Or maybe for you it means having the freedom to choose how to spend your time and live your life?
Whatever it is, I invite you to define it for yourself if you want to experience it one day.
Many of us were raised with limiting beliefs’ programming. This external conditioning implies that you are confined to a certain level of possibilities in your life that is restricted by things like your parents’ social status, your race, religion, education, country of origin, etc.
It is often so deeply ingrained in our minds that we often sabotage ourselves and have no idea that we have these “blind spots”! It’s really hard to think and live wealthy when your perception of what’s possible for you is defined by your past, or your current challenges, or others’ opinions.
The good news is that it’s a complete and shameful lie.
You are powerful by design.
You are only limited by your own imagination and beliefs’ system.
You and only you can make the decision to live your best life, to experience abundance and joy or… to complain and compare yourself with others who seem to have everything that you would like to have. Yes, it’s a matter of choice. (more…)
I recently saw the statistics that 60 % of baby boomers are more afraid of running out of money in their retirement than they are afraid of death. Millennials are buying cryptocurrencies, often using their credit cards, with hopes of become overnight millionaires.
Over 70% of businesses fail within the first 5 years because of cash flow problems.
From my personal experience and observations, awareness of your money habits, planning your financial future, and having financial discipline are the most critical factors for creating a comfortable retirement.
As Robert Kiyosaki once said, “It’s not how much money you make that matters most, but how much money you keep. How hard it works for you and how many generations you keep it for.”
Making a good living does not automatically put you in the “more than enough” or “affluent” category. Because it’s not just about how much you earn but also what you do with what you earn. Do I hear “Yes”?
Now let’s go over different ways you can choose to manage your competing financial priorities.
If you want to become financially independent, one of the most important skills you must acquire is managing your money intentionally, so that regardless of your current income, you become richer every month and every year.
How do you accomplish this?
By managing your competing financial priorities while saving and growing your money.
When it comes to managing your financial priorities, it’s a good idea to be aware of the three human biases that may affect you financial choices and decisions.
The Present Bias
As a human being, you are wired to take care of immediate needs first, making sure your essential requirements for food, shelter and security are met. So it’s understandable that when current, short-term financial needs and goals compete for your attention, saving for the future gets neglected. For example, when you focus on car and home repairs, your kids’ day-care or private school, or a new heating/cooling system, your long-term savings for big purchases such as education, financial emergencies, or retirement go to the back burner.
The famous Hierarchy of Human Needs by psychologist Abraham Maslow outlines the progression of human needs and human awareness as we ascend from meeting our immediate survival needs to the need to feel fulfilled and self-actualized.
We like to say: “Live in the moment”, right?
Right, but not when it comes to your money; with money you must be intentional.
Most people have difficulty envisioning distant events. It’s easy to envision, associate with and express immediate financial needs. This is something that financial professionals refer to as “the present bias.” The “present bias” makes you handle competing financial goals by assigning your highest priority to immediate needs and nearest goals, and overlooking the long-term financial priorities.
The Availability Bias
The availability bias is another mental pitfall when you are very comfortable with your current available income and assume that you will always have it. So, why bother thinking about long term financial goals?
While this bias pertains to all humans, it’s especially common among new entrepreneurs and famous sports figures, who often go through feast/famine experiences and some end-up in financial ruin. Many of the currently well-off folks treat their businesses or contracts as their piggy banks that are available to cover any and all desires.
The Busy-bee Bias
The busy-bee bias is very common among highly paid professionals who are so busy making money that they don’t make time to plan how they can grow it, let alone how they can make their money work for them!
These people rely heavily on the easily available information and often don’t do their due diligence on the accuracy of the advice and integrity of the source from which they receive their financial advice. As the result, they put more value on the easily available solutions rather than more strategic ones and end up disappointed.
The tendencies and biases I have mentioned often cause people to spend everything they are currently earning. They want to enjoy their money to the fullest while they can, or save and invest first for their family’s educational goals, rather than diversifying their savings across different financial priorities like planning their financial future, retirement, health-related needs, and creating financial independence.
