Get Your Poop in a Group!

I guess I am a dreamer, or at least hopeful. But, all that has now changed after listening to a recent speech made by President Obama. As he calls them, “The Fortunate Few” referring to the “haves” in this country as though their position in life was based on luck or the lottery and having nothing to do with hard, hard work.

He is right of course, there are fewer rich than poor in this country, that is without debate. What I can’t see however is how instead of looking at behavior leading to result (ie hard work, saving & investing) President Obama views “fortune” like rubbing a crystal ball, becoming a movie or music star, marrying into it, hitting the lottery, lying, cheating stealing or taking advantage of someone. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

That is what is most disappointing with what he said. Instead of continuing to foster a false belief of wealth and the wealthy in this country why not speak the truth and really give Americans the hope and change that they were expecting when they voted him into office?

The truth is, if a high school student at age 16 takes the money he spends on pizza, cd’s and movies and invests it each and every month he will retire a multi-millionaire. That’s right a multi-millionaire. He actually would have almost $3.5M at age 65.

Anyone can do it if they have a mustard seed of discipline, a thimbleful of wisdom and the TRUTH. It is not rocket science. You don’t need to have Michael Jordan’s jump shot, William Buffet’s investment prowess or Brad Pitt’s screen appeal. In fact, over 80% of all millionaires are first generation rich. That’s right, you read that right. First generation. That means they were not born with a silver spoon in their mouth or a trust fund in the bank. They were born just regular lower and middle class Americans.

What is even more amazing is that LEGAL immigrants, the ones who LEGALLY came to the USA and followed the rules, are 4x more likely to become millionaires than those born in this country. These are people who knew nothing of the culture, language and education system of the United States and they succeed at a far higher rate than those born here. Would they be considered the “fortunate few” as well? Maybe, only if you considered them “fortunate” by being able to come to this great country. But, how do you explain the people who actually were born here?

Why don’t more people become financially secure? May I suggest that they are missing one key ingredient? The “fortunate few” had the same opportunities that everybody else had, but they did have one thing that all the others did not have. It is that one thing is what made all the difference in the world.

That one thing is a plan. They planned to be financially secure and took small baby steps early on and continued to compound that growth throughout their life. It was not about getting rich quick, it was about getting rich slowly. They planned to be disciplined and they knew that the only person that they could rely on here on Earth was themselves. They didn’t leave their future in the hands of government, a company or anyone else for that matter. That attitude is just plain weird in today’s culture, plus it is a lot of hard work.

That is the REAL reason why there are so few of the so called “rich.” It’s HARD WORK and it TAKES TIME. Two of the things that are repulsive in today’s fast pace, microwave it, easy does it, laid back, give me a handout, you owe me, I’m a victim, world of far too many Americans today.

Martin Luther King had a dream. His was a dream that someday people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. President Obama ran his campaign on a message of hope and change. May I humbly suggest that he stop blaming and pointing fingers and start giving hope where it belongs, to the individuals in this country and not in government. This is still the greatest country in the world. It is the land of opportunity and freedom and is still the place that individuals wish to live. After all, 30 Million illegal immigrants can’t be wrong, can they?

It got this way through limited government, private property rights and low taxes. A real message of hope and change would include those items. The President could help restore the dream by speaking truth and giving hope back to people again.

RJ Regan is the author of “Gambling for Life: Stacking the odds in your favor for more money and great sex”. He can be contacted at www.gamblingforlife.com

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