Imagine paying $75 an hour (or more) for the world’s worst administrative assistant. They’re miserable, ineffective, and in fact, just downright incompetent. Oh, and “they” are you. Because that’s what you get when you try and do everything in your business. My friend Alwyn Cosgrove explains how you can avoid this trap and find good people for your business.

Craig Ballantyne

“Imagine that you are going to create another 1,000 businesses just like this one. What would you have to do to achieve this? You would have to completely systematize your business.” – Alwyn Cosgrove
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A New American Dream

My friend Simon Black feels that young people are ‘getting the shaft’. It’s the young people who will be the last to be hired, the first to be fired, and are at the top of the list to have their benefits cut. Students around the world feel like they are entering a world devoid of opportunity…where the tried and true method of ’study hard, go to a good school, and get a great job’ no longer works. In short, it’s a difficult time to be a young person. The plentiful jobs of the past are no longer waiting for university students. And it’s becoming much harder to break free and become successful. But it doesn’t have to be this way. For three years, Simon, Matt Smith, myself, and other successful entrepreneurs have been sponsoring the Blacksmith Liberty and Entrepreneurship Series in Vilnius, Lithuania.

In these workshops, a carefully selected group of 50 students learns how to make money, control their time, and become truly free… guided by successful entrepreneurs and investors who have actually done it. Last year’s group came from countries as diverse as Tajikistan, Brazil, Switzerland, and India. And it was an incredible week. But don’t take our word for it – watch the videos here (www.BlacksmithCamp.com). Participants must apply and be approved first and today is the LAST day for video applications to be sent in. If you are between the ages of 18-25, please send your application to Camp@SovereignMan.com today.

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here

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How to Find Good People
By Alwyn Cosgrove

As a business consultant, one of the most common questions I am asked is, “What’s the best way to find good employees?”.

I work with many successful solo-preneurs who are hitting that stage where it is time to grow their business, and that means bringing on key employees. For many people, this is an area of great difficulty and anxiety.

Before I ever answer that question, I need to give a few overall guidelines as to the overall business process and where staff actually fit in.

The first hire for most professionals should be an administration assistant or office manager. This is key. Don’t spend your time doing work that a) you don’t enjoy and b) you’re not good at.

Consider this – if you charge $75 per hour for your work, than any time you spend doing office work means you are paying an office assistant (you) $75 an hour.

Plus, you’re probably not good at it — it will take you twice as long – so you’re actually paying $150 for what would be $15-$20 work.

Add in that you’ll be miserable – you are now paying $150 for a miserable, no skills office assistant. So always start with support staff before hiring more production based staff.

The Big Mac Model

Entrepreneurs need to study other businesses. Success leaves clues, and the most successful ’small business’ in the world is McDonald’s.

At McDonald’s the food is made the same way every single time From London to Los Angeles, from Madrid to Moscow – ask for a Big Mac and you’ll get one. The same style. Every single time.

You even know the recipe…. “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun…”

But is McDonald’s the best hamburger you’ve ever tasted? The answer to that question from almost everyone in the world is no. Most people even claim that they could make a better hamburger than McDonald’s themselves.

So let me ask you a question? Why is no one giving you hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to make hamburgers?

What’s the secret of each McDonald’s location?

McDonald’s don’t hire experts to run each location or do every task in the business. They hire good people and train them in the implementation of SYSTEMS. Their systems are so well developed that they can hire high school kids to run a lot of their business. They even have the upsell systemized through the ubiquitous question, “Do you want fries with that?”

I’ve read that most independent small business start-ups fail, yet most franchises succeed. The reason for that difference is due to SYSTEMS.

SYSTEM: Save Your Self Time Energy Money

Step one when hiring additional staff: think systems.

Before you hire anyone you have to have a system in place that can easily be replicated. It doesn’t matter if you hire a world-renowned expert with multiple PhD’s and 25 years of experience — unless they work within your system – they aren’t a great fit to grow your business.

The primary goal of any business is to produce a consistent, replicable product or service. If it’s replicable and consistent – you can guarantee results. If you can guarantee results – you’re ahead of the game.

As a nice result of running a systems based we are able to hire people with lower skill levels than we would initially think. Now, notice I did not say low skill, just lower skill. We are going to hire people to run systems and educate them.

Instead of thinking of McDonald’s – think of a hospital – a doctor writes the protocol and most often it is nurses that implement it. Nurses are by no means low skilled, but they are most definitely lower skilled than a doctor. Similarly, all admin tasks at hospitals are handled by lower skilled employees than nurses. It would make no business sense for a doctor to spend time taking blood pressure, temperatures or making appointments.

And remember, the ultimate goal of hiring and growing your business is to replicate YOURSELF so you can step out of the business.

Hiring someone without a system is an absolutely deadly business mistake. Hire based on your core values and train for skill based on systems.

If you do that, your business becomes a lot easier to manage. You must run a systems-based business as opposed to an individual based business. The owner/managers job is to manage the system, rather than the employee. Run the plan, not the man.

If there is a problem, we can look at two solutions.

First, was the system followed? If yes, then we need to tweak the system. If no, then we need to work on coaching and training the employee. It’s that simple.

In our business at Results-Fitness in California, we make it even simpler by having all of the systems recorded in manuals (how to open the gym, how to answer the phone, how to greet every client and prospect that walks in the door, etc.).

If it’s not written down and signed as completed and understood by an employee, you are improvising. Business is far too important to improvise.

So to get back to your original question – how do you go about hiring staff?

When systems are in place – it really doesn’t matter. We have hired experienced trainers, beginner trainers, schoolteachers, former clients, interns, etc., and all have become excellent personal trainers because they follow our system.

As long as you have business systems and an education program in place then when hiring employees what you need to look for are personality, work ethic and core values first. As long as your new employee has brings those three attributes to the table, they will succeed in your system.

[Ed. Note: Alwyn Cosgrove is the owner of Results Fitness, Santa Clarita, California's Number One Fitness and Sports Training Facility. He is a regular contributor to Men's Health magazine and the co-author of several workout books, including his latest, "The New Rules of Lifting for Life" with Lou Schuler.]

At our recent 2-Day Mastermind meeting in Denver, both Matt Smith and I spent an hour teaching each morning. My most popular session came by popular demand on the second morning as I described how my brain works in terms of creativity. The group loved this session. In a series of articles, I’ll explain how I foster my imagination to create so much content.

Craig Ballantyne

“There is no such thing as a good idea unless it is developed and utilized.” – Kekich Credo #69
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A New American Dream

Despite being only 30 years old, author Jonah Lehrer has penned three books on science, including his latest, “Imagine: How Creativity Works”. With a degree in Neuroscience from Colombia University and a master’s in literature and philosophy from Oxford (where he was a Rhodes Scholar), Lehrer has written for Wired, The New Yorker, and others. In the vein of Malcolm Gladwell and FREAKONOMICS, Lehrer has the ability to convert scientific studies into relatively easy to understand practical lessons. For example, Lehrer discovered one study performed at Yale University over 50 years ago that calls into question the ubiquitous nature of corporate boardroom brainstorm sessions. As Lehrer describes in his book, the study found that students working on their own came up with twice as many solutions as students who performed group brainstorm sessions.

Plus, the solo students also had more ideas that were deemed ‘feasible’ and ‘effective’ by experts. Says Lehrer, “Brainstorming didn’t unleash the potential of the group. Instead, the technique suppressed it, making each individual less creative.” Lehrer’s most important argument however, is that creativity is not a genetic trait to be enjoyed by just the authors on the NY Times best-seller list, but instead that innovation can be nurtured and encouraged by our habits. Lehrer reassures readers that anyone can be creative as long as they “maintain the perspective of the outsider”. Creativity, an important component of achieving your American Dream, can be yours when you cultivate the correct environment and habits.

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here
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How to Be Creative
By Craig Ballantyne

I’m a lucky man. Creativity comes relatively easy to me. Unfortunately, a lot of folks struggle with idea generation. So let’s take a look at the techniques I use to create content.

If we dig deep inside my brain, there will be a few things you might take away (just don’t take my medulla oblongata – I need that for breathing). Apply these habits to maximize your daily output and minimize your daily stress.

The first thing I do when I get up is to scribble down all of my ideas. My brain is full of them first thing in the morning. I also get up early because that is when I am most creative. This early morning spurt of creativity is called my magic time, and my life is designed to leverage the ability to get more work done in a concentrated period of time first thing in the morning. Early to bed, early to rise works wonders for me.

It is something worth trying for yourself. At the very least you need to identify when you are most creative each day. You need to design your life to reach your goals based on what you know about your strengths and weaknesses.

