We watched Arthur a couple of weeks ago – the latest version. The fabulously rich-by-birthright Arthur (Russell Brand) falls in love with Naomi (Greta Gerwig), the working-class girl.

If you’re a regular reader, you may have figured out by now that we’re always on. We’re always thinking about ideas to share with you.

One of the most interesting moments in the movie to us was toward the end. Arthur and Naomi were split up.

But, in spite of himself, Arthur had been good for Naomi just as she was good for him. He encouraged her to pursue her dream of publishing a children’s book.

She did. And it got published.

She was elated until she found out that the publisher had been purchased by Arthur’s family business. He was the force behind her success.

When she learned this, she ran away. Arthur chased after her. Once he caught her, he told her that he thought she was talented.

She said, “I thought other people thought I was talented. I thought I had earned it. And that felt really good. I like earning something. And I know that you don’t know what that feels like, but it’s great. You should try it sometime.”

There is a certain void that comes with money not earned. It’s part of what was missing in Arthur’s life.

It’s part of what’s missing in our society today. Too many people think money is the end.

Money may be the desired result. But it’s empty in and of itself.

Sure, it’s fun to spend it. But the glee is fleeting.

Money attached to accomplishment brings a sense of fulfillment. In the end, the dignity is in the work. The money is just a report card.

You can be rich without earning your money but you won’t feel rich for long.

Do you agree?

Image in this post from stock.xchng

He started in 1975 with just $700 to his name. Now he’s a millionaire many times over.

He’s the amazing Robert Kiyosaki, author of the #1 New York Times best seller Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And he has a simple message:

“With every dollar in your hand, you have the power to choose to be rich, poor or middle class.”

We found a great post by Robert Kiyosaki over at our friend Josh Hinds’ Get Motivation blog. It’s lengthy, but well worth the read.

We’ve provided a summary here for your convenience. Here they are – Robert Kiyosaki’s 10 Steps to Getting Rich:

Step 1: Decide to be rich

“The words you speak and the words you think ultimately become the world you live in.”

Poor people focus on surviving. The middle class focuses on comfort. Rich people focus on acquiring assets. They will exchange comfort today for riches tomorrow.

It’s a state of mind. You may be broke right now. But if you choose to be rich, being broke is a temporary thing. Being poor is permanent.

You choose to be poor, middle class, or rich. So be rich, even if you don’t have the money right now.

To be rich, you have to do those things which rich people do to get rich. “Many times the rich will forsake meals, a steady pay check, a vacation, or the comfort of a nice home, to build or acquire real assets.”

So stop thinking about surviving. Stop worrying about comfort. Focus on thriving.

Step 2: Decide what kind of money problems you want

“There are only two kinds of money problems: not enough money or too much money.”

You know how to work for money. You must learn how to have money and people work for you.

Excess money will create more excess money if you know what to do with it. But you must learn this before you have the problem of too much money.

Step 3: Write your plan and follow it

He suggests setting a few basic goals with your plan:

• Change the characteristic of your income. Start a business part-time.
  

• Change the characteristic of your expenses. Personal expenses should be converted to business expenses.
  

• Form a legal entity for your business.
  

• Buy asset with your business.
  

• Reinvest your profits.
  

Step 4: Decide on where you want to do your banking

The pawn shop is a poor person’s bank.

Traditional banks are for the middle class. They have also turned to credit cards.

Rich people get there money from investment banks, wealthy individuals, and institutions like pension funds or insurance companies. Or by going public.

If they succeed in business, they can borrow large sums of money relatively easily at relatively low rates.

Step 5: Choose your friends and partners wisely

Spend time with rich people. They will bring you more opportunities to invest than any stock broker or real estate broker.

“What you know determines who you know. If you want to change who you know, simply change what you know.”

So invest in your own education on business, finance, and investing first. The people you spend time with change naturally as a consequence.

Step 6: Give yourself time

“Building a business is not the same as getting a job. With a job, you expect to be paid soon after starting work. With a business, you may not be paid for years, if you are paid at all.”

He cites two reasons why so many businesses fail:

• Lack of education and experience. “Business is a combination of formal education, experience, and guts.”
  

