Archive for May, 2008
Saturday, May 31st, 2008
This is INSIGHT 7 from a set of rules about how to get rich
Writing new posts and articles to FinancialJesus.com makes me constantly re-evaluate my beliefs about money.
One thing I have realized is that whoever you are and whatever you do - there is no escape from money. Everyone has credit cards, bank accounts and even loans.
We deal with money every day
Almost every person on this planet has to deal with money on a daily basis. So why are some people well off and other people not?
It’s because for some people money is an enemy and for others it is a friend.
Money as an Enemy
Money has no feelings. This means that whether money is your friend or enemy is entirely up to you.
The people who have trouble with credit cards and who spend way more than they can afford are not friends with money. In fact - for them money is an enemy. The more money these people have the more problems they will get into.
Make money your friend
If you are one of those people who have constant trouble with money you should take action to make money your friend.
You should understand this
It is not money that controls you, but it is you who has the power to control money.
Changing the relationship between you and money can be the start of your first million.
Take your life into your hands
If you are serious enough and want to get rich, then deciding do become rich is the first and single most important thing that you need to do.
Everything that comes after that is still going to be difficult but it wouldn’t be there if you hadn’t decided to become successful in the first place.
Develop entrepreneurial thinking
Changing the way we think about money can be difficult. A good way to start is to think about the everyday things you do and how much money they will make for someone else.
Example 1
If you drive to work every day and need to pay 1 dollar at the toll booth you can do a fast calculation in your head. Lets say you estimate that 50 cars drive through the toll in a minute. This means that it makes someone $50 in a minute or $3000 an hour. That’s $77 000 a day (minus expenses).
Example 2
Lets say that you have lunch at McDonalds every day (this is America after all 
). You can count the number of people in the restaurant, make an estimate about their daily visitors and calculate their approximate daily cash flow. After a little practice you can probably have a pretty educated guess about their profit as well.
These mental calculations can at times be rather far off from what a company is actually making but the more you practice the better you get. Eventually you will be able to spot good money making opportunities in minutes.
Keep your eyes open
Always be on the look out for ideas that you have not seen before. That’s the main reason I like traveling - You get to see a lot of new things that someone is successfully using to make themselves some money. Whenever I see a business like that, I automatically calculate how much it roughly makes! I recommend you do the same.
To get updates on developing the entrepreneurial mindset sign up for our full feed RSS or subscribe via email
Posted in How to get rich | 3 Comments »
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Have you noticed how everyone is talking about the high gas prices lately? Aren’t you fed up already? I am!
Talking about high gas prices seems to be the new national past time. A lot of people offline and even more online, are suddenly talking about how much they have to pay for gas.
There is also a growing number of people telling you that the current prices are nothing - you should see the gas prices in Europe! It’s true that the gas in Europe costs about $8 to $9 per gallon on average and even a bit more in some countries.
High prices make me feel bad.
If you know that it’s even worse somewhere else, it won’t make you happy. Just the opposite - It makes me feel even worse!
10 countries with cheapest gas
Today I am trying to make everyone a bit happier! Here is a list of 10 countries that have the cheapest gas prices in the world!
United Arab Emirates is a nice country to live in. In addition to having one of the cheapest gas prices in the world they are also the 4th rich country in the world.
Did you know that Ferrari Enzo takes a lot more gas than Toyota Prius? Thinking about it this way, makes it only logical to have super cheap gas for super rich people and there super expensive cars!
9. Egypt - $1.21/gallon or $0.32/litre
Starting from 1979 Egypt has gotten an average of $2.2 billion a year as foreign aid from the US. It’s only fair - the money to buy all that cheap gas has to come from somewhere!
8. Bahrain - $1.02/gallon or 0.27/liter
This small island country has a total area of only 266 mi² (665 km²). If you decide to drive around the island you should know that this trip will be about 100 miles (161 km). So why not give the people gas with dirt cheap prices? How much gas do they need anyway? It’s not like there are some far away destinations you could drive to.
7. Qatar - $0.83/gallon or $0.22/litre
If you would be the government of this second richest country in the world you wouldn’t want the people to pay too much for gas. After all - they can get mad at you if they don’t have enough money to buy their second airplane! So of course, it makes sense to keep gas prices really low in Qatar.
