Some things never change, and certain truths are
universal. As it happens, this applies to the age old topic
of money, as well. At any time in history, no matter what the current state
of the economy, no matter what the current trends, no
matter what the unemployment rate is or where
interest rates lurk, some money-making truths are set in
stone, and remain true across time in all different kinds
of economies. Some of you may have heard of these ideas before,
others may be entirely new to you. But whether you are
familiar with these super secrets or not, it will be well
worth your while to put them into effect in your own
life. The magic they will work on your financial life is
guaranteed. These money-making ideas are just waiting
for you to bring them to life. We urge you to put them
to work for you - any one of these could change your
life! Let's get started! Amazing Money Tip #1: The great scientist Albert Einstein once said, "It takes a
genius to see the obvious." What he meant by that is
that sometimes the simplest things in life are the most
powerful ... but because they are so simple, we tend to
ignore them, and not let them work for us. One of the simplest but most powerful money making
ideas is this: Keep a daily log of everything you spend.
Go to the dime store and buy a little notebook. Carry it
with you wherever you go. Write down every penny -
every single penny - you spend every day. It's as simple
as that. If you do this, you will find something magic happening
in your financial life in just a few weeks. There is something incredibly powerful about writing
down all your expenditures. It makes the flow of money
through your life more real and exact. It shows you
simply and clearly just where you are spending your
money, on what and why. Once you know that, it
becomes much easier to control your spending. Many people who have taken up this practice have not
only learned something about themselves which they
never knew before, but they are often astounded. For example, one woman realized through examining
her notebook that she actually spent nearly $2,000 per
year on diet soft drinks, snacks and candy bars! Since
her job as a office clerk brought her a scant $12,000 per
year, she realized that one-sixth of her entire income
was being frittered away on something entirely frivolous. The woman gave up the snacks and drinks,
and found she had enough money to afford health
insurance - plus has $400 left over. If you could choose
snacks or health insurance, which would you choose? The point is, it was her daily expense log that helped her
achieve the insight and clarity she needed to get control
of her finances. That's what a simple spending record
will do for you - it will give you control over your
spending, and thus your financial life. There may be
nothing but a 75-cent notebook and a ballpoint pen between your life of financial struggle and financial
freedom. Amazing Money Tip #2: Stop deficit spending! We all know how much trouble
Uncle Sam has been creating spending more money
than our country takes in. It's called deficit spending.
Well, don't fool yourself. The same rules apply to you.
Using those evil little plastic cards may be the "American
Way," but it's a damn poor way. Today, the average credit card holder is carrying $7,000
in plastic debt! Spending yourself into debt with a credit card is
unbelievably easy, as many of you already know. The
reason is psychological. When you give that clerk a
credit card, it's just not the same as handing over a stack
of green dollar bills. Would you as readily hand over a
fistful of ten dollar bills as flip a credit card across a counter? Probably not. Credit cards put you in the hole and keep you there.
Even for people with good incomes, paying your credit
card debt down to zero is amazingly difficult. And make
no bones about it, credit card debt will sap your
financial strength just as readily as an open vein will
deplete your physical body of its very life force. Using a credit card by choice can quickly turn to using it for
need. Once you get to that point, you are already in
trouble. There is no secret to freeing yourself from the credit
card game. You must take out a pair of scissors TODAY,
cut your cards in half, and begin paying them back,
slowly but surely. Once you stop adding to the debt,
even small payment will eventually add up. You can get
out of debt if you are patient and disciplined. Once your cards are history, you must adopt a strict pay-as-you go
policy. Instead of buying now and paying later, save
now and buy when you have the full amount. Once again, this is not rocket science, but stopping
credit-oriented consuming is one of the most powerful
financial tools available to anyone today. Why not pick
up this tool and use it? Amazing Tip #3: Sell your junk. That's right, it's high past time for a
major garage sale. If you don't have a garage, it's time
to search through your house or apartment for every
single item you don't need, and could convert quickly to
cash at a flea market or garage sale. Take an inventory. The truth is, most people are
astounded by what they own - and how much money
they have tied up in useless stuff. Why let it collect dust
in your attic while it could collect interest in a savings
account. You could easily be $500, $1,000 ... even $3,000 richer by
the end of the week. As an added bonus, you'd have
your place cleaned up, and you will have a fresh feeling
of starting over. A garage sale is an excellent way to not
only clean out your house, but it often gives a
psychological boost that helps people get control of their life and money. Amazing Tip #4 Ben Franklin said it long ago: "A penny saved is a penny
earned." Yes, It's still true, and still one of the most
powerful money-making tips inall history. Implied within Franklin's famous statement is the
difficulty of saving. It's tough to save and easy to spend!
