Saving money makes you POORER!

Sounds totally stupid!?...

But googling 'how can you become financially free' and hearing people talk about money has convinced me that in fact saving money actually makes you poorer!!

Heres why!...

First websites and results from google, led me to many websites which gave advice or top tips similar to:

1 - Live below your means

2 - Count every penny!

3 - Switch phone companies or utility companies regularly

4 - Shop about for discounts

5 - Save up for stuff that you want

etc etc etc

Now at first i thought some of these points valid but for being financially free were just stupid BUT it was only getting to the bottom of the page there were in fact 100's of comments from viewers and readers posting comments such as:

- 'Excellent advice!!'

- 'Been following your website and advice now for years and i'm nearly debt free!!'

- 'more more more tips please! :D'


I was amazed at how much these people followed websites, or this type of advice.


So taking emotions out of the picture or statement if you will. I looked at this logically and went right if a coin has TWO SIDES to it, you can go on one side of the coin, you can SAVE money and on the other side of the coin you can MAKE money!

Now as these readers, viewers of those said comments on that website i mentioned earlier obviously are acting out the 'SAVING' side of the coin.
To me.... this is ludicrous as i thought hang on!... with saving there IS A LIMIT!

There is only so much money you can save a year! You earn 'x amount' you spend 'x amount' therefore your left with xxxx so if we follow the top tips 'change utility companies etc' we can REDUCE that expenditure down to the bare bones or as close as we can! BUT then we hit the limit!
You can only reduce it so much, as you can never get it so it's FREE therefore there will come a time when your budget and plan so to speak is as lean and mean as it can go! And thats IF you stay on top of counting the pennies, and spending hours and hours and days in a year comparing deals, shopping around after quotes and so on! Which is quite unlikely.

Now on the flip side of the coin!...
I've NEVER heard anyone say, 'I've made to much money, i've hit my limit!'

This sentence when it was in my head, was suddenly a 'urikea moment' yes its obvious you can only save so much money a year, and you have to repeat the formula year after year, spending hours and hours, days and days trimming the fat off your expenditure so its as lean as possible.

However if you were to spend THAT TIME! learning TO MAKE MONEY! there is no limit!

ONE SIDE OF THE COIN HAS A LIMIT! (SAVING MONEY)
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN IS LIMITLESS!!! (MAKING MONEY)

Now if we took two people acting out their lives living each side of the coin, the person learning year after year how to make more and more money, would be better off surely!

Where by the people spending time to save and save will never be able to out do inflation! and will get left behind and overall be poorer in the long run!

So for me, though YES I AGREE you can save money! and go look i've saved nearly £500 this year BUT if you have what precious time to learn something, spend it learning how to MAKE MONEY! and make £500 extra a year! as year after year £500 one year another £500 the year after = £1000 etc You will be better off!!

And in closing:

Surely life is about LIVING and ENJOYING it with the people you love stress free, not about surviving it and living below your means!
I believe we live once! and ONLY once! we are all unique and all incredible individuals! But somehow somethings happened, and we put ourselves down and tell ourselves or allow others to tell us we don't deserve the high life, success, holidays abroad and travel the world! We seem to ACCEPT that we should live below our means and count every penny. I for one want to go out on my death bed saying, i've lived a good life, travelled to many places, seen many events and experienced many things! and i have managed to do them all with my wife (currently not married at time of writing this) and my children (again not got any at time of writing). I can leave knowing that my family is taken care, they won't have to stress about money, and that they have the choice to pursue their dreams and passions and hobbies! and not be a slave to job industry.


Leave a comment below with your opinion on this, as i'd love to hear other peoples views...

Body Language

Whilst talking to a friend about body language i remembered a story i heard or dreamt :S

A suit is symbolic to a suit of armour back in the day!

'The more a suit is fitted to the person, the more protected they fill and therefore the more CONFIDENT they would feel'

This has lead me to also combine my thoughts of body language and business and leadership skills into merging with dress codes and what that can say about you or what you want it to say to people who see you or judge you!

Watch this space!....

Mine and Paul's Conversation

At work only the other day i was talking to a friend, who is also a manager and we got talking about business etc
He went on to share with me a book he was reading ....

Some tips he shared with me, apparently if you want or would like someone to do something and have a good feeling that they will say no. By asking them a question before and getting a yes answer THEN asking them what you think they will say no to statistically they will agree too.

For example,

'Did you have a good break?'

'yes thanks'

'Good!.... can you do me a favour and ?????'

i thought this can come off very fake and easy to pick up on BUT i thought it was quite interesting.
He then shared a story about how someone did a study about stopping people in the street and asking for money for a chairty or organisation or something i don't quite remember. Though the key point was before asking them they used hand gestures without touching the person to usher them to one side and then ask ...

For example,

walking down the street and the person approaches the stranger and goes...

