6 Tips For Financial Success

📝 Create a budget
🆘 Keep an emergency fund covering 3-6 months of expenses
💸 Spend less than you make
📊 Buy low & sell high in the market
☝️ Always contribute to the full match in a 401k
📈 Invest your money in assets that appreciate, not depreciate

Studies estimate that the average person will need $1.8 million to live comfortably in retirement until death or they reach age 92 💰

And it’s absolutely possible for anyone to reach that but you must stay disciplined and follow your plan! 📝

You can choose to INGEST a $2.95 coffee per day or INVEST that $2.95 daily and instead of spending $43,000 on coffee over the next 40 years you could have earned more than $175,000 by investing. Assuming 6%/year 😮

“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship”

5 Keys To Build Wealth

📝 Create a budget
💰 Invest at least 15% of your income every year
📈 Invest in assets that appreciate, not depreciate
💸 Increase your investment contributions as your income rises
🙏 Give back to others less fortunate as you attain wealth

💸 7 Streams of Income 💸

1. Primary Job Income
2. Dividend Income
3. Side hustle
4. Online sales / Selling things you no longer use
5. Rental Property
6. Capital Gains
7. Royalties

☝️ Learn to make money while you sleep – it can be done!

47% of Americans don’t save a single penny of their paycheck 😳

1. Get on a plan 📝
2. Create a budget 📑
3. Stop making excuses for why you can’t save 🚫
4. Sacrifice a little now so you can live better later 💰
5. Invest often & let compound interest do the heavy lifting 📈

60% of Americans have less than $1k saved 🙈

The average American basically cannot pay their bills or feed themselves within 2 weeks of not receiving a paycheck 😟

Identify a habit (coffee, cigarettes, alcohol etc) that isn’t necessary & replace it w/ an investment in yourself 📈

😨 Millennials spend $838/month on nonessential items.

👎 49% of millennials said nonessential spending contributed to their credit card debt.

📈 Instead take 1/2 or even 1/3 of that monthly spending & leverage it into investments that will produce income for YOU later in life.

Nearly 55% of Americans age 25-44 save less than $1000/year. This is an EPIDEMIC & nobody’s talking about it!

Make it a priority to increase your investing/savings by a MINIMUM of 1% each year.

No one is saying you can’t enjoy the present but always have a plan for the future. 👌📈

98% of the rich consider good health to be one of their most important personal assets (US Trust study.)

And this one is easy:

1. Eat right 🍎
2. Exercise 💪
3. Sleep well 📵

Without being healthy, no amount of wealth will improve your quality of life.

If you want to improve your life, start by taking control of the things you CAN control:

– Your habits 🍔🍟💳

– Your attitude 😩❌ 😆✅

– Your network 👨‍👦 👨‍👧‍👦

– Your physique 💪🏋️‍♂️

– Your gratitude 🙏🎁

– Your productivity ⌛️💰

Without being healthy, no amount of wealth will improve your quality of life.

It doesn’t make sense to try and get 4%-7% returns from the stock market (or from savings) if you are paying 16%-30% interest on your credit cards.

Pay off all your credit cards first—and keep the debt off you—then invest in the stock market.

Ask yourself:

• Do you budget your money, or spend it all each month?
• Do you have a lot of credit card debt, or a lot of investments?
• Do you make installment payments, or are you receiving dividends?
• Do you get bills in the mail, or are they all automatically paid online?

If you don’t manage your money it will manage you — with bad debt, liabilities, and needless anxiety.

Money is a great servant but a terrible master.

Whenever you travel anywhere as a tourist, always watch out for the tourist traps. ☝️

Never eat in a restaurant that is nearby your hotel. And avoid buffets at all cost, unless its included for free.

Also keep an eye out for the old upsell, extra add-ons that you don’t need (for your flight, car, or hotel).