If you work best in the morning, get up early. If you work best at night, clear your social schedule and use that time to write.

You can even getting in the habit of “training my subconscious” to come up with ideas overnight. Some mornings I’ll wake up with practically an entire article written in my brain. I continue to refine the idea while I pet the dog for a few minutes, and then I roll out of bed and rush to my computer to spill my subconscious upon the screen. Some of the most popular Early to Rise messages I’ve written have been finished in just fifteen minutes this way.

You can even train your brain to bring you the answers during a nap. You simply put in a “request” to your brain when you go to sleep, giving it a problem to solve. I’m not joking.

For example, let’s say you’re having trouble with a headline for your sales letter or Yellow Pages ad. Read the headline and review the principles of great headlines and sales copy before you go to sleep. Then tell your brain to come up with something better while you sleep. You should wake up with a good idea in the morning.

Don’t believe that this can work? Check out this legendary example from history. Perhaps you’ve heard the folklore about Napolean Hill. As legend goes, Hill was given a deadline to come up with the title for his book, “Think and Grow Rich”. At that time, he hadn’t come up with anything better than the dismal, “Use Your Noodle to Get the Boodle”. Seriously.

On the afternoon of the deadline he had a nap and when he woke up he had a much better title for his book. His much-improved idea, “Think and Grow Rich”, went on to sell over 20 million copies before his death in 1970.

Our brains work in mysterious ways. However, we can identify these mysterious methods and do our best to harness their power, even though we may not truly understand how it works.

What most people don’t do, however, is identify their best creative techniques and maximize the time spent on them. That’s what separates massive content creation machines – such as Dan Kennedy, Bill Bonner, Malcolm Gladwell, and Stephen King – from people who struggle to write a five-page newsletter each month.

The first step in becoming more creative is identifying when and where you get your best ideas, as well as your magic time for turning those ideas into finished concepts.

Like most people, I get a lot of great ideas in the shower. The scientific explanation for this is that our brains are able to work in a different way than when we try to come up with an idea while sitting at our regular work station. This is why we get ideas and can solve complex problems in random places, such as in the shower or while out for a walk… or while sitting under an apple tree.

According to Jonah Lehrer, author of “Imagine: How Creativity Works”, the key to creativity is not caffeine and intense focus, but instead a state of relaxation. The explanation, he says, is simple. “It’s not until we’re relaxed in the shower that we’re able to turn the spotlight of attention inwards and find the quiet voice in the back of our head that is trying to give us the answer.”

Lehrer’s top tip for getting inspired? “When you feel stuck on a problem, take a break.” At 3M, one of the companies profiled in Lehrer’s book, employees are encouraged to interrupt work with a relaxing activity to let the mind turn inward and problem solve.

He also recommends making new friends that are different from you, as well as living in a city (as the increased interactions you’ll have with strangers will be good for your creativity).

Unfortunately, ideas that come to us in the shower or while out on walks often turn into slippery little fishes. Don’t you just hate when you have a groundbreaking idea one second and then as soon as you’re toweling off, you forget it?

You could, as many readers have suggested, use children’s waterproof crayons to write ideas on a whiteboard in your shower. That seems a little bizarre even for me. Instead, I’ve developed a couple of strategies to capturing my ideas in the shower.

First, I limit myself to three ideas when I have a shower or take a long walk without a notepad. Each idea is assigned to one of my fingers (yes, I know, I have 5 fingers, but I don’t give one to my thumb or pinky). As soon as I’ve filled up all of my fingers, I keep on repeating the ideas while pointing the finger I’ve assigned it to. Sure, it sounds odd, but that way, I don’t forget the ideas. And while sometimes I end up getting dressed with soap still in my hair, I can always go back and wash it off. A lost idea however, is often lost for good.

The second way to capture those ideas might be a bit more practical. Just put a pen and paper on the sink and step out and scribble them down as quickly as possible, and make sure to carry a notepad – or smartphone – with you on your creative walks.

Scribble down your ideas as soon as they come to you in that original format. That’s an essential part of capturing the essence of creativity. As Michael Masterson once explained to me about good ideas, “It’s the particular articulation of a good idea that matters. That’s why employees always brought a tape recorder to meetings with me.”

Armed with these simple tips on how my brain works, you can teach yourself to be more creative and maximize your idea generation environment. As Lehrer concludes in his book, innovation can be nurtured and encouraged by our habits. All you need to do is be a little creative in designing your life and workday to maximize your idea generation.

[Ed. Note. Craig Ballantyne is a the editor of Early to Rise and lives the Early to Rise lifestyle. He is the author of Financial Independence Monthly, a program that shows you how to achieve your financial independence in the new economy. In the latest issue you'll discover the 7 best Internet Business Models to follow. Next month you'll learn what he would do if he had to start all over again with his online business.]

As early as the age of five, I knew that I wanted to help other people. During my high school years, I became interested in fitness and began down the path to my first career as a personal trainer. I was lucky. I knew early in life what I wanted to do. If you aren’t sure yet, Brian Tracy is here to help.

Craig Ballantyne

“There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way.” – Christopher Morley
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A New American Dream

Brian Tracy has dedicated his life to helping you achieve your American Dream. With his help, you’ll achieve your personal and business goals faster and easier than you ever imagined. For decades he has been a Keynote speaker and seminar leader reaching over 250,000 people per year. Perhaps you’ve attended one of his sessions, bought his books, or listened to his audio programs in your car. If you haven’t, you’re missing out on his valuable wisdom on Leadership, Selling, Self-Esteem, Goals, Strategy, Creativity and Success Psychology. Brian’s speeches are based on real-world experience. Prior to founding his personal development company,

Brian Tracy International, Brian was the Chief Operating Officer of a $265 million dollar development company. He has had successful careers in sales and marketing, investments, real estate development and syndication, importation, distribution and management consulting. Today, he continues to travel and work around the world (he even speaks four languages), while also devoting time to his wife, four children, and community affairs near Solana Beach, California. Brian Tracy is a man who has lived the American Dream, and is dedicated to showing you how to do the same.

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here
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How to Find Your True Calling
By Brian Tracy

Your success in life will be largely determined by your ability to find your true calling, the right work for you to do, and then putting your whole heart into doing it very well.

The happiest people are those who have carefully thought through who they are, what they want, where they are going, and then decided exactly what they need to do to get to their goal. Asking yourself five targeted questions can help you home in on whatever path is right for you.

#1: What do I do easily and well?

When you are seeking your true calling, you must look at the activities that have always been easy for you but which have been difficult for others. Often, you will get comments and compliments on how well you do a particular task. You will be surprised when you hear those remarks, because you never even thought about it that much. It just seemed natural for you from the very beginning.

My daughter is a natural and spontaneous little actress. From the time she was three or four years old, she has memorized lines and acted in every school play and function that has ever come up. In fact, by the time she was six, she was memorizing every line in the school play, not only her own but the lines of every other child. When the other children forgot their lines, Christina would whisper them and keep the play on track.

When Christina was 11 years old, she appeared at a city council meeting and gave a speech in favor of a permit allowing her school to expand. She stood up at the meeting, on a chair, in front of 150 adults, and gave an impassioned little talk. As a result, the permit was granted – and Christina was on the front page of two newspapers the following day.

#2: What are the things that I have done in life that have been most responsible for my success?

In looking back over your work and your activities, what are the things you have done that have given you the greatest rewards and satisfaction? If you work for a company, what are the activities you have engaged in that have achieved the very best results for yourself and your company? Your previous success experiences are signposts pointing to the sort of things that you should be doing more and more of if you want to deploy yourself more fully for greater happiness and satisfaction in life.

#3: What would I do differently, knowing what I know now?

Is there anything that you are currently doing that you wouldn’t start up again if you had to do it over? Is there any relationship that you are in that you wouldn’t get into if you could make the choice today? Is there any job or part of any job that you are doing that you would not embark upon, knowing what you now know, if you had to do it over?

As many as 95 percent of people working today are under-employed, not working to their full capacity for themselves and their companies. Only 5 percent, when interviewed, will say that they are working fully extended at their current job. Only 5 percent feel that their entire potential is being consumed and that they are working on the outer edge of their abilities. These people also tend to be the happiest, the highest paid, and the most fulfilled in any organization or enterprise.

#4: What work would I choose to do if I won a million dollars, cash, in the lottery tomorrow?

This is a question I sometimes ask my seminar audiences. When you hear this question, your gut reaction is a good indicator of where you are today and possibly where you should be going in the future. Most people, when they think of winning a million dollars, think of quitting their current job and doing something else. There is nothing wrong with that. Since most people have backed into their current jobs, taking them because they just happened to be there at the time a job was needed, most people probably should be doing something else.

