You'll have to forgive me because I'm going to write a rather serious post today. Ordinarily I'd say life's serious enough and let's have a bit of fun but last night I attended a free seminar on Creating Wealth by a guy called Marcus de Maria, a shares trader and senior member of Tony Robins leadership team, and I think it was interesting enought to share it with you all.
I'd heard about this guy's 2 hour seminar through my business coach and I thought I'd give it a whirl. I was expecting a hard sell for something else (because let’s face it you don’t get something for nothing) and I wasn’t disappointed. It was designed to persuade you to go on one of his Wealth Workout courses at an ‘investment’ of about £1,200 but that’s no bad thing and certainly nothing to hold against him. The guy has to make a living and teaching people how to create a life of wealth for themselves through his courses are how he does it.
Now maybe you’re wondering why frugal money saving zealot over here chose to go to a seminar and risk being so swept away in enthusiasm I would part with that amount of cash. Hand in hand with money saving goes a knowledge of wealth creation and I know that even if I pick up just one novel idea from a 2 hour free seminar and apply to my life it’s been worth it. Working hard and saving will not bring me financial freedom – the world isn’t the same place my parents grew up in and if I bumble along believing it I’ll have my nose to the grindstone until I’m 80. Somehow sooner or later Martin and I are going to have to invest our money somewhere. In this case I picked up two things so valuable it was well worth my time attending. Marcus did two things: he reinforced the need for me to take action about something I knew was a problem but had been ignoring and he opened my eyes to the possibility of being able to predict the course of my financial life.
What did Marcus reinforce?
He went through some of the psychological reasons why people aren’t wealthy and may never be so. Many of these I already knew and have actually been in denial about for sometime. However, by bringing them to my attention again Marcus has reinforced the need for me to do something about my very powerful but completely negative beliefs about money that I believe are holding me back. We all have them. In fact I don’t know anyone that doesn’t.
Recognise any of these?
- Rich people are unethical
- If you have a flash car you must be a w****r
- Money doesn’t grow on trees
- Money is the root of all evil (actually the proper quote is from the bible and says “The LOVE of money is the root of all evil”)
- I’ll probably fail anyway
- If I make a lot of money I will lose my friends
- My spouse/partner will get jealous and leave me
- If I have too much I’ll be taking it away from someone else
- I come from a working class family and my parents would think I was getting above myself and are better than them
- People with money are reckless spendthrifts
Deep down, all of them relate to self-esteem. Part of becoming wealthy is ferreting out these deeply ingrained beliefs, replacing them with positive money beliefs and continually reinforcing them everyday. Negative beliefs are put there by your school, your friends, your parents, religion and of course the media. I firmly believe that many of our money beliefs go right back through the centuries and were started by religious leaders. Tell the salt of the earth that being poor is noble and their reward will be in heaven and then get them to fill up the collection plate on Sunday. Did you know that some of the richest people and establishments in the world are religious? Think about all the prime, valuable real estate that places of religious worship occupy…...
What did Marcus open my eyes to?
He went through a way of predicting with reasonable accuracy when I would be financially independent. That is, when I reach the point where working is a choice not a necessity. Despite financial independence being on the top of most people’s wish list very few actually achieve it in their lifetime. Predicting when, if ever, it will happen to you apears to be a reasonably simple process but I imgaine takes a while to complete as you have to gather all of the figures together. It involves doing a complete a statement of your assets and liabilities, working out all of your income and expenses, estimating your income - both from your main career and from stock and shares - for the next 1-5 then 6-10 years and then adding in your savings.
A bit of jiggery pokery with the figures reveals the exact year you will become financially independent. Now, I’ve kind of glossed over this bit because there was a lot of information flying around and I was trying to get the overall picture not the minutiae detail. But the main point I got from it was this: there is a way to predict the year you will financially independent and once you have this you can change the date and bring it forward by increasing the percentages at each level.
For example, most people roughly estimate a pay increase of about 5% a year so you can work out near as dammit what your income will be should you stay in the same job for the next 5-10 years. If you made a conscious effort to increase this beyond 5% every year, either by for example earning promotions and bonuses or finding another higher paid job, you add more money to the pot and you move forward faster. Same thing for saving and investing. Increase the amount you put in and find low-risk ways to increase the percentage interest etc and you bring the date forward again.
You get the picture.
For me this was an eye opener and I really need to find out more. Which is why I’m sat here trying to decide whether Martin and I should invest £1,200 to get a thorough grounding in all things financial and kickstart us out of the financial rut we're plodding along in.
It might sound strange that someone who professes to be 'green' should want to make lots of money and be financially independent. Shouldn't I be turning my back on money and professing it a thing of evil? Well no. You see, I've realised recently that money isn't bad. In fact money is completely neutral. It's the hands that hold it that do the damage. The more money I make the more good I can do. Sure, if I have no money I can give of my time but I only have so much of that. Time doesn't build a school house or a fresh water supply in Africa. You can sit there all day wishing for it but without the money to buy the tools and materials it isn't going to happen.
So I'm opting to learn as much about money as I can and the way it works so I can give the maximum back as and when it's needed.