March 09, 2005
A Simple Way to Choose to Be Rich
I don't remember which of the "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" programs I read or heard this in, but here is a simple way to begin to condition your mind to accumulate wealth. This is something very simple you should be able to do, you must be able to do no matter what your current financial condition may be.
Are you curious???
In an earlier post, I wrote about the Power Affirmation formula, "Today I choose..." When it comes to wealth, a few variations of this I found to be helpful are:
- Today I choose to be rich.
- Today I choose to accumulate wealth.
- Today I choose to pay myself first.
- Today I choose to create abundance.
- Today I choose to create more than I consume (I like this better than the thought to live below my means, but it's the same general idea).
Etc...you get the idea.
Now here's a simple, daily action that I learned from Robert Kiyosaki that has really helped me keep my mind focused on abundance. Every day, every single day, as one of the first things I do in the morning, I take three $1 bills out of my wallet and place them into three stacks. One stack is for money I set aside to give to worthy causes. One stack is for saving for the future. One stack is for buying cash producing assets. As I place each dollar on it's stack, I repeat some variation of one of the affirmations above. I keep this stack of money on my dining room table, out in plain view so that I can see it as a reminder during the course of the day.
Here are some important points about this practice:
- This is something I do
every day, first thing in the morning. If
for some reason I forget and miss a day, I remind myself
that I just missed an opportunity. I don't allow
myself to play "catch up" later. The purpose of
this exercise is to condition my
mind
to think in terms of daily accumulation of wealth.
If I let myself off the hook, I've fumbled this
opportunity.
- This is an extension of the
principle taught in "The Richest Man in Babylon" (a
great book) "a 10th of all I
earn is mine to keep." The difference is that this
is not focused on a percentage but the conditioning of a
habit.
- One important thing this does for
me remind me of the law of
accumulation. Simply put, it is that if you keep
putting in more than you take out, anything will
accumulate. This is a basic law of nature.
It applies to money, friends, clothes, weight, debt,
junk, etc. A
profound understanding of the practical
application of the law of accumulation is critical to
becoming wealthy.
- I think of this as an
accumulation plan, NOT as a savings
plan. Even though they are essentially
the same thing, there are subtle differences to me that
I think are important in creating the most effective
thought habit. When I think of accumulation, I
think of gathering, increase, abundance. When I
think of savings, I think of sacrifice and scarcity.
It is a subtle difference, but it is at least true for
me. I have learned to strongly dislike the whole
notion of a "savings" plan.
- What is important is the
conditioning of the habit, not the amount.
Obviously, the more you can put in, the faster the
numbers will accumulate and the better you will feel.
But if all you think you can currently afford is 3
pennies a day, then that's what you should start with.
As you progress in your thinking, you can graduate to
larger amounts.
- One important rule of the game:
never, ever take money out of these stacks to use it for
some other purpose. Taking money out is none as
depletion--the exact opposite of accumulation.
It may not be tempting in the beginning, but as you see
the stack start to get larger, you may think it would be
a good idea to use it to pay your bills, buy a doodad,
etc. Don't do it. The whole idea is to
condition your mind that there is more
than enough abundance in your life RIGHT NOW
to do everything you need to do, but still leave this
money alone. If you really need more money to pay
your bills or to buy a doodad, create more
first. Do it by cutting back on some
other expenditure or increasing your income. But
leave this money for these three purposes.
Delay your gratification until you use your
thoughts to create assets to earn the money you desire.
- While you could put it in the
bank, it is more effective for the conditioning process
to use physical money and have it right out in the open
where you can see it accumulate.
Again, the thought habit is much more important than the
actual money you accumulate. There's nothing like
seeing the money grow day by day, right before your
eyes.
- As you progress, gradually
increase the amounts. Once
you master setting aside $1 per day, increase it to $2
per day. Eventually, you will have such command of
the habit it will be safe to switch to having three
online bank accounts that you can use for this
purpose--or investment accounts. By then the
amounts you will be setting aside each day
will be of an amount that it will be impractical--even
dangerous--to keep it around the house.
- Notice that this plan is for each
day...not just each payday. And not just when you
happen to earn some money in some other way. You
should set aside some of that money for buying assets as
well, but this is different. This is for daily
conditioning. It is really a Power Affirmation as
an object
lesson: you are actually taking an action as an
affirmation, not just saying words. And that is
very powerful.
- Another reason it is important to do this everyday is that you want recognize that you are accumulating money every single day. Every moment of every day. Not only once every two weeks or whenever your "payday" is. Every day is pay day. And you can organize your life that way by investing in cash producing assets. For example, even though I have a regular job, I am accumulating money every single day, 24 hours a day through my online businesses. This didn't happen over night. It has happened over the course of a long period of time as a direct result of conditioning my mind to create systems of wealth accumulation by studying, using power affirmations, and conditioning this simply habit.
Whatever you are doing right now, resolve that you are going to begin accumulating more wealth right now. Resolve that you are going to continually condition your mind to think in terms of abundance and riches instead of poverty and scarcity. The moment you complete reading this article, find a spot where you can start your 3 stacks of money and (even if it is not in the morning), make your first deposit. And then resolve to do it at least for the next 30 days. When you do this consistently for the next 30 days, the odds are great that you will do this for the rest of your life.