Napoleon Hill once said the key to success in America is to find out what you really enjoy doing, and then find a way to make a good living at it. What do you most love to do?

Successful people don’t feel like they work at all. They are doing what they love to do, and they are so busy doing it that their work becomes their play. Their work life and their personal life blends together like a hand fitting neatly into a glove. There is no separation. They are totally committed individuals who are accomplishing far more in a shorter period of time than the average person who is merely going through the motions.

#5: If I were absolutely guaranteed tremendous success in any job I chose, what field would I go into?

One of the major reasons people hold themselves back from doing what they are truly meant to do is that they are afraid they will fail in some way. And being afraid that you will fail is the surest guarantor that you will fail.

But what if you are absolutely guaranteed success in any field you choose? What would it be? What would you want to do if you had unlimited time, unlimited resources, and guaranteed success?

The answer to that question should cause you to tingle a little bit. It should make your stomach flutter. It should send a thrill of excitement and anticipation through you that tells you this is the job you should be doing.

Asking and answering the above five questions can change your life.

You have within you talents and abilities so vast that you could never use them all if you lived to be a thousand. You have natural skills and talents that can enable you to overcome any obstacle and achieve any goal you could ever set for yourself. There are no limits on what you can be, have, or do if you find your true calling.

When you become one of the few people who are doing what they love to do, who are totally absorbed in doing something they really care about, you will make more progress in a couple of years than the average wage slave makes in five or 10 years. You will come to the attention of people who can help you and open doors for you. You will be happy and fulfilled in both your work and your personal relationships. You will have more energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. You will unlock your true potential, and your future will become unlimited.

[Ed. Note: Finding your true calling can help you find happiness, success, and even wealth. Put Brian's strategies to work, and you could have it all. And if you want to find your focal point and learn to maximize your income and minimize your effort, check out Brian's website here.]

These days the newspapers are filled with news of protests, a struggling economy, and future financial uncertainties. It can be enough to even get the most positive people down. That’s why you must be careful what you let in your mind, because what you let in becomes a weapon in one of the most important battles of your life. Clay Collins explains in today’s essay.

Craig Ballantyne

“First thing to do every morning is read or listen to something positive. Your mind is like a garden – whatever you plant grows. Plant good stuff.” – Alwyn Cosgrove Two–time Stage IV Cancer survivor
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A New American Dream

Clay Collins is one of the top online marketers in the world. Now in his 30s, Clay left home at age 15 to start his first software company and has been a hard-core entrepreneur ever since.

He’s been behind the scenes (advising and writing copy) for some of the most important and highest grossing information marketing campaigns on the internet. In addition, Clay’s worked with clients ranging from large corporations such as Fox Television Studios to startups such as Brazen Careerist.

Today, he’s the recognized #1 expert on getting people to make more money from their upcoming product BEFORE it exists than most people make years after they’ve finished their product. Clay routinely gets his clients to “Pre-sell” their products and make almost six-figures BEFORE the product is created. Click here to find out how to get paid (by your market) to figure out what products or services to sell (and how to be profitable even before you start creating it

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here
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The Battle for Our Minds
By Clay Collins

The battle for our minds usually isn’t a struggle against brainwashing (although most of us are mildly brainwashed). The battle for our minds isn’t usually about politics, consumer culture, and mass media. Nope. The battle for our minds is fought out every day in the workplace, and due largely to…

The Paradox of Intelligence

More intelligent people tend to have jobs that require very high levels of mental engagement (not to mention, longer work weeks). If you’re a doctor, lawyer, accountant, consultant, teacher, etc., then chances are your thoughts are consumed by work-related activities (and that you have less-than-average amounts of free time).

Highly intelligent people are more likely to exchange their brainpower for money, and less likely to retain much of said brainpower for themselves. They’re more likely to enroll in mentally demanding graduate programs and accept mentally demanding jobs.

(In the western world we’re taught that if we have the capacity to be a doctor then it’s somehow a “waste” to work retail, make smoothies for a living, or become a farmer – even though a retailer worker, smoothie maker, or farmer get to own more of their thoughts).

Hence, the paradox of intelligence (POI) says that in general, the more intelligent you are, the less brainpower you’re likely to keep for yourself. The POI says that the smarter you are, the less you keep your mind for yourself. It says that the more intelligent you are, the greater the probability that an employer owns too much of your brainpower.

As a result of this paradox, intelligent people are losing the battle for their minds. They simply have less mental energy at the end of the day to ask the bigger questions. They have less mental energy and time needed to gain perspective.

The battle for our minds is really the battle create our own thought destines. The battle for our minds is . . .

The Battle for Own Our Thoughts

The battle for our minds is the battle to think on our own terms and on our own timetable. It’s the battle for freedom to let our minds wander, because the best thoughts emerge from the most unlikely places, and when we’re lavishing ourselves with time.

The best thoughts happen when we’re staring out windows and daydreaming; they happen when we’re looking at scenes like this (because we’re really there). They happen when we have perspective.

The best thoughts occur when you don’t have to have them, they occur after plenty of rest, they occur when you’re grasping the gestalts of life. The best thoughts occur when we’re mindful of the full immensity of this beautiful thing called existence.

The battle for our thoughts is the battle against our ego’s desire to gain an “important” job; it’s the battle against the very materialism that encourages us to exchange too many of our thoughts for money; and it’s a battle against the collective flattery (of society) that sweet talks us into crazy-busy careers. (Note: This paragraph was highly influenced by a great anti-travel guide I’m reading called Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide. It’s got loads of perspective and I highly recommend it).

The battle for our minds really isn’t about reclaiming brainpower to do our own taxes or solve more Sudoku puzzles. No. The battle for mind is important because. . .

We Desperately Lack Perspective

Raoul Vaneigem once wrote that “Everything has [already] been said [and] all our knowledge is essentially banal.” And he’s right. If you read the profound thoughts of any great teacher or leader, you’ll likely find no new knowledge. What you will find, however, is heaps of timeless perspective. You’ll find knowledge deeply rooted in perspective and amplified by perspective.

Great thinkers and teachers are great because their perspective forces you to take a second glance at the knowledge you already have. And their perspective is so compelling because it couldn’t have come from anywhere except direct experience.

When workaholics give up their minds each workday in devotion to balancing spreadsheets, selling widgets, arguing cases, etc. it’s not knowledge they’re missing out on. It’s perspective. The kind of perspective that requires variety, and discursive thinking, and morning runs during sunrise. The kind of perspective that requires new experiences, reflection, and carefree conversations with friends.

We desperately lack perspective because we are a society of workaholics, and workaholism is like kryptonite to perspective. (It’s often said that highly intelligent people lack common sense; but I believe they really lack is perspective as a result of handing an unhealthy amount of their brainpower to their bosses).

You Just Can’t Hack Perspective

There are no perspective hacks. None. You just have to suck it up, live a little, and wallow in the mud of life. You have to get your hands dirty with this beautiful business of living. You have to question, meditate, and fail often. You simply have to make space for perspective and hope that it will come eventually. You have to spend time in a manner that would seem self-indulgent to most.

There are no perspective shortcuts.

Who’s winning the battle for your mind?

[Ed. Note. To be honest, Clay doesn't have many talents (it's a miracle he even gets out of bed in the morning). BUT he's the recognized #1 expert on getting your market to tell you the EXACT book, online course, or coaching program they're desperate to buy from you... and THEN getting them to "pre-buy" it from you *before* you create it (making you profitable LONG before you've spent one cent producing it). Find out how Clay can help you live a passionate life without working so much.]

Growing up, both of my parents instilled in me the value of hard work. But it was my mother who tirelessly encouraged me to save my money. When I started my first job at age 13, busting my butt for $3.10 per hour at the local greenhouse, I saved money from every paycheck. Still do (although fortunately I’m making a little more than $25 a day now). Each week I put some savings right in my golden bucket, as per Mark Ford’s recommendation.

Craig Ballantyne

Discipline and responsibility are what separate the wannabes from the success stories. It takes discipline to save and work while others play, but that is your responsibility.
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A New American Dream

The fastest way to increase your wealth, in my opinion, is to increase your income. When you make more money, you can save and invest more. But it all starts with making more. I truly believe that today’s environment still offers the greatest opportunity in history for you to take control of your financial independence by starting your own business.

Plus, today also affords us the greatest chance to build a lucrative lifestyle business. You can work where, when, and with whom you wanted–all while getting paid very well as Michael Masterson shows you in one of his most popular books, “Ready, Fire, Aim“. Whether you’re thinking about starting a new business or growing an existing one, Ready, Fire, Aim has what you need to succeed in your entrepreneurial endeavors.

