Having a poverty mindset can keep your mind in bondage, and keep you a permanent resident of the city of less than enough. And no one wants to be a permanent resident of that city. Many of us may have been temporary residents, but we saw that living there was not going to be good for us, or anyone else. So we packed our boxes and got out of there.
Here in Africa the reason we are poor is we believe we are poor. We think poverty, talk even walk poverty. The danger of it is that eventually we download it to our progeny. I had an opportunity to meet Lil Jimmies as I was exploring the world and what shocked me most was their approach toward life at their tender age. Listen to one of conversation with Jimmy.
But it is very tricky to arrive at hasty calculations. Let us build a model. Let us suppose a household of four in a rural setting - a laborer, his wife and two kids below ten years of age. The laborer is the sole earning member and gets Rs. 120 or per day. Given four persons in the household, it translates to Rs. 30 per person and he is above the poverty Ahluwalia Poverty line. But he does not get work every day. Now let us suppose he gets work only 200 days in a year, amounting to Rs. 24000 or Rs. 65 per day and Rs. 16 per person. Does he qualify for government doles? Or will the data collector write in the form that the person earns Rs. 120 per day for a family of four and is above the poverty line?
For me there are only three basic elements to be rich or poor. The rich has it and the poor lacks it. I will share with you in this article how to start move forward one step from poverty.
In my financial planning business, I had mostly wealthy clients. One client had a car accident, while on holiday in Florida, and killed someone. When he rented the car, he had had the forethought to purchase maximum car insurance. It turned out, after the survivors sued him for 1 Million dollars, that the car rental company actually only sold an overage insurance, which was to cover that portion of your liability not covered by your own car insurance. For most Americans, this would have worked out fine, because they have car insurance. But my client was a real New Yorker, living in Manhattan. He had no car insurance.
What picture develops in your mind when you hear the words: layoffs... mergers... and... downsizing? Are you concerned you'll fall victim to one of them? Or has it already happened to you?
The love of money. This is probably the most misused verse in the Bible pertaining to money. People as claimed that "money is the root of evil" but that is not what the Bible states. It is the love of money over all else that God considers to be a root of all kinds of evil.
But the flip side is, it costs a lot to live, no matter how careful you are. As a result, even in one of the world's richest countries, a significant percentage of the population slips deeper and deeper into debt.