Leon Wilson
For The Daily Southerner
TARBORO —
The community college has been talking about giving their students an “edge.” I’ve been trying to remember some things I learned at State College that might have given an “edge” to me.
A calculus professor told my class that we were supposed to know that “e to the natural log of mules equals mules.” A physics professor once chastised me for just memorizing formulas instead of learning the theory well enough so I could write my own equations and derive the formulas for any problems encountered.
There was one solution to a problem on an engineering economics final exam I remember well. The problem was if you invested $2,000 per year for 25 years at 8 percent interest, and on the 26th year you were to start withdrawing $6,000 per year, how long could you do this?
After drawing the cash flow diagram, writing the algebraic equation and deriving the formula, I correctly determined the answer is … FOREVER.
With this in mind, soon after I began my working career upon graduation, I realized that I was not “tickled” with the Social Security tax. It did not take long to see the withheld FICA, federal and state income tax dollars are not available for you to invest – a loss of freedom.
By believing you can persistently save, invest and earn a better return than you will ever get from Social Security, you can retire at an age more of your choosing (with God’s help) rather than one selected by the government.
Through long-term discipline, commitment and at least maintaining your income you must continually make adjustments to how you invest, projected withdrawals and rates of return throughout your career – a tall order for most.
It is imperative to quickly eliminate or minimize debt, avoid enabling deadbeats, stay healthy and out of trouble.
One thing is certain – you will never succeed if you never try or if you think someone has an advantage over you.
In addition to being robbed of your hard earned dollars throughout your career, you’ll never be eligible for Social Security benefits unless you live to age 62.
The decisions you make after you earn money are at least as important as the education that gave you the “edge” to earn it. Increases to your cost of living will reduce the money available for you to invest. Lurking tax increases and the Obamacare mandate that you purchase health insurance are two examples of cost of living increases that will further erode the amount of money you have to invest to advance your financial freedom.
With these things in mind, that is why you should have an abhorrence to the behavior and decisions made by the mules and jackasses at every level of government who unnecessarily spend your taxpayer dollars, apply for and procure grants, enable and advance unemployment and vote for other legislation that increases demand for your taxpayer dollars.
This demand ultimately gives dollars to those who don’t deserve it and reduces the money available for you to invest in your future and financial freedom.
