In my upcoming book, Effort-Less Wealth (Smart Money Strategies For Every Stage of Your Life), I share 22 Smart Money Strategies that I discovered from my Rich Habits Study.

According to various studies, the first crop of Millennials who have entered the workforce, are ahead of the curve when it comes to savings and spending than that of their parents.

A 2014 Transamerica study found that 70 percent of Millennials in the work force were already saving for retirement, either through employer-sponsored plans, such as 401(k)s, or similar plans and they also found that these Millennials began saving at the unprecedented age of 22.

According to the Financial Trade-Offs study, commissioned by Ameriprise Financial, Millennials are significantly more likely than both Boomers and Gen Xers to be consciously cutting back on discretionary expenses.

This is good news and a good trend if it continues. To ensure that it does continue, I’d like to share just one powerful smart money habit from my upcoming book, Effort-Less Wealth:  [Read more…]

I’ve written often about the four paths to wealth:

1. Saver/Investor Path
2. Big Company Climber Path
3. Virtuoso Path
4. Dreamer/Entrepreneur Path

The Dreamer/Entrepreneur Path is the hardest of the four paths to wealth. It also happens to be the fastest and most rewarding path,financially and emotionally. In my Rich Habits Study, it took the Dreamer/Entrepreneurs in my study just twelve years to accumulate an average of $7.4 million in wealth.

But there’s a catch. Those who succeed pursuing the Dreamer/Entrepreneur Path must stick with that path in order for Opportunity Luck to visit them. In my research, I found that the persistent eventually get lucky and that luck is Opportunity Luck

Opportunity Luck is a unique type of good luck because it is manufactured. You manufacture Opportunity Luck by doing things which create the opportunity for good luck to occur.

One of those things that creates Opportunity Luck is persistently pursuing a dream.

The pursuit of a dream requires the creation of goals. Goals must have two things:

1. Physical Activity and
2. 100% Achievability

Dreams unleash passion which motivates you to take action. If you have the requisite skills and knowledge to take that action, the goals become 100% achievable.

The objective of every goal is to produce some desired outcome. Sometimes, however, those outcomes exceed your expectations or create unexpected outcomes that benefit your life in some way. Exceeded expectations and unexpected good outcomes are typically referred to as good luck.

This is Opportunity Luck – luck you create by persistently pursuing the goals behind your dreams.

Opportunity Luck likes dreamers. And it reveals itself only to dreamers who take action on their dreams.

When you are the beneficiary of Opportunity Luck, your life improves in some way. Very often, this benefit is in the form of wealth or money, particularly if your dream is something that can be monetized.

Mark Zuckerberg was the beneficiary of Opportunity Luck. So too was Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.

They all took action on their dreams, and they got lucky.

Opportunity Luck does not visit those sitting on the couch watching TV. It doesn’t visit those reading Harry Potter (unless you are J.K. Rowling). It doesn’t visit those who are too afraid to pursue their dreams and, thus, the goals behind their dreams.

Opportunity Luck only visits those who take action on their dreams and never quit on their dreams. It is one of the great secrets to success, that only a few are privy to.

Let luck find you. Pursue a dream today. Stop thinking about it and do it.

For every dreamer, hard work, disappointment, obstacles and problems are your bedfellows, but so too is Opportunity Luck. And when Opportunity Luck finds you, everything about your life changes, for the better.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom. – Socrates

One of the most profound discoveries I’ve made in my five-year Rich Habits Study, was the fact that there are four ways to become wealth:

1. Saver/Investor Path – Save and invest 20% or more of your income.
2. Big Company Climber Path – Climb the ladder to senior executive in a large, profitable company.
3. Virtuoso Path – Become either a Knowledge-Based or Skill-Based expert in your field.
4. Dreamer/Entrepreneur Path – Pursue a dream that can be monetized.

Why is this so revolutionary?

Everyone inherits certain genes from their parents, which helps shape their personality. Also, everyone is raised in different environments – we are all raised in different households, in different neighborhoods, go to different schools, etc.

Our unique genes and upbringing help to shape the individuals we become as adults.

For example, some people are outgoing or shy. Some are risk takers or risk averse. Some can shoulder great stress, without affecting their health and relationships; others crumble under too much stress.

You see, everyone is different and because everyone is different, their path to accumulating wealth must be in alignment with their particular personality.

For example, shy, risk averse, low stress-tolerant individuals would find the life of a Dreamer/Entrepreneur or Big Company Climber ill-suited for their specific personality. Most likely, they would probably hate being in either of those two work environments.

Such individuals would be better suited pursuing wealth by following the Saver/Investor or Virtuoso Path. Either path would work best for them, given their personality type.

