But we aren’t talking about money in and of itself. Is it okay for you to amass wealth? Is it moral to own a BMW? To have a bank account with enough funds to allow three other people to retire? Shouldn’t you give your money away when you spend it? Aren’t you an evil, unfulfilled person when you do well?

You aren’t evil if you are financially well off. It’s perfectly moral to be rich. In fact, it’s part of the American Dream. If you believe serving others is the foundation of morality, it’s still moral; wealth almost automatically ends up helping others. That’s just how the economy works.

Below are five reasons I support the idea of building wealth here at Personal Development.

1. You’ve Earned It

As we discuss in Why Some People Always Succeed, success comes to those who focus on creation. Always making things better, trying new ideas, focusing on productivity; the creator nearly always succeeds in the long run.

On a similar note, the opposite individual will not succeed. Short of winning the lottery, lazy, uncreative people never become wealth. They never build a passive system of income (something I’ll be writing about in the future). People who don’t create won’t win.

This means one fact: if you’ve built your wealth, you deserve it. With a few exceptions (an inheritance, the lottery), those who have built wealth did so by helping society as a whole, strengthening the economy, creating jobs and helping others.

Reality rewards creators. There’s a reason high-paying jobs are high paying. CEOs, investors, webmasters, managers, business owners, authors – all of these individuals build wealth through creation.

If you end up rich, chances are you’ve earned it and then some.

2. Don’t Worry, Be Happy

One of the most puzzling myths in our culture is as ironic as it is puzzling. Western society is the richest society in the history of the world, yet it’s uncommon at all for individuals who live in the relative luxury to make claims such as, “Money doesn’t buy happiness.” Of course, they are absolutely right. Money is a tool, and can’t guarantee happiness. There are many rich people who are unhappy. There are also many poor who are unhappy as well.

This doesn’t mean, however, that money can’t increase your happiness. Money isn’t everything, but of course it helps.

SmartMoney Magazine actually wrote a bit about this in one of their recent articles:

“It may not be comforting to folks who aren’t minting cash, but the rich really are different.”There’s no group in America that’s happier than the wealthy,” says Taylor, of the Harrison Group. Roughly 70 percent of millionaires say that money “created” more happiness for them, he notes.”

Interesting word choice, isn’t it? Money “created” happiness for people who created money. Creation is one of the fundamental “purposes” of all persons. I’ll be talking about this in the future, so make sure to subscribe at the end of this article.

In the end, it should be fairly obvious why creating significant wealth can lead to at least an increase in happiness. You don’t have to worry about credit card debt, making the mortgage payments, saving enough to stay in style. Money makes life easier.

3. Being Rich Doesn’t Harm Others

There seems to be a rather baffling view when it comes to money. Perhaps we should blame it on the educational system; the view could be extinguished with a healthy dose of basic high-school level economics. The view is this: If someone is rich, that means someone else has to be extra poor. This simply doesn’t reflect the way the economy works.

An “economy” is basically money flow. It’s a question of how money moves from one person to the next. Just being “rich” doesn’t mean that the poor have less money, or that someone else will be struggling. There are several reasons for this, including more than even those listed below. The few listed below are just the tip of the economic ice-burg for why every economy simply benefits from the wealthy.

No Cap. Put simply, there’s no reason to think that because someone has two dollars that someone else is two dollars short. The reasoning is simple: the impact of every dollar is much, much bigger than the “static” amount of money that exists.

For example, I have a couple of hundred in my wallet. By the end of week, I’ll have spent it and someone else will have it. Next week, another person will have the hundred. After that, another person will have the money, and so on and so forth. This means that the “real” impact of every dollar is much, much greater than whatever is sitting in my wallet.

If I have ten bucks or a thousand bucks, in a few weeks someone else will have it regardless. This is money-flow. Rich people aren’t financial black holes, sucking money from the economy. If anything, the rich are often the creators that we talked about in Why Some People Always Succeed.

New Business. If everyone is barely scraping by, paycheck to paycheck, new businesses won’t be created; there wouldn’t be enough money saved up to handle the necessary costs. “Risky” ideas that only venture capitalists would support will never happen, period. Eventually, the economy will collapse without growth.

This means the exact opposite happens with the wealthy, supposing a free enterprising system like the one in the United States and a lot of Europe; the wealthy can launch businesses much quicker. The same goes for you. The more you have the more you can create. The more you create the more the economy benefits.

