The 12 Financial Commandments According to Paul
The 12 Financial Commandments According to Paul
A purposeful life is a life well-lived, and perhaps these principles can guide one toward that purpose in our modern world of money and meaning.
I. There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Every benefit comes with a cost, even when that cost is hidden from view. When someone offers you something "free," ask yourself what they gain from the transaction. Free checking accounts earn banks money through your deposits. Free social media platforms sell your personal data. Free financial advice often comes with product sales attached.
This principle extends beyond obvious transactions. Even government benefits are paid for through taxes. Employer-provided health insurance reduces your potential salary. Credit card rewards are funded by merchant fees that get passed to consumers through higher prices.
Understanding this truth protects you from scams and helps you make better decisions. When evaluating any financial opportunity, identify all parties involved and determine how each one benefits. If you cannot clearly see the cost structure, proceed with extreme caution.
The most expensive "free" items are often those that seem too good to be true. Free investment seminars that push expensive courses. Free credit monitoring that enrolls you in paid services. Free financial products with hidden fees that dwarf any benefits.
Smart money management begins with recognizing that everything has a price. Your job is to determine whether that price is worth paying and whether you are paying it intentionally or by accident.
II. Financial Independence Means Working by Choice, Not Necessity
True wealth is not about having the most money—it is about having enough money to make work optional. Financial independence occurs when your passive income and savings can support your lifestyle without requiring a paycheck.
This freedom changes everything about how you approach work and life. When you must work to survive, you accept poor treatment, unfair compensation, and jobs that drain your soul. When work becomes optional, you can pursue meaningful projects, negotiate from strength, and walk away from situations that do not serve you.
The path to this freedom requires living below your means and investing the difference. It means choosing long-term security over short-term comfort. It demands discipline when friends are spending freely and patience when investments seem to grow slowly.
Financial independence does not mean retirement from all productive activity. Many financially independent people work harder than ever, but they choose projects based on passion and purpose rather than desperation and necessity.
Calculate your financial independence number by determining your annual expenses and multiplying by 25. This gives you the approximate investment balance needed to support yourself indefinitely using the 4% withdrawal rule. Every dollar you save and invest brings you closer to this target and further from financial slavery.
III. Couch Potato Retirement Leads to Early Death
Retirement should not mean the end of purpose, challenge, and growth. Those who stop all productive activity and spend their days in passive entertainment often experience rapid physical and mental decline.
The human body and mind require regular stimulation to maintain health. Without the structure and challenges that work provides, many retirees fall into depression, lose their sense of identity, and develop health problems that shorten their lives.
Successful retirement involves replacing career work with meaningful activities that provide purpose, social connection, and mental stimulation. This might include volunteer work, teaching, consulting, creative projects, or starting a new business.
Physical activity becomes even more important in retirement. Regular exercise, outdoor activities, and maintaining physical challenges help prevent the muscle loss, bone density reduction, and cardiovascular problems that accelerate aging.
Financial planning for retirement must include budgets for staying active and engaged. This means money for travel, hobbies, education, fitness activities, and social events. The cheapest retirement is often the most expensive when you factor in healthcare costs from an inactive lifestyle.
Plan your retirement around what you will do, not just what you will stop doing. The goal is to graduate from work you must do to work you choose to do, maintaining purpose and vitality throughout your later years.
IV. True Partners and Understanding Friends Are Keys to Longevity
Financial success is rarely achieved alone. The people you surround yourself with either accelerate or sabotage your progress toward your goals. Choose your inner circle carefully, prioritizing those who understand delayed gratification and support your financial discipline.
A true financial partner shares your values about money, supports your long-term goals, and makes decisions that benefit your collective future. This applies to spouses, business partners, and close friends who influence your financial choices.
Beware of people who pressure you to spend money to prove friendship or love. Real friends understand when you decline expensive activities because you are saving for important goals. They suggest alternatives that fit your budget or offer to help cover costs without making you feel guilty.
The phrase "going to the Mets" represents understanding that sometimes you participate in activities not because they are the best use of money, but because relationships matter. The key is balance—occasional relationship investments versus constant financial pressure from social connections.
Surround yourself with people who celebrate your financial victories, support you during difficult decisions, and model the behaviors you want to adopt. Distance yourself from those who mock your frugality, encourage wasteful spending, or create drama around money.
Building wealth requires a support system that understands your priorities and helps you stay accountable to your goals. Invest time in relationships with people who make you better, not those who drain your resources or undermine your progress.
V. Every Money Problem Has Four Solutions
When facing any financial challenge, you have exactly four options: make more money, spend less money, adjust your expectations, or combine these approaches. This framework cuts through confusion and provides clear direction for solving problems.
Making more money involves increasing income through better jobs, side businesses, investments, or skill development. This is often the most attractive option because it does not require sacrifice, but it may take time to implement and is not always immediately available.
