Financial/Money Advice

"More than Enough"
-Dave Ramsey-  1999

Pages 45-47

Dollars and Vision

Why do we need vision? To start with, it affects income. Studies of people who earn 100,000 or more a year and have maintained that income level for years reveal an interesting character trait. These six figure earners all think in five year blocks (or more) of time. They are very unconcerned about today except for how today is a building block towards their vision, which may not be fully realised for another twenty years. They think long term in all decisions. Six figure earners think about the long term implications of every move they make and don't make those moves unless they move them one step closer to their vision. These are happy people not because they have six figures to spend (although that doesn't hurt) but because temporary pain is just that: It is temporary. IF you think long term you become a saver and an investor. As an investor with a long-term mentality you don't panic when the market drops, because you are looking at what the market has done over the last ten years and not what today brings. Saving and investing with vision makes you rich. This is one of the reasons the rich get richer. Bad times are correctly viewed as temporary setbacks and a time to learn. You can walk through the sewage that life sometimes puts in front of you and barely notice because you have your eye on the horizon rather than constantly looking at your current circumstances.

The other side of the coin continues to prove our point. The folks at the bottom end of the income brackets who stay there tend to share the character trait of short term thinking, making decisions based on short term results. That sounds harsh doesn’t it? Well, if you think short term you rent to own your VCR and get ripped off. You pawn items of fall for these jerk cash advance businesses that cash hot checks, cash advances at 650 percent annual percentage rate in most states. If you think short term you work for the weekend and fall prey to pleasure based products that will in the end steal your pleasure. If you think short term you don't save and invest so you can't build wealth. When you think short term, if you do invest you can't leave the money alone so you end upo buying high, selling low then thinking :”I have the worst luck”. Luck has nothing to do with it, you simply shortchanged yourself by not carrying through on your vision. Short term thinking is why the poor get poorer. Those who realise this are those who don't remain poor. Mike Todd states this matter of the heart well when he says, “I have never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a state of mind.” Those who are given the gift of vision by a parent, a mentor or God start to think long term and say things like, “I am getting my degree no matter what and nothing will stop me.” And they do it.