You will never become rich by spending but by saving and investing as much as possible. Every time you spend by impulse,
you suspend your financial
freedom. If you cannot save, you are a slave to money. The
desire for instant gratification is powerful thus advertisers often use this human weakness against us. I recently came across a powerful statement by Stephen Leacock. He said, ‘advertisement may be described as the science of arresting the human mind long enough as to get money from it’. ‘Impulse or subconscious buying is the reason for many sales. When people spend impulsively they are tempted to conclude that budgeting does not work. W. Clement stone, founder of combined insurance company of America says-‘if you cannot save money, then the seeds of greatness are not in you’. Benjamin Franklyn himself says-‘a penny saved is a penny gained. The way to wealth if you desire it is as the way to the market. It depends chiefly on two words; industry and frugality. Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both’. Brian Tracy talks about a research study that was conducted in the 1950’s and published in 1964 as the heavenly city. Dr Edward Banfield of Harvard University studied the reasons for upward socio economic mobility in the United States. He wanted to find out how you could predict whether an individual or a family was going to move upward one or more socio economic groupings and be wealthier in the next generation than they were the present one. Banfield studied and compared his findings against the most common explanations for economic success in the United States and in other countries. Was it education? No. because many people with good education actually moved down economically. Was it intelligence? No. a lot of very intelligent people were poor. Was it been born into the right family? No. many born into affluent families did poorly as adults. Was it being in the right part of the country? Was it luck? Banfields research brought him to a single conclusion- time value. Solomon in his wisdom wrote thousands of years ago – ‘the race of life is not to the swift. Nor the battle to the strong. Nor bread to the wise. Nor riches to men of understanding. Nor favour to men of skill; but time and chance happens to them equally’. Motivational author Brian Tracy says ‘the average professional has a time value of 10, 15, 20, or more years. While that of an average labourer is lower. The hopeless, drug addict or the alcoholic at the bottom of the wealth pyramid has a time value of hours, even minutes. He does not think of the future at all, only the nest drink or sniff. Each Person’s position and direction in life from the top to the bottom of society are determined by the length of their time perspective. The amount of time you spend in planning your day to day activities will result in a higher standard of living.