Learning To Think Rich

 Learning to Think Rich

Thinking rich is the way rich people got rich and how they stay rich. Thinking rich is taking your current and your future financial position into account as you make the countless little decisions throughout your everyday life. We are talking about changing the way you think, the way you consider things, the way you analyze situations, the way you respond to events, the way you think about money, the way you interact with others concerning money.

I use the word money a lot, but we are really discussing money and or it's equivalence. Anything that you own or control that has value or can increase your assets. Too include but not limited to your time, earning power, money, assets with a monetary value, property, education, and so on.

Almost every decision you make has the potential to add to your wealth or effect it in some way. You need to make it a habit of taking your wealth into consideration in every decision you make. Once you have done that, it is small step to thinking of maximizing your wealth on a regular basis. The rewards for acquiring these habits are a wonderful life changing way of living for you, and everyone around you.

Think Rich Signs:

In the beginning I was trying to get rich but everyday life causes distraction and I would forget to think about getting rich for days at a time. To solve his problem I put “Think Rich” signs everywhere to remind me to think about making money everyday. Fellow workers, family members, and friends made fun of me for having signs in my car, on my phone at work, on my bedroom mirror and many other places but it worked. A policeman once remarked that covering my car's tachometer was a bad Idea. I explained it to him, then he said good idea, I think I will try that. I wasn't trying to make thinking rich a habit, I did not even know the benefits that would eventually arrive from it. I was simply trying to find a way to get rich starting with nothing but determination. After about two years of working at thinking about becoming rich it became a habit and I no longer needed the signs. I replaced the signs with “Think Positive” signs. When I started I used index cards, today I would use post it notes, besides they come in colors.

For example: An older lady of comfortable means had a request to help one of her grandson get a car for use at college. Nothing expensive, maybe a grand or two. She could easily have just written a check and called it a day. Instead she found a car for sale by an elderly friend of hers that was only $1,200.00 She purchased the car in her grand sons name, transferred the title to him and had him sign a contract for the purchase price and related cost. The young man will mow her grass and do other handyman work one afternoon a week until he has repaid the loan at a $10 per hour rate.

The young man gets a car. He has no monetary obligation to repay in money, money which he doesn't have in any case. She gets her yard work and other chores done which are hard to get people to do at a reasonable cost. The young man learns responsibility and a life lesson. She gets to see her teenage grandson on a regular basis. And most importantly, the whole family learns that Grandma is not a soft touch, but rather if you want something from Grandma you will have to give something in return. With this one act her request for bailouts came to a screeching halt.

The real life example just narrated serves to show that any event can be turned into a wealth building or wealth conserving event. Take this one small event and multiply it over this womans life time and you get thousands of similar decisions she has made that have resulted in this women having a very comfortable lifestyle.

Thinking rich means looking for solutions

What you must do is get into the habit of handling every decision with your financial well being as a consideration. Most people do not make this consideration, they react to a situation, or they look for a easy out, or they make a decision because it feels good, or is expected of them. As a result most of the outcomes are less then optimum. Thinking rich means looking for solutions or opportunities that give you the best possible out come. Over time, the habit of making optimized decisions makes you richer.

I have made it a habit of always saying “ let me give this some thought and I will get back to you by _____” I do my research and come up with the best plan that benefits everyone involved. I respond to the other party in a timely fashion. Doing it this way I get time for contemplation, the end result is often better. Everyone who deals with me soon learns they best have their act together when they approach me. They also find out that I do not jump through hoops because they failed to plan or procrastinated.

There is a side benefit from this method, you gain more respect. This respect accrues to you from relatives and strangers alike, from everyone you do business with.
The reason you get their respect is that you are asking questions in a calm and logical, nonjudgmental manner rather then reacting without time for consideration. You then get back to them with a thought out plan or solution. If you do this long enough people will learn that you are a place to come for solutions not quick fixes. They will soon learn to save you for the important things, and not waste your time with the mundane (that saves you time and grief). All this makes you different from everyone else in their world, and that gains you respect. Plus you are teaching them by example as well as training them as to how you want to be treated. All this from just making “Thinking Rich” a habit.

Example: A man has a $70,000 lot he purchased to build a home on. He is paying $700 a month on the note. He no longer will be building the house so he list the property for sale with a Realtor.

First the lot should not have been purchased until he was ready to build. If he wanted to tie up a particular lot it should have been an option or a cash purchase. The interest rate on the note is to high and he is now paying taxes and mowing it. All not get rich decisions.

He listed the lot for sale and waited. When he told me about this land deal I made the following “Think Rich suggestions”. That he put on the property a “for sale by owner “sign with his phone number on it. That he list it for sale on Craig's list and in the local newspaper weekly. He needs to get out from under the payments as soon as possible and depending on a Realtor is fool hardy. Some people will call a for sale by owner number before calling a Realtor. I suggested that he would return any potential buyer's calls faster, and that he is the one with a vested interest in selling his lot. The Realtor wants to sell any prospective customers something, and it may not be his something. I also suggested he try and negotiate for an interest only payment deal with the bank. A further suggestion was that he a talk to the original land owner about a walk a way clean deal, because the original land owner most likely has a guarantee on the loan to the bank. Also he should talk with the bank about a take over payment deal for any buyer that materializes and ask the banker for any other suggestions on cutting your losses.

What the man in this example had done to get out of a bad deal was what most people would do. What I did was to apply the “Think Rich” process to the same problem. If he implements my suggestions he stands a better chance of reducing his losses and that is the same as making more money.

Example: One day I was driving down the road and saw a bill board advertising new homes. I went to my office and started calling bill board companies and ask if they had a new site locater department. I soon learned that Clear Channel Outdoor was the big dog in town and I informed them I had a great location for a sign. They asked a lot of questions that soon sent me to the hwy department for traffic counts and off to take photos. I sent them the info and a few weeks later they sent out a acquisition representative and soon there after I had a lease at $695 a month on property I already owned. There was plenty of other land owners around me who could have done the same thing I did, but they didn't “think Rich” When I sold that property four years later I added $60,000 to the price for that bill board lease. $93,000 before taxes, on one deal, from “ Thinking Rich”.

Get Started 

 Back to the “Think Rich” signs. Go buy a pack of posted it notes and get started. Write words on them and put them everywhere that you will see them. If someone ask about them explain what you are doing, learning to “Think Rich”. Most people are interested in the concept. Forty years later I still have post it notes up. There is one being used a s book mark in every book I am reading, seven on my desk one over my trucks tachometer, and one on computer. Get started and a little at a time you will get there.