Spending less money provides immediate relief and is usually the fastest solution. This requires examining expenses, eliminating waste, and making conscious choices about priorities. Many people resist this option because it feels like deprivation, but temporary sacrifice often prevents permanent problems.
Adjusting expectations means changing your definition of success or happiness to match your current resources. This might involve choosing a smaller house, driving an older car, or finding free entertainment instead of expensive activities.
The most effective approach often combines all three strategies. Increase income while reducing expenses and moderating expectations. This accelerated approach solves problems faster and builds better long-term habits.
Avoid the trap of believing you need more complex solutions. Financial problems feel overwhelming because people focus on emotions rather than mathematics. Step back, identify which of the four options apply to your situation, and take action accordingly.
VI. Always Minimize Time, Effort, and Aggravation While Maximizing Money
Efficiency in financial management means getting the best results with the least input of your valuable resources. Your time, energy, and peace of mind are finite assets that should be protected as carefully as your money.
Automate everything possible. Set up automatic transfers to savings, automatic bill payments, and automatic investment contributions. This reduces the mental energy required to manage money and eliminates the risk of forgetting important financial tasks.
Simplify your financial life by reducing the number of accounts, credit cards, and investment platforms you use. Multiple accounts may seem sophisticated, but they increase complexity, fees, and the time required for management without providing proportional benefits.
Choose investments and financial products that require minimal maintenance. Index funds perform better than actively managed funds while requiring no research or monitoring. Simple banking relationships cost less than complex ones.
Avoid financial strategies that require constant attention or create stress. Day trading, complex tax avoidance schemes, and high-maintenance investments consume time and energy that could be better used elsewhere.
Pay for services that save you significant time or stress, even when you could theoretically do the work yourself. A good accountant, financial advisor, or attorney can prevent costly mistakes and free up your time for more valuable activities.
The goal is to create a financial system that runs smoothly in the background while you focus on earning money and enjoying life.
VII. The Seven Pillars of Wealth in Order of Importance
Wealth building requires development across seven key areas, prioritized by their impact on long-term success. Focusing on these areas in order prevents common mistakes and accelerates progress.
Mindset comes first because your beliefs about money determine every financial decision you make. People with poverty mindsets sabotage themselves even when they earn high incomes. Developing an abundance mindset, understanding delayed gratification, and believing in your ability to build wealth are prerequisites for success.
Physical health ranks second because medical problems can destroy wealth faster than any market crash. Maintaining good health through exercise, nutrition, and preventive care protects your earning ability and reduces healthcare costs throughout life.
Emotional stability enables good decision-making under pressure. People who cannot manage stress, fear, or greed make poor financial choices during critical moments. Developing emotional intelligence and stress management skills protects your wealth from your own psychology.
Intellectual development includes financial education, professional skills, and general knowledge that increases your earning potential. The more you know, the more you can earn and the better decisions you make with money.
Relationships provide opportunities, support, and accountability that accelerate wealth building. Strong personal and professional networks open doors and provide resources during difficult times.
Income is your wealth-building fuel, but it ranks sixth because people with good fundamentals can build wealth on modest incomes while those lacking fundamentals waste high incomes.
Risk management protects everything you build through insurance, diversification, and emergency funds. This comes last because you need something to protect before risk management becomes critical.
VIII. Never Reject Those Who Say the Box Does Not Exist
Innovation and breakthrough thinking come from people who question fundamental assumptions others take for granted. When someone challenges conventional financial wisdom, listen carefully before dismissing their ideas.
Traditional financial advice assumes certain limitations that may not actually exist. People who built extraordinary wealth often ignored conventional wisdom about "safe" career paths, "reasonable" investment returns, or "appropriate" levels of debt and risk.
This does not mean accepting every unconventional idea, but rather examining the assumptions behind your financial beliefs. Why do you believe certain things are impossible? What evidence supports those limitations? Who benefits from maintaining the current system?
Some of the most profitable opportunities exist because most people believe they are impossible or inappropriate. Real estate investing seemed risky until people understood leverage and cash flow. Starting businesses seemed dangerous until people learned about calculated risk and market opportunities.
The "box" represents conventional thinking about money, careers, and wealth building. People who achieve extraordinary results often do so by recognizing that many supposed limitations are actually choices or beliefs rather than facts.
Stay open to new ideas while maintaining critical thinking. Question both conventional wisdom and unconventional claims. Test new concepts with small amounts of money before making major commitments.
The person who says the box does not exist might be wrong about their specific solution, but they are often right that more options exist than most people realize.
IX. Debt Is a Tool, Not a Burden—When Used Correctly
Debt can either accelerate wealth building or destroy financial security, depending on how it is used. The key is understanding the difference between good debt and bad debt, and using leverage strategically rather than carelessly.
