defense

Become The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE

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Taxes and profits; crime and losses.

Taxes, profits, crime and losses are all generated by people, it is something that is produced when decisions are made.  And not all can happen at once.  Taxes are paid out of profits and not losses.  If a company has a loss in earnings in any given year, the IRS will not be expecting taxes to be paid by the company.  But once losses are eliminated in its entirety, and more money flows into the coffers than there is money leaving the coffers, then profits are being earned.  And if profits are being earned, by anyone like giant corporations and small pa-and-ma shops, then the IRS will be expecting taxes to be paid.  But paying taxes is good because it indicates profits.  Profits are gains between the amount spent to produce something and the amount earned from the final production.  When profits are being earned, we all benefit because products and services are created that you and I can use to our advantage and consume.  Jobs are being created to help produce the product and service to earn the profit.  And taxes are being paid to the government to help fund government expenditures and services for the people who need it.  All these benefits have the potential to disappear if profits disappear.  The opposite of profits are losses.  No one likes to lose.  From professional athletes all the way to your bank account and everything in between, losses are generally frowned upon and is sought to be diminished.  As soon as losses start to become obvious, crime isn’t too far behind.  Crime is a form of loss and usually people and society don’t benefit from crime.  No one is living a better life because someone committed a crime.  Stealing bread to feed yourself is one thing, but to outright steal to enrich oneself at the expense of innocent people and to do this when starvation isn’t a concern benefits no one.  Taxes aren’t being paid because a crime happened.  The victim experiences a loss and consumes even more resources trying to recover from the loss.  And the thief or the criminal can’t use or consume the things they stole because it was an illegitimate gain and the moment a thief starts to consume what they stole, it will become obvious that they stole it because someone will recognize what they have truly belongs to someone else.  All illegitimate gains tend to fall into disarray before it is completely lost, which means the asset will end up being destroyed.  The thief will also miss out on the good feeling of working hard towards something that may be of interest and achieving it after years of hard work (success is working towards a worthy goal and achievement.  Criminal activity avoids and neutralizes that).  And that is just it, success is making the decision to works towards something that is worthy to work towards every day.  What is your decision?  Taxes and profits or crime and losses?

If your decision is profits, then taxes will always be associated with the profits you earn.  With sound financial decision making and planning following Become The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE, you should be seeing profits more often than losses.  It takes work, energy and thought power every day, but it is something you get to do every day and not just for a short period of time.  Becoming The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE is about producing more.  So if your decision is profits, then learning how to increase your profits on a regular basis is a skill you will have to get intimate with. 

A person can only produce so much with their own two hands and the time they have in the day.  For a person to increase their production, they must reach out for help to help them produce more.  Another way to put it is to hire employees.  Some people call it delegating responsibilities to other people (the higher the responsibility, the higher the pay), but it is still hiring employees.  It can also include hiring third-party contractors to help as well.  Having employees will help increase your production once fully trained and established, but each employee represents one job that was created to help you.  There are governments at all levels that release or announce tax incentives to attract job-creators to their community.  Questions have been raised about the true effectiveness of these tax incentives (some will say that all they do is move jobs around the country versus creating brand-new, additional jobs), but they could be opportunities for you to take advantage of.  And the more jobs that you can create the greater those rewards.  The opposite of tax incentives released by governments is entrepreneurship and that is where Becoming The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE lives.  According to a study by the University of Maryland, based on statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau, business startups account for approximately 20 percent of total U.S. job creation, while businesses that experience high-growth generate almost half of total U.S. job creation. These businesses tend to be small and young, classifying them as small businesses. Most new jobs are created by companies, firms and other institutions that are 10-years old or younger and not the generational firms that are over 100 years old.  Those jobs have already been created and are already occupied by existing employees.  When an old company moves their factory from one state to another because of tax incentives, then these jobs are just moved instead of new additional jobs being created (the people may not always move, but the jobs do).  Entrepreneurship is “the activity of setting up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the grand hope of profit.”  If you pick profit, it will be your responsibility to figure out how to produce, hire employees, distribute your product or service and to ensure the business entity runs efficiently and financially smart.  When you hire employees for a brand-new business or firm to help produce, your profits can increase, but you also create jobs in your community and each job will provide an income to the people who have assumed that responsibility with the corresponding earned income taxes being paid to the government from each job’s paycheck, increasing the amount of taxes being paid by your production.  Taxes are paid each time an employee receives their paycheck (from you but paid via their production as an employee) and paid on the profits earned by your production and business (busyness) on an annual basis. 

Economic doom and gloom can be diminished greatly too.  If your community, or the nation as a whole, is experiencing a period in which employment opportunities are limited and lacking, then become the solution to those problems.  Be the person that attempts to create jobs for your community instead of looking for a job for yourself.  If you create jobs for your community and people are able to take care of themselves and their families because of the jobs you have created, then you will be taking care of yourself and your family too (it is the positive side of karma).  It happens because of your decision and desire to earn profits and not losses.

Click to access jep_dhjm.pdf

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; Wants versus needs.

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The topic of wants versus needs is a topic that is frequently talked about and considered when it comes to one’s own personal finances. Generally speaking, a person’s income is limited and must be divided accordingly to the size of each bill that must be paid, this is the need. Wants tend to come after the needs have been paid, but often times can be far more expensive than your needs. The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE will say to satisfy your needs before your wants (this includes paying yourself as a need instead of a want), because it is basic financial literacy at play in your own personal financial situation and journey. The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE will say to go satisfy either a need or want or both in other people’s lives. Money is a means of exchange and being The Wealthy You! means having an abundance of a means of exchange (among other resources like housing, education, healthcare and entertainment). Abundantly (wealthy) producing a need or want or both for other people and abundantly exchanging those needs and wants for other people’s money is you achieving The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE. Going on the offense; taking the initiative; taking advantage of opportunities are all active approaches to life which is one part to The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE. Your human mind should not be taking a passive approach in your life and body.

All needs and wants that are consumed in one’s own life come from other people. Even if you grow your own vegetables, odds are that you got the seeds from a store, friend, neighbor or someone else. Perhaps the soil was purchased in bags from a box store or provided in bulk from a nursery. The piping that was laid down to move water directly to the plants came from a factory and maybe even was installed by someone else. The house that was built to live in consists of pieces, parts and components from other people throughout the country or world. Someone had to cut the lumber down to size, someone else had to place it in its final spot and attach it to other pieces so it would be secure (just a simple example but also includes healthcare, entertainment, education, and anything else you can think of). This is all work that needs to be done, but is usually done for others. The people doing this work for others are professionals in the line of work they are performing. People will seek those professionals out and trade in their money for professional work to be done.

Why not you? If you can do it for one person, then odds are that other people will be interested in either the need or want that you produce. It is your decision on what need or want to produce, just as long as production is occurring. Make sure you enjoy what you are producing and try to produce it for as long as possible. If you can produce for multiple people and because people tend to consume resources throughout their lifetimes, then you should be able to do it for multiple people throughout your lifetime and even after you die. If you can do this, then you will find multiple people trading in their money constantly throughout your lifetime because you are able to produce a need or want or both for them. And they will seek you out because you are associated with the thing that you produce that they need or want. This makes you a professional. Michael Jordan produced results on the basketball court for about 19 years. Ford is still producing vehicles long after the founder died. Elon Musk has been producing results for Tesla since 2003. Hospitals produce healthcare results and improvements for patients. Farmers produce food. Hollywood produces entertainment. But they do it every day. And they try to increase how much they produce too. Michael Jordan came out of retirement twice. Ford aims to produce more and more vehicles each year, they produce far more today than they did in 1922. Ford has produced more vehicles after Henry died than when he was alive. Elon has led Tesla to increasing amounts of production annually. Tesla has more and more product to share with the world each year. Hospitals are open 24/7 and are always looking into improvements in healthcare for patients. There is constant development in healthcare research and technology and it is constantly arriving in hospitals around the nation, all to improve your quality of care. Think what you want about the coronavirus, but it has forced humans to produce enormous results in respiratory therapy and countless other applications in healthcare. Farmers are constantly looking for more land so that they may produce more of the crop that they grow, more people will be fed as a result.

