Now imagine you'd gone your entire life thinking "renting is throwing money away." Every day you didn't own a place, you'd feel guilty, anxious, embarrassed...for no good reason!
I fucking love renting! You should never feel guilty about getting educated and making an intentional choice that's right for you — even if it's not right for others.
What are the stories you've heard and the ones you've believed? I used to believe I was just a skinny Indian guy...that I needed to be frugal about everything...and that success was having 2.5 kids and a suburban house.
Sometimes it's lies that people around you believe. How many of our parents believe they need to live ultra-frugally so they can pass their money to you? When in reality, you'd rather they enjoy their lives, and travel, and stop worrying about the future?
Some lies drive me especially crazy. My mom retired as a public school teacher. In her final years of working, she showed me her investment prospectus. I looked at this brochure — with its colored, crayon-like fonts designed to make it look approachable and friendly — and was horrified. They offered terrible investment options, sub-par annuities, and insanely expensive expenses. In short, it was a complete rip-off.
It was engineered to rip them off. Here's a startling number I cover in my book: 1% in expenses can reduce your returns by 28%. That's 28% of your money...going straight into Wall Street's pocket. How would an ordinary teacher understand these complex concepts? They wouldn't.
It's easy to believe the lies. But there's a reason most people buy into these lies: It's easy to go with the crowd. Easy to end up 48, 2 kids, living deep in suburbia, loaded down with mortgage debt, hoping you can take 10 days of vacation a year...
...because you made the same choices everyone else does.
That's my worst nightmare: to buy into the lies without questioning them, and end up like everyone else.
The more you craft a Rich Life for you, the more different — even incomprehensible — it should be to others. Because it's your Rich Life.
I crafted my own Rich Life. For example, I spend a lot on expensive clothes and a personal trainer. People on the internet think this is bonkers — after all, I could just find workouts for free online, right? But it works for me (just as having a 7-year-old Macbook Air also works for me).
What lies have you believed? If you decided to make a change, what would your Rich Life look like?
My suggestion to you: Find someone you trust, someone who's made the unconventional choices that you admire. Study what they did differently. Go deeper — how did they make those choices? How can you apply them to your life?
If you're following people who don't inspire you (who clog up your inbox or feed with things that don't resonate), unsubscribe. Me included!
But when you find the rare person who can help you create your Rich Life, one that's uniquely yours, pay attention. Those people don't come around very often.
