Part One-Understanding the Dynamic
Financially speaking, don’t we all want to be rich? Having the means for not only all of life’s necessities, but the extra wants would be a great position for most of us. This goal as not that tough or as complicated as most think. YOU CAN DO THIS! Fortunately, this goal is very attainable. Unfortunately, the lack of financial and economic education by our parents, friends, schools, society, etc. have left most in the dark on what isn’t as complicated of a process as we traditionally believe it to be.
Outside of a leprechaun standing at your door with a bag of gold, inventing the next wildly popular social media app, or landing a recording deal in Nashville, the next best option that we ALL have at our disposal is time. If just twenty-five dollars invested at eight percent, per week, turns into a million bucks in fifty-three years (source CNBC’s “Make It”), then imagine what real commitment can mean.
Dr. Thomas Stanley’s book, “The Millionaire Next Door” reveals research of literally thousands of millionaires the surprising factors that dispute common notions. The vast majority our nation’s millionaires do not necessarily belong to the popular misperception of elite groups of highly educated people who inherited their money. Rather, they are honest, hard workers. They understand credit, save diligently, invest wisely and live beneath their means. The control of these factors accounts for the fact that eighty percent (80%) of our nation’s millionaires are FIRST GENERATION, self-made from all backgrounds and circumstances.
Does this sound encouraging? Well, it should. If we use our TIME to understand the basic concepts and then use our TIME to implement the plan, the odds of significant financial success are strongly in our favor. Is this potentially a boring exercise? Well, possibly. But, if we consider the thousands of hours we spend working at our chosen profession each year, doesn’t it seem “interesting” to take just a couple of those hours to understand how to put a plan in place that will allow us to prosper and achieve financial wealth? Remember, if you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail!
In constructing our plan, the first step is to understand our income opportunities. Ask yourself questions like:
1. Am I compensated fairly for the value I bring? There is an old adage that says if you add more value to your company’s services and products than your compensation, you will always have a job. This holds so true! Furthermore, not only will your employer give you more opportunities to advance your responsibilities and pay, but if you are with a progressive thinking company, you will have “Intrapreneurship” opportunities.
2. Intrapreneurship is the concept where a company allows it’s more creative, responsible, and ambitious employees to share in the profit of the company’s operation while generally doing so with no risk. By putting yourself into this position, you can significantly add to your disposable income to create outside investment opportunities and wealth accumulation for yourself.
3. The final thing to understand is that your money can actually go to work for you, every day. Your job is to save and create that “worker.”
The second step is to look squarely in the mirror and assess your work ethic and abilities. In Dr. Stanley’s follow-up book “The Millionaire Mind,” the following factors were identified in his research;
1. Honesty – Of 733 millionaires interviewed for success factors, the top vote getting category out of thirty traits was “BEING HONEST WITH ALL PEOPLE.” The misconceptions of our society inaccurately depicts financially successful people as cheating others. The reality is that this is the opposite of the truth and self-made millionaires know this. Now you know this!
2. Do you outwork your competition? I apologize in breaking it to many of you, but our country’s wild, economic world power success was created on the economic principle of the “free market economy.” What this means is that we are going to compete for goods and services. He or she who is the best at what they do reaps the rewards. So, we must put in more smart, efficient hours than our competition or we lose.
So, to summarize, if we work honestly, intelligently and plenty of hours, we are likely to be well ahead of most in our society. This formula will insure adequate compensation to create that valuable worker, CASH.
In Part 2, we will discuss the Nuts and Bolts of several options to implement our plan. See you then!