Everything I Learnt About Money….
I was raised in a typical middle class family. We’re not rich or poor, always somewhere in the middle. We’ve always been the average family in terms of our income level. I’m going to share with you everything I was told about money from my family and school.
Straight From My Old Man’s Mouth
“One should never aspire to be too outstanding. Son, you should not be too stupid and don’t try to be too smart either. Just be average, you can’t go wrong like that. Just be normal and stick to the basics. I hope you do well in school so that you’ll get a nice stable income from a job. When you have gained some working experience, maybe start your own business? Get some life insurance because you’re going to need it. Save your money for a rainy day. Hopefully by the time you reach my age (he’s about 60 years old), you’ll have enough money to support yourself and maintain your lifestyle with your life insurance payout and government savings plan. You and me, we’re just average. What more you want from life?”
I love my dad. The problem is my dad is over 60 years old. He’s working 7 days a week. He’s still in debt and he doesn’t have enough money to retire. I don’t think he has a clue when he’s going to retire or whether he actually planned to retire? He’s been doing the same thing over and over again for over 30 years and too bad for him it’s still not working. Yet he insists that I follow his advice. I’m sorry dad… I can’t do that. If it didn’t work for you, why do you think it will work for me in this time and age? Does that make sense to you?
Words Of Wisdom From My Loving Mum
“Oh my dear baby son, you’re still young. You don’t understand a lot of things. When you go out and work, you’ll understand that sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do to survive. Work is work, who says its supposed to be fun? I hate my job, my colleagues, my boss. What can I do? I still need to eat you know? You say you want to be rich? Oh please stop dreaming and don’t get your hopes up son. It’s not as easy as you think. You’re so naive!”
You know my mum loves me. She doesn’t want me to get hurt and go through too much risk and failure. I do get very pissed off when she keeps telling me “You don’t know anything son!”.
I love my mum. Too bad she’s not in very good financial shape either. She’s over 55, working for someone she hates, with people around her that she hates and she gets peanuts for it. Like my dad, she’s not retired too. Life is tough for my parents. They’re counting on me to let them retire so that they can finally leech money off me and enjoy their golden years.
What I Learnt From School
After 15 years in a sheltered school environment, I find myself without the practical skills and useable knowledge I need to make some serious money. School has failed terribly in preparing me for life in the real world. The goal posts were clear cut in school. You want to get into a university? Easy! The path is already laid out for you. First you complete primary school, high school and tertiary school. You know the rules, study hard (or cram hard enough) and get good enough grades. What about life outside school? You don’t know the rules any more! Or maybe the rules have changed. You’ll have to figure out yourself and your own path if not someone else will do it for you. No one owes you a living. There are multiple solutions to everything.
I didn’t learn much about realizing my full potential even though that was what school was supposed to do. I was told to focus on superficial things like grades while neglecting my personal growth, creativity and money making skills. I don’t think I can remember less than 10% of what I learnt in school and the I don’t think I have applied more than 10% of what I learnt in school. Sometimes I feel like my time in school was for nothing. What a waste of time and money.
I didn’t do very well in school and I didn’t drop out of school. I was always at the bottom end of the grade scale. I probably didn’t deserve it because I never really thought school mattered much to me. I have always rebelled against the false standards of measure put on me. My grades don’t determine my self-worth. I spent a lot of my time after high school doing part time and freelance web development work because I knew I was never going to get a good job with my lousy grades so I wanted to differentiate myself from the crowd with my web development skills. I gained a lot of work experience and made some great friends. I’m grateful for being accepted as an apprentice in some web development companies and my time in a E-Commerce startup. That helped form a lot of my beliefs and attitudes.
Dad + Mum + School
With all these influences in my life, it’s hardly any surprise that I grew up believing that I was only an average person. It’s good and honourable to be struggling and making ends meet. Money is not going to make me happy, money will make me very unhappy because the rich and famous are unhappy. I might have to work for the rest of my life in a job I hate without having a chance to retire young, retire rich. Works sucks and life’s a bitch and there is nothing I can do about it. Isn’t that such a tragedy?
Lucky for you and me, we don’t have to live like that if we choose not to. There Is A Better Way To Live.
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