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Well, hi this is Stuart Zadel and I want to welcome you to this month's educational video.
Last month, we recall we spoke about the great book: "The Millionaire Next Door," the enlightening
findings of America's millionaires. Now, these are people with a net worth of between One
and Ten Million Dollars.
Now, I offer that to you up front, because I spoke to many people about that video during
the month in my travels around the country and one gentleman said: "Stuart, what do you
mean wealthy?" Well, in the book, they concentrated on survey and people between one and ten million
dollars, 80% of those people were first-time millionaires, self-generated in their own
lifetimes, and hence why the authors concentrated on this group. We're not talking about the
ultra-elite or the super wealthy, we're talking about a means of wealth that most people could
reasonably attain in their lifetime if they have the right information.
Last week I also gave you from the book- the formula to determine how wealthy you are right
now and also the seven factors that they found that determines the difference between the
wealthy and the not so wealthy.
Now, keep in mind this is Part 2 of an eight-part video series. If you didn't check out the
video last week, I'm going to encourage you to go and do that now or shortly because when
all these eight pieces are together, you'll get the whole picture and get a lot more traction,
if you wanna change or improve things for you financially.
Now, last week I also asked you the question: "Do you know anyone that wants to look rich,
rather than be rich?" In fact, most of society wants to look rich, rather than be rich. It's
easy to buy beautiful cars, on finance; it's easy to buy beautiful clothes, on finance;
it's beautiful to wear and have the right labels and everything. You do know that these
things are mostly done on expensive finance.
Now, here's the thing- many of the world's companies now earn more money on the finance
they give you for their products than the finance themselves. The decade of "buy now,
three years interest free" and all that sort of stuff. Yeah, well the fine print of the
interest rates, like 16 and 18 percent and above, smashes a lot of people and they are
making a fortune on the money and not the product, the product is long gone.
So, here is the thing: it's not how much you earn. It's what you do with it.We'll get to
that in a moment.
The other interesting thing that the authors of the book found in particular, was that
their perceptions of who these wealthy were way misguided. In fact, in the group sessions
and in the interviews they had, they got the finest caviar's, three sorts of caviar, they
got vintage champagne and what actually showed up was quite a shock to them. One gentleman,
they called him Mr. Bud, walked in, and said: "Listen, none of these fancy stuff! He said:
"I drink scotch, and beer; two types of beer: Budweiser, and free". To this point, they
called him Mr. Bud.
They quickly got the impression or the truth that their perception of who these wealthy
would be, was completely different to the reality of it. Most of them were down-to-earth,
business owners, who'd been in the same business for a long time, married to the same partner,
quite what you'd call a "boring" story. But, what they certainly found out was that appearances
mean very little.
I've got some personal stories about that, one just recently at an event in Brisbane
in Australia, I had a gentleman turn up to that event. Now these, as you know, are business
property seminars and he turns up in thongs and stubbies. Queensland is a bit warmer and
somewhat the norm at times, but also after two days, this guy is larger than life. After
two days, he walks up to me and says: "Stuart, I own a lot of land in a place that's called
Gladstone and I'm worth over a 180 Million dollars". Now, appearances and reality can
be two different things. There's not a lot that shocks me or surprises me these days,
but that certainly was interesting.
I want to give you another story. Many of you know that I used to go to the gym for
12 years. A gentleman there who was a very good car salesman, he was a top car salesman
in his dealership (this was over fifteen years ago). He used to earn a hundred twenty thousand
dollars, he confessed to me that year, he didn't have a single cent to show for it.
He'd gone to work for 52 weeks a year, as a top salesman, and didn't have a cent left
from a hundred and twenty thousand dollars. Now, this was a grown man, who later confessed
to me that in fact, his money now goes to his mother, she banks it, he does not have
access to his own bank accounts, and she gives him two hundred dollars a week in which to
live on. Such poor where his habits financially.
Now contrast that with his receptionist. She was earning thirty five thousand dollars a
year at that time, and she saved fifteen percent of her income week in, week out. At the end
of the year, she had over five thousand dollars saved. And this gentleman who earned three
times what she earned, didn't have a cent to her name. After 12 months, she was closer
towards wealth than he was. Remember, it's not how much you earn; it's what you do with
it. A very important concept.
Now, if you're going to be one of these wealthy, there's a couple of extra kickers I think
I'd like to impart with you right now. But I wanna share with you another question I
asked one of my crew members lately and I said to her this question, I said quite off-guard,
I said: "do you wanna get rich wealthy or do you wanna get rich fast or slow?" She goes:
"Fast!" I said, no. She looks at me kind of funny and said: "Slow?" I said: "No." She
looks at me really kind of puzzled, then the penny drops, she goes: "Both?" And I said:
"Yes! You wanna get rich both fast and slow". That way, if you don't make it fast, you're
still gonna get rich anyway, and we're just gonna do it the slow way. Now, if you're gonna
do it the slow way, you're gonna need to understand these first law that I've written up here.
They live within their means. So there are seven factors. Factor number one are written
up here, is that they live within their means. That means, they spend less than they earn.
Now, they went on and asked three extra questions that these millionaires, which I think are
very insightful. They said to them: "Were your parents frugal?" Most of them said yes.
They said to them: "Are you frugal?" Most of them said yes. And they said: "Is your
spouse or life partner frugal?" Most of them said yes. So some of you may need to quite
a look at your spouse or life partners with an answer to that question. If you're going
to make it, you probably need to answer yes to both of those questions. People need to
be frugal, that is smart with their wealth. They need to live within their means.
Now, interesting thing with all these studies that I've seen and done about what attracts
men and women to their prospective partners: always on the top five responses is: that
they are smart with their money. There you go. It's not the volume of money, it's the
fact that they are smart with their money. That is an aphrodisiac as well. So, that's
it for this week. Factor number one, they live within their means.
I'll see you next month for the next lesson. Until then, have a great time. This is Stuart.