3 Secrets of the Wealthy You Need to Know
Guest Post by Rennie Gabriel, CLU, CFP, UCLA Instructor
This is guest post has been summitted by Rennie Gabriel, just in time for your annual financial planning. Read more about Rennie at the bottom of this article.
Secrets of the Wealthy
Just because you’re broke now, does not mean you cannot become wealthy. At age 50 I was flat broke and realized all the financial education I received taught me nothing about how to handle money powerfully, nor did it teach me how to create wealth. But when I studied what wealthy people did I discovered three secrets.
I use this acronym for the three secrets: AFI. It does not stand for the American Film Institute, but it stands for Attitude, Forms and Investments.
Secret #1:
The wealthy have a different attitude than most people.
When a wealthy person, or someone with a wealthy mindset, hears something familiar they ask questions instead of making statements. And the questions sound like:
- Where does that apply to my situation?
- When can I begin to do that?
- How do I get started?
- What should I do to get started?
- Who can help me do this?
By the way, they do not ask a question like, “Why can’t I do this?” The answer to a “why” question does not lead to an action that will solve the problem. It would be the difference between asking, “Why is this project behind schedule?” Versus asking, “What needs to change, or be fixed, to get this project on schedule?”
Why is this project behind schedule? can be answered with, “Because too many employees procrastinate,” “Management doesn’t care,” or “I don’t care.” None of those answers leads to an action that will get the project back on track.
Secret #2:
The wealthy use the same forms you use, but they look at them differently.
A wealthy person understands this and looks at their assets by which ones will produce an income so they can retire. By the way, I prefer to talk about achieving Complete Financial Choice™ instead of retirement.
John D. Rockefeller was one of the wealthiest men in the world and he tracked every cent that came into his life, and where every cent was spent. He started this when he was 11 years old and continued this until his death. If we adjust his net worth to today, based on inflation, he was worth about $400 billion when he died. If this was the practice of a billionaire, do you think it could be a valuable practice for you?
Secret#3:
The wealthy are not limited in their investing.
If you are working as a project manager as an employee you can still take advantage of many of the same investments where the wealthy invest.
When I was younger I owned a pension administration company and I was able to see what the most successful business owners did with the profits from their business. They invested outside of their business in real estate, or in other businesses. They were not limited to stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
They also invested in gas and oil projects, equipment leasing, peer-to-peer lending, limited partnerships and more. And their real estate investments were not limited to a second house; it included apartment buildings, tax liens, mortgages, office buildings, business parks, triple net leases, shopping centers and storage facilities.
In Conclusion
If you have a desire to maintain your standard of living at the point where you want to stop working for a living, you will need to have assets that generate your income instead. To achieve your financial goals learn more about the three secrets of the wealthy. You can apply those same secrets.