“If you look at what you have in your life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.”
– Oprah Winfrey –
I firmly believe in the power of affirmations combined with the power of meditation.
Affirmations are to the mind what exercise is to the body. Repeating affirmations assists in reprogramming the unconscious mind for success.
Affirmations are reminders to your unconscious mind to stay focused on your goals and to come up with solutions to challenges and obstacles that might get in the way.
Whether you know it or not, you are always using affirmations… but usually not ones that will bring you what you want.It’s time to stop living in the scarcity mindset.
You must continually flood your subconscious with thoughts and images of the new reality you wish to create. Part of wealth building is continuous personal development.
Here are this weeks abundance affirmations to listen to…
Focus on developing an abundance mentality
If you see value in this then please be sure to like and subscribe to the blog if you haven’t done so already. I’ll be putting up more wealth building posts in the future and you can have them delivered straight to your email account.
“The anxiety of fate is conquered by the self-affirmation of the individual as an infinitely significant microcosmic representation of the universe”
– Paul Tillich –
I firmly believe in the power of affirmations combined with the power of meditation.
Affirmations are to the mind what exercise is to the body. Repeating affirmations assists in reprogramming the unconscious mind for success.
Affirmations are reminders to your unconscious mind to stay focused on your goals and to come up with solutions to challenges and obstacles that might get in the way.
Whether you know it or not, you are always using affirmations… but usually not ones that will bring you what you want.It’s time to stop living in the scarcity mindset.
You must continually flood your subconscious with thoughts and images of the new reality you wish to create. Part of wealth building is continuous personal development.
Here are this weeks abundance affirmations to listen to…
Focus on developing an abundance mentality
If you see value in this then please be sure to like and subscribe to the blog if you haven’t done so already. I’ll be putting up more wealth building posts in the future and you can have them delivered straight to your email account.
“Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up”
– Charlie Munger –
How do people become wealthy? Well, I’m about to go over five methods that you can apply towards building wealth that are used by people already where you want to be. It’s not enough to just manage your money like the rich, you need to have methods in place to get there in the first place.
Establish a money tracking system.
If I were to ask you where did you spend your money last month, do you have an exact answer? Without having an understanding of how you spend the money you have now, it becomes difficult to make and manage more.
Developing the skill of overseeing money will not only help you manage the money you have now, but when the time comes to manage more money you will have the skills in place to make intelligent decisions.
The best way to keep track of your money transactions is to place them into three main categories:
Income: Everything that generated you money for the month. This includes your job, any side hustles and/or business income.
Living expenses: These are recurring expenses such as rent/mortgage, monthly bills and food. The basic necessities that you need to survive.
Other expenses: These are things that are considered luxuries such as a streaming account, daily cups of coffee from places like starbucks, fast food and other expenses that are not necessary.
2. Develop the discipline of saving money.
It’s not shocking to know that the wealthy are very dedicated to putting money away. It doesn’t matter how much money a person makes if they spend it all as quickly as they earn it. The key to building wealth isn’t about how much you make, but how much of it that you keep.
As you might know, I’m a huge advocate of the richest man in babylon mindset of “A part of what I earn is mine to keep” and the pay yourself first philosophy.
Saving money is the foundation to building long term wealth. Especially for when unexpected expenses arise… you should have something put away in case of an emergency.
Statistics show that 57% of Americans have less that $1000 in their savings accounts and 39% have no savings at all.
Saving money can be challenging, but there are a few ways to do it.
The first way is to automate your savings. Many savings accounts allow you to schedule transfers from your main bank account to your savings account as soon as your paycheck arrives. Become a (richest man in babylon) fanatic like myself about paying yourself first before any of your other expenses.
Another method is to have your savings account with a completely different financial institution than your main bank. Not a checking account with a debit card, but just a savings account, preferably one that pays the highest interest on your savings that you can find. Those type of savings accounts are typically online banks.
The purpose of this is that it makes accessing your savings more challenging and makes it easier for you to keep it. It usually takes 2-3 business days for an electronic money transfer to take place so you’re less tempted to tap into your savings for an immediate purchase.
Just to be clear, having money saved doesn’t make you wealthy, even if it’s a large amount. Saving money is just the first step. There’s a difference between having cash and having equity.
Here’s another question for you. Would you rather have a million dollars in cash or a million dollars in real estate and/or good companies? The rich prefer that latter.
