“Tryin' to make ends meet, you're a slave to money then you die”. – The Verve
Let's imagine I'm Jeff Bezos, and I'm evil. What do I need?
I need employees (from the warehouse to IT and management), and I need them to be a bit afraid to disagree with my plans (convincing is such a waste of time). I need them to be too afraid to negotiate their salaries (scared people don't negotiate well). And I need consumers – people who believe that their next purchase holds the key to their happiness.
What I don't need is financially free people.
Free people might decide to take a sabbatical, leaving me to have to hire to replace them.
Free people might negotiate their offers on the way in and their salaries while they are there, since they aren't so terrified of not having a job that they sell themselves short.
Free people might quit when they don't like how management is treating them.
Free people might quit and start their own businesses and compete with me.
- Step 1: Go to college and take out student loans so you can get a job.
- Step 2: Stay at your job even if you are unhappy so you can pay the loans.
- Step 3: Buy things on credit to try to cure your unhappiness, extending the number of years you are in debt and therefore have to stay at your job.
That's right. If you are unhappy because you have debt, the cure for what ails you is buying things on credit! Isn't that what marketing tells us? We just need a Lexus December to remember to cure our blues.
By teaching us that our happiness comes from outside of us – from our purchases, from our circumstances – society (and especially marketing) lines us up for even more debt.
What does it all add up to?
A system of control.
If you are in debt up to your eyeballs, you have less power, and you have fewer options.
I want you to pay off your debt and build up your investments so you become work optional.
I want you to negotiate and work from a position of power.
I want you to learn that shopping is not the source of your happiness, and that the dopamine hit you get from buying stuff is short lived and not worth chasing.
If you don't NEED your job, but WANT your job, you are more likely to speak up when you see something that is wrong.
If you WANT some stuff, but you don't NEED that much of it, if you realize your emotions come from what you are thinking, not what you are buying, you'll be much more cautious about tying yourself to payments on stuff and toys.
Right now you are in The Matrix. You think you are free, but you are only free to go to work and make the money to make the payments to pay for the stuff that you bought to cure the unhappiness you feel from going to work and making the money to make the payments. You don't actually have that many options.
I want you to be financially independent so you can be free.
You see, it's really not about the money – it's about who you can become when money is no longer an issue.
If you are ready to make a change, take my money course for $197.
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