Wealth Creation Blog

Going back to the post regarding meeting the basic human needs, you’ll remember that we talked about how all people meet these needs. Although all people meet basic human needs in some way, we do not all do so constructively. Moreover, some of us will meet some needs positively and others negatively, and sometimes the one cancels out the other. Evaluating how you meet the most basic needs of life can take you onto a higher plane of living, allowing you to make the most of wealth creation and the most of life. This is one of the important and primary lessons Jamie McIntyre will teach you in the 21st Century Academy courses. I’ll overview this here, but to really maximize the advantages of this understanding, you’ve got to read Jamie McIntyre’s in-depth discussion.

Levels Of Fulfillment And Means Of Meeting Needs

People meet their needs in both positive and negative ways. Some use destructive vehicles to do so, and some use very positive means to their ends. Most often, the level of fulfillment you enjoy and your vehicle for need fulfillment relate directly to each other.

You may be meeting individual needs on low, moderate, or high levels. Specific needs may be met on different levels and in different ways; coordinately, the way you meet one need may be detrimental to how you meet another.

For example, you may meet your need for connection and love by entering into relationships; if your relationships are frequent, you may also meet your need for diversity in this way, but in so doing you are bringing down the level of fulfillment you feel from relationships as a builder of connectivity. In the end, neither need is fulfilled to any meaningful degree.

Some other ways needs are met, in either constructive or destructive ways could be:

• Substance/drug/alcohol use

• Food

• Sex

• Learning

• Reading

• Seminars/workshops

• Criticizing

• Spirituality

• Spending money

• Saving money

• Investing money

• Teaching leading

• Sympathy or self-pity

This list goes on and on and only gets more varied. Jamie McIntyre’s list in his writings and 21st Century Academy programs is far more comprehensive, and much better at illustrating the delicate balance between needs and fulfillment.

The key for you is to evaluate the ways you meet your basic needs, and strike a balance that works positively and constructively towards meeting all needs and growing as a successful, happy, financially stable person. Meeting basic needs is very much related to success in wealth creation, because the things you do that you think make you feel better may just be thwarting your best intentions and efforts.

Learn about balancing needs and fulfillment, and learn to meet needs constructively, enjoying the natural success that follows. This is the sort of education the 21st Century Academy gives you, the sort of really life-changing education that breeds financial success.

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

You’ve survived this long without developing a financial intelligence, so why start now?

Well, you may have survived, but what is your quality of life? What is your understanding of money, finance, and wealth creation? Are you getting ahead or struggling as always?

If you’ve come to learn about wealth creation, I can only assume that you are not happy with the status quo. I assume that money is a source of stress and pressure, and that you’ve figured out that there has to be a better way—and that you’ve figured out that you need to get more of an understanding about money and investing.

That understanding, understanding that has the potential to make a difference and create wealth comes in two forms, primarily—emotional intelligence and financial intelligence.

Financial intelligence is very important because it is what teaches you about money and how to manage it effectively. This is the piece of the puzzle that puts your money to work for you and that gives you an understanding of important financial concepts, like

• Money systems

• What money is and isn’t (and what it really is and isn’t)

• Investment opportunities

• What assets and liabilities really are

Mindset will dictate most of what you do in wealth creation, and is the absolute key to creating wealth, but once you’ve developed the right mindset you need to know where to go with it. To be able to capitalize on that mindset you need to know how to apply your positive thinking and determined effort. What will show you that? Your financial intelligence.

But to get back to where we started, you need a financial intelligence in order to create wealth for a simple reason: you don’t have one now (unless you are already engaged in wealth creation or wealth education). What you learned in school was simply not enough, and to further and live in financial freedom, you will certainly need this additional knowledge.

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

Yes, it is that time of year when people the world over resolve to improve, but before you get to that, make it meaningful by taking stock of the year just past.

Look Behind To Look Ahead

The best way to set really worthwhile wealth creation goals for the coming year is to take a look behind you to see the financial successes and failures of the year gone by.

A look back on your year will tell you a bit about your efforts at wealth creation. It will tell you

• What worked

• What didn’t

• Where your strengths in wealth creation are (strategy, knowledge base…)

• What type of wealth creation strategy you are most suited to (investments, shares, property, business…)

• Where you are lacking

How’s Cash Flowing?

As you do this, take a look at how your personal finances are arranged. Where is your income coming from and where is it going? What could you do differently to free cash for investment and the creation of financial wealth?

