FSS Newsletter :: December 2003

Money Matters :: Why Do So Many People Fail At The Money Management Game?

They never clearly define what "wealth" means to them.

Exactly what would it take for you to feel financially abundant? Take a few moments to consider this question. As you do so, be as concrete and specific as possible. Consider just what it would take to make you feel financially secure. Vague, catch-all responses like “Wealth means I could buy anything I want!” are not acceptable. On the other hand, “Wealth means my home is paid for, I am debt-free, and all my monthly bills are taken care of by money generated from my investments,” is getting much closer to the idea here. This latter circumstance is a tangible, calculable condition — you could spend some time looking at your expenses, crunching numbers, and seeing exactly what it would take to get to that point. And it is one that,
given time, you would have a realistic chance of achieving.

They make "wealth" a moving target.

Of course life is all about change. It is a general human trait that no matter what we have, we almost always want a bit more. But our motivation to reach toward a specific goal quickly fades
when we get close to it, and then, for whatever reason, decide that that goal isn’t really enough. This doesn’t mean you should quit striving and accumulating and growing. Rather, there must be a point at which you can pour yourself a cold one and say, At last, I have succeeded.

“No one wants to play a game where the minute you shoot the ball, they move the target,” Robbins says. “You have to be able to win.”

They define "wealth" in ways that make it seem impossible to achieve.

“If you’re thinking you need ten million dollars, but you don’t make more than fifty thousand dollars per year, that sounds pretty impossible,” Robbins lectures. “But the truth of the matter is that you probably don’t need ten million dollars to achieve the lifestyle you want.” This is why you must clearly define your goals and compute exactly what it will take to make them a reality.

Let’s say you started with a goal of acquiring enough investment income to pay for, say, your monthly water / utility bill of $35. If your investment temperament were of the right sort, you could pretty easily track down a REIT or oil & gas trust that pays a yearly divided yield of, for example, eight percent. (Of course, the value of your investment principal is subject to market fluctuation, and the company could always lower its dividend rate, but those risks are for another story.)

Given that yield of 8%, the dividends from an investment of $5,250 (not earth-shattering by any stretch) would pay you the necessary $35 per month.

At that point, you are no longer working to pay the water bill; your money is.

People make their goals so big, they don’t believe they can ever achieve it, and they simply don’t start.

An extension of #3 above.

They fail to make wealth an absolute "must."

According to Robbins, every person gets what he or she MUST have. Too often, matters of personal wealth are relegated to the level of SHOULD. “Write down a paragraph about why you
MUST be wealthy, why you MUST have abundance, and what it will for do for you and your family,” Robbins tells people. “Don’t write why you’d like to be wealthy; write why you HAVE to be wealthy.”

They do not develop a realistic plan.

Pretty self-explanatory, really.

They get a plan, then fail to follow through.

Having a plan isn’t enough. Take some action, no matter how small, toward your goals. And take it immediately.

They listen to experts and give experts the responsibility for making it work, rather than bearing that responsibility themselves.

We’re back to that old tenet: No one will care about your money as much as you do. You
can look to others for advice, but you must look to yourself for understanding, implementation, and responsibility.

They give up when they face major financial challenges.

Bad times and failures are going to happen. You, your character, your resiliency, and your abilities are all going to be tested. Sometimes, though, losses must simply be
absorbed.

“The people that succeed are not the ones that never failed,” says Anthony Robbins. “They’re the ones that fell down and jumped back up as fast as humanly possible.”

They fail to conduct their lives as if they were a business.

There’s a word that gets attached to businesses that post losses year after year after year: bankrupt.

It’s the same with your personal finances. When all is said and done, when all the bills and
groceries and taxes have been paid, you must eventually bring in more money than you send out. Crunch the numbers, track your incomes and expenses, and resign yourself to posting profits in your personal life. Then work on making those profits grow.

They allow other people’s pessimism or optimism to affect the intelligent implementation of plans.

People who are wealthy are those who have gone against the grain; i.e., they were buying when others were selling, selling when others were buying, or creating something that fulfilled an untapped need or niche. Generally speaking, in most any situation, if you run with
the crowd, you’re going to get trampled. You must think, and act, independently.

They never get quality coaching.

Find someone who is already where you want to be — or is well on the way to that point — and
glean everything you can from them. There is no teacher like experience, and there are no teachers like the experienced.