One of the difficult problems life presents us with is that, unless our parents have already done the heavy lifting for us, it's impossible to generate investing income without first generating ordinary earned incomes.
That is, if you're not born rich, you have to work -- and save -- yourself. If you wish to accumulate enough money to support you in retirement.
For Most of History and Prehistory, Accumulating Permanent Wealth was Tough
First of all, consider appreciating that the entire project -- though difficult -- is even possible for ordinary people.
For most of humanity's existence, our daily meals depended on the results of our daily hunting and gathering. Just getting through a hard winter was difficult, let alone years of care-free retirement. It was a major advance when people learned how to dry meat and vegetables to store them from November to March. That may not seem a big deal to you, but it was a bigger advance than the IRA.
When we became farmers, we could store grain, but only a few people, called lords or nobles, could amass wealth in quantity. And they never reached a point of real security.
Yes, the local lord extracting ravenous taxes from his serfs could eat, drink and be merry. But it could all be taken away if a neighboring lord decided to take him over -- or his little fiefdom was in the path of the Mongol hordes.
A merchant and artisan class evolved, but few of them reached a level of stored wealth that enabled them to live without doing business or practicing their craft.
You Had to Start a Big, Successful Business, But It Couldn't Run Itself
Until very recently, it was not possible for ordinary people to accumulate enough stored value to live entirely on that. Even people who found successful businesses. Social Security employees know that company owners often don't "retire" in the legal sense. They may reduce their hours, but still watch over the business.
It may not seem like much to you, but every time you defer consumption into the future simply by depositing $100 into your 401(k) plan you're not only building wealth for your future, you're improving humanity. The more stored capital there is in the world, the more will be available to fund businesses to employ more of the billions of poor people on this planet.
A Stable System of Government is Necessary
And that is made possible only through the establishment of a stable legal system, which we in the United States take for granted, but historically is not common.
We tend to assume that things will stay the same, but that hasn't been the case through much of history and prehistory, as outlined.
Investing Requires Faith in the Future and Trust in the Economic and Legal System
By taking some of the fruit of your labor today, and keeping it stored in a form that someone else can use to generate additional wealth, requires an act of faith. Partly in those running the companies you're buying. Partly in the government to maintain a rule of law -- criminal and contract.
That's because, we know from long experience, that we can't trust everybody to keep the word or to be honest. We need a way to hold them accountable. Courts, police and the entire legal system are far from ideal, but just their presence helps to keep us acting honestly.
Investing Requires a Strong Social Contract
Without a strong, stable system, comes anarchy. That tends to breed warlordism. No individual can guarantee their own safety (even the strongest MMA fighter can be killed by a twelve-year old with a gun), so people band together and follow leaders. If those leaders are allow large amounts of looting, rape and violence by their followers, the entire population welcomes an even stronger, bigger leader to restore order.
That's partly how the Taliban originally gained power in Afghanistan. After the Soviet Union withdrew, there was no central government, so warlords did as they pleased. The Taliban used Islam to rally the people to their side, defeating the warlords. Of course, it was tyrannical and unstable also, but the people weren't at the whim of a local despot.
Our current system of Social Security is a form of this faith and trust, because it's based on the legal right of young people now paying the bills to receive compensation in the future when they in turn become eligible for benefits.
Yet You're Still Most Responsible for Yourself
Of course, you should not depend on Social Security. If it's still around and you're eligible, it can be one of your investing incomes. But you should do all you can to accumulate your own private wealth.
Author Information: You can build a large portfolio of income-generating securities. Click here to get the information you need to effectively make money from your investments whether the markets go up or down. If you're ready to discover how investing incomes can help you retire with financial security, visit this page, enter your email address into the form and click on the Submit Button. Then go to your inbox and verify that. It's free for the taking. http://www.incomeinvesthome.com/. cirtex hosting voucher
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://societyandculture.org/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites 
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://societyandculture.org/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")