You know that! That's why every penny saved truly is
earned - because it takes so much effort to hold on to
that cash! But if you can do it, it will work magic in your
life. Having a savings account will de-stress your life. Imagine being ahead of your bills, rather than behind.
When you are ahead of your bills, you entire life comes
under your control. You sleep better at night. Your mind
is freer to come up with new ways to make more money
and save more. Saving is contagious - once you let it get
started! Here are some tips to help you save: * Don't settle for interest checking. Have a separate
savings account that can't be as easily accessed as a
checking account. * Keep your savings in another bank - one that's off
your regular route, or perhaps even in another town.
That way you won't be tempted to dip into it every time
you visit the bank to make a checking deposit. * Buy short-term savings bonds, which have 6-month to
one-year maturity dates. That way you will get a higher
rate, while at the same time keeping your money close
in case of real emergencies. * If you can, open the account under two names and
require that both signatures be required to make a
withdrawal. Two people can debate each withdrawal
and keep each other in line. Amazing Tip #5 Visualize wealth and abundance everyday. What we are
actually suggesting is that you practice some sort of
airy-fairy mysticism that will make you into a "money
magnet"? Maybe yes, maybe no. Call it what you will - a mind
game, mysticism, New Age ga-ga -- but the solid fact is
that behind every wealthy man and woman is a positive
attitude toward money. Here's a quick demonstration: (1) Person One with a negative money attitude has daily
thoughts which go this way: "Jeez! $20 bucks is hard to come by! I seem to work so
hard and get so little for it. Money just slips through my
fingers. It's amazing how much money you have to earn
to just get by these days. I'm never going to be able to
afford that new car on my limited salary, but this job is
still the best thing going for me right now. It's easy for some people to make a lot of money, but I'm not one of
those people ..." and on and on. (2) Person Two with a positive money attitude has daily
thoughts which go this way: "You know, I bet if I work my butt off I can get a raise
next month, and then I'll take half of the extra money I
make and toss it in a savings account. There must be a
100 other ways I can bring in some extra cash. Money is
not all that hard to earn if you work hard, watch your
spending and save a little at a time. There's enough wealth for everybody in this country, and I can easily
get my share, and more ..." and on and on. Okay. Which person do you think will have a better
chance of success? You don't need to be a Rhodes
Scholar to see how Person One is dragging himself
down with his thoughts, and how Person Two is giving
himself a fighting chance. Look at it this way: It costs nothing one way or the other
to have either negative or positive thoughts. So why not
have positive thoughts? There has been many studies done on the thought
patterns and the frames of mind of some of the richest
most successful people in the world. The one thing they
all had in common was a positive attitude toward
money and their ability to earn it. So we strongly recommend you begin shaping your
thoughts TODAY toward positive thoughts about money.
Then step back and watch the money miracle happen. Amazing Tip #6 Do what you love and the money will follow. I think
there's a book by that title. At any rate, it's true. One of
the primary reasons that many people live paycheck to
paycheck and are broke despite working very hard at
their jobs is the fact that they hate what they do. If you hate your job, you will not have a positive
attitude toward money. You will associate money with
that dreadful sound of the alarm clock every morning.
Once you tie up your source of wealth and income with
slavery, that's truly what you will become: a slave. Starting today, you should begin planning your escape.
