Investments

[Ugly Bastard]

I really think people just have no understanding of how money works. It's not their fault. I know I had no clue how money worked until just a couple of years ago. To me, money was something you got for working for someone and if you want to be "rich" you better find a "work for someone" job that pays you really well like a doctor or a lawyer. This is such a creatively narrow-minded way of looking at the world. I feel like most of us were probably raised to be cogs in a machine. In other words, very few of us were taught how actual wealth works. In this regard, our education system is just a miserable failure. They place more emphasis on memorizing how many troops died at some battle than they do having an understanding of wealth. Truly wealthy people don't work for someone else. They work for themselves. It's all about finding or creating something the world cherishes that you become the steward, caretaker and operator of. This is why working at Subway will never make you wealthy, but creating Subway could make you fabulously wealthy. You create something out of thin air that people are willing to pour their cash into because it gives them something they want. That's how money really works.

[vaga1220 *]

A machine that can properly give you a rim job!

[Der Fuhrer]

While I do agree with you to a certain extent UB, creating that something that people cherish so much they are willing to pour their money into your pockets is probably one of the most difficult things to accomplish. Even if you are one of the very few people who come up with a spectacular idea, if it's not marketed, financed, and managed properly, it will fail.

However, you are correct that the main avenue for wealth is through ownership. When you own something that generates profit, that is a valuable asset. Not only in that you can make a larger salary, but also in the fact that you can sell it one day.

This is what rich parents teach their kids that poor parents do not. Wealth is created over time through the acquisition of assets. The key words here are over time and assets. You don't become wealthy over night, and most people go out and buy a shit ton of liabilities, which generate negative cash flows. To acquire wealth, it is necessary to accumlate items that generate money over time, and more money than you initially invested.

This is my theory on the establishment of a successful business. It's not easy, but if properly executed will be a guaranteed success. First, you must acquire highly technical, specialized knowledge. Knowledge that is far above the average person's head. Professions like lawyers, doctors, computer scientists, actuaries, engineers, and financial analysts all possess this technical, specialized knowledge. Then you start a business where you bring your technical expertise to the average person in the form of a service. I'm not saying that you be will rich over-night, or that you will be rich beyond your wildest dreams. But if you work hard and smart, over time you will become wealthy.

[Fruitacious B]

Originally Posted by Der Fuhrer

...creating that something that people cherish so much they are willing to pour their money into your pockets is probably one of the most difficult things to accomplish. Even if you are one of the very few people who come up with a spectacular idea, if it's not marketed, financed, and managed properly, it will fail.

I liked that, a lot. But the rest of your post really just reinstates the classic...become one of those "lawyers, doctors, computer scientists, actuaries, engineers, and financial analysts" and you can "possess this technical, specialized knowledge".

And it's not that I couldn't have done any of those things, I just didn't end up going that route. My ambitions and goals are more in the nature of a starving artist...where I will have very little (or nothing) until the time is right, or possibly forever. I guess I've chosen to roll the dice a bit harder than I could've, but I'm not without hope that my situation can and will get better. I'm at the point now where I'll have to ride the blue collar rollercoaster, paycheck to paycheck, until the big fish bites and I can live the rest of my life doing exactly what it is that I love.

In all honesty, I've been looking into jobs I can do online, which I know are few and far between, considering my lack of collegiate experience, but I can't shake the notion that I could be generating some sort of income, let alone a good one, at any given point if I wanted to. The internet, of course, seems like the most likely place to do that.

On that note. Does anyone on here know anything about working for Cha Cha? Because I've been going through the training to be a Guide for them.

[Beebs]

Originally Posted by f3lix

Actually, what I was taught is to generate cash flow. If the world were to shut down for one year, could you financially survive? Everything that costs you money still costs money (car payment, mortgage, college loans, food, rent, kids, etc.) and everything that brings in money still brings in money (dividends, interest, property rented out to others, etc.)

Your cash in must exceed your cash out, thus generating a positive cash flow.

That is a strange assumption to say the least.

If the world shuts down for any period of time, it is probably going to be because of a large systematic failure, or cause one in short order, so what happens to non real assets is anybodies guess.