Kevin O’Leary gave me some excellent advice. I had asked him about how to price a Financial Course. He told me, then said BUT! “No matter how good it is, even if you give it away for free, the people who really NEED it, will not take it.” I will admit that I hoped he was wrong, but after ten years of experience, I have found that he is ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! I have talked to hundreds of people who are in a panic about their financial situation, given them my card, and said call me, I can help. Statically, I only ever get a call back from 5% of the people. No matter how much I follow up.
I would listen to my students worry about how they were going to pay for tuition, food, and housing. I would offer them the Wealth Accumulation course for FREE. I would be lucky if 5% took me up on the offer. The most interesting thing about those who attended was; that the students who attended ALL had some amount of saving or investments already. I have NEVER had one of the worried students attend.
Here is a scary statistic from Wikipedia. The pyramid shows that: half of the world’s net wealth belongs to the top 1%, the top 10% of adults hold 85%, while the bottom 90% of adults hold the remaining 15% of the world’s total wealth, the top 30% of adults hold 97% of the total wealth. I don’t know about you, but I hate being in the loosing group. The really interesting part of this statistic is, that it is very easy to get into the top group.
All you have to do is get interested in your money!! The younger you are, the less effort it might require, because you have TIME on your side. The older you get, the more effort it will take. You don’t even have to do all the work yourself. You can hire someone else to handle the details. (Not necessarily the most productive idea.) Sounds too easy doesn’t it. But it is true. I have found that thinking simple pays huge dividends. The top 10% know what a dividend is. Do you?
I must have to do something? Yes, you have to get interested in your money. You need to know the answer to 6 questions. 1) How much is coming in? 2) How much is going out? 3) Where is the money going out spent? 4) How much am I saving/Investing? 5) What is my Return On Investment? (ROI) 6) Do I have protection for the money machine?
The top 10% of the population can answer those questions off the top of their head. The 90% at the bottom can’t. The top 10% don’t need the protection of the money machine but most will have it anyways.
You’re thinking that it just can’t be that easy. But it is. Try it for 6 months and see for yourself. I can help if you ask. The first 3 questions are the most important, and the easiest to find out.
Most advisors will start at question 4, how much are you saving? For too many people the answer is nothing, but someday I’ll do it. Too many people live on “Someday Isle.” I believe that you need to know the answers to questions 1, 2, and 3, before you can even put a number on question 4.
Question 1, How much is coming in? Gets you to look at the income stream(s) you currently have coming in. For most people that is a pay cheque. Question 2, How much is going out? Gets you to start thinking about where the money goes. For most people the amount is simple, ALL OF IT. Which brings us to question 3. Where is the money going out spent? This gets you to think about what it is that you are paying for. The Rent/Mortgage, the credit card payments, the car loan, those are easy. But this not where the problem usually lies. (Credit Cards might be) Most of the time it is small stuff that eats up what could be Savings/Investments.
That brings us to question 4. How much am I saving/Investing? Savings/investments can only come from the Cash that is coming in. Once we know where the Income is going,(expenses) we can see where some money for Savings/Investing might be available.
I ask people to save $20.00 a month to start. That amount (and often even more) can usually be found once we see where our spending is going. Maybe from 2 less coffees a week. Or one less carton of cigarettes a month. (This is a health as well as a financial benefit.) Once you are saving/investing you have started moving up towards the top 10%. It is that easy. As your savings/investments accumulate, it is time to learn more about how to make your money work for you. We now are at question 5. What is my Return on Investment? It really asks, is my money working as hard for me as I do for it?
This allows us to answer Question 6. Do I have protection for the money machine? Doing all of this, will show us what the money machine is, and then we can decide if we need to protect it, how much protection it needs, and what kind of protection it needs. Protection normally requires the use of Insurance.
Don’t like the wealth pyramids? Want to change them? It is much easier to change them when you are near the top. The journey of getting to the top, may also show you a thing or two about wealth, and wealthy people. Hollywood images are not always based on reality.
Want some help, email me at diywealteducation@gmail.com.