Cash is just that… cash. If you save a million dollars and don’t spend any of it, ten years later you’ll still have a million dollars. And when you factor in inflation, that million dollars loses purchasing power over time.
But chances are that a million dollars in equity of real estate and/or good companies in ten years will be worth much more than it currently is today.
3. The wealthy invest their capital into money-generating assets.
As I previously mentioned, saving is just the first step. The rich don’t save just for the sake of saving, they use that money to build long term wealth. So once you have a system set up to consistently save money, it becomes time to use this system to multiply the money. Money working for you to make more money is the goal.
Think of the game Monopoly. The game is about who owns the board, not who has the most money. You don’t win the game just by holding cash. The goal is to spend the cash to own the property that generates income. In the end, the one who owns the board ends up with all the cash anyway.
So which would you rather have? Money saved earning a minute percentage that looses value over time or a money-generating machine? The rich use money to build or purchase a money-generating machine that creates passive income.
This is why the wealthy don’t have to work for money. They understand that creating passive income allows them the benefit of putting their time to better use by not having to work for an income.
4. Most wealthy people live below their means.
Contrary to popular belief, most people with real wealth live below what they earn. This is especially true at the beginning when they haven’t amassed their wealth yet.
Research shows that wealthy people have a history of being quite frugal with their money. Many did not buy the expensive cars and mansions even when they were making a decent amount of money.
There are people who make six and seven figure incomes annually who buy all the luxuries and spend most of their money. However, the people who actually get wealthy have a bigger picture in mind. They aren’t looking to make a couple million, they are focused on accumulating massive wealth. So many of them continue to spend money like the average person.
The idea is to get used to not needing much in order to build long term wealth, even as your income grows. This is a very powerful strategy to employ as business and economic cycles go up and down.
So, as we begin to track our finances, build a savings and invest that saving into money-generating assets, there is one more thing the rich do so that they never run out of money.
5. Spend the residual, never the principal.
Most people start off with active income, the money we spend time to make. Once you start investing into income-generating assets, you then start earning passive income which is the cash flow that your assets produce.
The difference between the wealthy and the rest is that those building real wealth only spend the cash flow their assets produce, not their hard earned money.
it’s like planting a fruit tree, most people eat the seeds before planting the tree. Whereas the wealthy plant the tree first and only eat what the tree produces. Many wealthy people still maintain earning an active income, the difference is that they use their hard earned money only to invest and only buy luxuries with the money that their investments have produced.
That is how they make sure that they never run out of money, even when buying expensive luxuries.
So, what is a good practical step to take on your journey to building wealth?
As mentioned above, in order to begin investing, you need to save. In order to save, you must lower your expenses or increase your income.
These strategies may seem simple, but simple means nothing without discipline. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, discipline is a key principal to achieving financial freedom.
As I like to say… “the journeybegins with the first step”.
If you see value in this article then please be sure to like and subscribe to the blog if you haven’t done so already. I’ll be putting up more wealth building posts in the future and you can have them delivered straight to your email account.
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I’ll see you in the next post. Until next time… be sure to comment below and let’s get some dialogue going. I’m curious to know, what’s your opinion on wealth building strategies?
“Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid only of standing still”
– Chinese Proverb –
Let’s face it, we all dream of living “the good life” of financial freedom. The unfortunate fact is that most people won’t ever get to that point in life because they were never taught financial literacy. Not only that, society has been conditioned to believe that taking short cuts to “get rich quick” is the ONLY way to achieve financial freedom. The reality is that unless one has been fortunate enough to be born into wealth, most wealthy people achieve their status over time by being financially disciplined and meticulous planning.
But before we go any further, let’s define the term.
Slow FI: When someone utilizes the incremental financial freedom they gain along the journey to financial independence to live happier and healthier lives, do better work, and build strong relationships.
The journey to financial freedom is exactly that… a journey and not a race. If you haven’t done so already, it’s imperative that you start investing now so that your wealth portfolio has time to grow and use compound interest in your favor.
Don’t be fooled into believing that you can put it off until later because you’re young. That’s the ideal time to start! Building a wealth portfolio should be done meticulously but also enjoyable. Adding money each payday and watching it grow over time should be as much of a priority as paying down debts each month. And once you’ve achieved debt freedom, the money put towards those debt payments should then be put towards your wealth portfolio.