Jobs, business, choice; these are the end result of creators doing what they do best: create, build,
produce and achieve.

In short, if you are wealthy, it’s not because you are evil and want to suck money away from everyone else while laughing evilly on the way to the bank. Creators always end up creation creations which in turn cause more creation.

4. Got Money? Give More

In an odd paradox, the “super poor” often get more money due to some people having a boat-load of money. The lower and middle classes are usually focusing on making ends meet, as we talked about in “Save Money or Make Money.”

One of the consequences of working just to stay afloat is that there is rarely enough to pass on through charity. Almost all of the inheritance will go to making sure the kids and family have a little to make it on. Almost all of the week’s earnings go to food, transportation (I spent $4.08 on gas, today), housing and other basic expenses.

Now take a look back at someone like Warren Buffet. When he dies almost the whole 50+ billion are going to charity. The same goes for Bill Gates and a slew of others. There’s a reason hospitals name wings of new buildings after successful individuals, there’s a reason we see scholarships named in the honor of a rich person: being rich means you can help in a big way.

This isn’t to suggest that I’m trying to paint wealth as something purely selfless. Of course it’s selfish to make money. And that’s a good thing. Just read below.

5. Everyone is “Selfish”

This is the part where we’ll focus on the personal development side of the entire idea. Nearly everyone in popular culture claims to support “selflessness” while condemning anything done for “profit” or “selfishness.” The idea that “selfishness” = “evil” is so entrenched in our culture and society that challenging is considered absurd.

A few months ago I watched a video on YouTube where a young philosopher was attempting to explain why selfishness can certainly be justified. A video response to the philosopher showed someone passionately against what was being argued. The entire response looked something like this: “You can’t just be selfish! I mean, it’s just that it…just, well, it just sounds so selfish.” There wasn’t a reason given.

The truth is, everyone is “selfish” to a certain degree. I’ll be writing a more detailed article explaining this in the future, but for now, let’s just take a step back and look at, well, everyone.

TV is not necessary; neither are computers, snacks, desserts, “fun books”, most magazines or nearly every hobby in existence. Is it wrong to utilize these things, or take these actions? It would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would suggest so. Even still, these things are certainly selfish.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying oneself. We’ll be going into more detail about this in future articles so make sure to subscribe. I’d love to see your thoughts, so stay tuned.

Being rich doesn’t require that anyone is harmed. Wealth is built through helping others. Creators deserve to be wealthy; creators have earned their wealth. Having wealth means you are more able to help others.

Bottom line: whether you want to help others or help yourself, being wealthy gives you more potential for doing accomplishing your goals.

Related posts:

1. Save Money or Make Money?
2. Personal Finance: Don’t Be So Defensive
3. The Creator Personality

True. Everyone should live below their means, in a way. But the expression is wrong headed because it implies focusing on “living below” rather than “earning more.”

This article will argue that rather than focusing on spending less than we earn we should focus on earning more than we spend. — for example, we should try to make money online. Semantics aside, this attitudinal difference is vital for long term material success.

The Perspective of a Miser

The perspective of the miser is someone who has determined that they’ll make ends meet by making it easier to meet them. Skimping out, drinking water, smaller meals, slower internet, hunting for cheaper gas; these are “defensive personal finance” measures.

Of course, these measures do work. That’s a given. You are most certainly going to have an easier time when it comes to paying the bills if the bills are smaller — this is especially true if you make money online.

“Making ends meet” is the art of making sure your financial income is the same or better than your outgo. As long as your needs and your earnings are at least matched up, you’re good to go.

Sort of.

If you focus exclusively on “making ends meet” you’ll be working harder in the long run. The reasoning is simple: your needs are relatively static. You need food, housing and transportation. Your income is typically also fairly static: you get a paycheck.

Focusing on “saving” your way to real success within a long period of time is possible with almost any income. It just costs more in terms of lifestyle. For the lower-class, investing means smaller meals or some other inconvenience.

Is there a better way to focus? Absolutely. But first, let’s do a background look at a specific kind of individual: the creator.

The Perspective of a Creator

There are dozens if not hundreds of “personality type” quizzes that can be found online. I admit, I’m often a sucker for them. But the profound difference between people isn’t usually listed in the test results because not any one personality typically succeeds. You can do well as an extrovert, an introvert, someone who focuses on sensing or someone who focuses on intuition. Almost any personality can succeed by focusing on its strengths.

