I Spent 100+ Hours Researching The 17 Best Financial Rules To Build Long-Term Wealth.
Learn from the best financial minds in the world in 4 minutes.
Photo by Piotr Makowski on Unsplash
Making money is a game you can win.
No, I don’t have a get-rich-quick scheme or a multilevel marketing program for you to join. I am not selling a course or an e-book.
Like any game, making money has a set of unspoken rules and principles.
I have spent 100+ hours researching the principles of making money that I’ve personally used to increase my net worth and income.
Here they are:
A growth mindset is a prerequisite for wealth. A fixed mindset has killed more financial dreams than a lack of talent ever will. If you don’t think you can be wealthy, you never will be.
If you can’t manage $1,000, you won’t be able to manage $10,000. It is not the amount that matters, it is your psychology. Your money mindset applies no matter what tax bracket you’re in. Change your financial mind to change your financial life.
One source of income will create stability in your life. But the second source of income will change your psychology. And the third source of income will change your life.
Wealth won’t be created with an employee mindset. An employee mindset trades time for money, asks for permission to create and begs for a raise and promotion. Employees rent out their time for money.
Instead, spend more time in an entrepreneurial mindset. Entrepreneurs only see business opportunities whereas others see problems. They don’t wait to be told what to do. They don’t ask for permission but sometimes ask for forgiveness. They create their own financial future.
Your income growth will never exceed your learning rate. The more I keep learning, the more my business grows. The day I stop investing in my own development, is the day my business dies. Most people are dead by 30 but aren’t buried till 70.
You don’t rise to the level of your financial goals, you fall to the level of your financial systems. You first make your financial systems. And then your financial systems make you.
You don’t need permission. There are no gatekeepers and even fewer barriers to entry to starting a business. I started a niche six-figure consulting business with a laptop, WIFI, and half a brain. I didn’t ask anyone if I could do it. I just did it. You can too.
Think like a venture capitalist. Take small, calculated risks that have limited downside, but unbounded upside. You don’t know what risk will pay off. But you can increase your odds of success but taking more shots. The biggest risk is taking none at all.
Use your money to buy back your time. “The only difference between a rich person and a poor person is how they use their time.” — Robert Kiyosaki.
Most people know that they are the average of the five people closest to them. But they still choose to hang around losers with poor money mindsets. Most people know their employers don’t give a sh*t about them. Yet most will show deep loyalty.
Making your first $10 online validates your skillset. Making your first $100 online validates your market. Making your first $1,000 online validates your business model. Making your first $10,000 online validates your ability to scale.
Control your expenses, but focus on increasing your income. After a certain point, cutting expenses reach a diminishing return. Spend most of your time and energy making more money.
Align yourself with leverage and scale. Leverage detaches your time from your output. Scale detaches your output from income. With enough leverage and scale, one hour spent writing a blog post could make you thousands of dollars every month.
Once you have leverage, focus on building a breadth of skills. A broad skill stack will beat a narrow skill set. Combine disparate skills to provide unique value at scale. I can write engaging blogs, social media posts and speak publicly alongside my management consulting skills. There aren’t many people who can do the same thing, that’s why I’ve been able to create a six-figure consulting business within 6 months.
If you aren’t making WIFI money, you are making a big financial mistake. “There are 4.9 billion people on the internet. Can you find four that would pay $70 a day? If so, you’ve got a $100k business. Not easy, but not as daunting as you may think,” writes Justin Welsh.
Once you’ve won the game, understand that you can leave it. Making more money will only solve your money problems. It won’t fix your mental health or your relationships.
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