My journey to financial freedom was a long one. I didn’t know anything about money, but I knew I needed to do something differently because what I did wasn’t working.
Before I give you my review on the book, and why I highly recommend it, you need to understand where I started my journey years ago.
I was working construction at the time, making $9.00 an hour and driving almost two hours one way to get to work, where I had to pay for parking.
I pulled in to the lot that day, tired as always, and reached into my pocket only to realize that my last $20 bucks was gone. I put too much in gas and didn’t have enough.
I was already sick of the job but that day broke me.
I sat there in my van, crying and trying to figure out just what the heck I was going to do. I was dabbling in work at home stuff but didn’t take it seriously, but I was learning financial principles.
All of the stuff I was learning was going through my head and I think it was the first time I understood my situation for what it was.
I was in my late twenties, working construction, driving my mom’s van, and even though I was working and contributing, I was still at home with my parents. I didn’t have two pennies to rub together.
What kind of man was I going to make? How was I ever going to have a family of my own some day? A million thoughts were running through my head and none of them were good.
After a while somethign clicked in my head. I was still upset, but my mind became focused.
I breathed deep and said, “I can’t do this shit anymore” and left. I was so stressed that day, I passed my exit three times on the way home.
It was the saddest and best day of my life, and more than a decade later, I’ve done what a lot of people only talk about, being able to make money from home.
That road was NOT easy for me, and I promise I’ll share some of those stories another time, but during the hardest times, like after the economy crash, I had to learn how to make money, and make it fast.
I had to become money smart. I had to learn how money worked and get rid of the mindsets that kept me where I was.
I learned about MONEY Master The Game watching to a Tony Robbins video on YouTube of all places. I don’t remember how exactly it was presented to me, but I am glad that I bought it.
This book features advice from some of the greatest financial minds today, and Tony Robbins lays the information out in a way that’s easy to follow and apply.
It is a cache of financial wisdom, and is must read for anyone who’s looking for a way to gain financial freedom. If ever there were a “money bible”, this is it.
As of late, I’ve been involved in some interesting financial debates, and from the progressive point of view, billionaires have become a dirty word, something evil to be banished.
I wanted to address the topic of money, but before I do, take the time to watch the video below. My response, as I would have responded to them is below it.
The ideas they have are actually really wrong, and while I understand the progressive point of view, but the pitch isn’t exactly objective.
Let me show you something cool.
According to financial experts, (quoting from the Wiki page):
“Essentially, the wealthy possess greater financial opportunities that allow their money to make more money. Earnings from the stock market or mutual funds are reinvested to produce a larger return. Over time, the sum that is invested becomes progressively more substantial. Those who are not wealthy, however, do not have the resources to enhance their opportunities and improve their economic position. Rather, “after debt payments, poor families are constrained to spend the remaining income on items that will not produce wealth and will depreciate over time.”
What gives the wealthy those opportunities is a results of differences in income.
Again quoting, “Economic inequality is a result of difference in income. Factors that contribute to this gap in wages are things such as level of education, labor market demand and supply, gender differences, growth in technology, and personal abilities. The quality and level of education that a person has often corresponds to their skill level, which is justified by their income”
When we actually dig into all of the causes, there are productivity and compensation gaps, market factors (including globalization, education, incentives, etc.), and tax and transfer policies.
There are other factors on top of that too like the decline of unions, immigration, corporatism, and so on, but what we know for sure that impacts wealth inequality are the ones that I first quoted.
Actually being wealthy isn’t a cause of poverty.
To give you a perspective of that statistics, there are about 3.5 million homeless people in the US. That is about 0.5% of the population – and don’t hold your breath yet.
While there are some states experiencing a rise in homeless rates, overall, it’s been decreasing since 2007. 2017 was the first year the numbers ticked up in a while. Source.
Here’s something else that is interesting. There are 14.5 million millionaires in the US. That’s about 12% of the US households.
And according to the census bureau, about 12.3% of US households live in poverty.
So the number of households between millionaires and poverty is about the same, or relatively close).
And, there are 540 billionaires in the US.
So to recap:
1. billionaire isn’t a dirty word, since being wealthy in and of itself isn’t the cause of poverty. Lack of opportunities are. 2. Homelessness is actually decreasing not increasing.
The solution progressives are looking for isn’t to take away the money billionaires have and give it to everyone else. That’s literally theft.
The solution is to correct the bad policies and faults in the system that create wealth inequality.
And I say that because while taxation has an effect on budgeting, just taking away the money from billionaires will have a devastating effect on the economy.
