3 Secrets the Wealthy Don’t Tell You

In order to run you have to first learn to walk. To make a million dollars, you’ll first have to make 100K. I didn’t build my wealth overnight, but I did get rich rather quickly. There is a big difference between being wealthy and being rich by the way—more on that later. Right now, let me ask you, do you know the basic building blocks of money? Without the basic building blocks, you will never have mastery. I’m a hecto-millionaire and believe me, nobody that inherited their money has ever become a hecto-millionaire without straight up mastering money. I want to give you three secrets today that the wealthy know that the rest of society doesn't. These things are basic building blocks of money. 

#1 Income is King—If you don’t have new income, you’re dead. You have to be getting new income. I know this sounds basic—because it is—but a lot of people have this confused. People are out there trying to save money, talking about how debt is bad and save, save, save. Look, if you don’t have income then there is no money to save, no money to retire, and no money to invest. There is no chance of wealth without income first. You might hear people say, “Income is not what you want—wealth is what you want.” But you can’t get to wealth without income. You need income. I’ve said that a JOB means just over broke, but a job=income. The reason people get a job is to get income. Now the question becomes, how much income can you protect? How much can you incrementally increase that income? Understand this—don’t let anybody ever tell you that income isn’t king. Saving is not king, spending is not king. Income is KING. And that is the number one most basic building block you need. Yes, it’s taxed at a high-rate—it’s not the best thing, it’s not the thing I ultimately want to be at—which is wealth—but, I have got to have income to get to wealth. 

#2 Income Increments—You aren’t going to go from 4K a month to millionaire. There is going to be incremental growth. Now I’d certainly like to explode and go 10X but understand that there are going to be increments. At 25 years old, I was making 4K a month and all I could focus on was increments. I thought about how I could take that 4K and control it by going up to $4400. Could I increase it by 10%? That would be $400 more per month. That’s $100 a week, $80 a day. Who do I need to see, who do I need to call to get that $80? At 35 years old it wasn’t going from $4,000 to $4400 but going from $15,000 to $20,000. That doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about how to explode with growth, but every day, every week I’m thinking about how to increase in increments. Think about it this way—do you want more or less? There is no same. Same always falls to less. You’ll get what you focus on. If you focus on anything else other than more, you’ll get less. You’ll end up with less money, less income, less ability to save and invest money. 

#3 Spend 95% of your time on income, 5% on expenses—Take out your household income statement. Everyone has one, money that comes in and money that goes out. The line for incomes is thin, the line for expenses is thick. Income is powerful. You need enough income to overwhelm the expenses. Most people have this in reverse—they spend most of their time on expenses and little time on income. How much time do you spend on the income side? If you are anything like the average American, you are spending all of your time on the expenses. 

Would you like to know the difference between being wealthy and being rich? People can get rich quick, but nobody gets wealthy quick. I figured out how to create wealth—I’ve become a millionaire over a hundred times over. Having wealth is having so much money it can never all be spent or destroyed. In order to get wealthy, you have to first get rich. Trust me, it’s easier to get rich once than stay poor forever. Income is king, so keep increasing your income by increments, and keep yourself focused on your income—not your expenses. If you have the dream of getting wealthy, and you WANT to improve your situation or condition, sign up here. GC

Source: https://grantcardone.com/blogs/grantcardone/3-secrets-the-wealthy-don-t-tell-you

Dealing With Debt - Overcoming Your Problems

Debt steals your freedom; it's even more virulent than cancer. You must do everything humanly possible to get out of debt.

You're in debt today probably because you lived above your means in time past or got into a messy business that drove you into debt. Three things I hate most in this world, debt, poverty and sickness. Debt could have come from your inability to control your impulses or as a product of the unexpected. Whatever the case may be you have debt and we need to deal with it squarely and eliminate it.

My guide won't just get you out of debt rather you'll get out of debt way faster than you ever imagined.

Follow the following steps to get out of debt now:

1. Control Your Spending

You can't spend money you do not have. Therefore, if you want to be debt free, you must spend less money than you earn. Start by eliminating the things you don't really need from your scale of preference i.e.. learn the act of prioritizing. How much money would you have to spend if you eliminated newspapers, magazines, cable TV, second cars and cut back on eating out?

2. Decide How You Spend Your Money

Every charity, church and good program is asking for money. "Just give a dollar." These dollars add up. If you have a job and a good income you can spend as much as you can. But if you're trying to be debt free then don't let other people tell you how to spend your money.

3. List All Your Debts

This is a very important move; it shows your seriousness to become debt free. Get a piece of paper, a Google sheet or a notepad on your computer. This list will help you have a decent idea of how much you owe. This eliminates guesswork. Another important aspect is to rank this debt from the smallest to the most expensive.

4. Set Periodic Goals

Becoming goal oriented is the best gift you can gift yourself, in all spheres of life. Goals help us churn really hard matter into tiny pieces. From your income you can set a target to pay a certain percentage monthly. The big picture of this goal oriented mission is to pay off all your debt and regain your freedom. Once these goals are in place, it will be almost impossible to ignore them. This will push you faster into accomplishing your goals than you would have originally anticipated.

