For most of us, retirement was the much sought-after reward of peaceful tranquility that was automatically rewarded after a long and hard life of hard work for government-controlled companies or organizations.
In reality, these days, nothing could be further from the truth.
Imagine waking up one morning in the middle of winter, bus pass in one hand and pension book in the other, to the sad reality that instead of having a regular monthly income that almost covered your expenses, that income had been replaced by the a very generous donation from the state, laughingly called a pension.
Wow, £ 85 a week for a single person and around £ 120 for a couple. Well, at least the house was paid for, so there are no rent or mortgage costs.
With median earnings in the UK around £ 20,000, and with the two of them working, it was amazing how they always managed to spend a little more than their joint income.
But of course the government has announced that it will reintroduce some kind of income-related pension, but not until at least 2012.
Then, of course, there is the question of home ownership. What were your plans here? Give it to your kids or sell it and move into rental accommodation?
Well, if you were planning to keep it, for whatever reason, you’d better make sure you stay fit and healthy (both), as a report released earlier this year showed that more than 50% of us will have to sell your home. family. just to cope with the horrendously high costs of home care, as local authorities will no longer be able to afford to pay for this support.
So how have we as a society gotten into this situation?
The secret can be found in all the way we are taught from an early age, from our parents and peers, and from society as a whole. We are taught and encouraged to work for money, not how to make money work for us.
The whole fabric of our society is based on the principle that we should do well in school, get good grades, and then go find a job for someone else’s company, selling our time for money.
Working for money and not making money work for us!
Now, for many people, this is the established status quo, and many millions will continue to act this way. Let’s face it, the entire structure of society is still based on this structure, and for those who break out of this mold, they will want people to do jobs and tasks for you, or even become employees of their companies.
However, for a growing percentage of people, the ‘status quo’ is not enough. You want more, you know you are capable of more, so you will seek an escape route to a fuller and more rewarding lifestyle.
It takes great courage to start thinking “outside your box,” and many people simply never get over the first hurdle. This great hurdle to overcome is letting your brain think that what you want to do is possible.
Unless you start ‘thinking like a rich person’, you will always remain a slave to money, to be exploited by those who know ‘The Secret’.
Too many people think that they could never achieve what they say Sir Richard Branson has accomplished. Why? Was he born rich, did he make mistakes in his life? You can bet he made mistakes, but did he turn around and die at the first signs of adversity? Did he say, ‘Well, if British Airways opposes me, then that’s it, go back to factory work tomorrow?’
No. He knew in his mind that he could win and that he would win, so he moved on, and now, look at the result.
Most people don’t realize that many of the ‘rich and famous’ were not born rich, many of them dropped out of college (Bill Gates, for example), and many of them have gone bankrupt.
But did that stop Donald Trump or Stephen Pierce?
Not at all. And if you have any ambition to break out of the current dominance that society has put around your neck, you should take the time to learn and study what these ‘Icons of Society’ have accomplished, the traumas they went through, and how. they got. came to the wonderful lifestyles they now so obviously enjoy.
If you could get one, or maybe two of these rich and famous (and sometimes not so famous) people to share with you their innermost secrets about how they came to fame, and you got a different insight each month, then the law of averages will tell you that after a short time, you will be emulating them and your lifestyle will transform disproportionately to your current circumstances.
So what’s stopping you from retiring tomorrow, telling your boss that you can no longer afford to work there, and moving on to a life of financial independence, doing what you want, when you want, and with whoever you want?
And as for pensions … what pensions …?