Part 1 of 2.

I do want to give you a fair warning! You may feel unsettled, after learning how this applies to you.

Introduction

It’s been several years, since I first started to notice that something isn’t right, in our everyday lives. It wasn’t until I had to travel for business, around the world, that I was able to slowly put the pieces together.

It all began, when I made the decision to really improve my family’s lifestyle. That decision resulted in me rapidly moving up the corporate ladder. I had been promoted 9 times in 12 years. My income broke through six figures and continued to grow every year. In 10 years, I had quadrupled my income!

During the first few years of my career acceleration, I ditched my Honda Civic and bought a Mazda CX-9. I stopped renting and bought my first home. 

The Problem

I was making a lot more money, but noticed that I was working more and more! My 40 hour work week, became a 50 hour work week, then a 60 hour work week, and continued past 70 hours per work.

I was exhausted and wanted to actually enjoy my success. However, I couldn’t stop, because something wasn’t right. My essential living expenses were some how increasing, yet I stopped buying more stuff.

My property taxes were going up a lot each year, my utilities became more expensive, payments for regular doctor visits were outrageous, and the cost of food was increasing.

What was going on?

I thought that if you make more and only upgraded some of your lifestyle, while keeping consumption more or less the same, that you could save more!

I slowly put together what was happening.

First Discovery

I discovered the first clue on my first business trip. I’m not going to share the details of where I’ve been. I don’t want to contribute towards any bad emotions that anyone might have against other countries.

During my first business trip, I was super impressed with the work ethic of my international colleagues. My employer was a Fortune 500 with over 50,000 employees around the globe. My international colleagues were working way longer than my U.S. colleagues.

During 100+ business trips to other countries, I continually observed the impressive work ethic and degree of availability that international colleagues gave to my employer. The countries I visited were developing countries with low wages.

Major Challenge

How could I compete? Is that why expectations back in the U.S. were ever increasing? Is that why U.S. work sites were shutting down, while our work went offshore?

Well that is only part of the problem. In order to perform at ever increasing levels of expectation, it is true that some of us have to do more each year. And, the added work is non-trivial, which means that more time is necessary to meet expectations.

But, the increase in my cost of living seemed to be the bigger challenge. I had to continue to earn the same or more, to continue to live the same.

Before studying, by how much, my living expenses were increasing, I had considered a new job. I had intended to seek a job at one or two lower management levels. Although those jobs would pay 10% less, I could get back 20% of my time.

The challenge was that my property taxes were going up by about 10% per year. My utilities were increasing by about 2-3% per year. My medical costs were going up 20% per year. My consumption was not growing, but was actually beginning to decrease.

Exploration

I needed to know what is going on with my expenses. I learned that the average price increase, in the U.S., has been 2.5% per year, over the last 30 years. I learned about the Federal Reserve, its monetary policies, fiscal policies, fractional reserve banking, the money supply, price inflation, taxes, the U.S. debt, exchange rates, trade balances, and on, and on, and on.

At some point, I felt that there was way too much beyond my control. I did what most professionals do at some point in their lives. I decided to learn about investing. Surely that would allow me out of this dilemma. 

Where It Went Wrong

This is where everything went wrong! What I learned was extremely disturbing to me and to anyone with whom I shared it.

End of Part 1!