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What is Wealth?

By Austin Netzley

Wealth is a lot of things…

It is much more than just money.

Wealth depends on who you are, what your interests are, and where you’re at in life. It is defined differently by every person, but ultimately, true wealth is freedom. It is the freedom to do what you wish, when you wish, with whomever you wish. It is the freedom that comes with not worrying. It is freedom from your enemies, and mostly from yourself.

Wealth is Freedom: Money freedom. Time freedom. Relationship freedom. Spiritual freedom. Physical freedom. Ultimate freedom = 5 freedoms + ability to pursue your genius. – Mark Hansen/Robert Allen, The One Minute Millionaire

Growing up, I always thought of wealth as being “rich”, and having the fancy car and the huge house. Don’t get me wrong; I am still highly motivated by money itself… But what I’ve realized, is that ‘wealth’ is altogether something different.

Wealth involves a bunch of things, including: money, happiness, time, health, attitude, relationships, lifestyle, peace of mind, and any other thing you desire for what you view as a successful life. [Read more…]

The Future Millionaire Next Door – Andres Zuleta

By Austin Netzley

Who He Is:

Andres Zuleta is the President of Boutique Japan, a luxury travel consultancy specializing in unique Japan travel. He has taken the typical path through the corporate world before recently launching his own company. Andres is the first American born in his family, and has lived in Manhattan, Japan before settling in California where he lives now… at least until he moves back to Japan! He is a normal guy with an insight and ambition that will make him, The Future Millionaire Next Door.

His Career:

Andres built his wealth to date the old-fashioned way, by working for a company, cutting expenses, saving and paying off debt. Over the last few years he has actively searched for ways to make more money at work, and now his source of income is through his own venture, Boutique Japan. Here, he is niching down to luxury travel in Japan, where he plans to get more “bang” (money) for his “buck” (time) while also doing it in his own way.

Suggested Career Path:

If he had to do it all over again, Andres would have taken mother’s advice (they are always right!). He would have taken a year off and traveled the globe. Andres was dead set on going to college, but he wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do in life just yet. “College doesn’t hold much value unless you have a purpose.” If Andres had taken some time off to learn more about what he wanted to do, he would have gone to college more consciously making it more valuable than maybe it was. In addition, Andres would start a business sooner. “Really, true financial independence can only come from entrepreneurship.” He strongly encourages all young professionals to learn, experiment, and start low risk businesses. Just get your feet wet and start the momentum. Also, read a lot of books and listen to podcasts (like YoPro Wealth, to be launched in the end of November!).

Definition of Wealth:

[Read more…]

Ways to Wealth

By Austin Netzley

Success is about making a bunch of small decisions, one after the other compounded on top of each other for a period of time. As Jeff Olson writes in The Slight Edge, these decisions are very easy to make and do. However, why aren’t more people successful? Because these same small, positive actions are so easy not to do as well.

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do.” – Jeff Olson

Financial success is a decision; it is a process. It takes some effort and a bit of time. Below are a list of tips to get you on the path towards true, and lasting wealth.

#w2w

Get a library card and use it!
Work out today.
Know who you are and, more importantly, who you are not.
Eat healthy.
Early to bed, early to rise (makes you healthy/wealthy/wise – Ben Franklin).
Make specific (SMART) goals over multiple time periods.
Get a car that is more than 3 years old.
Never eat lunch alone.
Rise with the sun on the weekend!
Get rid of television.
Join a mastermind!
Improve the average salary of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

[Read more…]

10 Quick & Dirty Investing Tips for the Young Professional

By Austin Netzley

Investing is challenging. I have made a lot of money in the stock market, but I’ve also lost a lot of money there as well. Early in my trading career, it was like a pendulum swinging from one side to the other. I would make money, then lose it all, make money, then lose it all. This cycle would repeat until I finally stopped trading.

I went to 100% cash, and told myself that I would never trade again until I figured out how to invest. I went on to spend months studying the experts, analyzing my trades and actions, and developing my unique trading strategy and plan. Finally, after a months-long hiatus from live trading, I went back into the market. This time with much more solid and consistent success.

Below are the lessons I was “fortunate” enough to learn early in my investing career.

These 10 “Quick & Dirty” tips will drastically help any professional (young or older), as they would have saved me many thousands of dollars had I known and acted on them sooner than I did.

1. Stop what you’re doing

Before doing anything, stop for a minute. Do not proceed until you take care of the basics. Investing is hard and expensive if you don’t have a plan. Essentially everyone is making money as the market roars to record highs, but do not be led to believe that this will continue. What happens if the market dips down by 20%? Are you prepared? It is easy to become lackadaisical when things are apparently “easy”. But before doing anything, you must have a plan. This will save you lots of money, as it would have for me when I started out! Holding your money in cash is not the end of the world. The stock market will be there tomorrow and the day after, but you can only take advantage of it if you are still have money in the future to invest!

“You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don’t understand that’s going to happen, then you’re not ready, you won’t do well in the markets.” – Peter Lynch

2. Set investing and financial goals

What are you trying to achieve? Where does investing fit into your wealth plan? Set your goals, and make them specific (I use Evernote to keep all of my goals)…

How much do you want to stock away every paycheck, every month, every year? Where do you want to be in 5 years financially? If you could have one financial accomplishment for this month, what would it be? And out of your investing, what are you really trying to achieve? [Read more…]

The First 3 Money Books to Read for the Young Professional

By Austin Netzley

Many of us don’t realize what we’re really capable of, or what is even possible. We think that some things are fantasies, and that extraordinary wealth is not for us. I was there. I didn’t really know, or hang out with, anyone that was truly wealthy growing up. I never believed that making 6 figures before the age of 25, or living downtown of a big city was a real possibility for me. But they became reality. And it started with just learning what opportunities and how much abundance there are in the world.

There are a few ways to start learning what you can truly achieve. The two best are ways are 1) to learn directly from others, and 2) start reading books. Books opened up a world of possibility to me, including helping me:

See what options I have for a career (you can seriously do anything you want, no joke!).
Realize that these successful people I admire are no different or no better than me; they are real, and have their ups and downs.
Improve my confidence to step into the unknown and out of my old envisioned path.
Learn the specific strategies to tackle success in the quickest manner.

And books can do the same for you. The smartest 1% of people read more than 1 book per month, on average.

Three great books that will teach you some founding principles of wealth are:

1. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill, a depression-era author, dedicated over 22 years of his life to study the extraordinarily successful business people at that time – think Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Theodore Roosevelt, and so on. From his research of over 500 people, he found some key lessons that can be used by any single person to achieve massive success, and an abundance of wealth.

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

The key to wealth is to develop the proper mindset. In our school system, we are not taught what wealth really is or how to obtain it, so we have to develop this elsewhere. Learning what is possible, and then how to think about wealth is absolutely vital to achieving and maintaining wealth. The wealthy view things differently than the average person, and Napoleon walks readers through exactly how to do that. He develops 13 principles one must know to Think and Grow Rich: [Read more…]

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What is Wealth?