MY BIG STUPID MONEY-MAKING FAILURE
Have you heard of compounding interest? That’s a myth..
I grew up in a poor country. The town where my grandparents live didn’t have electricity and running water until 5 years ago (can you imagine that!).
Almost all the time, I hated when we have to visit my grandparents. It’s not because they are not nice but because there was no TV or lights at night. Added to the insult is that, if I want to take a bath, I have to fetch water from a well that’s a half mile away from my grandparent’s house.
That was their life and I thought it was just a normal life.
When you get used to it, that’s when it becomes normal. But my parents knew better. They always advice us that the only way to get out of situations like that is to get an education.
I did that. After high school, I went up north of the Philippines and studied chemistry.
Then after a brief stint working as engineer, I decided to go to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies. I have to admit, my grades were never high quality for graduate school but I made it.
It was after graduate school that I thought I’ll live life and the money problems will go away.
I was wrong.
Honestly, I struggled dealing with money all my life. Since nobody taught me how to make sense dealing with money.
My mom, my dad, my friends and my neighbors told me to save money. That’s a given and I heard that all the time. I would look for sales in groceries and bargain in most of the stores.
There’s nothing wrong with saving, but if saving is your primary plan to get out of debt or to be financially free, then you are wrong. And this was my first mistake.
Mistake #1. You don’t get rich scrimping and saving.
Gurus advice you to save, save and save. I heard that everywhere, until I read Grant Cardon’e piece in NY Times saying, “If you think not buying that Starbucks Coffee in order to save will make you rich, think again. After 5 years of saving, what do you get, $1,500 in savings? If you think a grand and a half in five years make you rich, think again. You are not only broke but you are also stupid.”
I saved. I look for deals, I look for bargain, but that’s not my primary goal anymore. My primary goal is make more money.
More of this later.
I want to sidestep and move on my next mistake I made.
Mistake #2. The myth of compounding.
When you save, they say that compound interest will make you rich. You save money in the bank or in mutual funds, hoping in the long run it will yield more money. Yeah it does, but it takes so long.
Decent outcome of compound interests takes a long time. That’s what gurus forgot to tell you, that you’ll be rich when you are already dying.
If you can’t wait for another 30 years for your $5000 to grow to $200,000, what will be the best strategy then?
The best advice I heard is to develop a skill that will make you financially stable. So that’s what I did, I studied ways to have side incomes.
At that time, I was working with Department of Defense (DoD) funded projects and I was making good money.
With the extra money, invested on stocks. However, I don’t consider a home run own a beach house in Florida. So, I tried other revenue streams but nothing worked like magic. Options and Forex were the two avenues I tried but failed.
Then after I lost my job, my mind shifted slowly. I didn’t want to work for the man.
I don’t want to be part of the system of trading time for dollars, so I decided to do business.
I dabbled with Amazon selling. I must admit I lost money there. I remember my wife asking me how much I lost, and I said, around $3-$4 k. She looked at me and said, “please, don’t lose money anymore…”.
I promised here I’ll try not to. But I was still in the hunt for owning a profitable business.
If you keep on looking for what you want, you will find it.
After Amazon and having passive investment in stocks, I came across a book about building business.
The book is Experts Secrets by Russel Brunson. To me, it was the go to book for people trying to start an on-line business. If you are confused and lost on starting a business, start with this.
By the way, why own a business?
Because you can turn a huge profit margin with a business. That’s the premise. Only in business where you can invest a dollar and bring home 3 or 4 dollars in the end of the day.
In stocks, you can gain 4 to 5 percent per year, or up to 20% and that’s probably the maximum. That’s just the rule of the financial universe.
Here’s the kicker, if you don’t have a huge investment, 4–5 percent return will not support your pajama lifestyle you been dreaming of. Again, that’s just the rule of the financial universe.
However, if you have a business, you put in 1 dollar in advertising, and gets 2 dollar in the end, you have a million dollar business.
Why? Because your profit purely depends on your advertising budget.
Put money of $10 in advertising, your profit is $10.
Put $100 in advertising, your profit is $100. You get the point? So invest small, know your metrics and then put back your profits back to advertising.
Remember, this is not a quick rich scheme. Every honest advice in business is that there’s no overnight success. It’s a skill you have to develop in the long run.
Here’s my invitation to you then, why not start the journey, and start with the book below.
Oh, did I mention the book is FREE?
Just pay for shipping and handling.
So, click here to get the book for FREE. I must be honest though, this is my affiliate link.
But what the heck, the book is so good, I read it 7 times already.