Imagine if Hollywood stopped producing entertainment. All those hundreds of billions of dollars that people trade in their money for entertainment would disappear because entertainment stopped being produced. Hollywood wouldn’t have anything to trade for other people’s money. People would stop going to movie theaters and blockbuster movies would cease to exist. There would be far fewer options for nightly television viewing. People would occupy their time doing something else because Hollywood studios stopped producing entertainment. Hollywood would quickly become broke, austerity measures would kick-in to place and the population will more than likely vacate the city and look for opportunity to produce something else somewhere else. Absolutely no growth happens in situations like this which means producing nothing will be one of the most destructive causes in your life. A real life example of production stopping is Detroit, Michigan. For the longest time, Detroit produced vehicles and countless other parts for vehicles and transportation concerns. Then one day the automotive manufacturers decided to produce their vehicles somewhere else besides Detroit. Over the course of time, production stopped, money stopped flowing in, people fled the city looking for other opportunity elsewhere, leaving behind crime, unoccupied buildings, idleness and drug use. Buildings fell into disarray due to the idleness. The lives of the people that stayed fell into disarray because of a lack of job options. Production stopped and idleness crept in. Detroit is still smaller than at its peak before production moved elsewhere and was borderline destroyed because they stopped producing their thing. Of course production has to happen, if Hollywood wasn’t producing entertainment, then someone else will step up and produce it instead. Vehicles are still being produced although Detroit isn’t producing as many of them despite more and more vehicles being produced annually.

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE is about you abundantly producing more for others. We all benefit when you do it and someone has to do it. Whoever does do it though will get the rewards, pay, investment, customers, work, benefits, gold, treasure, and anything you want. But it starts with producing first. Entertainment is produced and then sold, not sold and then produced. Ford makes their vehicles first and then sells them. You don’t go to the store and place an order for a Coke, and then wait for it to be delivered. Coke first produces their beverages, then delivers them to retail locations and when customers buy one of their beverages is when Coke receives compensation for their work. Do more first and then you will get paid more throughout your life.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; View yourself as one of the most valuable things to exist in society; you are more valuable than diamond rings, million dollar sports cars and billion dollar sports franchises. Besides, someone has to own all those assets, why not you?

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We, as people, tend to see objects and will immediately put a value on it/them. Sometimes it is a numerical or monetary value i.e. diamond rings. Other times it can be an intangible amount, but valuable nonetheless i.e. the love you have for your spouse or someone else (the value of intangible can be more valuable than monetary value). Of course, everyone is an individual and will have their own motivations for emphasizing value for something. But we all do it. It has happened ever since the very beginning, and there is no reason that it will end tomorrow or anytime soon. Humans placing value on things and objects will happen until humans don’t exist anymore. Knowing this about having the ability to place value, there are individuals who diminish the value in themselves. They do this by negative self-talk: “my life sucks”, “I am so screwed”, “bad always happens to me”, “this is just my luck”, “I always get the short stick”, “I’m trying to find myself still”. These are quick and simple sayings that individuals will say to themselves, either out loud or under their breath, literally every day. Every day they are telling themselves these negative words of affirmations. When something is repeated consistently to a human mind, the human mind will begin to realize it as a reality. Your world is built and destroyed by your tongue. The more these negative words are repeated, the more the world will start to see those negative words about you too. This also applies to the opposite of negative. The more an individual can do positive self-talk like; “my life is awesome”, “I am setup for success”, “I am surrounded by good and love”, “I manufacture good luck in my life”, “I have found myself and this is what I do to validate myself”. The more these positive affirmations are repeated, the more the world will start to see those positive words about you too. Your world is built and destroyed by your tongue.

Rubies, emeralds, diamonds, money and value are all around us and they are quite shiny too. But they are literally all around us, even in some of the smallest cities you can find a jewelry store that will sell you as many rubies, emeralds, diamonds and other jewelry as possible. They can even give you a credit card application so you can spend someone else’s money immediately on jewelry and then pay that person (bank/lender) back over time. Even pawn stores throughout America have jewelry on sale. But it is all value that must be owned by someone. And this value also includes homes, businesses, real estate, vehicles, sports franchises and anything else that can be owned by someone or a group of people. Ownership is taking responsibility of the thing that is being owned, if no one was allowed to own anything personally or privately, then who is taking responsibility of the homes people live in and the businesses that provide a product or service that people need? If it isn’t you that owns these things, then the government will have to take responsibility of everything and all assets in the nation. This is called socialism. The Wealthy You! is you taking responsibility of the assets you desire and owning them. If it is your own house, this means that all the doors and windows close and lock, there are no holes in the roof or walls, and all equipment and appliances work without issue, to make it become a fully functioning house. If it is a business that you own, then that business needs to produce its product or service in a reliable, consistent and price efficient way for the people that you serve (businesses of all sizes, from the smallest one-person shop to the largest corporations that employ hundreds of thousands of employees, all take part in the production and distribution of all resources that are used by you and I every day). The Wealthy You! is you taking your business(s) to the next level and owning your business not for yourself, but for your customers. You will then find more customers trading in more of their money on an increasingly frequent basis at your business(s). This means more money flowing through your hands (bank account) that you can use to continue growing your business (growth comes from God). But none of this will happen until your customers see an increase in service coming from you first. That is always the case; service first, then you get paid or see the valuation increase in your business. It is the same with a paycheck, work first and then you get paid.  See yourself as the most valuable thing in your life, then let your hands do the physical work that your mind sees for yourself to realize that reality.  You are worth more than rubies, emeralds, and diamonds and you will shine brighter than those shiny stones too. 

Why do I keep talking about businesses? Not everyone owns a business, this is true. But everyone does have a busyness that keeps them busy and productive which gives a feeling of satisfaction, completion and contribution. This could mean staying at home, cleaning the house and walking the dogs everyday while your spouse goes off to work. This is busyness that is productive for the house and your family. When it comes to busyness outside of the house that you do for others, legal entities exist that will help you manage resources, hire employees, produce your goods/services, and distribute them to retail outlets of your choosing. The U.S. Government refers to these legal entities as corporations, businesses, companies, proprietorships and partnerships. The Wealthy You! has you using these laws to your advantage so that you can share your product and ideas with the world. You will then find people around the world trading in their money for your product, literally all the time.

I know you can do this because human beings are the most creative force and power in the entire physical Universe (prove me wrong), armed with the most capable thinking device the Universe has ever experienced, the human mind; coupled with time and a near infinite amount of resources available for you to use. You can do whatever and however you want, just be as detailed as possible instead of generalizing and focus your mind power on it every day. Your mind will produce more of what you focus it on. Make the decision, take ownership of your life, time and production, and focus your mind on what you desire.

Next on The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; Wants versus needs.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; Put your collection of money and value to work for you. The more money you collect and put to work for you, the more money there will be available to work for you. Money doesn’t have a physical body to maintain, which means that it will literally work 24/7 for you until you say ‘stop’. This is compounding interest and investing. Make money work for you every hour of your entire life.

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Money is the most abundant resource in the Universe (America alone had almost $22 Trillion worth of economic transactions in 2021 alone). Time is the most valuable resource in the Universe and it can’t be bought at a store (if you could buy your time at the store how much would you spend to buy more?). Money itself can’t think (but you can). Money doesn’t have a physical body to enjoy the physical world around them (but you do and can). Money can’t get sick (but you can). Money doesn’t have a family to spend time with and enjoy (but you do). Money doesn’t need time off from work (but you do). Money doesn’t want time off from work (but you do). Money doesn’t mind being a slave to a master (but you do). Money doesn’t need to be compensated for labor (but you do). Money is more than happy to work your entire life for you, and if you put enough to work, it’ll be more than happy to work for your kids and your kids kids (generational wealth).

