It is about time for a finance blog. Stayfitnactive is not solely about your physical health, it also encompasses your mental and financial health and growth. I am a firm believer that everything starts with the mind because it is the most powerful tool we have. It is why so many influential people both positive and negative, first tried to control/influence the mind of others. Once you have the mind, everything else follows. Do you want to grow your pockets? Grow your mind. By studying the wealthy, I have produced a list of habits you can start implementing today to be well on your way.
Pay Yourself First
It is an act of self love. To care for others over an extended period, you must care for yourself. If you continue to neglect yourself, it not only makes it harder to get ahead, but it teaches other people to neglect you as well. This nugget goes beyond financially, but spiritually and physically as well. If you continue to give, and give, and give to other people, you will eventually run out of reserves. So pay yourself first. Prioritize your bank account more than anything or anyone else.
Buy Back Your Time
It seems like a promising idea to save money by doing everything yourself and in some cases, this can be true. However, when you think about the time you must invest in a certain task, it may make more sense to delegate it. Pay someone else to do it. The time you save by not doing this yourself, you can divert to something else that could make you money. This can be something as small as meal prepping. Sure, you could spend 1-3 hours meal prepping for the week by yourself OR you could pay a meal prep service to do it for you and you spend that time exercising, working on your business, studying for a course, or any other task that will help elevate you as a person. Sure, you could spend 6-12 months learning a skill by yourself OR you could pay someone for a 1-3 month crash course and save yourself 3-9 months of your time.
Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend. – Theophrastus.
Put Money In The Pockets of Future You
Plainly stated, invest. You want 60-year-old you to look back and thank the 20-30 year younger you. Imagine being 60 years old and you have half a million dollars in assets to cash out all because 20-year-old you decided to invest. This doesn’t necessarily have to be the stock market, but it could be. Examples of that include 401ks, Roth IRAs, investment portfolios, etc. It could even be something a little lighter and simpler like saving money on a CD or in a high yield savings account which brings me to point number 4.
Let Your Money Make You Money
When you do the things mentioned in the above tip, your money is growing. Sure, the market goes up AND down. You will lose money and you will gain money. We cannot predict the future. History has shown that the economy is consistently growing, just ask your grandparents or anyone that lived back in the 50s. The 15-cent hamburger at McDonalds is now $3-5. Had you kept $10,000 under your mattress from 1950 to 2024, you would not be able to buy even half the number of things you could have bought in the 50s. That is because due to inflation, $10,000 back then is equivalent to over $100,000 now. Had you invested $10,000 in 1950, you may have cashed that out in the year 2000 and earned about a million dollars on that investment. Let me avoid overwhelming you. Even if you put $10,000 in a high yield savings account, it would still be better than keeping it under your mattress. The bank would pay you $20-$40 a month just for allowing them to “hold” it. It’s your money making you money, and this is what we want.
Give Back and Provide Value To Others
Give to a charity, give back to your community, help your neighbors, family, or friends. Do giveaways in your business. Tony Robbins once said, if you won’t give someone $1 when you have $10, you’ll never give $1,000 when you have hundreds of thousands. I am not saying give away your last, but don’t wait until you are “well-off” to begin giving back because you won’t. Giving back isn’t about having enough, it’s a mindset. It’s a desire to want to give. If you don’t have this ability or desire, no amount of money will change that. So, start now. Every successful business relies on value. Customers only return because you are providing them with something they deem valuable. Whether this is a physical product or a mentality shift (aka coaching), you need to provide something other people need. Ensure that what you are providing is helpful and not harmful. I am sure you can name a few businesses in the world that care not a single bit about the community. They only care about growing their pockets, whilst harming people along the way. Sure, they are wealthy, but at what price? Aim to help and always maintain pure intentions. Do what is right.
Stop Trading Your Time For Money
It’s okay to start out this way, but there is only so much time. Even if you were making $150 an hour, there are still only so many hours (and you could live very comfortably off that). True wealth comes from the ability to earn money repeatedly, without having to physically be present. Think digital products. Sure, a lot of upfront work goes into it, but once you complete it, there are endless customers you can have, and you don’t need to be present for them to benefit from your work.
Freedom will only come when you no longer trade your time for money.
Invest In Yourself/Education
Your biggest investment on Earth, is you. Go back to school, pick up a trade, or take a course. Learn more things so you can provide more value to others. In addition to that, invest in hobbies you enjoy, things that fuel your soul. When you are happy, you can perform at your highest level. You need to thrive in life, not solely survive.
Create Your "Mastermind" Group
Jim Rohn once said we are the cumulation of the 5 people we spend the most time with. Imagine you were surrounded by people like Ghandi, Michelle Obama, Tony Robbins, or Les Brown. I mean really think about that. What kind of person would you be? What habits would you adopt? What could you achieve? You may like to THINK that “I am who I am and no one around me can change or influence that” but not only would you be close-minded, you’d be wrong. The things and people we surround ourselves with DO influence us. Sometimes when we are not ready to be “influenced” we stop hanging around those people. I have heard people tell me they stopped hanging around someone because that person was “too positive.” It sounds to me like that person is on a higher vibrational level and you aren’t ready/interested in being there. Seek out the people you want to learn from, the people you want to be influenced by, and bring them into your circle. I understand that is a hard task and will take some time, so in the meantime, allow your TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube feed, etc to be full of videos from people you can grow from, learn from, uplift, and inspire you. Give yourself that daily dose virtually until you can find the right people physically. This may involve you LEAVING the house and SEEKING these people via joining groups, clubs, etc. Which brings me to point number 9.
Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Simply put, Network. Have conversations. Find people. Share yourself. Do the things a wealthy version of you would be doing which may be the complete opposite of everything you are doing now.
Do Not Rely On One Stream Of Income
Diversify how you make money. If you only rely on the income from your job, what happens if something happens to that? Then what? Yes, you’ll hopefully have some money saved, but you still need to have money flowing in from multiple directions to increase your cash flow and ultimately become wealthy. This could include: job income, rental income, dividend payouts, side hustle, interest payouts, stock trading, etc.
Bonus!
Here are 5 books I recommend you read:
The 4 Hour Workweek x Tim Ferriss
Your First Year in Network Marketing x Mark & Rene Yarnell
3. Finance For The People x Paco de Leon
4. Think & Grow Rich x Napolean Hill
5. Napkin Finance x Tina Hay
All books I have read, enjoyed, and learned from.
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