Whenever I meet someone new I’m always asked, “So what do you do?” After I tell them I don’t work anymore and that I write a blog, I get the “What’s your blog about?” question. My standard response is “It’s about the psychology of money. It’s about how it is technically easy to manage money and how it’s the psychological part that’s difficult.” Then I get a “Oh yeah, that’s true.” and the subject usually changes.
I always think “Really? I just told you I don’t work at all anymore and that I write a blog about money and you don’t have any more questions for me? You don’t want to know how I did it? Or how to retire early? Or how to be rich enough to do whatever you want?“
This site is for the people that do want to know those things.
It’s based around the idea that learning how to make and keep money is technically easy. What holds people back from being wealthy is the psychological part.
To understand what’s technically necessary you can read a few books on the subject (likeThe Simple Path to Wealth), or read my four articles on the four steps to wealth.
Understanding what’s psychologically necessary isn’t so black and white, since there is no equation for personal motivation. While technically we can say “just invest in X,” it’s much harder to say “just change your belief system” to manage money differently. Here are the issues most people face.
- Believing you can’t earn more.
- Not being motivated to become wealthy.
- If you read an article about getting rich and say “Gee, that sounds like a lot of work. Maybe I’ll do that some other time,” then having money just isn’t a priority for you. No big deal.
Basically, all other reasons stem from reason #2 above in one flavor or another. “I don’t want to change what I buy, I need my expensive car, I need my latte every morning, I need to buy new clothes to fit in, I need to eat out at restaurants with my friends, I need to (insert personal belief here), That could never work for me,” etc.
What we have to understand is that wealthy people are outliers – by definition they’re not normal. This means that to become wealthy we have to become “not normal” also. Most people are only willing to do this to a certain extent and only with certain parts of their lives. Which (again), is normal.
So you see, it’s not just about thinking differently, it’s also about doing differently and being exceptional. (To describe this “opposite of normal” mindset there are a lot of antonyms to choose from – I like to use “exceptional.“) Generally, there are three ways to get your mindset where it needs to be for being rich.
- Be raised that way or have some kind of mentor early in life.
- Live through some type of dramatic life change, like going through bankruptcy, getting trapped in a half-toppled over building during an earthquake where you could die at any moment, or being diagnosed with an incurable disease (for example).
- The continued study of money management and continued personal growth.
The first two we can’t choose and the results are not guaranteed. People don’t always listen to mentors and people react to dramatic life changes in many different ways. Also, a dramatic life change doesn’t mean you will magically know what’s necessary to live well, it just means you will suddenly be motivated to live differently and focus on what’s important in life. How to do it still has to be learned!
Most of us are left with option 3. Human beings get used to things over time with prolonged exposure and that’s what we can do to develop a wealthy mindset. By surrounding ourselves with the right kind of information we can change our personal idea of “normal.“ Once changed, for the outsider observing us, we will be exceptional and extraordinary.
The articles on this blog cover some technical issues, but mainly cover personal growth and reflection. It’s an ongoing process, but it’s an enjoyable one.
Begin by reading the first article.
See a list of all articles.
See the most recent articles.