Blog | Personal Finance

The Problem with Looking for Saviors

How self-reliance is the surest path to success

As I sit here and write this, votes are coming in for the first showdown of what promises to be a long and hard US presidential race. This year, as it seems in every election cycle, people are lining up behind their favorite candidates, talking about them like they’re the saviors of the world.

I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat. I vote for whoever I think is the smartest and has the most chance of getting things done, which is always a very small chance.

I certainly don’t view a President, or any government for that matter, as the savior of the world. Most of the time politicians make the world worse, not better. It’s always the hard-working people of this great country who then come together to make something of the mess they’re given.

I don’t know how this election cycle will end, but I do know one thing: no president is going to swoop in and set everything right for you.

Only you can make the change you need in your life.

Also as I write, the stock market is tanking. In fact, markets all over the world are failing. We are experiencing a big correction. Will it continue? I don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball. But I do know that people are worried and scared. Are you?

People are worried and scared because they were told by the politicians that if they put their money in a 401(k) and let it ride that they would have a secure financial future. The savior politicians talked about the stock market as if it were a savior of the middle class.

Two false saviors there.

I don’t know what will happen to the stock market, but I do know that the only way you can be financially secure is to take your money and invest into your own hands, not the politicians’ and not the stock markets’.

Growing up, my poor dad liked to blame others for his hard times. When he lost his run for public office in Hawaii, he blamed the voters for being stupid. When he lost his job, he blamed his enemies. When he lost his savings in a bad business venture, he blamed others. He ended up bitter and angry.

I loved my poor dad, but he would have been a much happier man if he had accepted the ownership he had over his life, choices, and circumstances.

My rich dad, on the other had, had some bad circumstances in his life as well. He had to run his family business from a very young age. He didn’t have a higher education because of this. He put in long hours. He used this to his advantage, however, taking the lessons he could from the school of hard knocks. His philosophy was when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. He ended up rich, happy, and living a full life.

The difference was a mindset. Poor dad expected others to save him. Rich dad expected to save himself. That made all the difference in the world.

Today, where is your hope? Take a deep look at yourself, and see if you’ll be surprised at what you can find. The answer to a prosperous future is lying right inside you.