If you’ve read any of my other posts then you should know that I’m an advocate of the “richest man in bablylon” philosophy of paying yourself first regardless of your debts and putting that money to work for you. I’ve disciplined myself to do this and I implore you to do the same. I know I sound like a broken record by always repeating this, but repetition is one of the keys to learning and forming habits.
We live in a quick buck society with instant gratification in high demand. But the reality of it all is that many people are managing to just get by pay check to pay check if even that. They dream big but often take no action and later in life have no financial reserves to fall back on.
As a reader of this blog, my goal is to help you avoid that lifestyle. I’m dedicated to getting this philosophy out and influence the counter culture belief that it’s okay to build wealth slowly and enjoy life in the process.
Dave Ramsey has a saying that goes like this “live your life today like no one else, so that you can live your life tomorrow like no one else”. It’s a very simple concept, yet so enlightening.
As I take this journey of building wealth from scratch slowly, I’m documenting it with my payday post plans. I post these every other Friday which consist of how much I’ve paid myself and how I’m applying those funds to my wealth portfolio. I take screen shots of my investment accounts and post them as proof.
So you see, I’m following the principle of SlowFi wealth building because I believe in the principle of practicing what I preach.
As I like to say… “the journeybegins with the first step”.
If you see value in this article then please be sure to like and subscribe to the blog if you haven’t done so already. I’ll be putting up more wealth building posts in the future and you can have them delivered straight to your email account.
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I’ll see you in the next post. Until next time… be sure to comment below and let’s get some dialogue going. I’m curious to know, what’s your opinion on slowfi wealth building?
“The number one problem in today’s generation and economy is the lack of financial literacy”
– Alan Greenspan –
Looking back at my early years, I wonder why it was required that I had to study things like social studies and world history when in fact none of what I was forced to study has any value to my adult years in life. Yet the ONLY financial class in high school that I recall offered was accounting, and that was an elective so it wasn’t required learning.
It really miffs me to know that so many people in society have very little, if any, financial knowledge other than how to balance a checking account. And some people can’t even do that correctly! A huge chunk of banking profits come from overdraft fees.
Our education system is broken and too many kids are entering into adulthood without the real world knowledge that they need to be financially successful. Not only that, they aren’t encouraged to pursue entreprenuership endeavors, but instead indoctrinated into the belief of “get a good education to get a good job”.
Also, kids are led to believe that going into student loan debt of tens of thousands… if not hundreds of thousands of dollars is justifiable to become wage slaves dependent on employment. It isn’t until they graduate from college and attempt to enter the workforce that the reality of loan repayment sets in.
Then if they’re even fortunate enough to find a job in the field that they pursued an education in the first place is questionable. Often they have to settle for a job that they could’ve gotten without going to college in the first place. Oh, and those student loans still have to be paid back and can’t be charged off in bankruptcy!
Once they’ve entered the workforce they are now dependent on their employer for that after tax deducted paycheck. It’s rare that the youth think to put money aside in case of an emergency for unexpected expenses. And lets face it, retirement planning and managing their money like the rich isn’t a top priority for most twenty somethings.
So they’ve started their key working years in debt with student loans. Then there are cost of living expenses such as rent/mortgage payments, utilities, food and transportation to factor in. Typically credit card debt has accrued at this point as well. Credit card companies target students for good reason… they tend to have limited finances.
By the time the desire to build wealth sets in, they’re thousands (often tens of thousands) in debt and have limited, if any money left to put towards that goal. That’s when they turn to the advice of “financial gurus” who never seem to advise them to ALWAYS pay themselves first with the mantra “part of what I earn is mine to keep”. But instead they’re told to get out of debt and then invest in mutual funds that earn 7% (magically in guruland) annually.
Financial literacy is something that we can’t afford to not be teaching/learning. Since we can’t rely on the education system to make it required learning, we have to make it required learning for ourselves. I implore you to make this a priority in your life and encourage everyone that you know to do the same.
The reason I started this blog was to connect with people who are in pursuit offinancial knowledge and building wealth. Especially those who want to do so but can’t either because they are drowning in debt and/or have limited funds to do so.
The world is on the verge of bankruptcy and financial collapse. We as a society need to purge the consumerism obsession lifestyle out of us and make financial stability our mission. The societal financial safety nets of social security and medicare are unsustainable. Social security was never meant to be the sole source of retirement funding, but a supplement to it.
As unemployment surges and people have no financial reserves, they are turning to government assistance programs which are strained and reliant on tax revenues for funding. Food banks are maxed out and charities can only give so much.
