Anything worthwhile in life is difficult. Raising a family, losing weight, starting a business or new job and saving money are all examples of worthwhile endeavours that can be a big challenge.
Whereas staying in your same mundane job, not exercising and spending all your earnings is the easy option.
Unfortunately easy doesn’t buy you freedom.
Easy doesn’t get you ahead.
Easy isn’t rewarding.
Easy doesn’t bring you happiness.
Just because the majority of people choose easy doesn’t mean you should. As Dave Ramsey states, “Live like no one else so you can live like no one else.”
By choosing the difficult path now you can enjoy great rewards later in life.
In New Zealand, tall poppy syndrome is alive and well. We see someone with a nice job and we grumble about their luck. We watch a talented athlete and complain how easy they have it. What we don’t see however, is all that they have sacrificed. The almost obsessive number of hours they have spent to training, learning, educating or practicing to get where they are. We don’t see all that. To us it looks easy. All we see is the end result.
After trying ourselves though, we soon realise it is not easy at all. Instead of making the same sacrifices that they did we often choose easy. We want what they have but without the time and effort. We tell ourselves that they were lucky because we don’t want to believe that we need to do the hard work. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way.
Dare to be different and take the hard road
I am currently saving 50% of my after tax income in a nation that saves an average of minus 1%.
I am using my spare time to work on my business instead of watch TV
I deliberately moved DOWN the property ladder, instead of moving UP the ladder
I am doing volunteer work instead of browsing the internet
I am working towards an early retirement instead of being a slave to my employer
I wake up before 5am most mornings instead of sleeping in
I think you get the idea. By doing things differently to the majority, I expect to have greater rewards than the majority. It is not the easiest path, but it is the most rewarding path.
Some days it feels like you are fighting gravity or your feet are stuck in cement. It just feels like a slog that is a struggle to move forward. This can particularly be true at the beginning as it takes time for momentum to build and habits to form.
Take for example, saving $500,000. Let’s assume you are saving $5,000 per year at a 5% return.
The first $100,000 takes 14 years. The last $100,000 takes less than 4 years. The same result in less than one third of the time.
The message is keep fighting through. It does get easier and the fight is well worth the rewards.
Maybe one day people will be jealous of you, complaining how easy you had it. That is when you know you have made it.
The information contained on this site is the opinion of the individual author(s) based on their personal opinions, observation, research, and years of experience. The information offered by this website is general education only and is not meant to be taken as individualised financial advice, legal advice, tax advice, or any other kind of advice. You can read more of my disclaimer here