From £1 per day to £20,000 in Liquid - Part 2 of 8
By Stephen Sutherland, author of Liquid Millionaire.Posted in the Category of ISAS, Investing, Stock Market, Investment Fund, Wealth Building on 25th December, 2009.
Tags: isa, isa investing, liquid millionaire.
How Saving £1 per Day Can Help You Accumulate £20,000 in Liquid Capital
Can you afford to save £1 per day? If you answered yes, I have just the way for you to quickly accumulate your first £20,000 in liquid.
Some people who read my book Liquid Millionaire on how to make millions from ISA investing really loved it – but at the same time they came to the end of the book and were frustrated.
Here’s a couple examples of readers’ comments posted as reviews on Amazon:
“People like me with less than £10,000 will not be able to afford the £6,000 to gain access to the information which could make you richer.”
And…
“…I must say that the service offered looks interesting. I don’t know if I can afford it, not living in the UK.”
I think I know why people like this are frustrated. It’s probably because they don’t have the cash to give them the option of possibly becoming one of my premium clients.
In my previous blog I shared with you a simple 10 Step Strategy to help you save £20,000 and focused on Step 1 - Make a firm decision and commitment to accumulating £20,000. Today I want to share with you some tips on how to actually start making that saving.
Step 2 – Focus on cutting expenses, increasing income and saving.
Once you’ve made a decision, it all gets so much easier. Once you’ve committed to making it happen, all you need is a strategy. It’s exactly like baking a cake. Follow a recipe that works and your cake will be a success.
The recipe to follow is simple. If your goal is to quickly get to £20,000, instead of just focusing on saving, the smart way to do it is to also focus on two other things. The first is cutting expenses and the second is increasing your income.
When you combine cutting your expenses with increasing your income and saving, you will get to your intended goal at a much quicker rate.
Cutting expenses
When people think about cutting their expenses, they clam up. This is normal and natural because of the way we as humans are wired. The thought of change can upset us – especially if we believe that the change will make us worse off. And so you have to have faith in what I say. You see, there is a way that you can cut your expenses without causing any stress, pain or suffering.
You may not believe this is possible, but I can assure you that it is. The only downside is that you are going to have to get organised. But if you are committed, you will do it.
The key to cutting expenses is to realise that we all waste money. I waste money, you waste money and all the people you know and I know waste money. And so the first step is to become aware of where you are wasting money. There is a fast way to do this and there is a longer way. The fast way will not produce as good results as the longer way but I’m going to let you decide which route you take.
The fast way
The fast way is to simply sit down with a pen and paper and think about what you spend your money on. Start with a typical day at work, and then start to think about what you do with your money at weekends.
Then start to look your bank statements. Look at what money comes out weekly and monthly through direct debits.
In no time at all, you’ll have a good handle on what you are spending your money on, and where you could make some cuts.
The better way
The better way is to go into detail and discover where every single penny is being spent. This of course takes longer, but it is worth while. Get yourself a diary and call it your money diary. This is a diary that you are going to keep on you at all times. It’s where you are going to make a note every time you spend money. Do this for a month and at the end of the month, you will have a really good idea about where you are wasting money.
My bet is that you will be seriously shocked at what you discover.
When you make your cuts, make sure that it does not affect your lifestyle in a negative way. Let’s say that you are a person who absolutely loves clothes. If you are mad about clothes, don’t cut your clothes budget.
Now let’s say that you are a person who loves your holidays more than anything. If you are that person, don’t cut your holiday budget.
With this mind, only make cuts in areas that will not make you feel resentful.
Increasing your income
The key to increasing your income is to add value. One way you do this is by increasing your knowledge and skills.
If you are currently in a job that you don’t like, the thought of getting extra training for your role may turn your stomach. And so the key with this is not to think about your current job, instead it’s to think about doing this for yourself because once you have extra skills, you automatically become more valuable.
You also need to think longer term.
When you think long-term, you start to realise that building up more skills and knowledge is going to be extremely beneficial to you, and not just your present employer.
You see, the more skills you have, the more value you have when searching the marketplace for a position that you’d really enjoy.
And I can let you into a secret here about what it is that that business owners are looking for when hiring new people /or thinking about promoting people and giving them a salary increase.
It’s simple really. They are looking for two things. The first thing is competence and the second thing is attitude.