'Excuse me sir, and places his hand and body in a direction to the side of the pavement'
(Now as the stranger is walking down the road, they more than likely WON'T turn 180 and walk back, which leaves 3 options left, right and straight forward, now with the person positioning his body and hand gesture, leaves the stranger with one place to go.)

This on the face of it can seem very intimidating BUT again i thought it was clever little things like that can influence people. And if done correctly can seem so innocent BUT highly influential.

Now after reading a book by Dale Carneige 'How to influence people' i had already woken the interest in this subject. But i thought i would love to learn MORE about this, as taking body language skills into business or leadership and relationships can be very good tool and skills to have or to know about.

I also thought these skills or information and knowledge if aquired could easily lead to increase confidence too. As the saying goes.... 'ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS'.

So i will try and get reviewing all the books i've read so far asap. But also find time and FOLLOW THIS UP.

Body Language Skills in Business and Leadership! - Looking forward to studying and researching this!

books i've read

Below is a list of books i've recently read and will post key points i liked want to take forward with me...

• Seth Godin - Linchpin
• 7 Habits of highly effective people
• Retire young Retire Rich
• The 3+1 Plan
• Dale Carneige How to influence people
• Dale Carneige How to do Public speaking
• The Naked Trader
• The Naked Trader (Spread Betting)
• Rich Dad advisor (2x books of real estate)
• Financial Times ‘Investing’ good but i found it hard to keep up B2B
• Financial Times ‘Start up 2013’ 
• Get off your arse 
• Michael O’leary ‘after watching tv program about airlines
• Rent 2 Rent
• Think and Grow Rich ‘Napoleon Hill’
• 365 Social Media Tips
• Business SOS ‘Paul Avins’
• A guide to starting and developing a new business
• 50 ways to find funding for your business
• The secret to success ‘Eric Thomas’ 
• The mind management ‘in progress’
• Finance for small business ‘Emily Coltman’ (TBR)
• Small business Tax Planning (TBR)
• Bookkeeping and accounting (TBR)
• 49 quick ways to market business for free (TBR)
• Google Website marketing (TBR)
• The science of getting rich (TBR)
• 101 ways to pick stock market winners (TBR)
• Thinking fast and slow (TBR)
• Mindset how you can fulfill your potential (TBR)
• Amazon global selling with amazon (TBR)

(TBR) to be read

Rich Dad Poor Dad - Book Review

This is Robert Kiyosaki's first book. I read this last instead of first not by choice, but the other two seemed more appealing to me, but at the end of each book was a picture of this. So i thought i might as well complete the picture and understand how it all came about etc


Summary:

- For me though i read this 3rd and not first, though i thought it from the second book. To me 'Rich Dad' is a fictional character and is in fact Robert Kiyosaki in a 3rd person. I.e whatever 'Rich Dad' says is basically Roberts opinion or point of view.
Either way to me tho the character might be fictional i think most and i stress MOST points not ALL points made by rich dad 'Robert' are fictional and i think many are very relevant.
That being said, it still doesn't change my opinion of the guy, i think he's very influential and a clever man, people may say con man, but to me i think if you treat it like a sieve and take what information thats good out of the book or books and let your ego forget about the rest you can learn a lot and not get to carried away.

- I don't know if i wrote about this before, but Robert and 'Rich Dad' have also showed me that to help say or deliver a point or statement, that telling it through a story is a better way, like instead of shoving the point/ message down your throat a story if you will, kind of gift wraps the message and it seems for me anyway more easier to accept and listen too. Just my opinion however.

- Another point/statement i liked, i'm not sure if it was mentioned in this book or another Rich Dad Poor Dad book, the statement....
"Jobs are a short term solution to a long term Problem!"
I like this statement a lot, as recently a friend and co worker and my local supermarket asked me whether i'd be interested in going on the management course with him, and immediately this statement popped into my head! Yes more money would be better short term i thought! However i would be spending more hours of my day learning and devoting myself to fulfilling a job that i didn't want LONG TERM and therefore wasting my time, and i need to keep my time invested in things that will help me towards educating myself about money, business and becoming financially free.

Overall i've now read THREE books from the 'Rich Dad Poor Dad' collection, and my overall opinion is it was time WELL SPENT, it taught me many things, it opened my mind, it changed my mind shift, it changed my opinion about money and it gave me the drive to go forward and invest in myself and educate myself about money and business and escape the rat race and go on to become financially free and 'WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER'.


My highlights from the book:

- The word 'emotion' stands for 'energy in motion.'

- A job is really a short-term solution to a long-term problem,

- KISS principle -- Keep It Simple Stupid (or Keep It Super Simple)

- An asset puts money in my pocket. A liability takes money out of my pocket.

- Investing is the science of "money making money."

- Accounting is financial literacy or the ability to read numbers

- When someone sues a wealthy individual, they are often met with layers of legal protection and often find that the wealthy person actually owns nothing. They control everything, but own nothing.

