When it comes to creating wealth, negative thinking is often not so much actually negative thought and is more particularly an excuse for not taking action. By the way, I’m not so sure it’s about getting rich but more about building wealth to allow you to live the sort of life you would reasonably like to.
Do you hear yourself or others saying:
- I don’t earn enough to save or to build wealth.
- Being “rich” is bad thing.
- He/she is lucky, I’ll never have what they have.
- I’m too old/too young to save for retirement.
- You need to have money to make money.
- I’ve made too many financial mistakes and nothing I do will change that.
I don’t for one second deny the fact that some people have a leg up start when it comes to money by way of inheritance or the like, although the number of stories of people who inherit significant wealth and then lose the lot is legendary. I do think that it’s a common misconception that people become wealthy purely by luck.
We’ve all heard the thought that hard working people make their own luck and there is significant truth in this. Yes, there will be the odd person that figuratively “discovers the gold nugget”, but the odds of that are so small so as to not even bother with thinking about it. It’s amazing how the more persistent you are and confident you are, that so called “luck” seems to happen when you’re in the vicinity. Many a successful person has made huge mistakes along the way, sometimes to the point of or near bankruptcy only to recover and amass significant wealth. Persistence is the one constant.
Do you have a set of financial and personal goals and have you written them down?
If the answer is “no”, then you really do have to ask yourself whether you (not anyone else for you) is doing enough to amass wealth for yourself. This is where professional financial advice becomes important, not just is setting realistic goals but also in setting a plan as to how to achieve them.
The vast majority of people that achieve financial security do so as a result of having a plan, setting personal goals and budgets and then having the persistence and discipline to achieve them (without making the plans so rigid that life cannot be enjoyed somewhat along the way and the plans fine-tuned as changes circumstances dictate).
Exactly the same thinking applies to planning for retirement. There is no doubt that the younger you start the better, but there is also no doubt that even for those that are closer to retirement, having a well-constructed plan will inevitably mean a better outcome than if one does not exist at all.
I have seen many clients over the years that have little if anything in assets, through sometimes their own mistakes and occasionally things outside their control like redundancy, family breakdown or ill health. I’m a firm believer in the “sunk cost” theory which basically says, it doesn’t matter how we’ve got to where we are, the fact is we are where we are; it’s what we do now which is more important. Where lessons are to be learnt from past mistakes, sure lets learn them, but there’s no point having a negative mindset that dwells on comparisons to others, your current income levels or what can’t happen.
Take action, with professional help, and you will undoubtedly achieve a better outcome than negatively thinking about your current position and believing it cannot change for the better.
Unless ill health prevents us, we all have the capacity to bounce back, it’s the one certainty of the human condition.
I know many have proclaimed the theory of abundance which is often illustrated by visual goals such as pictures on the wall of the luxury car, a new home or “wealth” in whatever form applies and the thought that the more you visualise achieving the goal, the greater the likelihood of it happening.
I agree with this to a great extent, as at least it is demonstrable example of your goal and that the positive thought applied to the goal cannot help but be a good thing, but and it’s a big but, this will only work if it inspires you to make a plan to make it happen then to live and breathe the plan.