Likewise, outgoing individuals who love high-risk challenges and seem immune to stress, are perfectly suited for the Big Company Climber Path or the Dreamer/Entrepreneur Path. If these individuals worked in a back-office job, they would likely hate their job.

Because there are four paths to wealth, it is critical for those who seek wealth to understand which path is right for them. If you pick the wrong path, success will be elusive.

According to a 2012 survey conducted by “Big 4” accounting firm Deloitte, 80% of those surveyed did not like their jobs. In another survey conducted by Gallup in 2013, 63% of the 230,000 employees in the survey said they were unhappy with their jobs.

In my Rich habits Study, 97% of the poor in my Study said that they did not like their job and 58% said they actually hated their job. I believe many of the poor are poor because they are doing work that does not suit their particular personality-types. They hate the work they do because it doesn’t fit their personality profile.

When you don’t like what you do for a living, you’ll do the bare minimum, just to keep your job. You certainly won’t devote extracurricular time to becoming better at a job you hate.

I also learned from my Study that 86% of the wealthy liked their job and that 7% loved their job. One of the main reasons these individuals became rich was because they were doing work that fit their personality profile. When you love what you do for a living, you’ll devote more time to becoming better at what you do.

So, the good news is that there is more than one way to skin a cat. You can become rich no matter your personality type. You just have to know which path to wealth is right for you, based upon your individual personality.

Therefore, the most important first step in your pursuit of wealth, is to know thyself.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

“One hundred organized men can always defeat one thousand disorganized ones.” Lenin

One of the common attributes of self-made millionaires, from my Rich Habits Study, was their ability to forge strong relationships with certain, specific individuals who were able to help them achieve their dreams and realize the goals behind their dreams.

The most successful people are the ones who are able to forge Power Relationships with individuals who can help them become successful.

But even if you find a Power Relationship, how do you get them to help you succeed?

The answer is by becoming so good at what you do, you simply cannot be ignored.

When you become great at whatever it is you do, influencers take notice. Eventually, those influencers, those Power Relationships, will start knocking on your door – it might be an email, tweet, Linkedin comment, letter, card or even a phone call.

So, you really only have one job – become the best at what you do.

The rest will take care of itself.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

My youngest daughter, who normally lives in New Orleans, has been visiting with us for a little while, which makes me happy. Anyway, she has a Bernedoodle (Bernese Mountain dog/Standard Poodle), named Beaux. He’s a very friendly, loving dog, who loves running around our back yard.

Around 7am, I’ll take Beaux outside, into our back yard, so that he can do his business and run around.

One of the things I started to notice, is that about 25% of the time, when Beaux is taking a leak, he’ll piss right on one of his legs. He’s completely unaware that he’s pissing on himself.

Other times, he’ll piss properly and then proceed to step right on the grass where he just pissed. Once again, completely oblivious and unaware what he’s doing.

Beaux clearly lacks awareness. I guess for a dog, that’s not such a big deal.

But a lack of awareness for human beings is a big deal, and it made me think – How many people are completely unaware that the things they’re doing are interfering with their success?

In Beaux-speak – how many people are unaware that they are pissing on themselves?

Most people, other than those diligently pursuing success, are completely unaware of their habits, and therefore, the effects their habits are having on their lives. If you have bad habits, your life circumstances will mirror those habits. If you have good habits, ditto.

My job, as I see it, is to bring awareness to the importance of habits, in an effort to help people improve the circumstances of their lives.

I diligently try to do this everyday by sharing my Rich Habits research by highlighting the habits that lead to wealth, health and happiness (what to do) and the habits that lead to poverty, chronic illness and unhappiness (what not to do).

Only through habit awareness can you make the necessary changes to improve your life.

So, I guess you could say, I’m just here to get people to stop pissing on themselves.

Sorry for the foul language.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

In my Rich Habits Study, one of the data points I found interesting was about gossiping. Ninety-four percent of the wealthy, successful individuals in my study avoided it vs. 79% of the poor who engaged in it regularly.

I never thought much about gossiping until my research. Since then I’ve learned quite a bit about it from numerous studies. Here are some facts about gossiping:

• 90% of workplace conversations are gossip.
• 15% of workplace email content is gossip.
• 60-70% of gossip is negative/toxic – Gossip is 2.7 times more likely to be negative/toxic.
• Gossip irreparably damages relationships.
• Gossip causes chronic stress.
• Engaging in gossip, either by communicating it or listening to it, flips your mindset from positive to negative.
• 60% of gossip is judgmental.
• Gossip often destroys reputations in the workplace.

