Are you ready to live rich? The following six questions are the beginning of your new life – to financial freedom and the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Get ready for the fancy cars, your own jet, and multiple houses…HAHA, yeah, right, have we met?! I am totally kidding! But I do promise to teach you how to be rich.
Rich living has little to do with things and much more to do with allowing you to find your inner self and purpose to fulfillment. But let’s go ahead and get “rich” in the process. I believe that one’s finances are a reflection of their inner soul – lost or fulfilled? Wandering aimlessly or focused & organized?
You don’t have to be rich to live rich. Your currency is your time. Are you spending it wisely? What I really want to teach you is not how to be in service of money, but to teach your money how to best serve you.
Let’s Go.
- Do you want to live rich? The answers seem obvious, right? If it is yes, you should expand on that and ask yourself what this means to you? What would living rich look like to you? Write that down. What would it feel like? What would it mean – more time to travel? More time with kids? Better physical condition? Simply ask yourself, what would the perfect day look like? If you can create the perfect day, then you can create the perfect week. If you can create the perfect week, you can create the perfect month, and so on. If you don’t know what this means to live rich, then you won’t know how to live when you get real money. Money won’t make your life better; it will enhance the life you have and who you are.
- Do you put yourself first? This sounds selfish but bear with me. Most people are raised “don’t be selfish,” but this is a common misconception. You must put yourself first in your search for your best life. You have to decide to pursue your gifts and passions in order to embark on your best life. Have you ever flown before? The attendant usually goes over the protocol of putting on an oxygen mask and says that if you want to help your child with you, you must first put your own mask on. This is the same with your life. You must put yourself first in the pursuit of richness in order to take the best care and create the life for the family you deserve.
- Do you pay yourself first? This goes along with the last question. You put yourself first because you must pay yourself first (automation). Stand up and write yourself a check for the first hour of your day. To get started, you put an hour’s worth in your retirement. Then an hour to your emergency fund, then a dream account. Paying yourself first is about proving to yourself every day that your pursuit is first and you reinforcing what you deserve.
- Are you saving automatically? In a world of automation, I would ask you what you can set up in automation. This is the roadmap to financial freedom. Discipline and motivation can wear down, so you must set up the automation for the goals you plan for. That way, you get your dreams of a sabbatical or a vacation – you pay for them. Remember question 1? If you wrote down your ideal life, set it up on automation. How much do you have to save each week to get there? Maybe it’s only $50 a month to start with, but that will first create the habit of saving, and you will increase with each raise or each year.
- Is your money paying you while you sleep? Money is meant to serve you, so invest it thoughtfully. Investments, real estate, businesses, or side hustles; in some form, the money should be working for you. Again, this goes to automation and also to multiple streams of income. Checks coming in from different sources are insulating you. If you currently have one great high-paying job that pays you for your time, what happens when you are short on time? What if you are sick? What if the business closes (remember that Covid pandemic?) Income and jobs ceased with no control, so have multiple ways to earn that don’t require you to trade your time evenly.
- Are you giving back? This does not have to be just financially. If you do not have the finances to give back right now, then what do you have to give? If you still can’t give something, then give time. The fastest way to feel better about your situation is by helping someone else. Life is about being a ‘Go-Giver.’ We are raised to be a “Go-Getter,” but maybe we need to be focused more on being a ‘Go-Giver” (a giver of your gifts).
Pursue your best self and your ideal life. This has truly little to do with money and so much to do with the legacy you leave on the world. The best part is the ripple effect that can happen from the gift of you pursuing your ideal life and putting yourself first. You can live rich right now, right as you are, but you first have to decide that you deserve the best life.