In it, Masterson shares the knowledge he has gained from creating and expanding numerous businesses and outlines a focused strategy for guiding a small business through the four stages of entrepreneurial growth. Along the way, Masterson teaches you what works and what mistakes to avoid.

This book will help budding entrepreneurs of all ages to get started on increasing their income. Get your copy here on Amazon.

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here
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The Golden Bucket of Savings
By Mark Ford

Once you have figured out how large your spending bucket needs to be, you can start to figure out the size of your saving and investment buckets.

You may be wondering what the difference is between saving and investing. To most people, they are the same. But I like to distinguish between them because I believe it will help you acquire wealth safely.

Saving and investing are the same in the sense that you are setting aside some portion of your current earnings for the future. The difference is, the purpose of saving is to safeguard that set-aside money, whereas the purpose of investing is to grow it.

The money in the savings bucket is money that I refer to as your SOA (start-over-again) fund–the money you put aside in case of a financial disaster. What if, for example, you woke up one day to find the company that has employed you for the last twenty years has shut its doors, and the pension plan it was holding for you is suddenly worthless?

You would have to start over, right? You’d need money to pay for your expenses while you found a new job, and you’d need money to start investing again. That’s why you need money in your savings bucket. And that money has to be absolutely safe.

Imagine how you would feel if you called up your broker to let him know that you needed to cash in your start-over-again fund and he told you its value had suddenly crashed and was now worth 10 cents on the dollar? Well, that’s exactly what happened to millions of Baby Boomers. The reason it happened is because these people did not distinguish between saving and investing. They had all their wealth tied up in investments advertised as safe, but were actually quite risky.

You don’t want to take any risk with your start-over-again money. The primary purpose of that money is to preserve, not increase, the capital you set aside. Putting it at risk, even average market risk, is too dangerous.

You need to be equally as careful with the money you set aside to repay debt. Because when the bill comes due, you must pay it. Keep that money safe. Put your debt obligations in your savings bucket, never into the market, even if the market looks safe.

Same is true of any future expenditure that is coming up relatively soon. By relatively soon, I mean, say, one business cycle–seven to ten years.

If, say, your retirement is still twenty or thirty years away, you can afford to invest money set aside for that purpose in vehicles that are safe, but not super-safe. However, if you will be retiring in less than ten years, you can’t take the chance of seeing your retirement fund drop by 20% to 30%, because you won’t have time to let the market correct itself.

So if you plan to retire in five years and you will be drawing on your retirement savings, you want to transfer at least five years’ worth of your retirement fund from your investing bucket to your savings bucket. To ensure that you will be able to pay for the retirement life you want, you can’t afford to have that money at risk.

Are you with me?

For your savings bucket, your money should only be in super-safe investments–investments that are highly unlikely to go down in value in the next ten years. Given today’s economy, we believe there are only four vehicles that qualify: cash, gold coins, quality municipal bonds, and well-bought rental real estate. For simplicity, my recommendation would be that you diversify your savings bucket funds evenly: 25% into each if you use four of them, 33% if you use three of them, or 50% if you use only cash and gold coins.

I will write about all four of these vehicles in future issues of The Palm Beach Letter. For now, it is enough for you to understand the distinction between saving and investing… and segregate your set-aside money accordingly.

I’ve already asked you to estimate your LBR (lifestyle burn rate). Now, I want you to estimate how much you’ll need in your savings bucket. That includes the money you would need in your SOA (start-over-again) funds if, for whatever reason, you lost everything. (I’ll be more specific about this number in an upcoming essay.) It also means identifying all of your debt obligations, and figuring out the totals of any future expenditures that will be coming due in the next ten years.

The Golden Bucket of Investing

As I said, the purpose of your investing bucket is to grow your wealth. This is the bucket you will use to fund all future, long-term expenditures. By “long-term,” I mean more than ten years.

If you are young, you may use this bucket to put aside money for your children’s college expenses. But for the most part, the money in this bucket will be for your retirement. And when you look at investment returns from a long-range perspective like that, even a few percentage points can make a huge difference.

I won’t spend any time here talking about how you should manage your investing, because Tom and Paul do that in The Palm Beach Letter. But I will say this: The kind of stocks they recommend are the only kind that appeal to me. Every other stock investing strategy I’ve encountered (and I’ve been in the financial publishing business for more than thirty years) makes me uncomfortable.

The recommendations that you get every month from Tom and Paul in The Palm Beach Letter are designed to give you an average, long-term return of 10%-15%. This might seem paltry to people who dream of doubling and tripling their money in the market every year, but those kinds of investors almost always end up broke. And making 10%-15% on your money over the long term will give you terrific results.

But–and this is a very big but–you won’t get wealthy this way unless you invest enough money.

In other words, investing alone can’t make you rich. So if you can afford to invest only a few thousand dollars a year, you will not get rich even if you make 15% a year for forty years. To fill your investing bucket, you need to invest more than that–and if you can’t invest more than that right now, you need to generate more income so you can.

That brings us back to the metaphorical well that represents your yearly income–the well you’re going to use to fill all three of your buckets.

Your Golden Well

If your income isn’t sufficient to fill all three buckets, you have only two options: You must increase the flow from the well you have, and/or you must dig some new wells.

You can increase the income from your primary well (your job) by becoming a more valuable employee. I have written on this subject in several of the books I published under the pen name Michael Masterson. The one I recommend is Automatic Wealth for Grads… and Anyone Else Just Starting Out.

If you can become a more valuable employee, you should. But you may also want to create other streams of income.

One possibility would be to invest in rental real estate. If you decide to do that, it will become–after you have paid down the mortgages–its own well, pumping liquid gold to you every year thereafter.

Another option would be to start a side business and let your spouse or a relative run it. If you are interested in doing that, I recommend Ready, Fire, Aim, another book I wrote as Michael Masterson.

The Palm Beach Income system could be another well for you in the future.

Here’s the point: If the income you are earning is insufficient to achieve your wealth-building goals, you should NOT try to get there by taking on more risk with your stocks. Instead, work hard to create more income.

The Only Strategy You Need

This simple system for managing money and building wealth can work for you if you commit yourself to it. As I said, it’s the system I used to build a net worth of more than $50 million–and it’s still working for me and everyone else I know who has tried it.

So today, spend the time it takes to establish your own approach to “living rich” now… and in the future. Make your spending bucket big enough to allow you to enjoy your life now, but small enough to enable you to fill up your saving and investing buckets quickly.

You don’t need to try any other wealth-building strategy. This one is infallible. The day you have your saving and investing buckets filled… you will have no reason to worry about money ever again.

You already know that it will work, don’t you? You know it will work because it is so simple. It is based on our two fundamental rules for building wealth: Never, ever lose money… and become wealthier every day.

If you are over forty, you have no doubt experienced how wrong 99% of the investment schemes out there are. You tried them and discovered they made you poorer, not richer. You are ready for something simple and true, a strategy you know in your bones will work.

When Tom and I started The Palm Beach Letter, we made a solemn promise. We vowed to tell the truth about building wealth, rather than exciting our readers with the myths and lies that dominate the investment media.

We are proud of what we are doing and confident that it will help you become wealthier. Our goal is not–and never will be–to make you a “clever” investor. We simply want to teach you how to become wealthy. If that’s what you want, you are in good company.

[Ed. Note: As Mark Ford mentioned, the primary goal of The Palm Beach Letter is to teach you how to become wealthy. That said, they occasionally come across investments with the potential to increase your wealth quickly. Like this one, involving the world's richest company.]

What really makes you happy? How much money do you need to afford these things? These are two simple questions that will get you thinking along the same lines as Mark Ford’s essay today. You’re about to discover his golden secrets to spending, saving, and investing.

Craig Ballantyne

“There are an infinite number of new opportunities. Actively seek them out, and position yourself to recognize and take advantage of them.” – Kekich Credo #68
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A New American Dream

If you are a member of the Millenial (“Y”) Generation, or have someone in the household who is, we highly recommend Michael Masterson’s book, “Automatic Wealth for Grads“. It’s like getting your master’s in financial independence–but without the midterms. Filled with real-life examples and practical advice, this single book will teach you the secrets to getting wealthy sooner than you ever imagined . . . for many, even before the age of thirty. I wish this book had been available back when I was 21 (although most of the principles are great advice for any age).

The good news is that it doesn’t matter what you majored in (or when you did), you can use these “money tested” techniques to make wealth building automatic. In the book Michael Masterson becomes your personal mentor, drawing upon his own experiences and those of experts in the fields of investing, real estate, and business to offer you a complete program for achieving financial independence in record time. Organized around proven wealth-creating principles, he will show you how to quickly master the powerful moneymaking skills that will transform you into a dynamic, automatic wealth-builder, no matter what career path you choose. This is an important reason for the next generation. Get your copy – or give a copy – here.

