It wasn't until the first year after I graduated college and began working in my profession when I first realized that financial freedom was the key to having some control over my own destiny.
Fortunately, the realization presented itself quickly. It began when I was complaining to my supervisor about the dangers of an ever-increasing workload, and after he got in my face and told me bluntly "Shut up! You're in no position to make any demands, you're going to do whatever I tell you to do."
As any normal person would be, I was pretty hot under the collar. But truthfully, he was right. I wasn't in any position to do anything about it. I had just graduated and had an enormous amount of student loan debt, had recently bought a new car and a new home, and had a very materialistic wife.
I realized that as long I carried a tremendous amount of debt and had no savings, no matter where I worked, I was doomed to be bullied in the workplace by some pathetic limp-dick sell-out with a chip on his shoulder and a bonus in his sights.
My debt made me a prisoner, a slave to the corporate overlords.
After the supervisor's dressing down of me in front of my co-workers, and after my remarkable ability to avoid putting him in the hospital, I made it my mission to learn everything I could about personal finance and investment.. and quickly. I would do the opposite of what my beaten down colleagues who hated their jobs were doing, and become financially independent.
And that's precisely what I did. In just a few years, I paid off "all" of my debt, dumped the gold-digger, and became a successful contrarian investor. All it took was an understanding of peoples' behaviors, changing my perspective on life, and doing something about it.
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