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~ Jim Rohn, Author
LIVING LARGE WITHOUT MORTGAGING THE FUTURE
I
’ve generally avoided statistical regurgitation in this book because people
typically exclude themselves from the data. If a survey says, “93 percent of adults
will be financially unprepared for retirement by sixty-five years old,” we absolve
ourselves and think, “That won’t be me.”
Unfortunately, without discipline, it will
be you.
One statistic bears this truth: According to a 2015 survey conducted by
GOBankingRates, only 28 percent of Americans have more than $10,000 in
savings.
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Nearly 8 percent have nothing. Can you comfortably retire on ten-
grand? Or will a bankrupted government program be your savior?
But wait, there’s more.
I omitted one crucial detail about this statistical group representing the 28
percent: These polled savers weren’t average Americans.
They were people who
earn more than $100,000 per year
. Yup, six-figure earners.
The antithesis to this data is the disheartening truth: A whopping 72 percent
of those considered “affluent” or “upper middle class,” by all accounts, are a few
months from broke. You see, beyond the white picket fence and the late-model
Lexus in the garage is a rotten financial apple. Few people, even those making
six-figures, possess the third
UNSCRIPTED
discipline: the fortitude for measured
elevation.
Measured elevation is the discipline to raise your lifestyle
disproportionately as your income rises.
In essence, measured-elevation is the
successful management of the reward phase in the purposed-saving discipline.
Without measured-elevation, human nature takes over. And that nature is
hedonic adaptation
. Hedonic adaptation is your propensity to elevate your
lifestyle in direct proportion to your income. All new income is rewarded with
new stuff. Wants suddenly morph into needs. You might
need
a reliable car to
get to work, but do you need one that costs $70,000? Does your eleven-year-old
kid really need a new iPhone? Do you really need a snowblower for your eight-
foot driveway? Hedonic adaptation pushes bigger incomes into bigger spending:
a faster car, a larger apartment, silkier clothes, a better this, a better that. Hedonic
adaptation is why paycheck-to-paycheck Americans stay paycheck-to-paycheck,
regardless of the paycheck’s size.
Measured elevation’s discipline is simple: You only limitlessly consume a
fractioned amount of production. If you want something expensive, it’s earned
and then some. I mean, let’s be serious: We all like nice things. Flying privately is
better than being stuffed in economy next to the lavatory. Producerism produced
by a productocracy sells enough of what OTHERS want so you can purchase
whatever YOU want. You can live very well and still save disproportionately.
Your truth serum, however, is affordability: Anytime you do mental
gymnastics over a contemplated purchase—sorry, you can’t afford it. Cognitive
debates about “why” you can buy something—“I’m expecting a raise,” “I have a
tax refund coming,” or “The dealer is giving me a great financing rate”—are
reality checks.
You can’t afford it.
Like buying a loaf of bread at the store, affordability never carries conditions,
worries, or justifications—you just buy it and it’s forgotten. In the end, buying a
$300,000 car isn’t a problem if you happen to have a $15M net worth; it’s a
problem when you finance it because you can barely scrape together $50K.
For example, I can theoretically pay cash for ten Lamborghinis and rent a
Beverly Hills mansion, instantly becoming an Instagram superstar worthy of
scantily clad women with specious motives; however, doing so puts me at the
financial redline, jeopardizes my freedom, and tatters my safety net. Remember,
we aren’t balancing production with consumption; we’re outrunning it.
In the end, we don’t dismiss hedonic adaptation; we control it.
Business booming? Great, reward yourself with something desired—but
don’t go overboard. By all means, measurably enjoy the fruits of your success,
but don’t endanger the goal:
UNSCRIPTED
—never needing to work another day
in your life.
Having the choice and the financial wherewithal to buy whatever you want actually
lessens the desire to follow through and buy the target of your affection.
Was there ever a product you desperately wanted to buy and when you could finally
afford it, you passed on it? What changed?
CHAPTER 46
CONSEQUENTIAL-THOUGHT:
PROTECTING YOUR KICK-ASS LIFE
Every action has a consequence, so always try to be good.
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