Wealth Creation

It's been a busy week containing a number of “photo opportunities”. Sadly, those were opportunities that weren't taken, lol. I have got to get back in the habit of always having the camera ready. Last week Caleb turned eight and Titus had his first birthday. Although I took a few pictures of Caleb's “birthday party” (which was actually him playing D&D with us and getting pizza, cake, and ice cream) I didn't get as many as I wanted. I asked Rachel to take a few more and, like a dope, I assumed she did (which she didn't, lol). I also don't know where the pictures Rachel took of Titus's birthday party are. I feel certain she's already posted them on Facebook anyway. Either way, here are the photos I've got.


That last one is Titus in his “Doctor” outfit. Rachel bought him a Doctor Who diaper and made him a bow tie like the one the eleventh doctor wears. I have to say, it looks good on him :)

As far as our news goes: Worlds of Magic looks better and better. I'm hoping we're going to be able to launch the Alpha by the end of this month. We're still planning to have the game out by July which is going to mean very short Alpha and Beta cycles. Lord willing, the high number of play testers we have available will make the testing move along quickly.

If everything goes like I'm hoping and praying it will I'll get my first royalty check sometime in October. If we have enough money we're planning to buy a double-wide and some land. This time I mean to pay cash. Borrowing money has ruined me financially more than once. (We got the letter in the mail last week that the house has finally been repossessed.) I have lost many, many thousands of dollars by borrowing rather than saving. It's a mistake I hope to keep my children from ever making.

We went double-wide shopping again last week. Rachel has begun printing out floor plans and coming up with exactly what she wants. As soon as we have the money in hand I want to get the land bought and the trailer purchased.

It may seem odd that we're going to get a trailer rather than build another house, but honestly we're only planning to spend six months a year in the US and that during the more mild seasons of Spring and Fall. It doesn't need to be super efficient from a heating and cooling point of view and it doesn't need to last forever. It just needs to be nice, easy to get on our land quickly, and relatively inexpensive. We may well end up getting a house in Dominica as well (and maybe even one in Scotland or Isle of Man), so we don't want to put all our eggs in one basket.

So, that's our news for the moment. What else have I been mulling over? Well, it may shock you to find that I've been thinking a great deal about wealth creation. Why is that? I suppose the main reason is that I'm hoping to get a royalty check in October that's going to pay me for the (at that point) two and a half years of work I've done (Lord willing, it will be a lot more than that even). For the first time in my life I'll have a many months of pay dumped into my lap at one time. The way things have worked out I've been forced to live lean and save up (as I haven't been able to spend this money along and along). I certainly feel it's for the best. We've lost our trailer and our house. My forfeited debt has freed me from a great deal of financial obligation. The remaining debts I have only amount to a few tens-of-thousands of dollars. (From where I started that is very good.) I'm hoping to be able to hit the “reset switch” on my financial situation. This time I plan not to completely ruin myself, lol.

You may be wondering what I mean by “Wealth Creation”. Well, it's very simple. Well, to be fair, the concept is very simple. The actually application of the concept can be complex and there are a number of different facets one has to consider when really engaging the subject. For this post I'm merely going to limit myself to what wealth creation is. I can talk more about it in other posts. It is, after all, a deep subject.

I think the best way to start is to underline what wealth is. Many people would describe wealth as “money”, whether it's represented by piles of gold bullion or Swiss bank accounts with seven digit balances. However, that isn't wealth. It's merely a representation of wealth. (No, I'm not going to wax overly philosophical at this point and go into all the things money can't buy. In point of fact, I plan to save that for another post. My current point is more direct.)

Wealth is stockpiled work that has already been completed. Let me give you an example. Let's say you were given one million dollars in US currency to spend as you wanted with the one stipulation that you couldn't spend the money on anything anyone else had ever worked on at all. What would you buy? Let's skip the obvious things like yachts, cars, houses, food, etc, that take an army of people to produce. How about land? (I get that one a lot when I ask this question, lol.) Well, no, you can't buy land either. That land was discovered by someone else, wild animals were driven off it by someone else, the land was surveyed by someone else, the deed was written by someone else. I'll give you the secret rather than keep you guessing. The answer is: Nothing.

Why does that matter? Well, it just shows you that work, and not money, is what wealth really is. Gold has value because men are willing to do things to posses it. It's man's willingness to work for it that makes it valuable. Imagine that people were only willing to kill for gold, not work for it. Would you want a lot of gold?

You see it's the people making yachts, not those buying them, that create wealth. It's the farmer who grows the food and the chef that prepares it that are creating wealth, not the person who pays for the meal. It's the producers, not the consumers that make the world a rich place.

I want to organize people and help them work more efficiently. I want to produce wealth. In many places in the world people don't have the wealth they could simply because they don't know how to generate it. They don't know what they can do to help enrich the world and, by so doing, enrich themselves. I plan to help people do that.

How? Well, I intend to go into business. Yes, I have a number of businesses now, but I plan to start some that hire more people and get more work done. I'm still playing with the idea of a shrimp farm, but I have to really think about it. It looks like I'm about to have some money. I want to do what I can to make it grow and share it with those around me. I want to help enrich other peoples lives. Of course, I have to admit, it will probably enrich me a good deal as well, lol.

Either way, I'm open to suggestions. If any of you have any ideas on how I could use a little money to get the ball rolling and make a little more, just let me know. Keep in mind, I want to get other people working. I want to produce. I want to create wealth.

That's it for my musings this week. For the moment at least, goodnight from South Carolina.