The Analogy of a Frog and Personal Finance

If you were to pick a frog and put it into shallow hot boiled water, the frog will instantly leaped from the pot and jump out to safety. However, if you were to pick up the same frog a little later and then put it into a shallow cold water, the frog will not react to it and will be comfortably be sitting there as it is a cold blooded animal. But, if you were to do experiments by heating up the cold pot with a very, very slow fire with the frog still sitting in it. The water will eventually rise up to 100 degrees. As any cold-blooded animal, the frog’s body will adapt to the rising heat and will adjust its blood temperature to the environment. Eventually, when the water reaches boiling point, the frog will die as a result of adapting itself to the environment without even realizing it.

So, what’s personal financing has have to do with the frog story? A lot. People who started off their career start just like the frog in the shallow cold water. The money they received by the end of the month is enough to get by since their requirement for life is low. But, as your career and salary increase so does your desires and lifestyles. As you start to buy your first car, buy your first house, started to use credit cards, your lifestyle will change incrementally but not as fast as your salary increase. As same with the frog, you will not notice that you have a debt problem since the increment is not sudden. And when you realize it, it is too late and you will end up with a huge pile of debt.

There are many paths for us to achieve financial freedom, but the majority of us choose the path of job security. How can we blame them? The education system was shaped to produce workers and not entrepreneurs. Many people realized that as the company their working with starts to prosper, the owner of the company is the one who eventually benefits and the employees usually are not much richer compared to the first day they started working there. The reality is that the boss is not responsible to make you rich, but their responsibility is just to make sure you got your paycheck by the end of the month. It is your responsibility to make sure that you will end up rich and not somebody else.

Illusion of Employment

Don't let the illusion of full employment entrap you. You may feel important, you may feel a part of a team working towards a common goal, but basically, employment only taps a small portion of your potential limits. That's why it's called the 'Rat Race'. You run blindly towards what your job requires you to do while enriching the owner of the company. The potential of your limit is not bounded by what your job is or what role you are in your work. You maybe working on the lower rung of the corporate level, but by tapping inside your inner self, you do have the potential as big as the owner of the company. The potential of your limit is determined by your own mind and action. Imagine the impossible, act towards it, and success will be yours.

Monday Blues

“The man who does not work for the love of work, but only for money is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life.” - Charles M. Schwab

Ask any ordinary people why they wake up in the morning and go to work diligently and they will tell you that they work for “a living”. How can I suppose to feed my family if I don’t work? I prefer to spend more time with my family but that won’t pay the bills. That’s why there is a term called “Monday Blues”. God gave us seven days a week to enjoy, but we choose to enjoy just two of the seven days given; Saturday and Sunday. Isn’t that a waste?

We should always keep our thoughts in a positive mode to any thing that we do in our daily life and that includes working. We should live our life with passion. The right spirit and attitudes can make any necessary work pleasant. If we enjoy our work, everyday will be a Saturday and Sunday. The attitude that we bring to our work has everything to do with the quality and outcome of the work produce and the influence it brings to our character.