— Many people are familiar with the situation: the salary arrives, and some money immediately dissolves into the bank. That is, debts have to be repaid. Why does a person even get into debt? What is this connected to? What are the layers that should be paid attention to?
— This question is very deep. Here it is important to consider different aspects. Let’s start with the simple things and then gradually move on to the serious reasons.
There are simple, obvious explanations that a person tells themselves: why they ended up with a debt or a loan. A person may have inherited a loan. Someone took a loan because they needed to buy an apartment to live in. Another — to start a business: “I wanted a business, that’s why I ended up in debt.” Someone just decided to buy something, took it on credit, thought: “I’ll pay it off gradually.” But paying it off turned out to be much harder than it seemed.
Many have gone through this: at first the debt doesn’t seem like a problem, but later it turns into a huge burden. This is the first layer — the simplest, the one a person is aware of.
Now let’s go deeper. It is very important to ask yourself the question: is there a reason why I ended up in this situation? Could I, at a certain point in time, have avoided taking this debt? After all, many people live their whole lives in debt — and don’t feel any problems from it. And there are people who have no debt at all, but they live with a sense of lack and fear, even though they even have savings.
Here’s an example. We live in California. Recently my wife and I were driving, and she said: someone bought a house. I said: “Do you know the fundamental difference between renting housing and buying it in America? When you rent a home — you don’t owe anyone anything. And when you buy — you owe your whole life.” And it’s not just the mortgage. For example, the house costs 7–8 million dollars. The property tax on such an amount will be more than 100 thousand dollars a year. Over 10 years — more than a million. Over 20 years — already several million.
Now think: many people reason about retirement like this — “I’ll have my own home, expenses will be minimal, I’ll have enough to live on.” But the reality is different: you are told that over the next 20 years you will have to pay another 2 million dollars in taxes. And if you live to 90 years old, then from 90 to 100 — another million. And the person sits and thinks: “Where will I get this million?” This is one of the fundamental problems — understanding money, the sense of money. It is very important to clarify for yourself: what are you basing your perspective on?
Someone lives in euphoria from owning their own home. Someone, on the contrary, is happy to rent and not have a huge loan. And someone lives on credit, constantly worrying about it. And there is always a reason why a person fell into debt, or a reason why they couldn’t avoid a situation leading to debt. Yes, many take loans for business. We know many examples. Steve Jobs sold his Volkswagen to invest in the first steps. Someone sold a computer. Someone mortgaged their home — and built billions. But at the same time, many more people mortgaged apartments, didn’t build a business — and lost their apartments. They were left with debts for life.
So what is the fundamental reason money appears?
A person gets money for two reasons: work and luck.
- Work — is when you really work, try, put in effort. You study, look for a job, send resumes, go to meetings, develop, don’t get lazy, don’t sit idle, saying: “This person succeeded, but I didn’t.” You truly work.
- Luck — is another aspect. Luck in money is a complex of reasons, most often karmic. There are also hereditary factors, indirect circumstances, but at the core — karma. Based on it, money comes to a person. Everyone knows such examples. The simplest — a lottery win. But it also happens like this: ten people start a business, nine fail, one succeeds. Luck. Someone survived in the nineties and built an empire, while thousands of others did not. Simply luck.
It’s important to understand: there are people who get money both from work and from luck. There are those — only from work. There are those — only from luck. And there are those for whom it comes neither from work nor from luck. They do everything they can, and there’s zero money. Moreover, debts. And on top of that, scammers: they call, deceive — and minus 300 thousand dollars. The person is in shock: “How can I pay back 300 thousand if I earn 300 dollars a month?” Answer: over a thousand months. But that’s completely unrealistic.
This is an important point: a person has periods in life. In some periods there is both work and luck. In others — only luck. In others — only work. There are periods when there is neither one nor the other. That’s how the system works.
Now the main conclusion: luck cannot always be there. It is not embedded in all periods of life.
And what is incredibly important — is that money can come from work. Everyone reading this is probably thinking now: “Can I have some luck?” But the most valuable thing is exactly money from work. Look around: if people weren’t chasing luck, there would be no casinos, no quick-money schemes, no endless scams. There wouldn’t be people killing each other for money, or states going to war. The world is torn apart by the thirst for easy luck. Therefore — once again: the best thing that exists is work. Constant, never-ending work.
