Are you in the rat race?
According to Wikipedia, a rat race is an endless, self-defeating, or pointless pursuit. The phrase equates humans to rats attempting to earn a reward such as cheese, in vain. It may also refer to a competitive struggle to get ahead financially or routinely.
Since young, we were being taught to study hard, to get a good job with good income. We were being trained to be a good employee. Since graduation, many of us start to work to earn income in order to pay the bills (responsibilities). Because of the recurring bills, stress comes in, instant gratification comes in to lure us to enjoy better lifestyle after hardwork. If we are not careful, we are easily living beyond our income. Hence, no saving! Worst, we get into financial debt which forces us to work even harder for money.
Are you in such circle? If yes, then you are stuck in the rat race. If you feel that every month you need to work to get income to pay off your bills or debts, you are in the rat race!
How to break free? The key is to work on each element that are within the rat race circle (see the picture above). We should reduce debts so that we don’t work every month just to pay off the debt or the minimum monthly debt repayment. We need to practice delay gratification, balance between spending and saving. We spend only within our means. All these effort will result in more saving.
Most of us know this, why it seems harder to implement and to take action? The reason is lack of clarity. Some are unaware how serious is the situation. Some are unsure how much they have overspent, how much saving is required to escape the rat race.
You can start to track your expenses to check whether you have any saving every month end. This will be the starting point for you to break free the circle. If you don’t have saving, you need to find some by increasing your income or reducing your expenses. After having more saving, make the extra money working harder for you, i.e. invest! When the money flows in through investments (or any other method without working hard) is sufficient to cover your bills and debts, you have the choice to stop working. Yeah, you escape from the rat race!
The beginning is always the hardest. The key is to START, after starting you will realize doing it is not that hard anymore.
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