The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth by Richard Paul Evans

Let me share with you a few book titles on my bookshelf that have to do with money:

  • Think and Grow Rich
  • How Rich People Think
  • As a Man Thinketh
  • Mind Over Money
  • Wired for Wealth – Change the Money Mindsets That Keep You Trapped
  • Conscious Finance

Did you catch a theme there? It was something I hadn’t really noticed before. Clearly, according to these authors, wealth has more to do with your mindset and your thoughts than your habits.

5 lessonsToday’s post deals with that same concept. I am going to review the book The Five Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth by Richard Paul Evans (#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Christmas Box). I picked up a copy at the local library and read it in one sitting. It’s an easy read (93 pages of content and an additional 70 pages of resources), but definitely worth your time.

Evans learned these lessons at a young age from a millionaire and went on to change his mindset, incorporate them in his own life, and make a lot of money. He teaches five lessons or principles that he says will lead all who follow them to wealth and financial independence. In fact, he says that all wealthy people share this common denominator – they understand the principles of accumulating wealth and follow them (and by wealthy he isn’t talking about those who win the lottery or inherit a fortune then go broke 5 years later, but truly wealthy people who earn and keep their wealth).

None of these principles are new – you won’t find anything earth-shattering in the five lessons. In fact, they will seem very ordinary to you. However, very few people actually follow them. I discovered areas that I can improve and plan to sit down with my wife so she and I can decide together how to better live some of these principles. I also plan to teach these principles to my children in ways they can understand.

Here are the five lessons:

Lesson One: Decide to be wealthy

Evans says this is the most important principle and that wealth is a mindset – it’s all or nothing. Bryan Tracy, another one of my favorite authors, says that it never occurs to most people that they can be wealthy and that “the primary reason for underachievement and failure is that the great majority of people don’t decide to be successful. They never make a firm, unequivocal commitment or definite decision that they are going to become wealthy. They mean to, and they intend to, and they hope to and they’re going to, someday. They wish and hope and pray that they will make a lot of money, but they never decide, ‘I am going to do it!’ This decision is an essential first step to becoming financially independent.”

Lesson Two: Take responsibility for your own money

You need to know how much money you have (by calculating your net worth monthly and annually), know where your money comes from and where it is going (budgeting). If you don’t control your money it will control you.

Lesson Three: Keep a portion of everything you earn

As George Clason says in The Richest Man in Babylon “a part of all I earn is mine to keep.” Evans says that millionaires save between 15-20% of their income and recommends that you start with a minimum of 10% of your salary and 90-100% of any side earnings.

(Consequently, the book The Richest Man in Babylon is one of my favorite books about money – you can read it for free here: http://www.ccsales.com/the_richest_man_in_babylon.pdf).

Lesson Four: Win in the margins

This principle is the one that will help you increase your nest egg as quickly as possible. The basic idea is to look for ways to increase your income and decrease your expenses. Evans goes through a number of different ways to look for deals and decrease expenses. He says that one of the best ways to save money on a purchase is to ask “Is that the best you can do?” This seems to especially be true with high-ticket items.

Lesson Five: Give back

Evans donates 10% (or a tithe) of his money and says that he has never felt the loss of the money but instead has felt specifically blessed for his contributions. My wife and I do the same thing and feel the same way that Evans does.

Those are the five lessons. Are you surprised at all by the simplicity? I would guess that you are. Like I said, none of the ideas are earth-shattering revelations. How many of them are you actually living, though? If you are intrigued by these ideas I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this book and make some plans to improve.

Share this:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

How Rich People Think

by Ryan Law

How Rich People ThinkI recently picked up a copy of the book How Rich People Think[i] by Steve Siebold. In the book Siebold shares 100 lessons he learned over a period of 26 years as he interviewed some of the wealthiest people in the world. The book reminds me of a few of my other favorite finance books, including The Millionaire Next Door and Think and Grow Rich. These books don’t focus on money per se, but how rich people think and act.

In today’s post I will share several of Siebold’s lessons.

#13 Middle class believes money is earned through labor…World class believes money is earned through thought

“The average person believes the harder they work the more money they’ll make. Their linear thinking equates labor and effort with financial success. This is why most people aren’t rich. They’re following an outdated model of success…The rich know that creative thinking is the highest paid skill in the world.”

This idea of creative thinking is a theme throughout the book. Siebold mentions numerous times that the best thing you can do is work on training your mind to find solutions to difficult problems. “The rich get richer,” Siebold says, “because they know the world is overflowing with wealth disguised as problems that need to be solved.” One way he recommends you train your mind is by investing at least one hour per day studying subjects that will help you move toward your vision.

#20 Middle class earns money doing things they don’t like to do…World class gets rich doing what they love

Surely you have heard the philosophy that you should “do what you love and the money will follow.” Do you believe that is true? On the last day of my class each semester I ask the question “How many of you truly believe you can do something you love and get paid well for it?” Most students raise their hands, but the reality is that most people don’t like what they do. Forbes reported on a study that showed that only 19% are satisfied with the work they do, 16% are somewhat satisfied and almost 2/3 of all people are dissatisfied, or unhappy in the work they do.[ii]

There is a great video narrated by Alan Watts called “What is Money Was No Object?” that discusses this theme. Here is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_sbcSRMsOc

Siebold says that “…passion is the real secret of getting rich…The rich go to work every day feeling passion for what they do, and their passion fuels their efforts.”