Good debt helps you acquire assets that appreciate in value or generate income. Mortgages on real estate, business loans for profitable ventures, and education loans that increase earning potential can all contribute to wealth building when managed properly.
Bad debt finances consumption or depreciating assets. Credit card debt for vacations, car loans for expensive vehicles, and personal loans for lifestyle expenses drain wealth and create financial stress.
The cost of debt must be weighed against potential returns. If you can borrow money at 4% and invest it to earn 8%, the debt is profitable. If you borrow at 18% to buy things that provide no financial return, the debt is destructive.
Leverage amplifies both gains and losses. Borrowing money to invest multiplies your returns when investments perform well, but it also multiplies losses when investments decline. Only use debt when you can afford the worst-case scenario.
Maintain the ability to service debt payments even during difficult times. This means having emergency funds, stable income sources, and conservative debt-to-income ratios that leave room for financial setbacks.
Used wisely, debt can accelerate your path to financial independence. Used carelessly, it can trap you in financial slavery for decades.
X. Your Network Determines Your Net Worth
The people in your professional and personal network directly influence your earning potential, investment opportunities, and financial knowledge. Building relationships with successful people is one of the most important investments you can make.
Successful people share information, opportunities, and resources with others in their network. They provide introductions, recommendations, and partnerships that can dramatically accelerate career growth and wealth building.
Your network includes formal business relationships, casual acquaintances, mentors, colleagues, and friends. Each relationship has different value and requires different levels of investment to maintain.
Quality matters more than quantity. A few strong relationships with successful, generous people provide more value than hundreds of superficial connections. Focus on building genuine relationships based on mutual benefit rather than one-sided networking.
Provide value to others before asking for help. Share information, make introductions, and offer assistance when possible. People are more likely to help those who have helped them or others in the network.
Maintain relationships consistently over time. Send updates, congratulate others on successes, and stay in touch even when you do not need anything. Strong networks are built through regular communication and genuine interest in others' success.
Your current network reflects your current financial position. To reach the next level, you need relationships with people who are already there.
XI. Time Is Your Most Valuable and Finite Resource
Unlike money, which can be earned, saved, and multiplied, time passes at a fixed rate for everyone. How you use your time determines everything else about your financial future, making time management the ultimate wealth-building skill.
Every hour spent on low-value activities is an hour not spent on high-value activities. Watching television, scrolling social media, or engaging in unproductive conversations may feel relaxing, but they consume time that could be used for education, skill development, relationship building, or income generation.
The compounding effect of time makes early financial decisions extremely powerful. Money invested in your twenties has decades to grow, while money invested in your fifties has only years. The same principle applies to career development, relationship building, and skill acquisition.
Protect your time as aggressively as you protect your money. Say no to requests that do not align with your goals. Delegate or eliminate low-value tasks. Batch similar activities to improve efficiency.
Invest time in activities that provide long-term benefits rather than short-term pleasure. Reading books builds knowledge that lasts forever. Exercise today prevents health problems tomorrow. Building relationships creates opportunities for years.
Track how you spend time for one week to identify waste and opportunities for improvement. Most people are shocked to discover how much time they lose to unproductive activities.
Time poverty is worse than money poverty because time cannot be recovered once it is lost.
XII. The Truesdell Golden Rule—Without Exception
Most people know the Golden Rule as "treat others the way you want to be treated." This nine-word foundation has guided human interaction for millennia, but history has whitewashed away the second part that religions and governments prefer to ignore.
The complete teaching includes "and expect the same in return"—fourteen words total when both parts are stated fully. This second principle holds others accountable for reciprocal treatment and prevents one-sided exploitation disguised as virtue. Together, these two parts create a balanced framework for relationships.
But even these two parts, like a two-legged stool, cannot stand alone indefinitely. After decades of contemplation, I have discovered the third leg that completes this eternal wisdom: "without exception." These two words—bringing the total to nine words in the first part, five in the second, and two in the third, totaling sixteen—center upon the number 952, which is an angelic number upon which beautiful real-world mathematical calculations have centered since the dawn of time.
The Truesdell Golden Rule states: Treat others the way you want to be treated, and expect the same in return, without exception. This applies to every financial relationship, business deal, and monetary interaction you will ever have.
In money matters, this means paying bills promptly and expecting others to do the same. It means providing fair value for what you charge and refusing to accept less than fair value for what you buy. It means being honest in financial dealings and walking away from those who are not honest with you.
The "without exception" clause prevents rationalization and compromise. You cannot selectively apply integrity based on circumstances, relationships, or financial pressure. Either you operate with complete ethical consistency, or you operate without true principles at all.
This rule protects you from financial predators who exploit generous people and from becoming a financial predator yourself. It creates clear boundaries that simplify complex decisions and prevents the moral drift that destroys both wealth and character over time.
Do what you like, do good, and seek profit you can control. This philosophy creates a purposeful life where financial success aligns with personal values and meaningful contribution to others.