Rich Man Poor Man - Russell - Article Review

The prevailing topic of this article is making money and ways to do so. Right from the start Russell makes how important money is to an individual in this era evident. He explains that there is really no way to survive in the world unless you have wealth. Although the underlying idea of a good life is money, Russell also throws in the concept of having love, health, freedom, and intellectual stimulation in order to reach pure bliss. In my opinion, this is definitely the key to a good life and although a lot of people overuse the saying "money can't buy happiness," they need to realize that there is a balance between money and happiness. For example, those who are extremely poor may be happy in a sense, but their constant struggle due to a lack of money can wear down their happiness over time. Having a limited amount of money results in having poor health insurance and in a lot of cases no insurance at all. This can really put pressure on an individual and their family and can cause outbreaks of depression in people because they feel they are failures and lack power in the economic world of which they reside in.

Russell goes on to discuss the idea of compounding and explains how it works. I think that this is a good rule to follow because everyone has the ability to compound. I think that he is also saying that you need to have certain qualities in order to become wealthy. Russell says that you need to be smart in order to save money, you cannot just expect to put your money in the bank and let it compound, you need to understand the process in order to get the full benefits of compounding. Time is also an important component when compounding. In order for compounding to work it needs time to play out. Although compounding can help you earn money in the long run, it is a very slow process and you can't expect to spend your money and still receive the benefits of compounding. However, it does take a long time for the money to build up. From my experience in math class with compounding you barely make any money for a long time until eventually it starts to add up. Not all people have the advantage of their parents having enough money to start their investment early like Russell says is the best solution, so what about them, what will they do? In my opinion this is why people try to manipulate the markets and sometimes lose their money.

Russell's third rule seems to be somewhat obvious, but I feel that he lists it because people still tend to lose a lot of money through their years. People get into the stock market game and do not exactly know what they are doing and lose their money. Individuals do not always look into what they are investing in and can lose their money easily. If something sounds like a good deal they take it, but do not consider what they may lose out on in the long run.

When he discusses how wealthy people like Bill Gates do not need the markets and how that changes their attitude,