Nelson Nash’s Becoming Your Own Banker: PART II Lesson 5 Use It or Lose It

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In our look at the Basic Understandings as taught by The Infinite Banking Concept we come to the last of the human considerations which must be faced if we are to be successful at becoming our own banker.  This thought is closely allied to the one we looked at last, The Arrival Syndrome.

Please note that all the points that we have addressed so far – Parkinson’s Law, Willie Sutton’s Law, The Golden Rule, The Arrival Syndrome and now, Use It or Lose It – have to do with overcoming human nature.  All human progress is predicated on this matter.  It is not easy to conquer but it is absolutely necessary.  It is like recognizing the fact that we must attend to bodily hygiene or face the consequences.  Don’t brush your teeth regularly and they will rot!  Neglect the flossing of them and you will end up with gum diseases!

The Arrival Syndrome produces a comfort zone that causes people to lapse into their old way of doing things – a lifetime of accumulated information that determines how one conducts oneself.   The fact that this conclusion may be based on fallacious information is beside the point!

Another description of a paradigm would be a pattern of behavior.  I remember a speaker years ago demonstrating this.  He asked members in the audience to cross their arms across their chest, one forearm over the other.  Now cross them the other way with a different forearm on top.  It just didn’t feel right and most of the audience had a problem doing it.  They kept ending up with the same forearm on top!

I illustrate the point by telling people, “What I’m teaching is equivalent to teaching that the world is round – when most folks think that it is flat.  Technically, that is a very simple thing to explain – but if you are one of those who think that it is flat, then it becomes a very difficult problem!”   The Infinite Banking Concept is dealing with a totally different paradigm.  This amounts to a personal monetary system. 

In the last lesson we introduced the Economic Value-Added concept that was developed by Stern-Stewart consulting firm.  Many large corporations have achieved phenomenal success once they adopted EVA.  The concept begins with the recognition of the fact that your own capital has a cost of money as well as that which has been borrowed from banks.  That is the very first point made in The Infinite Banking Concept “Basic Understandings” page in the textbook.  Among those corporations featured was Coca Cola, who, by the way, was on the cover of the March 1996 issue of FORTUNE as “the most admired company in America.”

A follow-up story in FORTUNE in May 1995 was titled, EVA WORKS – BUT NOT IF YOU MAKE THESE COMMON MISTAKES.”  The points made looked like this:

  • They don’t make it a way of life.
  • Most managers try to implement EVA too fast.
  • The boss lacks conviction.
  • Managers fuss too much.
  • Training gets short shrift.

Accepting a totally new point of reference means that one must develop new habits.  In talking with members of the Infinite Banking Concepts think tank we continue to notice that many are still caught up in the posture of thinking that it is all a function of interest rates.  This is a fatal error.  It has to do with recognizing where money is flowing to and the failure of charging interest to yourself for the things that you buy using your own banking system.  Anytime that you can cut out the payment of interest to others and direct that same market rate of interest to an entity that you own and control, which is subject to minimal taxation (life insurance companies do pay taxes), then you have improved your situation.

Just like EVA, to be effective, The Infinite Banking Concept must become a way of life.  You must use it or lose it.  And in Mark 4:25 Jesus says to his disciples, “For he that hath, to him shall be given, and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.”

This concludes Part I of the course.  It is the foundation upon which the rest of the course sits.  I hope that you have learned it well and will adopt its teachings in order to improve your own financial world.