Wealth Creation Blog

When we talked about emotion ruling recession, we mentioned that every economy creates an opportunity. Good, bad, or otherwise, there is always an opportunity to be had; one that you can capitalize on and continue to create and build wealth, or even develop new opportunities.

One Man’s Trash

In many ways what this becomes is a case of one man’s trash being another man’s treasure; properties and investments that are no longer profitable for one person’s wealth creation could be an excellent bargain, and a prime foundation for your own. The fact that someone else has cast off this opportunity does not make it a bad one in and of itself—there are many factors at play that can make something unmanageable for one person, all the while it is exactly the opportunity you have been waiting for.

Profiting Off The Backs Of Others?

This brings to the forefront a question: is building wealth in a down economy a case of profiting from the downfall of others? Is there something “wrong” with your building wealth in this way? Are you somehow becoming a vulture or profiteer while others suffer?

No, no, and no. Unless you underhandedly did something to cause the financial demise of another, that blame cannot be yours. More often than not, your investments will help those people and entities. After all, there can be no upswing in a bad economy unless investors do what investors do best—invest! Unless people free cash and start to use it, the only thing that can occur is market stagnation. The world’s economy, and all the people who rely upon it (which is all of us), need you to capitalize these opportunities and create wealth!

The Tipping Point

We know the opportunities are certainly out there in these slow markets. And we know that there is money to be made by those who position themselves well now. So what will make the difference? What’s the deciding factor? Where is the tipping point?

The tipping point is this: preparation. The people who do more than survive bad markets, who make money and come out ahead, are those who are prepared. They are the people who get educated, who study various opportunities for investment and wealth creation, and who put the effort into making them work. I don’t think you’ll be surprised to hear me say that 80% of that is mindset, and deciding to find the opportunity for wealth within. The other 20%, which I also do not think will surprise you, is having the tools and financial education to empower you to do that.

The full balance of the 100% is all within your reach. You’ve come this far, tipping the scales already. Maintain your positivity and successful mindset, and no doubt you’ll be one of the people proving that economics truly do create opportunity with each and every turn.

Sean Rasmussen
Wealth Creation Blog
UniversalWealthCreation.com © 2004 – 2008

How often have you been told here that the two keys to wealth and success are [first] mindset, and [second] action? Countless. And few people argue that. To build wealth you have to develop the mindset of the wealthy, and then you have to take actions that are capable of producing wealth. A lot of people get hung up on the action-taking, though. Why? Often the cause is perfection.

Perfection As The Enemy Of Progress

This is a piece of advice I’ve actually given in the past to the readers at my Wealth Creation Affiliate blog. It applies very logically to them—affiliates will wait to long for their website promotions, etc to be perfectly “right” and will miss out on so many opportunities and wind up just wasting time. The same applies to creating wealth—if you wait for the perfect moment to take action and get started, you’ll never get going!

Does this mean that you go ahead without getting educated? Without learning how to direct your efforts? No. Does it mean developing wealth needs no strategy or structure? No.

This simply means that it is okay to start taking actions towards wealth and good living without perfecting that strategy. Start small and grow. Positive action will attract more positive action, and will put you into the habit of prioritizing your wealth, goal-setting, achieving, and snowballing that into more wealth, and on and on. You can always change and develop your plans and strategies later. But you need to at least start somewhere. Remember that one step? This is it.

Perfection is elusive, impossible for humans. Mistakes are okay—they are opportunities. Even failures are opportunities. If you are waiting for everything to be perfect, that time will never come. If you are waiting until you know all there is to know about building wealth, you will find there is always something new to learn. The best course of action is to start learning, apply what you know, and start acting to become wealthy today.

Sean Rasmussen
Wealth Creation Blog
UniversalWealthCreation.com © 2004 – 2008

In posts past we’ve talked about how it is important to include kids in your financial plans for wealth creation. We’ve talked about how much better the start in life for our kids could be if we applied what we know about financial empowerment and building wealth from the start. Every now and again I like to dedicate a post or two to these types of topics in the interest of building a better, simpler, wealthier life for the kids.

Giving Kids A Wealthy Vocabulary

It’s a lot easier to raise children with a wealthy mindset than to try to correct it later. I think any of us here who have been through this process, or are going through it now, could easily agree. And one of the ways we can make their lives easier from the start is to give them due credit for understanding the concepts and the language of wealth.

