The Butler Project

$500 per month. What difference would it make in to your financial goals if you could scrape together an extra $16.67 each day? You could…

1. Pay off Your Mortgage

If you’re a fan of the school of thought that says get rid of all debt first, including your mortgage, you could apply the extra $500 per month toward that loan and it would make a drastic difference in how much interest you paid and how long it took to pay off your home. Here’s an example:

$250,000 Conventional Mortgage, 6.5%, 30 Year Term

If you make no additional payments, your total interest expense will be $318,861.22.

If you apply your extra $500 per month to your mortgage, your total interest expense will be cut by more than 50%, to $155,345.27, a savings of $163,515.95.

2. Pay Off Your Credit Cards

If you owe even $5,000 at 18%, it will take you about 26 years to pay off the card, and by the time you’re finished with it, you will have paid $7,115 in interest.

If that doesn’t blow your mind (it should), think of it this way: if part of that balance was a pair of shoes you bought your 14 year old son for $75, by the time you were done you would have paid a total of $129 for those shoes, and you’d finish paying them off when your son was 40.

If you applied the $500 per month to that $5,000 balance, you’d pay it off in 11 months and only end up paying $458.11 in interest. That’s an interest savings of $6,656.89.

3. Accelerate Your Retirement

Let’s say you’re saving $250 per month in a mutual fund at 8% annual return.

After 30 years you’d have $372,589 in your account.

If you added $500 per month to that monthly savings plan, you’d triple your final result to $1,117,769.59.

It’s Common Sense, So Why Aren’t You Doing It?

None of the math here is mind-blowing, right? And it leaves an obvious question: “Sure, that’s all fine, but I don’t have an extra $500 per month, or anyway to get it.”

Don’t accept that kind of thinking for yourself. You gain a huge amount of power in your life when you stop saying “I can’t.” and start saying “How can I?” I can’t shuts your brain down, depresses you, and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“How?” Is the Most Powerful Question

“How can I?” triggers the creative and enthusiastic parts of your brain, and if you’ll ask yourself that question enough times, I guarantee you’ll soon have a flood of ideas.

True, most of your ideas won’t pan out. But only one of them has to work in order for you to put things in motion for you to achieve your goals so much faster than you would have otherwise.

Start asking yourself the question “How can I make an extra $500 per month?” and invest the mental and emotional energy into making your ideas a reality. It will be worth millions of dollars and even better, peace of mind.

For the last two and a half years Dan has built up his multi-million dollar company. Many times during our conversation, the subject of entrepreneurship came up. Dan is passionate and, obviously, very knowledgeable about building your own business. Three times he gave me the same advice:

Mentors and Money

Dan: Be careful with entrepreneurship. . . Number 1, find a mentor, someone who’s done it before that can teach it you. Once you really know the business [and] how to do it, the second thing is [to] make sure you have money.

The industry that I’m in right now, I did it during college; I knew it really well. I had the capital to do it . . . [but] my business took a lot more money than I originally thought it was going to take. I was lucky that I had it sitting in a bank account, and I was able to go to people and say, “Hey can I pay you a little bit later? We sold a lot more than I thought we were going to, so I had to make a much larger investment. I’m a little bit short on cash, but can I wait until this next month and pay you you know, 9% interest or something crazy to make it worth your while to do it?” And all the guys that I did that to were accommodating.

Entrepreneurship wise, that’s what I tell guys if they’re looking into it. 80% of businesses fail in two years. 94% fail in 5. It’s tough to be able to survive; you’ve really got to know what you’re getting into. . . . if you’ve got the experience, and you’ve got the money . . . you can go for it. Get into it. . . start slow.

Image credit: ?????ARG

People

Dan also talked a lot about people and their importance in the entrepreneurial equation

Dan: My professors used to tell me, “You bet on people, you don’t necessarily bet on a business.” If you’ve got the right guys in place, they’re going to make [the business] work no matter what happens. Come hell or high water, they’re going to find a way to make it profitable and make it successful. . . . It’s almost like you’ve got to find the right person that has that determination.

Recruit the right people with the same mentality. [If you're] working upstream with people that don’t want to follow you, get rid of them! Get the right people on the bus to start out with and grow.

[It's] like the old phrase goes, you know, “show me who your friends are and I’ll tell you where you’re going to be in 5 years.”

But it’s not just people Dan turns to for help. When I asked him about the #1 book he would recommend to people trying to be more successful, he said Dale Carnegie’s book, How To Win Friends and Influence People. He went on to tell me how books can help everyday.

