Metaphors that work in multiple closed systems

May 26, 2013 17:21


I love this site's advice; this bit comparing swimming in the financial world to swimming in ocean waves is particularly awesome:

The struggling person has debt. It’s an absolutely destructive and useless thing to bring into your life, unless done on an investment basis with a calculator firmly in hand. Debt used to finance luxuries just creates a backwards current on your life. Suddenly you must paddle fiercely just to stay in one place.

Just a few feet forward on the exact same wave, rides the debt-free person. Everything they earn can be applied to spending, which means they have much more power to buy things when compared to the indebted person.

A few feet ahead of the debt-free surfer is the Investor. This person doesn’t subscribe to the statement, “money is no good unless you spend it”. Quite the opposite, their belief is “money does you no good if you just go out and spend it”.

Because the investor has put most of her past earnings to work, there is now an unstoppable wave behind her, pushing her along whether she decides to work or not.  Anyadditional work will push her forward very quickly, and spending in moderation won’t knock her off the wave.

All three of them may be moving along at the same speed, buying the same stuff and living the same lifestyle. And they’re only a few feet apart. They can converse freely over the roar of the water, because the difference between wealth and poverty is only reallychanging a few spending habits until you amass a sufficient ‘stash. But the level of  struggling and cubicle-sitting and clock-punching and money-stressing is completely different, just because of how they have positioned themselves.

Originally published at *Transcendental *Logic. You can comment here or there.

the root of all wealth

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