What is considered normal today sucks! Normal is 55% of credit card users have debt. Normal is in March 2019 the amount of credit card debt was at 1.057 TRILLION dollars. Normal is 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Normal is the average student loan debt is $35,359. Normal is 85.4% of all vehicles purchased are financed and Americans have over 1.1 TRILLION in auto debt. Normal is work your entire life and hope that the government can or will support you because you didn’t save and invest properly before retiring. Normal is the number 1 cause of divorce relates to conflicts and arguments about money. Normal is ignoring money problems and bankruptcy. Normal is a new iPhone every year and minimums payments on your debt. You get the point. What is normal behavior and accepted by most people today sucks. Why would you want to be normal if this is what it looks like?
Visa stock is up 32.08% in the last year. Mastercard is up 44.82%. American Express is up 35.89%. The reason all these credit card companies are earning billions of dollars every year is because people continue to overextend themselves and make purchases with money they don’t have. One of the best gifts you could give yourself and your family this holiday season is to get out of and stay out of debt. Think of how much more you would be able to invest if you were not making monthly payments to the credit card companies. A great way to start is to use the debt snowball or debt avalanche methods. I go into more detail about these here. Consider being weird and being in the minority of not having credit card debt and experience how freeing it is.
Another normal for most people today is a substantial car payment. Why on earth do you need to drive a brand new BMW and pay over $1000 a month, when a very reasonable used vehicle can get you to the exact same places in the same amount of time for thousands less. Overextending yourself when buying a car kills most peoples ability to save for retirement and build wealth. That is why paying cash for your vehicles is always the best option and is the only true way to know your exact cost of a vehicle purchase. Now, I get it, you may not be able to purchase a car without some kind of financing, at least initially, but that does not mean you have the green to splurge and buy a top of the line fully tricked out car. Be sensible and purchase a sensible car on the shortest-term loan possible and pay that wealth killer off as soon as possible. Don’t be fooled by super low monthly payments on a 72 or even 84-month loan. There is a reason the dealerships push these loans. That’s because it makes them more money and keeps you in a perpetual state of normal. I personally believe that that you should not finance a vehicle longer than 48 months, and if you can pay if off early then do so. Consider being weird and drive that paid for car another year or two or pay for your next vehicle with cash and forget the lease and loan payments.
If you didn’t receive a paycheck this week would you be able to pay your mortgage or rent? Would you be able to make your car payment? Would you be able to put food on the table without turning to a credit card? If you answer no to any of these then you are normal in todays society. 78% of people today are living paycheck to paycheck and would not be able to pay their bills if this happened to them. Why do you want to be normal? Being normal is keeping you from financial freedom. Normal is keeping you from being able to retire comfortably when you want. Normal has caused so many problems in your life and you don’t even realize it because its normal. Get weird with your money and stop being normal. Stop trying to impress those around you who you have no business trying to impress. If you truly want to impress someone then impress yourself and stand out because you chose to be weird and build wealth. To many people get wrapped up with how they look or how they can impress their next door neighbor and fall victim to normal. Weird is wearing the same pair of jeans year after year bexcause there is nothing wrong with them. Weird is driving a 10 year old car with 200,000 miles on it that is paid for. 80% of millionaires today are first generation millionaires meaning they did not inherit wealth but they worked their asses off and saved and decided that being welathy and weird was better than being poor and normal.
Financial & Wealth Development Adventure 