❓Are you spending now on ‘stuff’ or are you buying financial freedom?
To put it another way, are you rich 💰or are you wealthy 💰? I think there is a difference.
Spending on ‘stuff’ (big houses, shiny cars 🚗, lavish holidays 🏖️) can make you look rich. Social media loves it. Sometimes people are playing a game called ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’.
But being wealthy is different; it’s what you don’t see. It’s the well-funded pension, investments and property portfolios🏘️. It’s the delayed gratification of accumulating freedom.
It’s the exact opposite of ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’.
Most people don’t want to be millionaires, they just want to spend £1m, and that’s the polar opposite of being a millionaire.
Rihanna sued her financial adviser after she nearly went bankrupt. Quite rightly exasperated he is quoted saying “was it really necessary to tell her that if you spend the money on things, you will have the things and not the money?” 🧨
Apparently so.
A house on my road has two shiny, black, 19-reg 5 Series BMWs on the drive. The driveway of the very similar-looking house nearby contains a 13-reg Audi and an even older Mazda 5. Who is rich and who is wealthy?
I’m not 100% sure but I know I live in the latter house and I think my neighbours are playing ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’. Then again, we could both have decent property portfolios and live very comfortably. I just can’t tell.
Being wealthy is much, much harder than being rich. You simply can’t see delayed gratification.
Being rich is visible, there are people you can emulate and look up to. It’s so easy to spend lots of money very quickly.
Being wealthy takes time, it’s difficult to learn from other people because it’s difficult to learn from what you don’t see. Apart from the FIRE 🔥movement, you don’t see many people showing off about it either.
Deep down I think we all want to be wealthy but it’s so ingrained to spend that we don’t see the discipline it takes to become and stay wealthy.
Chatfield is here to help people become wealthy. We know what to do and how to do this because Adrian and I have done it ourselves.
Don’t be rich and broke like Rhianna. Be wealthy, comfortable, and free instead. It’s much more liberating.
