Is
Financial Success Possible?
In answering that question, let's first get
to know what exactly is 'financial success?'
The article's first major flaw is that various people define "financial success" differently.
Financial success may imply debt-free living for some.
Others may see it as complete financial
freedom.
The term, in my opinion, is very straightforward.
Is your financial situation significantly better than a year ago? If that's the case, you've made a good profit.
What criteria do you use to assess your "financial health"?
It all depends on your personal objectives, but for me, net worth is the most important factor.
What figure do I get if I sum up the value of everything I own and subtract my debts? That figure should ideally be higher than a year ago. If it's higher, I've made a profit. If it isn't, I'm making mistakes and won't be able to succeed financially, especially if this pattern continues.
Almost everyone in the World may
achieve that level of financial success.
There is almost no one who
cannot increase their net worth over the following year if they choose to do
so.
Of course, the problem is that many people have an arbitrary notion of financial success in their heads.
If "financial success" means "reaching a specific net worth" or "having a specific possession," you're probably out of luck. Yes, financial success will be difficult to achieve if you earn $30,000 a year and define financial success as having a net worth of $5 million or more.
If you make $40,000 a year and
your definition of financial success is owning a home in a wealthy
neighborhood, you're not likely to be wealthy.
The issue is that you're
measuring your success in terms of others rather than yourself. The only
accurate method to measure achievement is to use yourself as a yardstick.
Have you taken steps to improve your situation from where you were before? That's the only thing that matters.
Feel free to measure
"success" by whether you can beat someone in a 100 meter foot race
after giving them an 80 meter head start, but that will not provide you with a
sense of improvement or a path to genuine growth.
If you believe financial success
is unattainable, begin by redefining "financial success" to something
more realistic: being in better financial shape than you were a year ago,
preferably much better financial form.
If you owe $100,000 in student loans, your goal should be $95,000 by the end of the year.
That is the definition of
financial success. In reality, if you merely make it a healthy path toward that
objective, you'll be financially successful.
If you don't have any money in
your emergency fund, set a goal of $200 by the end of the year. That is the
definition of financial success.
If you have a negative $100,000
net worth, aim for a negative $80,000 net worth by next July. That is the
definition of financial success.
Some people define financial success as having $5 million in the bank and a house in the wealthy part of town with a Mercedes Benz in the driveway, but that's just one definition, and it should probably be someone else's. Instead, figure out what financial success means to you and shoot for it.
The Issue of 'Head Start'
When you measure your financial performance against someone else's standards, you run into the "head start" dilemma.
How can you compare your financial situation to that of someone who received a large inheritance? You can't do it. Whatever you accomplish financially, you'll never be able to compete with someone who receives a $1 million check in the mail with no effort on their part.
How can you properly compare your financial situation to someone who has a lucrative job? You can't do it.
It doesn't matter what you do financially since the only way a $30,000 salary earner can have a bank account equal to a $300,000 salary earner is if the high-income earner makes some extremely dumb decisions. They have the ability to save far more than you do.
When I say you're running
against them in a 100-meter dash and they start at the 80-meter line, I'm
referring to these folks. Even if you're the best sprinter on the planet,
you're not going to win.
What is the truth? Things will
never get better if you continue to accept that the race is on their terms, not
yours.
The only race worth participating in is the one against your previous habits.
When you take away other people's advantages (and disadvantages), you're left with nothing but yourself. Is it possible for you to do better than you did yesterday?
Eliminating comparisons to others completely eliminates the "head start" justification. You can no longer claim that you failed because someone else had a significant advantage over you that you couldn't match, or that the odds were stacked against you. The only comparison for success that matters is one in which the odds are set evenly against them.
Only by committing to better
financial behavior will you be able to defeat that individual and win the race.
Period.
Someone else's head start should never be used as an excuse to not give it your all.
Getting a Head Start
Simultaneously, the inverse is true. It's never a good idea to relax because you have a head start.
Too many people begin their lives in a position where wealth and a successful profession are easily within their grasp. Perhaps they were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, or perhaps they were born with extraordinary aptitude, or perhaps it just comes naturally to them. Whatever the reason, they find it simple.
People in this situation have the same difficulties. The only genuine competitor for success is the person who looks you in the eyes every morning.
That is the person you must defeat. On a personal level, if you can't outperform your previous efforts, you're not successful. You may have more money, accolades, and respect than others at the time, but you're letting yourself down if you're not putting in the effort to succeed by doing better than you have in the past.
