I know someone who makes over $500,000 a year, yet he still worries about losing his job. His concerns come from the illusion that personal wealth is built on how much money you make.
Wealth has nothing to do with your paycheck. In fact, it has everything to do with you NOT having a paycheck.
Wealth as a term has many definitions, and we’re not going to get into the mental, attitudinal ones here. We are simply going to talk about the tangible elements of wealth.
And the one key marker of wealth is the number of weeks your bank account would continue to GROW if you lost your job today. The more weeks you can go without working, the wealthier you are!
For most people, if they lost their job, their bank account would immediately drop with nothing coming in to replace what goes out.
Truly wealthy people are those who, if they stopped working today, would still have cash coming in, through income generators like real estate, stocks, investments and intellectual property.
Action – This all may sound daunting and out of reach for many people. But, with some knowledge gained through reading books like Rich Dad Poor Dad and The Wealthy Barber, along with strong advice from an independent financial consultant, wealth is within your reach.
(Originally broadcast August 15, 2008)