Dan: [Read] self help books– it could be anything, it could be Tony Robbins, it could be sales books, it could be Zig Ziggler, Tom Hopkins, whatever . . . Just get in the habit of reading, even if it’s only for 20 minutes a day or a half hour a day where you wake up and you start your day with that and it just gives you ideas; it gets you in the right mind set. [Basically] you need a personal mentor, and I use a lot of those books kind of as that to get me upbeat and get me going.

Finally I’ll leave you with one of my favorite things Dan told me:

Business is so much fun. There’s so many different games, but most businesses are fairly similar. [And] once you get that safety and security, you realize too it’s not the money. The money is not the thing that you like, it’s the chase. It’s the chase of the money. It’s building something and providing jobs and changing peoples’ lives, that’s the fun thing.

In Friday’s Millionaire Interview post I introduced you to Dan, a 30-year-old multimillionaire. As you may recall, Dan sold home service accounts door to door during the summers he was in college. (To protect Dan’s privacy I’m referring to his company as a “home service company.” Some examples of home services include carpet cleaning, lawn care, window washing, anything you might hire people to come to your home to take care of on a regular basis.)

One summer Dan sold 530 accounts–a new company record. The next summer he “wanted to do something ridiculous.” He said he “was so bored with [selling door to door]. I’d done it for so long. I was naturally good at it but I’d never really put in all the hours; I’d never worked that hard. . . I’d never really tried to push myself to the limit.”

So, knowing that 530 was the all time highest sales record, he set a goal to sell 1000 accounts in one summer.

Dan: [I sold] 903. My goal was 1000. I didn’t quite get there.

Mark: Ok, so you failed miserably and got to 903. . . But how did you do it?

Dan: I started doing everything I possibly could . . . really silly things like, you know, put your goal up on your mirror and read it in the morning and read it at night.

And before I’d said, “That’s lame. I don’t need to do that in order to get my sales.” But I started doing it early . . . four months before I went out in the summertime and by the time I got there . . . the reason why it works is because you’re so committed to it; it becomes part of you. . . part of your personal commandments.

He also talked about distractions that could have ruined his chances of reaching his goal:

Dan: [If] you take an extra 15 minute break or [the other salesmen would say] “Hey, let’s swim in the pool a little bit longer on our break.” Or…”Let’s go to a [late] movie.” You know, “It gets out a little bit later; we’ll get out of the doors a little bit later.”

But with Dan,

There was never a question of that.

And nobody ever would question me, “Hey Dan, do you want to take a little bit of time off?” “Let’s go take a break.” It was, “Hey, I’m here to work with you Dan. Just show me what you’re doing, and I want to sell like you.” And that’s what helped . . . having people around you that . . . inspire you. I think if you surround yourself with successful people you’re going to be in the right position.

Like the old phrase goes, “Show me who your friends are and I’ll tell you where you’re going to be in 5 years.”

See how Dan avoided some typical time traps? He decided early what he was and was not going to do: no breaks, no time spent messing around. He also says the other guys he was working with could see what he was doing; they respected him and supported him. Four months with no breaks sounds like serious self discipline to me; I asked Dan what attribute had contributed most to his success.

Dan: I don’t think there’s any other attribute than just determination. Just being absolutely committed to what you want. You set your mind to something and say, “I’m going to do what ever it takes as long as its honest and ethical to get to that point.” I’m going to work, and it’s hard work.

You know, most of the stuff I do does not take a rocket scientist. I think almost anybody could do it. The place where they fail is in the ability to act and actually go out and do it every day. Not going home and siting in front of the TV and watching TV. I hardly ever watch TV at all. Or feeling like they’ve got to do all these little things all the time that makes them happy. If you can make your business what’s fun for you to do, you’ll do extremely well at it. And that’s what I’ve done.

I don’t look at (laughing) [my home service] as something that’s necessarily fun, but you find ways to make that challenge fun. You find ways to improve it, you try to think outside the box.

I heard once that 90% of the books that people buy (regardless of what kind of book it is)…90% of people who buy them [never] get past the first chapter, and I look at most people out there like that: I think there’s 10% on top, maybe only 5% on top and everybody else is kind of the same way: they just lack the ability to act and commit.

Things come up. They’ve got family. They’re trying to support their kids at the same time they’re trying to do real estate deals on the side or watch the stock market at the same time, and it’s just too much for them and they’re shut down.

In terms of my greatest attribute, I just think it’s just, it’s commitment. You make commitments to yourself and other people and you keep them. And that’s what people respect. And that’s what everybody lacks, I think. People just can’t be committed. There’s so many dreams that are just thrown in the dumpster because they’re not willing to go out a work a little bit. Work hard.

So there you have it–COMMITMENT: doing whatever it takes (as long as it’s honest and ethical) to reach your goal.

Dan set a crazy summer sales goal, and he achieved it. His formula for reaching his goal looks something like this:

1. Know yourself, and set a goal that really pushes you to your limit.
2. Start doing the “silly little things” early, way before you need them.
3. Let people see what you’re doing, but don’t let them distract you from your goal.
4. Surround yourself with people who inspire you.
5. Make your business what’s fun for you.
6. Do the hard work.

What crazy goals are you going to set? What kind of commitment will you give to achieve those goals? How will you avoid obvious pitfalls and time wasters? We’ve all learned something from Dan’s experience, the question now is how will you apply it to your life?

I recently interviewed Dan, the 30-year-old owner of a multi million dollar home services company. After listening to my interview with him several times, what I come away with is awe for his belief in himself and his ability to power through and get the job done.

Home services you wonder? What the heck are home services? Well, in the interest of protecting Dan’s privacy (and, no, that’s not his real name), I’ve elected to refer to his company as a “home service company.” You could put his service in the same category as carpet cleaning, lawn care, window washing, you know, the things we hire people to come to our homes and take care of on a regular basis.

Dan got started in college, selling home service accounts door to door during the summers. In one summer he sold 530 accounts, top in the company at that point and made “something like 150 thousand.” Yes, that’s 150 THOUSAND DOLLARS, in one summer, while in college.

Dan: I wanted to make over 200 thousand the next year, and I wanted to do something different, something where I could say, “You know what, I gave my heart and soul to this and that’s what made it fun for me.” I was so bored with it; I’d done it for so long. I was naturally good at [sales], but I’d never really put in all the hours; I’d never worked that hard. I was always good enough or better than everybody else but, for my own self, for Dan . . . I’d never really tried to push myself to the limit . . . I wanted to do something ridiculous.

So, the next year Dan set a goal to sell 1000 accounts in one summer.

Mark: I have a good friend, he’s actually one of the owners of the company I work for; he sold [home services]. He had one month where he sold 200 accounts, and that was this astonishing event, I mean, nobody does that. You did 903 in a summer?

Dan:You know it’s really hard; I did a little bit over 200 [a month] for four months.

Mark: If I can ask, what are the commissions on 900 accounts?

Dan: (Laughing) You know, back then it wasn’t as much as it is now. But it was enough. 15% of the contract, so it was ah . . now it would roughly be . . . 200 bucks a sale.

Mark: (doing some quick calculations) umm . . . that’s $180,000.

Dan: And I also was a team leader, and my team put on over 4000 accounts and I think I made a 5 percent override off of that.

Mark: 5% override off how many accounts?

Dan: 4150

Mark: With a 400 dollar contract value?

Dan: Right

Mark: (a lot more mental calculations . . . .carry the one . . . .stall a minute) So that’s 1.6 million? Wait, what’s 4000 times 400? I think it’s 1.6 million. You’re 5% on that would be, umm. . . would be about 80 grand.

So, apparently he made his goal of 200 thousand that summer. And, apparently he was hooked on home services, because after college he started his own company, and today it’s worth millions of dollars.

I asked Dan if he ever specifically decided to achieve financial success or if it was just something that sort of happened.

Dan: I think I knew for a long time . . .I tried to study why I am the way I am. [Just previous to starting my business] I told people “I can be a millionaire if I want within this next year or several years.” Most people told me, “Yeah that’s the plan.” or “I hope that goes well for you.” And I remember just thinking man, you guys just don’t know me that well, and I thought that was sad that people don’t know what my abilities are.

When I was young, my dad was a CEO, so I was lucky to have a guy that set a role model, you know, a really good role model. My dad was probably in the top 1% of income in the nation, but he had some rocky times. It was feast or famine . . . we had a huge ridiculous house, it’s probably worth 4-5 million dollars now . . . tennis court, just huge massive property . . we had a lot of nice cars but my parents were a little more economical when it came to cars. But he was the president of [a company] and he basically fixed it up, and then they sold it out from underneath him . . .it was during the recession, (I think back in ‘91) and it was just really tough. We were in a smaller town . . . there was just nowhere to work there. He had to go to [bigger cities] and he would literally travel back and forth every week. Five days out of the week he would spend his time in an apartment.

I think that’s where I got a lot of my work ethic. I saw what my dad was willing to do in order to support us. I said, “Yeah, I can do that if worse comes to worse; there’s always a way. At the same time, it scared me to death because I had my mom telling us you know, “We might lose the house this next month, and we just don’t have the money for that right now.” And I just hated that. I thought, you know, “This sucks.”

