I would really love to do that but I just don't have the money. Well, stick
around because today you get to learn how can I solve my money problem. Every
problem we face is a problem with thinking. I know you're here because you
think you have a money problem. That might be the problem. You're thinking, I
mean. We have to get to the bottom of our thinking problems in order to solve our
money problems. I can tell you if you think money is the problem, you don't
really have a problem. Because there are principles that will allow you to solve
any money problem. Let's start with this one: Get real about income and expense.
The short version for solving any money problem is to have more income than
expense. You follow? What's going to happen if you have more income than
expense? Will you have a money problem? No. So, you got to get real about it. Now,
what I found is I do counseling and coaching with my clients. Is that
sometimes they try to hide these problems or they try to ignore or avoid
them or not admit them even to themselves. Get real about how your money
is flowing. How much is coming in and from what sources and why is it coming
in. And how much is going out and to whom and why is it going out. These are the
basic starting points. If you don't know what's going on with your income and
expense, how are we going to solve your money problem? So, get real about that.
Start tracking every cent, every dollar. Be meticulous about this to see for real
what's actually going on.Tthat will give us the information that we need to take
the next step. I've got a question for you next. Who's the boss? Who is
the boss? Is it you or is it your money? If you keep blaming money that you can't
do what you want to do then who's the boss? I want you to be the boss. So, once
you get real about your income and expense, I want you to take over control
of this whole dynamic. As the boss, you get to give every dollar a job. You
assign it. Whereas this dollar going to work? A dollar comes in now "Where
am I going to put this to work?" You decide and you put it to work the old
taboo word for this that some people don't want to hear is budget. And budget
is not restriction. Budget is the marching orders that you (the boss) are
going to give to every dollar that comes into your operation. You're the boss.
If you think of a budget as a restriction and "I don't get to do this
because I don't have the budget for it." Well who's creating the budget? If you
want to do it then give the dollars that job. But if you don't have enough dollars
coming in, if you've got more expense than you have income; we have a different
problem. So, what happens if you give $1 a job and then you decide along the line
that you want it to work somewhere else for you? Okay, reassign it. But if you take
it off of the job of paying your rent and you put it on to the job of buying
you a movie ticket then it's not there to pay the rent. Who you're going to have to
do that job? Do you see? This is the idea. You've got the think of them as little
employees. You're going to give every dollar, a job that's crucial. When I said every
year that every problem we face is a problem with thinking, part of the
thinking we have to wrap our heads around is our own relationship with
money. I'm talking from experience, okay? If you've read my book, Pathological
Positivity, it starts out with a chapter called Lightning Strikes. This is a time
in my own life where I should have been set. I should have had this figured out
by now but lightning struck. And I was in the most troubling
and difficult financial circumstances of my entire life. I realized the painful
thing during that period. As I was struggling financially as I had these
huge money problems and I didn't realize it was a problem with thinking. Because I
thought that money had the power to save me. It's almost as if I was bowing down
in worship to the great powerful god of money. And that didn't sit well with me
because I'm a man of faith. And I don't worship that one. But I kind of did at
the time. Think about it. If I believe that money can solve all my problems,
then where am i placing my faith? Huh? That didn't ring well with me. You have a
relationship with money. What is your relationship? Start thinking
about that a little more clearly. And maybe what I've shared with you here
will trigger something for you too. I want you to be the boss of your money. I
don't want it to be your all-powerful being that you worship. As I was coming
through that very difficult time of my life, a friend of mine lent me an audio
book, "The richest man in Babylon" by George Clason. In this book, Mr. Clason
continues to repeat a common theme and that is this: A part of everything you
make is yours to keep. Now, when I heard that... Here's my thought,
I will totally acknowledge where I was at that point. I thought, "Oh, that's very
good advice. As soon as I'm doing better financially, I'm going to take that
advice." Listen to my thinking. How prideful is that? It's like I'm saying, "Oh,
you know what wise Mr. Clason who wrote and sold thousands of copies of his book
on Finance, mr. genius, mr. guru of the financial world, that's great advice but
I'm going to figure out through my own staggering brilliance how to
become better off financially. And then a wise sage of the dollar, then I will take
your wise advice." Do you see how prideful that is? Do you see how I was getting
stuck in my own thinking and I realized I needed to humble myself to receive
this wise counsel from someone who has reasons to know. My relationship with
money was such that I was not only worshiping it but I thought that somehow
I had the brilliance to come up with all the principles that obviously I was
missing. Because that's how I ended up in that position. I invite you to just get
real about that for a minute. And that advice I am now passing on to
you. Part of everything you make is yours to keep. That means that you are going to
take a little portion of the dollars that come into your life and you will
assign them to work in that particular area. And these little employees, you
never want them to be consumed. So you're going to put them somewhere where all of
the people who are coming after the money don't have access to it. A part of
everything you make is yours to keep. Vicki and I started doing that as we
were able to humble ourselves and accept that advice and it changed the game
entirely. This is powerful. A part of everything
you make is yours to keep. And now finally, I alluded to this earlier. You
have to produce more than you consume. A friend of mine, Jeff McGee told me over
dinner once. Now, Jeff is a brilliant psychologist. He consults with fortune
500 companies and he speaks on stages all over the world and he is a powerful
business consultant. I'm having dinner with my friend, Jeff McGee. And he looks
across the table after I told him about my financial problems, my money problems.
And he said, "Paul, you suck." I'm like, "Thanks, Jeff I love you too." He's like, "No, I mean
that in the most loving way. You suck resources. You're
consuming more than you produce. It's evident in your financials." You cannot
sustain that. You have to produce more than you consume. And the light started
to go on for me at that point. The answer to every financial problem is this:
Produce more than you consume. Remember in step one we're getting real about
income and expense, that's why you have to do it. If you see from your financials
that you suck too like I did. That you're consuming more than you produce, that's
the problem. And that brings up different questions. It's not where can I find more
money. It's how can I create or produce more value for other people. Think about
it. If you need a certain amount of money, does that money exist? That's a real
question. Think about it. Does that money exist? I mean somewhere in this world?
Well, yeah. Obviously, it does. Okay, where? Where? Some people will say "Oh, out there
somewhere. I don't know. It's.." No, get clear. It's either in your pocket or it's in
someone else's. True? So, if it's not in your pocket right now, where is it? It's
in someone else's pocket. Why would they give it to you? It's a legitimate
question. Think about why would they give it to you? And the only moral answer to
that is that you have created or produced some kind of value for them. For
which there is an exchange, they will happily give you the money that's in
their pocket for the value that you have to offer to them. So, the question becomes
how can I produce more value for more people? That's where the answer to your
money problems will be found. It's a little more self-disclosure than you
usually get from me. I want you to know why I understand these principles. If you
want to help your kids with these, there's another video. You can click on
right up here about how to teach your kids about money. And I think you'll
enjoy some of the points in that episode as well.