Before you start to invest, there are 6 things you should do:

💹 Build an emergency fund
💸 Pay off bad debts
📝 Define financial goals
💰 Increase cash flow*
📒 Know your net worth
📚 (Constantly) educate yourself

* This doesn’t necessarily mean to get a higher paying job. It can also mean to cut unnecessary expenses.

Money traps to AVOID!

🚙 Car out of price range
🏡 House out of price range
👸 Expensive life partner
📝 Having no financial plan
💍 Overly expensive wedding
🍸 Too much partying/drinking
💳 Not using credit wisely
💹 Not investing

☝️A good investor knows how to manage money & how to avoid money traps.

How to make (and keep) yourself broke:

• Not having an emergency fund 💰
• Not tracking your finances/spending 📝
• Spending money on stuff you don’t need🎀
• Trying to impress others with status 🚘
•  Not saving anything for retirement 😭

We all have areas to improve! #makeithappen

The average American millennial’s debt is:

• $16K Credit card 😧
• $30K Auto loan 😥
• $51K Student loan 😭

The lesson? Don’t be an average millennial.

The 5 worst investments you can make:

1. Time shares ⏲️
2. Penny stocks 📉
3. Online surveys 📝
4. Bank CDs 🔒
5. Worthless degrees 🍎

These might seem like good investments at first, but if they are taking time/money away from you with little to no return, its not good. 💸

How well do you know your financial terms?

Lets see:

• income = money coming in
• salary = money coming in that you work for
• debt = borrowed money
• good debt = borrowed money that generates more income
• bad debt = borrowed money that takes money away (credit cards/student loans)
• expenses = money going out (on things you need)
• liabilities = money taken out (on luxuries/stupid purchases/kids/emergencies)
• investments = money set aside today for a bigger return/profit in the future
• assets = an investment that generates money
• passive income = money generated by your assets without you working
• cash flow = total income, minus total expenses

80% of Americans live in debt.
40% of Americans can’t afford a $400 emergency.
25% of Americans have no retirement savings.

Don’t be the majority.

Most people get excited when Facebook/Instagram or Twitter makes a notification sound.

But I get excited when eBay makes a “cha-ching!” (cash register) sound.

Every time that happens, I just made some money. Try to find a fun hobby that pays you while you go about your day.

If you’re serious about changing your life, you’ll make it happen.

If not, you’ll make an excuse.

Let this be the year that you take every part of your life to the next level.

No more excuses. No more procrastinating. No more laziness. No more sacrificing hard work for comfort. You know where you want to be, get it done. #makeithappen

There are 6 levels of financial freedom.

Level 1 – solvency (using income to pay debt & living expenses)

Level 2 – stability (minimal debts, using income to pay living expenses) + emergency fund

Level 3 – debt freedom (free of debt excluding rent/mortgage) + investing + emergency fund

Level 4 – security (investment cash flow is enough to cover rent/mortgage) + emergency fund

Level 5 – independence (investment cash flow = your annual living expenses) + emergency fund

Level 6 – abundance (investment cash flow is greater than anything you want)

Which level are you?

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them.

They seem to make little difference on any given day, yet the impact they deliver after years can be enormous.

More than half of Americans don’t even have $1000 in the bank, and its sad.

• No financial education.
• No budgeting skills.
• No money saved.
• No side hustles.
• No passive income.
• No desire to learn investing either.

But Netflix is running alllll day long. Just 100% laziness!

64% of Americans are homeowners.

61% of Americans cannot cover a $1000 emergency without going into debt.

….Do you see something wrong here? 🤔

Many people are “fake rich” and flash the appearance of wealth, but the reality is that their wealth is mostly debts.

For every thing in life its important to ask yourself, “Does this add value or take value from me?”

Value can be time, energy, wealth or knowledge.

For example watching TV takes time, whereas reading books can add knowledge. Healthy food can add energy, but unhealthy food does the opposite. People in your social circle can do any number of these things, so be very careful about who you spend time with.

Don’t work for money, have your money work for you.

Consumers: Should high schools be required to teach financial literacy?

