Words & Assumptions

Kia Ora,

I have had an interesting couple of days studying & at the same time there has being more developments in the worlds economy with contradictory comments.

One thing that keeps coming up is the correct use of words can make a huge difference to your thinking.

Some examples are: LUCK (oh they are lucky)- Labouring Under Correct Knowledge- it takes a bit of study/work to get lucky;.
FEAR -False Evidence Appearing Real - If we think one way the evidence will appear to support us & keep us from getting ahead;
FEAR (a second meaning) - Fail Early And Responsibly - people don't like to fail or are scared of making mistakes, but to really get ahead you are best off making a lot of small mistakes early & learning from them.

The other thing that most people do is think that work & hard work will help you get ahead. But by the time you maybe get ahead you are worn out. You need to work smarter, not harder.

But most people think that the only way ahead is to work harder without thinking.

Henry Ford is noted for saying this "Thinking is the hardest work there is".

 Einstein put it differently "Imagination is more important than Knowledge".

When talking about a windfall such as a lotto win in a previous blog it was pointed out that most people end up the same or worse off within five years.

Why? Because they buy on the false assumption of buying liabilities which they think are assets such as a new house,car or boat where as the truly rich would buy assets which will buy them that new house,car or boat. In other words buy assets which then buy your liablilities.

Words & understanding them can stop you from making the false assumptions.

As an Advisory Trustee for a Maori land block I advised on a certain investment. The reply from the trustee was the Act did not allow for speculation. He was using the language of the poor in the Act & his own poor thinking to stop us looking at a way to help my Whanui (wider family grouping-relations) from benefitting. In fact that is why the Maori Trustee was supposedly set up to allow the use of the land to assist Maori to get ahead.

But the language used in the Act is being used to hold people back. Now a rich person thinking would do the research & then use some of the cash available to 'hedge' against inflation by purchasing some of that investment.

In fact what the government of the day has done here is what happens all the time. Smoke & mirrors. For example at present there is a lot of noise about changing the tax laws in NZ to tax property owners.

That will look good to the majority of people, but it will only effect those at the bottom end because there will be an out that still allows those who know to make the best use of their assets.

It is actually how taxes were introduced in particular in the US & I understand Britain. The Governments of the day sold the change to the people, so they would support it as a way for the rich to pay more towards helping fund the governments needs. What people didn't realize was they had just voted themselves a tax, which I understand people in the US still fight as being illegal. But it is sold to the masses as being un American not to pay your taxes. Again a false asumption as America was formed by a protest (The Boston Tea Party) against a tax which lead to the revolution.

We might be in NZ, but the same thing goes on here, the only thing is if people hear about the outs, they have to know how to use it properly. A property can still make a loss on paper because of depreciation, but be cash flow positive.

What has being happening in NZ is people have had properties cash flow negative & depreciation which worked good when the economy was good, but doesn't work well when things go wrong.