In the previous article, we touched on some aspects of life’s desires - living within our means, the importance of money, using it for the betterment of our lives, life’s priorities and the futurist approach.
I trust the suggestions would have been useful to you. Let us look at another set of important features which will further your ‘billionaire mindset’. Those would be, pay due attention to the money what you have, see how you can retain what you have earned, take stock of your own savings and study how you can control savings in a rewarding way, and finally ‘how to get rich by using imagination’.
If you ignore money it will go away or will be taken away
A couple of decades back I met a client who had won a lottery worth a few million rupees. When I met him, he had spent around 30% of his fortune unnecessarily, to have a good time with his friends.
He was living on his capital and as a result, it was depreciating. Basically, he was using his lottery money, after quitting his job, to ‘eat, drink and be merry’. I made him bounce back by using the remaining money and also his life competencies. I opened his potential and core competencies.
I made him understand that he is still a millionaire though he had lost a few millions. After that was communicated to him, the remaining amount became suddenly more valuable to him than the original amount. The billionaire mindset came to him for the first time in his life. No silly spending by him.
I wanted him to place the remaining money in fixed deposits which he agreed to do, until he is financially mature enough to use it for some other venture. We agreed to start from scratch. Since he was an experienced heavy vehicle driver, I wanted him to find a job again.
With the billionaire mindset in the back of his mind, he found a job in no time. The salary was sufficient for him to look after himself. Surprisingly, he started to save a portion of the salary which he felt was needed to fulfill my plan for him.
The money remaining has been divided into two sections. The larger portion was placed in well-established banks and finance companies. Immediately after the deposits were placed we obtained loans against Fixed Deposits (FDs).
Yes. Loans but with a cause. Loans obtained were placed back in FDs. You must be wondering why all the trouble? No, it is not strange. Many investors do this mind engineering process. I made the total of the capital of newly placed deposits and the capital of the earlier placed deposits, equal to the amount of the lottery, which my client had won earlier.
I made him feel that he is back with his original millions. Wait a minute, the story doesn’t end there.It starts there. The challenge given to him was to fill the obtained loan amount by pumping money back. I helped him by placing the smaller portion (remember? - please refer the beginning of this chapter), which was kept aside, in a high return but a safe investment.
Hard work
The monthly return he got, out of this investment and the surplus of his salary has been pumped back by us to service the monthly installment which we created, artificially. With lots of hard work, dedication and discipline he managed to earn back what he lost within a reasonable period.
A very inspiring story. But to make it inspiring, we have gone through many hardships. This is one good example of irresponsible spending. This person was not born into money. He was a lucky person. When someone who has no financial background, is gifted with a substantial amount of wealth without proper guidance, the chances of losing them are boundless.
Another good example is former undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion, ‘Iron Mike’ Tyson, who holds the record for being the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title (aged 20), He competed from 1985 to 2005.
He faced the same plight and finally ended up in jail because he couldn’t manage either his finances or his emotions. If he had managed his finances in a better way, his situation would have never arisen. Even his own Manager sued him for compensation.
The Sri Lankan female workers employed in the Middle East too are victims of the same plight, to some extent. They contribute immensely to the development of our country while not having their loved ones around. It is the country’s responsibility to look after their earnings for the betterment of their lives. Proper guidance would make them much richer financially and mentally.
How to retain money
Let us see how we can retain the money what we have earned and saved. If earning money is good, retaining them is great. Though most people know how to earn money, they don’t know how to save money.
Saving money is a joyful habit. A monthly retainer in your account which could transfer to a FD after three months with the next two months same retainer would be a good option for salaried employees.
Even the businessman, corporates can build a reserve by pumping money at regular intervals as and when they earn a substantial margin of profits. Save it for a rainy day. It will not go in vain. Similarly, make it a practice to transfer (through a bank standing order) a fixed amount on monthly basis, to a savings account.
Check from time to time whether you are spending unnecessarily and your investments are on track. After you get the passion for saving and investing no one can stop you. After a while, you will be surprised to see the amount of money you have saved without even realising it.
Start with a goal. Maybe it’s for paying off debts, or perhaps it’s for your son’s school fees. You don’t have to justify your goal to anyone. Just be focused. Keep a track of incoming and outgoing cash flows. You may be nervous initially.
The incoming amount might be smaller than the outgoing, but proper budgeting will help you overcome this. Break debits into subcategories such as utilities (electric and water), secured debts (mortgage), unsecured debts (credit cards), and optional spending (entertainment and clothing). Start prioritising them based on your cash flows.
Also, start opening your bank statements. Start reading them and see where your money goes. To have a full analysis use your Credit or Debit card for all your expenditure or write down all your expenditure at the end of the day for a month or two.
Look for fancy ‘hidden’ charges banks may debit to your account. Always cross check with your bank for those debits and ask for waivers. They always keep a margin to waive. So, be the smart customer. File your bank statements according to the date and month order. When you do this, immediately you start feeling that you are in control.
How to get rich using imagination
Have you heard the story of the beggar who sat on millions of dollars during his lifetime and the second beggar who found it got rich? One day a beggar on the street woke up to find his mate who was sleeping beside him, dead in his sleep. Subsequently, the local authorities took the body for disposal.
After sometime the beggar started to wear a coat left by his friend. He noticed something strange in the pocket of the coat. He searched it and found some millions of rupees stitched in false pockets in the coat.
That night he removed a part of the treasure from the coat and realised that it had made him a millionaire overnight. The following week he cleaned himself up, bought a house and an elegant car. Since he was a retired civil servant he was in a different intellectual capacity altogether though he had spent his recent past on the streets.
He started to voice his concern over the development of the town and finally, he was elected the Mayor of his town by its people. He was now in the exclusive society in the town and super-rich, not because the balance money which was left in the coat but, due to his hard work and dedication.
One evening he decided to take the remaining money from the coat. Unfortunately, he found it had been destroyed by mice.
He was not sad because the billionaire mindset which made him feel secure had done the trick for him. He was under the impression all that time that if something went wrong he still had millions of dollars to fall back on. But in reality, as you see, this was not the case.
Though this is a real life story, it could be used as an example to explain how mind engineering works. Mind engineering is a vast subject. Many multi-billionaires have used this technique. You would have seen in cricket, batsmen rehearse the stroke which they missed, several times before the next ball is bowled. By doing that they pass a signal to the mind as to how the next shot should be played. That is mind engineering.
If you are dreaming of a car, first build a garage and visualise the car parked there. Imagination becomes a reality once you start to believe you are through. Using universal theories such as NLP, mind engineering, and positive imagination will make you rich one day.
In this article we clarified the importance of respecting money, retention of money, taking a stock count of money and the methodology of making money. The last mentioned money spinner - through visualisation - is an extensive subject. We will learn it gradually.
The writer is a former CEO/General Manager of a non-bank financial institution, and holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the UK.