Why This Blog Is Named One Cent At A Time

While starting this article I made up my mind to not write another typical ‘about‘ page I already have.

For many years, my idea of personal finance blog was solely Get Rich slowly. It was part of daily routine. When I realized I wanted my own blog, I started researching and found many other great blogs like The Simple Dollar , full list is available in my blog roll.

My last post was related to ‘being rich’, where I mentioned about the most important aspect of being rich, that is,  finding time to do fruitful work that can set you on course of becoming rich.

Only the lucky ones become overnight rich, rest, like most of us, takes time, in most cases it takes decades to become rich. This post is about the word “Rich” and how it relates to the site name.

Trent, at Simple Dollar, today posted about the definition of the term rich. I agree with him when he says ‘rich’ is a relative term, I do not consider myself as a rich guy. There might be some one who earn less than what I earn or have less net worth than i do, yet, he/she might feel himself/herself a rich person. In a sense rich is a relative term.

I was born in India, where per capita income per day is less than $2. Agreed, that cost of living is much less in India compared to what it is in US, still, to fellow Indians in India, I  am rich!

I drive a 2002 Hyundai Elantra and live in a rented condo. I do not wear branded clothes (except a few Ralphs :)). No one here calls me rich or thinks that I am rich.

With that concept of rich being a relative term, let me give you more perspective on it, do you know Polymorphism (fellow software engineers might understand better)? A rich can be rich monetarily, emotionally, spiritually and socially. These are different ploy-morphs of being rich.

You can live frugally and become monetarily richer. You can go to church, mosque, temple, pagodas, gurudwaras and feel spiritually richer. You can grow your friend circle and become emotionally and socially richer.

You can become emotionally richer by buying expensive items too. You can borrow money on credit card and buy luxury items. But will that make you monetarily richer?

There is a very important and mandatory relationship between these poly morphs. Another example, if your wife or children want to have occasional experience of a big screen movie theater, will renting movies from Netflix give you a feeling of better richness than seeing your wife and children happy in the movie hall?

A balance is needed to be maintained in the way you live your day-to-day life, while you are on course of becoming rich.

Being rich also depends on how rich you want to be. My grandfather was rich in his sense that he never had to borrow money and left a decent sum of money for his sons. He always said “I am rich”. If you have less ambition you can be rich fairly quickly than others. I can go in to a remote Indian village, buy vast land and build a big house. People around me will call me a mega rich. In that sense, I am already rich.

The priest you admire most, isn’t he rich? Most certainly he is, he has relatively lower demand for materials and at the same time has high level spirituality. He is spiritually, emotionally and socially rich.

I do feel enriched by giving away my money for causes and charity. Recently I became more emotionally richer and felt my salary just doubled, when I started remitting money to my parents back in India.

Philosophy of Get rich slowly (my favorite blog and blogging mentor) is, you need time to grow richer. One Cent At A Time also has the same philosophy, the word cent doesn’t mean only money, it means value.

This blog is not about becoming rich monetarily alone. It has all the aspects and poly morphs of the word rich. As Ramit from I Will teach you to be rich states, being rich is not about making more money, it is about finding what you want.

One Cent At A Time is my journey towards being rich by finding what I want.

My blog is in pursuit of happiness for my readers and I that too for life long. No happiness is real happiness, unless it’s long-lived. As I keep on writing this blog, every day my knowledge is growing and which, in turn makes me emotionally richer.

Be happy one cent at a time, be rich one cent at a time, be social one cent at a time be spirited one cent at a time. The journey just started, it will continue till I feel richer in its full meaning and senses and so do you, my faithful readers.

Let me ask you..if you have tons of money in bank, you have enough power and influence in the society you live in, would you feel richer? Please leave comments.

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