More often than not, goals like buying a new car or a house, financing private school or college tuition for your kids, become top priorities relative to retirement or financial independence goals. However, you don’t want to burden your kids by depending on their financial support when you get older, right?
So, how can you manage competing financial priorities, the immediate and the upcoming ones? The solution may be as simple as asking yourself if the financial priorities you’re focusing on now are really the most important ones, given your overall goals in life, not only your immediate needs.
Here are two simple questions you can ask yourself:
What are my short and long term priorities in life?
What are my core values that help me experience more joy and fulfillment in life?
The answers to these questions will help you sort out your financial priorities.
For example, one of my core values is FREEDOM. I can be content driving an older car, leading a modest lifestyle and wearing stylish but not necessarily designer clothes and shoes. However, I am willing to do whatever it takes to achieve financial independence so that I can have the Freedom of Choice in my life.
Now, pause and write down answers to the two questions above.
Share your experiences in the comments. I would love to know how you manage your competing financial priorities.
And here’s the recording of the mini-class on this topic
As excited as you may be about this idea, you need to recognize that there is an inherent risk in cryptocurrencies. This is a brand-new market. So, I want you to remember that the risk of a 100% loss is ALWAYS present in cryptocurrencies. That’s why I urge you to go small should you decide to invest in this space.
Investing $100- $400 is small enough to cause you only minor financial pain if one of your cryptocurrencies goes bust… But it’s still big enough to create real wealth for you if only few become a major success.
The smart approach is to build yourself a “basket” of different cryptocurrency plays. Some of them will become superstars. Others will be good winners. And a few will go to zero.
So, don’t go crazy!! Don’t invest all your investing funds in one particular cryptocurrency – diversify with well respected cryptos. Do your research. Join cryptocurrencies forums. Be calm. Be rational. Stick your toe in the water with just $100, or $200 in each of ideas you want to test. Get started, and see where the game will take you.
The blockchain technology is young… the cryptocurrencies market is young… and it’s changing every day. That might make you a little nervous. Usually, conservative, rational investors like to stick to known, stable, predictable investments. Warren Buffet publicly shared his distrust of this new digital money.
However, there is another side of the story. Blockchain is a budding new technology. It’s an exciting, massive new movement and a trend that you may want to be part of. After all, when you can get in at the ground level of such an opportunity (and I believe that we’re still at that phase), you have a chance to plant seeds for the life-changing wealth.
You can do that… while being smart about it. All that means is that you need to invest sensibly, start small, and avoid risking more money than you’re willing to lose.
I recommend allocating no more than 3-5% of your total net investing money in cryptos. In other words, of all the money you have to invest, only put 3-5% of that toward these investments. From there, you can take even smaller positions in each individual cryptocurrency.
Remember: It doesn’t take much to turn a small stake of $100, $500, or even $1,000 into the life-changing wealth.
As I write this post, the stock market in the US had one of the biggest day declines in the history (4.6% in one day), then turned around and jumped up the next day. Bitcoin price too fell below $7,000 from its highs of $20,000 in 2017. Does it mean that the cryptocurrencies are heading to the graveyard?
If you’re really interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies, sign up for my 4-day Masterclass “Bitcoin, Your Money and Building Wealth” and get a lot of specific details about investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies while managing your risk.
I want you to see the big picture of building wealth. Cryptocurrencies could be part of your portfolio but very small part. The key element to building lasting wealth is to diversify your investments.
“I am sorry, but your baby girl is unlikely to survive.” I was in my early 20s, a young mama who just received the worst possible news after being in excruciating labor pain. My then husband was miles away. I had to make a decision about my firstborn – fight or accept this fate. Stubborn me, I refused to accept doctors’ forecast and decided to do whatever it takes to save my baby. WHATEVER. IT. TAKES. While other mothers enjoyed spending time with their newborns, I couldn’t even hold her in my arms until I signed off the release document and took her home under my own responsibility. She was one month old….
