A very small percentage of people who have come to America over the past 200 plus years hit the shore with a substantial amount of money in hand. If it was good back home, why leave for the unknown?
No, most of our ancestors came over because things were bad in the homeland. A strong desire for religious freedom, a little problem with the local law enforcement that only a large distance could cure, a famine, genocide. Some of our ancestors had no choice in the matter: they arrived in chains.
Whatever the circumstances, we’re all here now. As children, we generally grow up living with the choices of our parents and/or our grandparents. Our ancestors may have made choices that left us with a nest egg at birth, by the time we ventured out on our own, or at the time of their death. We may have inherited wealth.
As adults, we’re given the chance to do make our own choices. We may make the same choices our parents made, consciously or subconsciously. Or we may venture beyond our past. We can create and hold onto wealth, or we can make other choices that our descendants will live with.
It’s an American mantra that we should do better than our parents. A tall order in these economic times. But again, it’s all about choices.
The Old Money Book reveals the values, habits, and priorities of the American upper class that anyone can adopt in order to live a richer life. It’s a map of choices. Of course, I’d encourage you to read it and implement the concepts in your own life.
Between now and then, let me offer an example or three (which they say is worth a thousand lectures) about three different people who made three different choices with the same opportunity:
Monica works 9 to 5 in an office. Her grandmother dies and leaves her $50,000. Monica is thrilled. She buys clothes and shoes and has some cosmetic surgery done. She also parties hard and pretty soon, all of the money is gone. She continues to work at her job and remembers the good times she had with the money.
Jeff is in upper management. His grandmother also dies and leaves him $50,000. Jeff always wanted to own his own house, so he used the $50,000 as a down payment on a single family home. Now, the money is all gone, and Jeff still has to make mortgage payments.
Tom graduated from high school and works at a local auto repair shop. His grandmother also dies and leaves him $50,000. Tom takes a small portion of his inheritance and buys a tow truck. He makes money on evenings and weekends towing cars into the garage. The income more than offsets the monthly payments on the truck, and Tom has most of his inheritance in tact.
If you want to be Old Money, or if you want your grandchildren to be Old Money, you’re going to have to make smart choices. The smart choice in the three examples above is obviously Tom.
Why? Because Tom used the opportunity of the inheritance to purchase something that makes money. Monica bought luxuries that have no lasting value. Jeff bought a liability that he hopes will appreciate enough in the future to sell at a profit, but in the meantime he’ll have maintenance, repairs, and property taxes.
It’s been said many times and in many different ways, but the truth is this: some people take their money and buy stuff. Some people take their money and buy liabilities that they believe are assets. But Old Money buys things that really are assets: things that make money every month.
With the money that comes in from assets every month, Old Money buys more assets, more things that make money every month. And so on and so on and so on.
What you invest in is your business. Making you aware of your choices is mine.
Bon chance.
– BGT