6. Kuwait - $0.79/gallon or 0.21$/liter
It’s pretty much the same deal in Kuwait as in Qatar! But Kuwait is only the 4th richest country in the world, so it makes sense that gas in Kuwait is a bit cheaper than in Qatar! People in Kuwait probably can’t afford the prices Qatar has!
5. Saudi Arabia - $0.45/gallon or $0.12/litre
When King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visits foreign countries he usually goes with 6 planes - 1 for himself and his sons and another 5 for his closest friends. Everyone knows that planes consume a lot of fuel! Now if they would only lower the price a little bit they could afford to take with them that 7th personal Boeing 747.
4. Iran - $0.42/gallon or $0.11/liter
At current rate of production it is estimated that Iran will run out of oil in 74 years. They are trying to get rid of it faster by giving it away with really cheap prices.
3. Nigeria - $0.38/gallon or $0.10/litre
Nigeria has the 10th largest oil reserves in the world. They also have about 150 million people and a history of violence. Mix this with a government that is corrupt and want to keep the money they get from selling oil to other countries for more than $4/gallon (about $1.1/liter) it makes sense that they keep the local prices down. You don’t want to make the people mad, overthrow the government and kill everyone they don’t like! You can’t use the money after you die, can you?
2. Turkmenistan - $0.30/gallon or $0.08/liter
Turkmenistan is by far the coolest country on the list. Until December 2006 it was ruled by president for life Saparmurat_Niyazov. Some cool things he has done:
- Officially named the months of the year after his family members
- Won a “democratic election” with 99.9% of the votes!
- Closed down all rural libraries - “Ordinary Turkmenistan people don’t read books”
1. Venezuela - $0.19/gallon or 0.05$/litre
Venezuela is run by president Hugo Chavez - a quite well known guy for those who are following international politics. He is a lot into socialism. This includes having the state take control of privately held companies and doing pretty much whatever he thinks helps his people to have a better life. The nice thing is that when he does something major he always asks the opinion of the people! If you had to vote would you rather choose high or low gas prices?
Take a road trip
Next time you are going on a road trip consider these countries. Cheap prices and guaranteed experiences!
For more good news on cheap gas prices 
- sign up to my full feed RSS or subscribe via email.
If you live on any of the above countries there is probably no need to check out the following post
Posted in Saving money | 10 Comments »
Friday, May 30th, 2008
Just 10 minutes ago I was doing something that millions of people online do every day and I bet that you have done it already at least once today!
I was searching for information on Google!
How cool is that?
While doing another one of my searches I suddenly had a revelation.
What I know for sure:
- A lot of people are searching something
- A lot of people are using Google to find what they are searching
How to take advantage of that?
In order to take advantage of the fact that a lot of people are searching(and hopefully finding) something, we should produce content that is relevant to other people. I know, basic stuff - but keep reading!
What is relevant content?
This is where I had my revelation.
Relevant content is the content about the things you are searching yourself
Instead of trying to do what millions of bloggers are trying to do - writing content about the things that they think are of interest to other people. You should turn your eyes to the person you know best - yourself.
If I am searching for something, then chances are that other people are searching for the exact same thing using exactly the same search terms!
If you are using a certain term or keywords to search for something specific and you don’t find what you are looking for then you have a perfect chance to produce the relevant content yourself.
Make a post about what you were looking for and use the keywords that you used in your first search that didn’t provide any relevant results.
This way you will ensure that when someone googles the exact same phrase they will find your post and end up reading your blog.
Using Google Web History
Have you ever heard of Google Web History? It records all the searches you make in Google (while logged in). That way it can be extremely useful to get an overview on what exact search terms you used to find the information you were looking for.
During the last 2 years I have made a total of 1921 Google searches. For example in December 20th 2006 at 9:45 pm I searched for “political map of europe” and on the 7th of September 2007 I searched for “hutchinson effect”.
The best part about Google Web History is that it also records the search results you clicked on. After searching hutchinson effect I visited a page in Wikipedia about John Hutchinson and read an essay about his discoveries.
Until now I really didn’t like the fact that Google saves my searches. I felt that it was somehow compromising my privacy. Now that I have realized how I can turn these searches into good and relevant content I am very happy!
Stay tuned to find new posts about the things I have been googling! The best way to do that is to sign up for our full feed RSS or subscribe via email.
Posted in Get more traffic | No Comments »
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
I was reading Adam Primero’s blog the other day and came across the following
“You probably remember the old subscription magazines that had classified ads. “Send me $1, I’ll show you how to make $500 a month” Do you remember those ads?
