If you pick a frog and put it in shallow boiled water, the frog will instantly jump out of the pot and jump to safety. However, if you were to pick up the same frog a bit later and then put it in a shallow cold water, the frog will not react and will be comfortably sitting there, as it is a cold-blooded animal. But, if I had to do experiments heating the cold pot over very low heat with the frog still sitting in it. The water will eventually rise up to 100 degrees. Like any cold-blooded animal, the frog’s body will adapt to increased heat and adjust its blood temperature to the environment. Eventually, when the water reaches the boiling point, the frog will die as a result of adjusting to the environment without even realizing it.
So what does personal finance have to do with the frog story? People who started their careers start out like the frog in cold, shallow water. The money they received at the end of the month is enough to survive, as their lifetime requirement is low. But, as your career and salary increase, so do your desires and lifestyles. As you start shopping for your first car, buy your first home, start using credit cards, your lifestyle will change gradually, but not as fast as your salary increases. As with the frog, you will not notice that you have a debt problem since the increase is not sudden. And when you find out, it is too late and you will end up with a large amount of debt.
There are many paths for us to achieve financial freedom, but most of us choose the path of job security. How can we blame them? The educational system was designed to produce workers and not entrepreneurs. Many people realized that as the company they work with begins to prosper, the owner of the company is the one who eventually benefits and the employees are generally not much richer compared to the first day they started working there. . The reality is that the boss is not responsible for making you rich, but his responsibility is only to make sure you receive your paycheck before the end of the month. It is your responsibility to make sure that you end up rich and not someone else.