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Have you ever wondered why it’s so expensive to live?
Have you wondered why we are expected to work 9-5 until we are 65 for a pension of £100 per week when we retire?
Do you work harder to earn more money but never seem to be better off for it?
Have you ever wondered why the gap between the super-rich and poor is getting bigger?
There is a reason and it's because of the system we are in is designed for us to be the pawns!
It's time to level up, time to elevate, time to hack the game and stack the chips in our favour and become the rooks, knights and kings!
Let me explain how and why....
The current monetary system
I have increasingly become more uneasy and frustrated about how the world is over the last few years, a sentiment I know many share.
So much division, so much coercion, so much control being exercised without much opposition. It’s really concerning to me how so many people have lost the ability to critically think and look for the truth themselves instead of buying mainstream narratives.
My concern about the last years and the current “situation” and seeing so much money printing lead me to further my research on ways I can take back some control in my own life.
This led me to stumble onto a documentary called "Four Horsemen" which blew open so much of my suspicions or at least put together and backed up shards of information I had learnt over the years.
In short. OUR SYSTEM IS F*$KED
This documentary shows just how unjust our whole society is. It gets dark as it goes into the 4 signals that we are nearing the end of our society as we know it. The 4 horsemen of the apocalypse.
However focussing on the financial system, it highlights the corruption and flaws of running on a FIAT system. In Latin FIAT means “let it be done” in other words It’s a verbal agreement.
Once upon a time our Pounds and Dollars were tied to the price of Silver and Gold. Which meant they represented something tangible. However, 85 years ago the UK abandoned the gold standard with the US following suit around 35 years later to be replaced with a FIAT system. Which means It doesn’t represent anything real.
The problem with this is that the people who are in control of printing the money, the Banks, are now in charge. They can print money from nothing and then loan it out to you at a cost (not a bad scam eh?!).
The more money in the market the less the money is worth. The higher inflation and the more expensive things are to buy.
This means the more money that is printed the more it devalues our existing money. So that money you are saving is likely going to buy you less when you come to spend it.
If that is not bad enough, we are not actually living in a truly capitalist society.
In capitalism, if you’re a good business you are rewarded. If you are a bad business, you go bust.
However, the 2008 financial crisis showed that we are not playing on the same field. We discovered that the Rich have the benefits of socialism, and the poor get Capitalism.
How so?
The banks did a huge amount of dodgy dealings (watch “The Big Short”), yet the government bailed them out to keep them afloat. Yet any other business especially small businesses were left to go under and rightly so if they acted the way big banks did.
This shows just how unjust and corrupt our system is. It is ethically immoral.
Due to the pandemic, the US and UK governments have printed more money in a short space of time than ever before. Out of the circulating supply of USD, 20-35% have been printed since the pandemic started. Crazy!
The worry is that this scale of money printing will devalue our currencies so much that the inflation or cost of goods become outrageously expensive. The potential for hyperinflation is very real.
Hyperinflation is determined when the price of goods increases rapidly at 50% per month. It has happened before in countries such as China, Germany, Russia, Hungary and Zimbabwe. The worst of these, the inflation was increasing 100-200% per day!
Just imagine the cost of your food doubling each day!
One of the main causes of hyperinflation is when Central Banks print too much money… uh oh!
I am not saying this to scare or panic you. I am drawing your awareness to potential outcomes of what our “leadership” is doing to our currency and economy.
I am highlighting this so you can do your own research and make your own plans to protect yourself and your financial future.
One of the ways you may look at doing this is by looking at Cryptocurrency!
Cryptocurrency
What really grabbed me with crypto was not the financial upside potential (which is huge) but it was that it seemingly held the solution to the problems our economy faces. It is the solution to money printing. The solution to benefit us. The people. The majority.
See, Bitcoin was created by Satoshi Nakamoto (a Pseudonym whose identity is still not known!) after the 2008 financial crisis as a solution to stop banks messing with our money and our lives.
The idea. An open, decentralised currency that is not corruptible and has a capped supply. Genius!
Using software and very clever technology called a Blockchain. This is a self-checking self-operating system that doesn’t need a corruptible person in charge of it, just users! Bitcoin has grown from strength to strength with more and more mainstream adoption.
The technology aspect of Bitcoin is the “Blockchain”. This is the technology that has huge potential. It is basically an information ledger, for Bitcoin it says person A has sent X Bitcoin to Person B and so on and so forth. It tracks that bitcoin along its travels and is open for all to see all automatically checked and verified without human error!
