Miles Alex, Writer

There’s an old proverb that says that a fool and his money are soon parted. While I agree with this adage, the realities of modern life lead me to conclude that it is not only the fool, but also the prudent and the wise who can easily fall victim to charlatans, pied pipers, crooks, criminals, and assorted characters on a mission to deceive…and to receive your hard-earned dollars.

Most of us were not born wealthy. And it is quite natural to aspire for the good life, to want the best that we can attain along the way of our mortal journey. We work hard and save hard and often find ourselves still unable to get where we’d like to be. Enter the con artiste with a bag of tricks.

The scams can occur on the street, at work, at play, or online. Someone dangles an opportunity to make some fantastic returns for minimal or zero investment of money or time or effort. The “minimal” or “zero” often ends up being much more than minimal or zero, and the time and effort seem to never produce the expected or promised results.

You turn on the TV late at night and hear someone telling you how rich you can become flipping houses with no money down. Somehow the ads never seem to highlight the “fees and other amounts” needed to get going for the “no money down” opportunity.

Then there are those secret opportunities that can make you soon quit your job if you would just send a small check to invest in some “once in a lifetime opportunity” – like, say, a gold mine in some unknown region of the world. Why, you ask is there so much secrecy to this gold mine? “Hush, sir or ma’am, we don’t want the world to know about this before you get your piece of the pie, do you?!”

This short article cannot address all the myriad schemes out there – but the writer wishes to caution that if something sounds too good to be true, it’s time to put on the thinking cap, to be wary, even skeptical. Ask advisers, trusted friends, associates, or loved ones for their take on the proposition that lies before you.

After the vetting is over, you might find that it’s legit or that it’s something worth pursuing. Very often, though, one ends up realizing that, beside luck or inheritance, there’s no easy road to riches. To be sure, one can well end up being more broke than when one started out – chasing after something that promised returns too good to be true.

It is a fact of life that the acquisition of money opens doors for individuals, groups, organizations, and nations, and is a form of empowerment. Many seek devious, even criminal means to get there but the end result is not justified by the consequences to them or to those violated.

One sure way to get some of that empowerment is to live beneath one’s means. That means not hurrying to keep up with the Joneses or to have the latest version of the latest gadget, trapping, or accessory.

It means trying to put away part of one’s earnings and sacrificing so that one day one can move on up and be where one feels more comfortable in several parameters – housing, fashion, entertainment, and other desirable situations.

One must always remember that in a frenzied rush to keep up with others who appear ahead of one in material acquisitions, if one stumbles, it’s unlikely that those individuals will pause to pick one up, as they too are trying to jump ahead of others.

As a personal finance writer, so very often, I observe the demise of those who ended up broke in the pursuit of items, events, or places advertised as “free” or without cost. There are ads in our mailboxes, online, at the store, at the checkout counter, at the bus stop, at places of business, in the train – everywhere, to be sure – that tell us that if we sign up or join a line we’ll get another freebie.

Unfortunately, many discover very soon after they’ve enrolled in something, that there’s a catch, that there is a hefty annual cover charge or a “free trial period” that they were unaware of…or even, that they signed up for something unnecessary or that they could well do without in order to remain financially secure.

It is important to not rush in, throwing caution to the wind, after every advertised freebie along the way. Be wary of the fine print, of “freeness” that lasts only a brief period, but upon termination kicks in a fee or bill that ends up costing more had there been some nominal cost attached up front to that freebie.

To be sure, there are bona fide offers and giveaways that can be part and parcel of a good deal or of something essential, useful, appropriate, or even required by the consumer. The main caveat is, that after the smoke clears and the dust settles, to not find oneself trying to dig out of a financial hole created by chasing after everything advertised as “free.”