Spontaneous Trait Transference, also known as the Boomerang Effect, is a phenomenon where people are perceived as possessing a trait that they, themselves, describe in others (Hovland, Janis and Kelly, prominent psychologists, first recorded and named the boomerang effect in 1953). Thus, telling fellow co-workers that another peer is lazy will cause that co-worker to infer that you are lazy, due to the Boomerang Effect caused by gossip.

Those who engage in regular gossip, most of which is negative and toxic, are inadvertently creating negative/toxic perceptions, of themselves, in the minds of others.

Gossip is one of those Toxic Poor Habits I often write and speak about. It acts like an anchor, dragging you down and undermining your success in life.

No good can come from gossiping. It not only damages the reputations of those you gossip about, it also damages your own reputation.

Like many bad behaviors, it’s a Poor Habit that must be broken if you hope to succeed in life.

Awareness is the key to changing any habit. When you find yourself engaging in gossip, stop. Do not become an active participant.

Or conversely, only engage in positive gossip, which is a Rich Habit. Good gossip, saying something positive about someone when they are not around, will turn the Boomerang Effect into a an ally, making others like or admire you. They will unconsciously assume that you possess such traits or, that you will say nice things about them to others, which helps those who are trying to build Power Relationships.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

According to a recent survey conducted by OnePoll, on behalf of LG Electronics, the average person in the UK watches 1,248 hours of TV a year.

If you do the math, that means the average individual living in the UK watches approximately 60,000 hours of TV from the age of 23 through age 70, what most would consider your productive years.

A typical college education takes about 3,000 hours to complete and a PhD takes slightly more than 3,000 hours. So, you could graduate college and get a PhD by devoting just 10% of that 60,000 hours of TV-watching to formal study.

In my Rich Habits Study, 67% of the wealthy watched less than an hour of TV a day, or about 365 hours of TV a year. That’s 883 fewer TV-watching hours than the average person.

What makes this relevant to building wealth is what the self-made millionaires in my study did with those 883 hours each year:

• 183 Hours Per Year – Reading to Improve/Learn or Deliberate/Analytical Practice to Perfect/Improve Your Skills
• 104 Hours Per Year – Exercising
• 60 Hours Per Year – Helping to Run a Local Non-Profit
• 92 Hours Per Year – Building Power Relationships
• 364 Hours Per Year – Pursuing Dreams/Goals/Formal Schooling
• 80 Hours Per Year – Other (Hobbies, Sports, Coaching, Speaking, Writing, Work)

I like survey’s like this because they validate my Rich Habits research.

As I’ve written about often, there are four paths to wealth:

1. Saver/Investor Path
2. Big Company Climber Path
3. Virtuoso Path and
4. Dreamer/Entrepreneur Path

If you pursue the Saver/Investor Path, the only requirement is that you live off of 80% of your net income, diligently save the remaining 20% and prudently invest that 20% savings, year after year. When you pursue this Effort-Less Path towards wealth, you can watch as much TV as you want and still build wealth.

If you are pursuing any of the other paths towards wealth, watching too much TV is a time-wasting habit that wealthy, successful Climbers, Virtuosos and Dreamers don’t engage in. They are too busy focusing on growing and improving.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Your best friend just put in a beautiful granite kitchen countertop. They have a little get together with you and other friends to show it off. As you drive home, you can’t shake the desire building inside of you of having one too. That want, that desire, when left unchecked, becomes a seed and that seed will eventually germinate.

The next thing you know, come hell or high water, you find yourself putting in a new countertop.

According to Wisonart, a home goods manufacturer, 34% of all home improvement/renovation projects are initiated in an effort to keep up with a friend, family member or neighbor.

Human beings are hardwired to want what others have. It’s literally built into our genome, our DNA.

The Want Gene is one of the reasons why so many individuals fail to live within their means, fail to save and accumulate so much debt.

This Want Gene resides deep inside the limbic system, a part of the primitive brain that directs your emotions and impulses. It’s a very powerful gene.

But, the good new is you also were bestowed something called the prefrontal cortex, a more sophisticated and newer region of the brain that has the ability to overpower the Want Gene. In fact, the prefrontal cortex is the master or, CEO, of your brain.

The prefrontal cortex’s greatest weapon over the primitive brain’s hardwired emotions/impulses is the Awareness Gene. This Awareness Gene, when turned on, overcomes the Want Gene, turning it off whenever it rears its ugly head.

But the Awareness Gene is a switch that must remained turned on. When it is used repeatedly, it stays turned on and remains vigilant in suppressing the Want Gene – it becomes the master over the Want Gene.

