Selecting humans.
One of the most significant factors in creating a comfortable life is selecting other humans to associate with. Choosing a job, career, spouse, and place to live mostly boils down to picking what people to be around. You may overlook many substantial affects that this choice will have on you.
In choosing a career, you will decide to be surrounded by a group of people with some similarities. Undoubtedly, some of these traits will rub off on you, even subconsciously. For example, sales attracts a particular personality of human. One trait which most successful salespeople have is a strong ego. A strong belief in oneself, and what you are selling is important to convey that point of view to a potential buyer. By itself, this trait is valuable. Placed in a consumer environment, this trait can have side effects. Having a strong ego and high self-esteem sometimes results in the sales personality type to overindulge on material purchases. The streotype of the flashy salesperson with lots of jewelery and expensive car was not made up from scratch. It would be natural for a person who works in that environment, even not as a salesperson directly, might pick up on some of those traits.
The choice of spouse is obviously another life-altering decision. Your spouse will be part of every other decision you make, and their actions will affect you directly. Their finances affect yours, and any consequences of their actions will partly fall on you. Partnering with a quality human for your spouse has endless benefits. The daily routine of spending time with them is very satisfying, which is inspiration for the other parts of your life. A positive influence on you every day is immeasurably valuable.
You should carefully look for any human that might have an affect on your life. A woman in Florida had arranged a comfortable life for herself at age 60. Her accumulated wealth of $7.3 million generated a work-free annual income of $400,000. When the Bernard Madoff scandal broke, she suddenly found herself with no assets, and no income. At that point, this otherwise intelligent and considerate person was reduced to cleaning floors at age 60.
If she had clearly identified the fact that her entire lifestyle and security was in the hands of one man, whom she had never met, she may have made other arrangements. The investment return would not have been as high, but most reasonable people would certainly traded that small income reduction for security had they really looked at how their entire life was in another persons hands.
