Originally posted on lifestylemaniacs.com

Did you know that people who suffer from severe accidents that impact their health for life are happier in the long run than lottery winners [1]? Not to mention the suicide rates.

Also, did you know that most lottery winners end up broke? That is the root cause of their misery.

The focus of this article is to make you change your perception of wealth. It is somehow counterintuitive to believe that making more money will make you wealthier.

Easy come, easy go

In S01:E14 of Two And A Half Men, Charlie goes broke. His accountant is trying to explain to him how this happened because Charlie was shocked. He gave a very intuitive explanation.

He made the analogy for cash flow by comparing it with water pouring inside a plastic cup with a hole at the bottom.

When water comes inside the cup faster than it drains, the cup remains full for a while, even after the water stops flowing. Of course, this happens if the hole is only one and not too large.

In Charlie’s case, he had ten holes at the bottom of the cup, and as soon as water stopped coming, the cup stopped having water.

The analogy is simple: if you spend more than you earn, you will always be poor.

If you have zero or a negative balance in your wallet or bank account at the end of each month, then you are spending too much. You will not even realize this but will think you are not earning enough.

Say you do find a solution to earn more money, and you succeed. Do you think it will fix the root cause of your case? In most cases, it will not because your mindset is the same.

The real issue you have a consumer mindset. When you have more, you think you afford more. As a result, you spend more.

If you were to change your mindset from a consumer to an investor, you would realize you spend too much on liabilities and not on assets.

Also, you would see that more money equals more savings for possible investments and not more spending on things you do not need.

Exceptions to the rule

I get it. You are already cutting your expenses at a minimum because you were not so fortunate. In your case, the solution is only to increase your income.

There is a catch to this exception, though. If you were to make more money, you would probably have the urge to compensate for all those years of lack of wealth.

The example above is what happened to me. I made more money than I ever needed, and still, I ended up borrowing money from others from time to time. Fortunately, I realized my issues and fixed them at the right moment.

Takeaways

If you are struggling with your money, look first at your expenses before trying to earn more.

• check your bills: are you wasting electricity, water, gas, etc.?
• check your transportation: can you walk or take the bus instead of the car?
• check your subscriptions: do you need Netflix, Spotify, YouTube Premium, Amazon Prime, etc.?
• check your shopping: do you need new clothes, new accessories, new devices, etc.?

The list continues but, in summary, adopt a minimalistic lifestyle. Think twice before clicking the buy button.

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Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser and don’t recommend investing in anything as nothing is guaranteed. Everything I write on the topic is for informational and educational purposes only. Always do your research.