Disclaimer: this is not financial advice just how I interpret the song ten crack commandments
Biggie smalls is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. He has influenced countless people through generations across the world. Perhaps one of his lesser-known songs is “The 10 Crack Commandments”. This song applies not only to drug dealers but to everyday Americans like you. These are ten lessons to help you get your finances in order.
Rule number one: “never let them know how much dough you hold”.
People typically get jealous if you have more money than them and will do what they can to get some of it; that’s the reason many lottery winners get sued after winning. This rule applies whenever you succeed and make money – don’t tell others how much money you’ve made, or what you’ve bought with that money. If you’re asked you can say “I like to write” instead of “I’ve written a bestseller and have made millions”, but don’t ever bring your money up, especially unprompted.
Rule number two: “don’t let them know your next move”.
If you tell people your plans they have the ability to stop you and can steal your idea for themselves. Take Nikola Tesla as an example with the lightbulb – his idea was stolen by Thomas Edison. If he’d just kept his ideas to himself he would’ve rept the rewards of his labor. This idea is fundamental to nearly every strategy book out there including “The 48 Laws of Power” and “The Art of War”. By keeping your plans to yourself you eliminate other people as variables from the equation.
Rule number three: “don’t trust nobody”.
By putting your trust in people you’re giving them control over your life and giving them the ability to make terrible decisions. If you trust people with your money they have the ability to steal it. If you trust people with the keys to your car they have the ability to drive off. It’s better to trust yourself with things that are important. You wouldn’t hire someone to go out on a date in your place, so why hire someone to do the important things like manage your money?
Rule number four: “never get high on your own supply”.
You shouldn’t use money that’s supposed to go to bills, savings, investments, etc. for personal use. Sounds simple enough, but most people violate this rule and use credit cards to buy personal things and never pay back the money. People also fail to budget their money, so they end up spending money that should be going to bills on personal things. An easy way to avoid these mistakes is to
- only spend credit cards if you have the physical cash to back it up
- Create a budget. This will be explained in depth in a separate article
- Separate your money in different funds, ex: a fund for house payments, a fund for car payments and a fund for investing so you can keep track of it.
Rule number five: “never sell crack where you rest at, I don’t care if they want an ounce tell them bounce.”
If you’ve ever heard the expression “don’t shit where you eat”, you know it’s a bad idea to mix your personal life and your business. You should use personal time for personal things and business time for business things.
Rule number six: ” that goddamn credit, forget it.”
Don’t ever loan out money, PERIOD. If you want somebody to have something, give the money to them as a gift. This applies to yourself, as much or more so than anybody else. Never give yourself a loan, and never take out money to pay yourself back later- because it’s not gonna happen. The old rule applies: if you loan out money, you have two options: sue the person to get it back, or forget getting it back.
Rule number seven: “Keep your family and business completely separated”.
Don’t hire your family, don’t work with your family, and don’t use your family at all. The two just don’t mix. You’ll end up biased in favor of one, and the latter will suffer as a result. Nepotism is a bad idea.
Rule number eight: “Never keep any weight on you “
Make sure to never use cash. It’s better to use a Credit or debit card, that way you have less physical weight, but you also have less to manage, accrue interest, prevent losing money to inflation and won’t get literally robbed for your cash because you have none.
Rule number nine: “Stay away from the police”
This applies in general to authority figures. You should handle your business directly with the person. Remember back in elementary school? Whoever told the teacher was considered a tattletale. The same rule applies to your money and your business: by not telling on the other person, and by handling an issue with them yourself, you’re not only gaining their respect but you’re also increasing your own self respect because you’re a boss who handles his business.
Rule number ten: “a strong word called consignment, strictly for live men, not for freshmen, if you ain’t got the clientele say hell no, cause they gonna want that money rain, hail, snow.”
This rule is the most complex so it will be broken down into two parts
First:
“Never trust a skinny chef”, “Never trust a fat exercise trainer” and “get your own room in order before you tell someone else how to clean theirs”. What do these three phrases have in common? You need to make sure you not only have experience in doing something before you tell someone else how to do it, but you should be able to do it well and should be doing it regularly.
You need to establish yourself as a person with skills before you can succeed. If you want to open an ice cream shop you should know about ice cream, management and business. That may mean working on yourself by getting a job selling scoops. If you want to get married and join finances, you should know how to manage your own finances well first before you try and manage the finances for two people.
Work on yourself, and get your own life in order before you try to take bigger steps.
Second:
Never borrow money or spend money you don’t have the capital or the assets to repay, it’ll cause a lot of stress and unnecessary complications.. If you’ve ever played monopoly you know it’s a bad idea to spend money you don’t have because of an issue pops up you’ll be left with your pants down unable to do anything about it. The issue gets worse when you then borrow money you don’t have, because now there are serious legal consequences on the table, all because you started spending money you didn’t have.
Ricky J. Smith 