Last week, I stumbled upon an old paper with some scribbled notes in my childhood handwriting. In big bold letters, I had written, “WEALTH SECRETS” on the top of the page. I don’t know where I got these points, but they sure make sense. I’ve been thinking about these ideas ever since and wondering why I tucked them away for so long:

1. No one has money problems; we only have attitude problems.

2. Face your fears. After all, the best fishing holes hide in the places where the average fisherman feels afraid to go.

3. Watch where the crowd goes. Go in the opposite direction.

4. All opportunities are disguised as problems.

5. Until you know value, everything is worthless.

6. He who lives by the golden rule gets the gold, too.

7. Money is attracted to great ideas.

8. You are your wealth. The money that flows to you is just a by-product of your non-financial resources.

9. There is no failure, only feedback.

Humans have struggled to gain money and power for centuries. In some places, the desire leads to bloodshed and abuse. The desire for money is constant. If it weren’t, sites like Aridni wouldn’t be around. Creating wealth can be done in positive ways, like the cliché about teaching people to fish instead of feeding them a fish.

The basic formula for financial success on any level is simple. Spend less than you earn. In Charles Dickens’ classic novel, David Copperfield, David noted:

Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, nineteen six. Result: happiness.
Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditure, twenty pound ought and six. Result: misery.

So spend less than you have’what a simple theory with abundant results. Piling debt and fees from overdraft accounts and late credit card payments abound when we step from under the wing of our parents. Building a nest egg is impossible… unless you pinch a few pennies or work a little more to create savings.

I don’t know of any way around debts when you’re young’school loans, mortgages, car loans and credit cards maybe. Some experts think that investing any money while carrying debt is plain stupid. They’re right if your money is sitting in the bank, accomplishing nothing.

Then again, my net worth is growing because I carry debt. My real estate investments are carried by the bank. If I didn’t hold debt on these projects, I wouldn’t be able to have these investments. What’s the correct answer? It depends on the individual. You have to know your desires and goals to grasp just how much money you need to be saving and growing.

The battle for money is all a game. We all have to decide on how much we want and how hard we’re willing to work. As a friend always reminds me, “If making lots of money were easy, then everyone would be doing it.” Everyone isn’t. They’re content with the “rat race”. The question is’are you content?

Last week, I wrote about the three most important steps you need for obtaining financial freedom:
– Setting goals
– Creating behaviors
– Discussing our plans, progress, and reasons for working so hard

What I didn’t mention was THE STRESS! The idea of sipping lattes and drawing game plans sounds relaxing. What a cozy idea! Of course, the stress of time, money, and exhaustion haven’t come into play yet.

The problem, of course, is that nothing is free. After you make the plan, the work begins. A construction company signs a contract to build your office; that’s the easy part over lattes. Then the real work begins; the lattes are gone.

I cannot tell you how many times I have smashed my fingers and sliced my hands in our wealth projects. Before we sought financial freedom, I had no idea what true exhaustion was. I’m so exhausted that I feel like I could pass out by the end of the day. The physical pain is the easiest, though.

Then I have to think about money, scheduling, and time. Problems keep popping up–some I know how to solve immediately. For most, I have no clue. How, for example, do you tap into a sewer line on a budget?

The emotional pain is never so simple as physical. You’re going to argue with your team; you’re not going to agree. The stress levels increase so much that things that don’t matter feel like life and death’for us, these situations have included silver and gold light fixtures both in the same room. Not to mention that sewer! Yeah, this stuff looks dumb now. Business stresses of time and money in your own business will weigh you down. You can’t always look cool.

Combined with stress in your personal life, you’re overwhelming.

After listening to my husband and I discuss lawns last week, Todd has decided that he’ll never get married. But it’s not the marriage, it’s the business. We’re always thinking about it. Always. I’d rather come up with a lawn plan now than add the stress of a dead lawn to my business plans. I also wouldn’t mind another coffee break.

The path toward financial freedom requires some pretty heavy planning. Todd and I seldom divulge much about our personal lives, yet with the decisions that my husband and I have been making, I feel like readers could benefit from some of the ideas we’ve been implementing. As a bonus, Todd can’t argue, “You didn’t tell me that!”

Our idea of money freedom requires:
– Setting goals
– Creating behaviors
– Discussing our plans, progress, and reasons for working so hard

1. Setting goals

The most important factor is that my husband (age 27) and I (age 24) hold the same idea about money. I’ve often read that wealthy men become wealthy through two positive attributes: their spending habits and the even more frugal spending habits of their wives. Am I trying to boost my ego as a wife? No’but I think that we all want to splurge sometimes. You need someone who can remind you that you don’t need that pair of shoes or new computer right now. A spouse with common goals will discourage bad habits and unnecessary desires. Meanwhile, a spouse who acts nonchalant or encourages abundant spending habits could quickly spell disaster.

My husband and I go to coffee shops to compile our thoughts on work, school, and schedules. We love the youthful environment. My husband announced his resignation at work; detailed ideas of how we’re going to financially support ourselves and our projects without his income are crucial. We’re heading to the coffee shop more often now. Can’t believe I’m going to be the breadwinner for a little while!

Record your finance goals and keep them updated. We update an excel template every month to show our net worth. You need to see where your money is going, areas that are growing, and roughly how much money you need to cover yourself. When one of our rental properties is vacant, we have to cover all those expenses’utilities, mortgage, insurance, taxes’until the property generates income again.

Track your long-term goals. I made a progress chart for us to color each $10,000 growth mark to $1 million like those United Way boards. Every so often, we can fill in another tick when we know it’s stable. Beside our chart is an estimate of how much our net worth needs to grow every six months to keep in target with our final goals. Your estimates will never be exact, though you build something to dream off of.

2. Creating behaviors

I’m surprised at how easy it has been for us to get into some great habits’biking as much as possible instead of driving. My husband even has studded bike tires for his winter commutes; he’s pushing it more than most of us could handle, yet this savings means we don’t need two cars.

The easiest behaviors to change (the ones I prefer most) are the ones you can do once and not look back, like electric bills. Even though we rent a house, my husband replaced the thermostat with a programmable thermostat. We switched to energy efficient light bulbs. When our lease ends, we’re taking our energy efficient items with us to save at our next home. Doesn’t it make sense to cut back on the things you don’t need/use anyway?

Other temptations, however, aren’t so easy to forego‘especially eating out when we don’t want to cook or managing our unproductive time during the weekends. No one is ever perfect, and it’s so easy to see how other people aren’t perfect. The hard part is recognizing bad (i.e. expensive) habits that we have and transforming them. You’ve probably heard of the latte factor, which is a great thing to cut, of course… but what if you don’t have a latte factor habit that you know of? Again, a spouse will let you know… unless he holds the same habits.

3. Discussing plans, progress, and reasons for working so hard

My husband and I work seven days a week, five for someone else and two for ourselves. A quarter of our income transfers hands to another person working on our real estate development. Gaining financial freedom is a process. Quitting would be so easy! For that reason, we constantly talk about our plans and ideas. Don’t put your goals in a time capsule to pull out in ten years and say, “Well, looks like we didn’t quite meet our goal, honey.” We’ve got reminders everywhere in the house… short of the bathrooms, I guess. And the reminders are working.