(03) 9020 2905You should pray for a little intervention from Pixar in your life. (You know, the makers of favourite kiddie movies, including Toy Story and Finding Nemo.)
You want a giant cartoon character hand to magically appear, firmly slap the asker across the chops, then disappear. Your inquisitor would be so flummoxed by what had just happened, they would forget about the question.
If they did try to ask the question again, the hand would reappear and hover, menacingly.
But as wishing for that has never actually got it to work for me, my answer has always been: “Sorry, I’ve never told anyone what I earn”. And I use a similar answer if people ask me how I vote.
Some questions are just too personal. (I don’t even tell Mrs DebtMan how I vote.)
The only people you really need to feel comfortable sharing that information with is your accountant, financial adviser and mortgage broker.
Money is a powerful force in society. It seems the more of it you have, the more “respect” you’re given, even if you don’t necessarily deserve it (good mornin’, Paris Hilton). People seem to think that those with money are smarter than those without.
They may (or may not) be smarter. But one thing is for certain, the size of your salary does not determine how wealthy you’ll become.
Great wealth can be created on any income by people who know the “rules of money” – delayed gratification, risk versus return, compounding growth, diversification and leverage. Implement those in your life and, guaranteed, you’ll make yourself richer than someone on the same salary who doesn’t.
Bruce Brammall is the author of Debt Man Walking (www.debtman.com.au) and a licensed financial adviser.