The Advantages of Being in Control of Your Money

It is a fact that most Americans live in debt, and while the system upon which American society is founded encourages the spend-now-and-figure-it-out-later mentality, it is not a necessary lifestyle in order for one to be happy, and in fact, very often this type of lifestyle leads to more harm the good. While the banks, corporations, and other massive institutions do their best to keep the power in their hands and their control over the average person, it is not a necessary basis for society. The massive institutions deserve the lion's share of responsibility in creating the foolish financial lifestyle of the average American, but average people do not realize they have great power over challenging the purported necessity of this lifestyle.

The reason that the massive institutions want this type of lifestyle for the average person is that they then can have that person's money, and with that money a select few people can hoard the wealth for themselves and then spend it on legal bribery, termed "campaign donations," as well as on powerful attorneys and lobbyists who are willing to fight for social policy to be written in their favor.

It seems that these massive organizations are too massive for one individual to combat. How can one person make any difference? The simple answer to this question is through wise use of money. By spending one's money wisely, he or she is able to maintain control over his or her own life, for the most part. Total control, it seems, is impossible and unrealistic, but a large degree of control is very possible and realistic.

First, take a look at the way in which a person's life is controlled by his or her possessions. Say a certain person has to work forty hours per week in order to maintain a certain lifestyle. Say this lifestyle is fairly simple; the person is happy with one moderately expensive vehicle, and one inexpensive vehicle to be used by the spouse. The person also wants to own a house, which again, like two vehicles, is not an unreasonable demand. At this point, this family has all that they need, but not everything that they necessarily want. Say also that they want a boat, a motorcycle, and perhaps a summer cottage in which to vacation. These extra expenses cannot be paid for up-front by the family, so they decide to get loans for all of these expenses, loans which can cost up to 10% in interest, and costs thousands of dollars more, simply because of the interest. The one working person in this family then has to work more hours, say sixty in this case, just to keep making the minimum payments on these possessions. Should this person drop below those sixty hours, the minimum payments will be missed, and the possessions will be lost. In this case, the person's possessions are dictating how that person's time is being spent. This person does not even get to enjoy his or her possessions simply because he or she is spending so much time working to pay the bank to enjoy them. Possessions, here, might even be the wrong term because the person does not actually own the items; the bank owns the items, and the minute the person messes up on paying for them, they are gone. In this case, it is obvious that the person's life is being controlled by his or her possessions.

Next, take a look at a person whose life is not controlled by his or her possessions. This person works the standard forty hour work week, but instead of securing loans to have more possessions, this person simply stops at two vehicles and a home, and a few other minor possessions in the home. This person is paying off the only two loans that any person should have - the home loan and a college loan. If this person were to stop working, he or she would still own his or her own cars, and if he or she needed, he or she could work a menial job that would pay the mortgage and the college loans until a better one became available. He or she has a little less than the other person, but he or she also has much more freedom to do what he or she wants in his or her life. He or she can live without the stress of possibly losing his or her possessions, and also has the time available to enjoy the ones that he or she does have. This is a much more internally satisfying life, and is also far more sensible than the first life noted.

This is how the American people can maintain their personal power - by living wisely, which is not what corporate America wants. Corporate America wants all policy to favor itself so that it can do what is best for itself. Does this arrangement sound anything like a feudal society? Essentially what they are trying to form is a slave with invisible chains - an invisible slave - working relentlessly so that a few people can enjoy rich and lavish lifestyles. Not only is the wise method for finances more sensible in terms of helping one living a happy and enjoyable lifestyle, but it also helps to concentrate the power in a more balanced fashion so that a majority of people are not being exploited for the benefit of the minority. This undermines the concept of equality upon which America was founded - it is just difficult to detect this inequality in finances that already exists in an extreme manner, but it is in fact what is happening right before the nation's eyes. Instead of being enslaved overtly, people are being enslaved covertly, so that not all people have equal rights and opportunities in life.

In sum, keep in mind two main financial rules for wise financial living: 1) a person must have all the money in the bank to buy any possessions he or she desires (no use of credit) and 2) the only appropriate uses of credit are for a mortgage and college loan. If a person keeps these rules in mind, he or she will find that his or her life will be filled with a much higher degree of freedom and happiness in comparison to the average American.