Online Games and Investing Mentality

Your base was empty. Your command unit was a handful. Your fire power was weak. You could barely attack or defend. That's how it was when you were just beginning to play that addicting online game. But look, now you have a stronger base, powerful defensive weapons and a huge army enough to pulverize a huge enemy camp. So what did you do to arrive at this scenario from almost none at the start?

You managed to do with what you had. You bought only what you need. You utilized your few resources wisely trying not to waste anything. You were most of the time defensive and attacked only when the possibility of winning was big. Though of course, you sometimes gambled with calculated risks. Your first income was spent on things that will gain you more assets and money. 

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's just exactly what you need to do in real life if you want to grow your money. It's just funny that most people treat online golds more delicately than the one they worked hard for in real life. 

What makes online gamers more prudent in handling their money is  their commitment to grow their army and bases. They create their work plan around it. There's that clear ending in mind unlike in real life where most people don't take saving and investing seriously. Most think that all they need to do is to keep more money then that's it. It's a mistake. It may be effective to some but for the majority, it's impossible to save when you don't have a target. To have a clear course of action, you must have a specific and clear goal. 

Sometimes, it makes life easier when you treat things like a game. But don't forget that understanding and love for it are essential to win big. Patience is needed at the beginning. Once you got a hold of it, had installed greater weapons and trained a huge army, then you can start taking larger risks by attacking bigger and richer camps for more mouth-watering loots.

Financial Freedom Is Not The End Of It

The reason why a lot of people can't reach financial freedom they are dreaming of is because of their wrong concept of it. A lot of us think that it is about us having money to buy all the things we want. That feeling that "we made it". This is partially true but the harsh reality is most of us won't be able to reach that point.

The question that you must be asking yourself first is why do you want to have that financial freedom? Is it about the money, the cars, the big houses, the gadgets, jewelries, travels? Or is it about how you could get more time doing things you like and spending more moments with those you love? The usual reason why we can't do the latter is because of the idea that we are trapped in our daily duties to earn for our primary necessities. And thinking that to earn more, you work harder and longer times. Then to reward yourself, you buy things that you don't really need but which you think you deserve for all the hard work you have done. Fair enough. But the danger on this one is on that mentality that financial freedom equates to material things. That's probably the reason why most people who get scammed easily is swayed by the promise of luxurious things that he can buy upon joining them.

Fact is you don't really need a drastic change on your money status to achieve financial freedom. A simple change in mindset towards your priority management, starting small in your savings and investment, a little review and of your current situation and looking at all the other options will get you a long way.

How I Totally Stopped Using Money

In the society we live in, everybody needs money either directly or indirectly. It’s a fact. From birth to death, money is a necessity. To provide our family’s basic needs (food, shelter and clothes), we all need to have money. 

And these things are enough for us to know that money is very important. And by deeply understanding this fact, I decided that I’ll never ever use money in my entire life anymore.

Contradicting? Then let’s go back on when and how the money system started. 

Most of us are aware of the “barter system” that was used in the past centuries all over the world. This was the time when the monetary system was not yet invented. For those who aren’t familiar with it, check it here. It's basically a trading process that were done by having one group exchanging their items with products which were brought by another group which they agreed on as having equal value. And this was how people got the things that they needed which weren’t available or produced by their own group.

Another thing was that during the old times, the services rendered by laborers were paid in kind by their “lords”, not money. They received shelter, food or clothes as payment for their work.

This was how a payslip looked like.

That’s exactly what life was until the monetary system was put in place. And once the concept of money started, people began using it to buy goods and stuff that they need. And also, people started receiving money as salaries for their jobs. 

So what did exactly change when the monetary system was put in place? The answer is, logically, there’s none. 

On the technical aspect, there were lots of differences as money standardized trades and payments for services of the people. It made the measurement of the purchasing values of human work and all kinds of products easily quantifiable.

But in essence, what had changed in the system is only the means. To explain my point further, money is simply the physical representation of the value of work or service you have rendered.

Think about it. The physical money basically equates to the value of the work that you do. It’s not the actual money but it is the value of our work that we are spending. If you look at it this way, it might help you spend money wisely. Imagine this, worth of hours of your labor in exchange of something that you only just wanted but is not really that important. Let's say 8 hours of hard work in exchange of a baseball cap that you fancy but later on will just be kept away in the closet. Is it really worth it?

That’s how I stopped using money. I compare almost every purchase I’m doing with the amount of work I’m about to pay for in exchange of that item. Before I spend on something, I always ask myself, is it worth the sweat, tears and time spent on hard work? 

This thinking worked for me in controlling my expenses. You can try it also. Or if you’re doing it differently, hope you can also share it thru the comments section below. 

If you like this article, hope you can share it via Facebook, Twitter or any of your social media account so others can read and enjoy it as well. Thank you very much for dropping by.

On Investing, Being an Investor and Thinking as One

I always believe that proper investing is something that can be learned thru education, attending seminars and trainings, reading books, constant practice and thru other types of learning medium just like any other skills that a person likes to achieve.

But it is on the “thinking as an investor” part that is indeed difficult to teach and practice. Anybody can be taught and learn the skill but the discipline is what makes the difference. And this is what I had been trying to achieve, to experience more, to continue practicing and to share to the readers. As being relatively new to the practice (5 years in the stock market, less than a year experience on mutual funds, UITF and VUL funds, several years on trying to earn from other non-traditional businesses like MLM, direct selling among others and a few number of books read and seminars attended), I’m still too early on my journey and still calibrating and enhancing my mindset and skills towards the investors mind.

Mindset.

That for me is one of the most important points that we need to get stronger with in order to achieve the thinking of an investor. We should have the proper mindset in order to gain the correct discipline, patience and honesty in matters relating to investments. And how to achieve that mindset is what I also like to share on this new blog. I will also try not to be too technical on my articles and try to be as simple and basic as possible, thus with the title “layman investment”. 

As I will help and share as much knowledge as I can, I would also sometimes be referring you to those people and resources that can provide you in-depth explanations if you would like to move up your learning to the next level. But for now, on this site, we’ll try to work hand in hand on learning more the basics of investment and focusing on the foundation of it which is the “investor’s mindset”.