I don’t want to put my kids through that. And . . . I was probably a horrible kid. I was cruel to my parents and made some pretty horrible comments to them at the time, saying, “I’m not going to put my kids through this.” But, you never know. That’s why I pushed as hard as I did. My number one goal when I got out of college was to become a millionaire as fast as I could, so I didn’t have to work. If I sold my company today. . . for [millions of dollars] and put it in the bank, I could live off interest for the rest of my life if I choose to.

Once you get that safety and security, you realize too, it’s not the money. The money is not the thing that you like, it’s the chase. It’s the chase of the money. It’s building something and providing jobs and changing peoples’ lives, that’s the fun thing. And you eventually get over the money thing.

So, that’s the Reader’s Digest version of Dan’s story. You can see he was motivated and he got the job done, but it wasn’t always easy for him. In my next post, I’ll show you some of the obstacles Dan ran up against, some of the obstacles he purposely avoided, and the attribute he claims is the most important in his rise to financial success.

Yesterday afternoon as I drove my 11-year-old son to baseball practice, the news came on the radio. The announcer mentioned something about the IRS.

“What’s the IRS, Mom?” came the question from the back seat.

“Well, it’s the Internal Revenue Service; the part of our government that collects taxes.” (Can’t you just hear my “Mom Voice?”)

“Oh yeah, you hate them don’t you?”

Wow. I didn’t think I had displayed such strong emotion about paying taxes, but he had obviously picked up on some strong feelings somewhere.

The fact of the matter is we in the U.S. do hate paying taxes, don’t we? In fact, it would almost be un-American not to hate paying taxes.

And why is that?

image credit: Mat Honan

When you honestly examine your feelings, you probably recognize you have a whole bag of mixed (negative) emotions about tax time. Obviously we don’t like paying them, and for sure, most of us don’t understand the tax code. Paying taxes often feels like wasting money we have worked so hard to accumulate. Many feel they are being penalized for being successful, others enjoy a refund, but know they could have been smarter with that money. Perhaps the biggest problem with taxes is simply that they are complicated, stressful, and require extra work on our part, not to mention having to pay someone else (hopefully a qualified professional) to examine our income, expenditures, and record keeping for the past year.

I think it’s safe to say that filing and paying taxes is the pits, our tax code is horrendous, and the government often seems to waste the hard earned money we send them.

Take a minute to think about your taxes. Hate them. Feel the stress associated with tax forms and receipts, deductions and filing deadlines. Imagine the money leaving your bank account, or worse, being added to your credit card balance. Notice how your body reacts to these thoughts. Notice your chest, your stomach, your shoulders, your hands. Can you feel the stress? Do you like how you feel?

Now, in the spirit of my recent posts on gratitude, you can do a few things to change your attitude about taxes and release some of the negativity associated with them.

Gratitude is all about noticing and appreciating.

In terms of taxes, it’s about noticing and appreciating the benefits you enjoy that are paid for with your tax money.

For me, it only takes a moment to come up with a few taxpayer-funded things I am truly grateful for:

• I really like driving 75 on our generally smooth and clear highways. The lines painted there keep me and the other drivers safe.
• I love my son’s kindergarten teacher. Our taxes pay her salary and for the upkeep of the building. I appreciate the bus system that gets him to and from school safely each day.
• I love our national park system. From paved trails to back country outhouses, the amenities provided by our tax dollars help my family enjoy our foray into nature.
• Whatever you think about the war in Iraq, I feel gratitude for our military and it’s impact on our country’s history.

Now, take 60 seconds to notice and be grateful for the benefits of taxpayer money you enjoy. Think about the things you would miss if tax money was not available to pay for them.

image credit: dark embrace

Again, notice how your body reacts to your thoughts. Notice your chest, your stomach, your shoulders, your hands. Do you feel differently than you did before?

I know all these references to feelings may sound like crazy talk. If you aren’t in the habit of paying attention to your body’s reaction to your feelings, it’s probably difficult to do. But even if you haven’t been paying attention, your body has still been reacting to your feelings. Now you have a choice: the feelings of stress and negativity you associate with taxes, or the feelings you felt as you considered the benefits of taxes with gratitude. It’s your choice.

It’s okay to acknowledge our tax system isn’t fair, and is by far too complicated. It’s even better to work to change what you see is wrong. Either way, you have a tax return due April 15. Now you have a choice: pay your taxes grudgingly and endure the stress and negativity associated with them, OR file with gratitude and see the abundance all around you.

Part II of Our Interview with a Millionaire - G

Yesterday, we introduced you to “G”, a Real Estate Broker, Investor, and Entrepreneur. After reading the interview, you’re probably not surprised that he describes himself as a “Type-A guy”.

What is not as obvious from yesterday’s post is his investment strategy: for G, peace of mind is much more valuable than bigger pieces of the pie. Part II of the interview will shed some light on how he has achieved financial freedom while minimizing his risk and stress levels.

Mark: How do you approach your real estate investing?

G: [There are] two mindsets: one is the mindset of “I’m going to establish good credit, and then I am going to leverage myself to create avenues to purchase or invest via financing.”

My philosophy has been completely the opposite of that. A lot of [my success] has just been timing and luck of the market. When I went in 12 years ago, things were really inexpensive relatively speaking, so I was able to capture a lot of appreciation in real estate, and create wealth that way and then reinvest. I have bought [property] as I can afford [it].

I don’t leverage anything. I don’t leverage my house; I don’t leverage my properties. Occasionally I’ll pull a loan, and I try to pay it off, but I’ve kind of bought as I could; if I couldn’t, I didn’t.

And so, I’ve bought…less attractive [real estate] deals that maybe had less attractive returns, but nonetheless had a high return. [T]hat’s been my philosophy that has worked.

I’ve tried to never be in a position where I was leveraged, where if the market did turn, as it has in Colorado, and in Utah, and everywhere else in the nation, I wouldn’t find myself upside down.

All the rental properties that I own, I own without having an obligation to answer to if… renters move out or whatever. So, that’s been my approach, and will probably continue to be my approach going forward.

I’m not a big stock market guy. I don’t like throwing darts and trusting somebody else that I have absolutely no idea of what capabilities they have.

Mark: I’ve talked to other people who say, “Leverage everything you possibly can.”

G: Right. Both theories theoretically could create wealth. One’s just a much more stressful way to do it, and it just hasn’t worked for me. I’m just not that type. Even though I am a Type A guy, it just is too stressful for me, it affects my mood and my personality, and it just doesn’t work.

What personal finance advice would you give me?

G: I’ve never paid interest on a credit card, I’ve never allowed myself to get beyond my means, and that has been a great source of peace for me and my family…if I can’t do it, I just don’t. It’s not worth the risk to me.

[I]t is a high-debt society, and it’s everybody keeping up with everybody, and it becomes kind of a competitive deal out there, especially with younger couples. But I would… tell [you] to stockpile cash as much as [you] can possibly save, and then to eliminate debt.

Contrast G’s philosophy and peace of mind with what is going on right now with our economy. America is fighting off a recession, and is doing it in the face of a virtual meltdown in the housing and mortgage market. If you have turned on the news or picked up a newspaper in the last 12-18 months, you have surely seen headlines similar to these:

“The housing market is crashing”
“Foreclosures are at a three-year high”
“Sub-Prime woes drag down Dow Jones”

And chances are that you, or someone you know, is hurting financially because of the economy. Good people are losing their homes to foreclosure; others are declaring bankruptcy because they have run up credit card debts of $25,000… $50,000… even $100,000. And who is the biggest debtor of all? That’s right, the US Government, with debt now in the TRILLIONS.

It is probably not realistic for most of us to pay cash for our homes; a mortgage may be the only way that you can afford a house. But there are practical ways that you can apply these principles in your life? A good place to start is by reading (or re-reading) our post on budgeting.

Interview with G, a Real Estate Broker, Investor, and Entrepreneur

About a month ago I had the chance to talk with G, owner of a successful real estate brokerage and also a respectable portfolio of rental properties. He started in the mid-nineties “really from zero, from Pell grants”, and in the last ten years or so has built his businesses to the point that he has total financial independence.

G went into real estate straight from college, helping “hundreds and hundreds of families” get into their own home. But it hasn’t been easy; he has built his success on “hard knocks and just having to scrape my face a little bit and learn the hard way…”

A self-professed “hands-on” businessman who still makes the big decisions for his companies, he has first-hand experience on what it takes to be successful, both in his business and personal life.

My interview with G will probably cover a couple of posts; this one will focus more on attributes and attitude.

Mark: As you look back over your career, do you ever remember a…particularly tough setback or obstacle that you had to overcome, and what you learned from the experience?

G: In real estate, you don’t make any money when you help buyers unless you can get them financed. So the lending side of real estate…was a struggle because my initial few years were 80 [to] 90% dealing with the Hispanic community, and there weren’t very many avenues to facilitate their loans. So I was doing so much work and not being compensated because there just weren’t traditional loan brokers that served the Hispanic community.

