On Saturday evening I was hanging out with some friends and we were talking about what we did earlier that day. My friend Tom mentioned that he and his wife walked about 5 miles through town, bought lunch at a local deli, then had a picnic by the river. After lunch they walked home through the town center.
While talking about his day, Tom commented to our friend Sheryl, a marathon runner, that “walking 5 miles once a week isn’t much compared to running marathons.”
Sheryl just laughed the comment off and mentioned that it doesn’t matter what she does, it matters what he does. That struck me as a wise statement. Not only does that relate to running/walking/exercising, but it relates to all matters of life, including personal finance.
You need to crawl before you walk
You can’t run a marathon if you haven’t trained for it. On a similar note, you can’t max out your 401(k) if you don’t have your finances in order, have a good income, pay off your debt, spend less than you earn, etc. It takes hard work and discipline to get your financial house in order and few people can do it right away. It takes even more work and dscipline to become a millionaire.
Think long term
Most marathon runners and millionaires aren’t made overnight. They are made by hard work, discipline, and planning. I have a goal of being a millionaire one day, and I know that for me, the best way to plan for that goal is to plan the same way you would plan for a marathon – with patience and a long term outlook.
Photo: Sheffield Tiger.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Ryan,
You put your friends comments into the perfect perspective. One, don’t focus on others – focus on yourself. If you do this, you can avoid the competition with the Jones’. This is one way people defeat their chances to become a millionaire or achieve financial freedom. Buying that convertible to impress others only hurts in the end.
Secondly, building wealth slowly is critical. Or, at least build it according to your means. How many times have you heard about someone destroying their finances by trying to get rich quick. It just doesn’t work.
Finally, I think your friend’s comment gets to a bigger point on life. You need to define success at your level. It doesn’t matter what others do. What do you want to do? This includes finances, but it goes beyond that as well.
Agree, it’s about what you do not someone else. After reading I Will Teach You to be rich he talks about slowly building investments over time will increase money and savings. Nothing is fast or quick financially and you have to be prepared for the long run. Something I am really beginning to get a hold on myself to prepare for my future.
Slow and steady actually doesn’t win races. Have you ever seen how fast marathon winers run? I can’t keep up with them for even a short distance
But for investing slow and steady is a great strategy to success. Trying to achieve quick, large, investing gains is possible to do occasionally. But in the long run leaves you open to big losses.
but I’m not in a race with my investments.
I think this post illustrates what we personal finance bloggers preach regularly. It’s about taking your situation and making it work for you, irrespective of what anyone else is doing. Your neighbor may have a higher paying job, but that doesn’t mean he’s necessarily wealthier then you…and, even if he is, so what? Becoming wealthy, attaining financial freedom, all things finance even, are NOT a race. Every person must come to it in their own time and they must be concerned with what is best for them and their families, not anyone else.
This is a great concept: it’s what you do that’s important. Too often we compare ourselves to others and find ourselves lacking- that’s what drives people to consume more and do more, in an effort to keep up, sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively.
This post made me think of one of my favorite movies, Lawrence of Arabia. There is a scene where Peter O’Toole’s character tells Omar Shrief, “Akabah is over there . . . it is simply a matter of going . . . ” Of course, “over there” is across an “impossible to cross” desert . . .
Sometimes you need to make up your mind and then just do it! Even in small steps at first.
Well said. You have to start small on the way to any big goal.
On the way, you may slip and fall, but just pick yourself up and keep going.
Don’t listen to what people tell you on the sidelines.
Nicely put…. it can’t ever matter what other people do, because that’s not how *you* benefit anyway (at least, not directly). We can’t depend on others to do our thinking for us nor our acting – we need to put the work in ourselves. We may be able to get by being lazy, but doing it yourself is the only authentic way to live.