When you put your money to work, this is called investing. The point with investing is to put a little bit in and get more out. If you invest $100,000 into a home and a year later it is worth $125,000, that is a good investment. But if the home is worth less than $100,000 in a year, then it could be considered a bad investment because you got less out than what you put in. Same thing with stocks, bonds, and other financial assets like precious metals. But it doesn’t stop. If you bought that same $100,000 home but stayed in it as long as possible, then your investment could be worth a lot more as even more time elapses. That home could maybe double in 5-years time and become worth $200,000. This is money working for you to appreciate your assets as much as possible and it’ll continue doing so until you say ‘stop’ or hit the sell button. The longer you allow money to work for you and appreciate your assets, the more effective it becomes. This is compounding interest. Einstein once said “compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it…he who doesn’t…pays it”. In other words, put money to work for you. Real estate can be useful in this regards, especially if you have some real estate that you can lease or rent out to someone. Stocks will do the same thing as well, but stocks can be extremely risky if you aren’t sure how to navigate that realm. Bonds are another great financial asset, but there are several different types of bonds that exist. U.S. Government bonds are considered one of, if not the most secure and safest, financial asset on the planet. U.S. Government bonds can help protect your money from the erosion of inflation but there is no upside risk and opportunity for a tremendous amount of growth from U.S. Government bonds. Ideally, corporate bonds would do the same thing as government bonds, but each of those corporations DO NOT have the stability, size, capability and reputation to protect your money from inflation that the U.S. Government has. Stocks have more upside potential but their ground tends to be a little less stable. This is when corporations do better than U.S. Government bonds. People have gotten wealthy by purchasing stocks in Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Coke, Tesla, oil companies, and literally any other company that provides a product or service to society for as long as possible, not by purchasing U.S. Government Bonds. U.S. Government bonds will keep your money (DEFENSE). Stocks will grow your money (OFFENSE). The longer you let your money do that for you, the longer money will find you even more money to work for you, this is compounding interest. Enjoy your life with the people you love and doing the things you love to do with your time while money works for you in the background, literally your entire life.

Warnings: Don’t use or spend your money blindly. If you are going to invest and take advantage of compounding interest, become a student of the game. Learn as much as you possibly can about the potential investment you are considering. This also doesn’t happen overnight. This will happen every night and day. There may be perceived setbacks, but don’t quit. Those perceived setbacks needed to happen to put you into a better position.

Next on The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; Produce your product abundantly and share it generously, this is production. Production is the means of wealth. It is hard, damn near impossible to have wealth if nothing is produced.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; building wealth is a personal choice and endeavor that should be shared with the world.

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Building wealth is a personal choice. The world’s wealthiest people do not work for a paycheck from someone else. They all have some sort of product or service that they sell to society or the public. Usually the things they sell are all related to each other or is in a similar industry or works that work off of one another. But they all stem from a self-interest that those individuals or groups of people are interested in. Walt Disney had a self-interest in animation. Steve Jobs had a self-interest computers and software (among others), same with Bill Gates. The guys who created Caterpillar Inc. had self-interests in construction equipment manufacturing, going back to its predecessors Holt Manufacturing Company and C. L. Best Tractor Company (Caterpillar was formed with the merger of these two companies). These are just a few examples, but they all got to that size and level of success by pursuing self-interests in the first place and became competent in their space.

This may sound selfish and counter-productive but it is not. Especially when you get really good and knowledgeable about your self-interest to the point where the world will seek you out and ask for your knowledge and talent to help them with something that interests you. Money is a means of exchange. Once you come to the point where the world seeks you out about your expertise, something that interests you in the first place, you will discover that the world is wanting to trade in some of their money for your expertise. This will be a constant supply of financial resources straight into your bank account throughout your life. It’ll be daily, instead of a weekly or bi-weekly paycheck. And this can happen with any product or service that society uses. Helping others with the use of your own talents is selfless. It has been said that helping others and trying to make their lives easier is one of the most fulfilling things a person can do in life. That is production. That is The Wealthy You! going on the OFFENSE. Helping others, going on the offense to produce something that interests you and then sharing it with the world.

But none of this can happen without first pursuing a self-interest. This can mean little money or financial resources until the world acknowledges your expertise in your interest. But who cares, you don’t pursue it for the money, the money will pursue you after you start pursuing your self-interests. Money is the most abundant resource in the entire Universe. Just over $21 trillion worth of economic transactions, real GDP, occurred in America alone in 2019. That is just one country in one year. What else can you think of that numbers in the trillions? When you include China, The European Union, Japan, India, and every other nations real GDP, or the things they produce valued in U.S. dollars, all added together will lead to a mind-numbing amount of money. And that’s only in a short time frame. Pursuing self-interests will lead to more satisfaction and financial resources.

Wealth is abundance. When you produce abundantly, you will find that you have an abundance of financial resource to follow suit. But if a self-interest isn’t produced, let alone abundantly, then there won’t be anything to trade for other people’s money. That is poverty, lack of resources. This is The Wealthy You! not The Poverty You!. Find something that you like, get to know it as intimately as possible, then share your expertise and knowledge with the world.

Next on The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; New ideas, thoughts, dreams and new or different ways of doing things will fill your mind while pursuing self-interests.

Become The Wealthy You!

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD?locations=US

https://www.thebalance.com/components-of-gdp-explanation-formula-and-chart-3306015

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE. Win the war against poverty.

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This week on The Wealthy You!; win the war against poverty.

Building wealth for you, your family, and your community is doing your part to win the war against poverty. There is a war against poverty despite it not being mentioned in the news on a regular basis or even hearing other people talk about it throughout society. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson initiated a war on poverty in 1964, this program has been the center of various different criticisms and its ability to actually fight poverty from a whole-of-government approach, but the reasoning behind it makes sense. This was an interventionist strategy led by the state, but this approach doesn’t allow people or give citizens the opportunity to stand on their own two feet and develop and prosper on their own work, energy and economic production. Johnson’s program has been criticized and often been tagged as the program that has led to the massive welfare state that the U.S. Government has built over the pass few decades. Despite its criticism and shortcomings, the government was correct about one thing; generally speaking, the fewer people there are in poverty, the lower the crime rate, drug use, prison populations, homeless camps and other ills associated with poverty in society. This is a fact that all people can come together on. The easiest way of winning the war on poverty is to not be in poverty yourself. That makes it a personal endeavor instead of a state-led effort. How has poverty served society? Have you ever seen anyone purchase happiness with poverty?

The best and most effective way to not be in poverty yourself is to have a thorough understanding of financial literacy and to produce for others. Understanding financial literacy is my DEFENSIVE approach and producing is my OFFENSIVE approach.

In 2020, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States released the U.S. National Strategy for Financial Literacy. They define financial literacy and education, “Financial literacy describes the skills, knowledge and tools that equip people to make individual financial decisions and actions to attain their goals; this may also be known as financial capability, especially when paired with access to financial products and services. Financial education is the process by which people gain information, skills, confidence and motivation to act, through various means, including classroom education, one-on-one counseling and coaching, technology-based interventions, and self-study. A key desired outcome for financial education is sustained financial well-being, in which people can fully meet current and ongoing financial obligations, can feel secure in their financial future, and are able to make choices that allow enjoyment of life.” In the document, they call for state, tribal, and local governments, the private sector, local service providers and community organizations to work and participate together to teach and spread financial literacy to the people they serve and work for in their corner of society. The Wealthy You! DEFENSE & OFFENSE operate within the private sector. The government wants you to be smart with money and to be wealthy.