- "Cynics criticise, and winners analyse"

- "You become what you study"

- 'It is true your world is only a mirror of you.'

- Job is an acronym for "Just Over Broke."

- "Earned income is money you work for, and passive and portfolio income is money working for you."

My Highlights From Retire Young Retire RICH

(A selection of highlights i made throughout reading the book)


- A question which acted upon can make people millionaires even billionaires, 'How can i do what i do for more people with less work and for a better price?'

- "No. Learning to build a business is like learning anything else. I think clinging to job security all your life is a lot risker than taking the risk to learn to build a business. One risk is short-term and one risk lasts a lifetime."

- "When you get a raise, so does the government." (About pay rises for a job)

- Employee                   Business Owners
  Earns                          Earns
  Taxed                         Spends
  Spends whats left       Pays taxes on whats left

- Earned Income         50  percent money
  Portfolio Income       25  percent money
  Passive Income         0   percent money

- SIGHT is what you see with your eyes.
  VISION is what you see with your mind.

- "Your profit is made when you buy, not when you sell.'

- Responsible Society or Victim Society.

- We all know that it is difficult to put more water into a glass that is already full of water; it is also difficult to teach something new to someone whose mind is closed or already filled with other content.

- "The moment you make passive income and portfolio income a part of your life, your life will change."

- "I have never seen a tomorrow. All i have are todays. Today is the word for winners and tomorrow is the word for losers."

- Leverage of assets rather than the leverage of my labor.

- "The trouble with selling your labor for money is that there is only so much you can do. If you learn to acquire or build assets to generate money, you can slowly but surely increase your income."

- It is only a loser who stays at the wrong table forever, losing everything, hoping to prove that they are not a loser.

- "You don't want to own anything. All you want to do is control it."

- "An entrepreneur sees an opportunity, puts together a team, builds a business that profits from the opportunity."

- "Leaders do the right things and managers do things right."

- "Bill Gates is Not the Highest Paid Man in the World." The article went on to day that there are many executives in the world of business who are paid much more than Bill Gates, yet Gates was the richest man in the world. The article stated that at that time, Gates was only paid about $500,000 a year but his asset base was in the billions and growing.

- 1 - Earned
2 - Portfolio
3 - Passive
4 - Residual Income (income from a business, such as a network marketing business or a franchise business you own but someone else runs.)
5 - Dividend Income (income from stocks)
6 - Intrest income (Income from saving or bonds)
7 - Royalty income (Income from songs or books you have written, and trademarks and inventions (whether or not patentable) that you have created.)
8 - Financial instrument income (Income from trust deeds from real estate)

- The path to financial freedom is simply to: BUY ASSETS
"Buy assets that generate cash flow- NOW, not sometime in the future!" Remember how rich dad defines assets: "Assets put money in your pocket, liabilities take money from your pocket." It is just that simple. The more assets you can buy, the more your money will be working for you. - Sharon Lechter

- The point is that your future is yet to be made. You may as well make it up today and make it up the way you want it to be, rather than what you're afraid it might not be.

- Always remember that words are free. If you want to get rich quickly, you need a rich vocabulary. Always remember that there are three basic classes of assets. They are businesses, paper assets, and real estate. Each of these assets uses different words. Each of these assets is like a foreign country with a foreign language. If you are interested in real estate, begin to learn the vocabulary or the jargon. Once you learn the words, you will be better able to communicate to yourself and others in that asset class.

- "The problem is most people live only one reality and tend to think that their reality is the only reality."

"Retire Young Retire Rich"

So after reading Robert Kiyosaki's Cashflow Quadrant i purchased this book.

Again tho a much thicker book, i was very impressed with it. This book has a alot of valuable information. This book centres all around 'LEVERAGE'.
Near the start he talks about a time when he delivered a speech to an audience....

He was talking how a couple who were in the local newspaper had successfully retire 6 years earlier than planned. He goes on to say how himself and his wife retired at  47 and 37.
He writes on a board

   DEBT

   vs

   EQUITY

'I pointed to the word debt and said "I was able to retire early because i used debt to fund my retirement. And this couple in the newspaper, the people with the 401(k) used equity to fund their retirement. That is why they took longer to retire.

"Are you saying that the guy in the newspaper used his money to retire and you used our money to retire?" A member from the audience asks..

"That is correct! I was using your money to get deeper in debt and he was trying to get out of debt'

From this i took, this story is probably FICTIONAL and even if it is the point that is made ISN'T. The debt he refers too i'm assuming is to buy assets so mortgages for rental properties etc. Therefore though getting into debt, later in the book he mentions theres 'good debt (which makes you rich) and bad debt (which makes you poor)' this could be referred to as 'good debt' as this debt is growing your 'asset column' which if done correctly raises your 'PASSIVE INCOME' and helps you become closer to financial freedom.

KEY POINTS LEARNT:

- Stories help get messages or points across to reader or the public

- Good debt makes you rich, Bad debt makes you poor

-