But there is one way to almost guarantee success, and that is to adapt the personality of a creator.

A creator is someone who simply can’t function with the “same-old, same-old” and demands creating solutions and increasing efficiency at everything.

A creator is someone who feels like every action they take must bring about both short-term and long-term results.

A creator is someone who feels like wasting time and effort is a great crime, and seeks to maximize his or her time on earth.

For a more comprehensive analysis of the creator personality, read Why Some People Always Succeed. I detail exactly what I mean by a “creator.” The article is a must-read for anyone who’s tired of not reaping the benefits of financial success.

Choose Now: More Pain or More Money?

What I’m about to say does not mean you shouldn’t try to cut expenses for the sake of your budget. This is a necessity for most people. If you’re at a place where you need to drink water when you eat out, that’s perfectly fine and you should certainly do so.

The following is simply the proposal of a different perspective.

Warren Buffet didn’t become Warren Buffet because he only drank water at McDonald’s. (Though, to be fair, Buffet does routinely shop at Sam’s Club, a discount warehouse. Not the usual for a guy worth 50+ billion dollars.)

Steve Jobs didn’t become Steve Jobs because his car had above-average fuel efficiency.

No, the successful don’t get that way by skipping meals, or eating cheaper. That’s a way to make ends meet. It’s important for many (or most) people. But it’s not a good long-term game plan. It’s the best way to live in regards to the next round of bills.

The key to financial success isn’t about scrimping and cutting costs. That’s how you stop yourself from going bankrupt. Not going bankrupt is a lot different than being successful.

How to Make Money

There are always principles to how any function operates. Just ask a mathematician. These principles work in business, personal development, personal finance, basketball, style; you name it, there are principles. Here are some of the essential principles of building wealth:

• Become a Creator. Creators create where ever they go. They walk into a room and have to make one thing better before they leave. They spend all day focusing on productivity. They don’t get hung up on email, or funny vids on YouTube. They can’t help but rise to the top.

• Dump the Shackles. Society is filled with weird beliefs and presumptions that are simply foolhardy. I’ll be writing more about the following specifically, so make sure to subscribe. Each of these shackles, if believed, can destroy your financial future, period. Thee following “shackles” are completely wrong:
  1. You aren’t self employed.
  2. Not everyone can be rich.
  3. Wealth “just happens” to some people.
  4. You can’t “get rich quick”, and anyone who says so is a scammer.
  5. You can’t do well without a college degree.
  6. You shouldn’t focus on money.

• Build a Network. Remember, an economy is a social structure. Making money requires other people. If people like you, they’re more likely to give you breaks, do business or help you out. Besides, networking can’t hurt you.

• Passive. Income. A passive income is an income that’s going to come in even if you decide to take a 6-month break. Investments, owning a “hands-free” business, a website; all of these are fantastic ways of building your income. The great thing about a passive income is that it always grows. You can only move up.

Thinking beyond the culture norms, networking, focusing on a long-term income model, constantly looking for creative ways to be productive are all vital elements of building wealth. Master one, and your income will increase over the long run. Master them all and nothing can stop you.

Don’t focus on being a miser. Focus on being a creator. Don’t focus on scrimping your way to the top. Just build your way there.

Related posts:

1. 5 Reasons You Should Get Rich
2. Personal Finance: Don’t Be So Defensive
3. The Creator Personality

The creator is someone who always adds value. Always. The creator is constantly putting something valuable together, whether it’s a product, a job or a plan.

Creators can’t help but succeed because our economy rewards value; if one makes something valuable then people will want it. When people want it, they’ll pay. Value and profit go hand-in-hand.

Building wealth requires having the mindset of a creator.

This isn’t just about starting a business. This article will focus on how to be a creator in the “everyday” workplace. No product-line required.

Value Creates Profit

Our economic system rewards value. A product will not exist if no one purchases it and no one will purchase a product if they don’t believe it has value.

The iPod, best-seller books, designer clothes and other products only exist because people will purchase them. Make a cruddy product that simply doesn’t work to any extent and you won’t do as well as you would if you offered value.

Coca-Cola got where it’s at today because of a consistent taste and because of incredibly creative marketing towards the start of the mega-company’s existence. Value created profit.