Doing your part to win the war on poverty helps not only you, your family, and your community, but it directly and indirectly helps other people from around the world. You become a member of the world’s production instead of being a sole-consumer. Whatever you produce through self-interests, other people in societies around the world will be interested in your production because it is helpful and productive for their life. Those people will merely trade in their own money for your production (OFFENSE), that money goes into your pocket or bank account, you can then use some of that money to trade in for food, energy, home and other things you need, and then through proper financial literacy (DEFENSE) you will be able to build The Wealthy You!.

Imagine going on the OFFENSE to produce a product the whole world will consume and utilize (McDonalds, Apple, Google, Twitter, Ford, Coca-Cola, and any other company that can be found around the world). These companies produce a product for people around the world that are willing to trade in their money for these companies products or services (money is a means of exchange or sharing). Think about humans and what humans need to survive, thrive and live and everything that orbits humans (pets, luxuries, entertainment, wants, etc…). In America (and other democracies with a human-capital means of production) you do not need the state’s permission to produce for the world. You just need to file with the secretary of state in whichever state you plan on operating from and then it becomes your responsibility to figure out how to produce your product or service (factory or farm), distribution of your product and the continued sales of your product. Of course there are a lot of nuances to doing this, but that is a part of the fun in producing for the world and building The Wealthy You!.

Next week on The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; poverty is a lack of resources and wealth is an abundance of resources.

Become The Wealthy You!

Click to access US-National-Strategy-Financial-Literacy-2020.pdf

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE. Introduction to OFFENSE.

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This week on The Wealthy You!; Introduction to OFFENSE.

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE is about keeping a portion of your earnings regardless of what your work, job or income is (financial literacy). The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE is about getting more and earning more, this happens by producing more for society. The Offense is taking the initiative, taking ownership of a worthwhile goal, getting more points than your competition and establishing your own income. It is about going from achievement to achievement and accomplishment to accomplishment instead of going from paycheck to paycheck. This is making decisions and leading by example every day. Stress test all ideas that come to your mind. This can include building a billion-dollar business from plants or other simple items like coffee. You will have to figure out how to remove all impediments to success, but that only comes after you make the decision of what success looks like. And that is the key, define what success looks like and then pursue it relentlessly every day with the limited time that you have. That is the OFFENSE. Remove all impediments to success when they become obvious (the human mind will figure out how to do that) and make the decisions that bring you closer to your vision of success. Don’t wait for someone to tell you what to do, this is your life and vision, start right now.

After you establish what your success looks like and you have started the journey in pursuing your success, you will come to a point where the pursuit of your success and vision will consume all of your time in which you won’t have any time to actually have a job and work for a paycheck. You will then have to make the decision of pursuing your success or receiving a paycheck. At the very beginning, the pursuit of your dreams may not pay as much financially as a job (which is why people hold on to them), but jobs never give you the opportunity to go on the OFFENSE in pursuing your dreams, visions and success and becoming The Wealthy You!. In the long run, going on the OFFENSE will pay far more than most jobs ever could.

The wealth that is being mentioned is about production instead of money. Money isn’t backed up by anything of significant value (full faith and credit of the government) and can be bought in every store in America (really around the world), it is the most abundant resource in the Universe. Credit cards, mortgages and loans of all types are examples of buying money. You buy credit (money) from someone else and then pay them back with interest over time. Production is about producing a product or service that can be beneficial for people in society. The things you produce orbit around human beings because they are used by humans. The time you spend producing those things cannot be bought or purchased at a store. Knowing that you have ownership of an asset that can’t be bought anywhere on Earth, which is your time, how much would you value your time? If the value you place on your time is in the millions or billions range, then you may want to consider selling a product or service that you produce instead of selling your time by the hour. That is going on the OFFENSE.

The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE is you taking ownership of your time, energy, thoughts, skills and abilities and using them in pursuits of success and sharing it with the world. The pursuit of self-interests is not selfish, it is selfless. Doing absolutely nothing for society and other people is selfish; do nothing for society, then society will give you nothing. Produce for society through your self-interests then you will find that you have access to all that society produces from others and their pursuits of self-interests. This program touches on the basis of economics.

Next week on The Wealthy You! – OFFENSE; Building wealth for you, your family, and your community is doing your part to win the war against poverty.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE. It is all mental.

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This week on The Wealthy You!; It is all mental.

What is mental? Literally everything in human society. All the physical items, tools, gadgets and other things that you touch everyday stems from a human mind, or a collection of them. Even the rocks, grasses and trees. Humans have created materials that can look like rock and act like rock. Humans can even manipulate rocks found in nature to have a productive use. There are so many grasses, trees and other plants that have been genetically modified to perform an act that humans want those plants to do. Grow bigger crop; produce vibrant colors; have thorn less varieties on plants that have thorns in nature, etc. Each of those plants have been created in a lab-of-sorts that is used to create specific traits in plants. They patent each of those plants with the breeders having specific rights that grant them exclusive control over propagation. Even money is a product of man, created by man in man’s own image. Money is one of the most abundant resources in the Universe and it will literally do what you want it to do. It will buy you the things you need in life, while also giving you the ability to create a product that you can return and provide to society and your community. But it starts with you mentally making the decisions first, to create a very specific reality. Money. Patents. Rights. Exclusive control. Artificial propagation. Billion-dollar businesses. Wealth. Poverty. War. Peace. Capitalism. Socialism. Nations. Borders. Religions. Communism. Freedom. Laws. Stresses. Worries. Depression. Names. Houses. Cars. Planes. Transportation. Defense. Offense. Recipes. Books. Movies. Songs. Betrayal. Loyalty. Just to name a few but these are all physical manifestations of the human mind. If humans weren’t around to recognize any of these thoughts and ideas in a physical form, would they still exist?

Have you ever heard anyone in your life or community say something similar to these statements: ‘I am a realist.’ ‘I live in reality.’ ‘Come back down to Earth and reality.’ ‘Be in the present moment.’ ‘Reality is what I see, feel, hear, touch and taste.’ The problem with all of these statements is that they undercut the value and undermine the creative ability of the human mind to physically create realities. Humans are the only thing in the entire Universe with such an immense ability. Take advantage of that ability and stress test it to create the reality that you want for you and your life. Be as specific as possible though and avoid being generic and vague. Down to the color, shape, feel, sounds and taste. When you do this every day, when you specifically create your reality in your mind every day, you will soon find yourself living a physical life with all those things you first created in your mind. And it will become a daily thing for you, with your mind in complete control of your life and the destination it is heading towards. Make the mental decision to establish a worthwhile goal, something you can pursue every day in your life. That is why I keep mentioning billion-dollar businesses. The daily construction of an organization that provides a product or service to as many people as possible is a worthwhile goal, and it’s your decision. If you don’t know what kind of goal to establish, providing a product or service to just a handful of customers in your community is a great place to start. Building upon that everyday could be one of the most enjoyable things you could imagine doing in your life.

It is all in your head, the power and strength to pursue worthy dreams and goals, and the restraints and insecurities that lead to thoughts of doubt. Filling your mind with thoughts of doubt will make yourself quit at pursuing your dreams and goals long before competition, family, friends and society will make you quit. That is your mind creating a reality that is counterproductive. Money and financial literacy is mental, it can make you a billionaire or make you homeless. What is your decision?

Next week on The Wealthy You!; we will begin the OFFENSE portion of this program.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE. Making or not making decisions.

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This week on The Wealthy You!; Making or not making decisions.