Unfortunately, most individuals give into the instinctual, hard-wired emotions/impulses of the primitive brain – allowing their Want Gene to run their lives. That is why most people live beyond their means, are unable to save, accumulate debt  and struggle financially.

How do you keep the Awareness Gene turned on and the Want Gene turned off?

By having a life plan.

The prefrontal cortex loves to plan. By creating a life plan, that plan becomes your GPS, guiding you in all of your decisions. Your life plan turns on the Awareness Gene and forces you to evaluate every potential spending decision, in order to ensure it is consistent with your life plan.

Without a life plan, you allow your Want Gene to take control of your spending decisions, which always has disastrous consequences.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

When you perform any task, brain scans show activity in two areas: the Prefontal Cortex and the Hippocampus.

When you continue to repeat a task, brain scans show a shift in brain activity to two other brain regions in the Limbic System: the Putamen and the Basal Ganglia. This shift happens when the brain decides to transform a repetitive activity into a habit.

The Limbic System is the second oldest part of the brain and it is this older region which has been designated the command and control center for habits.

Why does the brain create habits?

The more primitive areas, such as the Limbic System, use less brain fuel. Also, by creating habits, the Limbic System removes operational control of a repetitive task from the Prefrontal Cortex, the brain’s CEO and the most sophisticated brain region.

This brain shifting, habit creation process not only helps to conserve brain fuel, it also frees up the Prefrontal Cortex, so that it can do more complex things, like planning, creating and decision-making.

We can thank habits for the creation of the the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Airplane, Nasa’s Moon Missions, the Silicon Chip, the Internet, Cell Phones and many other amazing things.

Thanks to habits, the Prefrontal Cortex was freed up to do the planning, creating and thinking needed in order for humans to create and achieve.

Simply put, habits helped put a man on the moon.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!

Hardly anyone thinks about their legacy – the impact of the life they leave behind. We really only give it some thought when we read an obituary of someone we know.

In May of 2000, I read an obituary about a friend’s father that left me in awe of the man. There were numerous non-profit organizations he devoted time and money to.

The obituary also listed all of his impressive achievements, as well.

I remember thinking to myself, how could one person do so much in one life?

Then, I tried writing my own obituary, that May of 2000. I did not like how it read. Not much of a legacy, I thought. I was even somewhat embarrassed.

So, I decided to write a fictitious obituary about my ideal life. I still have that obituary, to this day.

In that bogus obituary, I listed all of my fictitious achievements:

• Self-made millionaire
• Famous author
• The numerous charitable organizations I was involved with during my life
• How I helped add value to the lives of many people in my business endeavors
• Amazing husband and father…

My fictitious obituary, written in May of 2000, went on for a full page, front and back.

What’s strange about my fake obituary is that, for some reason, I had listed “famous author” as one of my many achievements.

I liked to write, but I had never before published a book; had never really seriously thought about publishing a book. I had no industry knowledge about what it took to publish a book.

So, why did I write down “famous author” on my make believe obituary? I’m still scratching my head on that one to this day.

Nonetheless, that obituary planted a seed in my mind that, years later, led to my becoming an author.

My first book, Rich Habits, was released in March 2010 and went on to become a legitimate bestseller on Amazon and is now translated into many languages around the world. I’ve since written four other books and will probably be writing books until the day I die.

I also helped organize and grow three non-profits since May 2000 and that makes me proud.

That obituary literally changed my life and it’s still changing my life, as my author business has given birth to a growing speaker business. And I just started developing plans for various Rich Habits training events – another future line of business.

Despite our impressive advances in technology, medicine and science, we still do not yet fully comprehend the mysterious powers of the human mind. My May of 2000 make-believe obituary activated some very powerful, dormant forces within my brain which unconsciously directed me onto the path I now find myself on, so many years later.

If you are struggling in life, as I was back in May of 2000, I suggest you write two obituaries.

The first obituary should depict your current life – what your obituary would say if you died tomorrow.

How will it read? Does it make you proud or does it bring you down?

Let your real-life obituary swim in your mind for a few days. Then, write a second, fictitious obituary. This time paint a picture with words of a life so incredible that it leaves you in awe of yourself.

Somewhere in your make-believe obituary, a seed will be planted. That seed will grow inside your mind. In time, through intuition, you will find yourself being nudged onto certain paths. Paths, you feel compelled to walk but really don’t know why.

Your made believe obituary will act like a GPS, directing your behavior, in an effort to create a legacy that will make you proud.

My mission is to share my unique research in order to help others realize their dreams and achieve their goals. If you find value in these articles, please share them with your inner circle and encourage them to Subscribe. Thank You!