I have a friend who is fairly wealthy. Being as I am not, I asked him how he became wealthy and hoped for a secret that would improve my finances drastically. Here’s what he said as close to word to word as I can make it.
“I was lucky,” he told me. “I accidently invested in the right company back when I had more guts than brains. It was a ten thousand to one shot, and it paid off. But it shouldn’t have. And then I sold out before the company crashed; once again I was lucky. I did no research. My broker told me not to sell, but truthfully I was tired of worrying about the stock so I sold it so that I wouldn’t have to worry. Since then, I’ve kept my money in very safe investments. Bonds, mutual funds, saving accounts, CDs. I can’t claim any credit for it, other than I’m very fugal. I was just lucky, and you can’t count on luck.”
Ecclesiastes 9:11: “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
This is not to say that I think following sound financial procedures won’t benefit you. In fact, I know you can drastically improve your finances and get out of debt by faithfully following some simple methods, but I’m not sure such methods will make you wealthy except over the long term.
I would have been out of debt this year. Unfortunately the bills from the hospitals, labs, and doctors have put a drastic end to that. Right now I have eight different bills from various medical facilities, and they all want to be paid now. I intend to pay them, but I don’t have the money so they’re going to have to wait. Doesn’t matter how many times they call me or mail me; the money simply isn’t there.
This is the reason I support some type of universal health care. Because I’m watching my dreams and hopes fall away, and there isn’t a thing I can do about it. And that’s that.
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2 comments:
Amen. I am in the same boat with the medical bills. I can't get one paid before three more show up to push me further down, or I wind up with a pharmacy bill that takes half my paycheck for two weeks.
The good news from this week is that I actually opened my 401K statement and I MADE MONEY in the past quarter. First time to see a positive there in a long time. I was doing the happy dance. Now I just have to live long enough to get my hands on that money.
Seems many of us are in that boat. My lack of posting stems from the fact that I facing some medical issues with my daughter, and i have no way to pay for them. But not getting them done...means I am risking her life. My bills will go to the wayside and I will most likely be filing bankruptcy soon.
I was on a mission to be debt free...and now I am facing more than I ever thought I would have.
Your post was certainly timely. Sorry for the personal rant.
Perhaps "chance" will shine on us all.
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