The snow outside my window is still falling as I write this post. Living in Vancouver, the majority of people are not happy about the winter we had so far, because the whole reason they chose to live in Vancouver was to get away from the snow and the cold of winter.

So, many people that I speak with are complaining about the cold and the so called recession that they feel we are in at the moment. Have you ever stopped yourself for long enough to notice that 98 % of the thought space that occupies our mind is negative?

It is scary when you come to that conclusion, because I’d be willing to bet that you cannot uphold a conversation with anyone for more than 2 minutes before the topic resorts to a popular belief of negativity. “Did you hear the news this morning, Microsoft is letting go 5000 people. Citigroup had to even refuse to take delivery of their corporate jet due to pressure from none other than president Obama. ”

So let me ask you this: How bad is your life really at this moment? Do you have all your body parts? Are you living in a country that allows you to vote, choose where to live and what you want to do with your life? Yes?Well, that is great! It all comes down to the choices we have and more importantly to the choices we are about to make. I’ll let you in on a little secret that can propel your mood and your day from blah to outstanding in no time.

Use the words “What if…?” more often.

Here is a quick example:

What if things were different right now?

What if I didn’t believe there was a recession here and now? Or better yet: What if there was no recession and we were in an age of abundance and creative growth and enlightenment for all that are open to believe it?

What if I got a promotion instead of having to fear to loose my job next week?

What if I finally took my dreams and started building my own business, rather than wait for someone to offer me a job and pay me a measly salary to build their dream for them?

What if I focused on the bright side of all the things that I do have rather than on the lack of what I think I should have?

Well, this little game has truly powerful implications. Before anything can be created in physical form it must be conceived in thought form first. It’s like Walt Disney thinking of Mickey Mouse before he could start to draw the character and lend life to it on the silver screen?

Would your life benefit from having more money? Yes? well, then put it in there. Would your life be better if you had more free time, a better relationship, better health, peace of mind etc…?

I challenge you to participate if you are not currently living the life of your dreams. I urge you to get a piece of paper and write down 30 times at the beginning of each line the words “What if…”

Then you complete the sentence in whichever thought comes to mind. Be mindful though because the unverse is such a fair friend, for it will give you exactly what you focus on, even though you may say that it is NOT what you wanted after all.

So be creative and have fun with this and if you manage to do the game for a week straight get prepared for your mind to take you on a magical journey to a better life experience.

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The difference between success and failure is sometimes a wide gap and sometimes a matter of milliseconds. But there is a crucial point to be made for all successful achievers out there.

How do you measure success? Is it money in the bank? Trophies won for a special achievement? or maybe it is simply the recognition and gratitude of your peers or society as a whole that gives you the confirmation that you have accomplished something.

Whatever it may be, tracking your success along the way is the key to advancement.

An athlete has a coach that covers both the tasks of tracking success and motivating higher performance. You and I, although we may also have a coach to help us with staying on track, need to incorporate this simple step into our daily routine.

Let’s assume you wish to increase your income to a certain point but as life has it, that total income figure is made up of several sources which all vary from month to month.

You wouldn’t know if you are making progress or sliding backwards if you didn’t at least track those income streams on a regular basis and use them to adjust your strategy. Nothing seems more silly than having to bring in 5 million a year just to make sure you are left with 1 million in the end because your don’t track your cashflow.

The energy you expense to get the other 4 million can be used for other things and if you want a million, then simply put, get clear on how far you have yet to go and go do what you need to do.

See you at the top…

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Today’s post will be the first in a series to help understand why the rich get richer and how seemingly ordinary people such as you and I can harness some of the mentality that got them there.

The most common misconception is that rich people are totally different from poor people. That is nonsense. If that was the case, there would be no point in me writing this blog, because unless you are a certain way from birth or by some divine selection there simply wouldn’t be a chance that you could improve your station in life.

Fact is that rich people are 99% like the rest of us. They breathe the same oxygen, use the same water and have two arms and two legs to a person. So if they are not physically different, what else could it be then?

