Under Pressure

You can get into a situation where you do have a stable, decent, income, and yet are still not able to still the waves of money anxiety. Trapped with a big portion of that income servicing past consumption. Where you are not paying enough to get the hovering debt to shrink. Struggling for scraps to feed the beast. Cornered there, it is difficult to get to the point where “your money is making money”. 

Finding stillness requires both a source of income and control of spending. External forces make that difficult. The goal is shifting that challenge internally. Where you are the one creating the discipline. Limits don’t disappear, but you want their form to be your conscious choice. Where the boundaries are not “there is no money” or “I owe someone money” or “you must do this for money”. 

Where your money is available and working, and you can choose not to harass it or have it harass you. Where your money is capable of absorbing your shocks and stress in bad times. Where you are capable of repairing and building your capital in good times. Getting to this point, even with a job or stable business, can be difficult if you are under spending pressure from your own behaviour or your chosen community. You need to gain control of the collisions in your container.

Pressure through Collisions in a Closed Container

Absorbing Shocks

Insurance works on the “law of large numbers”. Unlikely events with big consequences are spread out over large groups. A small, certain, premium that can be afforded instead of a small, uncertain, chance of ruin. You can self-insure for a lot of events if you have enough capital that it won’t result in your ruin. I built my Engine the traditional way. With a salary (from a job) that was bigger than my expenses. When I started, I took out life, earning ability, and severe illness cover. The world is designed around us living hand-to-mouth with our salaries defining our capacity to take and absorb risk. To snap that connection, you need a gap. Then that gap needs to be invested, and what it earns reinvested, until your Engine can be working and earning what you need to spend. It is only with a working engine that your life choices can be gradually freed from the constraints of money making. Good ideas that are not good business ideas are still worth doing. They need to be powered by good business ideas. Merit/worth/value (a good idea) is not sufficient. At least not in the beginning. With planning, you can increase your ability to be the one who decides what has value, and what you do with your time.