When you talk openly about finance and wealth with your children, you suddenly strip away the many barriers that go up in our paths to adulthood. You prevent children from forming the attitude of negativity around wealth and money, and negate the need for them to have to work to break down those walls later.

Meaningful Language

The other thing that you do when you use real, meaningful language with children is teach them real, meaningful words and concepts. This is important because if a child knows the words and understands their meaning, they can learn from anyone who is speaking it. That educated child will be able to read and learn and recognize what it is they are exposed to. They’ll be ahead of the game because they will have that innate knowledge from the beginning, and so they can continue on to wealth and prosperity instead of just getting started (or worse, having to recover and relearn things they should have known all along—if only our traditional education would catch up to real, meaningful financial management and education!).

It’s a great thing that an adult does when they recognize their ability and right to wealth. But it’s an even greater thing they do when they pass on that knowledge and power to another, and give a child a strong financial start to life. Have real, meaningful financial conversations with the kids that matter to you and help them to a better life-start.

Sean Rasmussen
Wealth Creation Blog
UniversalWealthCreation.com © 2004 – 2008

Perhaps I was hard on you in the last post, so let’s lighten it up a bit and see if we can’t do something real to alleviate your pressure and open up some time so that adding more to your day can be less taxing. In reality there are few people who get time-management right. Few people are as disciplined as they could or should be, and so the bulk of us are wasting time that could be used instead for something really good—something like getting rich, building wealth. That’s a pretty good reward for a little more discipline, isn’t it?

Don’t Find Time, Make Time

You cannot find time. It already exists. You already have all the time you are going to get. So if you are spending your days looking for more so that you can start to create wealth, you will be disappointed. The time is there, you just need to find a way to make it happen for you.

One way to make time happen is to take away that which steals it from you. You may think this is impossible, but for most people it is not. Let’s take a look, then, at the things that can possibly go.

• Mindless entertainment—relaxation is important, but if you could give up some mindless TV, movies, or trashy novels you can replace them with educational wealth videos and podcasts, financial empowerment books, and motivational CD’s.

• Time wasters—there are so many possibilities here it seems an endless subject. Are other people wasting your time? Don’t let them. Do you talk on the phone too much? Email too much? IM? Spend more time than is necessary in meetings and travel (can you work from home and spend less time commuting)?

• Obsessions—some of us do things too well—things that don’t really matter that much. Maybe you vacuum three times a day or obsessively check your email. Figure out what is necessary and good, do that, but nothing more.

I’m sure you can add to this list. Maybe you can even give me some tips. If you can please do. We all need more time for what is most important, beneficial, and productive. We all need more time to prioritize our financial futures. We all need to make that time.

Sean Rasmussen
Wealth Creation Blog
UniversalWealthCreation.com © 2004 – 2008

There aren’t always nice ways to find time to see to our own wealth creation. Sometimes the answer lies in taxing ourselves more, pushing ourselves harder, and taking more upon ourselves. I wish I could tell you that this wasn’t something that you might need to do, but it is a plain and simple truth—sometimes the road to wealth means sacrificing and working harder.

Put More In, Get More Out

The more you put into something the more you will get out of it, yes? So the more you put into your day the more you will get out of it, true? If you want to start progressing in your efforts to make money and secure financial freedom, you just might have to take a little less leisure time or even get a little less sleep to get it done. If there is nothing else to give, that may be the only way.

Sometimes the only love is tough love, and the answers aren’t all rosy. But you know as well as I that the sacrifice and the added work will be worth it in the end. And as soon as you start to see the benefits of that additional load you can begin to relax elsewhere (such as at work) and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

The fact of the matter is that nothing comes from stagnation. The only thing a lack of action attracts is more lack of action. To make things happen, to start seeing a return on your time and financial education, you have to act in some way. There has to be time to do that or there will be no progress.

No doubt many of you are thinking that your lives are already too full. That is a primary motivation for wanting to be wealthy. And no doubt it is very true. But the fact remains that only you control your financial destiny, and only you can make it change. And the only way to do that is to start acting now and eliciting that change. So if it means you have to find an extra half an hour or hour that is what will have to happen. Put more in, and you’ll be rewarded for your commitment and dedication to your personal wealth.

Sean Rasmussen
Wealth Creation Blog
UniversalWealthCreation.com © 2004 – 2008