I had to get through that, and end[ed] up actually creating my own mortgage company that’s been a good source to help them.

Mark: [W]hat do you think has been the attribute that has contributed most to your success?

G: Just a high level of determination. I’m very much involved in the day-to-day, and very active in the decision-making. I haven’t been one that has been able to explode this into a franchise formula or anything like that because I’m still very hands-on and kind of a control guy. I want control and if I mess up, I want to be able to look in the mirror and say “I messed up”, versus somebody else that I entrusted.

I’m always working, if that makes sense, whether it’s on the phone, [or] I’m in the car.

[Note: He was in his car on his cell phone for this interview.]

I don’t really listen to the radio; there’s not really a lot of downtime in my day, so I try to be productive in the amount of work hours I give myself.

I don’t go out to lunch; I eat lunch in my office. I just really try to focus and get things done while I am available…because there [are] other church callings and things like that that I have to give time to, and I’ve got 5 girls and so I’ve got to try to achieve balance there.

That’s been probably my greatest attribute, just to be able to balance and be highly effective during the time that I have.

[G went on to describe his philosophy on working...]

I just feel that a lot of people, especially that are in an hourly or W-2 environment don’t give everything they [can] give. When you’re self-employed, if you don’t produce, you don’t make any money that month. So the time that I do have is time that I really focus on creating income versus just messing around on the computer, wasting time doing whatever, you know, I just use the time to create income.

[Later in the interview, we talked about how to be successful in a commission-based environment (my day job). GJ had some great advice that he shared on being successful; I think it applies in any professional situation, not just sales.]

Mark: I manage a group of about 18 [people]. What would you tell [them] as far as how to become successful?

G: I guess what I would tell them is sort of what I told you. I would counsel and suggest that they do everything in their power to eliminate debt in their lives … cutting up credit cards, [etc.]

I would do everything I could do to better their social skills, you know, better their ability to get along with all kinds of people, because you are going to face all kinds of personalities, whether it’s a person or on the phone…

[Get to] where you can adapt and immediately recognize, “hey, in a few minutes in this conversation, I can see where this guy’s buttons are based on the dialogue that we are having.” That’s a real thing out there - you can kind of ride that [social skill] and make yourself less threatening to [people] if you can understand what kind of personality you are dealing with…

[His comments were actually directed toward my sales reps, but do you see how the advice has universal application? He followed with more on maximizing your time.]

G: And to give…as much as they can of an honest day, a lot of times people will try to kind of pick out the best hours, [and say,] “you know, 6:00-9:00 is my most productive time, so I am going to slack from 2:00-4:00”, or whatever. But the most successful guys I have seen have not ever really had a slacking moment because they will pick up the one or two [sales] that were in that 2:00-4:00 segment that the other guys missed out on, just because they worked harder.

For example, I have partial ownership in a pest control company, and that type of mentality where you are running door-to-door, as opposed to just walking and taking a long lunch. Over time, when you add [it] up, 6 months of doing that, you missed 20 or 30 sales.

[If] I am going to go work out, I’m not going to go just to spend an hour and do some light reps. I’m going to bust my brains out until I’m sweating and I’m feeling an impact and a change in my body. The same thing applies with my work style; if I’m going to work and spend the time to do that, I’m really going to go after it… sometimes you just gotta take a break, but…treat it as precious time, because [you’re] not going to get it back.

Think about your own life—are you getting the most out of every moment, or do you have your own “2:00-4:00” slacking time? Are you letting the other guy get those extra sales (or whatever applies to your profession), letting them get the advantage, or are you “busting your brains out”?

Tomorrow we’ll look more at G’s financial and investing philosophy. You’ll be interested to see how a real estate professional doesn’t seem too worried about what’s going on in the market today.

Your relationship with money is a choice. You can choose to use money gratefully or you can choose to do it grudgingly, either way you pay, but only with gratitude do you recognize abundance and dissipate fear.

Gratitude is a vaccine, an antitoxin, and an antiseptic.

John Henry Jowett

Do you want to feel abundance?

Friday I posted about the blessings of feeling gratitude and it’s amazing ability to chase fear away. If you have not yet experienced the benefits of gratitude, try these three exercises. They don’t cost anything, nor do they take more than a few moments of your time, yet you will find the power of gratitude to lift your mood and change your day amazing!

1. The next time you buy something, stop and consider the many hands and systems that were required to bring the product in its current form to you.
Feel gratitude that those systems are in place.