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here

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The Secret of the Golden Buckets
By Mark Ford

The money-management system that I’ve used to generate more than $50 million in wealth is quite simple–a far cry from the complicated systems I was enamored with thirty years ago, when I was just beginning to learn about money.

Those systems felt exotic, secret, exciting. But as the years passed, I found they did not work as advertised. Eventually, I realized that sophisticated financial programs are like complicated toys. They look fantastic on the shelf – but when you go to use them, they eventually break… and when they break, you can’t fix them.

As simple as it is, the system I’m going to introduce you to today will provide for all of your financial needs. It will allow you to live well now… and live well in retirement.

As Palm Beach Letter subscribers know, our first rule for building wealth is “Never, ever lose money.” The primary characteristic of this plan is safety.

Our second rule for building wealth is “Grow at least a little bit richer every day.” And the second (and equally important) characteristic of this plan is its dependability. It will give you a regularly escalating net worth without significant setbacks.

I call my system “The Secret of the Golden Buckets.”

Simplicity Trumps Sophistication

Imagine a golden well with three golden buckets on the ground in front of it. One is labeled “spending”… the second is labeled “savings”… and the third is labeled “investing.”

There’s a sign on the well that challenges you to try your hand at a game. To win, you have to fill all three buckets to the brim.

It seems to be an easy challenge, but there are two problems:

The well will give you only so much water within a given time period.

If you look closely at the golden bucket marked “spending,” you notice there is a sizable hole at the bottom of it.

I’m using metaphors here, of course. The well represents your yearly income. The spending bucket, with the hole at the bottom, represents the money you must spend to enjoy the quality of life you want. The savings bucket represents money you absolutely can’t afford to lose. And the investing bucket represents your future wealth.

If you manage to fill all three buckets, you win–i.e., you’re rich!

So can this game be won? It can, if you play it smart. And you can win it relatively quickly if you use my system.

The Golden Bucket of Spending

I grew up relatively poor, the second of eight children. My father earned $12,000 a year as a college professor. As a teenager, I was ashamed of our small house, my hand-me-down-clothes, and my peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

I dreamed, literally dreamed, of living like a rich man. And so, when I got my first job at age nine as a paperboy, and then at twelve as a lackey at the local carwash, I would spend my money on luxuries, like a pair of brand-new Thom McAn shoes.

I worked every chance I got through high school, and then worked two or three jobs during college and graduate school. I spent 80% of my money on necessities: food, clothes, and tuition. But I always spent a bit on little niceties. Even back then, I had the notion that I didn’t need to deprive myself now for some better life later.

I tell you this to emphasize a key part of my system. I don’t believe in scrimping severely to optimize savings. I believe you can live a rich life while you grow rich, so long as you are willing to work hard and you are smart about your spending.

Think of the typical earning/spending/saving pattern of most wealth seekers…

During their twenties, they spend every nickel of their modest income to make ends meet. At that age, it is nearly impossible to put aside money for the future.

During their thirties, their income increases. But this is also when they start a family. Expenses soar. There are more mouths to feed, a “family” car to buy, and the dreaded down payment on a first house. They manage to save a little during these years, but not nearly as much as they thought they would.

If they work hard and make good career decisions, their income climbs much higher in their forties and early fifties. They have more money to put aside for the future, but they are also tempted into buying newer cars, nicer clothes, more exotic vacations, and–the biggest wealth stealer of them all–that dream house.

In their later fifties and sixties, their income plateaus or even dips… and they may have to start shelling out for college tuition. Aware that their retirement funds are being depleted rather than enhanced, they invest aggressively to try to make up the difference.

Finally, sometime in their mid to late sixties, they realize that they don’t have enough money to retire. They have spent almost forty years working hard and chasing wealth, but they never managed to attain it.

It’s sad, but it’s the reality for most people. And it is just as true for high-income earners (doctors, lawyers, etc.) as it is for working-class folks.

There are two lessons to be drawn from this: First, it is very difficult to acquire wealth if you increase your spending every time your income goes up. Second, setting unrealistic investing goals means taking greater risks. And taking more risks, contrary to what many pundits say, will almost always make you poorer… not richer.

The truth is, there is only a marginal relationship between how much you spend on housing, transportation, vacations, and toys and the enjoyment you can derive from them.

My golden bucket spending strategy is simply this: Discover your own, less expensive way to live a rich life. By a “rich life,” I mean a life free from financial stress, but also filled with things that give you pleasure.

Your family can be just as happy in a house that costs $100,000 or $200,000 as one that costs $10 million or $20 million. Likewise, a $25,000 car will get you where you want to go just as well as a car that costs ten times that amount.

In fact, there are dozens of ways to live like a millionaire on a modest budget. If you learn those ways, you will have a tremendous advantage over everyone else at your income level. (In future issues, I will give you lots of ideas for “living rich” without spending more. But for the moment, I am just going to assume that you agree this makes sense.)

Make smart spending decisions. Remember, the spending bucket has a hole in its bottom. Every dollar you put into it will be gone by the end of the year. Stop thinking that because you’re earning more money, you should be spending more. Your future wealth is determined by how much you save and invest, not by how much you spend.

So here’s what I’d like you to do: Figure out how much you need to spend every year to live your own personal version of a “rich” life. It might help to spend a few minutes thinking about all the things you truly enjoyed last year. If you are like me, you’ll find that almost all of the things you enjoy require very little in the way of money. (Those are the true luxuries.)

Keep the biggest wealth-stealing expenses–like your house, your cars, and entertainment–to a necessary minimum. And eschew any expenditure that has a brand name attached to it. Brand names are parasites that gobble up wealth.

What you are doing is determining the size of your spending bucket. It should be smaller than the bucket you used last year, but big enough to contain inexpensive luxuries that will make your life truly rich.

Don’t nod your head and promise to get to it sometime in the future. Do it today. Estimate, as well as you can, what you need to spend each year to have the life you want. I call this your LBR (lifestyle burn rate)–and I’ll be talking more about it in an upcoming essay. This is a number that you must have firmly in your mind, if you intend to be a serious wealth builder.

Tomorrow – Part 2 – The Golden Bucket of Savings

[Ed. Note: As Mark Ford mentioned, the primary goal of The Palm Beach Letter is to teach you how to become wealthy. That said, they occasionally come across investments with the potential to increase your wealth quickly. Like this one, involving the world's richest company.]

One of my fatal flaws is that I obsess over negative situations. When something bad happens I have a hard time thinking about anything else. A recent problem put this habit to the test, and thanks to a friend’s wisdom, I discovered the magic of turning bad into beautiful.

Craig Ballantyne

Failure isn’t bad. Failure isn’t final. If there is one thing I know after having observed this crazy world for 36 years, it’s that you can SURVIVE almost anything and come back better and stronger than ever before. Don’t let the fear of failure stop you from achieving the success you deserve.
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A New American Dream

In Canada, there is a television show called Dragon’s Den, similar to the American show, Shark Tank. One of the ‘Dragons’ is Arlene Dickinson, a successful entrepreneur who overcame obstacles early in her career to eventually grow a $45M per year advertising agency. The single mother of four was married at 19 and divorced at 28. It was only at this time did she venture into the world of marketing and advertising, joining a company in Calgary called Venture Communications. Within ten years she was the CEO, and now has a staff of 75 split between Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto.

Her story is one of hardship, ambition and mistakes. However, the hardships and mistakes were no match for her ambition. Whatever may have been bad in her life, she seems to have turned into something beautiful, achieving her American Dream and now helping others pursue theirs through her role on the popular Canadian series. Arlene Dickinson is a valuable example of how we can bounce back from adversity and what we can do when our ambition and skills find the right outlet.

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here

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Turning Bad into Beautiful
By Craig Ballantyne

Late on a Friday afternoon is the worst time to receive an email containing bad news related to business. It leaves you with the entire weekend to think about the problem because it can’t be resolved until everyone returns to work on Monday. Unfortunately, I had this happen to me recently.

Due to a boneheaded decision on my part, a joint venture partner and I had a falling out. I take all the blame. It was entirely my fault.

The email not only voiced their displeasure but also ominously requested a phone conversation early the next week. Thanks to my inability to compartmentalize negative thoughts I spent the entire weekend with the impending uncomfortable conversation dominating my thoughts.

It’s much like when a catchy tune gets stuck in your head, except this was the stressful, “have-nightmares-about-it” version. I kept running through the phone call over and over again in my mind, trying to figure out how it would go.

There were two things that helped me work my way out of it, and turn bad into good.

