The best way to save money, is to make money.
We can only cut back so much after all, so while creating efficiencies, scaling back unnecessary expenditures and optimizing the way we use resources is a step in a good direction, we also should consider taking a step in the other direction simultaneously. Saving on one side, generating on the other.
He who buys what he does not need steals from himself.
Swedish Proverb
The Swedes tend to do okay financially, though I am pretty sure that looking at how many of them dress, this proverb has been left by the wayside. Though, just because it is out of fashion, doesn't mean that it is irrelevant.
I was talking with a friend about my difficulty with sweet food the other day and how it would be great to have a "craving checkbox" system, where I would be able to switch off cravings for certain foods without willpower. And, I wish it was the same for savings, where without feeling the pinch, it would be possible to make cutbacks.
What is interesting is that we are heavily influenced to consume, yet it is much, much harder to influence us to save. We love to collect, but we tend to love to collect meaningless nonsense. But, consumption makes advertisers money, saving doesn't. The corporate world doesn't want savvy investors, because if everyone was good with money and looking to generate income, there wouldn't be mush to generate - because no one would be consuming. The only reason that companies are able to make money, is to encourage people to spend money, to consume.
And, this is also what an individual needs to do in order to take that generating step to empower the saving step. They need to be able to convince someone to spend money with them, one way or another. There are many mechanisms for this, but the easiest one is to increase paid working output to generate more income.
A second job, a side hobby gig, down at the docks on a Saturday evening when the sailors arrive.
For something, you have to do something.
What are you trading?
On Hive, people think they are trading their time for income, but that is only part of the story. For example, I trade my perspective gained through my experience in an attempt to convince people to vote on my content. Weirdly, there is unlikely anyone in the world that is doing what I do in the way that I do it, but it isn't scarcity alone that makes it valuable, it is also that it tends to create engagement and perhaps even, give people something to think about for the day that they may not have thought about otherwise. It is kind of like a thought prompt that hopefully nudges people to improve their own processes through life.
At work however, I am only partially using this side of my experience professionally, and instead I am trading my ability to facilitate conversation and well, help people improve their professional processes to get a better result - to be more effective at trading their time spent to generate more value for themselves, and the company for which they work. Without the company's product, their skills don't have an outlet and without them, my role isn't required either.
We are all trading something.
At home, I am also trading my experiences with my wife, where I am also supporting her to improve her processes (she hates this most of the time). And what I get in return, is a better quality of life for our family, and she gets a better quality of life too. A good relationship is one where participants are able to empower people to be their best and increase the general wellbeing of all.
A rising tide lifts all boats
Applied at a micro economic level, with us helping each other succeed, creating the swell to lift our ship. I would be incredibly happy if I could help my wife earn more than I do, as not only would it be good for the family, it would also increase her own confidence in her abilities and give her the extra capital to start expanding her investment horizon. One of the reasons that she isn't as interested in investing as perhaps she should be, is because she doesn't feel she has extra to invest, so why bother?
I wonder how much of an impact this has on the difference in wealth between men and women.
Regardless of gender, most of us don't spend enough time understanding finance, economics or how best to utilize the resources we have available and instead, run on our learned defaults. So many people will make choices for things that they consider quality of life reasons, that end up costing them quality of life. For example, quitting a job they don't like, but liking not having a job even less. Similarly, people avoid working some jobs because they think they will like it less than not liking not having enough money.
However, what they fail to consider is while a job can suck, the job doesn't live in a vacuum, it is part of a life experience. Not liking a job but doing it, can give that additional income to invest that means that in the future, an individual can more easily change jobs or do a job they like for less money, because they have built up a supplementary income from investments. It can also bring the satisfaction of helping other people cared, so they can pick a job that they like.
Is it a sacrifice?
Yes.
Because it is a trade. All trade is a sacrifice, because one thing is given up in order to get another thing.
Banana for apple, shield for spear, skill for money.
Saving is sacrifice.
Making is a sacrifice.
It is about energy transfer, where the energy that could have gone elsewhere, is sent in another direction. The money for buying the new phone, gets directed to buying some tokens. The time for sitting watching TV, gets directed to doing a shift at the supermarket.
