If you’re one of the many people who want to find a better way to earn an even better living, stop what you’re doing and read these tips to help you change the way you think about building wealth.
1. Stop trying to take it all on
Building wealth means you need to spend time honing your talents and growing your business. If you are spending all of your time taking care of the accounting, handling administrative duties, and not pursuing your goals, you’re not building wealth. Hire someone to take care of menial tasks who shares your same vision and values so that you can achieve your dreams more efficiently.
2. Stop believing in get-rich-quick schemes
They sound too good to be true because they are. The biggest get-rich-quick-scheme of them all is the lottery, and that doesn’t promise wealth. It promises loads and loads of cash while providing no mindful habits that help you keep it, grow it, and make it work for you. Most people who “get rich quick”, also “spend their money and have to go back to work quick.”
3. Stop looking at what your neighbors have
Your neighbors may have a new Tesla and added a pool in the backyard, but that doesn’t mean they’re building wealth. Wealth, at it’s core, is not determined by how much money you have, it’s having the knowledge, the tools and the strategies to make your money work for you. Spending to keep up with everyone else is making your money work for someone else’s view of you.
4. Stop spending more than you earn
This falls in line with #3, and is one of the foundations of my wealth building philosophy. It’s a simple concept, but putting it to action proves more of a challenge, because visions of sports cars and a life of luxury at any relative price usually take control when presented with leftover money. This doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy luxuries when you can afford it. But, no matter what level of compensation you earn, you can always save more so that you can invest more. The ultimate goal? Earn more.
5. Stop thinking you don’t make enough money to start
In my book, I talk about a gas station attendant who managed to save $8 million over the course of his life. Even if you’re an hourly worker, you can still save money. You just have to commit to it.
6. Stop trying to buy your happiness
Instead of waiting for your wealth to make you happy, find ways to make yourself happy now. What are your passions in life? Pursue them and discover strategies to earn money from them. Want to write a novel? Then you must write.
7. Stop being a victim of your paycheck to paycheck life
Yes, you can save money from each of your paychecks and invest in the rest, but that isn’t the only way, and it certainly isn’t the most efficient way. A paycheck in return for time worked is called vertical income — you will always have to work a certain amount of time for a certain amount of money. Create horizontal income, which is cash flow from endeavors that don’t require a particular amount of time worked. Real estate is a great example. If you purchase an apartment complex, you’re now gaining income from your tenants - income you didn’t have to work for.
8. Stop thinking you know it all
In order to grow, you must always keep learning, keep exploring, keep discovering. Whatever your business is, there is still so much more you don’t know. Become an expert in your field, an expert in marketing your product or service to your industry. Invest in training, coaches, and education. The return will be that much greater.