For example, if we take away Jeff Bezos’ money, the 300,000 plus families that rely on a paycheck from Amazon will be unemployed and lose their health insurance. Because he wouldn’t be able to keep the company afloat.
Not only that, but the money he invests in companies that change our lives every day will be gone.
Also, he’s a philanthropist that funds companies that research and develop life extending treatments. That will be gone too.
To give you an idea of how much value Bezos puts into the economy, without him, Amazon wouldn’t be the only company that disappears. Without Bezos there wouldn’t be Amazon, Alexa, Juno, Audible, Twitch, Zappos, Whole Foods and HomeTown Grocer, Twitter, Business Insider, StackOverflow, IMDB, LivingSocial, Twilio…
Oh yeah, there probably wouldn’t be a Google either, because Bezos helped invest to get them off the ground.
Just him operating his businesses pours millions every year into the economy.
How much does he spend buying resources to run the company? Office supplies, furniture, building maintenance, utilities.
There are a few hundred thousand people working because they buy cars. That private plane he has, they didn’t built it themselves. There’s a manufacturer out there with employees getting paid to build those, and maintain them.
There are thousands of families in the energy sector that has to drill, process and distill the fuel.
There are shipping companies that have to move the stuff they buy from point A to point B.
He has a multi-million dollar home and estate. He didn’t built it himself. A lot of people went to work, and a lot of people still work to keep it up. That’s the thing about being wealthy. They put a lot of money directly into the US economy just to maintain everything they have.
And the elephant in the room?
We take their money away – what happens after the money is gone? They can’t maintain everything they built so there is significantly less money they will be making. It’ll run out in a couple years.
The problems that cause wealth inequality will still be there.
And you know who will benefit? The people with the skills and education to capitalize on making more money, and make more money. Everyone else will still be in the same boat.
As someone who was working as a farm hand and living in a plywood shack for a time, and is working his butt off to become one of the wealthy, let me share three rules about how the wealthy spend their money.
1. All money is someone else’s money.
2. Money has no value unless it’s traded for something else.
3. The only time the wealthy spend money, outside of necessities is when it falls into 3 categories.
There is a tax benefit
It makes them more money
It has the potential to make them more money
That’s the only time they spend money.
If you don’t understand how money works, it doesn’t matter how much money you take from the wealthy. The problems that cause inequality will never be solved.
And yes, I hear you. “They’re hogging all the wealth!“
That’s also factually wrong.
They employ people by the hundreds of thousands. They are they investing in other businesses, and they are funding charities and research. That’s not counting the amount of money that goes directly into the economy to maintain their lavish lifestyles.
They aren’t hogging it.
The mindset that wealth can somehow run out, is wrong as well. That’s thee lack of financial education rearing it’s head.
Do you know how our government works?
The US Treasury decides when to print money, but the Federal Reserve controls the supply, and it uses a balance of credit and interests rates to moderate supply and demand, backed by reserve requirements.
You know what determines the value of the dollar? Supply and demand. There is no direct mechanism for establishing the value of the U.S. dollar, which means the whole thing only works because people believe it has value.
The Federal Reserve can, at any time increase their balance sheets and increase the amount of money available to be borrowed by increasing their reserve requirement.
That means the amount of money made available has no set limit. When things tend to get out of hand, banks intercede to stabilize it. That’s how the whole thing works.
There is no limit on how much money there is or can be as long as people believe it has value. What they use as collateral? Gold, silver and precious metals.
Take gold for example, we aren’t running out of gold anytime soon. Right now, as collateral backing for our currency, the US has 8,000 Tonnes of gold.
It is estimated that there is about $35 BILLION tons of gold on dry land, which means in all of human history, we’ve mined roughly 0.00047% of the world’s surface gold.
AND as long as there are stars in the sky, there will always be gold for as long as the universe exists.
And that’s just gold. We’re not talking about the other things we use as collateral backing for our currency.
Money can literally never run out. As I said, it’s just an idea. If the dollar disappeared today, it would be replaced by something else that we assign value to and trade in that.
I get this was a ridiculously long post.
I took the time to write it because the focus on billionaires *is* the distraction, and a pointless one at that.
As long as the US constitution exists, nobody can tell anyone how much, where, when or how to spend their money. It’s just not going to happen.
What we need to focus on is Congress. They make the laws. They are the ones that will have to change it.
Hopefully those of you who really care about wealth inequality will learn from the post about how money works.
CREDIT: Super Yacht Concept image by Digital Trends feature.