Making decisions. Your entire life is a collection of decisions, both good and bad. The decisions you make build your life and bring you to where you are currently. If you don’t like where you are at currently in life, then change your criteria for making decisions in your life. If you don’t have criteria established to help make decisions, then make the decision to establish criteria that will help you make those decisions. Don’t let others make the majority of decisions for you, make a habit of making those decisions yourself. Once you get in the habit of making decisions, you will find yourself making those decisions every day, decisions that will lead your life and your body to where you want to be. If you don’t know where you want to be, then make the decision to go somewhere with your life and body. Both your life, body and time are yours, not the governments, not your job or organization you work for, not your families, not your friends, nor the strangers you see everyday. It is yours and it is your responsibility to make those decisions. Every day.

When it comes to building The Wealthy You, start with making the decisions around your income. Where you establish your income is your decision. What I mean by ‘where you establish your income’ is that your income is determined by you. You might be getting paid a set amount by your job, but it is established by your employer. The employer has made the decision to determine that the job you are fulfilling for them is worth however much the employer is willing to pay people in that position. It was your decision to accept that job. If you desire more financial resources, then make the decision to find money outside your job. You must make the decision and determine how much you believe you are worth. The higher the number you decide upon, the less likely you will desire a job from someone else. The wealthiest people in the world do not work for a paycheck from someone else or from a single job. They work to establish as many sources of income as possible. They also make the decision to put money to work for them 24/7. Money will do this for you because money doesn’t have a physical body to take care of and maintain; money doesn’t have family that it wants to spend time with; money doesn’t need to sleep or eat or clean itself; and money is perfectly content working day and night for you. It will even find more money for you to put to work for you. Money is one of the most abundant resources in the entire Universe. Take advantage of money working for you, or else you will get the feeling that it will take advantage of you. All of that is your decision to make.

Most people who have and maintain a job with an employer tend to only have that one source of income available to them in their life. Becoming The Wealthy You! inherently means not being dependent upon a single source of income. If you have one source of income from a job and employer and that employer cuts back on production or closes shop and eliminates your job, you will experience and have to endure a major financial repercussion in your financial life. But if you spend your time and make the decision to acquire as many sources of income in addition to your job, then if your employer cuts back on production or closes shop, then the financial repercussions you experience will be minimized and the pain reduced. Where one income stops, another can and will grow exponentially. But you must make the decision to have as many sources of income as possible. Be creative with it and produce for others. Others will trade in their money for your production.

In addition to establishing and acquiring as many sources of income as possible, you must make the decision and determine how much you are worth in financial terms. Whatever number you decide upon, focus on that number every day. The human mind creates more of whatever it focuses on. If you focus on the number that you are worth every day, then your mind will create the reality that you are worth the amount that you made the decision on. The higher the better. This program is called The Wealthy You!, not The Poverty You!. Make it a habit and make those decision every day.

Next week on The Wealthy You!; it is all mental.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE. Acquisition of defensive-minded assets.

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This week on The Wealthy You!; Acquisition of defensive-minded assets.

Generally speaking in the world of financial literacy, there is a concept of assets and liabilities. Assets are things that puts money in your pocket or bank account and liabilities are things that take money out of your pocket or bank account. Both are very important and both are needed in ones life. However, acquiring too many liabilities can risk putting poverty in your life. And having just assets with no or little liabilities can lower ones quality of life as well. For example, a household of four, husband and wife with two kids. The husband and wife both work and bring an income for the household, so they become assets for the household. With that income they pay the mortgage and the other bills, buy food and purchase all the things their children would need for school and other pursuits. The money begins to disappear as soon as they earn it. The things that make your money disappear are liabilities, but it isn’t a waste of money because you get something in exchange for it (money is a medium of exchange). Think about heat in the winter, AC in the summer, transportation to get to work, school, the store and anywhere else you want to go. Vacations. Entertainment. They all take money out of your bank account, that is what liabilities do, but you get to enjoy life. All of that would be impossible though without you first becoming a valuable asset for your household. The purpose of this post is to talk about defensive-minded assets.

Defensive-minded assets will help protect your household from your money being eroded by inflation and by getting you in the habit of paying yourself first before you pay your other bills, at least 10%. Defense means using the income you get from a single job to become wealthier and more valuable (Offense will be going from a single income from a job to building and owning your own billion dollar business). This means paying on a mortgage and owning a home versus paying rent for an apartment. After 20 years of paying a mortgage, you get some money back when you sell. Renting the same place for 20 years will get you nothing when the lease ends and you move out. Not even a security deposit, typically. Wealth is about the ownership of assets, when you rent you own nothing. Renting has a purpose for transient folks who plan on moving about every 1-3 or 4 years. Home ownership is more of a long-term play and strategy.

For those who do rent an apartment, the purchase of stocks, bonds, gold and other assets that appreciate over time can be more appropriate. Stocks tend to rise when interest rates are low. As interest rates rise, stocks tend to not rise as much. Interest rates are raised to help fight inflation. The higher inflation goes, the higher the interest rates will need to be. U.S. Treasuries (bonds) are viewed as some of the safest assets in the world. When there is a crisis somewhere in the world or an economic crash of some sorts, people flock to U.S. Treasuries. They are notoriously stable, with minimal wild swings in its price. Purchasing U.S. Treasuries alone, as a way to pay you first with every paycheck, can be a decent strategy for The Wealthy You!-DEFENSE. They also pay a dividend each month, the more bonds you own the higher the dividend. Stocks can be similar, but tends to lean more towards The Wealthy You!-Offense, they follow a completely different road. Speak with a financial advisor to learn more.

Gold and real estate are other defensive-minded assets. There is a website called www.jmbullion.com, where you can purchase gold, silver, platinum and other types of metals. You can get coins and bars from around the world, gold notes, and jewelry. There are gold currency notes that contain 1/1000th to 1/20th Troy oz of pure gold that start at about $3.50 and goes to about $175. And they have 1 oz gold bars that are $2,000. The price of gold is always changing, which means the price of their gold is always changing. Check often and maybe you might find something interesting. Purchasing gold jewelry from a local jewelry store is another way of acquiring gold. Owning real estate instead of paying rent is another strategy of The Wealthy You!-DEFENSE. A portion of each payment you make goes to your house, which you own. That doesn’t happen with renting.

Having your own place to live and rest your head each night, purchasing bonds or U.S. Treasuries, and purchasing gold and other metals, combined with each of your paychecks will help protect your money and wealth from inflation. Getting in the habit of doing this before starting your The Wealthy You!-OFFENSE will allow you to collect billions of dollars’ worth of gold, bonds, stocks, and real estate once your offense does begin.

Next week on The Wealthy You!; making or not making decisions.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE. Inflation Protection

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This week on The Wealthy You!; Inflation protection.

Inflation protection on The Wealthy You! consists of both a defensive and an offensive component. In this segment we will cover the defensive side of protecting yourself from inflation. The offensive side of inflation protection will be covered once we begin the OFFENSE.

According to investopedia.com, money supply is the root of inflation. “An increase in the supply of money is the root of inflation, though this can play out through different mechanisms in the economy.” To keep things simple, the more money that is available to be had by people and citizens in a country, the more they will raise their prices on their products and services to capture more of it. This increase supply of money and the rising prices for products and goods causes the value of the dollar or the currency to drop. The more abundant something is, the lower its value. One American dollar is worth one American dollar in the American economy, there is almost nothing for sale for $1.00 or less in the stores in America today. If you can find something for sale at that price then you are looking at some cheap, mass produced item that is sold everywhere. 100 years ago, the dollar was worth more and could purchase more goods for you and your family, but there were far fewer dollars available 100 years ago. The more the dollar, or whichever currency that is being used, can purchase for you, the stronger the dollar or that currency is. The less it can purchase, the weaker it is.