T. Harv Ecker wrote a brilliant book about the ‘Millionaire Mind’ outlining several key factors that seperate the rich from the rest. But it doesn’t even have to be that deep or that detailed to get the main point of this post.

The bottom line is that the availabiity or lack of money in your life right now has 100 % to do with you and nothing else. Once we understand that and take full responsibility for it the biggest obstacle is starting to crumble.

Next we have to demistify this thing called money, because the more we read into it the more it seems to hold us back from reaching it. But before I get philosophical here, just do yourself a favor and think of money as your servant to get things done. PERIOD! I read in a very good book a long time ago that money makes a dreadful master but a lovely servant.

Since I’ll be devoting more time and space to this range of topics in the near future, make sure to sunscribe to the RSS feed if you haven’t already done that. Otherwise you may miss an important follow up post.

That’s it for today, I’ll be in Vegas for a few days, but will have some new and exciting updates for September and October lined up.

See you at the top…

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I was originally going to write a different post today, but being prompted by a conversation I overheard a few days ago, I decided to share this story with you instead.

I had a conversation with a fellow hotel guest in the hot tub about eating out and family lifestyle and the likes when a third man entered the health club area and starting chatting with his friend and me. It turned out that the guy I was talking to, let’s call him John for now, was complaining about getting bad sleep after eating a big meal at a diner while on the road.

So, naturally, his buddy asks him what he has eaten that night. John answers that he had a big steak with baked potato and an appetizer. The friend then asks him if he wants a couple of beers from the store nearby.

John says he had already had 3 beer with his dinner, but a couple more wouldn’t hurt. And here my friends is where the story grabbed my attention. John says that they have this great new medicine out that let’s you eat lots of junk food, have several beers and with only one pill you still sleep like a baby without any indigestion or heartburn.

He forgot to mention the fact that he is about 60 pounds overweight and this diet simlpy cannot be good for you in the long run.

But wait, we are not done with the story yet, it is getting even more obscure. So the other guy, a bit older and skinny but complaining about his ailments also, adds the following comment: Yeah I know, my wife and I are on this drug that let’s you eat what you want and not even gain weight and it is even without a prescription.

Now people, let’s be honest here for just a second: Is this a disturbing situation or what? Neither of these guys are healthy or attempting to be by changing their bad habits and getting better nutrition. But they both are swearing by prescription drugs that will magically cure all bad and let them do whatever they please.

Well, I have news for you ! It doesn’t work like that. The phrase “Garbage in, garbage out” comes to mind although it is usally used for computer data, it applies to humans as well. If you are mistreating your body with junk food and lack of exercise then non pill in the world will help you long term.

I am not opposed to modern medicine and while I do accept that drugs may be helpful for treating certain ailments until we can accept a firm belief of health and wellbeing to replace outside substances to keep us well, this story makes a wonderful point.

You cannot change anything in your life or improve the outcome of any situation no matter what it is by putting a band aid on the problem. You will always just be covering up a symptom rather than treating the root cause of your issue.

Applying this to the topic of your financial situation it would look something like this: if you are finding yourself in a spot where you are always short of money to pay your bills or to do what you would like to do then it is not good enough to get another credit card, max it out and not have a plan to get out of the bad symptoms you are experiencing with money or the lack of it.

Instead, you have to try and go to the root of the issue and either find legitimate ways to make more money than you spend or find a way to spend within the budget you do have. I knwo that the second solution is not very exciting or gratifying, therefore I propose to look at the beliefs you hold about money and then change them to get a different outcome and better symptoms.

See you at the top…

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Since we are at the end of the month I thought that today would be a good time to write a post that was originally inspired by a TV commercial. Don’t worry, there is nothing for sale here, the concept the ad firm used illustrates a very important concept that I’d like to share with you.

But first let me describe the commercial so you have some background.

The first image on the screen shows a pro-surfer riding on the the famous big waves that looks at least 30 foot high if not more. He is doing a superb job and surely the male audience to which this is geared can identify that we would love to be able to do this. The caption reads: “Step 1,042″ and then it fades to the next image.

