Do superheroes worry about money?

Question: Will there ever come a time when money will not be an issue in one’s life? —Hardworking parents

Answer: Since parents are nothing less than superheroes to their kids, why don’t we answer this question from the point of view of comic superheroes?

Both Iron Man and Batman were rich beyond the wildest dreams of ordinary citizens. They were both born rich and remained single. And they stayed rich because their immense wealth only earned more money. Making money for them was just secondary to fighting crime.

In contrast, Superman and Spiderman earned a meager living. Both Superman and Spiderman had to support themselves through the salary of newsmen still on the rise. Additionally, Spiderman had to take care of Aunt May.  The only difference is that a super being like Superman would probably not need to eat and that the job he takes is just for show, to mask his true identity. As an aside, how in the world can people around Superman not recognize him with just the additional eye glasses and a regular business suit as a cover?  At least Spiderman, Iron Man and Batman wore masks.

Peter Parker aka Spiderman is one of the two poorest of the four superheroes in our list. He was orphaned just like the other three.  Spidey was neither born rich nor powerful. A simple accident wherein he was bitten by a radioactive spider gave him super powers. He could afford only a bike to get him to and from work when he was not swinging between buildings. He actually made his own superhero costume by hand and made a living being a news photographer and occasional pizza delivery boy. So did he worry about money? You bet.

With the exception of Spiderman, it seems that superheroes that are rich or immortal do not need to worry about money, or do they?

There is probably no resource in this world that is not scarce, and money is no exception. Tony Stark aka Iron Man was a brilliant man and the son of a wealthy industrialist. After his parents were killed in a car accident, he inherited his father’s company. Bruce Wayne aka Batman was a superficial playboy who lived off his family’s fortune. His wealth came from the real estate properties and Wayne Enterprises that he both inherited. Being born rich gave our two superheroes the financial edge in life. Their massive wealth had so much momentum that they could both afford to allocate funds for building weapons and machinery to fight crime and make the world a safer place to live in. However, wealth can be squandered while businesses come and go. What is not shown in the stories of our superheroes is how they also ensured that they were running their businesses smoothly; otherwise they would run out of financial ammunition to be the crime fighters that they were. While perhaps not as much as ordinary citizens, these superheroes still worried about money.

Let’s now shift the focus to our other newsman superhero. “Faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound,” Clark Kent aka Superman was unlike Iron Man and Batman. Superman was born with superpowers but was not rich. Seeking to blend in like an ordinary mortal, he took on the job of a news reporter in the Daily Planet. Did he need to worry about money? Probably not. But he still needed to work to hide his true identity. Without this cover, villains would have found it easy to expose him to his only weakness, kryptonite. In a sense, his currency was his job and he had to work as hard as anybody to keep it.

So you see, superhero parents, even our fictional superheroes, still worried about money whether it was for keeping a billion-dollar empire humming nicely, ensuring that employment is there to hide a true identity and even for the average need of putting food on the table. But just like you, superheroes focused on the thing close to their hearts. For them, it was fighting crime. For you, it’s fending for your family so that you all live in a safer and happier place.

We probably will be worrying about money up to the day we die. But there is a way to stop worrying about money. Rather than make money the thing that preoccupies your mind, focus on your goals in life and try to achieve them the best way you can. Everything else will follow.

One added thing that all our superheroes did was to give themselves up for others. This, in fact, is the best way to grow your savings and wealth, to give first. By giving away some and not necessarily all of your money first, cheerfully, faithfully, wisely and quietly, you are liberating yourself from money’s clutches. And by doing so, blessings in a “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap (Luke 6:38).” I have been a fund manager for a very long time and all investments that I’ve seen are not without risk.  Giving away some money first is the only investment in the world with a return that is fully guaranteed.

So give some money away first so that you stop worrying about it.

Thanks to DC and Marvel comics for these superhero characters.

(Efren Ll. Cruz is a registered financial Planner of RFP Philippines, personal finance coach, investment adviser and best-selling author. Questions about the article may be sent by SMS to 0917-5050709 or e-mailed to [email protected]. To learn more about the RFP program, visit www.rfp.ph or e-mail [email protected].)