Graduate from a Pay cheque Mentality to a Net-Worth Mentality
Question:
- Do you feel like you’re not getting ahead with your finances?
- That no matter how hard you work or how much extra money you earn, you’re still in the same place as you were a year or even five years ago?
- You seems to run out of money before the end of the month or before your next salary
- It seems you have more bills to pay every month
- You would like to maintain a regular saving account with monthly deposit but somehow, it just wasn’t happening
Answer: – It may be because you have the wrong mind set about your finances.
According to Jack Bogle, the author of The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing, there are two mentalities when it comes to personal finance:
- The pay cheque mentality
A person with a pay cheque mentality focuses on increasing their income in order to increase their wealth.
- The Net Worth mentality.
A person with a net worth mentality also seeks to
- Boost or increase their income,
- But also build their wealth through
- Saving
- Investing
Even though the second path seems like the obvious path to take, unfortunately, many people are stuck in a pay cheque mentality.
- So, when it comes to wealth, it is not
- What you say
- What you do
- Where you are from
- The nature of your work
- The size of your salary
- Rather, it is a product of your pre disposed MIND SET
Although there is a definite relationship between income and wealth, they are very separate and distinct economic measures.
Income is how much money you earn in a given period of time.
- If you earn a million in a year and spend it all, you add nothing to your wealth. You’re just living lavishly.
- Those who focus only on net income as a measure of economic success are ignoring the most important measuring stick of financial independence.
- It’s not how much you make, it is how much you keep.”
Wealth building mentality however isn’t just to make more money, but to keep more of it to create long-lasting assets and security for yourself and family.
HOW TO CREATE A WEALTH MENTALITY
Focus on net worth
Net worth is the underlying motivation of all wealth builders. It is the foundational measure by which all millionaires, billionaires, and the soon to join their ranks think. But don’t get confused by the movie start lifestyle so forcefully depicted in reality T.V. shows and movies. Those lifestyles are far and few between and usually end somewhere between drug addiction and bankruptcy. Therefore, if you wish to become wealthy in anything, your focus should be on surplus and the net value of that surplus.
Have Specific Goals
Having a goal is not enough. A specific goal with a specific blueprint is required for wealth mentality. A goal in itself without ACTION never guarantees success Action is the single characteristic that EVERY self-made success displays. Every other attribute is debatable…but not action. Action is the main vehicle that everyone taking the wealth mentality express is riding in. Your starting point is your current place in time…where you are right now. Your specific goal is the destination you wish to arrive at and action is everything between those two points. Without these three ingredients you don’t have a recipe for success or for wealth mentality. Thus, the reason for having a SPECIFIC goal is because the depth and detail of that goal will determine the type and amount of ACTION you will take when you remind yourself of that goal.
Have a Definite Purpose
Question: – Is your work your purpose?
Ask yourself, is your current method of earning wealth your purpose? Do you feel like you were meant to do what you are doing right now? If not, then you need to find that definite purpose and focus 100% on whatever it is because only when you have found this single, definite purpose will you be able to pour your heart and your strength into that area. Sadly, not too many people can answer this question – because many people never stop and ask themselves what it is that truly makes them happy. Without this self-exploration, it’s impossible to truly know what can makes you happy and when you aren’t sure about what makes you happy, you will surely have difficulty in knowing what your purpose is.
Make Your Destiny
Never believe that you are predetermined for something. Remember that you are in control of pretty much everything that happens in your life that is not considered an “act of God”. Although there are instances in life that are completely out of your control but when it comes to being the architect of your long-term life print, you and ONLY YOU, will be able to direct energy to that path.
Most people are THERMOMETERS. They react to life and everything that life throws at them. You can tell if they are having a good day just by looking at their face because they give in to the reality that surrounds them. But people with wealth mentality are THERMOSTATS. They set the temperature of life and they construct their own futures for success. While few people exhibit this mind set, most who do are either very successful or on their way to success in whatever area they choose to direct their energy and efforts.
Measure Your Progress
We all love the feeling associated with starting, working at, and completing a certain task. The feeling of accomplishment is a powerful motivator for even the least goal oriented individual. It may seem a silly thought at first, but teaching yourself to feel this accomplishment has two very basic, yet very important results. First, you can use this sense of accomplishment to measure the overall productivity of your day. If you have a checklist of certain tasks (which you should), then checking them off as you complete them should give you a quantitative way to measure the productivity of your day. Second, you will be able to let that feeling of accomplishment compound and build more positivity in your life. Our average day is bombarded with negativity from every type of media or common interaction which can sometimes stifle your creativity and motivation. By continually teaching yourself to feel positive and excitement after successful completion of your tasks, you will offset any negativity you may come across.
Be deadline Driven
Pressure can sometimes be your best ally. Allowing yourself to be placed in certain situations of pressure can develop valuable skills, abilities and character that you could never develop otherwise. For instance, the high amounts of pressure exerted on carbon-bearing materials creates the ultra-valuable diamond. Procrastination is the killer of dreams and any goal without a sense of urgency will rarely be accomplished. The easiest way to avoid any type of procrastination is to formulate a definite deadline for your task or goal. Stick to it with an emphasis on finishing the task EARLY. It’s important to emphasize finishing early so the thought of procrastination never beats your motivation. One simple way to do this is to give yourself a reward for finishing the highest priority task in a given day.
Work Hard
There is no substitute for hard work in developing Wealth Mentality.
What is WORK? Work builds things. It is definite progression towards a specific goal with a deadline for accomplishing that goal. Work has a high probability of generating wealth, in this case monetary wealth. Before you perform a task, ask yourself this simple question – “Is this WORK”?
- Is checking your email work?
- Is taking that client out to lunch work?
- Is researching that new iPod or gadget to be released work?
For most people, it you take note of your daily activities, you will be amazed when you review your results only to see that the vast majority of your “work day” was not spent working. There is one more way to “work” your way to wealth. It’s a secret that a seldom few people ever think about or explore. It’s the concept of leverage, and it is the most efficient way to work your way to wealth.
LEVERAGE IS THAT YOUR WORK MUST BE DIRECTED TOWARDS BUILDING SOMETHING THAT HAS VALUE, WHETHER THAT BE A SERVICE OR A PRODUCT.
The question is what you are building, is it for you or for someone else’s services or products.
Play Hard
What good is having an abundance of wealth if it doesn’t allow you to have an excess of finances as well as your most important asset…time? The basic concept of wealth is that there is an abundance of some sort. Monetary wealth is obviously the abundance of money, but wealth comes in many forms. The most valuable form of wealth comes in the abundance of free-time. This sort of wealth is usually built through various methods of leverage. No surprise most wealthy people have stocks, bonds and other assets that provide leverage for them to have free time to play hard. Obviously, free-time is paramount to our happiness as individuals.
Just like many things in nature, there is a delicate balance between hard work and hard play that we must maintain if we wish to take hold of the wealth mentality. Too much work, and we become less efficient in our goals and progression. Too much play, and we lose sight of our goals and fall into the traps of procrastination and other motivation-busting emotions. The key is balance and efficiency.
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