Inflation can do some funny things like create a nation full of starving-billionaires and create novelty items out of their currency. It is extreme and rare, but it does happen. Hyperinflation is the cause of the starving-billionaires and novelty currency but it rains down destruction on the nation that is experiencing hyperinflation. It helped topple The Weimar Republic in Germany before Hitler and the Nazis rose to power, wheelbarrows full of cash was worth less than the wheelbarrow itself; Hungary experienced it after World War 2 when prices doubled every 15 hours, eventually becoming a part of the Soviet Union; in 1993, prices rose in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by 116.5 thousand billion percent, Yugoslavia no longer exists; Zimbabwe printed a $100 trillion Zimbabwean Dollar bill, it failed to purchase a single loaf of bread (starving billionaires), one American dollar was worth more than $100 trillion Zimbabwean dollars. And Venezuela is currently experiencing it as well.

When it comes to protecting yourself from inflation, the idea is to acquire things or assets that rises in value each year as the currency falls in value. When the currency falls, it requires more money to purchase the asset that you own or desire to purchase. In other words, it will take more money to purchase that piece of property you have been eyeing next year than it will need to purchase that same piece of property this year. Once you own that piece of property, it will rise in value each year in response to the inflation rate and you get to keep or own that value which helps protect you from inflation.

Keeping all your money as cash in the bank puts you at the biggest risk and exposure of inflation. Most bank accounts have an interest rate less than one percent but inflation has been 2-3%, money is losing value at a quicker pace than it is gaining value to offset the losses of keeping money in the bank. Keep emergency cash and your daily/monthly spending money in your bank, all excess should be converted to assets that rise in value over time, like real estate, stocks and gold. With DEFENSE, it is about keeping what you earn; purchasing real estate for a house to live in long-term and own will better protect you from inflation versus renting. Rent prices go up each year because there is more money to be had and limited supply of rental stock available. Once you start renting, you will be paying more to continue renting each year just to live there, that is exposure to inflation if your income can’t keep up with rent increases each year. If you borrow a set amount to purchase a home to live in long-term, the amount will be broken down into monthly payments for X amount of years. The payment wont change, but the taxes you pay might go up each year because the value of the home you own rose in value, even if the tax rate stayed the same it is being applied to an asset that is worth more than the year prior, that helps protect from inflation.

On August 15, 1971, Richard Nixon signed into law that removed the gold standard from backing up the U.S. dollar. This effectively created a currency without any legitimate and inherent value backing up the value of the currency, money became a fiat currency and money supply inflated immediately and rapidly shortly after signing that bill into law. When you walk into a bank or credit union you may see a sign or placard that states the deposit is backed and guaranteed by the Full Faith and Credit of the United States Government. That is the government saying your money will be safe because they say so, although there isn’t anything of significant value or that rises in value stored away to protect the value that exists in the currency. Since August 12, 1971, gold has increased from $40.95/ounce to $1,900.10/ounce on February 22, 2022, according to gold.org who started recording gold prices in January of 1970. That is an increase of 46X. In 1971, one US dollar could purchase $6.69 worth of goods in 2021. That is an inflation rate close to 600% or approximately 6X less valuable today than in 1971.

People and society tend to want more over time, converting your dollars into gold and other inflation-protection minded assets will give you more overtime than keeping your money as cash in the bank. Inflation is a very confusing topic and I only covered it briefly with this blog post. If you desire to learn more, then read books on the topic and look up information on the internet. It really is a fascinating topic to learn more about.

Next Week on The Wealthy You!; acquisition of defensive-minded assets

Become The Wealthy You!

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/inflation.asp

Click to access annual11b.pdf

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338538318_Hyperinflation_in_Yugoslavia_An_Example_in_Monetary_History

https://www.gold.org/goldhub/data/gold-prices

https://www.inflationtool.com/us-dollar/1971-to-present-value

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE

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This week on The Wealthy You; the importance of emergency cash.

Life happens and, for the most part, it is the most exhilarating journey you will experience while on Earth. I have heard some people refer to life as a “holiday on Earth”. Everyone’s life is different and each individual will perceive life in an individual way or manner. But one thing that is expected with your journey of life are emergencies. We all have them and they will make themselves obvious in your life at the most random and inopportune times. They will be stressful and they have the potential to drastically alter your life completely. Being able to handle those emergencies from a financial perspective will eliminate one pain that will be experienced during emergencies. Because feeling the pain of not being able to afford the emergency from a financial perspective and the pain of what the emergency manifests as will make the pain more painful and seem to last longer. Not having the proper financial resources during an emergency will make you pay for that emergency over the long-haul, stretching it into the future and making the pain last for as long as you are paying it down if credit or debt was used to pay for the emergency. That pain can be eliminated if you keep cash in a savings account that is strictly used for covering those emergencies.

Because everyone are individuals, we all go about building our emergency savings in a different capacity. Some may even call it something different than ’emergency savings’. I have heard of ‘oh shit accounts’, ’emergency money’, ‘disaster cash’, and ‘a place where I keep money only for when my world is cracked open like an egg’. But they are utilized in a very similar manner, regardless of what you call it, it is money that is available for you to use if legitimate emergencies occurs in your life.

All financial literacy experts, financial advisors, money managers, personal money motivators, money teachers and anyone else that works with personal finances agree that emergency cash is an essential part of smart money in your life. It is IMPOSSIBLE to become The Wealthy You! without an adequate amount cash set aside for emergencies. Those experts will recommend different strategies like; $1000 minimum in savings (Dave Ramsey), 3-6 months of expenses in savings, 3-6 months of income in savings, or even a years’ worth of income set aside. If you have a spouse and children but you are the only one working because your income can support the whole family, then you may want to lean closer to a full years’ worth of income set aside (emergencies hover around and are based on people. The more people in a household, the more likely an emergency will happen than two people in a household). But on the other hand, you are married with zero children and both you and your spouse work and have side gigs so that the two of you each have two or more sources of income, then having 3-6 months of expenses may be more suitable for your situation (less people and expenses in the household but more fluid cash flows through the household).

Everyone’s situation is different, so it is of the utmost importance to take accountability of your current emergency cash situation and take ownership of your emergency money. Formulate a plan that works best for your household and concentrate and focus your full attention on achieving and fulfilling that mission. The human mind creates more of whatever it focuses on. The more you focus on stresses in your life, the more your life will be stressed out. The more you focus on wealth, the more your mind will find opportunities to build, create and produce wealth. The more you focus on building your emergency cash pile or collection, the more you will build upon it every day until you are finished. Then you move onto the next mission to focus your mind on, such as becoming The Wealthy You!. Make it a habit and do it every day.

Next week on The Wealthy You!; inflation protection.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE

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This week on The Wealthy You; making it a habit.

Make what a habit? The things that you want to keep in your life, every day. Make a habit of kissing your spouse every day; make a habit of cleaning yourself and the parts of the world you occupy every day; make winning and building wealth a habit. Habits are something you practice or carryout every day and that is hard to give up. This can also include negative or bad habits such as smoking, drinking too much alcohol, driving faster than necessary, reacting emotionally or something else that you have identified as a potential bad habit in your own life. Habits can be a driving force in your life, they help build your daily life and routine and will also make people associate you with your certain habits, whether those are good or bad habits.

I personally had the habit of smoking cigarettes every day, about a pack a day. I smoked so frequently during the day that when I was around my co-workers they all knew that they risk smoking more than they usually do during the day because cigarettes are social and I was such a heavy smoker. I maintained that habit for about 9 years. Until I figured out how to break that bad habit, cigarettes controlled my life, the place I would spend my time, the amount of money I had to spend just to keep them around me, the scent of my clothes and car and my breath. It was a habit that I generally considered to be a bad habit that controlled my life. That is a common example of bad habits. But good and productive habits can be formed in your life too.