Bankers: No, no! We can’t have people leaving high school with practical skills that translate to the real world and help them to be successful! Who’s going to fall for the college debt trap then??

Who’s going to be content working their 9-5 crap job for 40 years all while thanking the middle management boss for the privilege?!

Who’s going to buy houses and iPhones they can’t afford, carry credit card debt, and get by with the bare minimum while we stay rich?!

Most people sell their time to get a paycheck. And then they spend that money to buy the material things they want, forcing them to sell their time again, to get another paycheck. It’s a cycle they repeat every month.

Rich people on the other hand, use the money they make to buy assets that generate more money, which allows them to enjoy more free time, since their money makes money.

The takeaway: Rich people buy assets (stocks, real estate, businesses, and startups), poor people buy liabilities (cars, houses, bling, and gadgets). These are things that don’t pay you.

Why do most people not invest?

• They don’t have any money to invest & they think only the rich can invest. 💸
• They don’t know how, and give up at the first sign of it looking complicated. 🤔
• They believe wealth is made up of material possessions (fast cars/clothes/bling) and not investments. 🚘
• They don’t do well with volatility & they get easily spooked by downturns. 📉😮
• They like to be more in control of their money & they think the stock market is too risky. 😭

Many people stay broke because they have too narrow a focus. Stop trying to save one dollar today with a coupon, when you can save thousands of dollars in the future by investing.

The average 401k only has a median value of $65,000. Yes, SIXTY FIVE THOUSAND.

For a 65-year old person who wants to retire, $65,000 dollars is a joke.

Even if you also have social security benefits, SSI is only funding about 40% of your living expenses.

Wall Street has been looting the 401ks that people think will save them when they retire.

Don’t keep doing what the majority of people do — They blindly contribute to a 401k, invest nothing, buy no assets, have no financial plan, and blame the government when they go broke.

Today I read a statement that I thought was rather profound: “To get unscrewed one must know that they are screwed in the first place.”

I told my mom this week that she wasn’t using her credit card properly. Of course, she scoffed at my words (as most people would).

The truth is, many people think that they know how to use credit cards properly, but they don’t.

If you aren’t paying it all off every month in full, you are needlessly paying interest.

Most people are paying interest, but a small percentage of people know how to earn interest. Which are you?

I talk a lot about money.

But I just want it to be known—there is more to life than money. Money is a protection, but that’s all it is.

Your health, your family, your morals, and your spirituality. These things are all more important than money. Never forget that.

Money is flying out of your pocket every single day whether you recognize it or not (food you eat, gasoline you burn, electricity you use).

But its good to have some passive income from (stock/business/real property) assets that put money back into your pocket every day.

I was at Walmart and I saw a man wearing a T-shirt that said “busy doing nothing”.

This is the kind of mindset that keeps people needlessly poor, broke and struggling.

Even when you have free time, use SOME of that time to build a side income. Don’t just waste it all.

We often tend to follow the same path due to limited knowledge. In order to expose your brain to different ideas, you need new knowledge.

This is why studying history is so interesting. History repeats itself again and again.

If you want to see what’s coming next, look backwards.

There is nothing wrong with going slow and steady. Take your time, and enjoy the process to plan & build something. (This can apply to many things: relationships, business, finances)

People who are anxious/in a hurry to get somewhere will probably end up crashing into something.

In nature there are natural cycles that happen (the water cycle, the nitrogen cycle and the carbon cycle, etc.)

The economy also has a natural cycles (the 3-to-7-year business cycle, the 15-to-25-year Kuznets cycle, and the 45-to-60-year Kondratieff cycle).

The majority of people “follow the money”, (a paycheck) and this is why they stay broke…

The goal should be to grow wealth through smart money management, financial literacy, and learning how to LEAD your money, instead of just following it.

When I spend money on something, I try to spend it on things that either grow me, or bring value to my life.

Value is anything that gives you more time, knowledge, wealth, or health.

If I gain any of the afore-mentioned things, then I consider it money well spent.