Thursday, April 24, 2008

A Time For Intelligence and Self Reliance

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." - Leo Tolstoy

Starting next week, taxpayers will begin receiving refunds from the government's economic stimulus program. As I stated in an earlier posting, I'm all for the government returning money to taxpayers, however I think it's important that we keep in mind that these handouts simply cannot continue. The cold hard facts are that the government is running out of money and it's time for every responsible person to start using their heads and become more self sufficient. Our civil and religious leaders can only do so much. We all need to start taking more action on our own behalf. If you haven't educated yourself on money management and investments, now is the time to do so. I recall reading an article over 10 years ago on this very subject. One thing that really stood out to me from this article was when they said, "the rich will continue to get richer and the poor, poorer." At the time I remember thinking to myself, I need to find out how to become rich. While I had already done a lot of studying on finance and investments, I renewed my commitment to educate myself and stop waiting for handouts or "my lucky day." To quote from one of my favorite books, The Richest Man In Babylon, "good luck favors men of action." So if you haven't started working towards financial independence, take action now. Educate yourself in business and investing and you will be in position to benefit from tough times ahead by being able to see the opportunities. The opportunities will be there and there will be people making money through the turbulent times, just make sure you're one of them.

Billions and billions of dollars have been thrown in to solving this nations problems and we haven't made much progress. Money does not solve problems, intelligence solves problems. We, as a nation, have dug ourselves in to a hole and it's time we stop digging. It's time for all of us to step back and take a second look at the way we do things in our own lives. Are we using all of our hard earned money wisely? Have we planned for our own futures, taking in to account that social security, government health care, private sector pensions may not exist? The world is undergoing rapid change. Now is not the time to be asleep at the wheel. John F. Kennedy once said, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." Imagine how much better off we would all be if everyone were taught from an early age to work towards financial independence. It is easy to get out of debt and build income producing assets to care for ourselves now and for years to come. We simply have to decide to do it, set some goals, make a plan and follow through.

"A slave is one who waits for someone to come and free him." - Ezra Pound

No comments: