Financial Fulfilment

Tony Robbins said, “as a young man, I came across George Samuel Clason’s classic book, The Richest Man in Babylon, which offered common sense financial advice told through ancient parables.  I recommend it to everyone.”

The book has 7 simple rules that if consistently applied, will lead you to financial fulfilment.

Start Thy Purse to Fattening

Or, as we say, pay yourself first.  If you don’t pay yourself first there probably won’t be anything left to pay yourself last.

Aim for 10% of your income.  If you are in a superannuation scheme, you will already be saving a percentage of your income, so check with your provider as to the percentage and then increase it if needed.

Control Thy Expenditure

When George Clason wrote the book, there were no credit cards or internet banking to contend with, so living within your means was easier.  Sure, you could still borrow money, but by and large you got paid in cash, you spent cash, and when it was gone, you went without.

The way to control your expenses is to be very clear about the distinction between your needs and wants.

We’re not saying that you can only spend on needs.  The idea here is to make sure you cover all your needs and your wants out of 90% of your income.

Make Thy Gold Multiply

In other words, invest your 10% where it will grow.  You do this by earning interest on your investment.  If you reinvest your interest and keep adding more to the pot, the magic of compound interest will help your investments grow.

What you don’t want to do is stick your money under the mattress (or some low interest fund) where it may feel safe, but it won’t grow and will actually decline in value over time.

Guard Thy Treasures from Loss

If investing your money in the bank or some other passive form of investment isn’t for you, find yourself a financial adviser.  They are able to recommend a range of options to make your money grow.  The best way to find a good financial advisor is to ask around your friends.  Referrals are valuable.

Also, probably not a great idea to take your life savings to the casino and put it all on 20 black on the roulette wheel!

You want to protect your hard earned savings from loss, so make sure you do your homework and take advice from those who are qualified to give it.

Remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Make of Thy Dwelling a Profitable Investment

This concept probably isn’t quite as achievable as it was back in the 1920’s, but the idea of owning your own home rather than renting is still something that many aspire to.

Looking at it from a different angle.  Rather than own a home that you live in, you could own a home for someone else to live in.  You would ideally want to generate more rental income than you are paying out in mortgage and other ownership costs.  Again, getting good advice is crucial.

Insure a Future Income

Risk advisers (insurance brokers) love this one, but it does make sense.  We insure our house, our car, our boat, but quite often we forget to look after ourselves and insure our livelihood (income protection) and ourselves (through life and various other insurances).  If the worst does happen to us, we want to make sure our family are secure.

Increase Thy Ability to Earn

This may be stating the obvious, but it never ceases to surprise us that this is often the last thing that is thought of.  Taking on a second part time job, turning a hobby into an income generating activity, or asking for a pay rise are all ways of increasing your income.  Learning new skills is another way of increasing your value in the marketplace.

If you’re in business, look for different markets, adapt your existing products or services product for new markets.  Start networking to get your business known.  Above all, know your numbers so what you can see how much your current customers are spending with you and see what you can do to increase their spend.

There are plenty of ways of increasing income – you just need to be open to new ideas.

So, there you have it.  The 7 steps to financial fulfilment.  Pretty much unchanged since penned by Clason in the 1920s.

If you want to know more about what you can do to become more financially prosperous, we are happy to listen and help. Drop me an email or click on this link to find a day and time that suits you to have a chat with me, I’m really very friendly.  Best of all, it’s absolutely free!