The Internet was a mess before Google decided that a search-engine based on rewarding “popular” content would be valuable. Value created profit. A lot of profit.

When it comes to business, there’s an entire branch dedicated toward convincing people that the product is valuable. Marketing is founded on this premise: you should spend money (give us profit) because we’ll give you value. And it works.

People like value. People flock to value. People pay for value.

This isn’t just for business owners. The principle is much, much more basic than that. Understanding and emphasizing value is the crux of all achievement by anyone, not just for a business operator.

Creators Eventually Succeed

A creator who works as a webmaster who has a website is constantly adding valuable content to his website. This in turn will cause other webmasters to link to his website, which generates traffic, which causes more links — you see the point. Considering traffic means money, that’s success.

A creator who works as a grocery stocker is constantly analyzing how the organization of the store-rooms is done, looking for ways to add value to the system. The stocker will be promoted because people who promote value help the company. The higher he goes, the more profit the company makes.

A creator who works in an office discovers more efficient ways to use the technology and actually “get things done”…within reason.* With such efficiency more opportunities and resume’ builders will come along. Remember, the more you get accomplished while at work, the more responsibility you can take on. This is long-term prep for a job transfer.

Creators can’t help but succeed. If they’re workers, they’ll become managers. If they’re managers, they’ll become owners. If they’re associates, they’ll become partners.

Become a Creator

Want to do well? Become a creator. Becoming a creator is outlandishly difficult; it requires completely throwing off the typical “worker mentality” and replacing it with the philosophy of achievement. Read below for tips on how you can start looking at the world through the eyes of a creator.

Don’t Watch the Clock. Have you ever been to a store that closed a few minutes early, because the manager stepped out and the employees wanted to quit a bit early? The employees might think they are acting selfishly and are getting what they want. They aren’t.

The “clock-watcher” mentality is the anti-thesis of the creator. The creator goes to work for the ability to add value as habit, not to work just long enough to run out the door the moment the clock strikes five.

Keep Your Eyes Open. There are always dozens of ways that we end up wasting time and doing thing inefficiently. The key to creating a more productive workplace in order to free up time and get noticed by superiors is to constantly look for those flaws. You know they’re there; what are they?

Do Something Weird. Weird things can save time and create “something from nothing.” I once found out a friend wanted a website designed, so I volunteered to do it for $250, about half of what she was prepared to pay. She was delighted, of course, and I promised to have it done within 24 hours.

One small glitch: I don’t know how to design websites. So I Googled “outsource web design” and found an incredibly professional firm that agreed to do it for $75. Within 24 hours I made $175 because of 3 emails. In a few days I’ll be talking about outsourcing, so make sure to subscribe so you can read it; outsourcing can literally change your life.

Be the Best. Nearly every work-force has different levels of workers. The better and more knowledgeable the worker, the more likely that worker will be seen as the leader. Be the best, get the best.

Give Up Lunch Hour. If you spend an hour every single day brainstorming how you can find away to build a passive income source (I’ll be writing more about this as time goes on) you’ll find one eventually. If you spend an hour every single day in conversation with your significant other, you’ll build an incredibly stronger relationship.

Want to learn the guitar? An hour a day is more than enough time. Want to build a high-traffic website? Five hours per week is more than enough time as long as you don’t hurry. (I’ll be writing more about building a high-traffic website business later on!)

An hour every day is a lot of time. Over a year, it’s hundreds of hours. Over a lifetime, it’s literally months of potentially pure productive action. Don’t waste your lunch hour just mindlessly munching; find a way to turn that hour into something productive. The results will be nearly instantaneous.

You can eat and achieve at the same time.

The Results of Productivity

My father is one of the greatest success inspirations I ever hope to have. He’s been the master of getting “little things” constantly done so he has time for the “big things.” He married my mother when he was 19 and broke. They worked on discovering productive ways to get things done ever since.

I didn’t come up with the above ideas; my father lived them. He moved from the DJ of a small AM radio station to the manager of all of the radio stations in the area in just a few years. He now owns his own radio incorporation known by nearly everyone as being the most professional “get it done” business in the state.

There are literally millions of individuals who have done the same. I have yet to meet a self-made millionaire who didn’t succeed in the same manner. Learn to be a creator and create your own success.

