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By Thorsten on August 25, 2008 | 10 Comments
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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By Thorsten on August 22, 2008 | 6 Comments
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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By Thorsten on August 21, 2008 | 6 Comments
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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By Thorsten on August 20, 2008 | 2 Comments
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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By Thorsten on August 19, 2008 | No Comments
Certain things in life are very easy for us to follow while others appear to be a constant struggle for the human mind. Why is it that we don’t have a problem doing some tasks and we would rather procrastinate eternally on others.
Well, let me offer a possible solution to this question. I would argue that if we had no time lag between the performance of a task and it’s result or outcome things would be very different. In other words if we had not only a guarantee of the result actually happening in the way it is promised to us, but really got a clear feeling for the consequences, good or bad, of our behaviour, this issue would be negligable.
Let’s look at an example that we have all heard before. Our dentist tells us to brush at least twice a day and floss once to keep our teeth healthy. So far so good. The average person who has somewhat healthy teeth hears that, and maybe gives it some thought or follows the routine suggested for a few days and then, not noticing a real difference in wellbeing - stops someday until the next visit to the dentist.
What different impact do you think this advise could have if the rotting, painful throbbing tooth decay was evident at the same time as the dentist gave us this warning to brush and floss. So to speak we would be getting a real life preview of the outcome right up front.
Case closed, all of us would brush and floss diligently from that day on I bet - right?
Well, with success and successful habits it’s much the same way as with your dentist. I am here today to share with you 3 simple steps that are going to make a true difference in your life and if applied diligently will make the difference between financial struggle and intergenerational wealth beyond your wildest dreams.
What do I mean when I say this? Well, let me be clear.
The initial difference in how a multi millionaire conducts his life and a flat out penniless person maybe subtle. However given time and consitent good or bad habits when it comes to success in general and money habits in particular make this nuances a world of difference.
And I wouldn’t write about a topic like this if I wasn’t also sure that what you will get from this post is at most going to take 10 minutes a day. Would you invest 10 minutes to make it to millionaire status. I bet the answer is yes.
But enough with the introduction, let’s talk strategy now…
1) Always quantify your goals
Before you even get started with any action in any direction of life, be sure that you take a few minutes to get clear on the outcome you want. Not in vague terms and undisclosed time frames, but in a concise and summarized way. If you can come up with one line and at least one number in that line, you have a winning step 1.
Here is a quick example: “I will reach $10,000 in average monthly income from my business by the end of 2009 or sooner.”
2) Track your progress
Have you ever taken a road trip and ended up not knowing how far along you are on your drive? That can be very annoying because the human mind likes to have a reference point. So just like your car on the road, if you don’t track your progress regularly, it will slow doen your success dramtically or stunt any growth.
At any given time, I have multiple excel sheets going to give me a snapshot of my progress. It’s what makes great athletes winners and it’s what will make you rich if you do it.
Example: Track the average monthly income for each month and have a field for comments or suggestions also to help you jog your mind if you spot any significant abnormalities in your tracker.
3) Celebrate YOUR Success
When Napoleon found out that grown men would kill in war to receive a gold star on their unifrom for bravery, he had tapped into a secret that would allow him to become one of the greates generals in human history.
You have to absolutley reward yourself for hitting not only the end goal but smaller milestones along the way. It is paramount for me to mention 2 things here. First, the milestone has to be significant to you and nobody else, and second the reward is purely for your enjoyment and not to elicit positive feedback from outside. We often tend to wait until others acknowldege our achievements before we do, and frankly that is BS in my books. I say once you are about 25, 50, 77 and 82 % of ther way there, give yourself a treat.
Take yourself to dinner, buy a nice shirt or whatever speaks to you. Main thing is that you celebrate yourself.
I know you will find this post useful in so many ways in your life. It gave me tramendous leverage once I figured this out a few years back and I continue to obliterate people that have more connections, cash to throw around or brains simply because I use the leverage of tracking what is important to my success story in life.
You should, too ! See you at the top.
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By Thorsten on August 16, 2008 | 4 Comments
A few days ago I published a post outlining the importance of having a big enough ‘WHY’ in your life before you should even beging to contemplate the ‘How’ of making your plan work.
Today I want to drill a bit deeper on the topic of having a vision for your life and for major projetcs that impact your success.
The 3 steps of leadership can be summarized as follows:
1) See things as they are - not better and not worse
2) Imagine/ Envision things to be slightly better than they are now
3) Make them to be that way.
Of course this is an oversimplified version of what it takes to be a leader, but since I never was much of a believer in complicating things, it will do just fine for the sake of argument here.
The majority of the people don’t plan to fail in life but most mof us fail to plan. The outcome of this statement os of course equally undesireable so it shows that without a plan we are quickly headed nowhere.
If you want to get started on things, just go and check of point after point from the list above. Let’s say that you are currently experiencing a shortage of income to pay all your expenses. Assuming you cannot just quickly lower these expenses to make your income last further, take a factual account of the situation.
The real importance in this first step is only to get us started on the process of creating a better reality with more money coming in and the cashinflow outpacing our expenses for the future. What we don’t want to do is get so good and so caught up in the reality that we are living now that we can only speak of the lack of money all day long.
Here’s why: The more we focus on step 1 the more this reality will be engrained into our subconscious and thus we will create a vibrational match that tells the universe “I don’t have enough money”. Repeating this statement in our head even silently over and over and over does not help. What often happens is that when we have this thought it is accompanied by a negative emotion such as frustration or despair.
This creates the perfect storm from an attraction point of view because effectively we are creating more lack each time we focus on it. I know that most of us are doing this process unconsciously, but even so, don’t ponder on the assessment of your ’situation’ or it will not go away.
