• Some people are called “money hungry.”

• And others folks get really angry

• When ”hungries” succeed

• At feeding their greed

• While their money stash is quite paltry. 

I’ve known and worked with individuals and families whose possesions could be counted without using more than four digits. I’ve know others for whom a seven digit calculator would not be adequate. There are great icons from history who owned little or nothing and never once felt impoverished: The Buddha wandered India with just the robe on his back and his begging bowl in hand; St. Francis of Assisi retreated to a cave and relied on the largess of his community to escape the religious order he founded as it began to amass its fortune; Ghandi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King - people the world recognizes for their accomplishments and not their possessions - had wealth that isn’t measured with money.

For the typical American in the 21st century, however, money is essential and being a little bit “money hungry” is seen by most as honorable or at least acceptable as long as individual greed does not infringe on the rights or needs of others.

The number you assign to “wealthy” is a moving target. For one family it might mean burning the mortgage on a modest home and having a steady income. For Oprah, Warren or Donald anything below a ten digit net worth might make them uneasy. What you thought was wealth twenty years ago may seem like petty cash today – or visa versa.

You can put a measure to wealth that is more objective. If you apply the Money for Life Model of the Four Pillars to your personal economy, you can establish a way to both measure and manage the money that flows through your life and build a foundation and framework that allows you define “wealthy” on your own terms.

Discover the secrets that contented people have known and practiced for millennia and that let YouBeTheBank –> www.TheMoneyForLifeBook.com

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I gave a talk this morning at a Kiwanis Club that is very active with its youth group, K-Kids. The talk is entitled “How to Say ‘Yes.’ with Confidence when the Question Is ‘Can I Afford It?’” The aim of this talk is twofold;

1. to make the audience aware of the basic premise of the Debt Paradigm (You can have everthing you need and anything you want as long as you have enough credit), and
2. to – hopefully – change a few minds about that, and share some basic ideas about how to deal with the money that flows through their lives.

The most basic fallacy of the Debt Paradigm is this: when you purchase something with credit it’s like the snake eating its own tail,

• ~ you are spending money you don’t have,
• ~ enslaving yourself to a lender and, worse,
• ~ you are paying interest on the money you have not yet earned, devaluing your future earnings and putting yourself at great peril.

Just a few years ago the people who offered this approach to lending hung out on street corners and in bars, were called “loan sharks,” used crow bars and ball bats to enforce the terms on their loans, and what they did was illegal in all 50 states. Today, it is common practice among banks and finance companies, Wall Street’s pirates and the local “payday loan” storefronts. It’s common practice because our not-so-smart congress rewrote the law to allow it, and because it’s profitable for the Behemoths who lobbied for such a law. It is not profitable for you; it is counter-profitable. Instead of ball bats there are bill collectors and bankruptcy.

Discover how to avoid the dungeon of debt that this approach to money creates in Money for Life…in good times and bad – www.TheMoneyForLifeBook.com - and, if you are  like some of the Kiwanis members who approached me after the talk who already practice this method, give a copy of this book to your children, grandchildren, friends and neighbors. You’ll be their hero just as the Kiwanis members are heroes to their K-Kids.

The Fouth Pillar of every successful financial structure is creating a legacy of your wealth and wisdom. The Kiwanis does this through their K-Kids program. How are you doing it? Try this www.TheMoneyForLifeBook.com

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There are a number of financial gurus and charlatans who espouse one strategy or another because – as they say – that’s what millionaires do.

Bunk! Not to one or a few, but to all.

First of all, being a millionaire isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Let’s say you’re about to retire and you own a home worth $350,000.00 and it is paid for, you have $500,000.00 in 401(k) and IRA accounts, $100,000.00 in savings and investments and $50,000.00 in other assets; a million dollars. Sounds pretty good until you translate that into income and lifestyle.

Your home equity could be converted into income through a reverse mortgage. That would generate about $900.00 per month. Your retirement accounts could safely produce about $2,000.00 each month. Social Security would guarantee you another $1,200.00. That’s about $4,100.00 each month – before taxes. The savings would be preserved to take care of emergencies and the other assets are the items you use every day – furniture, jewelry, etc. and cannot easily be converted to either income or cash.

This seems OK. It isn’t. The average retired couple will spend over $200,000.00 out of their own pockets on medical expenses after retirement according to Fidelity Funds annual study (2007). In addition, statistically speaking, one of the two retirees will require long term care services at home and eventually in a nursing home at a current cost of over $75,000.00 per year and $350,000.00 over their post retirement years. You can imagine what these expenses do to income.

Secondly, what the gurus tell you is that you should do what millionaires do. Then they pull out charts and graphs and illustrations of financial products to demonstrate why. It’s a shell game.

What the shell gamers don’t tell you is that what millionaires do is NOT what made them millionaires. They are describing strategies that some of the wealthy use AFTER they have become wealthy. They are selling fantasies. You should not follow these practices to become a millionaire yourself. In fact, if you follow these paths you will be putting what you have accumulated at great risk and your chance of success is severely diminished. Wealth creation and risk management are two sides of the same coin – like “love and marriage…you can’t have one without the other.”

There is a better way. Read The Four Pillars page of this blog. You’ll discover a template that lets you manage and measure your true wealth. Read Money for Life and you’ll discover how to apply that template to your personal economy – you may ever discover that you can become a millionaire – the right way.

www.TheMoneyForLifeBook.com

Only in America?

Not really. The Superbowl is broadcast around the world and watched around the world. People who will never set foot on American soil will watch the game, the advertisements, the cheerleaders, the commentators and the general hullabaloo with the same degree of amazement as we. They will gaze upon the spectacle and believe it  indicates we are either a corrupt and amoral society or the bastion of hope for the world; with angst, anger or pride; with feelings of longing or feelings of disgust.

What they will all surmise from the amount of time, money and energy that goes into the event is this: Americans are willing to put their money on the table to acknowledge and respect their institutions – even – perhaps especially – those that are not managed and controlled by government.

• ~ The World Series
• ~ March Madness
• ~ NBA, NHL and MLS playoffs
• ~ During this and every election season Americans freely spend tens of millions of dollars to support their chosen candidates
• ~ In America’s churches on Sundays, synagogues on Saturdays and mosques on Fridays
• ~ When a tsunami strikes in the Pacific or an earthquake shakes the mountains of Afghanistan
• ~ In every charity that Americans support every day of every year

If you are concerned about your personal economy take heart. America will see recessions and an occasional depression. The housing market will rise and fall like the tides, as will the stock market and every other market – that’s the nature of markets. Individuals and families will face good times and bad. Even the Americans who follow the wrong advice or choose the wrong financial path will end up OK just because this is America. Some few will thrive no matter what happens. I encourage you to visit www.TheMoneyForLifeBook.com and seriously consider buying

Money for Life…in good times and bad – How to Thrive in the 21st Century

so you can be one of those few.

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