9 out of 10 times, you send $1, you get a letter that said, place ads in the back of magazines offering to share your “secret” for$1″
Well - I don’t remember these ads and NO, I don’t have a bad memory!
The reason is simple - I live in Estonia and to my knowledge this has never been done here. I can’t be 100% sure but I read a lot and have never heard of such a “business opportunity”.
As I do with other interesting ideas I wrote it down - “Maybe I will do it one day” I thought.
I am an easy person to get excited about new things but usually I get tired of them pretty fast. It’s about 99% certain to me, that after writing down an idea that would make an interesting start-up business I will never try to get the project started.
This time its different
This blog is here for a reason and if I can use it to make myself do something that is
- A cool experiment
- Easy to do
- Has potential to make some money
- Will entertain the readers at FinancialJesus.com
There is no reason I shouldn’t do it.
If I can use this blog to help keep my promises to myself and at the same time make a little money - I should go for it.
Next steps
I am going to do a little research and find a couple of newspapers that allow to post some cheap ads. After that I can hopefully publish an ad or two and see if the money starts coming in or not.
I will have to find a balance between how much money I will ask people to send me and how much I will promise to help them make. The sum I will ask for should be small enough that people are willing to send it to me and large enough for me to make some money!
Since we don’t use checks here in Estonia I must also think of a way that people can give me their money. 
About 98% of bank transactions are made through internet over here(Estonia is the #1 country in the world in online banking). So I need to decide between having people send cash in an envelope or having them make online transactions or both.
I am open for suggestions and tips how make this thing work.
I will keep you updated how it goes. If it works here in Estonia there is a good chance it will work in some other countries my readers are from! The best way to see, how much money I will make with all of this is to sign up for my full feed RSS or subscribe via email.
Posted in How to get rich | 7 Comments »
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
I am a big fan of behavioral economics which tries to explain why people act the way they do.
Here are 3 interesting experiments that scientists have made in order to get a better insight into how people relate to money.
The Ultimatum Game
You are given 100 dollars. You need to decide how to split this money between yourself and another person taking part of the experiment. If the other person accepts the amount that you will give him - you will both get to keep your share of the money. If the other person declines - neither of you get the money.
This experiment is set up in order to reveal whether mankind is rational (as the economic theory suggests) or not.
A rational person would accept any amount offered because he or she knows that when he doesn’t accept the amount that is offered to him - he gets nothing. In other words if the first person(A) taking part of the experiment suggests to the second person(B) that they should split the money $99 to A and $1 to B - the second person should accept. Rationally looking it is better to get 1 dollar than nothing.
What really happens?
Proposals to accept less than 30 dollars are usually rejected. The reason? According to our judgment the proposal is not fair. If you are offered a small amount of money while the other person gets a lot more (that comes from potentially your money) - you’ll have a feeling of injustice and would rather not get money than to get a small amount and feel bad afterwards.
Perceived value of money
The following is a thought experiment.
Would you rather earn 100 000 dollars when everyone around you makes $50 000 or would you rather make $200 000 when everyone around you makes $400 000. The only rule you have to keep in mind is that the cost of living and goods stays the same.
Which option will most people choose?
A rational person would choose the second option, where he makes more money but less than people around him. That way he will have twice as much to spend. In reality most people choose the first option - being richer than other people.
Some scientist think this experiment demonstrates the irrationality of man.
I disagree. This experiment clearly shows that social rank is far more important to people than the amount of money they have. If one can choose between more money than your friends vs. less money than your friends - it is a rational decision to choose the first option (even when the total amount of money is less than in the second option). In this experiment people make an irrational money decision but a rational “people decision”. The latter outweighs the first.
The Line Experiment
The first person is standing in a line. When he gets to the counter he is congratulated on being the 1 millionth customer and as a gift gets 100 dollars.
A second person is standing in a line at a different place. The man in front of him is congratulated for being the 1 millionth customer and wins 1000 dollars. The second person wins $150 for being the 1 million and first person.
Which would you rather be?
Surprisingly most people would choose the first option - getting the $100. Money wise this is a bad decision - you lose 50 bucks. The reason most people would rather lose the $50 is because they don’t want to feel the regret of not being the millionth person themselves and winning $1000
What do these experiments show
These experiments show us, that just like in other things people can at times be irrational when it comes to their money. There are situations in life that are more important than money and economists need to understand this. When talking about economy (and the stock market), we should realize that economy consists of ordinary people who at times make financial decisions that are money wise bad for them.
