Only If You Need Them
By Jim Bauer
@porwest (92047)
United States
October 7, 2022 7:25pm CST
Power is a funny thing. You can live your life and let people have full control over you, or you can set your own rules, and set your own parameters, and provide power to yourself.
Look, a paycheck is an important thing in life. You have to have a job. That's just the way it works. At the same time, you do not need to be dicatated to in order to get it. You don't have to give up your morals, your personal goals, your personal wants and desires, nor your own power to get one.
The only reason the next paycheck is important, I mean really important, is when it is the only source of future money.
If you have something else to rely on. For example, money you set aside from earlier paychecks and saved and invested, that make new money even if you are not working...
You are better off. It gives you opportunity. It gives you power. It gives you the ability to decide your own fate and not allow others to dictate it for you. It allows you to say, "No. This is not for me, thank you very much."
When the next paycheck is not absolutely necessary it puts control back into your own hands and you have the ability to choose your own path rather than have it chosen for you.
A paycheck should never be about what it offers you today. It should always be about what it offers you tomorrow. And it should always offer you the opportunity to say, "No."
Money should never be something that forces you into things. It should be something you use strategically to call your own shots and have a say in what happens in your life...
And also in your job.
Your boss only has power over you if you need them.
13 people like this
12 responses
@marguicha (223439)
• Chile
8 Oct 22
I absolutly agree with you. That´s how I have lived most of my life.
3 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
8 Oct 22
I am extremely grateful that this is a lesson I learned VERY EARLY in life, and it is a lesson that has served me very well.
I have a great job and am not at all ungrateful that I have it. But I can also leave tomorrow and not go hungry and not change my lifestyle one iota.
That is something I cherish.
3 people like this
@marguicha (223439)
• Chile
8 Oct 22
@porwest I learnt from my father that you had to love your work, whatever it was. I followed that principle.
2 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
8 Oct 22
@marguicha I don't know if I have ever loved my work. But I did love that if I worked hard, even if it wasn't my dream job, and put enough money away and did the right things with what I put away, I'd have more freedom in my life and require less of the work part.
2 people like this
@LindaOHio (179874)
• United States
8 Oct 22
Every paycheck to me was always very important because we were socking away every dollar possible before our retirement. We both retired unexpectedly early on disability; so we were so glad that we had been so frugal. I always dreamed of winning the lottery and telling my boss to shove it. :-D
3 people like this
@LindaOHio (179874)
• United States
15 Oct 22
@porwest Will you do that when you retire? You might need him for a reference.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160777)
• United States
8 Oct 22
It is true that money is powerful and having your needs provided for in spite of your job is very freeing. We do not teach that very well though.
3 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
9 Oct 22
It is the one thing I think we SHOULD be teaching in schools. I think if there is one way to combat poverty it is to start as early as possible having our kids understand how money works, the importance of saving and investing, HOW to invest and research stocks, how to manage money, to understand the real cost of credit and to understand the benefits of compound interest in saving and the detriment of compound interest in borrowing.
We would have a totally different rich vs. poor argument in this country if we did.
1 person likes this
@RebeccasFarm (90063)
• Arvada, Colorado
8 Oct 22
This should be taught as soon as childhood.
3 people like this
@RebeccasFarm (90063)
• Arvada, Colorado
8 Oct 22
@porwest The most important things like this are just not taught in schools especially now.
Glad you guide your little ones.
3 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
14 Oct 22
@RebeccasFarm I can't think of much from school that I find valuable today. It is an unfortunate reality.
1 person likes this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
8 Oct 22
I know that I definitely have shared this little tidbit with all of nieces and nephews and younger cousins and second cousins. I am not sure if any of them have ever heeded my advice. I suspect a couple of them have, but I definitely agree with you.
3 people like this
@RubyHawk (99405)
• Atlanta, Georgia
8 Oct 22
You are right up to a point but when you have children to raise and rent and bills to;pay. You have no choice but to work at the job you have or the best job you can get. You might have no money left over but you’re taking care of your family the best way you can. You may never have a bank account or investments but you can be thankful you have a job.
2 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
9 Oct 22
Nope. I totally disagree. And we have had this discussion before so I will refrain from rehashing it. No such thing as "can't save money." It simply does not exist.
