Remember that quote from Pulp Fiction? I’m not sure if people remember way back to 1994 when that movie came out, but it was a quote that always stuck in my head. Marsellus Wallace (a gangster) tells Butch (a pro boxer) to take a dive in a fight and that the only thing getting in his way of doing it, is his pride. He goes on to tell Butch that when he is sitting on a beach in the Caribbean with all the money he will make, he wouldn’t care how he got there, just that he was on a beach in the Caribbean.
Here is the link to the
Once again you may be wondering “Jeff, how does this pertain to the topics you talk about”. But, to me, this is so obvious. Pride is the biggest thing that keeps people from achieving financial freedom or early retirement.
I, like Butch, have just moved to a Caribbean Island. If I had needed to drive a new car and have fancy stuff in my life, I never would have had the money the get here. But, now that I’m here I’m still being tested. In some ways, your ego is tested less in the Caribbean. For instance, no one drives a nice car here. The roads and the environment will destroy it. And, you don’t need fancy clothes or fancy things. No one is impressed by those things down here.
I moved from a big four-bedroom house to a small one-bedroom condo to be able to afford to live here. And my pride keeps telling me I need a bigger, nicer house. And, every time I call a Realtor about a property they seem to give me 45 questions test and then tell me I probably can’t afford to buy something here. First of all, they don’t know who I am, second of all, I’m also a Realtor, and third of all, I’ll buy a house just to show you I can afford it…
I have spent years living frugally and staying under the radar and doing the ‘right things’ financially. I look at people driving new cars with expensive things, that I know they can’t afford and I shake my head. Sometimes I feel a little bit smarter than everyone else on the planet for how I’m running my game plan.
But then one person tells me I can’t afford something and I am immediately ready to spend half of a million dollars to prove them wrong. I know, I’m complicated… just ask my wife.
This is the reason that Butch needed that talk from Marsellus Wallace. Even if we know the right thing to do, and we are disciplined we are still human and we are susceptible to peer pressure and external forces. We may be low key frugal penny-pinching people But, we are also awesome, smart investing millionaires who never get any recognition. Because of discipline, and our lifestyle it can seem like we are being disrespected for going under the radar. Maybe ‘disrespected’ is too strong of a word, maybe it’s just hard sometimes to be quietly attaining your financial goals while others seem to be living it up. That’s just pride kicking in again.
Most people do judge a book by its cover. I try to imagine that I’m the
But, it’s funny because sometimes I feel like I can sit in a bar down here in the islands and pick out the other couple who are just like us. They seem to be too young to be retired and too old to be working a crappy job. But there they are enjoying a cold beer on a random Tuesday and they are don’t look like they can afford to be here, but there they are with big smiles on their faces. I know they are my people. The other quiet millionaires who are just doing their thing and who figured out how to enjoy life.
That is one thing about living in the Caribbean. For the most part, no one really cares what you have. And if you try to show off how much you do have, you will look like a douche. So if you want to be noticed for having a lot, this is not the place for you. You can be rich and live here, just don’t come to the local watering hole looking like Ricardo Montauban. The people of the islands are not impressed. And the guy in the tattered shirt and flip flops who is bellied up to the bar next to you may be a billionaire. Who knows, and who really cares. If they aren’t going to invite you on their yacht then it doesn’t really matter. I think I’m getting off topic…
The best antidote to pride is a good dose of self-worth. All pride really is, is insecurity. You can be proud of your accomplishments. But being prideful is different. The dictionary describes Prideful as Arrogant or Disdainful. Most of us know it as the guy who acts like a douche to try to impress everyone. And we know he does that because he is insecure. True self-worth will naturally take care of this problem on the grand scale. But, there are still a thousand little tests of pride every day. Things like, should I buy the $300 pair of sunglasses or the $80 pair? If you think the $300 pair are that much better then buy them. But, if you are getting them because of the logo on the frames it may not be a good decision.
No matter where you are on your journey in life and your financial journey, be proud of where are you are right now. Because I’d be willing to bet it could be worse. I’d even hazard a guess that you are better off right now than you have been at one time. But, I’m also willing to bet that you have room for improvement. We need to be happy with what we have but that doesn’t mean we can’t strive to improve. Nobody is going to do it for you. So work hard, make advancements, be proud of them, and be humble.