When you graduate from college or graduate school - do you want to be rich when 65 or by 30? To be honest, I couldn’t care less for retirement at that time. I graduated with my first degree when I was 23 and didn’t spend a moment thinking about being 65. Later on, while working I achieved my second degree. I am now 31 and while it would have been nice to be rich by now - life throws different challenges at you.
Bach’s books - one of which I keep a permanent link on the sidebar every page of this blog, try to grab the attention of the greedy book shopper who wishes to get rich and then tell them how to reorganize their finance so that they could retire rich. I was not disappointed to find that out. It’s my opinion that “get rich quick” schemes and authors are peddling rubbish and will get you in bigger trouble than where you started out. Some of these “I got rich” books will only tell you how happy the guy is to make his million doing some questionable things you should never repeat. He’s actually making most of his fortune now from telling you how he was lucky to get rich.
 65 or 30 or now? Of course now, but let some reality in, you are very likely not to get rich quick. Once you start working, set some aside in your IRA or 401k and forget about it - you won’t even notice it gone - and you will sure regret later if you don’t do it at all. |
Here are 12 questions for the recent graduates to ask themselves as they embark on their career and dream of being rich:
- Given a first job in your career path, where do you see yourself in 2,5, and 10 years from now and how does this job bring you there?
- Would you be happy rich at 35 if you spend your 20 to 35 living like a beggar?
- Would you sacrifice career over family? When do you imagine you will marry and when do you think your first child will be born?
- What is a rich man to you; The guy with the nicest car but a mountain of debt or the guy with the most at the bank riding a used clunky car?
- Could you devote yourself to very long work days if you opened a business?
- How far will you go to sacrifice for your career? Would you relocate across the globe?
- How strong of a personality do you have to regroup and restart after a scorching failure?
- Are you financially responsible in your personal life?
- Are you organized enough to apply it towards your career?
- If you had gotten a large yet not huge sum, like 70k for example, would you spend it or save it?
- How do you view debt - a leverage to growth or an anchor on your earnings?
- Did you study the right things to help you reach your goals and if not - are you willing to continue learning?
Some of these question I had faced before, some I’m still pondering.
A few points of advice from me to the young and ambitious:
- If you don’t plan, your only chance of success is luck… don’t count on it
- All plans are made to be changed. Always assess what is more important at the present.
- Family, friends and relationships are ten times more important than money.
- If it feels wrong, if it’s against your principles, don’t do it. Simple as that. People who made their fortune from trading arms with the darkest regimes on this planet make me sick - yet some consider them to be gods simply because they flash their dough and sometimes pay a tiny contribution to charity.
- Always give some to charity. I know I should give more, no matter how much I’ve given.
- Don’t stress about broken home appliances… it’s only a small setback
- CNBC won’t get you rich - but it will hypnotize you into believing you are a tiny forest animal…
- For 99% of people, blogging is NOT a source of income!
Cheers!
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