Wealth transfer.
We get convinced to trade our wealth, our investment potential, our time resources, our attention - and give it to those who will benefit from us, while they give us not much in return. And we feel like it is worth it.
If we really wanted to break the traditional economy, we would undermine it by severely changing our demand, redirecting our portfolio of resources into values that lay outside of the traditional system. Just imagine if for the next year, instead of buying whatever it does now, all disposable income was spent on buying Bitcoin.
That is a graph for the disposable income in the US, which is over $55,000 per capita. How much does that work out to??
$16,500,000,000,000
16.5 trillion dollars.
Which in an unrealistic straight line evaluation of Bitcoin based on today's price, puts it 33x up - at $891,000 per BTC. Straight line doesn't work though for obvious supply reasons, so it would more likely be in the 5-10M per BTC range.
However, if that were to happen, it would be 16.5 trillion dollars that isn't going into the corporate world and the consequences would be severe, with companies failing, most people fired, banks collapsing and the entire financial world so utterly disrupted, recovery wouldn't be possible, only a ground-up rebuild would suffice. The economy is far more fragile than we are led to believe - all we need to do is stop supporting it, and the value of everything that has a value, freefalls.
It wouldn't be pretty.
But at some point, it is a trade we are likely going to have to make. Trading our individual comfort, for something wholly better.
Before we get to those extremes though, we might want to learn all we can and without resources, we don't have the capabilities to learn anything at all, because we have nothing to trade for the lesson.
This graph looks similar to the one above, but with a key difference. Whilst there is about 16.5 trillion of disposable income, there is also about 18 trillion in personal expenditure.
That gap, is the rich getting richer.
We make that trade daily.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Posted Using LeoFinance Alpha
To make money, we need each other. It is the community that attaches value to products and services. Your call for cooperation and helping each other in the trade of life is wise, and I can support it. Thank you for the insightful article.
I wonder if we will ever reach a level where we can operate as a tribe at a global level.
Maybe several tribes that can cooperate...
I feel a lot of damage was due to the Covid. And turns out after the covid the war was going to happen. We just didn't knew it would be ukraine. But overall I feel regaining the normal is harder than it looks. I thought 2024 would be the year but it seems like that would not be the case. Do you think there could be rise in some CBDC which may turn out to be a common reserve currency and has blockchain as it's backing? I feel we could be seeing that world soon.
The governments and banks are obviously looking to commandeer blockchain and crypto for themselves. They will sell it as "the same" but with centralized security - because most people don't understand why centralization isn't secure - decentralization is.
What will be most concerning is to see how we come out on the other side of the collapse when it does happen. Like you said it will not be pretty. People who once had things of value will now find they no longer have any value whatsoever. Will we be able to come out on the other side? How far will we regress as a society after a collapse? I don't necessarily see some post-apocolyptic world, but I definitely see upheavel and not sure we as a people will be all blockchain and bitcoin when its over.
I am not sure, but I do think that it is either going to lead to some kind of apocalypse, or (hopefully) a reimagining of society where humans are again taken into consideration as people, not just a mechanism for wealth creation.
I think it will be something more akin to the later. Then again that may be my more positive, kinder and gentler side showing itself. 😀
Ha ha, I feel you, my wifes hate the exercise, and all kind of techniques that improves mental health, thought process, speed, stamina etc, but she still does it for a short period of time when need it. I managed to help her to do the health stuff at least, whatever kind of health will be. But still, I need to trick her into it, and deliver very small doses.
Should it be so hard to stay healthy?? :D
if it would have been easy, everybody would do it. right?
I am good at easy things.... ;)
me too
My wife always starts to cringe when I tell her we are on a spending freeze. She is actually really great and quite frugal. There are times we have some big expenses but us all at once and I have to impose the dreaded freeze. It drive me crazy because I know when we are frozen we also aren't putting money into savings.
At least it seems that you have set up a process for this, rather than it being a kneejerk reaction to conditions.
Yeah, I try to do a good job with the finances. I pulled us out of a bad place when we were first married, so I am always mindful not to put us back there.
