Stop the Rat Race: Money Lessons You Were Never Taught in School

𝑺𝙩𝒂𝙧 𝙥𝒍𝙖𝒚𝙚𝒓 𝑹𝙤𝒏𝙖𝒍𝙙𝒊𝙣𝒐 𝒇𝙞𝒍𝙚𝒅 𝒇𝙤𝒓 𝒃𝙖𝒏𝙠𝒓𝙪𝒑𝙩𝒄𝙮 𝙞𝒏 2018. 𝑻𝙬𝒐 𝒚𝙚𝒂𝙧𝒔 𝒑𝙧𝒊𝙤𝒓, 𝙝𝒆 𝒉𝙖𝒅 𝒂 𝒏𝙚𝒕 𝒘𝙤𝒓𝙩𝒉 𝒐𝙛 𝙖𝒓𝙤𝒖𝙣𝒅 100 𝒎𝙞𝒍𝙡𝒊𝙤𝒏 𝒆𝙪𝒓𝙤𝒔, 𝙗𝒖𝙩 𝙗𝒚 2018, 𝑩𝙧𝒂𝙯𝒊𝙡𝒊𝙖𝒏 𝒂𝙪𝒕𝙝𝒐𝙧𝒊𝙩𝒊𝙚𝒔 𝒅𝙞𝒔𝙘𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙧𝒆𝙙 𝙝𝒆 𝒉𝙖𝒅 𝒋𝙪𝒔𝙩 𝙛𝒊𝙫𝒆 𝒆𝙪𝒓𝙤𝒔 𝒊𝙣 𝙝𝒊𝙨 𝙖𝒄𝙘𝒐𝙪𝒏𝙩 𝙖𝒏𝙙 𝙖 𝙙𝒆𝙗𝒕 𝒐𝙛 1.7 𝙢𝒊𝙡𝒍𝙞𝒐𝙣 𝙝𝒂𝙣𝒈𝙞𝒏𝙜 𝙤𝒗𝙚𝒓 𝒉𝙞𝒔 𝒉𝙚𝒂𝙙.

Most of what we want to accomplish in life is try to make money, but why should we spend so much time on it if it may all disappear into thin air in an instant? Stories like these make you doubt everything you thought you knew about money.

According to CNBC data, over 64% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and the US now has the most credit card debt in the world, totaling $980 billion in 2023, excluding mortgage and personal loans.

When you look at statistics from the US, the world’s most powerful nation, you have to wonder how much worse things are in other first- or third-world nations. Just take a moment to observe your surroundings and consider how you react to money. Ask yourself, “What is money to me? Is it just something I use to pay bills, and then it’s gone? Or is it something I want more than anything else in life?”

Maybe that’s what led you to Ponzi schemes, lotteries, and pricey online money-making classes. You see more than just a drive to become wealthy. Your Attitude Toward Money Is Critical; in order to achieve great prosperity, you must be financially responsible. If you don’t have anything to show for your seven figures a year by the end of the year, what’s the point?

The mystery I want to solve in this article is this one, and later on I’ll give you a better framework for money that is never taught in schools but only real financial experts like Warren Buffett. Live by any word of advice you give to someone who is a young investor who would like to emulate you, what would you suggest that they do to kind of build something similar to what you’ve done? I think you should look for the job that you would want to hold, the false belief about money.

what is the value of money? What would our school system really mean if I paid you $100 for the work you did here? The definition of money as a means of exchange or as a tool for commerce is based on the history of money, but it only provides a partial picture of the problem.The view of Warren Buffett is the richest people in the world would be librarians if all that was required to play the game of money was prior history. This is because the fundamental function of money is to reflect worth.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that money equals value because you’ll pay more on a brand-new Porsche than a used pickup vehicle. Warren Buffett explains it this way: Value is what you get; price is what you pay. Many individuals do not regard money in this way; in fact, some have the incorrect idea that riches is the source of all evil. individuals who hold this mentality tend to believe that all powerful people either defrauded their way to success or were just fortunate enough to be born into fortune.

No one ever inquires as to what value I might possibly do to become as wealthy as this businessman or billionaire. The idea of money will help you understand that neither money nor anyone who has it is evil; in fact, here is how billionaire Warren Buffett sees it.