We are brought back to a different reality and see an acountant type thirty something male sitting over a bowl of healthy cereal at his kitchen table. The caption this time reads: “Step 1″

The commercial goes on for a few more seconds, but this is the gist of it.

I believe that the mjority of us that have a desire to accomplish anything in life have made this mistake. It’s the faulty thinking that we can start at the end result and go from a TV dinner and McDonald’s diet to being a Hawaii pro surfer and impress the ladies with our washboard abs instantly. Not so fast I say…

Virtually nothing that we set our mind to and wish to accomplish is out of reach, and that is the good news. However, the Internet and our society is also filled with the thinking that we can go from broke to billionaire overnight or from nobody to CEO in the same timeframe.

Here’s what those ads and society does ommitt: The period of cultivating the seed of your desire.

Have you heard the commercial that says: ” Make $50,000 from home per month, no selling, training and capital required.” Sounds great, does it not? Or we read about figures like movie stars and celebrities that seem to come out of nowhere and all of a sudden get paid 25 million dollars to do a signle movie and end up on the A-List of Hollywood.

But let’s look at what really happens in thes cases: The actor that gets the gig to be the next James Bond may be virtually unknown to pop culture, but did we acknowledge that he started with really small roles at the tender age of 5, then went to theatre school and did small scale plays before landing bigger gigs much later?

What about people like Barak Obama? A celbrated speaker and gifted politician who was working in the shadows of Chicago fro a long time before his tipping point came and he delivered a keynote address that would change his life forever. He didn’t just walk out of Harvard and into the Democratic party and get nominated to be the next presidential candidate.

We often forget the middle part that lies between forming our desire in the mind and the tipping point where the flood gates open and it is all there for us in total abundance. The length of that time period is individually different, but let me tell you that it is rarely an overnight thing.

So when you feel like you are not going forward in your dreams, may they be of becoming a millionaire or otherwise, remember that every seed takes time to grow into a big tall tree. The mental attitude you take in that time frame should be one of considering it already done and acting as if. But don’t think even for a moment that it’s not moving forward just because the end result is not in fron of you yet.

Enjoy the long weekend and I’ll see you in September with more exciting posts and a suprise for all my loyal readers.

See you at the top…

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Let’s face it. We all want certain things in life and when it comes to financial abundance, it ussually is on top of our wishlist. We also quite often have an upbringing that has taught us to work hard, save and eventually we will be able to put together a small nestegg on which we can retire.

Frankly speaking, I don’t think that idea is too appealing. First off it involves a long timeframe stretching over decades. Secondly, it relies heavily on elbow grease and long hours to get us that next promotion and pay off that mortgage and the nice car we financed.

So what do those of us do that want the shorter road, the more comfortable path to wealth? Are we simply out of luck because there is but one way to a bright future and even that is not guaranteed because we may loose our job or make bad financial decisions along the way.

As we leave this idea of the slow and hard road to wealth behind there has got to be more options on getting to the top, right. Well, you guessed it, there are tons of them. But here’s the deal…

In the next step, many people begin a new project or venture and they are totally sure that this time they will strike it big and go home with a big moneybag ready to retire at age 29. I’m talking about the Network Marketing systems, the guy who opens his software company to beat Google at its game or the secretary that sells Avon on the side to make it big and retire rich.

At the more extreme end of this spectrum are those that go to the casino and make it a habit to try and hit that jackpot every night. Others yet will buy an obscene amount of lottery tickets and cross their fingers at every draw that they will forever wave goodbye to their financial issues and be a carefree millionaire.

Well, I got news for you! Unless you change the way you think about the money you are trying to attract, none of these methods will yield any true results because they are not accompanied by a change in consciousness. Only when we change the way we think and feel about money and about having it in our life, do we actually open the door to have that money come into our life.

It’s a statistical fact that most lottery winners, regardless of the amount they won, are back to where they started or worse within 2 years with nothing to show for all the money that flowed through their hands. Again that’s because what they are telling the universe is that they DO NOT BELIEVE that they deserve more money except by a fluke chance that it is awarded to them from a casino jackpot or by winning the lottery.