Image credit: ๑۩۞۩๑~OTH~๑۩۞۩๑

2. As you go about your daily work, whether it be housekeeping, delivering pizza, or making high commission sales, stop and consider the people and machines that make your work possible. (I personally pat my washing machine and tell it “thank you” each time I do laundry. I mean really, how much better is a washing machine in my basement than a rock in a river?)

3. When you start to feel you don’t have enough, or you will never have enough, allow those feelings to be for a moment, and then replace the fear with gratitude for what you have and the experiences you are gaining.

Gratitude is the sign of noble souls.

Aesop

It may take a few tries before you can really feel grateful for hard things, but allow yourself some practice! You will get better, gratitude will come easier, and your life will be lighter.

Image credit: Topato

What purchases did you make today? What stores did you go to? Perhaps you bought food at the grocery store. Think about your feelings as you shopped and paid for that food. Was your mind filled with thoughts such as these?

• Ugh, the price of milk just keeps going up. Somebody has got to do something about this; it’s just milk!
• Why does organic food have to cost so much? These organic carrots look just like those regular carrots.
• I’ll never be able to afford T-bone steak.
• Why do I always have to wait in line? Can’t they figure out how to get people out of here more efficiently?

How did it make you feel? Was it a happy experience??

Pay Your Bills With Gratitude

Many years ago I read some financial advice that changed me. It was a simple, seemingly inconsequential suggestion from Suze Orman that I “pay my bills with gratitude”. It sounded crazy. At that point, paying bills meant feeling like I didn’t have enough money and never would, that I could never do anything fun because I had to spend all my money just for basic survival. So, I took the advice, figuring things couldn’t get any worse and it didn’t cost anything or even take any extra time.

The next time I paid my bills I dutifully thought “I’m glad I have electricity in my home to run my air conditioner and dishwasher.” “Thank you for providing me with TV service so that I can learn and be entertained.” “Thank you for picking up my trash so it doesn’t pile up around my home.”

While the thoughts I was forcing were just that–forced (and somewhat laced with sarcasm), they did begin to change my feelings as I paid bills. I began to be grateful for money– for the money I had coming in as well as the money I exchanged for the services I was enjoying. This gratitude spilled over into my everyday life as I began to notice the blessings in my life that I had taken for granted: when I came in from the hot outdoors into my cool air conditioned house, I was grateful. When I toted my heavy trash can out to the curb, I was grateful. When my old car got me to and from the places I wanted to be, I was grateful I didn’t have to walk. I began to see abundance in my life that I had never noticed before.

It’s counter intuitive, but if you’ve experienced living with gratitude compared with living with indifference or anger, you understand the difference I am writing about. I am a happier and better person with gratitude. You can be too.

Fear Disappears

“When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears.”

-Tony Robbins

For so many of us, dealing with money means dealing with emotions such as guilt, shame, anger, and fear. Think about the shopping trip mentioned earlier and the negative feelings associated with it. How would your experience have changed if you replaced those feelings with thoughts like these?

• I’m so grateful I have a cart and don’t have to carry all this stuff.
• It is so convenient for me to buy produce, dairy products, meat, and household items all at the same store.
• I am so glad we have people who are willing to take the risk of farming, putting in long hours and depending on the mercy of the weather to bring in a good crop and provide us with fruits and vegetables and grains.
• Wow, these grapes came all the way from Chile. A lot of coordination went on to get them here, in this nice little bag, basically clean and ready to eat.

Can you see where I’m going with this? Does it change your perspective on grocery shopping?

Image credit:phototram

Fear simply cannot coexist when gratitude is introduced. Your mind cannot simultaneously have thoughts of never being able to afford T-bones and gratitude for farmers and ranchers. The negative emotions you associate with money are actually banished with gratitude.

You can feel gratitude all day long when dealing with money. If you’re picking up a newspaper, buying a new car or filling your car with gasoline, stop and consider how many people and how many systems are necessary to get products from their raw form to the state in which you purchase them. It’s a bit awe inspiring.

How do you feel now?

Are you convinced you’d like to try to experience more gratitude in your life? Perhaps you don’t believe it can make that big of a difference. Maybe you think your relationship with money is fine–your financial life is not plagued by negative emotions. Wherever your feelings fall in this spectrum, I have some exercises that will make a difference in your life. Tune in Monday for some simple ideas that cost nothing and take only a few moments of your time, but will return a life where “fear disappears and abundance appears.”

More from my interview with a millionaire, MR.

On Tuesday we posted an excerpts from my interview with MR, a furniture store owner in Salt Lake City. As I re-read the transcript of my conversation with him yesterday, I realized MR had a lot more to say about wealth creation. Here is the second installment; it focuses almost entirely on MR’s investing philosophy.

