"I've played this game before!"

I'm not 'buying' the saying that happiness can't be bought with money.

Because, all else being equal, the more money you have the happier you are, and the more you have, the happier you get.

But there's an uncomfortable truth we have to face, because we live under financial capitalism.

Sorry to start off on such a deflating note, but the point is that simply saving your paycheck steadily and investing hard is not enough to reach financial freedom.

Everyone wants to live in a prime neighborhood, to ride in an expensive car at least once, and to enjoy financial freedom.

But even if your annual salary is 200 million won, saving your paycheck alone amounts to nothing more than daydreaming.

Everyone would have plenty to say about "investing" on its own, but before we get there, let me jot down a few things about this Squid Game we've been forced into, the things I wish I'd known even a day sooner.

If I were to lay out the stages of investing on this uneven playing field we've been forced to jump into, I see them as follows:

1. Preparation 2. Execution 3. Leverage 4. Preservation

And I'll define the general elements for growing assets like this:

(*) Asset growth = 1) Capital power + 2) Investing power

1) Capital Power (Preparation)

- That is, how much "seed" you're holding.

• It could be a paycheck saved up bit by bit, or funds gifted to you by your parents.
• So the advice to cut spending and save steadily when you're fresh out in the world is gospel.
• In fact, this is also the stretch where, all else being equal, the wealth gap doesn't widen by much.

2) Investing Power (Execution)

- It's a broad term, but for real estate it would be an eye for location, and for crypto or stocks, analytical ability, and so on.

• Honestly, I don't think I'm seasoned enough to give investment advice, so to keep it short,
• I see investing power as a "difference in perspective" and a "habit of thinking."
• What I mean is, don't just read what others have written, test what your own opinion actually is.
• And whether you trust the "compounding" of time, or you trust your own "skill"… it's good to be good at both (?).
• Whatever it is, you have to study for it and dig in with all your heart and effort.
• It's from here that the wealth gap among peers gradually starts to appear.

Actually, the real point starts here: you come to realize there are two more things that may matter even more than investing power.

Those are "borrowing power" and "information power."

So, (*) Asset growth = 1) Capital power + 2) Investing power + 3) Borrowing power + 4) Maintaining power

3) Borrowing Power (Leverage)

- Borrowing power isn't about paying it back, it's about using it.

• It's the ability to "leverage" the bank, and this is a core competency for growing assets.
• If you know how to use this system precisely and cunningly, loans actually stop being scary.
• This isn't telling you to recklessly max out a loan and go invest…
• It means you need to properly understand the types, terms, regulations, and so on of loans.
• A hair's breadth of difference in knowledge, or a difference in the order in which you take out loans, can make the resulting outcome a world apart.
• Someone whose borrowing power is ready at the right time and place can turn 1 into 3-5, even from the same starting line.

4) Maintaining Power (Preservation)

- Written as "maintaining power," read as "tax knowledge."

• The state collects taxes wherever there is income.
• The act of generating the profit of asset growth through investing simply cannot escape taxation.
• At the very least, you need to be well-versed in the taxes of your own investment field.
• Not just studying when there's a flash-in-the-pan issue like the "financial investment income tax" or "crypto taxation" while you're trading coins…
• At the very least, you need to actually "study" (not just take a passing interest in) the various tax-saving measures for stocks, coins, real estate, and so on.
• This focuses on preserving as much of my outcome as possible.
• If you don't know this well, it's laughably easy to give up 10-15% of your final profit.

I don't think you really need to learn all this only after experiencing firsthand this "Squid Game" that everyone ends up being forced into anyway.