• Undercapitalization. “Many people kill the baby-goose before it’s old enough to lay the golden egg.” You need enough capital to get you to profitability.
  

Step 7: Start small, dream BIGG

Unfortunately, he didn’t spell “BIGG” right. So we corrected it here!

“Many people start small and stay small, simply because they have small dreams. In my opinion, big dreams are important because they possess ingredients vital for success: hope, desire, passion, energy, vitality, faith, drive, inspiration and creativity. These ingredients make life worth living.”

• Don’t compare yourself to others who have more. Instead, look to them for inspiration and mentoring.
  
• Map out how you will achieve the wealth you desire.
  
• Put it in writing.
  
• Review it every day.
  
• Talk about your dream with others. Use any criticism to fuel your desire.

Step 8: Before you expand, you must contract

Tighten up so you can expand.

Get ahead by pulling back.

Stop trying to be everywhere and do everything.

Focus. “Begin doing more – of fewer things.” The few things that will help you reach your BIGG goals.

Step 9: Get bigger faster

“The people who dream small, think small, and work small, work the hardest and are paid the least.”

When you’re small, you’ll have to do all the work yourself. Once you know the business, work hard to expand so you can bring people in to manage it for you. Then you can grow even bigger!

“The bigger the asset you build, the less you work and the more money you make.”

Step 10: The more you share, the richer you become

“I knew that if I wanted to acquire great wealth quickly, I had to be a person who shared. I had to be generous. If I was greedy, stingy or tight, it would take me longer to attain great wealth.”

Focus on doing more for less money. Focus on serving more people.

Choose to be rich. And choose to share your riches with as many people as possible. It leads to BIGG success!

You need a net worth of over $8 million to make the top 1%, $2 million gets you in the top 5% and it takes about $900,000 to place yourself in the top 10%.

So those are your targets if life on your own terms means being in the top 10% or above.

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Making more doesn’t mean having more

This report also looked at share of total wealth. As it turns out, the richest of the rich – the top 1% – didn’t get richer. They still held approximately one-third of the country’s total wealth in 2007, the same as 1995.

However, their share of income was up significantly – from 17% in 1997 to 22% in 2007.

The wealthiest people in our country saw a bigg increase in share of income, but their share of net worth didn’t go up. Does that mean rich people got caught up in the “spend, spend, spend” economy? Possibly.

We often think, “If I could just make a little more money.” This study offers further proof that making more doesn’t necessarily translate into having more – even for the richest among us!

Make do, then make more

The crucial thing – the starting point – is to figure out how to make do with what we already have. Then when we make more, we’ll have more because we manage it all better.

We can enjoy some of it now and invest the rest for our future – for the life we dream of living.

How the rich make money

As might be expected, the average person gets most of their income from salaries and wages. As we move to the top 5%, we see that a larger share of income comes from business ownership and investment real estate.

It really kicks in for the top 1%. Plus they have built up enough assets to get a significant boost from selling those assets for a profit. It’s Economics 101 – buy low and sell high.

But it’s no panacea

We’ve recently seen people losing money in business and real estate. Like most things, it’s no panacea. It’s risky. But if you aren’t trying to get rich quick, you can greatly improve your odds.

The best advice

We also found it revealing that this study showed that the bottom 50% lost money holding assets and from the ownership of businesses and real estate.

The rich made a lot. The bottom half lost money. What do the rich know?

Before you jump into investing in a business or real estate, educate yourself. Get advice from someone who’s actually succeeded at it. If they’ll mentor you, that’s great. If they charge you for it, it will be worth every penny.

You’ll get where you want to be faster by learning from people who have done it rather than trying to learn it on your own.

So if life on your own terms means building wealth, get started creating multiple streams of income today – even if it’s just part-time!

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Please join us next time when we ask, “Are you talking to the right person?”

Thanks for reading our post today. Until next time, here’s to your bigg success!

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(Image in today's post by barunpatro)

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Sometimes we forget how much we already have. As we get older, we put expectations on ourselves and judge ourselves based on what we have and the gifts we can give.