An example of a good habit can be winning. Have you ever noticed that people who win tend to continue winning at life. You can’t win everything all the time in life, but these winners go from endeavor to endeavor and keep winning like it is a part of their life and that it is hard to give up. They don’t know what losing is because they keep winning. They ingrain it into their life from a very young age, that is when their winning ways begins. And starting at a young age means starting small too. The first wins they experience in life are easy wins; wins that are easy to achieve, accomplish and accumulate. And with each win the next challenge becomes more challenging and more challenging, then over the course of as little as 5 years, wins start to become obvious and a routine, habitual part of your life. Imagine 50+ years of winning in your lifetime. This can include building wealth, a billion-dollar business, maybe multiple billion-dollar businesses (if you spend your life building a system that provides a product or service to as many people as possible and this has in-turn made you a billionaire whom owns a business that is worth billions, makes you a winner. When this happens, then you are sharing it with the world and you will have made winning an habitual process that you exercise every day.) Elon Musk owns Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, and possibly others, these are his products that he works on every day in which he intends to share with the world and he hires others to help him share those things with the world (he is just one example but similar examples exist everywhere). If he didn’t want to share Tesla cars with the world then he wouldn’t be selling them to the public at large.

Becoming The Wealthy You! and winning will become much easier once you establish them as habits that you practice every day. On the defensive side of building The Wealthy You! means getting into the habit of paying yourself first and foremost with every dollar that you are able to put your hands on. The absolute minimum is 10% of your income should be paid to yourself first. Because without you, absolutely nothing will ever get done in your life. Another way of saying this is, you are your greatest asset in life. Assets are things you want to acquire in becoming The Wealthy You! and to continue to feed and add too. Getting in the habit of doing this everyday will also help make winning a habit in your life. Even if you have just one source of income from a job that you go to everyday, get in the habit of paying yourself 10% first before your other bills.

Get in the habit of paying yourself first. Get in the habit of building The Wealthy You!. Get in the habit of winning. And get in the habit of collecting assets, wealth and value. Every day. You may discover that it could be one of the most entertaining and enjoyable things you do in life. And you get to do it every day, unlike vacations which always end after a short period of time.

Next week on The Wealthy You!; the importance of emergency cash.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE

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This week on The Wealthy You; being a collector of wealth, but not all the money you earn is yours.

Despite having an income that is 100%, that is you take home every dollar that is owed to you from your work, not all the money you earn will be yours to keep. Because you have a house or apartment that you pay a mortgage or rent to live in, the mortgage lender or your landlord will be having conversations with you if you don’t pay them. Same thing for transportation costs, and car loans.  They expect to be paid for giving you their service and that is when your income starts to be divided, paying your bills for those companies service (money is a means of exchange). We all want to live in a structure to be protected from the elements and have a place to eat and sleep every day. We want lights and heat in the winter and cool air in the summer. We want entertainment. We want and need all kinds of things for us to not suffer in life. We afford these things by going to work or a job and providing a product or service for people who could benefit from those products or services. We are rewarded by our customers when they make a purchase.  In a simple example; customers purchase a product or service from you or the company you work for, this puts money in your hands and pockets or the company you work for hands and pockets (then you get paid), then you collect for yourself first from that money that the customers paid you, then the rest of that money goes to paying your bills. The rest of that money is the money that is earned by you but isn’t yours. The money that you keep for yourself or pay yourself first and foremost is the money that is yours to keep forever. The rest will go to paying your bills so that you do have a place to live, sleep and eat every day and anything else you want to exchange the rest of your money in for.

Paying yourself first is the most important thing you will do financially in your life. You are your most important bill and your greatest asset. Without you, nothing in your life will ever get done. Reward yourself first for the things you do get done in life. Then use the rest of what you earn for your lifestyle. The greater your service is to society (provide them with something that is useful and beneficial), the larger your financial rewards will be. And the greater your financial rewards are, the more you should be paying yourself.

What could help is viewing yourself as a collector of wealth and value. Collectors, by their inherent nature, do not get rid of the things they collect.  They usually put it on display and put a tremendous amount of time, energy and work to making it look nice and keeping it nice.  Whether it is done for the public to view or just their family and friends to look at is a mute-point.  The point is they acquire what is collected and keep it from being eroded, lost, stolen or taken away in some form.  You can do the same thing with money, wealth and value.  Don’t save money; collect money and wealth.  Put your name on it and take ownership of it and collect it throughout your entire life.  Saving money sounds boring, but collecting wealth is exciting and fun and is something you can do literally every day of your life. 

Next week; make it a habit.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE

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This week on The Wealthy You; it is irrelevant how much you earn.

What is meant by this is that your income should be and will be fluid. It should ebb and flow with your life, it will have highs and lows throughout your lifetime. You may have a good paying job right out of high school at a young age but which may be dangerous in which there are few people willing to do the job but the people who do accept the job are payed generously, just to keep them coming to work everyday to do such a dangerous job. Then perhaps you get injured from that job and your income falls from underneath you and goes to the lowest income you have had in your life. Who knows how long the injury or other event will have an impact in your life, how long does your income stay low? Then the next work you find is a job that is mediocre in your life that pays a mediocre wage, as an example. Your income will be reacting to events and changes that occur throughout your entire life. It’ll be high and low and in the middle. Preventing your lifestyle from having the same drastic shifts and changes that your income is experiencing will be a major stress relief when your income does drop. This happens by paying yourself first a percentage, minimum of at least 10%, before all your other bills are paid. When you get in the habit of paying yourself first, or collecting for yourself what you work for everyday that you don’t spend, you will always have a pile of cash available when you need it. This will automatically eliminate the feeling of working paycheck-to-paycheck (this is a miserable way of working your entire life). Going to work everyday to pay yourself is the ideal reason why we work, not because it pays the bills (you are your most important bill, if you go to a job that you don’t care for and say “because it pays the bills” but you are NOT paying yourself first, then your comments become hypocritical). Get in the habit of paying yourself first.

When you establish the habit of paying yourself first from every source of income you work for and build, you are also simultaneously eliminating a phenomena that happens when people’s income goes up, called Lifestyle Inflation. Your income goes up then your cost-of-living goes up. This phenomena, despite having a larger income, has led to more financial problems in peoples lives than having a job that just rises with inflation. More money means more access to credit (other peoples’ money), more credit use means more bills to pay to those creditors (bigger house, more cars, fill up the house, do something with those cars) and more bills to others means less money for you, yourself, your retirement, and other you-related wealthy goals. This is a guarantee with Lifestyle Inflation and is a classic ‘it doesn’t matter what you earn or make, what matters is how much you can keep’.

It is important for you to pay yourself at least 10% first and foremost, it is a habit that should be as reliable as eating everyday and drinking water. You will do it your entire life regardless of what you do for income and how much you earn. Why 10% as a minimum though? Good question, there are a few reasons that we will go over throughout this program. In stable economic conditions, inflation (the amount of the money supply inflating within the system), rarely goes over 10% year-over-year. In the most recent pandemic year, inflation hit 6-7% for the United States, a 40-year high. 6-7% is still lower than 10%. Paying yourself at a minimum of 10% from each dollar you touch will help protect the wealth you are building from being eroded away by inflation. You are collecting a larger share of your income than the amount the nation’s total money supply grew by in one year. Of course the effects are mitigated when your collection is appreciating at a rate less than inflation, but we will talk more about this in the OFFENSE section of The Wealthy You. This all happens regardless of how much you earn or get payed. 10% is the minimum but the more the merrier as well. There is nothing wrong in paying yourself more than 10%.

One of the biggest components of the DEFENSE section of The Wealthy You is keeping what you earn by managing inflation and keeping it tame in your life. We are all exposed to it everyday in the economic system we live in, but you can reduce the impact it will have in your life by paying yourself first at least 10% and by building The Wealthy You! literally everyday of your life. And it doesn’t matter how much you earn. But how much you can keep.

