I Know Why You Are Here Neo
(Matrix reference – if you know, you know)
I know you’re here because of the title . . . and the title is 100% true! I will get to the how soon but first I wanted to talk to you about the why!
Why has my investment account grown to over £150k in just 1 year when I was only earning between £30 – £40k? I have made more money in 1 year than the last 4 years combined and it took me about 30 minutes of clicking a few buttons on my laptop which still blows my mind!
The answer isn’t because of 1 strategy which I know is what you were looking for when you clicked on this blog.
I was exactly the same (I still am slightly). I would click on videos, courses and strategies looking for the answer, looking for the next big thing, the next get rich quick scheme.
But while I’ve been on this crazy journey I have realised the answer to making more money is not in some strategy, course or book – yes these all help and give you little pieces of the jigsaw . . . . . . but the answer is within US!
My investment account has only changed because I have changed! I am a different person this year to who I was last year (or the year before). If I was still doing the same things I was doing last year, I would still have the same results that I had last year!
I started looking for the next get rich slowly strategy. Yes it’s not sexy is it? Come and buy my get rich slowly course . . it doesn’t have the same ring to it does it? But it’s the only proven method that is GUARANTEED to work!
I can teach you how to get rich slowly . . . It’s EASY! Anybody can do it . . . . yes even you!
It’s a simple 3 step process . . . .
Are you ready?
You might want to take notes . . .
1, Save 10% of your income – and invest it
2, Lower your expenses
3, Raise your investments by the same amount that you are lowering your expenses
That’s it!
I know you are already telling yourself you can’t do this!
“I can’t afford to save 10%”
That’s what I used to think too. But what if the government raised taxes tomorrow by 10%? You would have to just work around it because that money would be gone before you even get your wages.
That is what you need to do to yourself! Your future self is taxing your current self 10% of your wages, so you automate it. As soon as the money lands in your account 10% is whisked off straight into another account before you pay even 1 bill!
You would manage, just go out for a couple less takeaways, or make sandwiches rather than eating lunch out at dinner time, take a coffee into work instead of daily Costa coffees I know you could do it if your life depended on it!
And your life DOES depend on it! If you don’t start now you will be working 9-5, 5 days a week until you are 70! Is that really the life you are choosing for yourself? Because that just wasn’t an option for me! That is my WHY (or my why NOT even)! If I feel myself going off track I use that image to bring me back to my goals.
If you really can’t afford 10% what can you afford? 5%? 1%? You can afford something. It’s not the amount that is important at the start, it is building the habit and the plan of how you are going to scale it that is.
It’s important that this is a percentage and not a figure because if you just say I’m saving £200 it will just stay at £200 forever, but we want a figure that increases as our wages increase.
So if you start at 5% this month crank it up to 7% in 3 months then 10% after 6 months and you will hardly notice it. Then try to keep dialling it up 1% a month as you lower your expenses. If you get a pay rise make sure you dial it up even more.
Honestly as you see this investment account growing you will become excited about your future. Logging into your investment account becomes exciting not depressing.
Think of anything you enjoy in your life, were you always good at it? Whether it is playing football, climbing, playing an instrument, running whatever it is there is something that comes to mind as soon as I mention what do you enjoy.
Now have you always been good at it? Probably not! Have you made some mistakes along the way? Lost a football match? Fell off the bike? Of course you have!
What did you do, just give up and never try again? No, you practiced harder, you got back on the bike, you had another go, you got better, you improved, you became interested and read books, watched videos, took courses, you found other people that were better than you at this hobby and you asked them questions, you learned from them but what do we do with money? The complete opposite!
We’ve never been taught about money. Our parents didn’t have much money and now we don’t have much money . . . it’s funny how that happens isn’t it? Our Nan and Grandad were the same too . . . . . crazy!
Is that just because “money doesn’t grow on trees”, or because “they were born with money”, “money isn’t important”, “you need money to make money”, “money is the route of all evil”.
This is the reason we, our parents, our friends and our grandparents don’t have much money. It’s not because we’re unlucky, or because we haven’t stumbled upon the secret answer or won the lottery (and that’s not how most people become wealthy either). It’s because we tell ourselves these made up limiting beliefs constantly all day long!
Stop Taking Advice From People Who Don’t have The Results That You Want!
Would you take fitness advice from a fat person? I know it sounds harsh but you wouldn’t would you?
Some big 20 stone guy telling you how to run a marathon or lift weights (unless it’s 20 stone of pure muscle of course haha). It’s a funny analogy because we all know that would be ridiculous “you stick to your pizza and chips big guy, I’ve got this”.
But when it comes to our finances we listen to everyone around us WHO ALSO DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY!
Which is like taking fitness advice from the fat guy!
So next time anyone tries to give you saving or investing advice either just ignore them or ask them how their investments are going.
Some questions you can ask them are . . .
“Oh right, how much do you have in your investment account”?
“Do you invest into low cost index funds or pick stocks yourself”?
“What return did you make on your investment portfolio last year”?
They will either answer these questions honestly if they have even the slightest bit of investment knowledge or they will start babbling about not having enough money, time, how the market is bad at the moment or some other reason as to why they haven’t started yet, but either way you can quickly work out if this is a person you should be taking investment advice from or not.
Start Talking About Money
YES REALLY!
I know it might seem awkward at first but how can you and your partner get on the same page about money if you don’t even talk about it?
Poor people hate rich people because all they do is talk about money . . . . but that’s how you get better at managing money! It’s no longer a taboo subject that you feel embarrassed about, and the more you start accumulating the more interested you become in it!
