Awareness Before Change
Now don’t get me wrong: I’m not banging on working at a job (I worked at one before I became an Internet Entrepreneur).
But let’s face it: our needs today are growing more than ever before in any period of history. Prices go up, salaries don’t. There are more baby boomers than ever and have very little pension to show for their decades of years of work efforts.
And there is no guessing to how many people really, really hate the unhealthy, hectic lifestyle of getting up early, coping with stress for most parts of the day, join traffic jams, spend more money and time in traveling, enjoy very little rest, and repeat the viscous cycle.
Definitely doesn’t paint a nice financial and lifestyle picture, huh?
The first step to change is to be aware of the problem. Awareness before change (or ABC for short) is necessary if you are to make any changes in life to start taking control of your financial life and then get out of the rat race.
We need the awareness to know what state we are in so we know where we are going. For starters, indulge me in a quick exercise as we exit this chapter shortly:
Time And Money
There are generally 4 types of people in the world:
1. No time, and no money. Most employees fall into the category. You can’t go shopping on a Tuesday afternoon or fire your boss whenever you like. Most employees can’t even save money in their pension to last 3 years!
2. No time, lots of money. Self-employed, professionals and small business owners are in this category. They are slightly better off than the employee because they earn more, but they have to work even harder than employees to keep up with the diminishing profit margins, competition, and servicing their customers.
3. Got time, no money. A lot of farmers, villagers, college dropouts, or bums have lots of time but no money. Maybe ignorance is bliss, but without a stable source of income, how long can you last many days forward?
4. Got time and lots of money. It is the category that big business owners, landlords, investors are in. Imagine, not having to work for money, but having money to work for you by investing them and earning profits by using your money to make money.
