How to get out of the rat race: What is the rat race? And how you can get out of it Improving your personal finances with financial education or financial intelligenceLet's see a simple exampleMiguel is 23 years old and has just finished his degree and found his first job, in which he will be paid € 1200 per month. To celebrate the first salary, he buys his first car, for which he asks for a loan. Besides, due to the rent and some whim that another, he cannot save anything from the salary.Years go by, and Miguel, 26, already earns € 2,000 due to a series of promotions. Despite the fact that Miguel used to live with € 1200, now he does not save those € 800 that he charges more, since he lives alone instead of living in company, and he goes to dine at more expensive restaurants than before, so he is still unable to save nothing.At the age of 28, Miguel and his partner, Ana, decide to get married and move in together, thus combining their two salaries and earning € 4,000 per month. As they are already thinking about having children, they buy a house with 3 bedrooms and well located, for which they ask for a mortgage for many years, since they have nothing saved from what they have worked so far. Between the mortgage, the loan of the new family car they have had to buy, the trips and other whims, the € 4,000 comes to nothing and flies away, so they still cannot save.Now with two children and 35 years old, Miguel and Ana already charge € 6,000 a month between the two of them, a fairly high figure considering how things are. The problem is that, between the mortgage, the car loan, the children's private school and the rest of the luxuries that they can now afford thanks to that high salary, they still cannot save anything. After more than 10 years working, not only do they have nothing saved, but they owe a lot of money to the bank because of the house and the car.Miguel and Ana have been increasing their standard of living according to their salary increases and they can no longer stop working, since otherwise they will not be able to pay any of all their monthly expenses. Thus, Miguel and Ana continue working until they are 67, when they finally have the house paid for and can also finally retire. After a lifetime of working, Miguel and Ana have practically no money saved, they only have their house and their pension.The doubt remains in themselves they will have a pension when they retire. If after all the years of spending the pension scam has already exploded, Miguel and Ana could well find themselves with almost no savings and with a pension so low that it does not even allow them to retire, having to get mini-jobs to make ends meet until they no longer have the strength to work anymore.In short, the rat race is a trap in which they have us trapped.It represents the way of life that a large part of today's society has, spending everything that is earned and increasing the level of spending each time the level of income increases.We live in debt to buy things that we will be paying for for years, making it impossible for someone who is 30 years old to consider stopping working before the age set by the State.It is a vicious cycle, a wheel that never stops turning.