Share Your Discoveries with Others
You don’t have to become an expert to share what you discover. Let yourself get excited about what you’re learning. Share that excitement and your newfound knowledge with someone else.
I have found that teaching is a great way to learn. As you read, keep a pen or pencil handy to mark the sections that really resonate with you or that you feel you need to review. Write down notes in a journal or notebook, adding your own thoughts or examples. Sharing those notes and sections with someone else will help you remember what you learn. Explaining concepts to someone else will help you keep things simple and putting the ideas into your own terms and your own examples and stories will cement them in your brain. You will find that you can remember the things that you read and then share much better than the things you just read and keep to yourself.
Check out the Cone of Learning developed by Edgar Dale. Years ago he discovered that reading alone was actually one of the least effective ways to learn something new.
Source: Cone of Learning adapted from Dale, (1969)
Consider forming a group with two or three friends who are reading this book at the same time you are, and then meet for breakfast once a week to discuss what you’re learning. Be sure to steer clear of forming too many opinions too quickly. Just focus on what lessons are being taught, being sure to build on each section as you learn.
Review Your Education Goals Now
At the beginning of any journey, it is a good idea to set some goals. It’s not uncommon to have lifestyle goals. And it is not uncommon to have money goals. But few people I meet continue to set significant education goals once they leave school.
As you complete each chapter of this book, remember to keep setting education goals.
Lifestyle Goals
I’m sure that you and I will always have the desire to improve our lifestyles. We all have that in common. You can think of some of these specific desires for improvement as lifestyle goals. As I travel the world and speak at various events I often ask my students to list a few of their goals. Here are some common responses:
• I want to quit my job.
• I want to own a house on the beach.
• I want to own an exotic car.
• I want to travel the world.
• I want to be financially free.
• I want to help and serve others.
Go ahead and make a list of your own goals. Not the goals someone somewhere told you should have. But the goals that would make you happy. Write them down. No one has to see them; you don’t have to justify them to anyone. You know why they are important, and that’s enough. Write them down as the first step toward recognizing that you are in control of this journey. You decide what is trivial and what is vital—that is true for every aspect of your life, from your education to your goals.
Dreaming Is Free
I’m alarmed at how little time people spend dreaming these days. Nearly everywhere I visit, times have become so tough that people are concentrating on mere survival rather than making plans for abundance. The conversations people are having now about their finances are too often focused simply on getting by, rather than on achieving their full potential or exploiting their opportunities to the very maximum.
I like to remind people that dreaming is free. It’s an indulgence we need not feel guilty about. Wherever you live, you stand on the shoulders of those who went before you. I’m sure you can think of sacrifices made by others that have provided you with opportunities you can seize on this very day. When you think about it like that, not only is it okay to dream, but it’s actually a very important activity for you to do. You owe it to those who have gone before you to honor their sacrifices. You can enjoy time spent dreaming of the great things your future can hold.
Let your dreams fuel your determination and fill you with energy. Dreams unleash the power of both your conscious and subconscious mind. Dreaming feels good. Dreaming is good.
Take these dreams and turn them into goals by writing them down.
Money Goals
We can also have money goals. Money goals are different from lifestyle goals. But money goals alone tend to lose their power. They’re too vague, too dry.
• I want $1,000,000.
• I want $10,000 a month.
• I want to be free of debt.
For some people, perhaps these statements are more wishes than goals. But money goals become instantly more meaningful when they grow out of your lifestyle goals.
Let’s take an example of a goal to make $10,000. Standing alone, $10,000 is just money.
But if we start with a lifestyle goal, such as to buy yourself a top-of-the-line Harley-Davidson motorcycle, suddenly your heart beats faster and that dream starts to come alive. You might visit a dealership and pick the one you’ve always wanted. You could sit on it, touch it, and feel it. This becomes a very powerful experience for you.
Now it’s time to look at the price tag. How much money will you need to make that dream come true? If the price tag is $11,799, you now have a meaningful money goal. At this point you can choose to buy it outright or set a goal to increase your cash flow to cover a payment of $389 per month. Now your money goal is even more specific.
Education Goals
So how are you going to increase your cash flow by $389 each month? The good news is that earning that extra $389 per month is simply a matter of education and action. Some folks may think the only way to gain that amount is to cut an equal amount from their monthly spending. I don’t know about you, but I’m not really interested in giving up anything in my life. But there is another way—a better way. Instead of cutting your current spending, you can decide to learn how to acquire income-producing assets that will create that extra money for you.
What Is Wealth Building?
In a nutshell, wealth building is simply learning how to buy assets intelligently. These assets can come in multiple forms:
• Business
• Real Estate
• Paper assets like stocks
• Commodities like gold or oil
When I look at wealthy people like Warren Buffett, Donald Trump, and Robert Kiyosaki, I see people who have become wealthy because they have become educated about how to buy assets. I imagine they wake up in the morning and ask, “Where will I find an asset I can buy today?” They don’t need a hot tip. More importantly, they don’t sit around waiting and hoping for a hot tip to find them. They know how to look for and look at an opportunity and use their financial knowledge to decide whether to play or pass.
If someone with a financial education wants to buy a Harley, they don’t skip their morning latte and put their pennies in a savings account and until they have enough money. They don’t put it on a credit card and cross their fingers each month when the bill comes due. They don’t get a second job. What can you do when you want to make a lifestyle goal a reality?
• Start a business to earn the $389 per month...if we have a business education.
• Acquire a rental property to earn $389 per month...if we have a real estate education.
• Sell some covered call options to earn $389 per month...if we have an options education.
Now can you