Deep Dive into Wealth Part II

Have you ever heard the phrase “escape the rat race?” When I first heard that phrase, I was broke and maybe 19 years old. I heard it from someone older than me who had more money than me and so I assumed it must be true.

But as I began to grow my financial training and wealth creation business, I started wondering what this “rat race” was…because I had a business and a life, I really didn’t feel the need to escape from.

Today, I am 32 years old as I write this, Financially Independent, I work full time still because it is part of my purpose, and I have a life I don’t feel the need to escape from.

What I think is funny is that most people who are into this whole “escape the rat race” usually are people who have decided to abandon the traditional concept of retirement. Someone who believes in retirement is serving the 40-year-to-life sentence of trading time for money 40–60 hours per week so that hopefully when they turn 65, they can enjoy the money they’ve traded their life for but die before it all runs out. I don’t like that method and the main reason is that the word “retire” at its root origin means “to retreat”. You’re building a life you want to run away from or escape from.

So, let me ask you, how is “escape the rat race” any different? It’s still based on having a life you want to escape from, the escape just happens earlier…but it’s largely the same root problem that is trying to be solved.

In fact, for most people, the whole idea of Financial Independence and Passive Income is based on a violation of a key Law of Wealth.

Here it is:

“Real wealth occurs when resources and purpose become aligned.”

Again, we have to look at what real wealth is. My definition of real wealth is abundance & prosperity in all aspects of life.

Resources are things like time, money, energy, etc. that can be used to exchange for things or create things.

Purpose in this sense is like a life purpose and it is a driving factor behind why a person does the things that they do. A mom has the purpose of raising a successful adult who is an asset to society.

And aligned is defined by the dictionary as “to bring into cooperation or agreement”.

What is this Law of Wealth really saying here? It is saying that abundance & prosperity in all aspects of life occur when our time, money, energy, etc. are brought into agreement with our driving factors behind why we do the things we do.

I’ll give you an example here.

Let’s take John as an example. John does all of the right things by going to school, to get good grades, to go to college, to get more good grades, to get a career that he can hopefully get rid of one day, to earn a paycheck that he can hopefully save up into a nest egg to get rid of the paycheck one day, and to get a mortgage on a house that he can hopefully pay off one day. He goes to work but he would always rather be doing something else. He makes just enough money not to quit and his job pays him just enough not to get fired. He has just enough resources to think he is a free man and doing well in life, but he is pretty restricted economically speaking. Because he’d rather be doing something else than what he does for work 40 hours per week, his purpose is not aligned with his resources. So, he saves up aggressively to plan an early retirement. He starts reading books on ways to earn passive income with the money he has and he attempts to escape the rat race. But what John doesn’t realize is the rat race isn’t the fact that he has a job and a W2 paycheck. The rat race is the fact that his resources aren’t aligned with his purpose. And because at the career level his resources aren’t aligned with this purpose, when he invests, they won’t be either. John will chase the highest possible rate of return he can find on his investments regardless of risk, the amount of time involved, and regardless of whether or not he is investing in things that are good for the world around him or that he believes in. His resources and his purpose aren’t aligned at the investing level either in other words.

Now let’s compare this with Kate as another example. Kate also goes to school and gets good grades and goes to college and all of that, but Kate has always been different. She wants to do things that make her happy and excited and also make her money. So instead of the traditional career route, she goes to work for a small business owner who is expanding in an industry she is passionate about and where she feels she is making a positive impact. Because she feels this way, she doesn’t view work as a chore or a boss, job and paycheck as a bad thing. She works hard, she works extra hours, and as a result she makes lots of money and she really doesn’t have any attention on “escaping”. Because her resources and purpose are aligned at the career level, she thinks this way with investing also. She finds investments that make a positive impact on the world around her and that make her money as well. Because she loves her career and works so much, she has a lot of extra income and she invests and donates most of it. This lowers her taxes and increases her passive income. She keeps at this and realizes one day that her income from her investments is enough to pay her bills every month and may even be larger than her paycheck at work. She loves her career still and doesn’t plan to quit working, but she realizes she doesn’t need to work for money anymore and can do so out of choice rather than obligation. Kate dials back her hours at work a bit, but still keeps the job that she loves so much and she begins her own entrepreneurial venture and does so without relying on the money generated because her job and investments pay her whether her business makes money or not. Because of this, she can focus solely on having a really good product and going above and beyond for her customers, which leads to her business being a huge hit and taking off. She hires employees to run it, still keeps working at her first job that she loves so much, and her investments keep growing. She is building more wealth than she can use personally and begins to use it to improve quality of life for her loved ones and the world around her.

Can you see the difference there? John is trying to escape the rat race and Kate is aligning her resources and her purpose. I don’t know about you, but I think Kate has a better life than John does.

The final thing I want to give you here is a way to discover what your basic purpose is. I want you to think about the world you will leave behind after you’re no longer around.

- What is the #1 thing you want to achieve after you go?

- What is the #1 thing you want to leave behind when you go?

- What is the #1 reason you want people to be happy that they knew you?

- What is the #1 thing you want to be remembered for?

Now ask yourself “why” on each of these questions.

This will lead you to your basic purpose.

As far as aligning it with your resources, Kate did this with her time first. A career field that directly is aligned with your basic purpose is a way to do this. But you can also align your money with your purpose. If you have a good career that maybe isn’t directly aligned with your purpose, I’m not going to tell you to quit. Instead, you can view that career as the funding source for your basic purpose. You work there and get money so that you can invest or donate or start a business that does align with your purpose. Make sense?

If you’ve been like John, I get it and I’ve been there too. John, like Kate, is still a good person. And he probably has never been educated on the benefits of aligning his resources and his purpose or how to go about it. My hope is that if you’re like John, reading this has given you a new point of view and some inspiration to live differently. Because both John and Kate will achieve Financial Independence, but I think Kate ends up with a better quality of life and more happiness at the end of the story.

So, if you’re a good person who wants to help make the world a better place and this article helped you, I want to encourage you to join our free Facebook community, Wealth DynamX Nation.

I want to encourage you to start putting this into practice. And feel free to write to me and let me know how it went. Or if you’re a client of mine and you’d like help leveling up, send an email to my team with “Level Up” in the subject line to Contact@WealthDynamX.com.

If you’re a follower and have not read my book The Blueprint to Financial Freedom yet, that is the place to start. This book covers the specifics for each level in the various chapters and you can grab the book for free as my gift.

Click here to get a copy!

The Blueprint to Financial Freedom by Jerry Fetta

To Purpose, Wealth & Freedom,

Jerry Fetta

Jerry Fetta is the CEO and Founder of Wealth DynamX. He is a nationally recognized financial expert featured in Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Fox, Chicago Weekly News, New York Finance, interviewed on 100+ podcasts with world renowned experts, earning endorsements and affiliations throughout his career with names like Kevin O’Leary, Grant Cardone, Dave Ramsey, and Pamela Yellen.

Jerry’s mission in life is to help create millions of financially educated and solvent families achieving greater financial freedom and sharing the truth about money with those around them.

Learn more at www.WealthDynamX.com

(DISCLAIMER: The information in this content should not be considered tax, financial, investment, or any kind of professional advice. Only a professional diagnosis of your specific situation can determine which strategies are appropriate for your needs. Wealth DynamX can and does not provide advice unless/until engaged by you.)