Excerpted By: Timo Stevens (Wealth Sage, 2009)
Take responsibility for your Life
You are responsible for where you are in your life! Your decisions matter a lot, and so do your dreams, aspirations and every situation you find yourself. Would you rather invest that $1000 now, and enjoy its compounded value ten years later? Or you’d rather spend that money today, because you don’t want to wait ten years to be rich.
And what if after ten years you’ll still live with no income, retirement benefits or disabled? Remember, your life is what you make it. Where you are right now is the sum total of the decisions you have made in the past. Why not set the stage for your life in the future right now? They say, as you make your bed so you lie on it.
The Power of Small Amounts
Do not despise the day of small beginnings! It is important to develop an understanding of wealth accumulated over time, through the power of small amounts. Wealth, like a house is built one brick at a time.
Still most people make the silly mistake of thinking that they have to start with a mammoth-like army. They often think that, they’ll never become rich because they aren’t making thousands or million dollar investments at a time. Hence, forget to realize that even entire armies are built one soldier at a time, and so should their financial arsenal be.
Buy Freedom with every Dollar Saved
Money has the ability to work in your place, the more of it you employ, the faster and larger it will grow. Along with more money comes more freedom – the freedom to retire and travel around the world, the freedom to spend more time with your kids, the freedom to quit your job, or the freedom to venture into other interests.
Thus, with each dollar you save, you are buying yourself that freedom. Whatever your source of income, it is possible for your to start building wealth today. It may be only a dollar at a time, but each of those investments is a stone in the foundation of your financial freedom.
Change Your Money Thoughts
It is important to change the way you think about money. The reason a vast majority of people never accumulate wealth is because they don’t understand how money works and its real nature.
Cash, like a person, is a living thing. When you wake up in the morning and go to work, you are selling a product - yourself (i.e. your labor). Each dollar you save is like an employee. Over the course of time, the goal is to make your employees work hard, and eventually, they will make enough money to hire more workers (cash). When you become successful, you no longer have to sell your own labor, but can live off of the labor of your assets.
More Money is not the Solution
Realize that money doesn’t answer all, and more money is not going to solve your problem either. Money is a magnifying glass; it’ll accelerate and bring your true habits to light. If you can’t be responsible for a job paying $20,000 a year, the worst that can happen is for you to earn six figures – it will destroy you!
Many people earn $100,000 a year, yet live from paycheck to paycheck and don’t know why it’s happening. The problem isn’t the size of your checkbook; instead, it’s your understanding and use of money.
Buy the Stock, Not the Product
Do you know why aren’t wealthy? Ever felt like you were putting money aside, yet never seemed to be getting anywhere ahead? Well, its simple – stop buying the products companies sell and start buying the company itself (i.e. owning its stocks)!
A survey once revealed that 27-30% of all the income wealthy people earned went into investments and savings. That isn’t a result of being rich, that’s why they are rich. When the pain of getting out of the bondage of financial slavery is greater than the pain of changing your spending habits, you will become rich.
Study, Admire and Emulate Success
Pick the traits you admire and dislike the most about your heroes. Then do everything in your capability to develop those traits you like and reject the ones you don’t. Mold yourself into who you want to become. By investing in yourself first, money will begin to flow into your life.
Success begets success, and so does wealth too. You have to purchase your way into that cycle, and you do so by building your army one soldier at a time and putting your money to work for you
Learn from a Rich Dad
If your parents aren’t living the life you want to live, then don’t do what they did! You must break away from the mentality of past generations if you want to have a different lifestyle than they had.
To achieve the financial freedom and success that your family may or may not have had, you have to do two things,
i) make a firm commitment to get out of debt.
ii) pay yourself first – i.e. make saving and investing your highest financial priorities.
Stop Worrying
The miracle of life is that it doesn't matter so much where you are - it matters where you are going. Once you have made the choice to take back control of your life by building up your net worth, don't give a second thought to the "what ifs" of finance. Every moment that goes by, you are growing and getting closer and closer to your ultimate goal - control and freedom.
Every dollar that passes through your hands is a seed to your financial future. Rest assured, if you are diligent and work at it, financial prosperity is inevitable.
The day will come when you make your last payment on your car, your house, or whatever else it is you owe. Once that happens, do everything you can to avoid going into debt again.
