I don’t know about you but then I was growing up there was always a lot of messages being thrown around the home I lived in about money. In my case it was usually about how much we did NOT have! Growing up in a single parent home and having to live with your grandparents and Uncle in a two bedroom house does not qualify you for the lifestyles of the rich and famous.
There are a lot of things though in that small house I remember about money growing up and one of them was the big fat piggy bank that would sit in my grandfather’s bedroom. Actually, it was not in the shape of a pig but was in the shape of a big football. I guess I could call it a football bank but for all intents and purposes it was really a piggy bank.
I also remember that my grandfather would dutifully put money in this bank to the point where the bank would be full on many, many occasions. Then, when that bank was full he pulled out the “alternate piggy bank” as a place to put his money of course.
What was the “alternate piggy bank”??? Well empty Folgers coffee cans of course! Where else!
I even remember digging through the cans on those rainy days with nothing to do (this is pre-MTV, reality TV, X-box and internet) and finding the ‘wheat pennies’ thinking they could be worth some money some day. So, year after year my grandfather would do this and take these full piggy banks or Folgers coffee cans to the bank and have them deposited in his savings account.
And again, he did this for years and as long as I remember.
Of course, seeing this I figured that my grandfather had a nice sum of money stashed away in the bank and was waiting for the right time to get all that money out and get us out of the tiny home. But when my grandfather died in his late 70’s I was shocked at how much money he actually did have in the bank. Shocked at what a small, small amount it ended up being.
Well, maybe that is too harsh. He did have something to show for it in the realm of around $9,000 or so.
I know that is better than not having anything but after years of discipline and I am sure investing his money the way he was probably
taught, he hardly had anything to show for it in the end. It’s a shame too because he deserved a lot better and I am sure he thought he was doing the right thing and investing the right way.
Truth is he was wrong.
Over the last few years, especially the last 5 years, many investors have gotten into the same trap that my grandfather did. The
time/money/discipline/piggy bank trap.
You see many people/real estate investors feel that if they JUST:
- Put some money away each month.
- Keep doing this for say 20 – 30+ years.
- After 20 – 30 years they will end up with a huge pile of money that they can use for their retirement or anything else.
I hate to say it but it is a big lie.
I know many people that invested month after month and year after year with pride and discipline only to find out after 20 –
30 years that it was not the best way to invest. Simply because it did not give them the amount of money they needed to live their second life. In many cases with the violent turns in the stock market and other financial markets lately they have a fraction of what they thought they would have.
Today if you are using this kind of logic to make a wonderful life for yourself sometime in the future chances are you will be
sorely disappointed. And the problem with this is you cannot get that time back that you lost believing this was the way to get rich or at the very least have the kind of money you wanted and deserved.
Now, I am NOT against monthly investing. Not at all and I admit I also have some monthly investing going out into some cash accounts right now as well.
But I certainly do not look at this as my path to financial freedom.
You can’t either.
Its like taking and using the horse and buggy for travel when you have a nice car at your disposal. Or using the telegraph when you
have your phone handy. All ways work but some much better and much more efficiently than others!
Your next step in getting your financial house in order is to not only realize this but then take the bull by the horns and do something
about it before even more time slips by you.
The sooner you get ‘plugged into’ the types of investments that will have the kind of impact on your wealth that you are hoping for the sooner you can start living the life you want and expect to live.
Simple as that!
