Being in debt means using up the future in the present. Essentially, it’s about how we manage our time. Therefore, the most valuable resource for debtors is time, and it depends on which side time favors. Paying off debt is like repaying borrowed future time early. When the ability to generate wealth over time decreases, the future time becomes a burden, and the debtor faces the pain of bankruptcy. Taking on debt is costly. It may seem like borrowed money is repaid with money, but the irreplaceable resource of time is also returned along with interest. With the rise of postpaid credit cards as a common payment method, we’ve become less sensitive to the associated pain and cost. There are two ways to spend money: using present time or future time. The costs and pain are much higher when the future is spent as if it were the present. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
Warren Buffett, who has amassed 99% of his wealth since the age of 50, revealed that the secret lies in “compound.” When you lend money, interest is added to the principal as income. Initially, interest is applied only to the principal, but compound interest is applied to both the principal and the accumulated interest. Therefore, at first, it seems negligible, but over time, significant wealth growth takes place. The same principle applies to reading: even if your reading speed is slow, consistently reading just a few books each day can lead to a wealth of knowledge. After a year, this accumulated knowledge creates a network effect, allowing you to quickly absorb new information. Consequently, your reading speed increases dramatically, leading to an exponential growth in the volume of material you can handle. This exemplifies the compound interest effect. Even small, consistent actions taken daily can build up and create a compound interest effect over time. Cartoonist Lee Hyun-se sta...