The beauty is that unlike the rest of our currencies we know that there will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin (BTC). This means that the more people want bitcoin the higher its value. A bitcoin is also split into teeny tiny bits called Satoshi’s or sats (after the creator) so don’t worry you don’t need to have a whole one (which at the time of writing is $42,000).
The very fact that there is limited supply means that it will hold a certain value. The market is still very volatile and governments all over the world are doing their best to put out FUD (Fear, uncertainty, doubt), restrictions and bans on it as they can see that they may well stand a chance at losing control over their monetary system. Of course, they will say that this is in our best interest.
Much of which is using the tech of Bitcoin the “Blockchain” and really using that for a whole host of other opportunities. The blockchain is effectively a block of data and could in theory be used to transfer and hold all forms of information such as medical history, marriage certificates, land titles and could potentially even be used for contracts. Opening a whole host of potential especially with finance.
There is huge excitement around Defi (Decentralised Finance), building technology to make finance open, clear, trustworthy and decentralised so that it cannot be manipulated. This technology is going to revolutionise the internet and our financial system!
Money Mindset
Look at me putting mindset in here! It’s almost as if it impacts all areas of your life!
Of course, if you have read my first blog ……. you already knew that!
I’ll keep this portion simple. Your attitudes and beliefs about money matter.
Your Mindset towards money and people with money matters.
If you say you don’t like money, say you never have enough, say you will never be rich, say you don’t like people with money.
Guess what? You will always financially struggle.
A lot of our attitude towards money comes from our feelings of self-worth etc and our attitude towards money will heavily impact our financial situation in life.
Listen to how you talk about money, what’s your self talk like? How’s your financial situation?
Start to pay attention to how other people talk about money and see if it correlates to their financial position. I think you find it will.
In the UK so many people dislike other peoples success. How many times have you heard someone comment when a guy in an expensive car drives past “wanker”, “Lucky bastard” etc Instead of “good for him” “he must have worked hard”.
I believe this is because we are not taught a growth mindset and so many people in the UK lack the belief that they can achieve financial success if they choose to pursue it.
Therefore they resent people for their wealth and success and often blame it on being lucky rather than them working hard!
Well, I have news for you. You can absolutely achieve whatever the hell you want. We all can!
You just need to change your Mindsets and f*cking believe. Then you need to put in the hard work starting with...
Financial Intelligence
Understanding our financial position, goals, how we spend our money, investment strategies, our attitude towards money and how this impacts us are all aspects of financial intelligence.
I started increasing my financial intelligence about 5 years ago when I read the books “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and “The Richest Man in Babylon”. These books are fundamental in increasing your awareness around money, the system we are caught up in and how we escape it.
This helped me understand how our education system is designed to create good worker bees, good consumers and people who have a fixed mindset.
We are not taught how to save, how to create passive income, how to ask questions and think outside of the box. We are not taught how to nurture a growth mindset and how to create a future that is not bound by a need to work 9-5 until we are 65.
We are also not taught that we cannot spend our way to happiness. That we do not need things to enrich our lives. That a bigger house, flash car, gadgets and toys will not improve our quality of life if we have to be tied into the rat race to achieve them.
This is where our own further education comes in. It is by learning from other sources that we give ourselves the knowledge and tools to create the life we desire and the life we deserve.
As humans, as men, we are not here to be put in a box and live within the confines of that box.
We are here to learn and grow and to create a future where our creativeness and love for life is not restricted and confined by men who deem we are undeserving.
I say F*ck that. It’s time to step up and step out, break free of the shackles they would have us in. It’s time to Make Ready our Mind, Body and Spirit and forge our own path and create the lives we dreamed of.
It’s time to increase our Financial Intelligence and make steps forward to build wealth for our family and generations to come.
I would highly recommend reading the above books and do an overhaul on your finances. Get the spreadsheet out and see where you are wasting money and what opportunities you have to cut spending and invest.
Conscious Capitalism
I am not one of these spiritual folk who condemns capitalism and shuns money. I personally think that attitude is incredibly naive and I don’t believe that we will change the world for the better by having that attitude.
Why? Because the alternative will not work. There seems to be a growing naive population that seems to think that socialism will work. A population of people who signal that they have morally higher ground. However, I fear much is out of an unwillingness to work and being accustomed to a pretty cushty space we have here in the UK.