First, there was this quote that I had posted on the ETR Facebook page just a few days earlier. As this quote says, when you mess up, you are actually being given a chance to learn a lot about yourself.

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” – Bernice J. Reagon

Second, I have an incredible network of people who can keep me level headed in these situations. After I explained the situation to ETR Publisher Matt Smith, he said something that was both wise and helpful.

“When something in life occurs that is troubling, we are not supposed to dwell on the thing itself. Instead, the focus should be on our obligation to turn this bad thing into something beautiful. It’s not easy. But, if you focus your creative energy away from self torture and onto ‘how you can turn this into something beautiful’ pretty remarkable things start to happen.”

And so over that weekend, as I tried to avoid mentally torturing myself, I discovered something ‘beautiful’. I realized that in order to get through the weekend and to get over the stress, I was re-doubling my efforts at doing good things.

I spent more time in my forums answering questions on a more extensive level than normal. I put more thought and effort into Turbulence Training and ETR articles for the next two weeks. I worked harder on next month’s Turbulence Training workouts for my fitness business.

This “focus on good” elevated me from my bad mood, relieved the pressure, and turned the world positive again.

To make matters even better, my call with the upset joint venture partner turned out to be positive. My apology was accepted, and instead of conflict, we are now in co-operation. I’ve gone from embarrassed to enthusiastic, and look forward to working with this company on future products that will help them and you.

There’s a lesson here for all of us.

When things go bad, double up your efforts on doing good things. It makes you feel better, and may help even the karmic scale. You can turn bad news into something beautiful by taking positive action towards your mission and vision. Live positive.

As Dave Kekich says, “High self-esteem can only come from moral productivity and achievement.” So when things turn bad in business for you, turn them beautiful by taking action, being productive, and improving the lives of your customers and clients.

Hopefully you can take a beautiful message from my bad mistake.

Please also realize that turning something bad into something beautiful is not a fix limited to business. It can be applied to other areas of our life. For example, let’s say you are going through a divorce or loss of love of any kind. Everyone’s been there. We’ve all had bad break-ups.

But understand it’s probably not your fault. Whatever led to that loss of love is their problem, not yours. And so it’s not a time for you to wallow in self-pity, for that will do you no good.

Instead, this is the time to be at your most beautiful. If you’re funny, you shouldn’t hide inside watching reruns of “When Harry Met Sally”. You should get out and get together with your friends who love you for being funny. If you’re a natural born-organizer, you shouldn’t be at home torturing yourself and analyzing what went wrong. Instead you should be organizing a party with all of the people who matter to you and still love you.

Here’s what you need to do to start turning the balance of bad into beautiful. You need to simply take action, get moving, and build some momentum. Taking a walk, a simple stroll in some fresh air, is the easiest way to get started on your road to recovery.

During my tumultuous weekend, what helped me get better were the multiple dog walks out on the farm that I had to do each day with my chocolate lab. The walks allowed me to clear my head and use my creativity to identify solutions to the current issue. In fact, just one of those walks brought me six ideas I could use to fix the mess I had found myself in.

Don’t dwell on the negative. Instead, focus on what you can do to turn the bad into beautiful. As Matt said, flip your creative energy from self-torture to making the mistake into a positive opportunity. When you identify good things that you can do or the benefits of this new life change, remarkable things will happen. Change your perspective and opportunity arises out of the ashes.

You’ll find solutions for your problem. I promise.

That’s not bad.

That’s beautiful.

[Ed. Note. Craig Ballantyne is the author of Financial Independence Monthly, a program that shows you how to achieve your financial independence in the new economy. He's also shared the 10 books that have had the greatest impact on his business and philosophies in this list here.]

Growing up, my mother encouraged me to study hard so that I could have job security as an accountant. The education system promoted this too, through it’s guidance programs and tests that were supposed to match your personality with the best job for you. (According to my test, I was best suited to be a pastry chef. Uh, yeah, right.)

But along that journey I also paid attention to the minority voices that said, “No one becomes financially independent working for other people.” But it wasn’t until I started my first job after college that this lesson sunk in, and that’s when I set about my journey to getting out of the trap that Michael Masterson talks about today in his classic essay.

Craig Ballantyne

You don’t ‘find time’ for the important things in life, you MAKE time. If there is something you want to do, something you want to accomplish, start making time in your life for it right now.
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A New American Dream

At 61 years old, lifelong entrepreneur Joe Weaver was starting from scratch after a setback from the real estate market collapse. He knew his best option was a website-based business and recently made his first sale at http://www.rippedat60.com. “I will admit it added a considerable spring to my step for several days.

Making my first sale just makes that dream a little more real.” Joe has been implementing the advice from each issue of Financial Independence Monthly (FIM), and he attended the bonus Implementation day held by Matt Smith and myself after the Underground Online seminar. But most importantly, Joe’s been taking action, making contacts in his industry, and delivering value to his prospects. He outsourced the technical work so that he could focus only on activities that would drive revenue.

That’s what you need to focus on when building any business. You must be actively working in the sales and marketing of your products and services. Joe has plans to regain his financial independence through his online business. Read the full story of Joe’s First Sale in this month’s issue of Financial Independence Monthly.

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here

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How to Be Financially Independent
By Michael Masterson

Are you a doctor, lawyer, or other professional? How about a salaried employee?

If so, you’re in a trap. And you’ll never get out unless you listen to me today.

In my book Automatic Wealth, I talked about this “trap.” Here’s what I said…

“At the end of the day, you are charging for your time. And if you want to make more money, there are only two ways to do it:

1. “Charge more per hour.

2. “Work more hours (though there are only so many hours you can work and still have a life).”

Professionals and top executives, you may be surprised to know, don’t make as much money as you’d think.

As they improve their skills, they earn more for every hour they work. Eventually, they might even earn one or two million dollars a year. To earn that money, they have to work hard. Often that means 10- to 14-hour workdays.

But when you own your own Internet business, your income isn’t dependent on the number of hours you work. You can make money when you are on vacation. You can make money when you are sick. You can make money when you are sleeping.

All you have to do is get the thing going and then hire a few superstar employees to do the work for you. You pay them a good salary, and take the profits as they come.

If you are being paid by the hour right now, you know exactly what I mean. You may be earning good money, but it’s hard to enjoy your success because you are always up to your eyeballs in work.

Retiring is an option. But when you retire, you lose your active income. That’s not good. I know. I tried it for 18 months. I was rich and retired and happy to write poetry and paint bad paintings. But I was always worried that I would run out of money or that one of my investments would tank. That is not financial independence. I promised myself that I would never fall into that trap again.

Financial Independence

I’m a big believer in financial independence.

Being financially independent means exactly what it says: You are not dependent on anyone or anything to pay your bills.

How much you make has nothing to do with financial independence. I know plenty of doctors and lawyers who make high six-figure incomes but are deeply in debt and always worried about their future.

Having a million dollars in the bank doesn’t give you financial independence either. Given the interest rates you can get on a bank account these days, a million dollars is barely enough to feed and house a dog.

And having a substantial real estate or stock market portfolio doesn’t necessarily make you financially independent. If you need to make, say, 6 or 8 percent on your money to pay your bills, you are not going to feel comfortable. You are going to go to bed each night worrying about the market.

So What Is the Secret?

The secret to being truly free of money worries is to have multiple streams of income, each one of them enough for you to live on.

That way, if one stream dries up completely you still have another or even another to fall back on.

Here’s what I said about that in Automatic Wealth…

“Natural money makers make most of their money by practicing a single skill within the context of a single industry. Don’t be fooled by financial gurus who tell you otherwise. But they eventually develop many streams of income.

“Many master wealth builders I know enjoy a dozen sources of income. Some are modest, some amazing. That’s the great thing about creating cash flow. Although you never know what will happen with any individual income source, if you get enough of them started, one will turn into a river.”

Develop Clarity of Mind and Wealth Building Will Be Easy

The day after I decided to get rich (which I’ve written about many times in ETR and in my books), I woke up a much smarter guy.

I no longer believed I could slowly work myself up the corporate ladder. Or that having a hundred thousand dollars in the bank would give me peace of mind.

I was no longer willing to trust anyone with my financial well-being – not my stockbroker, not my bond broker, not the pundits I was reading or my friends or family members who had “advice” for me.

Most of all, I wasn’t willing to trust the company I worked for to guarantee me a lifetime of income.

Before I made wealth building my number-one priority, I was chasing after so many goals that I was confused and vulnerable to all sorts of self-delusions and bad advice.