This was one of my biggest life-defining moments.
My next defining moment was a decision to leave the country of origin. You see, I was born and grew up in what used to be called USSR – a place where personal freedom, legal system and respect for human rights didn’t have the same meaning as in the US. Massive corruption, discrimination, and lack of respect for personal dignity made me feel suffocated. I didn’t see my future in this country and decided to leave, somehow. My desire for personal freedom was bigger than fear of unknown. We left EVERYTHING (family, friends, home, bank accounts) and traveled across several countries without passports and money (that’s’ what soviets did to those who challenged them).
This was indeed another life-defining moment…
We traveled through Austria and Italy, surviving with odd job here and there, until we received a visa to come to the US. My first job in the US was a minimum-wage florist assistant. I was soooo grateful to be able to support my family while learning English. Then I decided that I want to work on Wall Street. It seemed like impossible goal at first. But the compound effect of many small steps, determination, and patience led me to a prestigious professional career, working for major Wall Street companies.
But corporate America is not a good fit for independent thinkers and self-starters. You are expected to conform. I started to feel stuck, feel like I was dying inside… My work lost meaning to me and a comfortable 6-figure salary was not enough to compensate for the emptiness inside. I reached the tipping point… and left. And not only I left my work but my 22-year marriage as well. Was I scared? TERRIFIED! But strangely, I also felt EXCITED that I finally could create the life on my terms.
These 2 decisions – to leave my marriage and my job – happened at the same time and were yet another defining moment in my life….
You know that a road to success is always under construction. My road to success was still uncharted. After I graduated from the prestigious business school, I couldn’t find a job (at this time, it was an economic crisis in the US) and struggled financially. I started an investment company and failed miserably while managing my business partners’ investments. But that was not all. I became depressed and felt like a total FAILURE. My identity was linked to my job/business, marriage, my social status and all of it was suddenly GONE. I felt ALONE, BROKE, and BROKEN. I didn’t see any future for myself. The only option left was… to surrender.
With all the other challenges that I had in my life, this one was the most painful. Yes, I can say that this was THE Defining moment. It became my awakening experience – I had to embrace my humility, my flaws and imperfections. I’ve learned to appreciate stillness, choose what to focus on, pay attention to my thinking patterns. I’ve done a LOT of inner work, became more loving and compassionate. And yes, once I became more connected and aware, I finally created my financial independence.
This brings me to my final (most recent one) defining moment – a decision to become a financial empowerment mentor for women. I chose to use my story – both failures and successes – and compiled all my experiences into a winning strategy that I call The Millen-aire Method. I now share this 4-dimensional Wealth Building strategy with other powerful women who are not willing to settle for anything less than extraordinary lives.
That’s a short rundown of my life’s defining moments. As you can see, what you have and where you are now doesn’t define WHO you are and WHERE you can be.
How about you? What is YOUR most recent defining moment?
My intention and my mission is to shift the money game from an “adviser-centered” model to a “customer-centered” model. Let me clarify what I mean here.
You have likely used, are currently using or plan to use a financial adviser or a financial planner. And I am not saying you shouldn’t – it’s not my place to say what you should or shouldn’t do. However, I know too many people who got burned by using financial adviser and lost thousands, some even hundreds of thousands of dollars… So, why is it happening?
Well, one of the reasons is that when these people went to see the adviser, they were not really financially educated about their investment options. They delegated managing their money to a person who presumably is trained and licensed to give the best available financial advice as a fiduciary of their money. Right? Well, in theory… yes. In real life – rarely.
You see, the current financial services model has a financial adviser at the center of the financial services’ sphere and a customer – outside of it. When the customer doesn’t know her/his available options or doesn’t even know what questions to ask, the natural inclination is to listen and follow the adviser since s/he ‘knows better’ by the fact that it’s what the advisers do.
