Today’s post is from our regular Wednesday contributor, Cat.
Have you ever found yourself thinking things like, “They are so lucky because his wife drives a nice SUV,” or “I wish I was lucky enough to have a job like her. Then I could actually afford to make extra mortgage payments.”
Or, perhaps you’ve heard someone say something similar to, “He was lucky to invest at just the right time,” or “It’s lucky he started his business right when there was a need for it.”
We seem to attribute a lot of people’s financial success to luck, when in reality most success comes from hard work and sacrifice.
Sure, someone might get lucky and win the lottery, but that’s rare. They might have also gotten lucky to pick a good stock, but in reality their stock choice was probably preceded by a considerable amount of market research.
I suppose you could be lucky that your employer offers a hefty 401k match, but you probably didn’t get your job from luck. You probably got it because you were the best qualified for it. You could also be lucky that your grandparents left you a sizable inheritance, but not even that is an indicator of what you decide to do with it!
My Issue With Luck
I have a problem when people use the word “lucky” because it sort of cheapens the work of the person they are referring to. For example, I’ve had a few other moms tell me how lucky I am that I’m able to work from home now and once my kids come.
I agree that I’m fortunate to have this opportunity, but I hate to say that there was nothing particularly lucky about it. I didn’t feel lucky when I was working 80+ hours a week at two jobs to save enough money to switch to self employment. I didn’t feel lucky when my friends went to the beach, and I stayed back to work. Yet, I wouldn’t have it any other way, and I’m fond of pure old fashioned hard work not luck!
Hard Work = Luck
One of my favorite quotes that I keep on a sticky note is Thomas Jefferson’s, “I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Some people also shorten this quote to, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.”
That’s something I can agree with.
I think this absolutely relates to finances. The harder you work at budgeting, the “luckier” you will seem when you have a nice savings account. The more you spend time researching investments, the “luckier” your choices will become. The harder you work at your job, the more raises you will get.
In sum, sure you might get lucky from time to time, but very rarely does this luck come out of the sky. It’s usually the result of something you have done ahead of time or prepared for in advance.
Do you believe in luck? Do you think people can get lucky with their finances?
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I agree with you to a certain degree. Even in career there is an element of luck. For example, my hard work gets me into a company that is very desirable and high paying. That’s hard work. When at that company 6 months, I am assigned a “thankless” project that increases my working hours by 15-20 per week. This project is “thankless” because it doesn’t come with recognition or reward… just work. This is bad luck. This bad luck may impact the employees happiness, and have effects on the rest of the employees life and work. This employee also happens to run a blog which he hasn’t had any time whatsoever to work on… this is like a friend of mine, not me.
You can certainly be in the right place at the right time. When we were starting out with our debt management plan I just happened to notice a thread on our debt relief company’s online community asking for people to share their story. I responded it has led to my part-time career as a freelance writer. For that career (which now provides significant income) to have taken off required a lot of hard work, but noticing that initial opportunity. Was that luck? Just being in the right place at the right time? Call it whatever you want, but I’m glad it happened. :)
I believe in luck to a degree, but if you haven’t done the hard work to set yourself up for success and seize the opportunity when your luck comes around, then no amount of luck can help you.
LOVE the Jefferson quote! But, then again, I am a history nerd! I think there is luck, generally speaking, but hard work is going to get you much further and the things I’ve had happen have largely been due to hard work paying off. I’m with you as well…I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to work from home, but there isn’t one iota of luck involved. :)
I totally agree this quote too, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” Being financially luck is a result of hard work, saving and having a good goal.
Ugh, people tell me all the time how “lucky” I am that I work from home. It makes me crazy! I literally created my own job out of thin air…it wasn’t luck. It was hard work!
I think that sometimes people think that certain financial situations happen out of “luck,” but I think they are all the result of hard work, it just pays off in different ways. Any financial success I have ever had in my life is directly proportional to the amount of effort I put into the road that led there.
I believe in fate. If you are born to a family with a ton of money and you inherit, that’s fate. It’s not luck. It’s just how it happened.
For the rest of the world, it’s 100% up to you to make your own life what you want it to be. No luck involved.
You make your own luck. Most “unlucky” people are sitting around complaining. While a few events in life can be pure luck, most luck comes from hard work.
I guess when I think of financial luck I think about winning the lottery. I don’t think that earning money from hard work makes you lucky. I think people use the word “luck” as a coping mechanism to deal with disappointment or frustration. I don’t pass the exam because I am not lucky. No, maybe you just didn’t study hard enough!
So true! Those who seem to be ‘down on their luck’ are usually the ones who don’t keep track of where their money is going. And people who succeed are in charge of their money and making it work for them.
I find that luck comes from hard work. When you work hard, you can create more opportunities. These opportunities can be viewed as luck by some. They are still a result of what you have done. That being said, working hard doesn’t always provide success or opportunities.
Love the post Cat! I prefer not to think of life events as being good or bad luck because I believe everything happens for a reason and those events are already known by a God who sees it all. However, one could be fortunate to be born in an economic climate/time period where investments were growing exponentially. The last 10-15 years the stock market has essentially traded flat. The 20 years prior to that saw a 1,300% increase in stock market price. So depending on when you were born and began to invest, you could be seen as being in the right place at the right time…or lucky.
I think luck does play a part in finances. Sometimes you’re just in the right place and right time. But for the most part, I think you control your own luck through hard work. It drives me nuts when people attribute success to luck all the time, because that is a bit of an insult to all the hard work and effort that took place to achieve that success.
Another quote that fits is “luck is what happens when preparedness meets opportunity”. If you don’t prepare yourself how do you expect those opportunities (“luck”) to come your way?