Money is just a tool, it’s a piece of paper (or plastic now, and soon to be just numbers on a screen) that can buy you experiences to enhance your life. So why wouldn’t you become interested in it, and want more of it? You shouldn’t be ashamed of wanting more money so stop with the guilt and shame thoughts RIGHT NOW!
You don’t want lots of money to be greedy, you want it to have more amazing experiences with your friends and family. You could even donate a lot of it to charity (and most wealthy people do) but we have to make some first!
Stop Buying Things That Go DOWN In Value
If I said to you “go and take out a £25k loan and buy Bitcoin with it” you would think I was crazy. You definitely wouldn’t do it, but most people wouldn’t think twice about going out and buying a £25k car. But we know before we buy the car that in 10 years time it will be worth £3k. So we KNOW we are going to lose £22k before we even buy it because it’s guaranteed depreciation.
“Oh but it’s only £300 a month” we tell ourselves, and try to justify our purchase to our family, “just look how nice it is . . . and the safety features” bla bla bla!
The funny thing is, that Bitcoin investment would probably be worth 100k or even 500k in 10 years time! So why are we so afraid of investing?
Because we’re taught (by parents, friends, media, fat people LOL) that the stock market and crypto are risky.
Go and ask someone who has already invested in these assets that go UP in value if they too think these are dangerous (remember we want to start asking people who have the results that we want for advice, not the same people that are stuck where we are).
It’s just a mindset shift!
So How Did I Make Over £150k in 1 Year?
Ok I’ll stop teasing now! The title wasn’t click bait I have actually made over £150k this year using pretty much the exact same example that I used above! YEP that crazy opportunity that most people would never take in a million years.
I didn’t take a loan out, but I re-financed my house to buy another buy to let property but then covid hit and I had all this money sat in my bank and I couldn’t even view a house so I started investing into stocks and shares, taking courses, joining groups, asking questions, becoming interested in investing and looked into Bitcoin and where it had come from and where it could go and thought wow!
So I took half of my money (£25k) and I bought 3 Bitcoin with it and then I just left it alone. I didn’t watch it everyday, I didn’t get excited when it shot up, and I didn’t panic when it crashed I literally just left it alone and completely disconnected myself from that money.
I went into the investment with a 10 year time frame, not a 1 week time frame and I was fully prepared to watch it go to zero if I had to because I believed in the long term vision and I weighed up the risk of Bitcoin going to zero vs making 2, 3, 5, 10x and felt the odds were stacked in my favour, and at least I had a chance of doubling my money. When you buy a new car there is a 100% chance your money will eventually go to zero haha!
But most people can’t do that. They would of watched it go up and make them £5k and they would of taken it all out, or even worse they would of seen it crash down to £15k and then taken it all out, which is what most new investors do.
They then tell themselves the stock market or crypto is dangerous and only professionals can make money in it. But it was their mindset that was the problem, they got scared (or excited) and panicked, which is completely normal but remember how we get better at something, we learn from our mistakes and get back on the bike.
I lost £2k in 2017 by investing into a Bitcoin CFD that I didn’t understand (I won’t explain CFDs on this blog, just stay WELL away lol). I’ve lost a few thousand in other investments I didn’t understand along the way too but I kept dusting myself off and just going again.
We do this in all other areas of our life but not with our finances, we shut down, give up, become ashamed or embarrassed, and that’s why I have started this blog, to hopefully document my own journey from rags to riches and show that anybody can do this.
What I did then was when it hit 3x (if 1x is my initial £25k, 3x is when my investment hit £75k) I then took out my initial investment of £25k leaving £50k still invested how amazing is that? So from then on I was completely risk free so even if it crashed down to zero I had all my money back out and was playing with the ‘house’s money’.
I’ve gone into a few other coins now too which is how I’ve made another 3x on that money but it was that initial investment and mindset shift that sparked this whole life changing journey.
So If It’s that Easy Why Isn’t Everybody Doing It?
Mindset!
As I’ve said all through this blog, it is my mindset that enabled me to make this money, not a secret strategy, course, or get rich quick scheme. Most people would never dream of taking money out of their house to invest in other opportunities because we’re taught to buy a house, pay it off and just sit on that money until we die, then pass it to our kids for them to do exactly the same.
I’m not saying it is the right thing for you to do either, so please don’t just dive straight into a crypto investment (see disclaimer below) but what I am saying is if you don’t have any money, or you’re not where you want to be in life, it is your mindset that is keeping you where you are not the government, your employer, your upbringing or any other reason, it is YOU!
When I stopped blaming other people, government/corporate entities or ‘the system’ for why I wasn’t where I wanted to be (which is the easiest excuse to avoid guilt and shame) and started blaming myself for every issue in my life, that is when I really started moving forward!
If your career, relationships, bank account, health, fitness, family life is not where you want it to be stop blaming everyone else and start to ask yourself “How am I complicit in creating the conditions for my life that I don’t want.” Tim Ferriss
You have all the capabilities within you to be, do and have whatever it is that you desire so stop giving yourself 1 million reasons why you CAN’T do something and start giving yourself 1 million reasons why you CAN do it!
How do some millionaires go bankrupt but then make it all straight back a year or 2 later? The same reason!
I believe in you!
Disclaimer
Nothing in this blog should be considered financial advice. The author is just sharing information and ideas he has either formed himself through his own experience or that he has read up on from other sources. Please do your own research before making ANY investment or financial decision. Money and finances are one of the leading causes of depression and divorce, please treat your finances with the respect they deserve. The author and this blog/website accept no responsibility for any financial loss or hardship as a result of blindly following any of the information contained within.