Dan Kennedy wrote the foreword for this book and I have to agree with his assessment that DOTCOM Secrets is a lot more than what the title suggests.
It says “the underground playbook for growing your company online“, but the truth is that this book is arguably the single most important book that I’ve ever read.
Up until I read this book, I didn’t have a business.
I had my websites, I had products, I had services, and I was marketing them, but I didn’t have a business. I was a strategy chaser, which means that I was always going from one strategy to another trying to keep the money coming in.
I didn’t have an actual structure to anything I did. I didn’t have a system in place that could walk people who visited my websites or responded to my marketing through a process that got them to buy, upgrade, or renew products and services.
I had to do a lot of that on the phone or through email.
Also, I spent a lot of time on the wrong people. If you’ve ever run a business then you know what I mean. People who always complain, they’re negative, they want all of your time, but they never follow through on their commitments.
They sucked the energy out of me and the made being in business for myself stressful and it became like a job that I hated, which is why I started working from home to get away from in the first place.
DOTCOM Secrets helped me to transform my websites into a robust, thriving business. It helped me to find the right people as well; where to find them and how to attract them.
Applying what I learned made the sales process easy, to the point where I don’t have to chase people all the time, or constantly chase down new business.
What I learned saved me a lot of time, money and frustration… and it works. The information is dead on point and proven in business. It’s not fly by night strategies that I used to chase.
Probably the best part is that I’m not stressed out anymore, and I actually look forward to running my businesses.
If you have a business, or if you’re thinking about starting one, I *highly* recommend reading this book. It doesn’t matter what type of business you’re in or thinking about getting into, I say this is mandatory reading.
At the time of writing, this book is currently free. Do take advantage of it and get your copy.
The Tony Robbins TED Talk with Al Gore is kind of famous now. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about, if you read yesterday’s article I featured two powerful videos by Tony Robbins, in which and in the first one he references a TED Talk he did featuring Al Gore.
Today, I wanted to share that video with you. This TED Talk is titled Decisions and Destiny.
In the video, he discusses the “invisible forces” that motivate everyone’s actions — and high-fives Al Gore in the front row!
Enjoy the video!
If you follow the link to TED talks, the video (or audio) is available to download for free.
If you aren’t familiar with TED, then just bookmark my site NOW and check back.
They are one of the most awesome resources for learning, and their goal is to openly share ideas.
They’ve done an amazing job of fostering and nurturing the right environment.
Figuring out how much your dream life costs is a very important step on the road to success that many entrepreneurs often skip.
On a recent Facebook post, I talked about goal clarity sharing how being precise and being clear is important.
I highly recommend that you take the time to read it.
To Summarize…
A lot of people tend to be pretty generic about their goals. They’ll say things like, “I want to be rich,” or “I want a dream home” without being specific.
For a long time I said, “I want to make a six figure income” and had no clue what that entailed.
A six figure income can be anything from $100,000.00 dollars to $999,999.00 dollars — That is a really big gap.
There’s nothing wrong with big dreams, but in order to achieve those dreams you have to be specific, and you have to be clear about your goals.
Why Specifics?
Because success is created in the actions you take every day. Success is created over time in the actions you take every day.
If you don’t have goal clarity, you’ll end up with results you don’t want, or miss your dreams entirely.
To use a more understandable example:
Without being clear on your goals, it’s like trying to use your GPS without an end destination.
Your GPS can give you directions, but it has to know where you want to go first.
Figuring out how much your dream life costs? That’s important.
So, do you know how much your dream life costs?
Here is a simple exercise you can do right now.
First, put yourself in the mindset that money is no object. Allow yourself to be a position where you can get whatever you want..
Now picture your dream home. How many bedrooms does it have? How many bathrooms? Do you want land? If so, how many acres? Does it have a pool? A basement? What city do you want to live in?
Really sit down and picture what you want for your house.
Then? Go to a site like homes.com or realtor.com and search for your home. How much does it cost? What are the mortgage payments like?
Write it down!
Next? Do the same for your dream car. Is it a truck? Sedan? A sports coupe or luxury car? What color. What features do you want in it?
Got it pictured?
Now go to a site like autotrader.com and search for your car. How much does it cost? How much are the monthly payments?
Yup. Write it down!
Next, do you want to travel? Picture your dream vacation.
Where are you going? Are you flying or going for a road trip? What kind of hotel are you staying in? Or is it a condo?
Are you there for a weekend, a week or longer?
Now, go to a vacation research site like tours.com, or a travel research site like travel.com and find out how much your dream vacation costs.
Are you travelling once per year? Once every 3 or 4 months?
