one of the most common terms associated with modern living is this a rat race an endless self-defeating and pointless pursuit and this is how the rat race is perceived in the highly corporatized market-driven society a constant chase of the upgrading of your living standards and an effort of earning more and more and many people label this pursuit as futile as most of us might never earn the amounts required to live a lavish lifestyle without worries of running out of money in short most of us will never be millionaires hence spending our whole life working hard
to increase our income level is pointless as we might never have enough but then there are those rich and famous who had enough and still lost it and then these who face convictions for millions of dollars in tax evasions then the question arises what is the real rat race [Music] these visuals might indicate a deceiving image of the economic condition of the general public but the reality is that most people in u.s and globally live paycheck to paycheck and this reality has turned worse and crueler since the epidemic a traditionally accepted idea of a decent
life is owning a house a car the ability to afford education and health care and a nice outing once a week many economists predict that households with a hundred thousand per year income or the upper middle income group can achieve this idyllic lifestyle but things aren't all rainbows and sunshine even for the aforementioned upper middle income group now there has to be some relation between these reports and these images to understand it deeply we need to evaluate the concept of money its value and its utilization in our lives what is the one thing that connects
the whole of humanity while philosophically the answer can be love or god but in practical terms it is money the paper money that we know today has traveled a long road and was pivotal in the industrial revolution that changed the global markets but it doesn't matter what the shape and form of currency are be it the barter system of early people or the cryptocurrency the real question is what money represents and that is value and this isn't the emotional value rather the economic market decided value for instance a loaf of bread holds an entirely different
personal value to someone hungry for days and to someone who has a surplus in every meal but the price or the market value of that loaf would be the same for both of them and this value is not random many economic factors decide the value or price of each and everything including the money we make for the work we do the first step is to understand this concept of money in pure market value terms and not linking it with personal morals we have all heard this quote this statement is further cemented into our psyche by
the image of rich and powerful in the media but it is important to pull back and look at the original quote from paul the apostle to understand its context both philosophically and practically this statement makes sense it's not the money or the desire to earn it that creates evil and causes problems in people's lives and makes them vulnerable at the end of every month but their relationship with it and to manage money successfully you have to evaluate your relationship with it your usage of money is what decides whether you will live a financially balanced life
or one ridden with credit card debts this old proverbial analogy of money is simple timeless and accurate just like much age-old wisdom the sad part about the modern living and education system is that we are not well prepared about the real life financial education that we need from an early age the developed world leads to a paradoxical existence of the abundance and scarcity the abundance of consumption yet the scarcity of the resource to purchase them at the same time many people live in this paradox every month it translates to partying on the payday heavy purchases
on sale weeks 72 inch tvs on the credit card and then load to nothing savings at the end of the month to strike a good fiscal balance you have to go back to the cliche of budgeting take your monthly salary in one corner then think of things you absolutely need save a good amount from the rest and then spend on the things you want now how can you differentiate between your needs and your wants a very simple technique to identify your needs might be anything you will still buy even if you never saw any advertisement
for it now i'm not suggesting that the only way to have a decent financial situation is to live frugally and approach life as a minimalist it is completely fine to want things chasing comfort and even luxury but it is imperative for a balanced life to stretch your feet according to your coverlet it is not wise to drive your car up to the last drop of fuel without refueling the tank it is not wise to expect to get healthy while eating unhealthily and it is not wise to think your physical conditions will change without changing your
spending habits insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results to simplify this point money is an expendable resource and its value is judged not by how much you earn but how much you retain it is not the amount that enters your bank account on the payday but the amount that stays on the last day of the month which you can utilize and scale further this leads us to an even bigger question how can one scale their income if they don't see any future growth in their jobs this takes us
back to the point of people living paycheck to paycheck if you follow many online financial gurus half of them preach a frugal lifestyle and the other half lure their viewers with fake get-rich-quick schemes the media vilifies the regular nine to five jobs without realizing that those are necessary both for the people working for them and the society in general the reason for this willfully ignorant campaigning is relatability most people are frustrated with their jobs and want to change their financial conditions quickly so the simple rule of demand and supply births many of these self-help gurus
who give easy answers that most people can digest but we have to understand that there are no shortcuts to success this is what the real rat race is not working regular jobs chasing comfort or luxury but not planning it well and doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result so what is the solution to it just like the money we spend the money we receive or earn is also a value it is the value based on our production capability in an hourly wage job the more hours we put into the
production the more money we make but there is a finite amount of hours we can work hence only a finite value we can produce so how can we break the circle for this we have to look beyond the number of hours we put in and ask ourselves what are these hours used for what is the actual service that we can provide this takes us back to the point of the market deciding the value of production harsh as it may sound but the reality is some services in the market hold less value than others even if
a person works two or three jobs that offer no scalability their earnings would be limited and their mental and physical health would be adversely affected leading them to a strained personal life now this may sound gloomy and lead to a feeling that the game is rigged against you that the rich might have the tricks up their sleeve that you can't conjure or maybe they are born into wealth but the reality is that a vast majority of millionaires in today's society are self-made and the way they did it is they found a problem in the society
gave a solution and scaled that solution to create value now we are not saying that every person can come up with the next amazon or tesla or microsoft these high-tech individuals indeed came up with once-in-a-lifetime ideas and solutions to the market but what each of us can do is identify a problem or a demand in the market that you can give a solution to or fulfill the supply of and then make that solution scalable working in a gaming company is limiting but creating an easily downloadable and engaging game is scalable opening and running a small
specialty restaurant is restrictive and takes a long time to break even but creating a franchise around specialty food is highly scalable and rewarding driving a truck generates limited income but opening a transportation company is expandable take an example of this or any other youtube channel with good fellowship we find topics that people are interested in research them and create appealing videos consistently that in turn connect with more and more people scaling the viewership of the channel this is what your goal is to find a pond where you can be a big fish and don't think
that this is undoable if you have failed once there are plenty of examples around that made it happen no matter how late in life so find a problem strive for a workable solution and make it scalable and remember that the first week of the gym is the hardest so is the first time when you pick up a guitar or as a child when you first learn the alphabet but instead of focusing on the difficulties of today creating a clear vision of your end goal is how you achieve a healthy body play amazing solos or write
eloquent essays to sum it up the first thing to attain a healthy relationship with your money you need to journal your expenses thoroughly begin with spending on the essentials save some amount and then chase after luxuries it's not about how much you make but how much you end up with these sacrifices of leisure and excess that you make today will lead to more secure life and a better consumption balance then if you feel that you're stuck in a rut of your meaningless job identify a problem or a demand in the market find a creative and
unique solution to it and make it scalable if you fail the first time don't repeat the same mistakes rather take a different approach that has not been taken before don't panic about running out of time as long as you're trying always keep these people on your mental vision board if this gimmick in the economic chaos that followed has taught us anything is that your current financial condition is fragile and the sooner you take command of it the better your relationship with your money is the one that will inadvertently affect all the relations in your life
and to keep a good balance in your life you need to strike a balance with your money
