Would you like to know how rich you are in comparison to the rest of the world? Sure you would!
If you're dying to know where you rank, type your annual income into this wealth calculator. (Depending which country you hail from you may need to do some currency conversion first).
This is a great little calculator that I found via Seth Godin's blog. It makes you think how the rest of the world is getting on.
...but you do need to employ one, or two.
FMF started this post and as I followed the links I found that myself disagreeing on a couple of points.
My e-journey finally took me to this post on using financial planners. FMF's opinion was "If I was to use a financial planner, I wouldn't want one who wasn't in better financial shape than I am." and illustrated this point referring to not employing the services of a fat doctor.
Birds of a Feather Flock Together...And Fools Seldom Differ
I understand FMF's point but his opinion is slightly flawed. For if we carry that notion forward he wouldn't use a doctor to operate on his heart who also hadn't had a heart operation. This is foolish thinking in my book because it limits the amount of knowledge you are willing to hear and process. It's really the same argument that people have for keeping the friendships they do - we mostly tend to those who have the same ideas and agree with our worldview.
Most millionaires would employ the services of more than one accountant or financial planner so that they can be stretched. It's their ideas that we need to become wealthy more than their advice. And their ideas come from their education and the fact they work with many individuals who have specific requirements that may be way outside the box.
Having said that, I agree with the heart of FMF's opinion and that is if financial planners aren't willing to take the same risks and succeed then their advice has limited value - but it still has value! As people on a journey to financial independence, or whatever your financial goal is, we can't know all there is to know about everything. So we find advisors we can trust and speak excellence through how they handle their own affairs and those of their clients.
Our Goals May Not Line Up With Our Accountants
FMF is also making a big assumption that if someone is going to give good advice they must personally have the same goals and priorities. How can this be valid? If a financial planner personally values lifestyle and time with their family over the next million dollar profit doesn't mean that they aren't capable of giving great advice. My goals don't have to match those of my mentors or my advisors.
However, they do need to understand my goals and dreams. If their worldview clouds their financial advice then it is as FMF espouses - not useful.
In a Nutshell
Never write someone's advice off because they don't fit your mold. We employ accountants and financial advisors because they have a finger on the pulse in areas that we may not. They see ideas that we may be blinded to.
In reality, all they are doing is offering advice. Heading towards financial independence I need to "eat the chicken and spit out the bones."
Every year Forbes magazine compiles a list of the world's richest people, the only pre-requisite being that they're net worth is more than US$1 billion. This year's list contained 793 billionaires throughout the world, up from three year's ago when the list had only 476.
But what does it take to compile a list this thorough and so global? An incredible amount of luck it would seem. Forbes explain it in this article as a behind-the-scenes view of their journalistic endeavours. For every billionaire who agrees to be interviewed four others reject the offer.
Not surprising though, I think if I were a billionaire I'd prefer to be fairly closed about my private life and business dealings too. Still, thanks to the Forbes team we're all allowed a little window into some of these amazing people's lives.
After seeing Markus' cheque from Plentyoffish.com I began wondering what my life might look like if I were to begin earning an income like that. Deb and I threw around some ideas but I'm not sure we would stick with them if we were to become wealthy - but I hope we do.
People say that money changes you. That it drives you and all your decisions. You can lose friends over it and you make a whole heap because of it. I'm not sure it would change us too much.
We live in a neighbourhood that we really love. Our house is modest but comfortable. We drive good cars and our kids attend a good school. So we consider ourselves blessed and content in our situation already.
If I was earning 1/2 million every month would I buy a bigger house? Would I feel like I needed a Porsche in the driveway? Would I travel more and spend money on opulent accomodation? I'm not sure I would.
I would give a ton of money away. Not because I felt unworthy of having it, but I see so many needs, not only in my own community, but around the world and I would love to contribute more to help remedy them.
My lifestyle would change though. I'd play more tennis. Be my own boss. Sleep in if I wanted to and garden more.
I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable with this lifestyle though.
What about you? If you were earning megabucks, would your lifestyle change considerably? How would you spend your days?
Subscribe to this feed