Remember, money is no object.
You guessed it. Write it down!
Having all of those things is great, but what about keeping and maintaining them?
You have to furnish that house. You’ll have utilities to pay. You’ll have to eat.
Speaking of which, how would you eat?
If you were to go grocery shopping right now and be able to buy the healthiest food possible, how much would it cost you?
Next time you go grocery shopping, come up with an estimate and write that down too.
What about your other expenses, like health insurance? Or even entertainment?
Of course, these would be rough estimates of how much you would spend, but with a bit of research, you can get fairly accurate. Write it down!
Now… here’s where the cool part comes in.
Now that you have estimated monthly costs for your house, car, and travel, plus other expenses, add them all together.
Then add 30% of that total.
That’s how much money you need to make every month to live your dream life!
A lot of people think that they’d be okay with an extra $1,000 or $2,000 dollars a month, but in reality, they’ve never stopped and actually figured out how much their dream life will actually cost them.
Goal Clarity
Now that you have a very specific income level to reach, what you want is probably a lot more real to you. Now all you’re missing is goal clarity – figuring out what you are going to do every day to achieve your income goal.
For me, my goal was pretty low.
My highest paying job ever was $78,000 a year, so I knew that if I made that, I’d be happy. Things were pretty good for me when I made that amount of money, so when I set my goal, it was $6,500 a month.
I was sure that if I could find a way to replace my income I would be happy – and then I did that very same exercise I just told you to do and I was shocked!
It turns out that in order to live the life of my dreams, I would have to make $13,130.00 per month. That’s $157,560.00 per year, which meant that my best paying job of $78,000 per year – 40+ hours a week? I would have had to do twice!
80+ hours a week doesn’t sound like something I would want to do for the rest of my life!
How about you?
Multiply your monthly income by 12 to get an annual income amount, then divide it by your current annual income to how how many of your current job you need in order to make the kind of money you need to live the life of your dreams.
A friend of mine realized he needed to work 5 and a half of his jobs in order to live the life of his dreams. Another friend, he had to work his job 9 times!
What about you? How many times would you have to work your job?
The Game Plan
At this point, you ca stop reading. Honestly, you can. However, if you want to learn more about my solution, keep reading.
So you are now clear on your dreams, and you have some goal clarity on where you need to go.
What you’re missing now, is a system to get you there, and a daily action plan with steps you can follow to achieve your goals.
Obviously, for most people, working a job, or a second job, or a part time job will NOT get them to where they want to be.
The only option is to do something different – and the answer is to start a business. Become an entrepreneur.
Don’t freak out!
Thanks to the age we are living in today, working at home and starting a business, even on the side (if you have a full time job, or family responsibilities), has never been easier.
From being a full time uncle, losing my business, and hitting rock bottom. Basically starting my life over and having to rely on family to keep the end met.
Everyone’s situation is different. You may not even be facing hard times, but certainly you want more. You want the best life possible for you and your family, and after that exercise, you know EXACTLY how much is costs.
All you need now, is a game plan.
Goal clarity is the ability to set clear goals, so that you can take actionable steps to achieve them.
So, today we did this exercise where we were challenged to figure out exactly what we want in life — what is the reason why we’re even building a business in the first place.
(And by “we” I mean our entrepreneur group).
Anyway, the way we were instructed to help us figure that out was to close our eyes and imagine our perfect day, then describe it.
Anyway, I wanted to share this with you guys, and also, challenge you all to do the same. It’s a really good exercise to help you figure out what it is that you want and where you want to go.
My Perfect Day
I’m slowly getting into the habit of writing down goals and dreams and visions, and it’s funny. For all of the things I want to accomplish, my perfect day is really simple.
I paused the video, grabbed a pen and pad and spent a good hour just thinking about just what the heck I want, and with everything I wrote down, there are just two things, and they’re so simple.
My perfect day is being able to sit at home and hang out with my family and friends, and have the time and freedom to travel with my dad and not have to worry about or even think about money.
We’re immigrants and I watched my parents sacrifice and sacrifice and sacrifice for me and my sisters. My dad has been that unmovable rock my entire life. There is no quit in him.
The past few months I’ve been hearing him talk about being tired of working and want to do other things with his life now that the kids are grown and he’s done all he has to do for us.
He and I are always talking about taking a trip together. No destination specifically, just travel and see places we lived, track down old friends and neighbors, and just free up ourselves.
I REALLY want to retire him and give him that. I’m almost crying just thinking about how awesome that will be for him, when I tell him it’s okay for him to retire.