#50 Middle class dreams of having enough money to retire…World class dreams of having enough money to impact the world

What is your major money goal? Siebold says “…the masses major goal with money is to retire at 65 and hopefully have enough money to survive until they die. The world class, while often no more ambitious, set their sights on impacting the world with their wealth.”

Most people want to make a positive impact on the world. Think about some specific things you could do to make a difference for other people if you had the money to do it.

#58 Middle class have loosely defined goals with flexible deadlines…World class have highly defined goals with do or die deadlines

Jim Rohn, a famous speaker, author and consultant tells a story of meeting with his mentor, Earl Shoaff, for the first time. Shoaff said, “Let’s start with reviewing your goals.” Rohn said he didn’t have them with him so Shoaff said “Are they in your car? Why don’t you go get them so we can review them.” Rohn said they weren’t in his car and in fact he didn’t have any written goals. Shoaff then drilled into Rohn’s head the importance of having goals, and Rohn went on to equate this one principle with the majority of his success.

Siebold says only 3% of people have goals specific enough to generate the level of mental energy required for success, while “World-class thinkers focus on the single most important goal they desire and set a deadline for its achievement…Their do or die commitment to building a financial empire virtually guarantees their success.”

Here are a few of Siebold’s other lessons. World class…

  • Believes building wealth is a team effort
  • Focusses on money making activities
  • Has an action mentality
  • Takes calculated risks
  • Believes money is about freedom
  • Believes in self-reliance
  • Is internally motivated to make money
  • Believes starting a business is the fastest road to wealth

I encourage you to read books like this that challenge your thinking. You may not agree with everything Siebold or other authors like him say, but I believe it is a healthy thing to read things like this and seek for ways to improve your thinking.

 

[i] ISBN 978-0-9755003-4-7 Published by London House Press

[ii] http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2012/05/18/new-survey-majority-of-employees-dissatisfied/

Share this:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Finding Financial Wellbeing

wellbeingA while back I was given a copy of the book Wellbeing – The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter. In this book Rath and Harter look at the five essential elements that shape our lives: Career Wellbeing, Financial Wellbeing, Physical Wellbeing, Social Wellbeing and Community Wellbeing.

In the introduction to the book the authors say “Wellbeing is about the combination of our love for what we do each day, the quality of our relationships, the security of our finances, the vibrancy of our physical health, and the pride we take in what we have contributed to our communities.”

For today’s post I am going to go into more detail about Financial Wellbeing.

Financial Wellbeing is about effectively managing your economic life. The authors note that it is difficult to be happy in any area of life if you cannot meet your basic needs (remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?), but that the amount of money we have, beyond a certain point, has less of an impact on our overall wellbeing than the concepts of “financial security” and effectively managing our finances.

“People with high Financial Wellbeing manage their personal finances well and spend their money wisely. They buy experiences instead of just material possessions, and they give to others instead of always spending on themselves. At a basic level, they are satisfied with their overall standard of living.” (Rath & Harter, 2010, p 154).

There are several important concepts in that statement. People with high Financial Wellbeing:

  • Manage their personal finances well
  • Spend their money wisely
  • Buy experiences instead of just material possessions
  • Give to others
  • Are satisfied with their overall standard of living

Let’s discuss a few of those concepts.

Give to Others

The authors cite three studies that show that spending money on yourself may temporarily make you feel good, but after time that good feeling fades. While spending money on yourself does not boost wellbeing, spending money on others does. When we help others out we feel good, even if it is just a little bit of money. For more detail on this subject, see “Why Giving Matters” (http://blog.ryanhlaw.com/why-giving-matters/).

Buy Experiences

While spending on material goods doesn’t increase wellbeing long-term, spending on experiences does.  Think about some of the material items you purchased over the past year, and then think about some of the experiences you purchased in the last year. Experiences can include trips or something as simple as going out to a nice dinner or going to a movie. Do the material items or experiences give you the most happiness? Most people would agree that experiences give them the most happiness. Things that come to mind for me are date nights with my wife, going to a movie as a family, and taking a trip over Spring Break. With experiences we get to look forward to the event, enjoy the event and have fond memories of it. It is interesting to note that for those that earn less than $25,000 per year experiences and material purchases show similar gains in wellbeing, but after $25,000 experiences provide two to three times the levels of wellbeing when compared to material purchases.

Manage Personal Finances Well

This concept brings us back to many of the things I have covered in this blog; budgeting, protecting yourself from identity theft, having a basic estate plan in place, saving for emergencies, investing for the future, etc. The authors also suggest you establish default systems, such as direct deposit, automatic deduction for investments and enrolling in your 401(k) at work so savings is automatic.

 

It is important to remember that all areas of Wellbeing (career, financial, physical, social, and community) work together. You can’t just focus on one area and ignore the others.

I recommend you read the book to see how you can improve your life in all five areas. http://www.amazon.com/Wellbeing-The-Five-Essential-Elements/dp/1595620400

Share this:
Facebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail