Safely Prosperous or Really Rich: Choosing Your Personal Financial Heaven

Chapter 4

The Great American Lie

Pretending to be rich by selling your future to buy the big house, the big SUV, the big home theater, the big boat, while living a life of quiet desperation when the monthly bills come in

Having a lot of consumer debt is the single most wealth-destroying mistake you can make because the compound interest you pay destroys your future even as you sleep. It's the turnpike to Financial Hell. Getting into consumer debt has demolished the futures of millions of people, because it's so easy to do. Merchants all around you will gladly loan you money to buy cars, furniture, vacation cabins, cruises, designer clothes, computers, appliances, cruises, jewelry, video cameras, home entertainment centers, motor homes, expensive dinners at fine restaurants. Anything the mind can conceive that you don't really need and can't really afford can be financed or put on a credit card; it's a kind of sweet slavery.

LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!

And it's a terrible threat to America! Why? Because our whole economy is built on a lie. Millions upon millions of people are big liars, only pretending to be rich. Maybe you envy them because they have two late-model cars, a big house, kids in college, a ski boat in the driveway, a home theater, two or three of the latest upgraded computers, and maybe even season tickets for major-league professional sports, at $50 to $200 per seat per game. And you can't tell the liars from the honest people by the medallions on their cars or ...