However, the caveat here is that financial advisers are no really impartial since they get paid by the financial institutions (banks, brokerage companies, other financial service companies), who issue the financial products that the advisers are selling to you. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon that financial advisers recommend financial instruments that’s/he will receive the most commissions for.
Not only I know many people who had such experiences with financial advisers, I myself had such experiences. At first, when I met my adviser, I liked him because he listened to me, he proposed to review my estate plan, my retirement goals, etc. This liking made me feel relaxed and… buy the suggested financial products (variable index annuity) and outsource the management of my investment portfolio to his team…
Well, after losing thousands of dollars and realizing the discrepancy between his promises and my actual experience, I got back the control of my financial portfolio yet was still stuck with the multi-year contract on the financial products I bought through him. by the way, advisers are often get paid for each year you hold the financial product they sold you.
This frustrating experience and my frank conversations with some advisers made me realize how much power regular folks give away because they lack basic financial education and feel ‘not good enough’ at managing and investing their own money. An assumption that ‘financial professionals’ know best how to invest your money often leads to tremendous frustration and financial losses.
You see, each of us develops patterns – patterns of thinking and acting – including money-related patterns. Every pattern is caused by a set of assumptions. For example, your assumption that you are not good at managing your money (e.g. because someone told you that or because you mismanaged your money in the past) will likely create a pattern of thinking and acting according to this assumption.
And assuming something as a fact, whether it’s true or not, is caused by your perceptions of past experiences. For example, you’ve saved money and owned financial assets, then you got into a relationship with a person who has unhealthy money habits, which led to a loss of all your savings. As a result, your perception could be that you are not a smart money manager or that you are not meant to be wealthy.
Another example: you’ve invested money in the stock market that you saved for the down-payment on a house because you wanted to grow it, but market dropped, and you lost a lot of money… As the result, your perception could be that investing in the stock market is a gamble and you’re better off keeping all you money in cash.
As you can see from these not so hypothetical examples, your perceptions of your past experiences lead to assumptions, which then lead to your patterns of thinking and acting, and ultimately, to your experiences.
That’s why I am convinced that before you get into the “outer game” of money (dealing with your debt, your spending, savings and investing), you must attend to your ‘inner game’ – take a close and honest look at your current beliefs about money, your abilities to manage it and your beliefs about becoming financially free.
Strengthening your inner ecology – your belief system, your inner monologue, your self-confidence and self-competence – will seamlessly shift your energy from a state of repelling money to a state of attracting wealth effortlessly. You’ll get equipped with making savvy money decisions and taking smart decisive actions.
And if you’ve tried different money mindset boot-camps, seminars, all kinds of affirmations and afformations yet nothing worked thus far… it’s because your heart and soul are not there…because you don’t really believe that these affirmations are true for YOU. Your perceptions of previous experiences led to erroneous assumptions that might be slowing you down or even preventing you from living the life you want, deserve and are capable of.
That is exactly the reason I’ve created the Activate Effortless Wealth mentoring training. This is a compilation of my decades-long knowledge and experience about mastering the “inner game”, which affects your financial situation, your relationships, your work and health. Yes, the inner game is the foundation of your success in life.
And not only you’ll get access to the valuable information I offer (no, you cannot google it LOL ), you’ll have me by your side for over 10 weeks and 3 full days during the LIVE Workshop in Florida. And from my personal experience, having an empowering mentor, guide and supporter by your side on your journey to creating the life you want is priceless. Yes, you may get there on your own… eventually. However, working together with me as a team, will accelerate your results 10X.
And here is the final thought. I can certainly help you become unstoppable in your pursuit of more ease, more money, more peace of mind, and more abundance in your life. However, I cannot choose it for you. You need to decide whether YOU are ready to CHOOSE YOURSELF and up-level your life situation. Life is too precious and too short to postpone your plans until next month, or next year, or when XYZ will happen.