(𝙈𝒐𝙣𝒆𝙮 𝙨𝒆𝙧𝒗𝙚𝒔 𝒏𝙤 𝙥𝒖𝙧𝒑𝙤𝒔𝙚. 𝑭𝙤𝒓𝙜𝒆𝙩𝒕𝙞𝒏𝙜 𝙩𝒉𝙖𝒕 𝒕𝙝𝒆𝙧𝒆 𝒂𝙧𝒆 𝒔𝙤𝒎𝙚 𝙥𝒆𝙤𝒑𝙡𝒆 𝒘𝙝𝒐 𝒖𝙨𝒆 𝒎𝙤𝒏𝙚𝒚 𝒇𝙤𝒓 𝒆𝙫𝒊𝙡, 𝒕𝙝𝒆 𝒕𝙧𝒖𝙩𝒉 𝒊𝙨 𝙩𝒉𝙖𝒕 𝒎𝙤𝒏𝙚𝒚 𝒘𝙞𝒍𝙡 𝙤𝒏𝙡𝒚 𝒈𝙞𝒗𝙚 𝙮𝒐𝙪 𝙢𝒐𝙧𝒆 𝒂𝙘𝒄𝙚𝒔𝙨 𝙖𝒏𝙙 𝙛𝒓𝙚𝒆𝙙𝒐𝙢 𝙩𝒐 𝒃𝙚𝒄𝙤𝒎𝙚 𝙢𝒐𝙧𝒆 𝒐𝙛 𝙬𝒉𝙤 𝙮𝒐𝙪 𝙖𝒍𝙧𝒆𝙖𝒅𝙮 𝙖𝒓𝙚. 𝑴𝙤𝒏𝙚𝒚 𝒉𝙖𝒔 𝒏𝙤 𝙪𝒕𝙞𝒍𝙞𝒕𝙮 𝙩𝒐 𝒎𝙚 𝙞𝒏 𝒕𝙚𝒓𝙢𝒔 𝒐𝙛 𝙜𝒐𝙞𝒏𝙜 𝙤𝒏 𝒕𝙧𝒊𝙥𝒔, 𝙜𝒐𝙞𝒏𝙜 𝙩𝒐 𝒐𝙬𝒏 𝒎𝙤𝒓𝙚 𝙝𝒐𝙢𝒆𝙨, 𝒉𝙖𝒗𝙞𝒏𝙜 𝙖 𝙗𝒐𝙖𝒕, 𝙤𝒓 𝒂𝙣𝒚𝙩𝒉𝙞𝒏𝙜 𝙚𝒍𝙨𝒆, 𝙗𝒖𝙩 𝙞𝒕 𝒉𝙖𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝙤𝒕 𝒐𝙛 𝙪𝒕𝙞𝒍𝙞𝒕𝙮 𝙩𝒐 𝒐𝙩𝒉𝙚𝒓 𝒑𝙚𝒐𝙥𝒍𝙚 𝙩𝒐𝙙𝒂𝙮.) 𝑾𝙤𝒓𝙙𝒔 𝑩𝙮 𝙒𝒂𝙧𝒓𝙚𝒏 𝑩𝙪𝒇𝙛𝒆𝙩𝒕

Whatever financial decisions you make ultimately depend on your personal morals and values, so how does this help someone living paycheck to paycheck or how does this pay off a mortgage and credit card debt? You might think that simply knowing that money is equal to Value doesn’t affect anything, but it actually does.

Creating value as opposed to receiving it. We can all agree that money always enters and never stays in our lives. This is because, along with income, there are expenses that eat away at that income, so it’s income versus expenses. But there’s another way to look at it: value production versus value consumption. You make money by creating or offering some kind of value, whether it be through your work at your company or the products you buy.

But when you consume something valuable like food, electricity, a car, etc., you lose money. For this reason, I like to think of a person’s net worth as a benchmark that reveals how closely their output and consumption are related. If you were to put yourself in the money equation, which component of the equation would you have spent your entire life on?

Consider the amount of money that has entered your account since you began earning it, and how much of it is still there. Have you invested or used any of that money to invest in something valuable? For some of us, we find that we haven’t been producing enough or any value at all, so to balance the equation, we need to produce more, but for the majority of us, the main issue is consumption.

If you’re in this category, you must change your consumption habits before attempting to create or produce more value. For example, imagine someone earning $150,000 a year, which is significantly more than the minimum wage, but they barely have any money left when the year runs out. Millions of people around the world fall into this category.

