Rich or poor — it’s all in your mind

“Are you rich, uncle?” asked a child in our colony. My car gave her reason to assume I was.

Come to think of it, most of us would find that hard to answer. 

Our parents might have worked with the government or a bank and may have had fairly modest resources. We used to buy provisions wholesale; buy sugar and wheat at ration shops. We went by bus everywhere and stitched our shoes and chappals till they begged to be left alone. There were no birthday parties and return gifts.

For excursions, we just went by the school bus to a nearby park or memorial, had Rasna, wafers and sandwiches, played some games and happily returned home to tell our tale. Many of us were used to travelling second class, living within a budget, getting new clothes once a year — in short, living frugally. That was required then, especially since families were bigger and often, one had responsibilities like taking care of his siblings.

Life has changed for many of us. We live in nuclear families; have good, paying jobs; have good surpluses as both spouses are working in many cases; have houses, cars and are generally living well.

Still, most of us call ourselves middle class, largely because we are from such a background. Nothing wrong with that, except, in that mental framework, we tend to be divorced from reality. We keep calling ourselves middle class when actually we may be quite well-off. I know of a banker who calls himself middle class, though he has at least three homes in good localities.

This flawed internal thinking ensures that we are not able to enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Behaving like a poor middle class guy seems incongruous and can be a big put-off for others. But, it hurts the person the most and impedes progress and enjoyment.
They say thinking makes a man (or woman). Middle class thinking will cause behaviour that is not appropriate in their current situation, if you actually don’t belong there. For instance, a person who is well-off could have assumed more risk and enjoyed the payoff, instead of being paranoid that he/ she will lose the capital (like the middle class).

It is said that rich become richer and the poor stay where they are or get poorer. It’s all there in the mind and depends on how we react to information that floats our way.
Thinking like the rich, however, doesn’t mean merely acting like one. It is actually internalising how they respond to various stimuli and their line of thinking.

Many rich Sindhis came to India with nothing more than the clothes they wore during partition. They were able to turn around within a generation due to the fact that they knew how to do business; they had skills they were able to monetise. Many were already educated and others educated themselves. Besides, I suspect they thought like the rich, which probably explains a number of big businesses that these people have spawned.

You might have read about some labourer winning a lottery and then coming back to square one, due to inappropriate investments and profligacy. That is behaving like rich, when one does not have the skills or their thinking. That is a disaster.

The book Rich Dad Poor Dad deals precisely with this — the mindset of the rich and the poor. Robert Kiyosaki, the author, drives home the point that the situations are the same, but the outcomes could be different due to the way they approach a situation/ problem. Thinking like the rich takes practice, leaving behind the baggage of the past. This book gives good pointers in this direction. It’s a good idea to curl up with this book, one of these days.

A disclaimer: I don’t have an agency for selling this book, though it would be a good idea looking at its practical wisdom and applicability.