Next, and this is the fun part, imagine your ideal scene. This does not have to be an eloborate dream scenario, but in our example with the income you could state an intention like this: “I now have more than enough money coming in every month to cover all my expenses.”
That is all you need to do. Now you can sit back and relax, because as long as your mind is clear on what you want and as long as you have a good feeling when you think of it, the universe will create it for you.
In the meantime, keep your vision to yourself until it is fulfilled and try to judge as little as possible whatever happens around you, This will speed up the delivery of your vision and put you on a good connection path with source energy in general.
Enjoy the journey and see you at the top.
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By Thorsten on August 14, 2008 | No Comments
A Chinese proverb says: “A journey of a million miles begins with a single step.”
There is more truth to this than most of us are aware of and this s why I’d like to focus my attention on the concept with this post today.
If I came to you and said: “I want you to get from 1 dollar to 1 million dollars by tomorrow.” Could you do it? Most likely not, unless you are Warren Buffet or Donald Trump, but even they may have a hard time only starting with 1 dollar.
As a result of the above thought, the majority of people decide that since there is no way to get from basically nothing to millionaire status they will not waste any time and effort to even try.
So let’s examine a way to make the concept more accpetable to the human mind. What do you think happenend if we change the amount and simply made the task to get from one dollar to two? Would that make it easier for you? Of course it would, but now I am sensing that we may have another issue.
Just like our mind doesn’t consider it possible to go from $1 to $ 1 million overnight, our ego is likeli to chime in and complain that one extra lousy dollar will NOT take you from poor to rich. Looking at that comparison out of context there is a valid point, but regular logic has no place when we are setting out on the journey from nothing to rich.
I don’t want to get into too much detail on this particular issue in this post, so I’ll simply say this. Look at the equation not as an absolute figure, but instead restate it in terms of growth accomplished:
Getting from $1 to $2 is actually double the amount, so we have a solid 100% growth here. Case closed.
For the rest of this post, I am going to ask you to suspend your disbelief until you have tried what I am about to tell you.
What if there was an easy way to get 100% growth for your money and what if that way required you to only make one small change in your thinking? You would try it, right?
So here is the easy task I have for you: Go and tune your intuition to finding money in any place you can !
Here’s what I mean: Write down the following sentence on a piece of paper and then read it out loud a few times to yourself
“I am now finding money wherever I go in an easy and relaxed way.”
This little statement will set in motion many things in your mind and trust me, while it may seem a little weird at first, you will suddenly and magically find small amounts of money in unlikely places.
Here’s what happened when I first followed this idea a few years ago. I went from $1 to about $5 in the matter of about a day because I started to see money everywhere. On the street there were pennies and nickels, in a pocket of pants that I no longer wear I found a dollar and in between my car seet cushions another one.
Of course, I understand that this is hardly a strategy to get rich from, but trust me the implications of whether you can pull this off or not are far reaching for your potential to attract more cashflow down the road.
So play along with me and most importantly have fun while you are doing it.
See you at the top…
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By Thorsten on August 12, 2008 | No Comments
A few days ago I stumbled upon a statistic that showed how people with clear goals had a huge advantage over those that merely had vague wishes for their lives.
Especially in the area of attracting wealth, the main reason people fail to become rich is not a lack of finding the tools to get there, but rather the reason that drives them to get there in the first place. What is the compelling argument in your life that makes you want to be wealthy? Is there a reason for you to follow that path that is beyond the gratification money can bring, or do you derive all your energy from the power that wealth brings?
I suggest you get clear on the ‘Why’ question first before you tackle the part of ‘How’ you will get there. The Why is the 80% of the equation with the remaining 20% resting squarerly on the how part.
Take a piece of paper and write down 5 reasons that make you want to be rich, better yet, write down 5 reasons that will push you to committ to becoming rich and give as much detail on that paper for each argument.
The next step is easy, because so many people have done it before. While the reasons may not be totally original, they are likely to be unique to your life and the experience you wish to create for yourself and your family. Getting started on the ‘How’ part of it all is what this blog and many other resources are for.
Showing and exposing you to proven or new ways to get from where you are currently at to that million dollar mark without too much of a sweat. It won’t be just all fun and games, but I don’t work 16 hour days and neither should you.
Stay tuned for an announcement to all my readers in the next few days that will be of great value to you.
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By Thorsten on August 11, 2008 | 4 Comments
I would like to send a shoutout to Andrew for including me in his latest blog carnival.
Check out the many great posts he has over there and leave a few comments for him. Great blog, keep it growing… !
If you are interested in finding my article just click here.
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By Thorsten on August 8, 2008 | No Comments
One of the most common questions I get asked about the Law of Attraction is how well it works for different things in life. Can you manifest a car? A spouse? A million dollars? The short answer to this is “Yes, you can absolutely manifest all those things and more.”
Then why is it, I hear you asking that not many people seem to be good at creating their perfect scenario on life and the vast majority seem to be chasing a dream that eludes them forever?
And there is an answer for that, too. The Law of attraction always works, no matter what. The wishing well of the universe is always on, so there is no time or instance in which it doesn’t work. That being said, most of us are not deliberately living our lives, because we keep unconsciously recreating the same stuff over and over.
How then do we actually know if we are a vibrational match to attract what we really want? That’s the easy part. If you had the right vibration to attract money, that money would be available to you right now. If you had the right vibration to attract a car of your dreams, that car would be in your driveway today.
The key is to observe this before we endavour on any new manifesting sprees, because without that clarity of our present capabilities we will keep spinning our wheels for a long time to come.
Look for a follow-up to this post with a more in depth focus on the law of attraction in the next few days.
And don’t forget to leave a comment and join the conversation since the best learning in life usually comes from the experiences of out peers.
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