- What is the one habit
that will make you poor forever?
Now before I teach you that one habit,
let me ask you a question.
Why do you want more money?
Comment below.
Why do you want more money?
Now for most people they would say,
"oh, because I want to buy a new house.
"I want to buy a new car.
"I want to buy a new watch.
"I want to be able to buy that new dress,
"that new pair of shoes.
"I want to pay off by debt.
"I want to be able to do whatever I want.
"I want freedom.
"I want to take that vacation.
"I want to help my family.
"I want to impact people."
So comment below, why do you want more money?
I believe every one of us has a money story.
Now, what is a money story?
I believe it is a story
that is a turning point in your life
when you first recognize the importance of money,
and why we need money.
Now, for some it may be
when you were a little kid.
The first time you go to your parents
you know, you say, "I want that candy.
"I want that toy.
"I want that little toy car.
"I want that doll.
"I want whatever it is."
You go to your parents and they say to you,
"No.
"What?
"You think money grows on trees?
"We don't have money.
"We can't afford it."
Now, that could be your money story,
or your story could be
that maybe when you were going through high school
you didn't have a lot of money,
and you were wearing the same pair of pants,
and same pair of shoes every day,
and your friends, they laugh at you, right?
"Oh man, why you don't wash your clothes?
"You wear the same thing again and again."
And you registered that,
"Okay.
"Darn it, I need to look a little different."
Or they have the new cell phone,
and you don't have the new cell phone.
They have the latest computer,
and you don't have the latest computer.
You're like, "darn it, I want that thing.
"I need to make some money."
Right?
Maybe that's your first encounter with money.
Or maybe it is a time
that is when your family needed help.
That they need financial help.
Maybe they need medical help,
but you're not able to provide,
and you remember that.
My money story was when I first
was going through high school,
and one time when I came home,
I saw my mom in the bedroom,
I was in the living room.
And I eavesdropped,
and she was having a conversation with somebody
and I could hear her crying on the phone.
So I knock on her door and I say,
"Mom, is everything okay?"
And she opened the door and she said,
"No, everything is fine.
"I'm just talking to your father."
And later on she told me that my dad
actually went bankrupt in Hong Kong.
That his business partner basically took
all of his money and disappeared.
And that left him with almost over
a million dollars in debt, in US dollars.
So he had to file for bankruptcy,
and he could no longer support us financially,
and he could no longer send us allowance.
We were kind of on our own.
And my mom has never worked a day in her life.
She was just a housewife.
She sacrificed and spent all that effort
just taking care of me and raising me as a child.
And in a country where we don't speak English,
and my mom still can't speak English.
In a scenario like that,
I learned about the importance of money.
I learned that not having money equals pain.
Not have money equals lack of security.
Not having money equals,
being a disappointment for your family.
That's kind of my first encounter with money.
Now, what has this to do
with the one habit that will make you poor?
So I want you think back and comment below,
think back your money incident, your money story.
When was the first time that you got it.
That you're like, "oh, I need money.
"I need money to survive.
"I need money to do whatever.
"I need money to solve this problem.
"I need money in order to do this X or Y thing."
And suddenly, finally I'm having a little bit of money.
I'm having a little bit of success.
I wanted to show off.
I want to show people that,
"hey, you know what?
"I am smart.
"I am somebody.
"I am not the invisible kid in high school.
"Look at me.
"Look at how good I am.
"I'm better than you."
It was all ego driven and it was all pride driven.
I was getting a new car every year.
I was buying all kinds of stuff that I don't need.
If you really think about why you want money,
and you might want all these things, but my guess is,
when you go deeper, you actually go deeper,
I believe we are actually going after a certain feeling.
A certain feeling that I want.
A certain feeling that you want.
Now, you may be thinking,
"No, Dan, I don't care about the materialistic things."
No, you're still going after something.
Maybe you wanted freedom, you want to travel.
You want to be able to work from home.
You want to be able to impact other people.
You want to be able to help the charity
that you want to support.
There's something that you're after.
You're just going after it in a different way.
Does that make sense?
We're after certain emotions that money can provide for us.
So what happens is, then we want to buy those things.
We want to buy things that gives us those emotions
to make us feel good.
And that's how most people end up
spending money we don't have.
Buying things that we don't need
to impress the people that we don't even freaking like.
And that's what I did, for a period of time.
For a long period of time I thought,
that's what it is.
You have money, you spend it.
Right?
You buy things, you buy cool things.
You buy the next thing and you think that next thing
would give you that feeling,
that emotion that you are craving for.
Not there.
And you think, "no, maybe that next thing would be it."
And it's still not it.
Right?
And I was chasing these emotions.
"Okay, if I do this and do this then I will finally get it."
What I didn't recognize is,
that's actually not how it works.
The habit is if you always want to buy things
to make yourself feel better,
to be validated, to prove other people wrong.
You'll always be poor.
Instead if you feel good about yourself,
you have a healthy self image.
You don't care about these things.
You buy these things not because
you want to prove somebody wrong,
because you want to show off,
you want to do whatever.
You buy them simply because you like them.
You buy them because you enjoy them,
it gives you comfort.
And money is simply a tool.
It gives you comfort.
It gives you peace of mind.
Right?
I gives you time.
Yes, money allows you to buy time.
Allows you to have more choices in life.
You can say no to things,
because you don't really need the money.
So, think about in your own life,
how much money you spend, be very honest,
you spend to impress others.
And instead of spending that money to impress,
what if, you spend that money to invest?
Invest in yourself, invest in your own self education,
invest in things that would enrich your life
emotionally, spiritually.
Invest in experiences that you will always remember.
Invest in that.
So, spend money to invest,
don't spend money to impress.