Related posts:

1. Save Money or Make Money?
2. 5 Reasons You Should Get Rich
3. Rethinking College, a Series of Articles

Reading fairly common threads of thought can be helpful to see where most people are “coming from.” Many of the sites are dead on; most personal finance sites emphasize the saving of money, smart investing, financial analysis and all around great personal finance advice.

But most personal finance websites are wrong. Don’t get me wrong, the basic principles certainly work to a certain extent. But only to an extent. The view ends up causing those who follow it to settle for much, much less than they can achieve. To understand the following concept just make sure to read the entire article.

Defensive Personal Finance

Personal finance websites encourage investing and saving, and they certainly should. The reason we want to save/invest is the bottom line; we end up with more money to spend on larger material possessions, retirement and other things. This is the ultimate reason for having a job, saving money, investing, etc. The purpose of personal finance is material.

The typical advice for personal finance looks something like this:

Want to build wealth? There’s one sure-fire way to do it, and it will take from now till your 70s. Be frugal and save, save, save. Focus on ways you can save money. Find ways that you are wasting money. Save! If you have to, skip lattes, drink water, downsize your house — just save your money and invest it. The key of success is to be frugal, thrifty and to save, save, save. Save a few thousand per year more than you spend and you’ll have a nice egg in 20-30 years.

This is all fine and dandy if your goal is to live well only in the future. This method emphasizes saving more than you make. It emphasizes holding back, cutting expenses, downsizing your lifestyle and saving. And it’s this mindset that destroys the potential to achieve.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s nothing wrong with saving. Everyone should most certainly save a portion of their income. I save constantly, keep a budget and never violate it. If I continue at this rate, I’ll have a dandy retirement in a few years.

But let’s look at how this emphasizes the lifestyle. In order to understand it, let’s analyze the life of Frugal Danny.

The Story of Frugal Danny

Frugal Danny is a frugal man, and focuses on saving his money. His personal finance philosophy is, “it’s better to do without than to spend.” He makes sure that everything he does is the cheapest possible. He only drinks water when he goes out to eat, never gets steak, doesn’t listen to much new music, doesn’t go to the theater and he lives in a small apartment.

Danny has an okay job as a technician and makes $15-per-hour and $30,000-per-year. His wife a three kids require a lot of time and money, so his job just barely makes ends meet. Danny doesn’t have the luxury of having luxuries. Every year his family invests $2,000 from all of the scrimping, saving and cutting costs. He and his wife talk about money for at least a half-hour every night.

When retirement rolls along and he’s 65, Danny is going to have 1.5 million. He is going to get about $75,000 to live off every year. He;s excited! When retirement comes, he’s worked hard to get it, and he is planning on spending time working on the garden, walking the dog and watching game-shows.

Unfortunately, Danny will never make it to retirement. He’ll be in a fatal car accident a month before he reaches his goal. His long-term plan won’t be working out for him; the dead need no money.

It might sound odd in story form, but we can learn a lesson from Danny. His lifestyle focused on scrimping and saving, hoping for a distant time in “the future” where he could enjoy the fruits of his labors. That time never came for him.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t save, invest or be relatively frugal. But it does show us the flaw of Defensive Personal Finances. So what should he have done? What can you do? Read below.

Offensive Personal Finance

There are two approaches to personal finance. You can focus on saving more than you spend or you can focus on making more than you spend. The difference is vital to understanding how to manage your money.

Defensive personality focuses on saving money. The emphasis is on holding back, and living in a poverty mindset. The emphasis is on not spending too much. Offensive person finance is different in the approach: rather than looking for ways to scrimp, offensive personal finance looks for ways to earn.

Offensive personal finance does take into account saving and investing, but that’s not where the emphasis lies. The emphasis is in making money. Remember the old quote: the poor work for their money; the rich make their money work for them. That could be modified to: the poor save their way to wealth; the rich build it.

Focusing on saving money is certainly a way to build wealth for the long term, but that’s just it; it’s a long term goal. The best approach to personal finance will have both short and long term impacts on your budget. Want to be successful? Don’t focus on skipping lattes; focus on building another stream of income. Find another way to make money. This doesn’t mean, of course, that you ever skip the life insurance basics (my friend’s website where you can learn the fundamentals — something I don’t have time for here), or you never focus on finding the best savings account or best money market rates — just focus on the short-term as well as the long term scenarios.

