Each year as you live your life, proper choices would have you possessing a greater net worth at end of year than you had at beginning. What happens though, is you usually find yourself further in debt. The balances on your credit cards are higher. You bought a new car. You needed more toys for home.

This is not how you purchase your future. You pay all your bills, except for one. Your future does not submit an invoice; you never receive a statement. Even though it does not demand an interest payment, longer you give no heed to purchase of your future more it will cost you. Your future has no advocate, except you, you can’t continue to ignore it.

You gladly pay on debt, mostly for items that lose their value, or had none in beginning. These are payments which if properly directed could easily purchase your future and secure some peace of mind.

It is important to note some disturbing trends. Recent news stories point to large companies who are in trouble going to courts to eliminate need to fund retirement plans for their employees. Under-funding of pension plans has been a problem for years. The money simply will not be there when many are ready to begin drawing on it.

Then, recently Alan Greenspan, chairman of Federal Reserve Bank, said congress needed to get serious about cutting back Social Security and Medicare. Where does money for your future come from? Apparently not from there either.

In tradition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, here are two fables that illustrate to entrepreneurs and investors why being public is only sound business strategy.

The Tale of Business Owner

In 2004, your private company is grosses $1 million per year. Your Fairy Godmother will give your company $1 million for expansion of your company. You won't have to repay money. You'll keep 100% equity in your company.

Your alternative is to take your company public and raise $1 million for it in a private placement. The process will cost you a minority interest in your company. Your insiders will retain about two-thirds of your company's equity as shares in your public company. Your insider group will have about 3,333,333 shares of public company's stock. You'll risk less than US$50,000 to go public in United States. In either case, you'll use investment money wisely and make acquisitions to rapidly build your company. In five years or less, you'll want to sell your company. At time of your company's sale, your company's profit is $3 million/year.

Which offer should you have taken five years earlier to get best price for your company?

The Fairy Godmother option leaves you with 100% ownership of your private company. Your private company could sell for as much as 1.5 times of its annual profit (considered by most business brokers to be a very high estimate). Your golden parachute is worth $4.5 million.

The public company option assumes that your public company will merge in five years with a stronger multinational corporation. Your company's stock should trade over $60/share. At that price, your 3, 333,333 shares will be worth about $200 million.

Which was better deal?

The moral of this tale is: take your operating company public! The money you'll raise from your equity financing isn't as much as money you'll earn from sale of your stock. Being public allows you to leverage value of your company because market capitalization (shares issued multiplied by share price) are almost always a multiple of balance sheet value of that company.

The Tale of Angel Investor

It's 2004; you have one million dollars that you want to invest in an operating company. There's a private company on other side of town grossing $1,000,000/year. It's well run and you will get 50% ownership of company for your money.