It's essentially the same as
going to the gym and eating nutritious foods. If a 400-pound man started at 500
pounds, he may be a big success. On the other hand, a guy with wonderful
genetics who sits about all day and watches his muscles deteriorate could
appear to be more successful than the 400-pound guy, but is he?
Create Your Own Race
The majority of people have a mix of benefits and drawbacks. I know someone who was born into a poor family. He attended a public school that was cash-strapped. During his childhood, he had 15 surgeries and spent several months in the hospital and many more healing at home from various things. He is deaf In one ear, and nearly blind in one eye. To follow what's going on in many discussions, he has to do some lip reading or tilt his head with his good ear squarely toward the speaker. He has a poor balance.
But his Parents loved him all the same and genuinely cared about him. They put in a lot of effort to provide him with educational possibilities and to encourage him when he needed it. As a living being, he of course has a few demographic advantages that can't be disputed. All of these factors combine to create a situation that is truly unique. He has a number of significant advantages, and a number of drawbacks too. So, how can such a person meaningfully compare their achievements to those of others? Surely it is impossible. The best he can do is to compare himself to himself, that means comparing himself at the present moment to himself at the same exact moment one year ago or two years ago or five years ago e.t.c.
So he can track that race along whatever metric he decides on, including finances, relationships, and physical condition. Is it possible for him to win the race? If he's able to do so, then he's leading a successful life. To him therefore, financial success isn't defined by a certain net worth figure. It's about being in better financial health than the poor guy he was a few years ago, who was terrified of how he would ever care for a child. It also has to do with being in better financial situation than he was a year ago. he'll be financially successful if he can beat those folks.
The Key Is To Remain Successful.
You may believe that this notion of financial success is overly simplistic that it's simple to be successful if you compare yourself to your worst self.
Shouldn't you consider yourself to be financially successful if you are in a better financial state today in comparison to how it was at about the same time one year ago?
I think you should.
That race is difficult. That is
a marathon race. Nonetheless, that race offers benefits unlike any other.
The best race ever, is the race against yourself. If you compare yourself to others, you would always be miserable even when you think you have some persons you are better off than.
In all, it's your personal net worth that should matter to you and not that of Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or even Elon Musk, you did not start out at the same time with them neither were you exposed to the advantages they have had.
Success in life is a marathon, not a sprint, as many people believe. You may run at first to feel immediate achievement, but long-term financial success is based on consistent outcomes year after year.
It's not about tremendous spurts of energy. It's all about developing healthier, long-term habits in your own life so you may continue to create financial success brick by brick.
It's all about doing everything
you can to guarantee that you're winning the race against where you were last
year, and preferably where you were last year is ahead of where you were two
years ago, and so on.
You are financially successful
if you keep doing that and striving to close the gap between where you are
today and where you were a year ago.
If you keep doing that over
time, improving on where you were a year ago, you'll be more successful than
you ever thought (well, within the realm of possibility, because a billion
bucks isn't going to fall out of the sky) compared to where you are now.
That is the only way to be
successful. You're racing against yourself rather than Jeff Bezos, which makes
it simpler, but you never give up, which is the true test.
However, my life continues to be a nightmare... you moan
Is that correct?
You can take a deep breath because you're
breathing fresh air. You should drink some water. You have access to a greater
choice of healthy foods than nearly anyone else in history. You have an endless
amount of entertainment in the palm of your hand, as well as instant access to
a huge number of people, including the vast majority of the individuals you
care about.
Your life isn't all that bad. In fact, your existence is unquestionably superior to that of almost everyone who has ever lived on the planet. You enjoy a better daily existence than the Roman Emperors of old
Only in the context of seeking even more is your life "awful." You focus on what you don't have rather than what you do have.
Begin to focus
your attention on what you have rather than what you need. You've got your
health. You've got your friendships. You have access to clean drinking water
and nutritious food. You have a safe place to sleep. You are dressed. You have
access to a never-ending supply of entertainment. You have a nearly limitless
number of tools at your disposal for interacting with others.
That's not a
bad existence. If you think your life is bad because you wish your roof was a
bit bigger, that seems like a silly attitude. It also appears ridiculous if you
consider your life to be bad because the screen you use to watch entertainment
isn't as big as you'd want.