Find the places and areas of life where people make these decisions, play your cards right and you will get to keep their money.
If you liked this post there is a good chance that you will find something of interest on my insights page where I post short reviews of longer articles about the rules of making money:
To get other interesting insights into why we sometimes make bad money decisions, sign up for our full feed RSS or subscribe via email.
Posted in How to get rich | 29 Comments »
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
This is INSIGHT 6 from a set of rules about how to get rich
Myths about money
Everyone is raised up with some kind of beliefs about money. While some of them might be true, they are mostly wrong. A lot of these myths come from our parents and the ways they raised us.
There is probably an infinite amount of beliefs about money that are wrong. I’ll try to list at least some of them here.
Money myths
- Money is the root of all evil
- Money is dirty
- I don’t deserve to be rich
- Money is always made by people who are greedy and dishonest
- You should never boast with money
- Always keep to yourself how much money you are worth or how much you are paid
- You can’t have money and a pure soul at the same time
- If you get rich you will lose your friends
- You can’t have money and happiness together
- The more money you have the more you want
- Its better to be poor
- I am not meant to be rich - If I was I would already be rich
- I am not the type of a person to be rich.
Think about this list a little.
Do you have any beliefs about money that are wrong?
Did you find any myths from the list above, that you believe to be true? Or maybe you believe in a myth that wasn’t listed?
In either way you should take some time and think about these “money beliefs”.
Where did they come from? When was the first time you heard this myth? Who told it to you? How is the person who first introduced you to that myth getting along in life? Can you think of any reasons why this myth is wrong? (if you can’t, ask me in the comments - seriously)
Going over your money beliefs is a MUST DO things if you are planning to get successful. If you believe in the wrong thing it is inevitable that you achieve the wrong thing as well. If you believe that you don’t deserve to have money, you will unconsciously undermine everything you are doing and never become rich. That’s life!
Get rid of stupid beliefs
Question all your beliefs and try to understand if they are true or not. Get rid of the beliefs that are stupid and irrational. These beliefs are holding you back and keep you from making money!
Good beliefs about money
There are some beliefs about money that are extremely helpful to have in your journey to become rich. Here are some of them:
- Money is OK
- To want more money is OK
- I will get rich
- I am willing to work hard in order to get rich.
Rich people don’t have the wrong beliefs about money that the poor do. Therefore in order to become rich we have to think as rich people. This can be more difficult than you think!
Things to keep
Here is a short poem that I once found from a postcard
Keep your thoughts positive, because your thoughts become your words.
Keep your words positive, because your words become your actions.
Keep your actions positive, because your actions become your habits.
Keep your habits positive, because your habits become your lifestyle.
Keep your lifestyle positive, because your lifestyle becomes your destiny.
This was insight 6 from a set of rules about how to get rich. You can see the rest of the insights here. In order to get more insights as soon as they become available on FinancialJesus.com, sign up to my full feed RSS or subscribe via email.
Posted in How to get rich | 6 Comments »
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
This is an overview page to a series of insights about money and how to get rich, that I have posted on FinancialJesus.com
It is important to know these rules for everyone interested in getting rich. The list is in reverse order - that way when I add a new insight it will appear on the top. Expect this list to grow over 100+ posts.
Challenge yourself and the way you think and get rid of the money beliefs that are holding you back on achieving what you are truly capable of.
Everyone can become rich but most people are too lazy. Becoming rich requires hard work and discipline. You might win the lottery but you should always work as if becoming rich is up to you. Statistically speaking - getting hit by lightning is more likely than winning the lottery
Sharing your goals with people you trust can be one of the most powerful ways to ensure that you get what you are out to achieve. Depending on your personality it can be a good idea to share your goals with positive or negative people.
Setting and working relentlessly to achieve your goals is what separates the people who will become rich from the people who will stay poor. This post has some great tips on how to achieve what you want. For example people who write down their goals are in general 10 times wealthier than the people who don’t write down their goals.
Being rich means different things for different people. Some people consider them rich when they can take care of themselves and their families. Some, when they have 1 million dollars. Defining the meaning of “I am rich” should be one of the first things everybody interested in becoming wealthy should do. After all, how will you know you have reached the destination when you don’t know what the destination is.
My personal definition of being rich is
“I am rich when I can do whatever I want to do whenever I want it!”
