Arrr, me hearties! Gather round and listen close as I spin ye a yarn about the mighty concept o' escape velocity! Now, ye see, escape velocity be a grand notion borrowed from the realm o' the stars and the astronomers. It be the speed a sturdy vessel, must attain to break free from the clutches o' gravity and soar into the boundless expanse o' the cosmos! Or to give an exact quote from them that study space:

"Escape Velocity is the minimum speed needed for a free, non-propelled object to escape from the gravitational influence of a primary body, thus reaching an infinite distance from it."

That be what I just said. Or in even simpler terms: How fast ye have to be moving to escape earth’s gravity, after ye have turned off the engine, and gravity will never be able to pull ye back.

"With escape velocity, in a direction pointing away from the ground of a massive body, the object will move away from the body forever, unless a new acceleration acts upon it in the opposite direction. Speeds higher than escape velocity retain a positive speed at infinite distance." Arrright!

But let me tell ye, it be not just the stars that be bound by such laws. Nay, even in the realm o' finance, there be a notion akin to escape velocity. Picture this: ye be toiling away in the service o' another, aye, chained to yer work like a barnacle to a ship's hull. But there comes a day when ye set yer sights on a different horizon—a horizon where ye be beholden to none but yerself, where the plunder be aplenty and the seas be endless.

Early in me young adult life I began to see a trend among humans. I also be observin' it in the modern world. No matter how quickly a bloke 'got rich' or came into a pirate chest full o' gold, (whether it be startin' and then sellin' a business, win a lottery, inheritance, get paid a fortune as an actor, entertainer, athlete, etc.) The majority of 'em were not able to maintain being rich over the long voyage of life. It seemed as if there was a ‘gravitational’ force pulling 'em back into mediocrity or poverty.

The ‘force’ may have been their own desire to ‘appear to be’ richer than they be. So no matter how many hundreds of millions of doubloons they had come into, they were able to spend that much and more, until it be all gone, with no way to create more income to replace it. When ye start buying multiple mansions 'round the world, private jets, exotic cars, yachts, vacations all over the globe, etc. the money disappears quickly, bringing ye back to earth with a sudden crash onto a rocky shoreline.

The force may have been their good heart that made 'em want to give away bags of loot to try to help anyone, anytime, anywhere who appeared to be less fortunate. No matter how many millions or billions ye have, ye cannot help every human on the planet, ye will run out of funds. If ye become wealthy, it will amaze ye how many family and friends ye have that ye never realized that ye had.

I once heard the term, 'income creep', meaning that over time as yer income grows, so do the things that ye ‘need’ or just can’t live without. When ye had lower income ye got by just fine without these things, but now that ye have the income, ye just have to have 'em.

The force may have been the proverbial ‘keeping up with the Jones crew’ mentality. Everybody else in my social stratus has a one hundred foot yacht, so I have to have one too. Our new friends all have Gulfstream jets, so we need one too. No matter how rich ye are, there is always someone out there who be richer, who has more, who has a bigger Spanish Galleon, or whatever.

So how do you escape the gravitational pull that is so powerful that the vast majority of people who somehow get their hands on enough coin to be fabulously wealthy, end up broke? Pulled back down to earth with the other 99% of the population?

Height or weight is neither an advantage or disadvantage in this 2025 February clue activity.

The answer to the question be that ye have to achieve ‘Financial Escape Velocity’. This means that ye don’t just have a treasure chest full of money; ye own assets worth a lot of money, that pay ye a residual or passive income. And that passive income, that ye don’t have to work a job, career or profession to keep it flowing, is enough for ye to live very comfortably and still have enough left over that ye can continue to buy more assets that will increase yer income from now until the sun sets on ye for the last time. If ye never sell the assets and frivolously spend the money, the assets will continue to buy more assets, increasing the income for yerself, yer children, and yer heirs for centuries.

This be how some families have maintained wealth through many generations. They be taught from childhood, that ye never sell an asset and waste the money. If ye sell one, ye buy another to replace it.

Ye always live on less than the current residual income, and invest the excess in more income producing assets.

If ye want a raise in income, buy or create more assets that pay the family more money. Ye can spend the additional income, but not the invested capital.

Now, ye may be wonderin', how might a band o' pirates such as ourselves achieve such a lofty status? Arrr, there be many paths to riches, me mateys! Some may seek their fortune in the trading o' goods, while others may plunder the high seas for riches untold through an internet connection. Some may even turn to the art o' investment, wisely allocating their doubloons to yield a steady stream o' income.

That, me hearties, be Blackbeard's take on escape velocity! 'Tis the point at which ye no longer be shackled to a dreary job, but instead be free to chart yer own course and pursue yer own treasures. Just as a rocket must reach a certain speed to break free from the Earth's grasp, so too must ye reach a certain level o' wealth to break free from the need to toil for another.

But mark me words, me hearties: whatever path ye choose, it be not without its perils. The seas be treacherous, and the winds o' fortune be fickle indeed. Yet for those brave enough to pursue their dreams, the rewards be beyond measure. So set yer sails high, me hearties, and may ye one day reach that glorious point o' financial escape velocity!

Come back soon to continue yer financial education!