Do you know how to get rich? You must have read several dozen books about how to get rich. For example, the book, “Think rich and grow rich”. But why have you not made it rich till now? There must be something amiss, or you probably have missed it out totally. Or simply, all these books did not mention about this magic formula to grow rich. That is, the concept:
“Your money is my money; my money is mine.”
Perhaps, this phrase sounds silly. However, the effectiveness of how a person grows rich is totally dependent on whether he possesses this mindset.
On the contrary, if you have this thinking: “My money can be your money and your money is yours”, you will obviously end up with less money. Money just trickles out of your pocket and travels into somebody else’s coffer. We all fall in this majority. This explains why most of us are not rich, if not already in debt.
You cannot resist the temptation to buy, buy, and buy --- be it tangible goods or intangible services. On the other hand, the marketing people have only one aim --- that is, to make you buy more of their goods and services. They want you to buy now and pay later. Consumer credit is made easily available to you. Therefore, you feel you have the financial capacity to buy much more than you can afford. Very soon, you would be in debt.
Today, the world economy is driven by ubiquitous consumer credit. The banking system pushes money onto your lap in all forms of credit. Whether it is buying a house on a mortgage loan, a car on installment, a 42-inch TV on 24 monthly credit installments, getting the holiday of your heart’s desire with your credit card, and etc, these people have one objective in their mind. That is, “Your money is my money.”
It is every bank’s intention to move money into your hands in order to make an interest on what you borrow. The bank can do so only if you want to buy something that you do not have enough money on hand. The banks come in conveniently to give you a helping hand to realize your dreams. You asked for money and got it by agreeing to pay the banks interest on the principal borrowed. It is a win-win situation.
On the other hand, the property agents, car dealers, electronics goods retailers, travel agents as a group wants to earn your money via commission, by selling tangible goods or intangible services to you. This group knows you do not have enough cash to pay for these things up-front. Thus, they work together with the banks to offer you financial plans usually, in the form of monthly installments stretched over as long a period as possible. For example in Japan, a housing mortgage plan can be multi-generation stretching up to 50 years.
When sales people peddle goods and services to you, in their mind, there is only one aim. That is: “Your money is my money.”
The second part of the phrase, “My money is mine” is easy to explain. They leave it to the banks to get their capital back, inclusive of interest. The banks will make sure that you pay all the installments regularly and on time.
If you cannot resist the temptation to spend money, you automatically fall into the category of people who would never make it rich. This is simply because you fail to pay attention to an inconspicuous habit driven by this passive mindset: “My money can be your money”.