1 Story From Experience
Growing up poor taught me the value of a dollar. My father was a hardworking gardener, but money was always tight. During my illustrious IT career, I have learned that trading time for money is not enough to develop wealth. (Disclaimer: This is Not Financial Advice)
The real key to financial growth lies in investments, especially assets. With the help of my father-in-law, I bought a house early in my career, an act that would eventually save me during times of heavy debt or unemployment. Paying a mortgage is cheaper than renting, and owning means I can borrow against its growing value when needed, like when my baby was born or I got laid off from my job. Buying my home was probably the best financial decision I've ever made in my life.
The key is to invest in assets that increase in value rather than assets that lose value like a new car or computer that will lose value over time. Only by investing your money in value-added assets can you really make money work for you. Your employer 401k, although great if they have a suitable match program, remember, it is still THEIR program. If you don't think your money is safe there or you think you'll eventually leave the company, always be ready to do what you think is best with your money.
2 Ideas from me
Every time a new Social Network releases, there’s a quick influx due to the bandwagon effect, a gold rush of sorts. The problem ends up being that the same influencers and Social Media Celebrities just want to increase their reach with the same old personalities. But the real users of the social networks just want some form of connection or validation. If they don’t get that almost immediately, they will leave the new social network and never look back. What we really all need is to align our values with people like us that actually create online, and it shouldn’t matter what platform they post on. I want to be on the email list of the people I like, relate with and have the same interests as. Why is that so hard to find nowadays? Most likely the reason is because there is so much noise that the authentic and naturally charismatic people who you would connect with get drowned out by the loudness of the flashy and overly hyped influencers of the day. Get me a list of the best and all around good peeps of whatever topic I’m interested in. Not what Youtube thinks I should watch next.
Why am I drawn to card games. I always have been, ever since middle school. Collecting them and play the collectible card games. Now while digital card games are great, most of the time you can’t trade digital cards for money, allowing physicals card to have value. I don’t know the future of Digital Assets, a lot of people got burned by the NFT craze and I’m sure that a lot of people will stay away from them forever, but I do believe that almost anything digital can have a similar impact as things in real life. E-Sports are a testament to this, I find way more enjoyment in a CS:GO Match on Twitch than I ever had at any NFL Game I’ve been to. Hybrid Work theory seems to have helped a lot of people and businesses thrive, maybe it should work like that for us, gaming together offline and online in harmony.
3 quotes from others
“Money is a reward for solving problems.” –Mike Murdock
“If you want to be rich, simply serve more people” – Robert Kiyosaki
“The secret to wealth is simple: Find a way to do more for others than anyone else does. Become more valuable. Do more. Give more. Be more. Serve more.” -Tony Robbins