income.  Our taxes when up under Bush Jr., we pay the gas pump and the grocery store.  Food and gas matter little to the über-rich it is a small percentage of their budget, look at your budget, food is probably number 2 in where most your money goes, healthcare number 1 or 3?  Come on W raised your taxes and lowered his own, and his billionaire friends.  The GOP candidate for president pays 15% in taxes, and hides his money in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the Cayman Islands.  Do you think he cares about you or his über-rich friends?

The GOP wish to move your job overseas and see that you pay the greatest percentage of your income to your healthcare costs in the world.  The Healthcare in the US is between 27 to 37, why are we so low?  The GOP is the reason.  In Education the US is between number 25 to 30.  How can we be competitive if we don’t invest in our children?  I am a Christian and believe if we are really a Christian nation we will treat our poor better, (sell all you own and give it to the poor Matthew 19:21 & Mark 10:21) and how we treat the sick (Luke 10:25-37 the GOP are acting like the priest and Levite) and how we treat children (Matthew 18:6 – 18:10 GOP build the Department of Education don’t tear it down “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” )  Time to be the best nation for all not just the 3%.