You are in the spot you are in today because of the beliefs you have and the thoughts you offered about your life. Money or the absence of it is a wonderful indicator of how your mental realtionship to the source of abundance really is. The numbers in your bank account are never an accident, the paycheck you receive is never an accident. So start by taking responsibility for all you have at this point and find what is good about it.

Next, start to offer a different mental picture about money and that is the starting point of change in your money consciousness which will inevitably lead to lasting abundance if you so choose.

Have fun with this concept and I’ll see you at the top…

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Have you ever heard of the analogy people use to describe that you can never really get far enough ahead before life catches up with you ? You haven’t ? Well, let me share it with you really quick before we get on with today’s post.

I have often heard that once you realize that your fridge is too small to hold all your food for the week, you usually go out and buy a bigger fridge, right? And then what happens…? After a few short weeks, you start to gradually buy more stuff and bingo, you fridge is too small yet again.

It’s a great analogy for how most people live financially, too. The majority of employees make a certain amount each month and that amount is what we get used to. It generally doesn’t change that much within a year except for maybe a Christmas bonus or so.

Let’s look at our friend John who takes home $ 3,000 per month after taxes. Well, I would wager a guess that the total expenses of his lifetsyle are very close to $ 3,000 per month if not even higher. In the past few years an alarming trend has taken hold in North America. We have gone from a savings rate just above zero to a negative savings rate. That means on average we are spending more money than we make.

Not only that, we are spending more money than we actually have, because the illusion of a nice credit limit on our AMEX or Visa are NOT part of our net worth. Countries outside of North America actually have a much higher savings rate, such as China or Japan were culturally people are very cautious towards the future and thus put cash in the bank before they spend any.

But this post is not about money’s cultural ties, as much as it is about the trap we set up for ourselves if we rely on the paycheck to keep us afkoat and eventually fund our lofty retirement dreams. I’m a big advocate of having a luxurious lifestyle, and firthermore, this blog wouldn’t exist if I didn’t believe that this can be accomplished before we are old an grey and with a lot less effort than society let’s you believe.

So, back to the example of John. Let’s assume his job performance is good and he get’s a raise. After that raise, he takes home $ 3,500 after tax and the first thing he does when he get’s his higher paycheck is he goes and leases a bigger car. After all he is moving up in life and everyone shall see that.

Let me tell you something that I have observed from managing sales teams a few years back that rely on commisions for alarge portion of their pay. When times are good and the money is rolling in, the sales people have all the latest gadgets and eat out at fancy places every night. Then when all of a sudden a big account goes belly up, the end seems near, the girls they dated are leaving and the lifestyle is gone overnight.

The worst part is that it’s a veru shortsighted way to build wealth because before you can spend it you should have a plan and follow a solid strategy that doesn’t include the local poker room to beef up your paycheck.

Here’s what I eman by that: The CEO also loves to have and do what the sales team does, but when times get rough, he is still driving the same nice car and still takes his family for a nice vacation no matter what. And because I want all my readers to be in that second category I would advise to keep a buffer between income and expenses of a few percent every paycheck.

That way you will still not be rich overnight if you are on a salary, but at least you can invest on a regular basis and have a nice cushion if times turn. And better yet, for most of us we will thankfully never be exposed to a layoff or a bad economic cyle which means we can take that money and make it work for us in our investments. Over time, you will be amazed what 5% of your paycheck will turn into if you invest it into an index fund rather than a portehouse steak and a couple of bottles of wine.

At the end of the day, you’ll be in the same spot as the CEO and that’s where life is good and money is working for you while you realx and do only what you really want to do.

Happy living and we’ll see you at the top…

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The saying goes: “A penny saved is a penny earned…” Yet I would argue that this is a case of flawed thinking.

We sometimes get a chance to peek into the lives of financial gurus that have made the jump into the billionaire category from very humble beginnings. I’m talking about Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Sir Richard Branson here, for example.

When you look at their lives you will NOT find any evidence that either of them was able to attract such a fortune from the power of a savings account. Why is that and if that is true that saving money does not make you rich or in almost all cases even make you financially independant why do banks and financial advisors keep steering us into saving our money?

