Finding the Four Leaf Clover

Do you remember looking for four leaf clovers as a kid?

Isn't it strange how some people don't even notice patches of clovers that they pass by daily? Isn't it strange how some people can notice a patch of clovers but even after years of passing by, or sitting in or spending time near, the patch, they never even see the four leaf clovers within that patch?

In life, everyone is searching for happiness. Everyone has self-interest.

Greed is the extent to which your desire to obtain objects, extends beyond your self-interest. For instance, if I were to steal a car, I may end up going to jail. If I were to get a loan for a car that I couldn't afford, I might face financial struggles in the future.

The amount of happiness we will obtain in life is based on how closely our world view or blueprint matches reality. None of us will ever have a fully perfect blueprint of the world. One major distinction between people is their understanding of delayed gratification. In other words, according to their blueprint, do they make short term decisions that negatively affect their long term gains?

Sin is an action that is harmful to oneself. Sacrifice is a word that refers to losing something in the short term to gain something longer in the long term. Sin is an action that is inward and selfish, causing discord in a community. Love is an action that is outward and selfless, causing unity in a community. While most people believe love to be a feeling, it is actually an action, the opposite of which is sin. While on the surface, it may appear that people who have self-interest, would sin, it is quite the opposite, that people who have self-interest should actually choose love over sin.

I once met an old man in a coffee shop and he taught me about life's thermostat. He said that people have high and low points, above which and below which, we are too hot or too cold. In a sense, happiness comes from living within the set points. Your happiness over time might be the amount of time you spent living within the set points.

While we have many choices, we can take on a day to day basis, finding the right path among the multitude of paths can be difficult. It is like finding the four leaf clover, in the patch of clovers.

As we live our life, we experience trials and tribulations, which are a true blessing because they allow us to move our set points up and down appropriately to live a more happy life. In eastern culture, fasting is common as people actually try to limit their dependency on food, in an attempt to adjust their set points. In western culture, people tend to do the opposite, providing an abundance of food, in an attempt to take the actions which will allow them to stay comfortable within their set points.

Comfort may be associated with living within your set points, while character may be associated with the distance between the high and low points.

To some extent, we can make a mental decision about where we are with respect to our set points. However, just as putting your body into freezing weather can cause death, being in denial about your set points, can also cause harm. This harm can come in one of two ways. Even when beyond our set points, our mental power is strong enough to live as if we were within our set points. Likewise, even when without our set points, our mental power is strong enough to live as if we were beyond our set points.

I once heard a story about a man in a refrigerator freight of a train. He spent the night there and believed he was freezing to death. The next morning, he had died and the autopsy, showed the cause of death was freezing. However, the refrigerator component had never been turned on!

Is it possible to be comfortable, yet still expand your set points? Is it possible to both produce and simultaneously increase production capacity? Is it possible to be completely content with today, yet still want to improve towards a better tomorrow? This is a matter of position versus velocity.

Suppose you want to take a trip from Northern California to Southern California. After three hours, if you were in Fresno, would you be happy? What if you knew that you would get held up in Fresno for another 2 days, due to car trouble?

Contentment is being happy with where you are today in life. It is about being happy with all the cards you've been dealt with up to this point and being at peace with all the things that got you to where you are today. Hope is about being happy with where you are heading in life.

Surprisingly, the formula for hope is actually emotional pain. Trials in life, which cause pain can be a blessing. If you are aware that a four leaf clover exists, and you look hard enough, you can find the four leaf clover in the midst of the patch. If you do, you essentially use the trial as a blessing to adjust your world view closer to reality. This will lead to perseverance, which leads to character which leads to hope.

When you work out, if you do not exercise your muscles to the point of exhaustion, beyond what they are capable of performing, you will not feel pain, but you also will not experience growth? Likewise, people who live life without feeling physical pain find it a curse, because they cannot avoid situations like burning themselves, which cause damage to their body.

So, I encourage you. Be open enough to see the patches of clovers lying right in front of you, day in, day out. Do what is takes to learn that the four leaf clovers exist. That take the time and courage necessary to find them.

Blog Highlights

Nearly a year after abandoning this blog, people continue to keep reading! I am so thankful for being able to provide value to those who continue to come back!

