Thursday, March 6, 2008

From Crashomatic to Cashomatic

So for my second post I'll link to some interesting money articles about being rich or becoming rich. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/RetirementandWills/EscapeTheRatRace/JustHowRichIsRichReally.aspx
For some, the thoughts of becoming rich seem a bit naughty. You don't have to become obessed with it and lose your spiritual foundation, but you do need a plan and need goals.

My goal IS NOT to be the richest man in the world measured in dollars. http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/News/GatesDethronedBuffettIsRichest.aspx?GT1=33009
Although I consider Warren Buffet one of my mentors, I already consider myself one of the richest men in world with my faith, my family and having all my basic needs covered. Seriuosly, have you seen how HOT my wife is and how pretty my kids are? What more could I ever ask for? Ten to twenty million in the bank wouldn't be so bad either but to be quite honest, there are folks that have ten to twenty million in the bank and still can't afford to buy themselves what I have.

To be rich truly is a state of mind. To be poor is a state of mind. And to be broke is something different all together. One of my favorite things to say is: "There's a huge difference between being broke and being poor. Broke is temporary, poor is forever."

I'll often find myself broke towards the end of the year. With Christmas spending, and tax season being so far behind us, the coffers are pretty empty. But, I'm anxiously looking towards the upcoming tax season and how to make it better than the previous. When I committed myself to doing Liberty Tax, I knew that I'd be lucky to make it from season one to season two, and EVEN luckier to make it all the way to season three. And if we made it through season three, I knew that we'd pretty much made it. We're not rich yet after season three, but we're gonna make it to season 4.

One of my fondest memories of 2007 was about a week before Christmas and Missy called me from the grocery store and says: "My credit card is maxed out and I can't buy anything."

I said: "Well, it sounds like you're out of money honey. We're broke!"

And that's what we were from about Christmas 2007 to the middle of January 2008. All the cards were maxed, the $55k home equity line was maxed out, the $20k business line of credit maxed out..........dead broke.

I was a little nervous, and as usual, I had diahrea of the mouth and told some of my employees I wasn't sure if I'd have enough cashflow to make payroll...but in the end, the checks cleared.

That's why I love what I do. It reminds me so much of my dirtbike racing days. The excitement of not knowing what's coming up around the next corner, the adrenaline from leaping 90 foot jumps without being able to see where you're going to land.

When I was just getting started in the business I told my buddy Jeryl Harman that I felt like I was jumping off a cliff and had no idea how I was going to land. I'll save that story for another day.

For now, I've got to get some work done. I've already aggravated Missy enough by sitting here for the last 30 mins creating this post.

I hope you guys get something out of all this and when YOU get rich someday, you remember me because I could very well be BROKE at the time and need to borrow some money. But don't worry, I'll pay you back......some day.


Jarrett

2 comments:

Mother 25 - 8 said...

That was a great post. Yeah Jarrett, I hear you. Missy is one of the sole reasons I'm making Matt find a job here. There is no "Missy" in KS you know. She does make things better just by opening her mouth and saying something about boats and rice, or even communicating with her look and smirk, letting me know we're thinking about the same thing.
You are greatly blessed.
Sincerely,
Matt

Unknown said...

Thanks for the tears, and NO i wasn't crying about your broke state this past christmas (funny we were about in the same boat in dec, thank goodness for tax returns)

i cried because you were so sweet with the "I am the richest man in the world with my wife and my kids" Can we get one big...ahhhhhh!