The Hare, The Tortoise, and The Eagle

If you’re destined to become road kill on the financial highway, you probably fall into one of two categories. Take a look at the menu down at this Financial Road Kill Cafe and you’ll see that it’s filled with tortoises and hares.

Hares get run over because they are always in too much of a hurry to build financial success. They buy into get-rich-quick schemes. They don’t want the hassle of working to be successful. They want big success, and they want it now. They buy lottery tickets, play slot machines, and bet on horses. Even though they’ve lost a small fortune over the years, they are convinced their big hit is just around the corner. After all, they reason, they have a friend named Joe who has an uncle whose son-in-law lives in another state and he once won a million dollars in the lottery. It is so easy to get seduced by the siren song of instant riches. We confess to feeling a little giddy when we see that the Powerball Lottery prize has reached $300 million. Somebody has to win it, why not us? Wouldn’t it be great to have all that money!! Soon the right side of our brain is off on the delicious fantasy that drowns out the logical thinking at the left side of the brain, which is screaming “Don’t you realize that for the prize to be $300 million there has to be more than $300 million losing tickets?” The odds are absurdly against us.

Hares don’t seem to realize that by running in a dozen different directions and always looking for that “lucky break”, they are asking to get run over. Because they are failing to take advantage of the genuine opportunities that exist to achieve true financial independence.

The tortoise, on the other hand, religiously gets up and go to work five, sometimes six, days a week, receives a regular paycheck, pays their house installments, car payments, and credit cards bills on time, and chooses to save a portion of their salary each month rather than waste money gambling. They are much more conservative than the hares, and they don’t take a lot of chances. They plan for the future, make regular deposits to company-sponsored retirement plans or IRA accounts, invest in mutual funds, buy a few shares of stock, and keep a respectable amount of money in the bank. They are convinced that by continuing to invest a portion of their earned income, it will assure them of a safe and secure retirement income.

Twenty, 30, and 40 years ago, that wasn’t a bad plan. You could get a good education, go to work for a large company, religiously contribute to their profit-sharing and retirement plans and retire with enough income to live well. But not today. Depending on corporate pension plans to see you through is “out of date” thinking these days. Look at what happened with companies like Enron, Kmart, WorldCom, and others. Tens of thousands of good hardworking people saw their futures eradicated by corporate greed or incompetence.

This is not the “Richman Mindset”. Unlike the tortoise and hares that make up the vast majority of the financial road kill, having a Richman mindset is more like eagles. Eagles soar above it all, and their perspective gives them wisdom. They see tortoises and hares scurrying about in their own little worlds unable to see the big picture. The Financial Road Kill Cafe is full of tortoises and hares for two very different reasons. The hares tend to bolt into the roadway without looking, and often right under the wheels of oncoming traffic. Tortoises, on the other hand, ease onto the road, not realizing that the semi-truck two miles down the road will run over them because they are moving so slowly. Some will even venture halfway across the road, pull their head in their shell, and just sit there. Maybe, they’re trying to decide whether to go ahead and cross to the other side or come back to the side where they started.

Click Here for a sure way to make money online.

People who are failing financially are either like hares or like tortoises. Hares, because they are always rushing into get-rich schemes and never developing a long-term financial strategy. Or the tortoise, who will agonize for days or weeks before making a decision and then, after making it, change their mind and not see it through, just like the tortoise frozen in the path of a speeding semi-truck, not knowing whether to advance or retreat.

Have you seen an eagle hit by a truck? It just doesn’t happen! There are no eagles on the menu at The Financial Road Kill Cafe. The soaring eagle doesn’t dive into oncoming traffic, because he can see the cars coming from a greater distance. He moves at a faster pace but does so with a different perspective, one that comes from knowing the surroundings and acting with the wisdom that comes with being able to see the big picture. Successful people are like this. They develop the ability to anticipate pitfalls and avoid them but also plan a strategy to deal with them in case they do arise.

The tortoises and hares of the world share thoughts such as, “Those people are luckier than me. They were in the right place at the right time. If I had the same opportunities they had, I will be successful too.” They would rather make excuses than put forth the effort that success requires. They have yet to learn that nearly all luck is nothing more than the intersection of preparation and opportunity. The tortoises and hares spend more time looking for excuses than it would take to solve most problems. They have discovered that making excuses is a lot less work than developing a financial strategy and making it work. That would require realizing that what they were doing in the past was wrong and they need to take responsibility for it. Fear of taking responsibility for their financial shortcomings causes them to continue trying to cross the same highway. Of course, the results never change and they ultimately become economic roadkill.

Click Here for a financial strategy that works.

That’s all for now, my friends. See you all in my next article.

Go here for more articles.