Before we go on let me clarify one quick thing: When I talk about saving I mean the kind of behaviour where we go and put our earned cash into an account that yields at best 2-3 % per year. I am not talking about saving, as in getting a better deal, on something you are buying or investing in.

So let’s approach this issue from 2 angles and put the myth to bed that saving will make you rich one day.

1) There simply isn’t enough time for your money to multiply in a savings vehicle

Time is a crucial element in determining the growth of capital.

The best rule to use is called the Rule of 72 !

If you take the interest you are getting from your account and divide 72 by that number, it will tell you how many years it will take before your initial amount doubles.

Example: If you are getting 3% in your savings account (72 / 3 = 24 years) it will take 24 years for your money to double in value. At 2% that would be even longer as it would take 36 years to do so.

Now, if you are starting out on this financial abundance journey like the majority of people, you likely don’t have $ 500,000 sitting around to put into a bank account for retirement. On top of that in order for you to have a cool 2 million to retire on it would take a whooping 48 years (at 3%) and that’s a bit longer than we want to wait for.

The other part of this is a little concept called inflation. If inflation is 2% per year, which indeed is very low for current times, and you earn 3% then really you are only 1% better off than last year with your money.

If inflation is 3% and you are getting 3%, guess what it’s a big fat 0 in terms of growth.

2) Saving comes from the mental standpoint of lack, not growth…

The law of attraction is deeply aligned with the laws of nature and nature only knows one principal law: the law of growth ! If you observe a tree over the years you will surely see that it cannot help but grow a bit more every year.

If we can manage to allign our mind with the concept of growth then we will prosper in every way. Financial growth is no exception here. If we instead follow the line of thinking that we need to have money for a rainy day, not only are we repeating the thought subconsciously so much that we end up creating the rainy day we are trying to avoid, but we also tell the universe that we don not believe in our power to create growth for ourselves.

Those that are always looking to save a penny more and are overly stingy with everything are not alligned with the law of attraction and thus are cutting themselves off from massive growth. Those that believe in their ability to create whatever they need and want are coming from abundance and they will always harness the power of the universe in their endeavors.

To conclude this post, I just want to reiterate that it’s ok to get started with a bank account that allows you to put money in and draw money out easily like a chequing or savings account. Both these vehicles have value for both personal and business use and to pay bills.

But you should part with the idea of using your savings account as a means to build wealth for retirement or to fund your dreams. Instead make a financial plan and set an ambitious goal to reach by investing in the market place and in yourself to realize your dreams.

After all, Richard Branson took many big gambles in his life but always came out on top with even more money than before. You can do the same.

See you at the top…

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Do you sometimes wonder why some people seem to get all the breaks in life while others have to take the back seat? Is it really fair that only some of us are getting a better deal then the rest of us? What if there was a simple way to turn this around ?

Would it help you to know that everybody can really get great service at a restaurant, a nicer room at a hotel or a better deal on virtually anything? I bet that would make life just that little bit better.

I’m not talking about huge amounts of money here, but more like the small, but important things.

So here goes my rule and experience has taught me that it will work for you too if you just adopt the process I’m about to describe. Much is said about the Law of Attraction and as you know this blog is about more wealth with less work and this is a perfect example of such a rule that will accomplish that.

The most important thing to understand is that it’s not the words you say or the actions you take that will get the ball rolling on simplifying and upgrading your life experience. It is the mental side of yourself that must be in harmony first before anhything will change on the outside.

So every morning after I wake up I decide that I deserve to have a wonderful day with all things going in a way I need them. I look forward to the next 24 hours in anticipation of everything working out very well and then let go of the thought. Let’s say, for example that I would like to upgrade my economy seat on the 10 hour flight to Europe to a lie flat business seat but I didn’t buy a business ticket.

Well, on the way to the airport, I start to think in the following words: “Wouldn’t it be nice if I got to sit in the busniess class section for this flight…” I think this thought in silence and feel the positive energy that this brings me because, as you can imagine it is much more pleasent to sit in comfort than in a small seat in row 59. After focusing on this for about a minute, I let it go and once I arrive at the airport I go to check in.