I’ll say at the outset that his specific approach may not work for everyone, but everyone would be better off if we applied the underlying principles. Look for ways you could apply his approach to your particular situation as you read.

During the conversation risk and investing came up several times. Although MR doesn’t seek out risk, he was still willing to take calculated risks under the right conditions:

MR: I take risks, and they’re all very calculated…I’ve [even] developed real estate along the way.

Mark: What kind of real estate have you done?

MR: I’ve done some retail subdivisions. We bought…600 acres…and did a development up there when everyone said we couldn’t. We put one together and sold it out in a couple weeks, and made a couple million dollars on that deal.

And that was scary, actually, because it was out of my control. You’re at the whim of city councils and county councils. And that was a closed county. They didn’t like development. But I was just very tenacious and stayed after it - took me two years of meetings to get it done, but once we got it done and built we sold it out quickly. There was a huge demand.

[I found this story about real estate investing especially interesting because MR always talks about maintaining control of your money and your investments, so I'm sure it was nerve-wracking for him to have to rely on these elected officials in a small county.

The interesting part is that since he felt that he couldn't completely control the outcome of the investment, he did everything in his power to influence the outcome by going to "two years of meetings to get it done." What a great lesson in investing.]

Mark: You’ve told me that all the wealthy people you know did it “a brick at a time”. How has that been true in your life?

MR: [We got completely out of debt] and then we saved like bandits, and invested in businesses. I didn’t make any…I’ve never made a dime in the stock market. I don’t do equities because I can’t control them. To me, it’s gambling; I’m lousy at it. I do what I can control. I do a deal every day at the store, we do deals every day and we make money on every deal, and it compounds. It’s not rocket science. It’s really not.

I don’t let anybody handle my money. No brokers, no advisers. For me, that’s all a shot in the dark, and I don’t understand it. And I’m horrible at trying to guess where to put my dough.

Mark: What is the one piece of financial advice you’d give? [Yes, I know I published part of the answer to this question on Tuesday. Here's the rest of it.]

MR: Don’t do anything that you don’t understand, that keeps you up at night. And personally, don’t give your money to other people to handle. Do it yourself.

I personally don’t go after equities. I don’t do anything like that, but I do go after solid things I can control, solid investments. I buy land free and clear. I know it’s pretty much a done deal when I develop it. I sell it or I know the market’s there.

[Think back to the real estate development he did. Interesting that he paid cash for the land? It was just one more way he minimized his risk.]

MR: Take every dime you have and get out of debt, and then go look at what’s out there. Because there’s a ton of opportunity anywhere you look; there are ways to make money.

Mark: So you sleep pretty well at night.

MR: Yeah, you’re exactly right. I know exactly what my return is on money that’s not in the business, because it’s all in fixed instruments, and you know when you’re getting a small return on a whole lot of money, at least you know what that return is and it’s okay. You know, you can live.

So I’m not trying to make millions in the market. I’m just trying to preserve, at my stage (I’m 55), just preserve what I have and enjoy life. But yeah, we don’t borrow money. Not business, not anything. In retail if the market turns, generally, and people stop buying, if you’re [buying] your goods with a bank, you’ve got more problems than just your mortgage or just the lease on the buildings.

Mark: You obviously have no interest in the market.

MR: Yeah, it’s scary for me. And I’ve got some great friends that are brokers that are multi-millionaires that seem to understand it, but I sleep better at night. I really do.

You know for me to fail now my bank would have to collapse and take my money with it. Other than that, there’s no exposure anywhere. Which is a great feeling, when you’ve still got two kids at home. You’re not trying to build a kingdom anymore; you’re just trying to enjoy your life.

What are the lessons learned from MR’s experience? Many of you will say “I can’t pay cash for land,” or “I can’t afford to keep all my money out of the stock market. It’s the only vehicle available to me.”

All of that may be true. And I’m not a stock-market hater. Neither is MR. His only point is that he’s not going to put his money into the market when he doesn’t have the skill or experience to make his money work for him there.

The principles that stick with me from this conversation are:

1. Accountability: YOU are responsible for your wealth. Don’t blame the market or your broker, or the administrator of your 401k if your nest egg isn’t growing as fast as you think it should be. Take ownership of your financial future.

2. Control: If you can’t directly control the outcome of your investments, do everything you can to influence the result by educating yourself and making decisions that absolutely minimize your exposure, while still positioning you for a reasonable return on your money.

What did you get from these interviews? We’d love to hear your comments on the insights from MR!