I can tell you stories about the foolish decisions I made:

• The townhouse I bought in the wrong Washington, DC neighborhood with a negatively amortizing mortgage
• The “beautiful” 1955 Ford Thunderbird I bought for $15,000 that eventually cost me twice that much in repairs and improvements
  The small fortune I invested and lost in a furniture business before I knew anything about selling furniture
• But once I prioritized my goals, it was no longer possible to make bad decisions like those. I had developed an instant and permanent instinct about wealth building that has never left me.

You can do it too.

And you will never again be confused about financial decisions. When you face a challenge or problem, the answer will be clearly and boldly evident. It will be impossible to ignore it. After that, growing wealthy will become relatively automatic – as it is for me now.

The Eight Rules for Financial Independence

When I decided to become rich, I began to keep a journal of thoughts I had about making money, losing money, and building wealth.

One chapter of that journal had to do with financial independence. And the eight rules I came up with then are the same rules I follow today:

1. You can’t truly trust anybody but yourself with your money.

2. The harder someone tries to convince you to trust him, the less you should.

3. However good a track record someone has, never believe that he/she can’t suddenly start your losing money. In fact, if you are like me, the moment you invest will be the moment his/her track record starts falling apart.

4. All markets rise and fall. Don’t ever believe anyone who assures you that they can predict the future.

5. If you don’t learn to spend less than you make, you will never have peace of mind.

6. Most of what you buy when your income is above $100,000 is discretionary. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you need a big house or a fancy car.

7. In making financial projections for yourself or a business, always create three scenarios: one that shows what things will look like if everything goes as hoped; one that shows what will happen if things are mediocre; and one that shows what will happen if things fall apart.

8. Know that the third scenario is optimistic.

Add these up, and you will come to one inevitable conclusion:

The only way to be truly financially independent is to have multiple streams of income, each one of them sufficient to pay for the lifestyle you want to live.

When I began to develop multiple streams of income, I did it the “chicken entrepreneurship” way. I started out small and built slowly. I never took large risks. And I never gave up my day job.

These are the income streams I have today:

• A local rental real estate portfolio
• An international rental real estate portfolio
• An interest in a half-dozen companies
• My consulting income
• My income from bonds
• My income from dividend stocks

Each of these streams is greater than the amount of money I spend every year. So if five of them suddenly disappeared, I would still have enough income to live on without diminishing my lifestyle.

And to back that up, I have a stash of hard assets that I could live on for the rest of my life.

That is a lot of financial security. I don’t know anyone else who has that much. Maybe it’s a reflection of how deeply untrusting I am. Or maybe it means I’m simply more independent than most of the people I know.

You don’t have to emulate my plan. But if you want financial independence, you should think about having more than one or even two streams of income.

Many ETR readers are interested in getting into Internet marketing. But most of them have not actually started a business. They are planning and reading and hoping and dreaming. But they are not getting started.

[Ed. Note: As Michael Masterson says, multiple streams of income is the true path to financial independence. Today, your best chance to increase your income and begin your journey to develop financial independence on YOUR own terms is explained in this video right here.]

Almost every morning Matt Smith sends me a link to another fantastic article he’s discovered on the web. One morning it was a link to this piece by Jonathan Fields on the importance of delighting your customers. After reading Jonathan’s thoughts, this idea has been incorporated in every email I send. It’s a message that will stick with you, because you sure don’t want to be doing it all wrong.

Craig Ballantyne

“Stand out. You must stand for something and attract the right people while not being afraid to repel the wrong people. You need to over deliver, give faster results than promised, and become the go-to leader for your market.” – Bedros Keuilian
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A New American Dream

Jeff Riddle’s original American Dream was to become a professional baseball player, however injuries ended his career at the University of California, San Diego. His next passion was music, and he spent several years touring the country and participating in over 500 concerts in a rock band.

Throughout both of these adventures, Jeff focused on building strong personal relationships, and this led him into his next escapade as a business relationship strategist. Jeff’s work has impacted the lives of solo entrepreneurs to fortune 500 companies shifting how companies engage, connect, and deepen their relationships with their customers. In 2011 his company, Riddle & Co., was acquired by Retargeter, an online advertising technology company.

His unique approach to adding value to small and large business owners has him speaking around the country on the importance of what he calls, “The Give Give”, where he helps companies change their mindset around how to grow their businesses. You can learn more about Jeff’s business and his continuing journey towards his American Dream at his site, www.TheGiveGive.com.

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here

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The Power of Delight
By Jonathan Fields

What if we were doing it all wrong?

According to my genius friend and founder of Riddle & Co., Jeff Riddle, businesses are going about growth all wrong. They spend every waking hour and huge line items in their budgets on customer acquisition. Then, once a prospect becomes a customer, they all but forget about them. The common ethic, in fact, is to do the minimum necessary to keep an existing customer from leaving. That’s where the “sad state of affairs” bar has been set.

How messed up is that?

Not just from a feeling good about what you’re doing and how you’re treating others standpoint, but according to Jeff, it’s horrible for the bottom line, too. Analyzing large volumes of data, he was able to determine that 70-80% of new customers were generated not by formal acquisition and marketing initiatives, but by word of mouth from the 5% of existing customers who were most delighted with the product or service.

Newsflash – when you blow peoples’ minds in unexpected ways on a consistent basis, give them more than they expected and – check this out…actually treat them like you’d want your mom (assuming you love your moms) treated, guess what happens? They can’t shut up about you! And when they tell someone exactly what you’d say in an advertisement, it carries about 1,000% more credibility.

I’ve taken this approach in business over and over, it’s extraordinary how well it works. And how much more fun it is building a business based not just on the drive to acquire, but on the quest to delight. In my recently launched venture, Good Life Project, I have a line-item in my budget for delight. And I have a Director of Delight. Serve, solve and delight, in fact are among the core ethics in the culture I’m helping to cultivate, and it’s also one of the 10 Commandments of Epic Business.

But, here’s the thing, this isn’t just about business, it’s about LIFE! YOUR LIFE!!!

When we look at the key relationships in our lives, we often do the exact same thing. We spend all of our time, energy and money on acquisition, then once we’ve converted someone we shift into “minimum maintenance mode”…and wonder why everything falls apart.

Think about it. When you’re single, you really take care of yourself, you go to the gym, exercise, eat better, dress better, engage in activities that make you come alive. You leave little notes, text sweet messages, create surprise meetups, try things you’d never try in the name of finding new ways to connect, make time for dates, walks, hand holding and more.

You are in full metal relationship acquisition mode and you do everything you can to create the best marketing impression possible.

You start to attract interesting “prospects” and eventually “convert” one to boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, spouse or partner. You keep the same high level of engagement up for a bit, but then what starts to happen? You start to feel a little too secure. You take the relationship for granted. You stop thinking about how to attract and delight that person any more and just work on the assumption that everything’s pretty much locked and loaded.

Except, it isn’t.

Nobody likes being treated like a foregone conclusion.

We thrive on knowing that the person with whom we’ve chosen to dance WANTS us in their lives, thinks about us all the time, loves to be with us, cares about us and loves seeing us delighted. And not because we demand it, but because they light inside at the thought of making us light up inside.

So, what might happen if you repositioned “relationship acquisition” not as an end, but an invitation.

An opportunity to consistently surprise and delight the person with whom you’ve connected? In ways they’d never see coming? Even the smallest ones, just enough to let them know “I’m thinking of you, you matter to me, I appreciate you!”

In business, your marketing, sales and acquisition costs would plummet. In life, the quality, depth and duration of your relationships would take off.

And, rather than spending all your time trying to figure out how to get peoples’ attention, you get to spend your time plotting and scheming ways to blow their minds. And inspiring your teams and tribes to do the same. What do you think would happen to employee turn-over when the single overriding purpose of every person on your team is to serve, solve and delight?

Sounds cool, right?

But what about the habituation situation?

The what?

Habituation. Our stunning ability to absorb good and bad into a new equilibrium.

Picture this…

It’s a Friday night and the spouse brings home flowers unexpectedly. Wow, what a delight.

Same thing next week on cue, how lovely.

Same thing next week, nice color.

Same thing next week, whatever, put ‘em in a vase.

What began as a delight has been demoted to an expectation.

Human beings have a remarkable ability to habituate both up and down. What elevates us in the beginning becomes baseline over time. So if we’re striving to always delight, doesn’t this create a bit of a hedonic delight treadmill, where we’ve got to keep raising the bar higher and higher to deliver the same hit?

And if so, how do we stop that from happening?

CAN we stop if from happening or do we have to just work with funny little quirk of human nature?

How can we make this all work in business and in life?

[Ed. Note. Jonathan Fields is a dad, husband, author, speaker, A-list blogger and serial wellness-industry entrepreneur. Fields writes about entrepreneurship and creativity at www.JonathanFields.com and interviews emerging world-shakers at www.GoodLifeProject.com. His latest book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel For Brilliance, was named the #1 personal development book of 2011 by 800-CEO-Read.]