The cardboard box

Have you ever seen a little kid get his or her first bigg toy – the one that comes in the bigg cardboard box? Have you ever seen a kid put the real toy aside and start playing with that cardboard box? They turn it into a fort and have fun with it for hours, playing with their friends. Through the eyes of us adults, that cardboard box is extraneous. Through the eyes of a kid, the cardboard box is a valuable toy itself.

We develop our point-of-view from our experiences. Obviously, we want to learn from them, but we need to be careful not to take away the wrong lessons. So this holiday season, try looking at the world through the eyes of a child again. Look at things as if you were seeing them for the first time. Be innocent again.

Through the eyes of a child

We want to share a touching story comparing how we perceive things as adults to how we might see them through the eyes of a child. A rich dad wants to show his daughter how less fortunate people live. So he took his daughter out to the country, where they spent a couple of days and nights on a farm with a family most people considered very poor. Here’s the conversation as they drove back to the city …

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How was the trip?

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It was great, Dad.

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Did you see how poor people live?

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Oh yeah.

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So, tell me, what did you learn?

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I saw that we have one dog and they have four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them. We have a staff that serves us, but they serve others. Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.

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As you might imagine, the girl’s father was speechless. He thought he would teach his daughter a lesson … it turns out that it was he who needed to learn one.

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We really appreciate you checking in on us today. Join us next time when we talk about the best present of all. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00291-122208.mp3

Related posts

How to Feel Rich Today

Where Are You If You Ain’t Where You Are

Back To The Future: Visualizing The Life You Want (Part 1)

(Image of the car by stOrmz,CC 2.0)

(Images of dad and daughter in today's post by stockbroke)

But this blog is really about “found” money – money you weren’t expecting. The average refund last year (paid in 2007 from 2006 tax returns) was $2,287, according to the IRS.

That’s a nice down payment on a plasma TV!

That’s what a lot of people do – spend their refunds on things that won’t be worth much in a few years.

Instead of that, you could save and invest it. But isn’t that’s boring?

Boring can be exciting when your money starts to compound!

How to turn your $2,300 refund into $643,000!
Say you’re 25 years old and you get a $2,300 refund every year until you retire at 65. We’ll assume that you earn 8% on that money, which may be a little conservative depending on what you invest in.

Under these assumptions, that $2,300 a year invested will turn into a nest egg of over $643,000 when you retire!

Now is that boring?

Age makes a difference. Take the previous example for a 35-year old. Your nest egg is still significant – it’s over $281,000. But by waiting just ten years to start, it will be less than half as much!

But even then, you still create a nest egg of nearly $300,000.

2 ways it can be even better

#1 – Quit loaning the government money at 0%.
That’s what you’re doing when you get a refund – you’re getting your money back, but you don’t earn any interest on it while they hold it. So redo your W-4 so you only withhold what you expect to owe.

Then you won’t get a refund, but you’ll have more money in every paycheck. But here’s the key:

Let’s say you do that – Invest your refund check this year, adjust your W-4, and then invest the extra money that shows up in your paycheck. You’re that 25-year old we talked about earlier. Only now …

… you’ll have over $723,000, instead of $643,000. It makes an $80,000 difference!

Doesn’t that open your eyes about the “cost” of a refund?

#2 – Pay off debt that’s costing you more than 8%.
We assumed an 8% return. If you have any debt that’s costing you more than 8%, pay it off first and your returns will be even higher! Once your debt is paid off, start investing to build your nest egg.

Jake’s Take – Top 5 signs that you hired the wrong accountant

#5 – He insists on filling out your return using only Roman Numerals.

#4 – He offers to help you boost your deductions by renting you his wife and kids.

#3 – He spends most of your consultation looking nervous and asking if you're wearing a wire.
 
#2 – He does all his calculations on an Etch-a-Sketch.
 
#1 – His client list includes Leona Helmsley, John Gotti, and the Unibomber.

Our bigg quote today is a Proverb.

So do you want to watch your new plasma TV or do you want to watch your money grow? The choice is yours!

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Next time, we’ll discuss why being imperfect is perfect. Until then, here’s to your bigg success! 

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(Image by gossamerLL)