By actually making money you are focusing on the now as well as the future, without sacrificing either. Unfortunately, defensive personal finance seems to be reflecting the immortal words of Emerson: “We are always getting ready to live but never living.”

But of course, this all simply begs a question. How on earth are we to discover new ways to make money? Well, SmartMoney reports that building a business of some sort is the best way to generate wealth:

So how do you join the millionaires’ club? You could buy stocks or real estate, play the slots in Vegas — or take the most common path: running your own business. That’s how half of all millionaires made their money, according to the AmEx/Harrison survey. About a third had a professional practice or worked in the corporate world; only 3 percent inherited their wealth.

Building a business is just one way of thinking offensively. Have an obsession? Start a website about it, enjoy yourself and make money. Know a lot about math? Consider tutoring. Turn your skills and assets into another income source, build a business; just think offensively.

This doesn’t mean you should stop turning the lights off when you leave a room. It’s simply a question of perspective; sometimes one’s attitude is just as important as one’s circumstances.

Last Words

We’ll be discussing later why this simple perspective change is vital, and why positive/negative/realistic thinking is incredibly essential to success. Don’t worry, no “new age”, just realistic analysis of the successful and looking for attitudes that win. One last thing; I find the following quote by personal development coach Jim Rohn to be incredibly dead-on:

“Money is usually attracted, not pursued.”

I’ll be writing quite a bit about having an attitude that guarantees success; one that nearly every successful individual reveals. We’ll be talking about how anyone can get what they want in life, it just requires knowing what you want and knowing how to get there. Enter your email below and I’ll let you know when the guides are published.

Related posts:

1. 5 Reasons You Should Get Rich
2. Save Money or Make Money?
3. Rethinking College, a Series of Articles

“The debt is just short term”, “it’s the only way to get the job you want”, “you’ll never make any money without a degree” are common college myths. Let’s discuss the most important: whether a college degree is worth going into debt over, and what the alternatives to college debt are.

College Is Expensive

Education costs are spiraling out of control. A recent report by CNN’s Money Magazine even quotes the former U.S. Department of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education as saying:

“If college costs continue to escalate at this rate, you may reach a point where the investment simply isn’t worth it.”

Have you reached the point where spending the money simply isn’t worth it? How do you know when you’ve reached that point?

It doesn’t take a PhD (pardon the irony) to acknowledge the incredibly increasing costs of a college degree. Money Magazine reports that the college costs are increasing four times the rate of inflation.

Private institutions charge an average of over $20,000 per year for tuition alone, meaning lifestyle costs aren’t factored in yet. All in all, going to school can cost up to $50-100,000. In order to understand this number, let’s take a step back and analyze three factors.

College Debt Ruins Lives

These aren’t just scary numbers; behind every debt statistic are thousands ruined lives. Take Kristin Cole, for example, as reported by The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Kristin Cole, 30, who graduated from Michigan State University’s law school and lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., owes $150,000 in private and government-backed student loans. Her monthly payment of $660, which consumes a quarter of her take-home pay, is scheduled to jump to $800 in a year or so, confronting her with stark financial choices.

“I could never buy a house. I can’t travel. I can’t do anything,” she said. “I feel like a prisoner.”

The college myth proclaims that the debt is just short-lived. For many, this simply isn’t true. SmartMoney reports:

Vickie Hampton, an associate professor of financial planning at Texas Tech University, knows that being well educated can make you poor. A colleague of hers, she says, racked up more than $100,000 in debt while earning a Ph.D. in English. “There’s very little probability of her paying that off in her lifetime!” Hampton says.

Lifelong-debt is no laughing matter. College debt is destructive on two levels:

• Current funds. A portion of your paycheck will go to the debt, meaning a house, nice car and everyday luxuries simply might not be open to you for years.
• Future Funds. A dollar of debt is an anti-investment. Over the course of one’s life, investing $1 at 18 or so means having roughly $10 at retirement given 5-8% return. This means that spending $100,000 for college is actually spending $1,000,000 in terms of actual spending money later on. That’s without factoring in interest, meaning the actual figure is much higher.

But the college myth proclaims that it’s a necessary evil. Without that degree, you’ll be financially backward for the rest of your life, so goes the myth. This simply isn’t true as we discussed earlier in the article Most Don’t Need a College Degree.