It is possible for everyone to make money. Money doesn’t care about the color of your skin or whether you are smart or stupid. Money has no feelings.
“If you think you can make money - you can. If you think you can’t - you can’t”
To get the latest insights about money and how to get rich as soon as they are available sign up to my full feed RSS or subscribe via email.
Posted in Saving money | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
A huge marketing campaign started across Europe today with the goal to save fuel, money and the environment.
Over 40 oil companies, 45 000 gas stations and 29 countries are taking part.
Here are 10 things the marketing campaign is recommending people to do.
- Service your car and check the oil level regularly
- Check tire pressure once a month
- Take everything that you don’t need out of the trunk and from your back seat.
- Close your car windows when you are driving fast
- Only use the air conditioner when it’s absolutely necessary
- Start driving soon after starting the engine and stop the motor if the car is not driving for more than 1 minute.
- Drive with a reasonable speed and smoothly
- When accelerating shift to a faster car as soon as possible (Most cars in Europe use the “stick”)
- Try to sense what is going to happen in the traffic before it happens
- Share your car with others.
If you ask me, these recommendations are quite simple and can even seem somewhat stupid to a person who knows a little about saving gas.
I have a feeling that Europe needs this campaign badly - the average gas price is about 8 to 9 dollars per gallon.
For more information about whats going on around the world sign up to our full feed RSS or subscribe via email.
If you are fed up with tips about how to save fuel you should check out this post
Posted in Saving money | 11 Comments »
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
The following story was sent to me by a friend on an email. I am no expert on the things it talks about - the rockets of NASA and how they are affected by the technology of ancient Roman Empire - but it sounds so incredible, that it has to be true!
Here is the story
In the United States the standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That’s an exceedingly odd number, so why was that gauge used? Because that’s the way they built them in England, and English expatriates built the US Railroads.
Why did the English build them like that?
Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that’s the gauge they used.
Why did “they” use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
Okay! Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England, because that’s the spacing of the wheel ruts.
So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (and England) for their legions. The roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads?
Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels. Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome, they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing.
So the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches was derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. So the next time you are handed a specification and wonder what horse’s ass came up with it, you may be exactly right, because the Imperial Roman war chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the back ends of two war horses.
The point to this story?
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory at Utah. The engineers who designed the SRB would have preferred to make them a bit fatter, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains. The SRBs had to fit through that tunnel.
The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses’ behinds.
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world’s most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse’s ass!
If anyone has interesting spam like this, feel free to send it to my email roman [ät] financialjesus [dot] com
Posted in Fun | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
Here is a list of TOP 10 happiest countries in the world. The basis of this list is research done by professor Ruut Veenhoven who runs the World Database of Happiness at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
How is happiness measured?
Happiness can be very subjective. Some people are happy when it rains, others are happy when the sun is shining. So how is it measured? Apparently the people at World Database of Happiness take into account a number of different things such as average life expectancy and most importantly the answer to the following multiple choice question “How happy are you?” (Although the actual question has varied a bit throughout the years). Having all the variables they run it through a computer and get a number from 1 to 10. The bigger the number, the happier the country
Happiest countries in the world
Living in the worlds richest country inevitably puts a smile on your face! This small landlocked European country has an army of 800 people (yes, 800). They don’t have a navy nor an air force but together with Belgium they can afford to own 1 military cargo plane. Beat that US!
According to the Guinness Book of World Records Luxembourg holds the world record as the country that consumes most alcohol in the world per citizen.
This Central American country borders with Mexico in the north and is located between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. This location makes it a very difficult country to stay happy in - Guatemala is frequently ravished by hurricanes and earthquakes that often kill thousands of people. Main exports of Guatemala include coffee, sugar and bananas. The latter is probably why they are so happy - have you ever seen someone that can stay sad while eating a banana? 56% of all Guatemalans live in poverty. If you ask me, they can use the cheap bananas!
8. Canada - 7,6 points
Many people have no idea that Canada’s head of state is actually Queen Elizabeth II - the head of the British Monarchy. This meant that when Britain declared war on Germany in World War I, Canada was automatically at war with the soon to be Nazi country. Unlike the neighboring US, Canada has never cancelled its relations with Cuba and has declined to take part from the Iraq War - instead, it has played a leading role in the United Nations peacekeeping missions and helped to launch a $1.5 billion initiative to help develop vaccines that could save millions of people in poor countries. It seems that happy people make a happy country!