If you consider your life to be
bad because you have to work on sometimes, you are, once again, being silly.
Almost everyone's huge bounty of
what they have completely outweighs their lack of what they don't. People are
more likely to focus on what they don't have. They worry over the glass that is
10% empty rather than the glass that is 90% full.
If you can change your mindset
to see the glass as 90% full, you'll see financial success for what it is: a
means of ensuring these excellent things and a means of opening additional
doors for you. It doesn't really matter if you have a bigger roof over your
head. It doesn't really matter if you have a larger screen in your pocket.
It doesn't matter if you do
anything showy to impress someone else.
What's important is that you
have a roof over your head, even if disaster strikes. There's still food in
your stomach. Your friendships and ties are still intact.
And what if everything goes
according to plan? Perhaps you can take a break from work, or perhaps you can
take on a new challenge that seemed unachievable only a few years ago. The
possibilities are numerous.
Are you planning to retire at the age of 40? No. You're a complete loser if you define "success" as being able to "retire at 40." But that's a ridiculous standard by which to measure success and failure.
Do you have ten million dollars
in your bank account? No. You're a complete loser if you define
"success" as "eight figures in the bank." But that's a
ridiculous standard by which to measure success and failure.
What matters most in terms of
success and failure is the amount of work you put in and, to a lesser extent,
the outcomes of your efforts. I know that no matter what happens, if I work
hard on my finances, I will be better off than if I make no effort at all. So
be it if anything awful happens. So be it if anything good happens. In either
instance, my financial efforts have placed me in a considerably better position
than if I had made no effort at all.
That, in my opinion, is monetary success.
Financial success is just putting up constant financial effort that
results in you being in a better financial position than you would have been
otherwise. Nothing else matters since you don't have any influence over
anything else.
Please don't tell me you can't make money.
One of two ideas occurs to mind when I hear someone claim "financial success is unattainable." One, they've chosen that financial success has some arbitrary meaning that someone else has defined for them and to which they've subscribed rather than looking at their own efforts for a definition.
Two, they aren't putting up any effort to succeed financially.
For the first half, keep in mind
that the only real definition of financial success is improving your financial
situation from where you were previously. Do you have a lower debt load? Do you
have more money set up in your savings account? If you answered yes, you're a
financially successful person. If you can accomplish that over a long period of
time, regularly outperforming your recent performance, you'll be financially
successful.
Don't be concerned with what
others consider to be financial success. Financial success isn't defined by a
massive McMansion – that's someone else's life and definition.
Having a lot of money in the
bank isn't the definition of financial success – that's someone else's life and
definition. Allowing others to define your success is not a good idea.
In terms of the second component, you can't expect your finances to improve if you choose to put in no effort to do so. If you don't do anything, your financial situation will not improve on its own. You need to start putting some work into it if you want to have less bills, more money in the bank, and the ability to replace that car without relying on a car loan. For starters, you should employ several of these fundamental strategies.
Effort
is the single most important factor in achieving financial success, or any form
of achievement for that matter. If you put in a lot of effort but don't see
results, you should either look more closely at where your effort is going or
reassess your definition of success.
Never,
ever, rely on someone else's definition of financial success , you'll either be
frustrated or complacent as a result of it. Instead, use your own achievements
as a yardstick for success.
So, knowing what you do know now, do you think financial success is possible and achievable?
Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
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Yes. He was successful. The major reason is that, he isn't where he used to be. There was significant improvement from his last status to a new one. There was uniqueness in him ranking up an addition to what he had before now.
ReplyDelete2). The benchmark for measuring financial success is you. No comparison elsewhere. No quantification of what others have done and what they have. One's consistent addition to improve his status remains the best measurement. Where the networth balances up at the end of anytime a financial assessment comes up is actually the financial success we should seek or crave for.
3). 1). Financial success doesn't have a definite defintion; it's definition is hinged on ones definition of it. Once one looks out from somewhere for the definition, it can be misleading. It's only that can define it for yourself with what you bring along with it.
2). Self appraisal and head start; it's only you that has the answers to your financial freedom. If you don't take action, nothing happens.
3). Financial success doesn't have a limit; once one sets up a retirement mandate, then, financial success is way out of it. Financial success is a steady and consistent exercise that cannot stop but should be a way of life.
4). The key is to remain successful; whatever the growth, it should be about a mandate; remain successful which entails movement from where I was to another higher from where I used to be.
