Do You Listen to Clark Howard? The consumer warrior. He’s a smart guy and when I’m able to listen to him, I nearly always learn something. Sometimes, though, I don’t learn from HIM as much as I learn about people. Don’t get mad at me for saying it but I’m constantly amazed at how dumb people can be.

First, the guy that called in stating that he was a seasoned investor and had a brother overseas who was earning 20% interest every month by investing only $1,000 and was trying to get him to invest as well. This seasoned investor was asking Clark’s take on it and seemed quite sure that it was a good idea. Does it take a genius to understand that nobody makes a guaranteed 20% interest rate on their money when the rest of the world is making 3%. And he’s a seasoned investor?

How about the hoards of people who have sent money to Nigeria because they got some SPAM e-mail saying that if they sent money to somebody, they would get it back in a few months but it would be twice as much?

How about “Make $1,000 per day working at home”?

How about the too good to be true ads on Facebook?

I just don’t get it. Why are there people out there who think people will give them money to do nothing? Why are there people out there who don’t think about the fact that if you could earn 20% on your money, that $1,000 would grow by almost $220 in the first year? Who do you know that would hand you $220 for no reason at all? Finally, if somebody was giving $220 per year to anybody who would let them hold on to $1,000 for a year, why wouldn’t millions upon millions of people be doing it?

You won’t get rich doing nothing. You won’t get rich without identifying your talent and working hard to market it, without drive, without some sort of education, without a plan for your future that will involve some sort of sacrifice.

Clark Howard is a smart man but he isn’t as smart as he seems. The reason he seems so smart may be because people in general are either dumb, ignorant, or simply make dumb decisions. I’m sure that you aren’t one of those people, though.

Thanks for letting me vent