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Parables are powerful tools that can teach a deep lesson by making it into a simple story. The Bible is full of parables, many of which, interestingly, have a financial lesson intertwined:

• The prodigal son (spent all his inheritance)
• The pearl of high value (sold everything to acquire)
• The slaves given the talents (invested poorly)
• The rich man building bigger storehouses (greed)

One parable, not in the Bible, that I really identify with and feel represents the spirit of this blog, goes like this:

The Parable of the Mexican Fisherman and the American Investment Banker

An American investment banker was taking a much-needed vacation in a coastal Mexican village and he saw a small boat with one Mexican fisherman arrive at the dock. The boat had several large, freshly caught fish in it.

The investment banker was impressed by the quality of the fish and asked the fisherman how long it took to catch them.

The fisherman replied “only a little while.”

The banker then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish?

The fisherman replied he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.

The American then asked “But what do you do with the rest of your time?”

The Mexican fisherman replied, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siesta with my wife, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos: I have a full and busy life, señor.”

The investment banker scoffed, “I am an Ivy League MBA, and I could help you. You could spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat, and with the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats until eventually you would have a whole fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to the middleman you could sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You could control the product, processing and distribution.”

Then he added, “Of course, you would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City where you would run your growing enterprise.”

The Mexican fisherman asked, “But señor, how long will this all take?”

To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”

“But what then?” asked the Mexican.

The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You could make millions.”

“Millions, señor? Then what?”

To which the investment banker replied, “Then you would retire. You could move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”

The Lessons

My takeaways from this parable are three-fold:

1. You have to have a why. The fisherman knew exactly how much work it required to meet the lifestyle that brought he and his family happiness. Once he had this in mind, he had a target to shoot for, and his efforts were aligned to reach it. He wasn’t fishing just to fish. Similarly, if we don’t have our own money plan, we may feel lost. Tracking our spending was the first positive step we took to getting our own money plan.
2. Keeping debt around forever will force you to work on other’s terms forever. When you are no longer a ‘borrower enslaved to a lender’, you will experience freedom. Maintaining a high cost of living lifestyle is similar to keeping debt around, it forces you to work enough to keep it up. If you are carrying consumer debt, get fired up and pay it off.
3. We haven’t explored this on the site yet, but the fisherman knew a trade. His chosen trade, fishing, could not only bring physical food, but the sale of the fish would let him buy all the other things he needed to get by. When we think of traditional trades, where one exchanges a specialized skill for an income, things like plumbers, electricians, and carpenters come to mind. The digital era we live in has brought about a host of others that are just as in-demand, like building websites, managing a company’s social media, or running a podcast. Even just building Buy Out The Time, I contracted with someone on Upwork.com for part of it. (Shout out to Ali from Pakistan!) Lastly, many of these lines of work offer the perks of contract work – as much or as little as you want.

In Closing

This parable happens to contrast an American with a Mexican, but in reality, no matter where in the world you find yourself, there will always be a temptation to work more, and make more money. America just happens to be one of the places where there’s a fierce drive in this regard. ‘Land of Opportunity,’ they say. But if you are honest, have your health, appreciate the value of hard work, and by your lifestyle choices aren’t plagued by the negative effects of bad decisions, you will have plenty of options to work secularly no matter where you live. Will you become unbalanced and miss out, like the banker? Or will you find satisfying work, on your own terms, like the fisherman? Share your thoughts in the comments below!