Take Home Points from a Recent Investment Seminar

I recently attended an investment seminar. The main premise of the seminar was to teach us to build wealth and be generous with our excess. They were very inspirational in teaching those two points. I left the seminar fired up to grow my wealth and give my excess (the income above what my family needs for a reasonable lifestyle) to make a difference in our world. 

Many famous and wealthy speakers spoke on how they have acquired wealth and because they have excess are able to support many different programs who help those in need. In case you are wondering which seminar I attended, I don’t wish to name it, promote it, or discourage you from attending it. This is about the pearls of wisdom I received and am passing on to you.

Following is a summary of my take home points from the event.

Wealth does not lead to happiness, it leads to options

Discussing wealth and riches often leaves a bad taste in people’s mouth. It brings up the thought of getting rich by stepping on others. But that is not a fair portrayal.  If a bully does things to get rich, they will likely step on people as it is their nature. But everyone else becomes wealthy by providing services or products that help people.

Wealth will also not bring us happiness. Money is neutral. Not good or bad. It also is not a factor in happiness and joy. After we have earned enough to cover our basic needs, more money does not create much more happiness. But it does create more options.

Take vacations for instance. Those without excess money will choose to stay home, visit family, or go camping when they have time off work. Those with great wealth have almost unlimited options for their vacations. But whatever option we choose, having fun on the vacation is up to us. Camping can lead to having just as much fun as a cruise. We decide how much fun we will have on vacation; our pocketbook does not have that power.

The difference between Rich and Wealthy

I loved the concept on this topic presented by one of the speakers. If water represented money, then being rich is like having a big bucket of water filled by our paychecks, trading time for money. Spending takes water out of the bucket. If we have a good paying job, and watch what we spend, we can keep the bucket full. But if we stop producing income, our use of the water will drain the bucket, and it will soon be empty. Riches are fleeting and can be easily seen by others.

Wealth, on the other hand, is like having a river of water to dip from. The water’s presence is not replenished by our efforts, it is replaced by our passive income, or money our money makes. This stream of water keeps coming even after we stop working and producing because it is not dependent on our efforts. Wealth lasts and is not easily seen by others.

The most important person in the world is the one in front of you

I loved the concept of making the most of our day. Sometimes we get so caught up in chasing our goals that we forget to live our life to the fullest right where we currently are. We sit at the table with our family and use the time to check our e-mail instead of conversing with those sitting right beside us.

Many of us have the goal to spend more time with our family. If, when given opportunities to spend time with them now, we don’t do it, we are unlikely to do it after we have met our goals either.

Life is short, so we must engage with those who are right in front of us now, while we have the chance. Don’t put it off until later.

Walk toward our goals, not in circles where we are

I loved the example of wanting to do something but not doing it. We say we want to visit New Zealand, but when asked when we are going, we give a long list of excuses as to why we can’t go yet. And in the end, we never go, because the excuses are unlimited.

If we don’t begin to walk toward our goals by taking one step at a time, we will instead just walk in circles right where we are. Don’t walk in circles wasting energy and effort, walk because you are going somewhere. 

Take stock in what I am doing now

What we are doing right now will determine what our life will be like next year. Every week ask yourself and ask your spouse these three questions.

What am I doing right now that I need to stop doing?

What am I not doing right now that I need to start doing?

What am I doing right now that I need to keep doing?

Then use the answers to craft your actions.

Own your business, don’t let the business own you

Often, we get caught up in caring for our “business,” whatever that may be. Sometimes we get so caught up that it seems the business owns us, and not the other way around. Be watchful about what is happening in your life and don’t let anything you do rise to the level of owning you. You are the boss of you; don’t let your business take that role. 

There is room for everyone to be wealthy

Forty-two percent of Americans retire with less than $10,000 saved. They plan on living off their social security checks.  I see an even higher percentage of retirees with nothing saved that live in my senior apartments.

If you are teachable and can do 5^th grade math, you have what it takes to become wealthy. Becoming wealthy is not difficult or complicated. We are only a few good habits away from money accumulating in our bank accounts. We can spend our whole life trying to be “normal” and fit in, or we can become extraordinary and accumulate passive income.

Win often and never lose big

We should invest our money in things that are likely to make us money, instead of speculating on things that have a high risk of losing money. I wrote about this concept in my last blog called Always Invest – Never Speculate. Money we lose is very hard to gain back again. If our investments grow at a nice comfortable 10% each year, we will reach great money goals. But if we lose 50% this year. Next year our money must grow 100% just to get back to where we were before the loss. 100% is a very hard return to make. Avoid losing money.

Three financial pillars

We must invest in all three pillars of finance. 

1: Real estate

2: The stock market

3: Owning a business

Each of these pillars is not directly dependent on the others. This makes a person diversified. We can also diversify each of these pillars. For example, owning multiple real estate investments or multiple different types of stock. 

I have all three of these pillars and recommend you have all of them as well. People who live paycheck to paycheck with a W-2 job often have none of these three pillars. 

For me I have been the owner or partner in several businesses, I have been a real estate investor for about 30 years and have had all my retirement plan savings invested in the stock market for more than 30 years. Because my portfolio contained all three, I ended up able to retire in my 50s. 

I will leave you with one final pearl from the conference.

If you take life easy, then life will be hard.

If you do the hard things, then life will be easy.