5). Believe you can make money; many people are dampened in spirit and can't make money any more. They allay fears and allow it to shrug off the movement into financial freedom.
4). In this life, everybody has a track to cover. No one is on the same lane with another. It is a distinctive race that is defined by our actions and decisions.
What was available for you to get the head start and get started may not be available for another. As a result, this should discountenance the comparison syndrome. Once race is only a judgement of one self and that should be based on steady movement and the focus is to be financial success.
Meanwhile, financial success means so many things to do many based on their definition. This could mean, having acquired houses and cars for one, it could mean having flits of cars for another person and so on. Financial success is actually moving from one state to another with the view of consistently pursuing financial freedom and success.
So many things are available to so many at a time. As such, when one takes off with those juicies, it shouldn't warrant another who never had such to remain at that point. Going to the gym, many may have a built that is ably supported by nutrition overtime. Once you never had opportunity to enjoy that privilege, we can get started at our own pace and never undermine ourself because we never had the opportunity. There should also be a content in us no matter what. Ones rooms are available at a time, we can't just downplay ourselves with the skyscraper next door.
Nobody is limited or banished from making money. Everybody can but the fear in which we allay has been the afraid thing that has constantly held us down. Everybody can make money. Who says you can't make money. You can only if you believe and the singular most important thing is to get on and get started with comparison, without looking at others and how far they have come, it's only a personal responsibility and resolution.
Morgan Oscar
ReplyDelete1.a. Yes, Jake was financially successful.
1.b. In the space of one year, after paying all the debts and other expenses, his net worth increased from $5000 to $7000.
2. In a financial year, when one compares their net worth after removing all expenses and debts incurred over the year, if the net worth for the year is higher than that of the previous year; then financial success has been achieved.
3. *It will give this person a better assessment of his/her financial status
*It helps to eliminate comparing your success with that of others.
*It also helps you find out if you are truly successful; because as you focus on improving financially, you gradually outperform your previous efforts.
*It helps you to focus on growing your personal net worth.
*It helps you learn to put in effort so to improve your finance instead of worrying yourself about how bad or low your financial status looks.
No1
ReplyDeletea. I think Jake was financially successful.
b. From the article; which I totally agreed with, which says, financial success is just putting up constant financial effort that results in your being in a better position. Jake increased his savings capacity.
Therefore, he raced against himself, and had more saving at the end of one year.
No2.
The benchmark for measurements of financial success is using ones *Achievement as a Yardstick*
No3.
a. Financial improvement; One has to continuously improve his or her financial status always no matter how small.
b. Lower debt load; one must try to have lower dept load, if there is any.
c.save more; one must save more always to improve his financial capacity.
d. Invest; invest on properties that will appreciate with time.
e. Financial literacy; continuous knowledge on finances and practical application always.
No4.
Financial Success is very possible. Financial success is putting up constant financial effort that results in you being in a better financial position than you would have been otherwise. Nothing else matters since you don't have any influence over anything else.
Ones achievement is used as a yardstick for success measurements. Financial race is personal. One has to do it oneself. No body will help one to make that first positive step to financial liberation.
Yes you can! Financial success can be achieved.
1. Well, personally it could mean different things for different people. Some people believe in having a fix deposit account where they could save everything they want to save others believe in using the money to buy stocks or bokddor even using it to do business. I think Jake could have done better if he used the mijeyto do something else instead of just putting it in the bank, ot could have yield more money with more interest.
ReplyDelete2a. Getting a head start.
b. Create your own race
3a. It helps one to know themselves: When you know yourself, you tend to perform batter with more advantage, because the truth is that, things are definitely going to be much easier for you.
b. Creates self confidence: Sometimes we don't even know what we are capable of doing maybe, because of fear or what other people will say about us. Self confidence will boost the way you approach issues even when you don't know how to do it.
c. It is a personal race: There is never a tag attached to anyone that succeeds first in life. It is an individual thj3, don't be under unnecessary pressure to out perform.
4. Financial success is seen differently by different people with different exp3. What will mean something to me may not mean something to someone else. The truth about life is that, we will always get there if only we decide to continue pushing and don't allow anyone to put you under pressure. What means something to A may not mean the same thing to be. It iss personal stuff and one has to be careful on how issues like this are taken up. Growing better than we are the previous, dsyor year should be the goal with respect to not allowing yourself to be under unnecessary pressure.