And you must treat luck neutrally. What does that mean? Luck came — fine. Didn’t come — well, okay. In business this is especially important. There are clear projects with predictable results, and there are abstract ones: “I’ll make a publication, maybe it will help” or “I’ll go to an exhibition, let’s see.” Such things — that’s luck. And you need to treat them calmly.
The most important thing: never crave luck. Because along with craving comes comparison and envy. And envy destroys everything: your inner state, family, relationships, communication. It ruins life.
In the business environment today it has become fashionable to be a person who does not work. Especially in the Russian-speaking space the idea of passive income is popular: supposedly earning while doing nothing. And if you keep working, especially remaining a director, then something is “wrong” with you. But I am not talking now about false work, when a person works ignoring family and life in general. I am talking about a normal, natural attitude to work.
So, the 3 main rules in money:
- Want money to come from work.
- Treat luck neutrally.
- In life there will be periods when there will be no money either from work or from luck.
Believe me, for many who read this text, money will never come. And for those who don’t have it now, it will come with time. Unexpectedly, in a strange way, but it will come. But if in your life there will never be either work or luck, you will fall into the zone of debts, loans, and a hard life. Whole countries live like this — endlessly in debt.
Example. Recently one person was talking about what happens in India. There are so many people, little money and jobs. So completely unnecessary professions are invented: one person opens the elevator door, another presses the button, a third meets you on another floor. And all this just to (conditionally) earn an orange.
And there are countries where money is present from the beginning. For example, when a child is born, UAE citizens receive from $50,000 to $200,000; an account is opened for the child with $100,000 by the age of 18; the family is given a free land plot by the state. A person is protected by the system from birth. And even if they try to spend or lose money, the system still supports them.
At the same time, there are an enormous number of businesses built on false money. And many businesses that never happened because other companies received artificial financial support.
Example: Amazon and Ozon. Investments began in Amazon in 1997, in Ozon — in 1998. Ozon is still unprofitable, Amazon started bringing profit only relatively recently. Huge money invested in such companies killed many other projects that people developed with ideas but without capital. This is reality.
I can say from my own experience: in some projects, if I had had additional assets, I could have taken the market faster, crushed competitors, built a business. And this is not about intelligence or correct actions. This is about whether I had money or not. Many rich people talk about this. Especially often in the Russian-speaking space you hear stories: “We washed windows, then — bam! — and a factory. We sold jeans — and here we have a financial company.” And where is that piece of the story where the money appeared? How did it really appear? Very often this is explained vaguely: “You had an opportunity.” Or: “I was poor, ate onions, and now I am rich.” But poverty and wealth here are not directly related. For some, money appears and helps earn new money. For others — on the contrary: leads to losing everything if the components of work and luck are absent.
And this understanding is the key layer to realizing where credits and debts come from. Because much depends on the context in which a person finds themselves. Sometimes the solution is obvious: cut spending, find a new job. Sometimes the situation is a dead end, and a person will never get out. That is precisely why the institution of bankruptcy exists. It is the recognition of the fact: there are situations that are fundamentally unsolvable.
So what can help a person never again end up in debt?
True awareness and understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. It is knowledge of how the world works and how your life works. It is knowledge of yourself. A most difficult task, but it is exactly what allows one to truly avoid falling into debt traps.
But there is another level. I would recommend thinking not only about how not to end up in debt, but also about how to calmly live through the state if you end up there. Do we always control our debts? No.
Here’s an extreme example. Imagine, ten children accidentally entered my territory, and my dog attacked them and killed. In America, in California, I would be sued for life. Neither insurance nor legal “umbrellas” would save me. I would be bankrupt forever.
This is reality: debts are often an uncontrollable construct. We drive cars, live in a world of wars and crises. Mistakes, fraud, tragedies — all of this can lead to debt. Even a close person can start a business, die, and leave you with debts.
Therefore, the most important skill is the ability to remain in this state and live through it with understanding. Not to run away, not to fantasize about lotteries and easy money, but to see the real reason: you ended up in debt as a result of a specific set of events. This is your responsibility, even if it is unconscious. And the willingness to accept this is a step toward true inner freedom.