The objectives in life (updated)

We come to this earth with nothing and leave with nothing. Why do we fight for wealth, prestige and power? However, if we do not have the objective for wealth, prestige and power, it is a life without meaning at least to me.

Money should not be our primary objective in life and happiness and health have to be earned and cannot be bought with money. When you’ve accumulated enough wealth to have a comfortable financial life, you may want to pursue other objectives in life besides wealth.

I have seen many successful men and women who are not wealthy using financial yardsticks but they are wealthy in working on jobs they love, good friends, good families, good health and/or fulfilling their own objectives in life such as helping the poor.

Most likely when you’ve accumulated enough wealth for a financially secured life, there are many objectives in life more important than wealth such as happiness and health. Still not convinced? Check out the wealthy singers, movie stars and athletes. Are most of them really happy with all the broken marriages, drug and alcohol abuses…? I rest my case. Many of them do not have basic investing knowledge (most likely they have not read this book), and end up bankrupted.

Do not believe most authors on investing are rich. Unless they do it for fun, the successful ones do not want to reveal their secrets. As of this writing, I’m financially sound especially with my age and my frugal life style. I do it for fun and I read my own books to remind me of my mistakes in investing. The best trader in our generation committed suicide losing all his money and called himself a loser. Learn from his failure: 1. He did not practiced what he preached and 2. Risky bets. My books preach to be a turtle investor.

One friend accused me of my greedy investing. Does he favor the 1% or the 40% who do not pay any Federal income tax?

He accused the 1% (I'm not in this group) of altering the tax laws to reduce their taxes. It is partly true and Buffett should not pay at less the tax rate than his secretary. Many rich folks donate their wealth to charities. Without the 60%, where do we get money to subsidize the 40%.

We should encourage the 40% to work. The current system takes out their benefits for taking a job and it is wrong. I contribute by paying income taxes when I make money in the stock market. A good market allows me to help the poor.  Investors buy stocks to finance new products and services and hence boost employment. Capitalism is no evil.

The above is an abstract from my book "How to be a billionaire", a good choice for recent college graduates.