Money is NOT the root of all evil.....

Many people hold themselves back in achieving their financial goals because of a belief they have learnt from others from the Bible that 'Money is the root of all evil', this has been misquoted from the Bible which actually reads 'For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains'. 

Now I don't want this post to turn into a religious debate because that is not what it is about, this passage says 'the love of money' which I take to mean some people having money for moneys sake, 'all kinds of evil' is very vague and begs the question 'what sorts of evil?' and the last bit is just some, so not for all then...

It is a shame this part of the bible seems to have been misquoted by some, possibly to support their own beliefs and this as I said at the beginning holds them back or stops them completely from having the life they really want. Now I want to be rich and I have many things I want to to with that wealth including being a philanthropist and helping other people out. To help others out though I believe we have to be stable in our own lives to do that, mentally (happy) as well as financially it's a bit like if you were on  an aeroplane that was crashing and had a child with you when the oxygen masks drop....you need to help yourself before others.

So if you are working to create wealth for yourself and others and next time someone says to you 'Money is the root of all evil' don't listen to their mistaken belief and correct them...


There are others and I'm inclined to agree with them that 'The lack of money is the root of all evil' 

I think though that just maybe, some people are just evil and it has nothing to do with money at all!



To your success
Paul

Stages to financial freedom

Wow what an amazing year 2012 was, My business grew by just over 70% and I'm getting closer to my goal of being financially free. Financial freedom is a varied term though in that it means different things to different people, for me it means never having to work again if I didn't want to! So that every month all my bills and living costs would be covered by multiple streams of income and residual income at that.

I have several stepping stone goals to reach this one big goal

Firstly I need about £950 (before tax) per month, now that would cover all my contribution to the household ie utilities, food, rent etc and at this point (and I'm already on the way to this goal with my Utility Warehouse business)  I could be financially free, if I never went out again or did anything else! That would be pretty boring though, so that leads me onto stage 2.

Stage 2 I need around about £1800 (before tax) a month coming in on a residual income basis, to cover other bills like fuel, mobile phone, going out for a meal once per month, car insurance and so on, Then I'd be pretty happy with that, I'd pretty much never have to worry about bills again. Of course I'd still have a linear income at this point by that I mean I'd have an income where I get paid for the hours I work.

Stage 3 is around £3250 (before tax) I think this is a nice figure for me to be able to have and do what I want when I want, also if I wanted I could drop the linear income sources, although I probably won't as I'll take the income from that and invest in to a residual income such as shares.

Final stage of financial freedom would be around £6500+ (before tax), Now I say plus, because why limit yourself, but on this sort of income for me it means not only will I never have to work again (if I didn't want to) but then neither would my wife (well you need someone to share the time with). This would mean being able to have what we want when we want it, going on holiday at the drop of a hat, go to any restaurant we want and not have to look at the right hand side (the cost) you get the picture.

So why do I have these four figures? 

The £6500+ figure is nice and I will get that within the next ten years but it's much better to have those smaller goals on the way to tick off, otherwise it's be a bit like having a 20 ft ladder with only 2 rungs! Of course I have other goals in between and there aren't only four rungs on my ladder, I've just written this to give you an idea, so what are your goals to your greater goals, get it written down and have it clear in your head, it is very motivational.

If you want to share your stepping stones, feel free, I'd love to know.

To your success

Paul

Do you have a pension? If you do it may not be any good!

Pensions are all over the news these days, about how, we will have to work longer to get a pension, that there is not enough money in the government pension pot to cover everybody! The picture of the paper is typical of the pension crisis that is gripping us today.

Apparently over 50% of 40 year olds (including me) don't have a pension, or have a plan (thankfully I do) for the future and are relying on the government for their retirement.

If you're 40 now and have no pension, you need to be saving £800p/m now to get a pension of £1000 p/m when you're 65. This is where I got my information from http://www.pensioncalculator.org/#SelectPension

Even if you do have a pension when you do come to draw on it it may not be any good anyway, if the pension fund is still around.

One thing is for sure, we're not going to be able to rely on a government pension when we do come to retire and we need to find a way to have an income we can rely on in the future.

What ever your plan is I hope it works out for.


To your success
Paul


This is my pension plan, and I plan to retire before 60 years old

PS I'm not a financial advisor so do not rely on my posts as financial advice.

