Amongst the sea of social media influencers and Internet blogs, it’s easy to get lost or misinterpret what it takes to truly build your wealth.
You may think that achieving this goal would involve having a high paid job, becoming a stock-trading wizard, or shamelessly peddling random products online. However, those activities only contribute to a small number of people who’ve found their way.
So what’s the real secret to building wealth?
Mindset. Nothing is more powerful at increasing your net worth than thinking in ways that will actually contribute to your bottom line. It’s how you become focused and lay the foundation from which all other actions can flourish.
Without having the right mindset, you may be tempted to do nothing out of fear of the unknown. You might also be more susceptible to “get rich quick schemes” which never work out as promised. Developing your perception of the world around you helps to better screen the opportunities available and steer you towards the ones that will actually work in your favor.
How does someone get the wealth-building mindset? By remembering these five crucial points.
Start With Why
Inspirational speaker Simon Sinek said it best with the title of one of his best-selling books, “Start with Why”. In the case of your finances, this means making sure that your intentions for growing your net worth have a solid and meaningful purpose behind them.
It’s important to realize this step because too often people lose sight of why they want to become rich in the first place. They might take on more hours at their job or chase after a promotion to earn more money so that they can buy more things. But later on, they’ll find that “more stuff” isn’t what’s going to make them happy.
If you’re building your wealth for the right reasons – to bring more value to your life and those you love – then it’s going to be that much more meaningful. You’ll also be far more motivated to stick with the process through thick and thin, even if there are failures along the way.
No one can tell you what those reasons are. They have to be something that could be potentially life-changing for you and your family – perhaps reaching financial freedom or traveling to see the world. Either way, search your conscience and ask yourself: If money was no object, what would I even do with it that would make me happy?
Think Bigger Than Your Job
Imagine for a minute that you’re one of the people listed on the Forbes World’s Billionaires list. How did you get there? I can assure you that the answer was not working a regular 9-5 job.
Don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing wrong with hard work and earning an honest living. However, it’s a simple fact that employers make far more money than their employees. Therefore, the mindset change here is how can you put others to work for you.
Something that billionaires and even millionaires recognize is that wealth can be used to generate even more wealth. This is why they often go into business for themselves or buy stock in already profitable businesses. They’re letting other people do the hard work for them.
What’s great about using this strategy is that it’s something you can start off doing little by little. For example, suppose in addition to your day job you bought an investment property. Depending on the type and location that property might net you a few extra hundred dollars per month.
Now what if you kept going and bought another, and another, … etc?
You might say there’s no way you could manage that many at once. However, this is when you’d need to start thinking like a business owner and employ a property manager to take care of the day-to-day activities for you.
Once you’re the one who owns the business and has people working for you, you’ve flipped the script. Now you’ll be reaping the rewards and building your wealth.
Good Opportunities Do Exist
Perhaps the most self-defeating mindset that anyone can have is believing that all the good ideas are gone. Talk about quitting before you even tried …
Every day, people find new opportunities to earn another buck. They’re all around you whether you believe it or not. The questions you just have to ask yourself are:
- What do I know how to do (or can learn) that others would pay me for?
- What do I like doing?
- What will it take to get started?
Somewhere out there is a slice of golden pie that’s got your name on it. All you have to do is figure out where it is and go find it. It’s going to take work to get there. But there’s definitely opportunity out there ripe for the taking.
Be Hungry for More
Some of the most successful people I’ve ever known got to be that way because they had an appetite. Once they got a taste of something good, they didn’t stop there. They kept pushing on and seeing how high they could climb the tree.
Life is all about evolution. Each generation was meant to innovate on the triumphs of the previous one. In the same way, you should be doing the same thing with your financial mindset.
- Once you have $10,000, go for $100,000
- Once you have $100,000, go for $1 million
- Once you have $1 million, go for $5 million
… You get the idea!
Don’t mistake this for greed. Greed is when you do something just for the quickest short-term return you can get. Meanwhile, people who are passionate about what they do often become rich as a byproduct of their quest to go further.
Never Forget the Golden Rule
Perhaps the greatest mindset to keep during your wealth-building journey is one that follows the golden rule of personal finance. That is:
Never spend more than you earn.
This rule will apply no matter if you’re making $30,000 or $3 million per year. You can find thousands of stories of celebrities and athletes who made unbelieve amounts of money only to lose it all. And in each situation, the root cause was always the same: they spent more than they had.
That fate can be avoided with something as simple as a budget. All a budget does is help you decide how you’re going to spend your money. As long as you know your limits and stick to the plan, then you’ll have the right foundation you need to do great things with your finances.
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