So, let’s focus on solutions and strive to teach those willing to learn. Let’s be the change we want to see in the world by forging the path to financial freedom and lift up as many as we can a long the way.
As I like to say… “the journeybegins with the first step”.
If you see value in this article then please be sure to like and subscribe to the blog if you haven’t done so already. I’ll be putting up more wealth building posts in the future and you can have them delivered straight to your email account.
I’ll see you in the next post. Until next time… be sure to comment below and let’s get some dialogue going. I’m curious to know, what’s your opinion on teaching financial literacy?
“Financial freedom is a mental, emotional and educational process”
– Robert Kiyosaki –
Wow… here it is two weeks later since the last Payday Plan Post Time to do an update since the last one and document the planned investments for this payday.
– Designated funds from this payday –
401K contribution $172.10 – current value $15.825.30
Fidelity brokerage account $75.00 – current value $184.92
Acorns Roth IRA $5 – current value $100.13
Acorns investment account $5 – current value $143.44
– A part of what I earn is mine to keep –
You can create your own acorns account by clicking here.
I’m not putting a lot towards investments currently since I’m paying down debts. But the goal is to pay myself first each payday and put that money to work before anything else.
I wanted to catch the ARKF eft for $36.50 last payday, but it never went back down to that level and instead went back up into the $38 range. So I decided to add another $25 to the fidelity account and pick up a share of BIGC (Big Commerce) for $72.81. I watched it go down to the $66 range for two days before popping back up into the $140 range so I’m up huge on that buy at a 93.65% gain since the purchase. There’s been a lot of volatility on the price in an upward trend for three days straight.
I purchased a share of ARKF etf a few weeks back before the first payday plan post at $38.50 and its currently at $40.23. So I’m up 4.49% on that position. I’m thinking about picking up another share or two if it dips back down again.
I’ve been considering starting a small position in another stock or etf so I’ll see where the price goes in the next couple of days and share my decision on the 9/11/2020 payday plan post.
Be sure to keep track with me and if you’d like, share your payday plan in the comments section below.
Until next time…please like, follow and be sure to comment below and let’s get some dialogue going.
“Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them.”
– Ogden Nash –
Part of the process of building wealth is freeing yourself from financial debt. The grueling process of paying down debt isn’t an easy task, but one that must be completed in order to continue down the path to financial freedom. It’s obvious that the sooner you pay it off, the more you’ll have to put towards your investment portfolio. However, I don’t believe you should wait until your debt free to begin investing.
The process of paying off debts can and often does take years to accomplish. My personal belief is that you should pay yourself first as if you’re one of your creditors and put that money to work for you while the rest goes towards your debt free goal.
As much as I desire to live debt free as soon as possible, I also know the benefit of compound interest working in my favor over time. So I choose to build wealth and pay down debt in tandem. I know that this goes against the preaching of financial gurus like Dave Ramsey who believes you should be debt free before you begin investing. But, I follow the principle of the richest man in babylon that “part of what I earn is mine to keep” and put that to work for me now.
From my experience, the hardest part of paying down debt isn’t a money issue, it’s a self discipline issue. It’s so easy to give into the temptation of “I have to have it now” rather than practicing delayed gratification. But my determination and commitment to building wealth make it easier to resist.
When we decide to go into debt, our present self isn’t taking into accountability to the affects it will have on our future self. We take for granted that we’ll always have an income to make those “affordable payments”. But what we don’t factor in is that unexpected issues occur and if we’re not properly prepared by having an emergency fund set aside while setting up multiple streams of income, we become extremely vulnerable.This is why we’re on the path to financial freedom.
As a reader of this blog, I urge to to set financial goals today if you haven’t done so already. Make those goals definitive and give yourself a timeline to accomplish them. Vague goals like “I want to be debt free someday” aren’t good enough. Strive for specific targets and dates such as “Have the capital one credit card paid off by January 1, 2021”. This way it’s a measurable goal.
The other thing I want to discuss while enduring this grueling task to become debt free is commitment. I think we often confuse determination with commitment, but they are not one in the same. Determination is the unwavering decision making part, while commitment is the pledge to the course of taking action.
Make a pledge to yourself that it’s normal to live in debt is pure B.S.! The only exception that comes to mind is real estate which is considered “good debt” but has it’s risks as well. Otherwise debt is a burden that should be avoided at all costs (pun intended).
