If you asked a lot of people that know me, I don’t think they would switch lives with me. However, if they saw my bank accounts and investment accounts, they would trade with me in a heartbeat…however, I keep those pretty private.
Boringly Rich
My job isn’t overly exciting from the outside and I live in a pretty normal house and own cars that are 9 and 10 years old but are paid off and never break down. In fact, I’m pretty proud that one of them just hit 199,001 on the odometer, so close to 200,000 and not one repair!
I don’t have any exciting toys parked on the side of my house that I take out on the weekend. I could buy one, actually, I could buy them all without any debt, but it doesn’t really “do it” for me.
What does it do for me? Logging in to my accounts and seeing lots of numbers….you should try it sometime….the feeling is amazing!
Perception of Wealth
So often we equate new stuff, and lots of it, with being rich whereas we should probably change that idea, and when you see stuff you should see an equal sign with debt. It doesn’t happen all the time, but more often than you think.
Most folks don’t wait until they can afford items, they reach the bare minimum point of qualifying and think they have made it…only to add more stress to their life trying to make ends meet. Basically, you are just living a lie.
Immediate satisfaction is so hard to get away from in life. It’s hard to not see something and say, “hey I’d like to have that too.”
This is the conversation I have every day around 5:30/5:45 pm when I get home from work.
“Dad did you bring me something?” says my sweet little six-year-old.
“Just lots of hugs,”
“Ugh, that stinks,” and off she goes to play again.
Everyone likes new stuff. I can’t blame her for those thoughts. Even though I have those thoughts, I am able to counter them with the other side of having money and growing it into wealth. One day it just clicks but usually not until you experience some success.
We talk about money all the time with our daughter and so she decided to hide away her money and then we couldn’t find it. She said that she was hiding it to keep it safe as we had talked about, but then we couldn’t find it until yesterday (after missing it all summer long). The missing $22 is back!
Deceptively Rich
Most millionaires are in their 60s and have taken decades of their life to accumulate their wealth. Some of the characteristics of most millionaires are that they:
- Stayed at their jobs for long periods of time.
- Still live in their first home.
- Still married to their first spouse.
However, millionaires that are the exception to these rules above and are living the high life are the folks that are celebrated. Often some people that have a lot of stuff and a lot of debt are celebrated for their nonsensical lifestyle. We don’t celebrate folks who steadily invested for decades but we sure like those that regularly invest in debt.
I think with social media most folks like to show off what they have in life whether it is a great vacation or new car or anything in general. It is much harder to live a boringly rich life anymore.
Financial Self Control
Now not all “boring” people are rich and not all rich people are “boring.” But the more laid-back lifestyle you lead could likely lead you to an accumulation of wealth over long periods of time.
When helping folks with finances I always like to show people two pictures of houses. One is a brand-new mansion and the other is a modest rambler that was built in the 80s. I often ask “who is successful?” Of course, everyone would pick the person in the large mansion, but when you tell people that person has more than $1,000,000.00 in debt and eventually lost their house whereas the person in the other house has it paid off along with over $700,000.00 in savings and investments it presents a whole different point of view.
The ability to overcome your distractions in life whether financial or not likely leads to successful outcomes. When you can keep your life under control you limit the distractions and stresses in life. Often times we are the ones who cause the problems not everyone else. Sometimes we just need to point that finger back at ourselves for our financial situations instead of pointing at others. Yes, there will be some people who get rich fast and have the ability to hold on to it, but they are the exception and not the norm.
I’ll be honest I really don’t care what other people’s perception is of me. When you get to that point in life things sure get a lot easier because you don’t worry about other folk’s opinions. If they think I am boring then so be it…but after living a week or two with no worries about money and a life free of stress…you might just change your mind.
Would you consider yourself boring and rich? Do you care?