Another reason why goal setting doesn't work.

I have had a goal for a while now and that was to lose weight and become fit and healthy again, but until recently I just couldn't stick at a healthy eating plan (I'm not a fan of diets) and although I'd go running I just couldn't seem to stick it for more than about 2 weeks! 
I used to be really fit and eat healthy all the time, I used to exercise about 6 or 7 times a week, run marathons  and I loved it, So I couldn't understand why I couldn't get back to even a half decent health and fitness routine! even though I wanted to, it was one of my 'goals'. Then one day a few weeks ago I did a values session to see where my values were, what was important to me. 
Now in case you don't know, our values are what drive us and give reason to what we do, to give you an idea here is a very short list of some values;

• Integrity
• Creativity
• Independence
• Financial freedom
• Family
• Security
• Friendship
• Personal development
• Respect

If you have a value of having fun and that's important to you, you will find ways to have fun and depending where it is in your hierarchy of values you will look to have fun before a value that is lower on the list is catered for. If this value of having fun or any value is not catered for you'll find that your life may become 'out of balance' and you may start to feel demotivated about things, until it is then met. also this is how some issues can happen between partners and other people, if a partner stops you from meeting a value or having fun, you may start to feel resentment to them and this is where some relationships break down.


We tend to have between 10 and 15 values and the top 5 are the really important ones, you can do this now, get 15 cards or bits of paper and spend 5 minutes writing down one thing that important to you in life on each card, you can then sort through each card by taking 2 and asking 'if I could only have one of these, which would it be?' the one you choose goes up the list, until you have a hierarchy of values. You may at this point have an ah ha moment and understand why something is happening in your life or happened in the past! You can do a values session for your whole life, your work or business or relationships and so on.


So back to my goal of health and fitness, when I did a values session I found that health and fitness were unconsciously not even in my list of values! All of a sudden I understood why I wasn't reaching or starting my goal it just wasn't important to me unconsciously, therefore I kept sabotaging the goal, consciously I really want to get fit again so now I have changed my values and health and fitness is in the top 5. Now I've managed to keep at it for the past several weeks and still going strong, I've cracked it and health and fitness is again becoming a habit and I'm enjoying it.


When you are goal setting you should check that the goal is congruent with your values or you may find you'll sabotage it, if you have the goal of getting money, wealth, financial freedom or security and they are not in your values or very low down chances are you will not reach that goal. If you're serious about it, it may be time to move it up the list.
Financial freedom is one of my goals and until I did the values session it was in the top 5 and another value of mine is helping others however this wasn't in the top 5 so I decided to switch them round as I know that helping others will lead me to my goal of financial freedom. I now work to find ways to help other people where I can and also it's very satisfying too! On that basis as this blog is about wealth and I'd like to leave you with 2 of my favourite quotes and they are:


Try not to become a man of success, rather try to become a man of value - Albert Einstien and 


Service to many leads to greatness...Find a way to serve the many - Jim Rohn (Re-worded from the bible)


To your success
Paul

Give up on your goals - The problem with goal setting....

This may seem to some a bit weird, especially when goal setting is heavily promoted in the personal development  world, I believe there is a flaw in goal setting and the law of attraction, In this blog post I'm going to give you the basis of that flaw and why some people don't achieve their goals.


At first this flaw sounds like a contradiction to goal setting, and when I first heard it I thought that too! however when you really think of it, it makes perfect sense! I believe in this so much because it's worked for me when I realised that I needed to let go of my goals. 


So here's the thing, when you let go of your goals and make it alright that you may not get them it just seems that it flows! I realised this when I was doing my NLP master practitioner course, that I wanted a specific goal too much and was basing my future happiness on getting the goal and to me it was like if I didn't get the goal then life would be well...crap. This is what a lot of people do when goal setting, they become desperate for the goal as if their happiness or other feeling/emotion depends on achieving the goal. This is the key ingredient that was left out in the secret...and goal setting systems. When you say to yourself well I really want this and I'm going to work towards achieving it, but you know if I don't get it then that's okay too, this is when goal setting and getting your goals works!


