For a variety of reasons, the art of obtaining wealth is commonly misunderstood.

In short, there’s a general assumption by broke people that wealth can only be obtained through earning higher income.

However, this is not factual, and this unfortunate attitude is only surpassed in stupidity by gambling money away.

Perhaps these failures exist due to the lack of independent thinking and the lack of financial education taught in school.

It’s cool that a fancy education (a signed piece of paper) was obtained in exchange for thousands of dollars, but most students fail to understand anything about money at all.

To sum it up, the disrespect towards money and wealth is appalling!

What Wealth is Not

Wealth is NOT a switch that can be turned on and off based off how much income you earn.

People seem to think that you’re all of a sudden rich once a high salary is obtained, but that’s simply not the case.

No matter how much money you earn, there will always be more stuff to buy…

Furthermore, the problem with earning more money is that is causes increased spending.

For example, a higher paying job requires more expensive clothes and more travel, which subtracts from the income earned. Not to mention the influence of the office Joneses.

This is why earned income cannot be associated with what wealth is.

What Wealth is

By definition, wealth refers to an abundance of valuable possessions or money.

Even though I’m not a man of independent means yet, I can assure you that there is no magical secret to becoming wealthy.

Building wealth requires patience, an awareness of investment options, and a high savings rate.

Technically, if you’re able to save 50% of your income per year, you can afford to take one year off work for every year you work.

On the other hand, if you save 10% of your income per year, you’ll need to work 9 years before you can afford a year off.

This is the primary reason why your level of income has NOTHING to do with reaching financial independence!

In fact, people that earn higher incomes are often in a worse position to reach financial independence.

Simply put, their lifestyle costs more.

They become accustom to a more expensive standard of living.

Therefore, they remain in the exact same hamster wheel as everyone else that can’t afford to save or get ahead.

The only difference is that they look flashier, they have higher payments to make, and they have more financial stress, which causes the spending cycle to escalate.

Furthermore, retirement will require more money invested to maintain the standard of living they have become accustomed to.

With that said, it may be easier for the individual that earns $50,000 annually to reach financial independence compared to the individual that earns $100,000.

The $50,000 earner has already proven that it’s possible to live off less.

In my opinion, wealth is about having an abundance of assets that affords you the option to work or not.

[bctt tweet=”The Motives to Pursue Wealth” username=”reversethecrush”]

Why Aspire To Build Wealth 

Before listing the noble reasons to chase wealth, I will briefly discuss the negative associations with wealth.

For the wrong reasons, the layman seems to think that having money is a bad thing.

Truthfully, the average working citizen is flat-out too stupid to understand money.

Rather than challenge themselves to read a book to learn more about money, you’ll typically find these folks whining about how hard life is.

I mean, we’ve all met someone whose life is a constant sob story – I refer to it as the eventually mantra.

You know, those folks that blame their situation on everyone except for themselves.

Unfortunately, though, you can’t help toxic jabroni’s that feel sorry for themselves.

Worse, these types of people are dead weight, because they don’t want to see you succeed either.

Of course, seeing you succeed would only bring them down further…How tragic…

If you pay close enough attention, you’ll even notice that they’ll discourage successful behaviour. But they’ll encourage you to make the same mistakes as they do at every turn.

Howbeit, my warning is simple: Don’t associate with financial jabroni’s more than you have to, and never allow a broke person to influence your spending or behaviour.

Financial Security – Never Ask for Help!

The driving force behind my quest for wealth is financial security.

To be perfectly honest, I don’t want to ask anyone for financial help.

Independence builds character and I’m proud to be where I am without receiving help.

I never obtained a job through someone I knew, as I’ve always been able to obtain positions through the interview process. I’m particularly proud of this feat, because most seem unable to obtain employment without a recommendation nowadays.

In addition, I’ve never received a dime of help towards education, but I’ll have my student loan paid down to $6,500 by the end of 2018.

On top of that, I haven’t lived with my parents since I moved out for school at 21.

And I’ll never receive help with a downpayment for a home either!

Frankly, everything I’ve done has been solo – the year off, the investments and my education.

I prefer it solo, and I’ll continue to operate this way because I have the utmost respect for independent people.

Simply put, too much help creates a weaker backbone for when real life issues occur.

I will NEVER rely on others for financial help!

Financial Independence – Own Time

Of course, financial independence and owning my time is just as big of a motivator as financial security.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you would know that my ultimate ambition is to reach financial independence by dividend investing.

Someday I will work from home as a full-time blogger and dividend investor, which is why I’m willing to make sacrifices now.

Through testing blogging and investing during my mini-retirement, I was able to come face to face with a fulfilling career.

Ultimately, my year off confirmed that financial independence is a noble reason to pursue wealth.

To Give Back and Help Others

On a positive note, the opportunity to give back and help others should be a huge factor for everyone’s pursuit of wealth!

For example, imagine how great it would feel if you were able to help a friend or family member in a time of need.

Perhaps they need a place to stay for a while, or maybe you can help someone out with cheap rent.

The options to give back and help others are plentiful.

Furthermore, wealth provides the opportunity to donate to meaningful causes.

To Constantly Invest and Full-Time Blog

Although this point goes hand in hand with financial independence, it’s important to have a clear vision about how you’ll spend free time once wealth is achieved.

Otherwise, having wealth is purposeless!

In my case, I’m fortunate to have found two hobbies that I thoroughly enjoy.

When I refer to having no choice but financial independence, it’s not that I’m upset about work.

It’s just that there’s other work I’d rather be working on – blogging and dividend investing.

On the investing side, the reason I’m building a cash flow machine is to have constant income to allocate and reinvest.

On the blogging side, I want to publish 1,000 posts all-time, I want to write all the ideas out of my head, and I’m interested in taking a business-like approach to blogging.

Legacy, Legacy, Legacy, Legacy…

Admittedly, there’s one glaring flaw in my plan for building wealth.

I don’t have any kids nor do I plan on having any, so I’ll have no-one to pass on a legacy.

With that said, legacy and ensuring financial security for your family is a huge reason to obtain wealth!

Just think, all that money you’re wasting could be going to your kids…

Be that as it may, my plan is to include money in a will for any of my brothers children, should they have any.

And if they don’t, I plan to seek out a personally important charitable cause to donate to.

Concluding Thoughts

In conclusion, this post was intended to point out noble causes to pursue wealth – the wealthy are not all Wall Street schmuck’s.

Although I’m not wealthy yet, the likelihood of becoming wealthy increases with every sacrifice I make.

Ultimately, I’m in a great position to pursue wealth because I’m a carless, childless, houseless, and generally an independent fellow.

Fortunately, though, the sacrifices I’ve made have seemed more like optimizing life as opposed to limiting it.

Moreover, it’s time to stop demeaning people that worked hard and made sacrifices their entire lives to achieve wealth.

And it’s also time to stop thinking that it’s impossible to obtain wealth for yourself.

Questions for the readers: What motivates you to pursue wealth? Any changes you would make?