If there’s one lesson that the numerous instances of famous people filing for bankruptcy have taught us, it’s that your income doesn’t count unless you can limit your expenditure. As a result, you can see that output will only be truly advantageous when consumption is minimal. The money trap, the rat race, and the never-ending cycle of pursuing money are all terms that are commonly used interchangeably, but they don’t necessarily mean the same thing. Most online financial gurus want you to see and comprehend the term in this way so they can sell you their ideas.

Although many people love their jobs and would prefer to do nothing else with their lives, working a nine-to-five job isn’t necessarily bad. Instead, the real rat race is when you feel like you’ll never have enough money, are perpetually broke because money comes in and goes out so quickly, and when you feel like you’re trading your normal life for money in a never-ending cycle. At this point, your job is no longer an option; you’re a slave to it for the rest of your life. If you don’t work at that job, your debts and expenses will swallow you up in a moment. This is the real rat race. The situation becomes even more dire when unforeseen circumstances like accidents, sickness, or losing your job occur. These things can hit you hard and send you into a depression as you find yourself on life’s Edge barely hanging on.

However, as Warren Buffett would say, things don’t have to stay that way. The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging. You can get out of that mess, but first you’ll need to be aware of your spending. You should keep a journal of your monthly expenses and anything else that costs you money.

This is all to better understand your usage patterns. The reason why most people don’t do this is because they don’t want to be startled when they learn what terrible consuming habits they’ve acquired, but this is an important step to take once you’ve done that. This is where budgeting comes in.

The main goal here is to live below your means, so be sure to properly designate how much money should go to each category of costs and be severe about it. This is the only way you’ll have enough extra money to invest or use to work on projects that add value and earn more money, but you must first save for a rainy day. Experts in finance refer to this as an emergency fund. As common as living within your means may sound, the secret separating the broke from the wealthy is having a fund that can pay for at least three months’ worth of expenses. Just stop for a moment and ask yourself: Why live a life you can’t afford, or why make financial choices that will make you anxious all the time?

Most people fail because they are unable to forgo short-term pleasures in order to achieve their long-term objectives. Others fail because they succumb to societal pressures and attempt to impress others or acquire what others possess. When you do this, you become entangled in a massive web of unhealthy consuming.

Living cheaply is one way to ensure wealth. In fact, statistics have shown that many young people succumb to social media pressure and end up with depression, anxiety, or an uncontrollable desire to make money at any cost. I mean, you shouldn’t go out and buy things just because other people are doing it or because you want to look good so others see you as financially buoyant, especially on social media.

You might be surprised to learn that multi-billionaires like Warren Buffett still practice modest living. Let’s ask which of his sons is more frugal. This is the world we live in today, where people spend money they don’t have to impress others they don’t like, especially online. Without a doubt, Warren is more frugal than Charlie when it comes to personal consumption. I don’t want to discourage consumption or imply that buying goods you like is wrong; rather, I want to get your attention by asking you, as a consumer, whether you would rather have the appearance of wealth than truly own it.

If you’re just making money and spending it on material things with no priority at all on your financial dreams and goals, the rat race could be your forever home. Budgeting and accounting have consistently been shown to entice people away from this merciless competition. Stop discussing how to make money if your relationship with money requires you to work nonstop to fulfill it all; that is the true Rat Race.

Now that everything has been resolved, let’s discuss how to generate income by adding value, my friend. It’s great to learn how to handle money from the top billionaires on TV programs like Shark Tank, but one thing these people don’t teach you is how to make money. After all, managing your money is easier than making more of it. This is why the majority of financial experts in their books and presentations advise saving money, investing it, and living on less money than you make in order to pay off debt and live debt-free.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m not saying this approach doesn’t work; it does so very frequently, but let’s be honest; these Shark Tank billionaires don’t depend on cost-cutting to amass the kinds of money they boast about on the program, for example. Lori Greiner.

You’d probably agree that these guys have something going on for them that makes the living below your means concept very inconsequential, which is why I want to tell you their secret they all use a means of production and scale. One of the star personalities on the show gained her 510 million dollar net worth from her many startups and inventions ranging from jewelry to cosmetics plus she has several Investments that earn her at least one million dollars annually.

When you scale up your solution to a global level, your production side of the equation grows exponentially, but not everyone has the entrepreneur spirit, which is why you must first assess yourself and your capabilities. Lori Greiner’s entire business is focused on inventions that make people’s lives easier. All she does is find or create a product that solves people’s problems and then makes this solution available in Mass.

