Hi Guys, if you’re reading this, or watching my YouTube channel, it’s probably because you want to create a certain level of wealth for yourself. Chances are if you want to do that, you aren’t there yet. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my wealth journey, where I came from, and where I am now. I’ve narrowed down a few habits I had that prevented me from creating the wealth I desired earlier in my life. If you’re not where you want to be, you’re likely making these same mistakes. Some of this may seem obvious, but even so, shining a light on these bad habits will hopefully help you right the ship, and put you on a course for wealth creation. So let’s begin.

Reason #1: You Think Money is For Spending

You know people like this, I know people like this. They’re that friend who always has the latest smart phone, they spend ridiculous amounts of money on clothing and eating out. Yet they’re also always complaining that they’re broke, or wish they had more money – to spend.

When I first started on my wealth journey, someone once remarked to my wife “What’s the point of making all this money if you don’t SPEND it!” That one remark (along with many others), perfectly summed up why that person is still broke, and probably always will be. What upsets me most is that they don’t even know it. It’s one of the reasons I started this blog.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are certain things that you need to spend money on: food, shelter, clothing etc. But this is where the wealthy differ in their thinking. To them – and to me – money is NOT for spending. Money is for investing, and making more money. And that money isn’t for spending, its for investing, and making more money. The idea is to keep investing, then re-investing until you get to a point where you can spend your returns (or preferably passive income) without decreasing your principle. Once you get to that point, you can spend freely. And as long as you don’t outspend your returns, they will still grow. Now, the point at which you can spend freely is different for everyone. Everyone has different living expenses, and different goals. You have to decide your goal for yourself. But whatever that goal is, until you get there, money isn’t for spending, its for investing.

Reason #2 – You Let Marketers Decide How You Spend Your Money

There’s a funny thing about money, if you don’t have a plan as to where it goes, someone else will decide for you. There’s an entire industry built around this simple truth. Since most people don’t plan where and when they spend, marketers are there to try and decide for you.

Marketers know another simple truth, and one I learned from years of professional selling. That truth is that people buy based on emotion, and then justify their purchase with reason. You might not agree, you’ll say “I buy based on tons of research, blah blah blah” I’ve sold books door to door to moms in trailers, and I’ve sold millions of dollars to CFO’s at hospitals, and they all buy the same way, with emotion. Some are better than others at justifying with reason, but trust me, you buy because of the emotion you get from your purchase. Even the research you do makes you feel (emotion) a certain way and it further helps you justify your purchase with logic. That justification, also makes you feel (emotion) good. Hence, you still buy with emotion.

The marketer wants you to think that buying that new car will make you feel amazing. Your life will be complete if you only buy that one piece of clothing. Now, knowing this won’t change anything, you’re still going to make purchases based on emotion, I still do too. But being aware of this fact will give you some power over where and when you spend you money. It’s a heuristic you can use to help you spend less, and invest more. You see, if you’ve already decided how much to spend each month, and better yet, how much to invest up front, then you’ll be less susceptible to marketers and advertisers telling you where to put that extra cash. The wealthy know this, they invest first, and spend later.

Reason #3 – You Have Negative Thoughts About Money

This one is nothing new to most, but its so important I had to include it. I’ve heard people utter all of these sayings, and heard them myself growing up. “Money is the root of all evil”, “Money doesn’t grow on trees”, “Do you think I’m made of money?” All of them stem from the same thing, a negative association with money. I know people who actually think that having money makes you a bad person. They don’t want to hear that rich people donate billions to philanthropy, and most of them are self-made. Nope, “rich people are bad, end of story.”

Thinking this is much easier than having to admit one’s own situation. It relinquishes the individual from any responsibility to change his situation. Basically these people think they’re broke because its someone else’s fault, so now they don’t have to lift a finger to help themselves. I’m not naive enough to think that everyone has an equal opportunity in this world, but I do know that blaming someone else for your situation guarantees it won’t change.

I know people like this, and I feel sorry for them. They constantly complain about the wealthy, and they don’t even know that these very thoughts are keeping them from exploring the idea of THEM becoming wealthy themselves. Negative associations with money must be dealt with actively if you are to become wealthy. Since no one wants to be a bad person, if you believe money is bad, or money makes one bad, then your brain will not allow you to become wealthy. Period, end of story. Since these thoughts are often ingrained from a young age, if this is an issue for you, it has to be actively dealt with. To overcome these thoughts, you have to actively seek out evidence to the contrary. You have to do this consistently until your belief changes, and a new one is ingrained. Believe me I know, this was something I had to deal with throughout my wealth journey. The brain is a powerful tool. If you can’t even see yourself being wealthy because of negative thoughts, then you’ll never even try. And if you don’t try, you’ll never learn and grow, and it’ll never happen. And this leads me into my last point.

Reason #4 – You Don’t Believe You Can Be Wealthy

This was probably the most difficult obstacle I had to overcome in my journey towards financial independence. When I was younger, I knew that having freedom was important to me. I also knew that in order to have more freedom, I would probably have to make a descent amount of money. I didn’t know about passive income, or investing. I still thought most people got rich from their job. I also knew that people got rich from starting business, but again, I thought it was because they set their own salary. I had no idea what equity was. Either way, even though I wanted to make more money, and I wanted financial freedom, deep down, I didn’t actually believe it was possible for me.

There were several reasons for this belief. One, was that I wasn’t informed on how people actually become wealthy. For instance, I had a very wealthy uncle growing up, in fact I still do. Growing up, my dad would often make comments that my uncle was wealthy because his father was wealthy. I took that at face value. Now I’m older, and I know that my uncle started a business and built it from the ground up. He also invested in real estate and bought and sold businesses all over the country. He eventually sold his business and is now a very wealthy man. I now know that if you took everything away from my uncle, he would become a rich man again very quickly because of what he knows. If you know how to become wealthy, then the belief that you can’t disappears. What’s interesting to me, if this belief kept my father from becoming very wealthy. He thought my uncle’s wealth was due to luck, and therefore he never tried himself.

For me, breaking my belief started with education. I grew up in very rural area, without much wealth. The girl in my class who won nicest car drove a Dodge Stratus. Needless to say, there was not a plethora of wealthy examples to draw upon. However, I ended up going to private university for college, and it was there my eyes were opened. There were students who’s allowances were more than my parent’s annual salaries. Still, I tended to gravitate and hang out with people who were more like me. Several of my closest friends from college grew up middle class . Yet, at least 3 of my closest college friends are also now millionaires. When I say our education mattered, I don’t necessarily mean it was what we learned from college, but more what we learned AT college. I was reminded daily that there were a LOT of rich people out there, and they weren’t necessarily smarter than me. They were, however, more informed on how to become rich. I realized if I wanted to become rich too, I had to learn what they knew. The more I learned, the more my belief changed. Once I truly believed I could become rich, my mind took over and inch by inch, I moved closer to my goal.

So there you have it. These were the main obstacles I had to achieve on my journey towards building wealth. They’re simply in principle, but not necessarily easy to overcome. It takes effort to defeat these enemies of wealth, but with consistent effort it can be done. I still work to overcome these obstacles every day. But I did it, and I know you can too.

Collin