So what are the alternatives to college debt? Is there a way of getting the degree without racking up the costs? Remember, debt is always a choice because there are always alternatives to debt.

Alternatives to College Debt

Debt is most certainly not the only option when it comes to paying for college. If anything, college debt should be the last option. I personally chose to go completely without debt — I’d choose no degree over substantial debt for a degree.

As far as the actual alternatives:

• State Schools — State schools average a little over $6,000 per year, with private institutions at over $20,000. Less prestigious? Probably not $50,000+ worth.
• Community College — Community colleges can be extraordinarily cheap because they serve in the function that a real college should: to give anyone and everyone an education. No elitism, just a cheap education. Don’t think that it’s so less prestigious that you can’t make it in the real world; some places, including Stanford, accept some community college students.
• Pay-As-You-Go — This seems to be a forgot method. Paying for a year, taking a year off, saving money and paying for another year. It might take a few extra years, but the end result is absolutely no debt. Oddly enough, this can actually be much, much cheaper than going into debt.
• Scholarships — There are literally tens-of-billions of dollars in scholarships. The VFW, Target, Wal Mart, Coke, almost every company and organization gives out scholarships. If you have a great writing ability, there’s almost no excuse for not making use of the scholarships. In the next article I’ll show how you can search for your own using online databases, so make sure to subscribe.
• Don’t Get a Degree — I’ll be one of the few who would actually suggest this: statistically, most of the readers of this article don’t need a degree to become successful. Most people don’t have a degree, and if you decide that entrepreneurship is for you that’s another reason to not worry about the expense. Instead of paying for your degree, you could save the 50k and put it towards starting your own debt-free business.

Significant debt isn’t necessary to get a degree. Using the methods above, one can completely skip the decades of having the debt on the back of one’s mind. Debt destroy’s lives and ironically destroy’s one’s ability to succeed, if the debt is large enough. Don’t go into debt for college unless absolutely necessary.

I’ll be writing more about rethinking popular college beliefs, including specific ways to find great scholarships regardless of your skills or portfolios. Make sure to subscribe below!

Related posts:

1. Most Don’t Need a College Degree
2. Rethinking College, a Series of Articles
3. Save Money or Make Money?

My reasoning was fairly simple, though the reaction I get from most people is something along the lines of: “What? You can’t be serious! A college education is the only way to make money! People without degrees fail!” Heeding this fear-mongering myth, many students my age are spending $50,000+ each on their degrees; some will spend more with graduate and post-graduate studies. But is it worth it?

College has become a kind of a rat-race; the value of a degree is often based on social perception rather than concrete education. The nicer the college one is accepted to, the better one looks, the more likely one is to get a job — at least, thus goes the general belief. This is actually not entirely true, as we’ll be discussing in a bit.

College Isn’t Necessary for Most

Of course, a degree is sometimes necessary. Doctors, lawyers, engineers; many occupations require a degree. But you don’t need a business degree to get into business. You don’t need a degree in web design to get into web design. You don’t need a degree in philosophy to flip burgers. Just kidding!

Degrees can certainly be helpful, but for most it’s simply not needed. Jobs that require degrees are a minority, not a majority of jobs.

Bottom line: chances are, you don’t need a degree. But, in some industries, most individuals have one. The only question is: did the workers in the industry really need the degrees or did the workers just end up with one? This of course, begs another question…

…What Are Employers Actually Looking For?

My father is a businessman, working years in sales and management. He worked his way from the bottom to the top, mastering every step of the journey until finally owning his own business, an oldies radio station in a resort community nestled in the Ozark Mountains.

While I worked in his office I had the opportunity to talk with several millionaires and a great many other successful businessmen. Small talk, when involving at least one teen, almost always gravitates toward the topic of college plans so it was no surprise when the topic came up with these individuals as well.

Surprisingly, nearly all of the successful people smirked at the idea that a college education is necessary to succeed in business. “Nobody,” they said, “cares if you went to Harvard. Your boss just wants to know: do you know how to do your job? If so, you’ll do fine. Period.” It’s no wonder that they had their position, as some had degrees in business, and couldn’t point to a single place where the degree was helpful.

As the old adage goes, “Good help is hard to find.” It’s true. In some regions, over-employment is wrecking havoc on businesses; there aren’t enough workers to go around. Any young individual who knows how to get the job will not be looking for a job.

