Timothy, on the team at GBC, 2 min read
This weekend past, I was encountered with a thought-provoking question. I haven’t thought about this before and took for granted what my action would be if I was to ever be in this situation. So here’s goes. I was asked-what would I do if I had credit card debts and only a thousand dollars with zero sources of income. My initial reaction was, pay my credit card to avoid those annoying phone calls and intuitively, it seemed like the right thing to do. But then, I was asked “what about your next payment, and the one after that, and that one after that?”. I got the point very quickly and then started to back track and scratch my head. I thought, how true? – so if had just one thousand dollars, credit card bills and no sources of income, what difference would my one thousand dollars make to the creditor and what difference it would make to my situation. It would be like continually treating symptoms but not the cause, a sticky band solution, just temporary!
After a while of discussion, I was enlightened by a saying “when given seeds, grow crop”. Thereafter, it became obvious. I would take my one thousand dollars, head down to a wholesaler, buy product and sell it for a 10 to 15% markup. Then use my $1,100 – $1,150 to buy more product and sell it with a markup. Eventually, I could pay the creditor who probably would have waited because I am unlikely to be thrown into prison for not paying my bills and develop a source of income. The point is, that the one thousand dollars was the “seeds” and before taking the temporary solution road, think about the big picture.
There are two points here: think big picture and don’t be afraid to make just a $100 extra from a thousand dollars. We often think, if the investment does not return big, then it is not worth it. This conversation was with my 10 year old son!
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