Know Why You’re Growing Your Money Tree, And Don’t Loot It Before It Has A Chance To Become Self-Sustaining
Money at first is simply income, something that you get a little bit of every few weeks.
You start out in life without much skill, without being able to care for yourself. But you are not dependent on money, just love and healthy attention.
Many people regress.
By their early 20’s they are more and more reliant on money and missing more and more love and attention. Their debt piles up, defined by the experiences they have paid for and the tangible goods they own.
If that income at first is a little tiny fruit tree and you nurture it, let it grow then it will become a massive, self-sustaining tree, providing you with shade, able to withstand some lean years and thriving through times of abundance.
It will not only provide tons of fruit for you but also for those around you who you care about.
Most people don’t ever give their money a chance to become something more than a paycheck. They will rob their own little tree of its fruit, leaving it barren and soon it become a dead little tree just to have to start all over again.
If money grows to a certain sum, and is invested wisely then it can grow on its own. Once it grows it can generate its own income. Money makes money, that’s where the value of money lies, not in how fast you can buy consumer goods.
Goods which no longer are produced by ethical standard. Child labor, destruction of wildlife habitats and murdering of millions of human beings for access to cheap natural resources.
Your paycheck can be much more than a candy factory.
Money no longer becomes something to use to get the ‘things’ we want but something that can help us become financially independent.
There is nothing wrong with trading money for goods/experiences. But more often those goods/experiences become the shackles which make us consumers in an economy where the president advises us to ‘spend’ in order to stimulate the economy.
Independent from being tied to an income. Independent from being controlled by a job/an employer and others who have power over our money. That’s financial freedom.
Those in prison know and are known to have given up their freedom. It was traded for something they thought they wanted more than their freedom. Some, or many, will come to regret that trade. Yet habits are hard to break. Even when given a second chance it’s hard for some to still choose the right path. Though if asked, they will always know the right answer.
How free are we job-centric civilians living on the other side of the bars holding in those prisoners? We are held captive by our jobs, work commitments, business obligations, our reliance on automobiles, gasoline, consumer goods, our governments.
Few people will vote with their dollar and their physical presence. They will only mock those who don’t vote on ballots. They cast their ballots once every 4 years and wear their stickers proudly. They selected between 2 main candidates which were chosen for the unsuspecting masses, and they are proud to have been given that chance.
So, consider your little fruit tree. If you will raid its fruit when its young and have to constantly build it back up then do so intentionally.
If you are going to stay at a job which abuses you or which you hate then do so intentionally. Perhaps you still need 1-2 years before you can exit that job. Or there may be aspects of it you love which you need to find somewhere else before leaving it.
If you will, with your dollars, buy meat in the grocery store for which the animal had to suffer a terrible life in order to quench your appetite then do so intentionally. Don’t think by ignoring it on the surface that it is expelled from your mind. Your subconscious will suffer… pile enough such stuff on it and it will crumble.
I think I am writing this post because I am troubled by doctors who complain about their income, complain about their jobs and complain about the patients.
Those who recognize that the field of medicine has sold out to pharmaceutical companies, that patients are no longer taking responsibility for their health and that physicians are burdened by external demands more and more will not complain. They are aware of a trend, unhappy with the direction and want to pave a path around the chaos.
Why should I be forced out of medicine when all I care about is helping those who truly want medical help? I won’t complain, but I won’t be the chained idiot in Plato’s cave. I’ve looked outside of the cave and won’t let my poor habits get in the way of growing my money tree.