I thought that I could change the world with my wisdom. I wrote several books about how to invest and build a fortune. I created a training course with step-by-step instructions on how to gain financial freedom in a relatively short amount of time. I have written almost a hundred free articles on my website about the psychology of money and offered a ton of advice on how to manage money and make better financial decisions.

All of these efforts were aimed at helping people who were struggling financially and needed to get a leg up. I looked around at my circle and I didn't know anyone who was rich, and most were struggling to make ends meet month to month. I even know far too many people who are almost destitute and really are experiencing scarcity at a level that I wouldn't want to wish on my worst enemy.

I wanted to send these people a message of hope. I endeavoured to give them a roadmap to financial freedom from the depths of struggle. I thought I had all the answers.

I was wrong

It appears that my advice has been useful for some, but not others. Not that everyone couldn't take my advice and run with it and would most likely see results. It wasn't that my plan didn't work. It does, I use it every day. It isn't even that the plan requires money. You can use my plan with a minimal amount of income. I handed them the solution to their money worries on a silver platter.

But now I realize that the plan I spent years perfecting through trial and error was not what they needed. They needed money.

Yes

Money

Give Them Money

Universal basic income has been talked about for many years and has been hotly debated in the halls of government. Some claim it is a great way to kick start the economy and get people back to productivity. Their detractors claim it will create a nation of slackers who live off of the hard work of others and contribute nothing to society. Both are probably a little bit correct. But studies have repeatedly shown that UBI does more good than harm, and most people are lifted up by it. There are a few who still refuse to get their act together and squander the money or lose themselves to addiction or crime, but they are the minority. They were probably headed down that road anyways.

So a rational person might think that giving an idiot money just creates an idiot with money. One might also assume that ,if you were not an idiot, you would value knowledge and long-term solutions over immediate quick fixes. The rational person would be wrong.

It's all Good

I am being somewhat dramatic here because I learned something very interesting lately from the book "Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much" by Sendhil Mullainthan and Eldar Shafir. These guys do a very thorough and in-depth examination of the psychology involved with scarcity (as the title implies) or poverty. They look at the "Why" of poverty. In a chicken and egg-like twist they make the argument that poverty is not the result of bad behaviours - bad behaviours are the result of poverty.

BOOM

Mind-blown.

They make a compelling argument that worrying about money actually causes people to make poor decisions and acquire a very specific "Tunnel vision" that is both a blessing and a curse - and inevitably perpetuates the cycle of poverty. Their arguments are backed by numerous studies and scientific data that reinforce and support their suggestions. I don't want to give too much away as I hope you take the time to read it for yourself, but it will give you a brand new perspective and empathy for the poverty-stricken and why it seems to be so hard to escape from it's clutches.

New Ideas

In light of this new information, I realize my work needs to evolve. My previous contributions are jam-packed with valuable information and tools, and are still a beautiful roadmap to wealth. But they are effective for people who are at a particular point in their journey and that is not everyone. My goal has always been to help people help themselves and I stand by that idea.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

This old saying sums it up perfectly. Many people interpret this as implying that it is more important to teach the man to fish. But there is no punctuation that would support that. It says to do both. Give him a fish AND teach him to fish. This is the real solution. If the man is currently starving, knowledge will not help him much in the short term. He may die before he can catch any fish. Of course, having to give him fish everyday is a drain on the system and is also not ideal.

The same goes for the poor.

Give them money AND teach them how to use it. If people have empty cupboards and are about to be evicted or are working multiple jobs to support a family, they don't have the time, energy, mental space or emotional capacity to take on a long term academic exercise like learning about budgeting and investing for the future.

We must take care of both items if we want a prosperous and peaceful society. This is the balance between capitalism and collectivism that I explore in my latest book "We Can Save the World, but there's no money in it". I argue that we need both individual ambition and collective agendas to prosper and be the best we can be as a species. It is quite obvious that communism doesn't work, but unabated capitalism has its downside too. We must learn to embrace a healthy balance between the two and find a way to eradicate poverty, hunger and disease, but also reward ambition, creativity and persistence. It is not impossible at all, just new.

Going Forward

OK, I wasn't exactly "wrong" as much as I was only solving half the problem. Blame it on my “straight white male privilege” or something along those lines. So be it.

I am now inspired to write a new book based on the principles of "Scarcity psychology" and "modern queuing theory" as they go hand in hand with each other. I will endeavour to explore new ways to help lift people out of poverty by providing them a short term and a long term plan. I will offer up ideas about how to fix the immediate problems of poverty in a permanent way. I have a lot of research to comb through to formulate how I can stitch together a workable plan for EVERYONE that is based on the best practices and principles of economics and perhaps some un-related but useful disciplines. I will try to make it interesting too. Nobody likes a boring book.

Thanks for the support and as always, happy investing.

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