Real Life vs Video Game Life

I'm often struck in the vast difference between video game life and real life, especially when it comes to war.  I just finished reading "With the Old Breed" by E.B. Sledge.  As a real to life account of war, it it vastly different than what is experienced in the average video game.  The average video game throws amazing circumstances at you and you end up fighting constantly, effectively dying and retrying.  Video games are full of banzai charges and insane attacks.  It's the kind of stuff that makes for great movie scenes.  It's also things that were learned and quit.

By the time of the battles at Pellilou and Okinawa, the Japanese banzai charge had gone the way of the dinosaur.  It was an ineffective action when faced down by a bunch of entrenched Marines.  It was replaced with deep emplacements and disciplined fire.   That led to slow slogging battles battles where every inch of ground was a difficult struggle. 

You don't see much of that in video games.  It's all blind charges and insane maneuvers as your bullet sponge avatar heroically destroys an obviously inferior enemy.  It's a sad blight on humanity.

I once thought of a movie to describe real war.  It would have been called Guard, and it would be four hours long in real time.  No quick cuts, no exciting scenes.  You have three people standing in a guard tower watching a mobile populace move through their day to day lives. 

It would have been the most boring movie known to man.  But then it would have been the most accurate war movie ever.  Just by observing you would learn the wonders of high intensity anxiety and tension.  It would have been beautiful. 

But then, I've never been a screen writer.  Or much less a story board person.  It would have been interesting. 

The general answer is that real life is not video games.  And that's about all there is to it. 

Financialness, or not

I've read a lot of financial books.  They all say pretty much the same thing.  The ideas are all pretty much the same.  Each one has a bit they think is different.  But at least a bunch of them realize what they're saying is not unique. 

Short answer: buy things that make money while you sleep. 

That's pretty much it.

Big shocker.  But yeah, that's it.  The path to that answer is always different, but it's roughly the same regardless of what choice you make.  Many will suggest you start buying that thing while you are still in debt.  Others will tell you to get out of debt first.  Others will tell you to use debt.  But it's all the same: buy something that makes money while you sleep.

Continue buying things that make money while you sleep until you make enough money to where you don't need to work, and then you are rich. 

Could be businesses.  Could be stocks.  Could be bonds.  Could be houses. 

So, before you read your next financial book go look for something you can buy that will make you money while you sleep.   Because that's what the financial book is going to tell you anyways. 

The only difference is when and what method. 

Truthfully, I was thinking of a longer version of this article.  It seemed like a good place to go in to the differences between Robert Kiyosaki, Dave Ramsey, Mr Money Mustache, and Suze Ormann.  But it's pretty much the same thing over and over again.  A lot depends on where you are in your journey and your risk tolerance. 

From Kiyosaki, I learned that you should have multiple plans.  From Ramsey, I learned the psychology of getting out of debt.  Mr. Money Mustache provided an end game idea.  Suze Ormann didn't teach me all that much.