The Rich Don’t Work For Money

The title of last week’s article was “Money: A Faithful Servant But A Terrible Master”. I stated that when money is servant, it works for you, but when it is master, it works against you.

I also stated that this is a secret rich people keep to themselves. They have designed the legal, economic, financial and education systems to keep the majority of people working for money while they themselves live in freedom. They use the media a lot to emphasise spending over saving and investing, so much so that people go to school, work for money, spend it on debt and expenses, and go back to work again. This is called the ‘financial rat race’. Sadly, the majority of the world’s population lives this lifestyle.

There are three classes of people all over the world: the rich, the poor, and the working or middle class. If you study the lives of rich people, you will notice that their lifestyles are different from the working class and the poor. One of the major differences you will see is what these three classes of people do. You will basically see that while the working class and the poor work their guts out for a living, the rich take life easy. For example, while the other two groups are working, the rich play golf all day or go to the gym and run on the treadmill. They are working on the next business deal, taking a trip somewhere, or just sleeping and reading while the others are running the ‘financial treadmill’.

Why are the lifestyles of these people different? It is basically because rich people have been able to capture money, tame it, and put it to work for them. They have been able to make money become their slave. Some rich people inherited their money, but many are self-made, meaning that they started by working, saving money, and investing in businesses and other assets. Once the money invested in the assets has started working, they (the people) have had to work less and less, until they have come to a point where they don’t need to work any longer. The harder and faster their money has worked to meet all their living expenses, the more relaxed their lives have become, until they have had to stop working for good.

This has been a process, and it has not been easy. In fact self-made rich people have worked very hard – even harder than the working class – during the initial stages. But unlike the working class and the poor who have spent all or most of what they have earned, those who have chosen to be rich have disciplined themselves. They have set financial goals, budgeted the money they have made, saved it, and invested it. They have taken a different route, which is why have ended up with a different result and destiny in life.

Notice I have stated that self-made rich people have chosen to be rich. It has been a definite decision they have made. You see, you decide whether you will become rich, poor or working class. The moment money falls into your hands is the time you decide what lifestyle you are going to live. In other words, when you have money in your palms, you are staring at your financial destiny right there. If you spend it, you will become poor; but if you save and invest it, you are destined to be rich.

Here is a statement Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation and richest man on the planet has made: “If you are born poor, it’s not your fault; if you die poor, it’s your fault.” You may have been born poor, but that does not mean you have to die poor. It depends on how you handle the money you make from your job, farm, or sales you make if you are a street seller. If you spend it all, you will die poor, and you cannot blame anybody for that. But if you make money work for you by investing it, you can become and die rich.