We do need to play the game. We just need to hack it and create new rules.
Yes, the system needs to be fairer, yes the system is unjust as it stands however we need capitalism.
Who actually wants to live in a socialist society? Not me. I enjoy working hard and being creative and I hope that it will pay off for me one day…..and if it doesnt the apsiration keeps me going and enjoying the persuit.
Socialism is putting way too much faith in those in charge deeming how we should live and how much we should have.
At the top of any Socialist regime lies a group of individuals who are not bound by their rules. They make the rules for everyone else while they reap all the benefits of being at the top.
No, capitalism is not the way forward and there is a better way to do it!
Conscious Capitalism is a way in which we can all be rewarded for the effort we put in however it is done with more thought, care and compassion.
We look out for one another, we look after our employees and the planet. We do not consume at the expense of people and the planet. We make good business decisions while considering the impacts on all that we touch.
In my opinion, we will not get away from money and power being a factor in any society. So if you can’t beat them? Join them.
We need more conscious people doing “the work” creating businesses and opportunities that better serve society and the planet.
We need a shift in our attitude towards capitalism and business. We need innovation and entrepreneurship to solve the issues humanity and the planet face while securing our own financial future.
Financial Freedom.
For me aiming for a fixed figure goal is kind of irrelevant. It’s very ego-based. E.g. I want to be a millionaire or I want to earn X amount per year.
It doesn’t really mean much unless you are wanting bragging rights.
We need practical application and reasoning. Why do you want to earn X amount?
This is where I find the goal of financial freedom to be the best goal in terms of meaning and practical application as a financial goal.
To be financially free means that you have enough passive income that you can choose to work as and when you want. You can choose which jobs to take, when you work, when you retire and if you want to work at all.
A way to figure this out is by looking at your expenditure.
How much money do I need to earn to cover my base living costs?
How much money do I need to earn to cover my desired lifestyle?
How much money do I need to cover the spontaneous adventures I may want to take?
A lot goes into finding this number. A real hard look at where you are. What do you actually need to be comfortable? Where is your current money being spent? Is it necessary?
This can also be done at different levels and with different micro goals on the way to complete financial freedom. E.g. Step 1. I want a passive income to cover my rent or mortgage /bills/ food etc
We are taught so many things that we need. A lot of business strategy is to make you feel like you are not enough on your own then provide you with something that makes you feel better.
The trap is that it doesn’t matter what clothes you wear, what house you own or what car you drive. It will never make you feel true worth.
It sure as hell won’t improve your quality of life without financial freedom.
See we are taught we need the flash car, big house, nice clothes and holidays to be successful. The real trap is that you work hard to get the promotion. You get the promotion with the pay rise. You then buy the bigger house, the flash car or the expensive holiday but guess what. Your quality of life hasn’t improved as your disposable income hasn’t increased as we are taught to live to our means.
We then have to stay in the rat race to pay for the more expensive everything. We are still worker bees caught up in a system that benefits from us buying all the stuff.
Stuff doesn’t make you happy. However, money can support the life of your dreams if you learn to live way within your means and use the extra to invest.
Once you are financially free then you can look at the other stuff because you can not because you need to.
We must stop trying to look wealthy and instead learn to build wealth!
Final Thoughts
In summary, our system is screwed, the government doesn’t care about you and the system is designed to keep you poor, addicted, restricted and distracted.
However, we are better than that! Aren’t we? “Yes, Daniel we are!” Ok good.
So what are we going to do? “Learn!” and when are we going to do it? “Now!”
F*ck yeah we are!
Thanks for playing.
We have the power to change our future. They do not want you to believe that and they will go out their way to distract you, make you doubt yourself, and keep you addicted to compulsive spending habits to keep you in your box.
The box that is under their feet.
It’s time to educate yourself, it’s time to plan, it’s time to be smart and secure you and your families financial future.
If we all do this then we start to take back control and we have more power to say enough is enough.
Time for ignorance and complacency is over. Take this as your wake up call.
Love first but now we Make Ready.
Daniel x
** As with all my writing these are my own opinions I hold loosely formed from my own experience of life and information I consume. Ever growing, ever evolving I'm always learning. My writing is here to share my own insight and to hopefully challenge your existing beliefs and encourage you to ask questions, to research and see more clearly so that you can go and be the change!