Some solid traditional advice

We’re all in this game to make money. Am I right? I mean, some of you might read this blog because you find it interesting even if you don’t make money on the net, and that’s fine. But truth be told, this blog exists to serve those of you who are trying to make money online. Even myself, for whom this blog is only a side hobby to compliment my already successful career, it’s still all about the money.

Because of that obvious fact, I thought it would be pertinent to take a second to write something a bit out of the ordinary. Instead of discussing code, or black-hat techniques, or get rich quick schemes, let’s talk about something simple and eschew regular discussion of internet and technology all together: Let’s talk about wealth.

The concept of wealth applies to all of us, whether we are considered ‘wealthy’ or not, and regardless of where and how we accumulated said wealth. Personally, the overwhelming majority of my wealth has been made in the real estate industry, not the Internet. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. A wise man diversifies. And for me, the Internet has been one of my ways of diversifying.

Here’s the thing: Becoming wealthy ain’t complicated. Determining the air-speed velocity of African Swallow is complicated. That sort of thing involves all sorts of mathematics and calculation. Becoming wealthy, however, requires little more then a solid knowledge of the basics: addition & subtraction.

Granted, I am oversimplifying for the sake of argument. One must always have that tipping point idea before they can begin to start adding to their wealth instead of constantly subtracting. But bare with me here. Given the claim that the accumulation of wealth requires little more then the ability to do simple math, the reason more people aren’t wealthy is simple: they don’t know when to add, and they don’t know when to subtract.

The secret to wealth is this: Spend less than you earn.  

The more you earn and the less you spend, the richer you become.

This sounds like basic common sense right? If I have two apples and I give Suzy one of them, then I’ve only got one apple left for myself. So why don’t we have more wealthy people? Why is the Canadian national savings rate so low? Well, it’s for the same reason that last years gross personal expenditure on consumer goods topped 880 billion with a gross personal income of 782 billion.

It’s because people don’t actually want to be wealthy. People want to appear wealthy. People want to make their friends and neighbors jealous. People want to live beyond their means.

It’s this overwhelming need to appear rich that keeps people from actually becoming rich. This is one of the top reasons why people aren’t wealthier. They get caught in this crazy cycle of spending and consuming, they fall for the marketing, buy the latest trends, need the newest cell phone, and guess what?? I bet those people have no clue of what their net worth really is, or even how to calculate it. These are people who will never become wealthy.

Another reason, especially applicable for all you internet marketers out there, is the idea of being able to get rich quick. The idea of getting in, scraping major cash, and getting out is a massive communal pipedream shared by millions of people. It just doesn’t happen often enough to base a business on it. If you were to pitch me a business plan that hinges on winning the lottery, or a perfect hand in a game of cards, I’d be tempted to smack you in the face. Why? Because you need to wake up to the fact that it ain’t gonna happen. I haven’t crunched the statistics, but I feel confident in saying that you stand a better chance of getting struck by lighting on a clear cloudless day then you do becoming rich quickly.

You can’t bank on luck, and you can’t expect luck to pay the bills. Saving is the only surefire way to become rich. But it ain’t that glamorous is it? Today’s internet entrepreneur who has had a taste of success doesn’t want to save, he wants to spend more to make more; he wants to gamble.

Eventually, this will bite him in the ass. You see, the beauty of saving is that it doesn’t matter what you do with your money as long as you don’t spend it.  Further, the beauty of saving is that every month, the more you save, the richer you become. It’s a system of accumulating wealth that is literally free from danger. It’s foolproof.

To truly become wealthy, you must develop a strong balance between saving your money, and living a quality of lifestyle that works for you. Once you’ve developed that healthy habit and have stopped consuming products that you don’t need, well, you’ll be way ahead of the majority of the population and at that point you’ll understand what wealth truly is.

Wealth isn’t your car, your clothes or your phone. Wealth isn’t how you spend your money; it’s how you save it that counts.

 I hope you guys enjoyed this post. I know it's very out of the orindary for me, but I have alot more to talk about then just scraping and spamming (even though I do love scraping and spamming!!!) Leave a comment and let me know what you thought. I promise that next week I'll get back on it with some more technical SEO stuff.