Overcoming Tough Financial Times

The assumption is made by many, that to become wealthier than those who you’ve been associated with is a bad thing.  Few realize that being a better manager of your time, resources and money is usually the way people become wealthier than their peers.

Yet, people that become better-off than their peers are often misunderstood because people tend to believe that good things only happen to good people and bad things only happen to bad people. As this reasoning goes, if you seem to be better-off than your peers, you must have done something bad to make that happen because they (your peers) inherently believe they are good.

Think about this carefully.  Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to make things better than they are today?  Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to expend less energy and accomplish the same results?

So, does improving your life by expending less energy to accomplish the same results (becoming wealthier) make you a better or worse person?  Obviously, that depends on how you achieved your results.  If you took advantage of someone else or their personal property to achieve your results, you definitely haven’t become a better person. But if you have discovered a better way to accomplish the same results, you have created wealth. And chances are that in crating wealth for yourself, you have also created wealth for those around you to follow your lead and spend less energy to accomplish the same results.

Money and wealth cannot be the standard used when determining if someone is good or bad.  In fact, who is a good or a bad person?  Have you always done the things that you know are good?  Have you ever done something that you knew was not the best thing to do?  Everybody has, because we are all human! So why do “good people” suffer from bad things and why do “bad people” benefit from good things?

The obvious fact is that nobody is 100% good or bad. Furthermore, what you do, can and does affect the lives of millions of other people.  I am not talking about the Butterfly Effect or even the Chaos Theory in general. The simple fact is, when one person discovers a better way to accomplish the same results with less effort expended, the entire world benefits.  Consider the car fob, or backup cameras, or the sensors in your car’s bumper to let you know you are too close to an object in a parking lot.  These inventions have all saved lives, which is a wealth for everybody, not just the people that invented them.

But there are bad things that affect everybody just as surely as something good can affect everyone .  The natural law for any  closed system states, “All things will deteriorate to their lowest form unless energy is expended to alter that deterioration.”  When nobody is expending the energy necessary to improve the conditions of a closed system, then everybody in that system is affected.  In the same manner, if something bad is introduced into a closed system, then everyone within that system suffers the consequences to varying degrees.  Both bad and good effects result, and not necessarily directly and proportionally in relation with the person or persons responsible for their release.

For example: Walter Hund was born in 1796 in New York he invented

• The safety pin
• The sewing machine
• Flax spinner
• Road sweeper
• Artificial stone
• Forerunner to the repeating rifle

Hunt thought his sewing machine would cause unemployment so he didn’t pursue patenting his invention, and later Isaac Singer copied the design and made the world and himself better-off. As for the safety pin, Hunt sold his patent rights to a person to whom he owed $400 and the rest is history.

None of Hunt’s inventions were bad, even though he thought his sewing machine would create harm.  But some of his inventions were more profitable for him than others because of what he believed about them.

The fact is, good and bad things affect different people differently. Consider the grown children of alcoholics.  Some become alcoholics themselves with the excuse that they had no other choice and that was all they ever knew. While others rise above those adverse circumstances and don’t continue the pattern. Some people make their life despite their circumstances while others make excuses because of their circumstances, regardless of how good or bad those circumstances may be.

Everyone used to understand this fact.  The common marriage vow, “For better or for worse” very well may have come into being because of this understanding.  But when we allow others to determine what is better or worse for us, we have rejected the liberty that each of us were endowed with by our Creator. And that is, the liberty to overcome the bad by doing what is good.

Currently, we are under the influence of some seriously bad stuff.  A virulent virus, some nasty politicking, and some harsh governmental regulations.  You can respond and make the most of the circumstances, or you can react and make things worse. Whatever your choice is, lives will be affected and the most critical life will be your own.

Choose carefully to achieve the outcome you desire.

1. As you shop, shop with consideration, not only for your own needs, but also for the needs of others. Others shouldn’t be denied what they need, simply because you took it all.
2. Whether you believe the virus is easily spread, or you believe that our immune systems are programed to deal with these kinds of infections, treat others as they want to be treated.
3. Regardless if you believe the democrats or republicans are politically handling this pandemic best, respect other people’s opinions and look for the facts that slip out from both sides while they spin their propaganda.
4. Our money supply has been greatly increased, some say by as much as $2 trillion. What you believe about this might be different than what you believed about the $6.2 trillion added to our deficit by the last administration. But what you are doing in your own personal economy to make your future better, regardless of what the government does, is even more important than either of these things. Will you continue to live from paycheck to paycheck, or will you find a way to keep more of what you are making so that the next time something bad happens you will be better-off than this time?
5. Who is ultimately responsible for your well-being, yourself or others? If you believe others are responsible for your well-being, then you are admitting that you are a pawn of those who control the lives of others.  If you believe you are responsible for you own well-being, then you can make your life, and the lives of others better-off simply by doing what-ever-it-takes to make the most out of the good and the bad, whatever your circumstances.

The typical poor household in American as defined by the government has a car, air conditioning, two color televisions, washer and dryer, refrigerator, oven and stove, cable or satellite, DVD player, coffee maker and ceiling fans.  By their own reporting, these same typical poor American households are not hungry and are able to get the medical care that they need when needed.  While on top of this, the average poor American has more home living space than the average middle class European. Remarkably, the poorest Americans today live better-off than all but the ultra-wealthy of 100 years ago.

This is the American way of life. You have liberty to make your own life better.  Fortunately, this way of life has a ripple effect that makes other people’s life better-off too.  Some are definitely better-off than others, but that shouldn’t reflect on your attempts to become all that you can be or do all that you can do to become better-off than you currently are.

So, don’t be anxious about what the government or virus is doing.  Yes, some will get sick, and some will die from the virus like any other virus or infectious disease.  Even more will most likely suffer due to the governmental regulations that are being implemented which are opposed to our God given liberties.  But living in fear and anxiety will only increase your odds of becoming a pawn in the mass hysteria that has gripped our society during this pandemic.  Focus on what is true, good, right, pure, lovely and admirable. If you find something admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy, think about those things instead of all the negative and hateful things being spoken of today.

If you do, you’ll find the wealth that passes all understanding and a peace of mind that can never be found by money, regardless of how much money you make or have.