5. Start Paying Off Your Debt From Highest To Lowest

Take every penny you receive above your basic living and all of the savings and apply them to your debt, Start by paying the highest then narrow down to the least. One by one pay off your debt. This will give you confidence and help you become debt free

6. Sell Almost Everything

Sell the things you don't need to raise money. It could be your TV, used books, furniture, clothes. The aim is to raise more money and pay off your debt. There's always time for stuff when you're debt free so sell them and pay off your debt.

7. Work, Work, Work

This one is mind-blowing; To pay off the faster you can work more. Overtime, second jobs, babysitting. More money simply means more debt repayment.

Let me stop here for now.

Gideon E. Richards M.D

http://gideonike.com

I'm a medical doctor, blogger and avid reader. Above all things I love dishing out life changing tips. Thanks for stopping by to read my post.

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What Is Your Share of Government Debt?

It's that time of year where we review the impact of government debt on individual tax payers. It is important to remember who is on the hook for government's reckless spending binges.

Whenever we hear politicians make campaign promises, they sound like they are spending their money. But government doesn't have any money, so the only way they can implement their expensive ideas, is to tax their citizens and companies, as that is their only source of revenue.

What is really troubling is that when the US government (and most others) planned their budget for the current fiscal year, they budget to spend more than they knew they will receive in tax revenue. In fact since 1970, the US has only balanced their budget four times. France has not had a balanced budget since 1974.

When governments overspend, they need to fund those deficits by issuing bonds. As the debt keeps rising, more and more of the budget goes to paying the interest on those bonds. Last year the US government spent over $250 billion on just the interest payments to service the Federal debt. They spent over $430 billion if we include the State and Local Government (SLG) securities.

Every election, candidates claim they will not add to the debt, yet except for four years in the past 45 years, every year the US government has significantly added to the debt. In Obama's eight years in office, the US debt has exploded higher, by almost $10 trillion to $19.86 trillion.

The almost $20 trillion is the official debt figure, but there is also a massive amount of 'unfunded liabilities'. Future obligations such as Social Security, Medicare, Veteran Affairs, and Federal employee benefits are not funded. The total of those 'unfunded obligations' totals over $100 trillion.

Here are the current numbers for the US debt:

1. Official US debt = $19.86 trillion 

- debt per citizen = $61,133 

- debt per taxpayer = $166,240

2. Total unfunded liabilities = $104 trillion 

- liability per citizen = $320,749 

- liability per taxpayer = $872,205

Add it all up and each taxpayer's share of the national debt,and the 'unfunded liabilities' = $1,038,445. That's is not a misprint. Each taxpayer's share of the debt is over $1 million!

And every year that the government spends more that they have, adds to these totals. When the government spends, it is the taxpayer who must cover the costs.

Stay tuned!

Martin Straith - http://www.thetrendletter.com

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Keep Track of Your Total Net Worth

Business and professional practice owners know they cannot effectively run their company without understanding its financial position. In the same way, when it comes to making a comprehensive wealth plan, they also need a framework to assess their overall financial status.

A "Life Balance Sheet"[1] provides a complete view of the owner's assets, liabilities and net-worth. Though similar to the more traditional balance sheet used to monitor their company, the Life Balance Sheet includes both real and implied assets and liabilities.

The left side of the sheet lists the owner's assets and includes the traditional financial assets (cash, stocks, bonds, alternative assets, etc.) and other tangible assets (real estate, precious metals, art collections, etc.). It also includes implied but expected assets.

Implied assets are non-liquid assets that are often non-tradable yet have value. In a previous article, this was referred to as, "Human Capital." Though often overlooked, Human Capital represents the present value of the owner's expected earnings.

Liabilities, on the right side of the sheet, should be viewed in the same manner. Mortgages, business loans and other debt secured by property are explicit liabilities. Additionally, business and practice owners should include their succession goals as an implied liability and career professionals and non-business owners will include the estimated costs of their retirement.

For example, if you want to maintain a certain standard of living after leaving your business or retiring from your career you are creating an implied liability that must be funded by the assets on the left side of the Life Balance Sheet. Aspirations to purchase a vacation home, start another business or fulfill a charitable commitment represent implied liabilities as well.

Think about a Balance Sheet with Assets Listed on the left side and Liabilities on the right. The combined assets include a house, retirement plans, and the family business. Taken together, these are worth $2,000,000. To this we are going to add $800,000, the amount of money the owner expects to earn as income from the business. This increases the value of the Total Assets to $2,800.000/

Under Liabilities we will list three common assets including a mortgage, college expenses and estimated retirement costs. These total $1,800,000. This leaves $1,000,000 as Discretioinary Wealth; an amount the person can use as he/she desires, but that will make a signiticant impact on their net worth, their retirement, even their legacy.

Using the Life Balance Sheet helps owners, professionals and others place a value (present value) on their implied assets (their projected earnings) as well as their implied liabilities (retirement and other costs). This information should cause owners to review all their tangible and real assets - including the value of their business - to make certain they are on track to meet their long-term goals.

[1] Wilcox, Jarrod, Jeffrey E. Horvitz and Dan diBartolomeo, 2006. Investment Management for Taxable Private Investors, Charlottsville, VA: Research Foundation of CFA Institute.

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