What would you think if I told you that the government and our banking system has control of over 60% of your income? Sound ridiculous?

Over the last couple of years, I have been thinking more and more about what we are taught to do with our money. I have come to a realization that much of what we do and the processes we follow don’t make a whole lot of sense. When you break the numbers down and think through what is really happening, you will see that what we are doing seems to benefit the government and the banks more than it benefits us.

To make my point, let’s assume you are earning $100,000 per year. At this income level, you are paying around 20% of what you are earning to the federal government in the form of income taxes. If you are in Missouri, you can add an additional 6% for state taxes totaling over 26%.

Now let’s take a look at what you are paying out to banks. The average person paying a $2500 per month mortgage is sending 30% of their income to a bank. Add an auto loan of $400 per month and you will find that you are sending 35% of your income to banks.

That’s 61%! Sixty-one percent of your income is moving away from you and being handed over to the government and banks.

Now, let’s take this a bit further.

Let’s assume you are putting 5% into your employer-sponsored program through work? Who has control over that money? The government! They tell you how much you can put in when you can take it out and how much you will owe in taxes.

Now you’re up to 66% of your money either going to or being controlled by the government and the banks. That leaves 34% of what you make in your control.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop here. What I have found is that people will take a portion of that 34% to “save” in a bank earning close to a zero percent rate of return while not having 100% access to their cash. The banking system tells you how much cash you have access to and how much they are willing to pay you to deposit your money with them.

The total percentage of your income being controlled by the government and by banks can easily exceed 70% when you add it all up. My question to you is this – Have you ever thought about any of this?

It is my hope that as people think – truly think – about what is happening to their money, that they will begin to ask questions and begin to think differently about how they handle their money.

Brian