If you've not got this yet, let me give you this analogy, imagine a guy who is desperate to get a girlfriend and he is basing his happiness on this end result, If over time he doesn't get that result or 'goal' he'll become even more desperate and maybe sad or depressed, now they say women can smell desperation and so he doesn't get his goal as he pushes girls away because he's trying to hard. However if he makes it okay not have this goal and is happy anyway he becomes more attractive and therefore gets the girl!


I don't know specifically why it's like this (well in my world it seems to be) maybe it's the universe smelling that desperation is just telling us that we don't need it to get that feeling or emotion, or maybe it's just our unconscious mind.


So if you've not been achieving your goals or achieving them as easily as you'd like, maybe it's time to let go of them and be okay if you don't get them?




To your success
Paul

Franchise for fortunes!

McDonalds, TheBestOf, Molly Maid, Chips Away, Tax Assist are just a few of the hundreds of franchises that are available for people to get involved in, Some are really famous and some you'd never of heard of! Franchising isn't for everyone. If you're an entrepreneur wanting to start your own business it may not be for you as you are restricted somewhat by the franchisors system of how to do things and you may not be able to just go out and do your own thing for marketing and sales!


The system is what makes a franchise opportunity look great, especially if the system is tried and tested and there are lots around the country, a franchise is essentially a business in a box with an operations manual that tells you exactly how to get your business started and then grow it, it is a proven system and pretty much so long as follow it you should be successful, however it still takes work to build a franchise business! you get the franchise's branding, logos and other marketing done for you so that's not something you need to think about when starting a business (Although for me coming up with logos, branding and what to do in the marketing is half the fun of building a business).


You'll have to buy the franchise and this could be a few hundred pounds to over a hundred thousand and then pay a monthly or yearly renewal fee, which covers the franchisor's cost of running the operation and for some they may do national advertising or sponsoring on behalf of the franchisees, which is something a new business or SME could never do. You'll also get full training on how to run your franchise business and support too. 
On top of the start up cost for a franchise you'll have to ensure that you have enough money set aside to cover the time it will take to get you franchise business up and running and the time that you'll not be working while on training. The McDonalds training lasts for 10 months and that's time you'll not be earning an income.


If franchising is a route you think you'd like to go down ensure that you do your research and read the contract terms and conditions there may be clauses such as if you don't make enough sales they could claim the franchise back for resale, make sure you also speak to as many current franchisees as possible, sometimes  the franchise may not meet it's obligations to you, and I've heard of stories where the franchisor didn't respond to constant calls or emails asking for support.


A franchise is a good way to get into the business world if you've never started a business and it certainly give you a higher start on the ladder than starting from scratch, also there are figures that say more franchise businesses succeed than a non franchised business. Buying a franchise is not a guaranteed route to wealth success and will take work and if you're willing to put the work in then you deserve the success.


To your success
Paul

Build your wealth bit by bit, it'll make it easier.

The journey of a 1000 miles starts with a single step - Chinese proverb

Nearly everyone has heard this proverb and if you hadn't then you have now! Along with others like how do you eat an elephant - one bite at a time.... building wealth is often massive for a lot of people (again asking the question what does wealth mean for you?) and so become overwhelmed by the thought of it, but the key is to just start, just start. start getting into the 'Mindset for Wealth' whether that means start saving 1% of your income in a savings account or other investment vehicle.


Failure to start.
When we get overwhelmed  by something, if we think it's too much we become like a rabbit in the headlights and do nothing, the key is to pick something and then do it. 'Failure to plan = plan to fail' is another saying but then there is another saying 'Ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice' now both are very valid sayings and I've seen people on both ends of the scale people that spend all their time planning and not doing and those that jump straight in and then mess something up when their should be a bit of planning. The key is to be balanced and recognise where you are now on that scale.


When you start grow your wealth the quickest way is not to put masses of money into a mindset of growing that wealth and start bit by bit whether that is putting £1, £10, £100 in to an investment or 1%, 5% or 10% of your monthly income into it. By doing this small activity on a regular basis you'll see your wealth slowly at first in which it'll seem hardly worth doing but eventually it'll hit what's called a 'Tipping point' where it will grow rapidly.


To you success
Paul




ps If you want to know more about applying the theories in this post to any part of your life to get a big change then I'd recommend the following 3 books.


Slight edge - Jeff Olson