3 Silent Wealth Killers Impacting Your Wallet Right Now

Welcome to the Path of Modern Freedom newsletter! Why Modern Freedom? Because financial freedom is worthless if you are working 100 hours/week. You won't have time to enjoy it! That is why modern freedom is the combination of free time + money that enables you to live a life of signficance. 

The 3 Silent Wealth Killers Among Us

There are three "silent" wealth killers that we need to discuss. Like assassins in the night killing your wallet, most people don't know what's happened until its over.

Killer 1: Inflation

The first killer goes by the name of "inflation". This is a pandemic of its own since it affects every dollar/euro/yen created. 

The more money governments print, the less its worth. Full stop. 

Now, 2022 has been special in the worst of ways with inflation blazing in around 8-9%. This has driven up prices on literally everything and caused everyone to have to tighten their belts.

However, despite the economic pressures, Amazon posted its best Prime Day ever just a few weeks ago even though their "deals" are tracked by multiple blogs and proven not to be particularly good at all.

This leads us to our second silent wealth killer.

Killer 2: Ignorance

Pre-pandemic, 1 in 4 people had a budget. That number has jumped since then with everything getting more expensive but its still reportedly around 2 out of 3 people.

And a lot of them I know aren't doing it right because 60% of them are using pen and paper. I would bet their monthly income they aren't updated accurately. 

Do you know how many business have a budget? 100% of the ones not getting shut down. 

Income doesn't matter in this regard either. I work with people making over $100k/year and its just as bad. People outspend their "cushion" and then wonder why things are so stressful when life decides to get expensive on you.

If you aren't fully aware of where your money is going then you are 1000% losing it on items you aren't using. 

And that leads us to our third wealth killer. This one is a seductress of the worst kind.

Killer 3: Your Phone

There's a good chance you have it wrapped gently in your hand like a precious baby bird as you read this.

Yeah, your phone.

There's a few ways your phone is killing your cash.

1. Apps you paid for but don't use
2. Paying too much for a new phone on payment plans
3. Payment Coupling

Okay, let me explain the last one. Payment coupling is the time difference between when you choose to purchase something and when you actually end up paying for it.

With credit cards, because you don’t pay for something the moment you buy it, it’s less psychologically painful to spend your future money than your present money.

This is accelerated when its an autopay on your phone. Just Face ID, double click the side or tap it and BOOM. Money gone. Less pain than handing over a $50 bill. 

A famous study was one conducted by Dun & Bradstreet, in which the company found that people spend 12%-18% more when using credit cards instead of cash. 

Even worse, professors at MIT did a study on people trying to get tickets to go to a highly-desirable, sold out professional basketball game.

Half the people could only pay with cash and the other half could pay with credit card.

The ones who could pay with credit on average were willing to pay DOUBLE than the ones who could only pay cash.

This is the desctrutive power of Payment Coupling. And every large company in the world knows about it and uses it to their advantage.

So as they say, a mind is a terrible thing to waste and waste is a terrible thing to mind. But the ultimate waste is not to mind your money.

I may have added the last part...but I think it works. Awareness leads to planning. Planning leads to execution. Execution leads to riches.

Until our paths cross again...