“Don’t worry about the bills and don’t worry about the house. I paid it off.”
Giving him that gift? Oh man!
The other thing is my music. Music saved my life. I was headed down a very different path when I was younger.
I was angry at the world and bitter and didn’t have many friends and I was ALWAYS fighting and getting into trouble.
6th grade wheel program. Dr. Float. She introduced me to the double bass, and some much needed discipline. I don’t know where I’d be today if it weren’t for her and the orchestra.
I can sit around all day and just play my double bass by myself and the world can pass me by and I’ll be as happy as a bird whistling on a window sill. Me and my sisters used to play as a quartet too at churches.
Get this.
My big sister plays the violin, I play the bass, my younger sister below me played the viola, and my baby sister played the cello. I MISS those days when we played and practiced together.
I’m DEFINITELY starting a string quartet. And I have published music I’ve composed (classical) that I’ve never heard performed live.
Looking ahead I can see myself owning a club with a live venue. And I can see that little string quartet I’m funding with my commissions from Empower Network doing shows and concerts for charity too.
Every year with the orchestra we did 4 or 5 big concerts or holidays or whatever, but the one that really got everyone together? The Teddy Bear’s Concert!
It was a free concert for the community and it was usually between Thanksgiving and Christmas right? Like November’ish.
Anyway, people used to bring teddy bears and other gifts for kids, and the whole community used to come together.
Yeah, I gotta start an orchestra and hold my own Teddy Bear’s Concert every year for the community.
That’s a must.
All the other “stuff” just pales in comparison.
That’s what I wrote.
I had this really long list of things that I wrote, and it started out with material things like the car I wanted and how much money I wanted to make and everything else.
All that was great, but when it got right down to it, I still had to answer the question, “why do I want all this ‘stuff’? What do I get when I have it all?”
Then I threw the list away and started picturing what my perfect day would be, and that’s when I discovered what it is I truly want.
…
If you’re still reading all of this I truly appreciate you. I ramble and get long winded so yeah — I appreciate you.
Listen.
If you are trying to figure out exactly what it is you want out of life, and more importantly how you’re going to get there, I would suggest that you start by first figuring out your WHY.
There’s more to life than just going to work and paying bills for 40 years then hoping that you can retire some day.
But you’ve got to figure out first what you actually want.
Once you figure that out, then you need to figure out how you’re going to get from where you are right now, to where you want to be.
That is where I think I can help you.
You need a vehicle that you can drive to get from point a to point b and the vehicle you choose has to be the right one.
If I have to travel 1,000 miles I’m not going to use a skateboard or a bicycle. That’s just way too slow. I want a car, and the faster it goes the better.
Or better yet, I’m gonna fly, right?
I am building my business from home currently, by blogging.
I’ve been able to build strategies around syndication, writing on viral topics, and more. I’m earning money passively through AdSense, paid ad placements, as well as promoting affiliate products and earning commissions.
I am putting together a free guide on how you can do the same.
Three Original Thoughts I’ve Had In My Walk As An Entrepreneur
I wanted to share, very quickly, three original thoughts I’ve had in my walk as an entrepreneur. You see, critical thinking is one of those things that I value and practice.
In fact I keep an idea log.
I’ll sit with a pen and a notepad, and think of solutions to problems I encounter and write them down.
First, I write down the obvious stuff, and once that is done, I push myself to come up with something original; something I’ve never thought of before.
I’ll do this a few times a week, letting my imagination run wild.
Original Thoughts
They may not be original to everyone reading this, but we each develop at our own pace – they are to me.
Time only moves one direction. You can save time, buy time, plan time, take time, set aside time and do anything you want with time, but stop it or make it go backwards. This actually came to me in a moment when I was trying to solve the problem of how to get more done with less time.
Do things in the moment you are inspired to do them. Have you ever had an idea, then as quickly as it comes, you get distracted and it goes away?… me too; and for the life of me I couldn’t remember what on Earth I was trying to remember.This was where the idea for an idea log came from.I’d stop whatever I was doing, grab my pen and pad, then write down in as much detail as I can, what my idea was at the time.
I’d take a few minutes to let it play in my head too.
At some point in time this became a habit, and I’m grateful for it.
Inspiration often comes at moments when you’re focused on something else. This one I’m pretty sure most people are aware of.You’ll be working hard on something, when something brilliant pops into your head. For me, more times than not, it’s completely unrelated.It happens when I’m reading books and going through training, or when I’m working… even when I’m writing this blog post!Pay attention to those moments. Inspiration is fleeting. (A bonus #4. haha!)