I am sure I have told you the story of a friend of mine who is a millionaire, who had several kids, worked at Burger King, saved and invested DESPITE his income, DESPITE his family status or economic situation and now owns several of his own restaurants.
You will never convince me that income has a thing to with having money, nor any of the excuses people want to make for being poor.
It is simply not reality.
Poor people make excuses. Rich people make money. It's that simple. And as I always point out, you are not talking to a poor guy here, so I tend to know a thing or two about money. Just saying. It is not bragging. Just pointing out what I know to be true.
I was not born into riches and I, at one time, had lousy jobs and was broke and still made my way to where I am today. It was not easy. But the one thing I did NOT do was make excuses. And that is a LARGE part of the reason I got ahead.
At 26 I was buying my first rental property making $7.25 an hour.
2 people like this
@Beestring (14593)
• Hong Kong
8 Oct 22
Yes, with financial freedom, we can afford the kind of life we desire for ourselves.
2 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
9 Oct 22
That is the idea. I love that the wife and I have lots of money in the stock market, and not only do we receive a lot of dividends throughout the year, when we need money we don't have to pull from savings most of the time. We can sell a couple covered call options contracts and voila. We have the money we need and it does not cost us a dime.
2 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
10 Oct 22
@Beestring Dividends are one the greatest things. You own a business but don't have to run it, but you still get a share of the profits.
1 person likes this
@Beestring (14593)
• Hong Kong
9 Oct 22
@porwest That's great. I receive dividends from the company I worked for before my retirement. When I joined the company, it was a startup. I got some shares in the company. Now the company has grown a lot and it's making profit every year, I still get dividends.
2 people like this
@sublime03 (2339)
• Philippines
8 Oct 22
I totally agree. I wish we all have power over whatever circumstance we are at and not be under the money has control over my life or my
happiness. People tend to cling on to money too much that they think it controls their happiness and that shouldn’t be.
2 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
14 Oct 22
I think most of us have much more control over our money than we think. Most of us don't seek out what provides it. As for happiness, I do not believe having money is key to it. But certainly being poor does not bring happiness to most people. When you spend your life struggling, stuck, not able to do anything—one can convince themselves they are happy. But deep down they are miserable.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (68435)
• United States
8 Oct 22
As Talking Heads once sang, “If your work isn’t what you love then something isn’t right.”
There was no better feeling than singing Johnny Paycheck (“Take This Job and Shove It”) to my boss in 2019. 
2 people like this
@porwest (92047)
• United States
9 Oct 22
Not only was Talking Heads one of my favorite bands in the 80s, and I happen to still be a big fan (some of my own weird music might be influenced by some of that I suppose), but it is a great line. At the same time, I have never really loved any work I did for a paycheck, including now, BUT I have always viewed the paycheck as a way out if I deal with it right when I get it.
Now that we have that camper, I very badly want to tell my boss that. lol
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (80203)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
8 Oct 22
I have to say you have the right idea,. When I first started working a long time ago in NYC, it was like getting a prize every time my paycheck hit the bank but today when I have so little finances it makes me happy when I can get money working hard on the Internet and every penny counts,
2 people like this
@moffittjc (121617)
• Gainesville, Florida
9 Oct 22
I am thankful that I have set myself up financially over the years to the point where I don't have to work now if I didn't want to. That takes so much pressure off of me to know that I can walk out of my job at any time and not be screwed financially. That gives me so much power and peace of mind, and I am not hesitant to tell me boss that I don't need the job I am working. That gives me a lot of power at work as well, because they know they would be screwed (at least temporarily) if I just up and walked out.
1 person likes this
@Shiva49 (26718)
• Singapore
8 Oct 22
I was working paycheck to paycheck till I was fifty years old.
I was never out of job a single day right after I started working from the age of twenty.
Then I started to feel a bit more relaxed as I was seeing the end of my working race.
In a way, money is never enough but I called it quits when I did not enjoy working anymore.
My issue was my colleagues were a generation after me!
And one should quit when people ask "why" and not "why not".
Thankfully, I have saved and invested enough to live a life of comfort.
2 people like this