That means you need to work on both. Here’s what I mean.
Attitude
Let’s start with your attitude. A good way to describe attitude is the way that a person thinks and behaves.
A good way to develop a positive attitude is to think “input.”
Input can come from what you hear, what you see and what you feel.
Input affects the way you think, feel and behave. Input influences you, persuades you and molds you as a person.
Here are some examples of input:
• The newspapers, the magazines and the books that you read.
• The television, satellite channels and DVDs that you watch.
• The radio stations and music that you listen to.
• The people you associate with most of the time.
• The way you talk to yourself.
• Your role models.
To create a really powerful attitude, that is going to make you seriously in demand, the rule is:
Stay away from negativity.
That means because newspapers, television and radio are mostly negative and full of bad news, you want to avoid them as much as possible. In other words, keep your input from these sources to a minimum.
You also want to avoid negative people like the plague. Being around the gloom and doomers of the world can really affect your attitude.
The other rule is:
Move towards positivity.
This means trying to get as much positive input in a day as possible. Positive input can come from:
• The way you talk to yourself.
• The books you read.
• The audio programs you listen to.
• The seminars you attend.
• The people you associate with.
• Your boss, co-workers and general workplace.
Your job then is to become aware of – and identify all the ways that you are currently receiving positive and negative input. Once you can see where the negative input is coming from, either stop or seriously cut the time you are spending on it.
On the other hand, you want to spend a lot more time with the people, things and places that you are receiving positive input from. That means your job is to immerse yourself throughout the day in as much positivity as possible.
You can start reading positive and uplifting books. You can watch inspiring films. Observational comedy is fantastic for helping you to develop a winning attitude. Listening to success based education on audio is another way to help you get an edge. Spending time with other positive people is yet another way.
And remember that you always have the power to choose. That means if you are not happy with your current relationship with your spouse, partner, friends, or boss at work, then you can do something about it.
Competence
So now we’ve covered attitude, let’s talk about competence.
It’s no good if you are the nicest person in the world, but you are not competent in the job role that you’ve been assigned for.
For starters, do yourself a favour and ask yourself if you really do hand on heart enjoy the work you do.
If you don’t, quit.
Sounds harsh but we have to remind ourselves that there are no action replays in life. Because time is so valuable, why waste it doing something that is not suited to you?
The way I see things, once you find work you like and enjoy, you don’t mind taking the time out to upgrade your skills in the field you’ve chosen.
And so I suggest that once you’ve found work you love, make a decision to become one of the top ten percent in your field. This is easy when you dedicate your life to continuous learning. By continually working on improving your skills and knowledge, you will become more valuable.
Did you know that reading for just one hour per day in your chosen field can turn you into an expert?
Yes, it’s true. By forming a habit to read for just sixty minutes per day, you read approximately one book per week, fifty books per year. Continue with your reading habit for five years, and you’ll have read 250 books in your chosen field. And if you have been selective in your book choices to read “the best” books in your field written by leading authorities, by default, you automatically become an authority yourself.
And when you become an authority in any subject, you can command a very high income.
Twin working on your skills and knowledge in your field with this with work immersing yourself in positivity and you are going to fly, baby, fly!
The ultimate goal is to make yourself indispensable to your employer or customers. There should be only you who can do what you do and that makes you extremely valuable. If you have a boss, you have to think like they think. You have to think about the amount of money that your boss would have to pay to find a suitable replacement if you left.
And if you are a person with a great attitude and you are extremely competent and seen as either one of the top ten percent in your field, or an authority in your field, your value to the market place is automatically supercharged.
Saving
Do you currently save part of your income? – If you said that you don’t have any money left to save after all the bills get paid, join the club.
This is a trap by the way. It’s also the “me too” game. The only way that you are going to get your first £20,000 is to start saving. If you already have a good saving habit, good for you.
But some people who have a good saving habit often do a great job of saving, but then decide to spend it on things that are not going to make them wealthy.
Find Out More
If you would like to find out more about how having £20,000 to invest could help make you a liquid millionaire then please contact a member of my team for a chat.
Your friend,
Stephen Sutherland
The UK’s Leading Authority in ISA Trend Investing and Author of Liquid Millionaire
Please Note: As always, let me remind you that I am not a financial adviser and therefore not authorised to give advice on what investments to buy or sell.
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