7. Sweden - 7,7 points
This “welfare state” model is an excellent example of effective national taxes. Among other things the state provides universal tax-funded childcare, parental leave, health care, education (including university), retirement pensions and sick leave. Including value added tax (VAT - kind of like sales tax), it is possible to pay up to 80% of your income as taxes. Contrary to popular belief, Swedes are quite OK with their high taxes. After all it gives them tons of free and high quality services - what’s not to be happy about!
Sweden is also the home of IKEA - the worlds largest furniture store. IKEA’s founder Ingvar Kampard is famous for being the 7th richest person in the world (Net worth $31 billion) and driving a 15 year old Volvo station wagon. It has been claimed that more people read the Ikea catalogue than the Bible - and that one in ten Europeans have been conceived on an Ikea bed.
The name “Australia” comes from the Latin word “Australis”, meaning “Southern”. Australia is the only country in the world, that consists of an entire continent. Between 1788 and 1868 the British used Australia as a colony to deport their convicted criminals - these people are the predecessors to many of today’s citizens. Australians are famous for playing rugby and calling each-other “mates”.
5. Finland - 7,7 points
This is the country that brought us Nokia - the worlds largest manufacturer of mobile phones. In 2003 Nokia accounted for about a quarter of Finland’s exports and in 2006 it generated more revenue than the entire budget of Finland. Before starting to make mobile phones Nokia made (yes, it’s true) rubber boots! Finland was also home to Simo Häyhä - considered to be the most deadly sniper through history with 542 kills. According to World Economic Forum Finland has the most competitive economy in the world. Plenty to be happy about!
4. Iceland - 7,8 points
This geologically active country is rich in volcanoes and geysers (A geyser is a hot spring that erupts water in certain intervals). Thanks to geothermal power Iceland gets its electricity and hot water dirt cheap. There have been occasions where steel has been shipped for processing from Australia or Africa and when finished shipped back to the originating country. Cheap local energy actually makes this cost effective. According to the Human Development Index, Iceland (together with Norway) is the world’s most developed country.
3. Austria - 8,0 points
Austria is the home to the popular energy drink Red Bull. This country is also one of the few in the world, that allows legal voting beginning from age 16. Upon turning 18, all Austrian males have to take part of a 6 month military service. The country has declared itself formally a neutral country or a “perpetual neutrality” as they say it, but in reality it has taken part of various peacekeeping missions and also took part of the UN sanctions against Iraq. Thanks to the wide use of wind-, solar- and hydropower Austria produces around 80% of its energy from renewable resources. Education is mostly free, with the exception of an average semester fee of 583 dollars (370 eur) in universities. As you probably guessed - student loan debts are not an issue in Austria.
This cheese and chocolate producing land is the world’s 10th richest country. Switzerland’s neutrality helped their banks to raise some serious cash - for decades it was possible to open a bank account without having to identify yourself. Upon opening an account, you were given a special number that anyone could use to deposit or withdraw money. This law was later changed since it attracted illegal money. Switzerland is also one of the top garbage recyclers in the world (66% to 96% recyclable materials recycled). They achieve this by keeping recycling free, but asking money for regular garbage - thus giving people a financial incentive to recycle.
1. Denmark - 8,2 points
Just like Sweden, Denmark is a Nordic welfare state with most of its services free to the citizens. Expect to pay 72% of your money to the government on the highest income tax bracket. According to Wikipedia Denmark has the worlds highest taxes! When buying a car in Denmark one has to pay 25% VAT to the import price of the vehicle and then a 180% registration tax on top. That means when a car sells for $20 000, you have to pay an additional $45 000 as taxes for the government (total of $65 000). That’s why people in Denmark ride bikes or use one of the best public transport systems in the world. Denmark also has 2 autonomous provinces - the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The latter is over 50 times larger than Denmark but has about 100 times less people.
Other notable countries
- USA - 7.4 points - 17th place
- Great Britain - 7.1 points - 22nd place
- France - 6.5 points - 39th place
- China - 6.3 points - 44th place
- India - 6.3 points - 45th place
- Japan - 6.3 points - 46th place
I’ve been to 4 out of 10 happiest countries in the world - Luxembourg, Sweden, Finland and Denmark! What’s your score?
Sign up to my full feed RSS or subscribe via email to get more similar daily posts!
If you liked this post be sure to check out
Posted in How to get rich | 107 Comments »