Next week; being a collector of wealth, but not all the money you earn is yours.

Become The Wealthy You!

The Wealthy You! – DEFENSE

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The concept behind defense, in regards to financial literacy, is instead of preventing the other team from getting more points on your basket or goal, but to KEEP what you earn. Your opponent is previous versions of yourself. Can you earn more while keeping what you earn? Let’s start with income.

We all do different things for income, but we all have income. It is in different amounts based on what you do with your time. Financial literacy is the same for everyone regardless if you are an individual, household, small business or a giant corporation, and where you live. Your income should match or exceed the cost-of-living expenses for where you live. Generally speaking, the more specialized your labor is, and your ability to do things few other people can do, your income will be higher. Likewise, if you are being paid to do something that is easy to train the vast majority of people to do, your income will be on the lower side.

If you spend 20 years going to school to become a neurosurgeon, learning everything there is to know about the human brain and how to perform lifesaving surgery for patients will pay you magnitudes more than learning how to be a janitor or a taxicab driver. It takes mere hours to learn the ropes of being a janitor or a taxicab driver, but it literally takes years to become a neurosurgeon.

As you start to earn more money, your expenses typically follows. A bigger paycheck will lead to a bigger house and maybe house payment, a bigger car and car payment, maybe additional cars. The house will have to be filled up with things so it isn’t empty, and the cars will need to be driven (why pay for something if you aren’t going to use it?) No point in purchasing more cars just to have them collect dust in your garage and only be driven once a year. But you’re still paying for it being there every month.

That isn’t keeping your income. That is giving it to others in exchange for their product, service or thing. That is the exchanging part of money. What is being alluded to here is the collection of your money, by you, so that you can keep some of all the money that flows through your hands throughout your life. This is usually achieved by managing your income on a percentage basis. Of course your house or rent payment will be a set amount, your car payments will be a set amount and everything else you purchase will be a set amount, but the amount you pay yourself will be set by a percentage. In a perfect world, the steps taken should look like this:

  • Income received (whatever you set your income at).
  • Pay yourself first and foremost at least 10% (regardless of your other bills, you as an individual is your most important bill to pay. Pay yourself first). This money can be deposited into any account that you like. One with a higher interest rate or an account that allows you to invest it and put it to work for you 24/7 is the ideal type of account (Robinhood, Acorns, Stash, high-yield savings).
  • After paying yourself at least 10% (nothing wrong with a higher percentage, 10% should be the minimum). Fund any kind of retirement accounts that you are maintaining and funding yourself, such as IRA’s and small business retirement benefits. 401K’s are funded by your employer and the money never sees your personal checking account, the money goes straight into your 401K that is being maintained by your employer and whatever financial services company they are working with. Since this is money that you don’t put your hands on until retirement, it shouldn’t be included in your budget for your regular take-home pay. Take advantage of all the 401K benefits your employer offers, because it is additional pay and value that you get to take ownership of once you hit retirement age years. This is one part building wealth and keeping it, the defense. Acquiring additional money to work for you in addition to your regular income.
  • Structure the size of your bills that will best allow you to pay yourself first. Meaning, don’t not pay yourself first because you have a massive house payment to pay or car payment obligation. If you find yourself in that situation, then a reduction in bills or an upgrade in your income is needed to right the ship and get back to building A Wealthy You.
  • A generic structure that has been useful is;
  • Income
  • Pay yourself 10%
  • Fund retirements. The rest is treated as 100% of a pie is left. No one has eaten from it yet.
  • 30-40% housing expenses (mortgage payment, insurance, anything associated with your home).
  • 10-20% transportation expenses (debt payment, insurance, oil, car repairs and maintenance).
  • 10% utilities (gas, electricity, internet).
  • 30-40% for food and groceries.
  • 0-10% for wants, luxuries and giving’s
  • 0-10% for credit card and debt expenses (not house or car payment).

These are all ranges those respective expenses should be in relation to your income. I realize it doesn’t exactly add up to 100% in this example, but your income is 100% and those percentages offer a window or wiggle room for you to adjust to your income. Maybe you live in an expensive city and your rent or mortgage is higher, but you can afford this by dropping transportation costs by not having your own car and just using public transportation. No car payments, insurance, gas, and maintenance gives your house fund a bigger percentage of your income. Same thing with food, do you eat a lot or eat out a lot? Do you eat just the right amount but eat whatever you can grow and spend very little money at grocery stores? Those are different shaped windows for structuring the size of your bills.

The main theme I am trying to nail home here is to PAY YOURSELF FIRST before you pay others so that you can KEEP what you earn your entire working life. This is the DEFENSE of Becoming The Wealthy You.

Next week, it is irrelevant how much you earn.

Become The Wealthy You

The Wealthy You!

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Rules of the Game

I am beginning a new blog program called The Wealthy You. The intent of this program is to create The Wealthy You. It is being designed in a way that feels like a game. A game complete with rules, offense and defense, and a point or purpose of playing and winning. There is always an incentive to play games, even when nothing is on the line when playing with friends or family, playing a game just to exercise your brain is incentive enough to play.

In todays inaugural post we will go over the rules of the game, the rules that are built and designed for you to see continued success, not just once but every day of your life. The rules of The Wealthy You are fairly simple, they have been known in society for thousands of years. Names may be different and change over the years, but the rules are the same. The rules for our game are the roles that money plays in society. There are three main ones; medium of exchange, accounting of value, and the ability to store value.

Let’s go over all three of them starting with medium of exchange; most people understand the exchange part of money, that is shopping. We all shop for things everyday. We buy groceries, cars, homes, appliances, clothes, heat and cold, electronic devices, tools, gardening equipment, and entertainment because we need them and we want them. Without the use of a medium of exchange, exchanging would be trading or bartering. We would trade our cows for someone else’s horses, for example. What would you trade for someone else’s land or house. What could you trade for someone else’s labor to do something that you may not be good or effective at doing. You would have to trade something of value, money becomes a generic means of exchange that everyone would accept for payment. Not everyone would accept a horse in exchange for groceries, but grocery stores will accept money in exchange for their groceries.

The next rule and role of money we will cover is the ability money has at accounting value of assets or liabilities. Without money how could you say Elon Musk is worth over $200 billion dollars? Without money how could you say the least productive people in society are worth nothing? Our worth would be found in our ability to find food and shelter everyday. It is quite possible that we would all be living underneath rocks each night instead of in a bed each night without money. Everything you see in society has a value, and money will put a numerical value on that thing you see, this can include real estate, stocks, bonds, collectibles, items on store shelves, cars, businesses, franchises, professional sports teams and anything else people will produce in society will have a corresponding value attached to it. Money will account for that value.

The last rule and role of money is the ability to store value. We do things and stay productive, we work, we serve the people, we all do things for an income to support our life and to be happy and healthy. What we do with that income when it finally falls into your lap is the important work. You receive your income, then you pay yourself, pay your other bills, and then what do you do with the extra income that hasn’t been spent yet? A lot of people would use that extra income to acquire liabilities, this will lead to a feeling of living paycheck to paycheck. This includes a new car and car payment, maybe another car with a corresponding car payment, maybe a larger house, credit cards and personal loans. This is effectively storing your extra money in liabilities, things that drop in value or take money out of your pocket. Money can also be stored in real estate, stocks, bonds, collectibles and anything you can find that will put money in your pocket or rise in value, those are called assets. Assets are ultimately what you should want to own, not liabilities.

Remember to keep the roles of money in your mind every time you have made the decision to make a financial transaction, that is how the rules of The Wealthy You are to be followed. There is nothing in the Universe that can replace the role of money in society, use it to your advantage.

Every friday will be a new blog post that expands upon this game. Next week we begin The Wealthy You – Defense.

Become The Wealthy You