29 April 2008 1323 views 2 Comments Print This Post  Email This Post

How many times have you heard that good things come to those who wait? What about being told that if you just stay positive, you’ll get what you deserve? That’s all well and good — these beliefs are probably necessary to make sure that people can live in harmony.

But overall, I’m seeing a trend towards sensitivity and complacency even in personal finance. And that’s not the place for it. Sure, you can create a comfortable lifestyle on the income you earn as a cubicle dweller. But you’ll never get rich that way. I’m not even talking about yacht or golden bathtub rich, either. I’m taking about a comfortable retirement, college funds for your kids and that flat panel TV screen you’ve been lusting over for the last year.

To get even that far, you have to be aggressive. You have to make sure you get a raise or start a business or come up with the cash to invest. Heck, occasionally you have to be flat out mean: a bank may make a mistake, and without you telling the teller or manager that you’re ready to move your account, you may not get that mistake fixed. The same holds true in hundreds of situations that occur every day: a person willing to go to bat for herself is going to get a problem solved long before a person relying on her positive thoughts.

It’s up to you if you want to build up the assets you’ll need to live comfortably — let alone try to make it to the private jet level of wealth. Sitting around waiting for someone to be kind enough to hand you the keys to a jet just won’t work. Instead, you have to get out there and push. You need to work hard to get that far, and you may even need to go to some extremes: practice frugality, work extra hours, strike out on your own.

I think it’s time to exercise some aggression in pursuing our goals. I’m making my wealth-building strategy more aggressive: I’m pinching pennies hard enough that Abe Lincoln screams. I’m looking for better investments for my money — I’m learning as much as I can about investment so that I don’t have to rely on an adviser, who may have different goals for my money that I do. Heck, I’m even contemplating holding a garage sale — not all wealth-building strategies have to be extreme. Where can you get aggressive? Where can you push a little harder and save a bit more money?