This is an important one, especially if you are just getting started in the wealth creation program. One of the top reasons people do not invest, or never take advantage of programs like ours to create wealth, is that they don’t think they can find any cash to seed their investments.

Assess your income and expenses, read up on where you can find investment money (this was a post a while back, and it is also part of Jamie McIntyre’s book), and commit to finding the cash you need to build the wealth that will secure your financial freedom.

Here are some of the places you should be reassessing on an annual basis to make the most of the cash at your disposal:

• Income—know how much you are really taking in

• Expenses—what expenditures are really necessary? What can easily go?

• Personal property—cash poor? Look at what you could sell off (both the big stuff and the small stuff); this can include untapped property equity, too

• Generous benefactors—friends and family that would lend money to help you succeed.

Get Personal

Financial reassessment encompasses everything in your life. And since the goal of wealth creation is to build a better, more financially secure future for you and yours, I want you to remember to take your reassessment personally. Attend to the financial issues, but pay attention to the lifestyle you want, too. Make sure that as you make financial progress you also make personal progress, because as we know, wealth creation is as much about feeding the mind and spirit as it is about making money. And as we’ve said before, the only real point to all of it is to fund the kind of life you want.

Hoping you find progress in both the year past and the year ahead.

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

We talked before about increasing your income by getting what you are worth. No doubt plenty of you left thinking that is easier said than done. If it was that easy to convince your boss to give you that much-deserved raise, you’d have done it already, right? I hear what you are saying, but wealth creation does rely on your ability to access that all-important seed money for investment. And a great number of people have easy access to cash right at their fingertips—if they’d just be confident enough to get what they are worth.

This really goes back to the issue of mindset and determination; if you have the mindset of success, wealth creation will follow. If you know your own worth and believe in it, you will find financial success. If you are determined to improve your life through wealth creation, you will put in the effort to get all that you are worth.

Recognizing, however, that it can seem impossible to tap that worth, Jamie McIntyre has led the way. His method for increasing wealth by tapping self-worth is simple and straightforward.

What Are You Worth?

Many people have a small idea of what they are worth, but no real research to back them. Research, though, is no more difficult than a job hunt.

Take your credentials to other companies and see what they are willing to offer you. Compare that to what you are getting now, and then go to your own boss with the offers. In many cases, a company will sooner step up to the plate and give what they should be giving before they will lose a good employee to the competition (especially now that they know what you can do for that company).

Don’t go in haste, go with a plan. Try to get three offers to back you up. Show that your skills are valuable, that you are willing to move on, and also throw in some bit about the value that you add and can continue to add to your current company.

In the business world, pay increases go to those who ask for them. But yours will be better still if you do more than ask—prove your worth! Prove your worth (even though your company probably already knows), show that you have options, and be prepared to move towards those options if your current employer won’t match your terms.

You’ll know just where you stand in terms of worth and valuation. That’s an important lesson to learn on the path to wealth creation.

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

The reason that investing turns bigger profits than traditional bank accounts is that the investment markets are riskier—you are rewarded for investing in something that is not a sure bet. Therefore, inherently, wealth creation through investment is somewhat risky; without risk, though, all you have is marginal growth through savings.

However, your overall wealth creation strategy does not have to be risky. By using a simple strategy for wealth building designed by Jamie McIntyre, you can spread risk thin so that there is little to no chance of losing it all.

Baby Buckets

Jamie starts us off with the analogy of a big bucket of wealth. From that store, the money you have is divided into four smaller “buckets”, or “baby buckets” as Jamie likes to call them.

Each baby bucket is purposed for a different type of wealth. First you have your

• Security (cash) bucket

• Growth bucket

• Momentum bucket

• Lifestyle bucket

Each of these buckets, as you might have guessed, carry a different level of risk and are to be used for different types of investments (or for different strategies, as you choose).

The purpose of the baby bucket strategy is to create a personal investment portfolio of sorts. Taken as a whole, these baby buckets give you the ability to both secure a firm financial foundation and grow funds without the risk of losing it all. It’s risk and security all rolled into one.

In a future post, we’ll talk more about what goes into each of these wealth creation buckets and what the different levels of risk are. For now, start thinking about this concept. Strategies like the baby bucket principle are an important part of developing financial intelligence. These are the types of strategies that will help you start thinking about the big picture and the kinds of spending/saving/investment changes you need to make in your life so that you can work towards achieving sustainable wealth and financial freedom instead of gaining a few big investment wins that will last only temporarily.

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