This isn’t to say that unemployment isn’t also a problem. Any business owner or manager can tell you that it’s easy to have plenty of applications but few individuals with what it takes to get the job done up to standard. We may or may not have an unemployment problem, but there’s always going to be a shortage of great workers who desire excellence and apply themselves in everything they do.

Of course, having a degree can certainly help you even get the interview when applying for a job. More on that below.

Why Degrees Help Your Salary

There’s an incredibly strong correlation between having a degree and having a high paying job. Note: that’s a correlation. This doesn’t mean that the only reason those with a degree are getting paid more is actually the degree.

After all, who’s more likely to go to college and graduate with the degree, a self-starter or someone with little work ethic? The correlation is largely caused because self-starters are already more likely to attend college in the first place and would have been likely to succeed anyway.

Along those same lines, in order to understand exactly how a college education will help you earn more, we need to see when and how that happens. We know the degree probably isn’t going to magically give you a higher wage. We know the degree isn’t going to mean that you will master your profession; a degree won’t do the work for you.

The degree can increase your lifetime earnings by:

• Giving You an Interview – By opening up jobs that you wouldn’t have had the resume to otherwise even send in an application. Basically, a 4-year, $50,000-150,000 resume stuffer.
• Giving You “Experience” – By giving you knowledge of the field, you’re more likely to start with higher wages than someone without a degree. Basically, it gives you a head start. But is it a four-year head-start? That’s a gamble.
• Giving you the Access to the Field – Of course, there are some fields that one simply needs the degree to enter, period. Law and medicine are two classic examples.

It can’t be denied that college can be helpful and is often vital to getting a job in a highly competitive field. But looking at the actual root of this helpfulness can bring us to much cheaper and less risky alternative.

Like what?

Several months ago I read the story of a budding businessman who wanted a job with a high-class firm that was simply out of his reach. But he got in. How did he do it? The same way you can: Offer to “intern”, free of charge, for a month. That’s an almost guaranteed way to land any job. It’s a way of getting past the “must pay employees” law that exists: offer to work for free.

Once your employer sees that you mean business (no pun intended), there’s no way they’ll let you leave. Think this sounds expensive? College is much worse. A month without pay might mean a $4,000 cost to you. College would take four years and at least $50,000, without scholarships.

Sometimes “oddball” alternatives get the same results with $40,000 and four years to spare.

Let’s Be Smart About This

A friend of mine recently told me the story from when she worked at McDonald’s back when she was still in high school. Someone came along and applied for a job. Under “educational experience”, the individual listed a 6 year degree in Calligraphy.

They hung the application on the wall and had quite a few chuckles.

They laughed because the degree was absurd and stereotypical. There are precious few things one can do with a degree in Calligraphy. Spending $50,000 was probably a bad choice. The individual could have simply learned the trade without the degree, and saved thousands.

Don’t go to a degree it isn’t necessary. If it is necessary, and you can make your money back with a typical job in the field you’ll be getting your education in, then go for the degree. Just rationally analyze your situation, your goals and the necessity of the degree, and you’ll be fine.

Find time to browse through the absolute student’s marketplace where one can sell used college textbooks through the sell back program at Valorebooks.com!

This is part of a series of articles on Rethinking College. Make sure to read the other articles in the series to learn more about how to make rational choices about a college education.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Go Into Debt for College
2. Rethinking College, a Series of Articles
3. Save Money or Make Money?

I’ll be challenging this view while showing that the numbers often just don’t add up. For a lot of kids, going to college is the worst thing they can do, regardless of the tired and overused social cliché. This is the first part of a three-part series on a rational approach to getting a college education and preparing for success.

Below are the titles of forthcoming articles here at Smart Personal Development.

• Is College Overrated?
• Don’t Go Into Debt for College
• 7 Ways to Get College Money
• Go to College for the Education

Note: I’m not a college naysayer. I’m actually enrolled with a state college, studying business, and marketing. I’m absolutely loving it, and would probably pay my way even if there was no future financial incentive. So what’s my point about college? It’s one that can save you thousands, whether you are a student or a parent. To read the articles, just subscribe below, and I’ll make sure you get the guides.

Related posts:

1. Don’t Go Into Debt for College
2. Most Don’t Need a College Degree
3. Personal Development Articles