Experience teaches better than good advice.
Ain't that the truth!
I think that your job is a great one. Helping others to become better in what they do, getting more results for themselves and for the company as well is a win-win scenario.
Besides, I think that we should sort the most out from our time, skills and so on. In that way we can try to fulfill different targets in this life. I wrote an article a couple of days ago about the importance of being productive. I think I will drop it into the #Reflections community!
Productivity comes in many forms and I feel that most of us are looking for ways to become less productive, not more. I think there are strong ties to depression for example, where the less we do, the higher the chances.
they are definitely correlated. Doing nothing is a form of involution.
Life is like inflation: the more we proceed, the more we are asked to perform. When doing nothing, we are not adding reserves to our amount AND it's decreasing based on what we would be asked from life
I am preparing myself to be a wife that would love to talk about finances, investing, and every other financial indulgence that will help our family move forward and be better.
Somewhere in my heart, I am hoping my future husband will be someone who is willing to also trade time, energy, and resources like me, to build a future where our family will be free to make certain leaps and improve the quality of our lives.
Hopefully you find a person who can help you and you them. It isn't an easy road, but it can be fulfilling :)
I hope so too. Thank you, Sir.
Yes, I understand, but I am willing to pay the cost for a glimpse of that fulfillment:)
Thanks again.
I like that.
I think this might be because the "rush" comes from the things we buy, not the saving itself. It's like delayed conditioning so it's not as effective as other forms of association.
There is definitely a skew here. I suspect the average salary isn't even that high.
Yep - the instant gratification of buying something for $100, is far more satisfying than investing $100
Definitely a skew for disposable income. Interestingly though;
The average annual average salary in the U.S. is $60,575. The median annual salary, which is often less skewed by outlying numbers, is $56,420.
Yeah, habits die hard... Real hard.
See the thing is once you've cut back on the non vital and necessities it's harder to cut any further so when the economy declines further one must already have an initiative in place for generating more income. It's hard but not impossible.
Besides splinterlands what other hive engine tokens have you invested in? Or at least have some hope for reaching a massive store of value?
I don't really invest into Hive Engine tokens. I have a few like some LEO, but I don't think most of them are offering anything unique enough to generate longterm value.
I see, what are your thoughts on Larynx? The Threespeak token? I'm not sure but I don't think that's a Hive Engine token right?
Ah, I have a bit of Larynx. Hopefully it does something :)
Laughs, okay that's good to hear because I am filling my wallets with that xD I only yesterday saw it mines SPK
!PIZZA
We all make something or an effort in this world for something in return. It is the free market in full action!
Indeed.
Right, time, but not only it. We also trade our experience, knowledge and opinions on HIVE.
By the way, I liked the Swedish proverb. It is one of my life philosophy.
We trade many kinds of resources here - most have little value :)
I like the proverb too!
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@technicalside(2/5) tipped @tarazkp
In reality, shifts do happen but not suddenly. Quite recently, a distant friend of mine (who is now involved in politics but who also has the IT developer mindset AND skills at top world class level), wrote in his blog, as a matter of introduction to something else...
"... as the blockchain revolution didn't happen... "
And I was like... "It didn't?"
It's still happening but he's probably right, too, because it is not a revolution. It is Evolution. It happens slowly, not suddenly. And only from a distant time perspective would it look like a concentrated event. The tech is changing the world. Tech ever does. We have perhaps become a bit resistant to change or have always been in some regards. But it is also a good thing. Evolution done right should prove itself through slowly passing the tests of serious traditional resistance. The obstacles should be there for they are the stress tests without which you're going ahead blindly. Fortunately, Evolution doesn't do that. And it is unstoppable. Short of blowing up the planet, that is.
I was into this beware of mindless consumers' behavior a few years before blockchain tech appeared. And I hoped for that movement to change the world sooner or later. Sooner or later, it will have to. But, we all have our weaknesses in that regard, too. It's a grind. A mindset. A general direction of behavior. There will be bumps and hiccups. But that's natural. Being pure and pristine in any regard is a fantasy. But following a path does matter, even with the normal deviations.