There are 3 types of people in this world when it comes to finances. They are the Perpetually Broke Person, the Well-Off Person, and the Highly-Wealthy Person.
The Perpetually Broke Person never has any money and ultimately lives paycheck to paycheck. This is sometimes due to economic hardship, but these people exist every pay scale as the Perpetually Broke Person is always spending their income immediately after receiving it, and how much income is less important than how quickly they spend it. This is mostly on consumer goods such as clothes, electronics, and other items that can empty a bank account quickly. Another aspect of the Perpetually Broke Person is that they are amazingly good at giving away their future wealth by getting loans on things they don’t need or can’t even afford such as new cars, home improvement projects, and vacations and getaways.
The Well-Off Person is the next step up and does much better financially then the Perpetually Broke Person as they know how to manage their money by saving it for emergencies and big purchases. They also have good credit scores because they pay their bills on time and know how to take out loans responsibly. This allows them to grow wealth slowly and live well for most of their life. However, because the Well-Off Person usually is dependent on their job, they can find themselves in dire straits if they are laid off, injured and can’t work, or have other costly events that dry up their savings. This mostly due to the fact they are afraid to invest in anything, but sure things.
The Highly-Wealthy Person on the other hand knows how to manage their money by having an emergency fund, has a high credit score by paying their bills on time, and know how to take out responsible loans just like a Well-Off Person. The only difference is that a Highly-Wealthy People know how to make their money work for them with or without them. They understand these 3 Principals of Money.
Principal One: You can’t do everything yourself.
When creating wealth, the most important principle you need to take to heart is to understand you can’t do everything yourself. Which is why when you’re creating money with your money, it’s important to know you need to delegate a lot of the work to other people. Especially in hiring people. For example, in real estate you hire contractors to do your fix n’ flips and hire a property manager to manage your buy n’ holds. You do this because even if you know how to do it, it doesn’t make any sense for you. Why focus on only one or two properties when you can have ten working for you by having the right people in charge. In stocks, why would you learn how the market works and plug yourself in when there are people you can hire to do it for you 24/7. Instead, enjoy yourself.
Principal Two: You have to take calculated risks.
Principal Two simply means you have to risk money to make money. If you don’t risk anything, then you can’t make anything. This is the pinnacle of investing and what keeps many people from doing it. As they are more worried about losing a hundred dollars on a bad investment and would rather spend a hundred dollars on something worthless they don’t need. This makes many investors afraid to pull the trigger when investing and fall for the fallacy of the perfect deal. Where they will turn down even the best deals because they believe there will be a better one over the horizon. The only way to overpass this fear of losing your investment, is to embody the concept of Sunk Costs. Sunk Costs are costs that you have sunk into an endeavor that will never pay off and you will never get them back. The idea behind sunk costs is that although they are lost forever, it should not affect your decision in shutting down the investment. If it isn’t going to work, it isn’t going to work and you need to accept beforehand that the funds spent were a calculated risk and their loss was expected to happen if it failed. Accepting sunk costs will allow you to avoid throwing good money after bad.
Principal Three: If you can’t understand it, then don’t invest in it.
Too many people get into the hype of something. They listen to too many experts on the subject. Too many experts on the news. Too many “experts” in their family and friends. And they find themselves putting all their money into something they have no understanding of. This can be from complicated companies, products they use but have no understanding of their business model, and other financial instruments that are hard to explain, let alone understand. This is why for many investors, they need to stick to what they know. If its stocks, stick with stocks. If its real estate, stick with real estate. If it’s a business or company you know through and through, then stick with it through and through. The idea is that you have to an understand an investment, how it works, and its ability to grow in the world we live before you invest in it. This entails having to research the subject, know its past and present, and the major things that can affect it. The only way you can ensure you don’t get screwed is to have at least a basic understanding of what you’re investing in.
Conclusion:
Knowing what financial type of person you are will allow you know where you need to go from here. Knowing if you spend too much money and bust your budget means you have to create financial discipline. If you are defensive with your money but seem to want more, than you need to start thinking about how to take more calculated risks. If your wealthy, you need to figure out better investments to get higher returns so you can even do more than you ever could have imagined.