Sometimes it takes an “event” to finally set the wheels in motion on a dream we’ve had. It could be the loss of a job, a financial setback, or a health scare – as Mary Ellen Tribby explains today. When used properly, the stress of that event can motivate us to massive action.

Craig Ballantyne

“If you want to accomplish anything, get out of your comfort zone.” – Kekich Credo #1
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A New American Dream

In this month’s issue of Financial Independence Monthly, you’ll discover the best business models for creating financial independence online. For a lot of people who are interested in a personality-based business, the most powerful model is the Affinity Model. Affinity means that you can show your readers that you are just like them and that you’ve overcome the same struggles as they did.

Both Mary Ellen Tribby, and my friend, Isabel De Los Rios, who runs BeyondDiet.com use the affinity model with great success. Isabel has over 200,000 customers on her site because she has been able to show them that, at one point, she was just like them with her nutrition and weight struggles. She can prove that she knows what her prospects are going through (much like Mary Ellen does in her article today).

Both Isabel and Mary Ellen are also dedicated to the Content Model, an important component of almost all online business strategies. Showing that you have authentic affinity with your prospects is a powerful way to make a deep emotional connection with your prospects. If you’ve been in your client’s shows, you need to let them know, and to show them that you’ve found a solution to their problems. Learn more in this month’s issue of FIM

Discover how to achieve your American Dream and Financial Independence here

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What Doesn’t Kill Us, Will Make Us Stronger
By Mary Ellen Tribby

“At this point, we can’t rule out malignancy,” the doctor said.

I just looked at my husband. I knew he was asking the doctor questions, but I didn’t hear any words. I saw his lips moving and felt his strong hand on top of mine. But all I could think was I needed to wake up. (“This is not happening. I know I am just having a bad dream.”)

It wasn’t until I was in the front seat of our car that I realized it wasn’t a dream. “Are we going home?” I asked. “No,” my husband said. “We are going to get your ultrasound and more x -rays.” “Oh,” I replied.

It didn’t really matter where we were going, because all I could think of at that moment were the three beautiful children my husband and I have been blessed with.

First, my thoughts went to Mikaela who was ten-years-old at the time. Without me, who would she talk to about boys? Who would show her how to put on makeup and help her pick out a college? But the most painful thought was… who would comfort her in her loss?

For the past three years, Mikaela has accompanied me on the Race for the Cure breast cancer walk.

She is well aware of the horrors of treatment.

She’s often commented about people walking in honor of a loved one. For her, I knew there would be no sugarcoating the truth.

Then my thoughts shifted to Connor, my eight-year-old son (at the time) – an amazing baseball player who plays it cool with his dad and friends.

He is an undeniably sweet boy who always writes a special card for me on Mother’s Day. What would he do next May? Would he pretend to write a card, not telling his teacher that he has no one to give it to?

Suddenly, I felt like throwing up. I asked my husband to pull over.l

Once back in the car, all I could think about was Delanie, who was our four-year-old princess at the time. She is so used to having both my husband and me tuck her in at night. She wakes up each morning with a smile on her face and kisses to spare. Have I made enough of an impact on her life that in 10, 12, 15 years from now she will remember me?

Over the following three weeks, I was poked, prodded, and sliced.

On the 22nd day, I found out that I did not have breast cancer.

You would think that I would be so happy that I could not wait to get back to my normal routine. But no. Something happened. Going through that breast cancer scare changed my life in many ways.

You see, I’ve always wanted to start my own business – a business that would empower the working mom. A business that would provide the tools for EVERY working mom to lead a healthier, wealthier, and more balanced life.

It is my belief that working moms have more influence on what our world will look like than any other single group of people. Plus, they have the responsibility to match. I even purchased the URL for my new business back in July of 2007.

But I already had a job. And not just any job. I had one of the best jobs in the world. After all, I was Publisher and CEO of Early to Rise. So I kept saying, “Someday. Someday I will start that new business.”

I’m not sure what kept holding me back before the cancer scare. I think the fact that I loved my job. And that, even as a CEO, I was able to enjoy quality time with my husband and three kids – from attending their baseball games, school plays, and tennis matches to taking long walks on the beach.

When I would speak at conferences, working moms who heard about my career accomplishments and wonderful family life always asked me, “How? How did you do it?” Those moms were always with me. Tucked in the back of my brain. Not forgotten, but put on hold for “someday.”

But after the scare, the need to create this new business and help other working moms have the lifestyle they wanted and deserved was overwhelming. I could not “NOT” do it.

Unlike most working moms, I had developed systems and strategies for leading a complete and fulfilling life. I had escaped the guilt and the feeling of inadequacy. I had raised kids who were strong, confident, and compassionate. And I knew that I could teach any working mom who wanted to make more money to accomplish that as well.

So in one of the worst recessions America has ever seen (Remember this was the end of 2009), with one of the highest unemployment rates in history, I left the best job I ever had in my 25-year career. Three months later, Working Moms Only was a reality.

What I learned along the way will help you jumpstart any new business. You see, I did not take a dime from any investors, even though the offers were there. My husband and I took $10,000 out of our personal bank account and put that money into our new company.

Several of my industry colleagues questioned me about turning down investors and using my own money. My answer was simple. This was the way we had been teaching ETR readers to start a business – and this was the way I was going to do it.

These are the three most valuable lessons I have learned thus far:

1. Less is more.

A friend of mine recently left her corporate job to start her own marketing consulting firm. The first thing she did was find office space. I asked her why she was doing it. She told me that, with the real estate market in the dumps, space was a bargain. So she was able to rent space for $1,500 a month that normally went for three grand.

But she did not stop there. She bought a desk, chair, filing cabinets, and a couch. She spent $5,000 before she wrote a sales letter or had a website built.

After two months of trying, she finally landed her first client. That client is paying her a $2,000 a month retainer. You do the math.

Back in 2009, I had a four-bedroom house and three kids who had their own rooms. I did not have a library, den, or office. Still, I did not go out and rent space. I converted my rarely used dining room into my office. (Heck, we’re kitchen people anyway.) It overlooked a golf course, and I find it very conducive to writing. When I needed a change of scenery, I would take my laptop and sit out by my pool. I did not buy filing cabinets or print business cards. I had a really good computer and I understood the value of knowing how to use it to it’s fullest.

2. Work on your business every day.

When you are starting a brand-new business that is going to be your livelihood, there are no weekends. You don’t get the day off because it is your wedding anniversary or your kid’s birthday. You have to make sacrifices.

Now does this mean I missed Connor’s birthday? Of course not. But after he went to bed that night, I worked. I worked until I finished everything I needed to do. Sure, the goal of having your own business is to get it to the point where you are living your desired lifestyle. But this does not happen overnight.

You must take your business seriously. For this very reason, I vowed that I would not work in my PJs. I still get up and go to the gym first thing in the morning. I then shower, dress, and dive into my work.

I don’t stay in bed an extra hour or talk on the phone. I treat my business with respect – as I have always treated someone else’s business that I was running.

I know far too many “entrepreneurs” who are still in their pajamas at 2:00 in the afternoon. These are the guys who are always asking why they are not doing as well as their competitors.

3. Know your market intimately.

It’s best if you are a member of your target market. This is the road I have taken. I knew what it was like to be an executive before I had kids, and I have been a working mom for 11 years before I started Working Moms Only. I honed the new skills I needed over those 11 years. I am now in the top percentile of highly paid working moms.

If you are not personally in your target market, there are several things you can do to get yourself up to speed. Start with these:

• Study your competition. Understand what they do and figure out how you can do it faster, better, and cheaper.
• Use Amazon to get insider information about your prospective customers. Read reviews on products similar to the ones you are thinking of developing. Decide how you could address buyers’ concerns and enhance the features and benefits they like.

These lessons alone will help you make more money and gain more flexibility in your business.

And this is important . . .

Yes, my epiphany spoke to my passion. However, starting and cultivating a profitable business is important. And, managing that business while procuring flexibility adds tremendous value to my life.

As you can see all three sides of the triangle, money, passion and flexibility should be considered in starting and running your business. As your business grows the priorities will shift. Some days all three may share in equality. Some days one or two may take a strong lead. Just like all aspects of your life your business in continuously evolving.

[Ed. Note. MaryEllen Tribby has created the site, www.WorkingMomsOnly.com, as the leading website and newsletter for the empowerment of the working moms. Her mission is to supply the tools that can give EVERY working mom the ability to lead a healthy, wealthy, and more balanced/blended lifestyle. To create a community where millions of working moms from all over the world come together in support and celebration of each other.]