The first thing you should ask yourself is: "If money
were no object, what would I be doing? What do I like
to do most for fun, and is it possible that I could get
paid for it? Sound ludicrous? It's not. In fact, if your work is not also
your play, you are fighting against yourself. You will
eventually burn out and hate the world. On the other
hand, if you get up every day being exciting, positive
and looking forward to what you are going to be doing
- and making money at it - you will automatically move toward doing more and more of what you love, and
making more and more money at it. Amazing Tip #7 You must get organized. Being a tidy, efficient person
has more influence on how much money you make
more than you can ever imagine. A lot of us are
accustomed to associate a messy desk with genius
because we have seen so many photos of great
scientists sitting behind stacks and stacks of junk. But guess what? Great scientists don't get paid squat! They
are not worried about making money. Their university
or the government takes care of them. You, however, want to have a lot of money, so you can't
afford to be a slob. Think about it. Let's say you are at
your desk trying to get some work done. You need to
find the stapler, but because your office is such a pit,
you spend 15 minutes looking for it. You've just spent 15
unproductive minutes. Next you may need to locate a file, and that takes you 20 minutes of sifting through
paper. Another 20 minutes down the tube. By the end of
the day, you may easily burn up two or three hours
doing something as trivial as looking for things. The
same goes for any kind of job you might have. If you
are an auto mechanic, how much time do you spend trying to find a nine-sixteenth wrench, when you could
have it at your fingertips. It's disorganized people who are always saying at the
end of the day: "I seem to work so hard but get very
little done!" Of course! You spent the entire day looking
for the Scotch tape! The fact is, time is money. The more time you spend
unproductively, the less time you are earning money.
Clean up your office. Organize your tool shed. Get your
bookwork organized. Think of every minute saved as a
buck in your pocket. Amazing Money Tip #8 Make your own daily top 10 list. Speaking of getting
organized, you should sit down every morning with your
cup of coffee and list the top 10 things you would like
to get done that day. Then organize them in priority of
importance. Start at item No. 1 and go down the list as
fast as you can. Make no doubt about it - this is a powerful way to get
work done. It will put hoards of cash in your pocket. The
reason is that making money is all about movement -
forward movement. As the famous novelist Ayn Rand
told us, in a capitalist society the most important things
a person can do is move forward every day! Having a top ten list will ensure that you accomplish
something every day. You may not get through the
whole list every day, nor should you necessarily try. Just
do your best. At the end of the day, you should be able
to look at your list with pride, examine the scratched off
items and say: "That's what I got done today! I did something to better my life and create wealth!" Again, this method has been used by a majority of the
most wealthy and successful people in history. Shouldn't
you join the club? Amazing Money Tip #9 You must set short-term goals and long-term goals. If
you don't know where you are going, how do you
expect to get there? It's simple but powerful logic.
When you have a target sitting out there somewhere in
the future, a target which is your goal, it can almost act
like a magnet that pulls you toward it. Setting solid, reachable goals which are attainable, yet a
challenge, have proved time and time again to be one
of THE most powerful methods of achieving wealth and
success ever developed. This has even been
demonstrated in psychology laboratories with small
furry animals. It has been demonstrated in corporate training schemes. It has been used successfully again
and again by countless individuals. Setting both short term goals and long-term goals has
the effect of focusing your mind like a laser beam. It
pulls you along toward higher and better things. It gives
solidity to what you are trying to accomplish, and thus
makes that which you want more real and likely to
come into your life. As you have probably heard, it is best to write your
short-term and long-term goals down on paper and
then post them somewhere in your workplace and
home. The first thing you should do every morning is
look over your goal list, and then put together your Top
10 to do list which will move you toward your goal. The last thing you should do every evening is review your
short-term and long-term goals, and tell yourself as you
go to sleep that you are going to do everything in your
power to make those goals a reality in your life. Amazing Money Tip # 10 Invest your money and make it work at multiplying
itself. Saving money in a savings account is important as
we said above, but the 2.3 percent interest rates most
banks give you is not even enough to keep pace with
inflation. You must do more than save your money -- you must
invest it. That means financial vehicles with super-high
rates of return, such as mutual funds and stocks, or the
more risky commodity markets. A $5,000 investment in
commodities can return you 10 times that amount --
$50,000 --in just a few weeks, although you could easily lose it as well. The bottom line is, you should also take a
portion of your savings and put them in high interest or
high risk investment plans. That's the way to really get
ahead fast. Amazing Money Tip #11 Have fun! Yes, this tip easily makes our Top Ten list
because it is so essential to your success. The great
writer Ray Bradbury once said in an interview: "If you
are not having fun, you might as well forget it. Do
everything you do with joy and you'll be successful." You need to be having fun to stay positive, and you
need to stay positive to make money. So come on! Get
out their: laugh, clap your hands, live! Have a blast and
rake in the cash! The world is waiting for you!