Top 4 Posts:

1. Jim Rohn's 70%-30% Financial Independence Rule
2. Izu's Ripoff Acronym for Whole Life Insurance
3. Breaking Down the HUD for Tax Purposes
4. Cash Value Life Insurance

Author Favorites:

1. Izu's 100-200 Property Valuation Rule
2. 4 D's and the Cycle of Life
3. Everyone Should Own a Small Business
4. Spring and Fall Cleaning
5. My Personal Proclamation

Thanks to All the Readers

Thank you for supporting my blog!!! It has been a pleasure to provide financial education to those willing to read. Just remember knowledge is useless unless you actually take action and apply it!

Thanks to the thousands of reads, a partnership was developed!!! Please visit finlit.biz for future articles. Anytime you have a question or need some advice, you can e-mail me at scottizu@gmail.com.

We can do it by ourselves, we can carry all that burden by ourselves, but how much stronger are we when learn to ask for help and utilize each other's strengths. Good luck!!!

Dedicated to the readers.

Why the Silicon Valley Software Engineer is in Trouble

Most people go to school hoping that they can increase their income. In my case, I decided to become a senior software engineer in the valley and made a great six figure income. Fortunately, I often listen to stories of older people and attempt to learn from their experiences. This is why I tried to keep expenses down, putting a large percentage away each month (eventually, I switched fields).

As it turns out, the average life of a software engineer is about ten to fifteen years. After that, the engineer is likely to see cutbacks, downsized divisions or the hiring of younger and more talented folk.

So, why are software engineers in trouble?

First, of all, I need to cover some background. Imagine one person makes 30K a year and another makes 100K a year. If each saves the same percentage of their income each year, which one's money will last longer during retirement? If you answered, "They both will last the same amount of time," I'd agree with you.

The reason is that the person making 100K has developed habits to spend that money and while that person may change those habits, it can be difficult to change habits even after retirement has begun. People's spending habits tend to match their income and generally don't change too much even after retirement hits. This means that it is very likely that the two people will the same amount of time during retirement.

Now, add onto that the fact that the software engineer is likely to lose that income stream well before retirement. Also, add onto that the pride that the software engineer has built up and the inability to reduce spending habits. Doesn't it make sense that if the software engineer has 500K saved but previously made 100K per year, that the software engineer will last about 5 to 7 years in retirement? Doesn't the typical retirement last 15, 20 or even 25 years?

I guess that might explain why the Department of Aging is so busy doing reverse mortgages and/or selling houses to help people pay for the rest of their retirement.

Dedicated to Ken Klingler.

Monitoring Your Spouse's Spending

This was an e-mail I recently sent out to my loved ones:

Hey family!!!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season.

I know that most of you don't really know what I've been up to lately as you have just gotten bits and pieces here and there. I wanted to send an e-mail to give you an idea of my cause, why I am doing what I am doing and what I am trying to accomplish.

As most of you know, first time marriages end in divorce 41% of the time here in the United States. According to www.divorce.com, the number one reason is finances. In many marriages, one partner may hide a debt for several years only to reveal the overwhelming and devastating debt after several years. I believe partners need to discuss finances at least twice a year and keep each other accountable, keeping the communication lines open before the matter gets out of hand.

...Removed for compliance purposes!!!

One recommendation I have is to review credit reports on a monthly basis to make sure that debts are visible to both partners. There should not be any possibility to have a debt shock the spouse.

Dedicated to the Izu Crew.

Residual Income, The Dream Killer or The Dream Creator?

This post has been moved to http://sizusfinlit.blogspot.com/2015/01/residual-income-dream-killer-or-dream.html.

WANDA, A Move In the Right Direction

Reading the article, I read this quote: "My advice to all women is to raise smart, money-wise kids. Do that, and we will see a real change in society."

I love the fact that there are organizations helping the single mothers out there. A couple months back, I met a woman who was supporting four kids on a salary from the GAP. Who knows how in the world she is even making it between each paycheck.

I feel the only way for single mothers to survive is by teaming up and building a great support network. If you do not need the services of such an organization, hopefully, you are donating or supporting an organization that provides these services. Partnerships can be extremely powerful, especially during hardship.

Education is key, especially financial education. Despite circumstances, great women have always found a way to weather the storms and provide a great life for their children. You go girls.

Dedicated to Kevin Carney.