It’s grueling, but staying focused on the end result makes enduring the debt elimination process tolerable. There are countless articles, videos and podcasts on click bait title “ways to become debt free”… but the ONLY way to become debt free is to remain vigilant.
One last thing I want to say is that debt free does not equate to being financially free. Just because you don’t have debts to pay once achieved doesn’t mean there still aren’t cost of living expenses that need to be met. Until you have enough income saved and multiple streams of income other than working a job, you aren’t financially independent.
As I like to always say… “the journey begins with the first step”.
Be sure to like, comment and subscribe to the blog ifyou haven’t done so already because I’ll be putting up more wealth building posts in the near future.
Until next time… be sure to comment below and let’s get some dialogue going.
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t… pays it – Albert Einstein –
When it comes to investing money, the best time to start is yesterday. The sooner you start, the more time your investment portfolio has to grow. It’s not so much how much that you have to invest that matters as much as when you begin. Smaller amounts over a longer period of time will grow more than larger amounts later due to the power of compound interest.
If you’re familiar with how compound interest works then great, you understand the value of time and reinvestment. If not, no worries, you’re about to be enlightened to another key principle of how to manage your money like the rich.
So without getting into technical jargon that can get confusing with calculations and formulas, let me put it into simple terms. Compound interest occurs from interest that is earned on an initial investment and then reinvested to earn interest on the interest previously earned. The money that your initial investment created is now working for you to earn more money. In other words, free money earning free money over and over again growing exponentially.
Once you grasp this concept, you’ll never see money the same way again and understand why money is a tool used to build wealth. This is where time is your friend. The interest starts out small but grows large over time just like the snowball rolling down a hill. This is why the sooner you start the journey to building wealth, the better. I don’t know about you, but I love the concept of free money earning free money.
Let’s put this into perspective with a hypothetical investment scenario. We’ll invest our principle and interest 10 times over and keep the numbers simple so it’s easy to follow:
$1,000.00 that pays 5% on the interest earned. Initial investment .05 x 1000 = 50.
1000 x .05 = 50 + 1000 = 1050
1050 x .05 = 52.5 + 1050 = 1102.5
1102.50 x .05 = 55.12 + 1102.50 = 1157.62
1157.62 x .05 = 57.88 + 1157.62 = 1215.50
1215.50 x .05 = 60.77 + 1215.50 = 1282.27
1282.27 x .05 = 64.11 + 1282.27 = 1346.38
1346.38 x .05 = 67.31 + 1346.38 = 1413.69
1413.69 x .05 = 70.68 + 1413.69 = 1484.37
1484.37 x .05 = 74.21 + 1484.37 = 1558.58
1558.58 x .05 = 77.92 + 1558.58 = 1636.50
So our initial investment was $1,000.00 which earned us $50 in interest. Had we just spent the interest earned (poor minded thinking) and reinvested only the $1,000 again 10 times over we’d have earned another $50 each time totaling $500.00 and not had the $136.50 difference. This is the beauty of compound interest. Because we reinvested the initial investment plus the interest each time (rich minded thinking), we made an additional 136.50 more and still have that interest working for us rather than had we just kept the $50 each time.
Now imagine having multiple investments doing this at the same time and consistently reinvesting the gains. This is where discipline and dedication that I talked about in the journey come into play. By leaving your investments alone to grow and not withdrawing from them, your investment portfolio will grow much larger and faster in the long run.
Remember, we’re paying ourselves first when we earn income and putting that to work to earn us more in perpetuity. Starting out small is better than not starting out at all so don’t let yourself get discouraged by not earning a lot in the beginning. Remember… we’re playing the long game here. Trust me, your future self will thank you for your delayed gratification now.
I can’t emphasize enough about the importance of getting into the habit of devoting a portion of what you earn towards your investment portfolio and putting that income to work for you. Anyone can afford $5 a month to get started and the next post I do will be focused on that topic to prove that it can be done thanks to modern day financial technology (fintech).
As I like to say… “the journey begins with the first step”.
If you see value in this article then please be sure to subscribe to the blog if you haven’t done so already. I’ll be putting up more wealth building posts in the future and you can have them delivered straight to your email account.
I’ll see you in the next post. Until next time… be sure to comment below and let’s get some dialogue going. I’m curious to know, what tips do you have on how to build your wealth portfolio?
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building wealth 