You can use anything to produce; for example, you can use Amazon to create and sell books or social media to create written or video content. There are countless things you can produce, and there are countless mediums to help you. Please understand that production here does not strictly mean starting a business.

This is a unique chance you shouldn’t pass up because the internet has made it easy to scale up your production and even sell to everyone in the globe from the comfort of your home.

It’s up to you to identify something you think the market would support you for, then manufacture it in large quantities, according to a quote from Warren Buffett that said, “Opportunities come in frequently when it rains gold put out the bucket not the thimble.” You can accomplish more if you just take the time to discover your production skills, so keep that in mind even if you consider your 9 to 5 job to be your main source of production and are content with it.

Here are some more inspiring words from Warren Buffett.

𝑴𝙤𝒔𝙩 𝙥𝒆𝙤𝒑𝙡𝒆 𝒐𝙣𝒍𝙮 𝙪𝒔𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝒎𝙖𝒍𝙡 𝙥𝒐𝙧𝒕𝙞𝒐𝙣 𝙤𝒇 𝒕𝙝𝒆𝙞𝒓 𝒑𝙤𝒕𝙚𝒏𝙩𝒊𝙖𝒍 𝒕𝙝𝒓𝙤𝒖𝙜𝒉𝙤𝒖𝙩 𝙩𝒉𝙚𝒊𝙧 𝙡𝒊𝙫𝒆𝙨, 𝒔𝙤 𝙖𝒏𝙮𝒕𝙝𝒊𝙣𝒈 𝒚𝙤𝒖 𝒅𝙤 𝙩𝒐 𝒊𝙣𝒗𝙚𝒔𝙩 𝙞𝒏 𝒚𝙤𝒖𝙧𝒔𝙚𝒍𝙛 𝙞𝒔 𝒕𝙝𝒆 𝒃𝙚𝒔𝙩 𝙞𝒏𝙫𝒆𝙨𝒕𝙢𝒆𝙣𝒕 𝒚𝙤𝒖 𝒄𝙖𝒏 𝒑𝙤𝒔𝙨𝒊𝙗𝒍𝙮 𝙢𝒂𝙠𝒆. 𝙄𝒇 𝒚𝙤𝒖 𝒄𝙖𝒏 𝒄𝙪𝒕 𝒃𝙖𝒄𝙠 𝙤𝒏 𝒚𝙤𝒖𝙧 𝙘𝒐𝙣𝒔𝙪𝒎𝙥𝒕𝙞𝒐𝙣 𝙬𝒉𝙞𝒍𝙚 𝙞𝒏𝙘𝒓𝙚𝒂𝙨𝒊𝙣𝒈 𝒚𝙤𝒖𝙧 𝙥𝒓𝙤𝒅𝙪𝒄𝙩𝒊𝙤𝒏, 𝙮𝒐𝙪’𝙡𝒍 𝒃𝙚 𝙛𝒊𝙣𝒂𝙣𝒄𝙞𝒂𝙡𝒍𝙮 𝙞𝒏𝙙𝒆𝙥𝒆𝙣𝒅𝙚𝒏𝙩 𝙖𝒏𝙙 𝙖𝒃𝙡𝒆 𝒕𝙤 𝙡𝒆𝙖𝒗𝙚 𝙩𝒉𝙚 𝙧𝒂𝙩 𝙧𝒂𝙘𝒆 𝒃𝙚𝒉𝙞𝒏𝙙 𝙛𝒐𝙧 𝙜𝒐𝙤𝒅. 𝙅𝒖𝙨𝒕 𝒓𝙚𝒎𝙚𝒎𝙗𝒆𝙧 𝙩𝒉𝙖𝒕 𝒊𝙣 𝙤𝒓𝙙𝒆𝙧 𝙩𝒐 𝒎𝙖𝒌𝙚 𝙢𝒐𝙣𝒆𝙮 𝙤𝒏 𝒂 𝒍𝙖𝒓𝙜𝒆 𝒔𝙘𝒂𝙡𝒆, 𝙮𝒐𝙪 𝙢𝒖𝙨𝒕 𝒑𝙧𝒐𝙙𝒖𝙘𝒆 𝒐𝙣 𝙖 𝙡𝒂𝙧𝒈𝙚 𝙨𝒄𝙖𝒍𝙚.