Enlightened Money: Part 2 - Taking Responsibility

The second of a three-part series that lays out the path to enlightened money.

Yes, the banks and money gatekeepers are ripping us off.
Yes, the government is bending us over without courtesy of a reacharound (sorry to be so crass!)
Yes, the whole system, the house if you will, has stacked the odds against us.

So what? I don't know about you but I don't care whose fault it is! Put another way, the question isn't, "Who's to blame for our plight?" (though many people get bogged down in this) but rather, "What are we going to do about this?!!??"

In order to move forward, let's take an aside:

During a job interview with a local union, the interview committee asked me to describe a formative experience that made me believe I could me do this job. Later, my boss would tell me that my answer surprised them (in a good way).

I told them that the most important decision I ever made was to quit my career as a computer programmer and become an musician/artist. You have to understand that, until this moment, I had always been the left-brain, know-it-all Asian geek with all the typical stereotypes: shy, insecure, awkward around girls, the works. To top it off, I have (yes, present-tense) a horrible sense of pitch and had never played an instrument until I nearly finished college.

As I told my interviewers:
-- after stunning my family and friends with the news that I wanted to stop making good money and become a starving musician;
-- after facing the disappointment of my parents and the incredulity of my roommates who had heard me actually (attempt to) play;
-- after deciding that I didn't like the person I was and was going to become the person I'd always wanted to be;
-- after taking the stage and playing difficult music in front of an audience while having believed all my life that I had no musical ability

After all this, getting in front of a group of county workers and telling them why they needed to care about their pay and pension would be no problem at all.

Making the decision to take responsibility for my life and the way I wanted to live it despite what everyone else thought was the difficult, gut-wrenching part of the process. Actually doing it is hard work too but in a different, drudgerous way.

How did it turn out? Well, I didn't reach Lou Reed or Captain Beefheart heights (ah, but the life is still young!) but here are some results.

With that in mind, understand that there is a fundamental difference between accountability and responsibility. Let me repeat that: ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!

Accountability deals with figuring out who fell asleep at the wheel or was drunk and crashed the car. In the case of our economic system, I know who crashed this car but I don't know how productive it is to assign accountability. What would come of it? Ok, the government is complicit in all these failures. Now what, revolution?!!? Elect new politicians? Would you be surprised if the new politicians behaved much the same as the old ones? I wouldn't.

Responsibility addresses the question of who is going to fix it. So let me ask you, who is responsible for making sure that you have adequate healthcare? Who is going to make sure you don't live your golden years in poverty, burdening your children (who are actually going to have a lower standard of living than you did)? If our economy falters due to all the fundamental problems, who is going to feed you and your family?

Ultimately, no matter whose fault it is, the responsibility belongs to you. It might be their job but it's still your life.

Put another way: if the economy tanks, if prices rise so much that you might have to put off retirement or if you can't afford to get medical care for your sick child, then WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? Wait (pray) for the government to fix it so you can resume your life?

If you think waiting for someone else to come along and fix YOUR LIFE is the answer, then you've resigned yourself to a life of false security and possibly, unnecessary hardship.

The first step, the hardest step, towards enlightened money is taking responsibility for your economic condition. Actually, I feel this first step is much more than just securing your finances; it's really about taking control of your life. The path to enlightened money will mean breaking away from much of the common view about how life should be lived. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it will spread from just your pocketbook to other aspects of your life.

Once I made the decision to take responsibility of my life by becoming an artist, then subsequent life-changing choices -- to quit the band to pursue political change, to take an active role in managing my genetic disease, to create and execute my own strategy to financial independence -- these choices "decided themselves." The real choice is who will take responsibility for your life. Everything else follows from that.

Does this sound like cheesy bullshit? Fine, maybe it is, but I cannot stress the importance of this decision. This step is the most vital part of the whole process of moving toward financial security. Until you make this decision, you will never truly be able to think for yourself and come to your own conclusions. If you can't be your own person, you will be overwhelmed by the noise, easily beset by doubt and swayed by so-called "expert" opinions, ultimately making bad decisions that weren't really your decisions to begin with.

This ability to think for yourself will be THE SINGLE GREATEST ADVANTAGE YOU HAVE TO "BEAT THE STREET." It will not be hard but it will be hard work and is counter to every American instinct instilled in the last half decade or so. Americans are the kings of convenience. Hard work is inconvenient. Thinking for yourself is inconvenient. You will have to research and study many subjects. That may require reading or talking to knowledgeable persons or learning new words and concepts. You will have to learn something about accounting and basic business principles. This may require math and common sense. It will require commitment.

Why should we diet and exercise to lose weight when we can take a pill?

Why should we research issues affecting our communities when a politician can give us the answer with 3 words in 9 seconds?

How can we "sacrifice" during this war on terrorism? According to the president, by paying less taxes and spending more money in shopping malls.

Why should we actively manage our own money when we can hire a financial planner and put money in our 401(k) mutual funds and "forget about it?"

If you needed to ask that last question, tune in to the next part of our series

The Enlightened American

Enlightened Money: Part 2 - Taking Responsibility