I feel lucky for many things like having a healthy child, but when people tell me I’m lucky that I get to work part time, that wasn’t luck but hard work. I think chalking someone’s situation up to luck makes you feel better about not being “lucky” yourself. It’s easier to blame bad luck than your own bad choices.
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Eyesonthedollar Your last sentence is so true!
Raquel@Practical Cents Oh I love that one!
Andrew LivingRichCheaply It’s true – right place/right time does come into play with money sometimes!
Brian @ Luke1428 Thanks Brian :) You make a great point about the market. It would have been nice to be a few years older in 2008 so I could have really taken advantage of investing during the recession.
DebtRoundUp It’s true – sometimes you work hard and things don’t work out. Hopefully though, over the long term, they will.
BeckyBierbrodt Yes “down on your luck” is another one of those terms!
BudgetforMore Amen!
RFIndependence Yes I tend to agree with you Pauline!
fitisthenewpoor Oh that’s interesting. I will have to ponder on the “fate” aspect of it. :)
blonde_finance So true. Hard work and effort often precede “luck”
Holly at ClubThrifty Yeah I get that a lot too!
Clarisse @ Make Money Your Way It’s true, although winning the lottery would be nice. :)
FrugalRules Ah I love me some TJ too!
brokeandbeau Exactly, sometimes you do get lucky to meet someone or have a chance encounter but you have to sort of set yourself up to be ready for that!
DebtChronicles I actually really like that part of your story, and I think it’s pretty cool that you work with them!
Mrs Snarkfinance Ha! Oh man, I’m sorry your friend has to deal with that at work. That has to be incredibly frustrating; I hope the project ends soon!
Well put, Cat. I think there are some things in which I do feel just preposterously lucky (e.g. – being born in America, being born healthy and with a relatively well-operating brain and, depending on the situation, being born male). But in most arenas, I do think your effort has a bigger correlation with your results than luck.
I’ve also noticed a correlation between how successful someone is in one arena, and how much or little they attribute that situation to luck. A guy who wins big at a poker night did so because he’s skilled. A guy who lost a lot just hit a bad stretch of luck.
I consider myself to be blessed but not necessarily lucky as I believe those are two different things. I agree that more often than not, luck is result of hard work. I imagine people might say that we live a charmed life but they don’t see all the hard work my husband and I do to create this “charmed” life. It didn’t just happen. As far as finances go, most people who do well financially is due to hard work, not luck. Sure, you may chose to start investing at just the right time or in the right investment, but if it’s all thanks to luck – at the first sign of trouble, you’ll bail too. While the savvy investor who took the time to figure out what investments suited his goals, will be prepared to weather market volatility and actually know how to thrive during those times.
DonebyForty Actually being born in America is one of the things that I feel fortunate/lucky about as well.
@ShannonRyan So true Shannon! That’s a great point.
I honestly believe in luck. I think some people get lucky with their finances. I think educating themselves is what keeps their finances straight.
I wouldn’t use the word LUCK personally, but yes– I agree with your premise. I think we are all fortunate to be living in the best country in the world, the United States of America. This is the place where even those who are not born into money have the greatest chance of finding success and living the dream. For that reason, I believe we are FORTUNATE. Some might say BLESSED. Others choose to call it LUCK. :-)
I am certainly lucky to have been born into a great family who showed me the value of hard work. I feel extremely fortunate for that. I also feel lucky to have grown up in a state with great public education. Both of these things have had an affect on my future finances. Once I was old enough to start working and saving, my financial successes and failures have been a direct result of my own hard work.
TheButlerJournal.com So true. It’s all about staying informed!
MichaelSaves Agreed! AMERICA! :D
CashvilleSky All great points. We all get dealt different hands that’s for sure!
I think for the most part you create your own luck, but I do believe people have certain advantages. Maybe they were at the right place, at the right time, or had family advantages. We don’t know the whole story. I can confidently say more “lucky” things happened by putting myself out there.
I think David is very lucky to have a popular blog. Or was it hard work that created this luck.
Totally agree, its easier to get lucky when you’re working hard. But luck does play a part in your personal finances. I was lucky enough to start earning more money as the market recovered from 2008 to now. It wasn’t any special insight that caused this great market timing, just some luck that I got a good paying job after the downturn had started.
I see two different things here. Let’s say you worked hard through college, worked hard through your internship, and then were hired. That is hard work. Now, let’s say that you were hired right out of college because your father knows the ceo. Some people would consider that luck but it’s actually privilege.
While I agree that it takes hard work, it’s also luck of the draw if a person born into a home with two parents and middle class income and live in a great school district that prepares her well enough to do well on the SAT and get into a good enough college on scholarship which enables her to get that good job. She might have worked hard all along, but having that two parent household and that access to a high-quality public school in her early years was luck on her part.
I think luck plays into it, but anyone is capable of the hard work and sacrifice it takes to be successful. Everyone is so quick to attribute success to luck. Middle class children are equally capable of failing, except everyone would chalk it up to laziness, not bad luck. I hate when people say I’m nothing but lucky. I’ll admit luck plays a role, but a much smaller one than some people want to admit, and maybe a larger one than I care to admit. I think after a while though, luck runs out for most people.
Tara Zee Perfect example!! What you’re calling luck, I’ll call privilege. She was born privileged and has certain advantages even though she still works really hard.
Luck exists, but I don’t complain about other people’s successes because they were “lucky”. We rarely know the whole story of the people who are so “lucky”. I work hard and my husband works hard, but we likely did have a leg up somewhere in the game even if we didn’t recognize it as such. Just read Outliers :)