It’s Better to be Medium-Good in a Great Field
These are some more words of wisdom from the investor Warren Buffet. I could not find the original quote, but instead came across them reading this yahoo finance article.
The fundamental point is this:
If your only goal in life is to accumulate wealth, and you are starting from zero like most of us, then you need to pick a career where your earning potential will be great.
It remains a challenge to move from lower class to middle class or from middle class to upper class, even in our great county. However, it can be done!! I do believe that we live in a country where individuals can still do this. It will not be easy. There are many barriers in place. Many of them were put there by the people who already have great wealth and thus, great power.
So, in the face of all these challenges we have to do what we can to improve our odds. A middle of the pack financial broker, lawyer, physician, real estate developer will make more money than a middle of the pack public school teacher. However, this is only part of the solution. There are plenty of doctors and lawyers who are not independently wealthy.
This brings us to a second point which is the real reason most of us struggle to advance up the socioeconomic ladder:
With our increased salary we still have to live below our means and make good financial and personal decisions.
Most of us make enough money that if we were to live like a hermit in a low cost town, save 30%+ of our income, make a 10%+ return on our investments and do this for a lifetime; We would be independently wealthy, but we would just be an independently wealthy hermit. I have yet to meet many people who would want to live like this, just to achieve financial independence.
That is the challenge of living in America. We have great opportunities to make money but we also have great opportunities to turn right around and spend it. Most of us did not get taught from an early age what good financial habits are. We grow up in homes with parents who passed on their addictions and bad habits to us. The guidance we get in high school is to get a job in something that we find interesting, not investment banking. Thus, we start in a hole that we may never get out of.
I definitely don’t have the answers and we all have our own challenges to face and burdens to carry. What I know today is to control what I can control and do what I can to stack the odds in my favor. Then if I remain healthy, don’t develop any addictions, don’t get outsourced, etc….. I should be fine.