Here is what usually happens at that point: The agent has trouble finding me in the computer and starts to call around to figure out why I have a booking in my hands but no seat assigned to me…

So I ask him what the problem is and he tells me that there is a problem with my seat. HMMM. the next thing he tells me is that I can check my bag and should please head to the lounge agent where they will try to help me further. That is really no problem at all, because while I get to enjoy the departure lounge, the lady at the front is working on my seat issue.

After a few minutes, she comes to my lounge table and hands me a new ticket with the appology: “Mr. Bonn, we couldn’t solve the issue but I hope it’s ok that I booked you into row 1 for the outbound flight instead.” Well I guess it’s ok…

So there you go! I have manifested at least 10 upgrades for myself over the past few years and travelled in a $4500 seat for about $500 each way.

The same works on so many other things that you do on a daily basis: rental cars, hotel rooms, price in a retail store.

The simplest question you can ask which is never offensive when asked politely and without a specific expecation is: “Can you do any better…?”

You will be suprised how much better life can be with the adoption of a few simple steps.

Enjoy the magic and see you at the top…

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What good is having a lot of money without the adequate time to fully enjoy that financial abundance. In accordance with this line of thinking and to provide some inspiration for all of you that are new to this path of effortless abundance and the perks it can bring, I will be devoting a series of posts to my personal experiences in travel and leisure from across the world over the past few years.

Much like I love to draw inspiration from magazines that write about bespoke travel and unique lifestyle ideas, I simply want to make you aware what is out there for you to enjoy, because ironically you do often NOT need to have a lot of money to enjoy most of the things I cherish.

Rather than giving advise on depper topics of wealth and financial success, this post is a lighter approach to the outcome of having achieved a positive attitude toward money and continously setting yourself up to attract outstanding experiences into your reality.

Last weekend, my girlfriend and I headed on a roadtrip to Portland , Oregon. After we had stayed in Seattle a few times over the winter season, it felt right to go a bit further and it helps to find out that Oregon has no sales tax which makes for a shopping paradise.

For those of you who know me a little bit, this may come a no surprise, but I am less interested in shopping and really enjoy travel for 3 reasons: Outstanding Hotels, Great Food & Exciting Culture at the destination.

Of course there are many other aspects that I love, but on a short trip like this I had to focus. So we booked at the Westin which is part of Starwood Group and hence gives me a lot of perks since I have reached their Gold Status just recently. I am a pretty tough critic when it comes to chain hotels, but so far they have not let me down and I do enjoy several of their properties.

Although the Service and the Concierge at the Westin were very good, and I can also recommend them since they give you an appetizer voucher for their bar & grill, it is a different hotel experience that I would like to bring to your attention.

On our way back from brunch at “Mother’s”, which is probably one of the top 10 breakfast places in the world on my map (trust me I love breakfast more than any other meal hands down…), I just had to stop and see what was hiding behind the facade of a historical building with a doorman out front. My instict always guides me to great hotels that way, and this one seemed no different.

So, we enter the main door of the Hotel Monaco (Kimpton Group) and immediately the cozy, but stylish lobby makes us feel welcome and at home. the next thing I notice is an oversized dog bed in the corner. It is home to Art, the hotel pet and ambassador to all other four legged guests that the hotel warmly welcomes.  

I walk up to the front desk and get a brochure. As I glance through it, I disover that they have a very cool way to connect with thei guests, espcially the ones travelling alone. At your request, they will deliver a goldfish in a fishbowl to your room to keep you company while you stay there.

I have only ever seen one other hotel that had a similar offering. I was in the Swiss Alps and the hotel offered to bring a pair of mini hamsters to the guest’s room for entertainment and company.

Now I don’t know about you, but since hamsters are nocturnal, I think I’d opt for the goldfish this time to make sure I get my sleep.

More thoughts and unique stuff from my travel desk is coming your way soon, so tune in and don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS Feed so you don’t miss a beat.

Happy travels and see you at the top.

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