Free Your Mind! And The Rest Will Follow...

Here's a definition for meditate: To think of something over and over.

Simple. Easy. It makes sense.

What happens when you think you are getting sick?

How long does it take for you to get sick?

Can you see how our thoughts work?

Our thoughts are the most powerful thing that comes from of us. The 5 Habits of Money are a philosophy of money. A way of thought. Let's examine our

"MONEY THOUGHTS"

What's your first thought on payday?

Do you ever find yourself thinking...

I'm not rich!

I can't afford that!

I'm broke.


STOP RIGHT THERE!

Do you see that that your thoughts are affecting your feelings and actions and your

current financial state?

Henry Ford said, "Whether you think you can or you can't, either way, you are right!"

We've got a choice. We can think poor thoughts or rich thoughts. thoughts of scarcity or thoughts of abundance. Positive or Negative. If you are thinking "poor" thoughts. There's a good chance you will be poor. Just like when you thought you were "sick." If you can recognize these thoughts. You can stop them and change them. It's your choice.

If you'd like to "free your mind" of poor, negative thoughts, take the following

ACTIONS:

1. You've got choices. FOCUS on good, rich, abundant thoughts.

2. RECOGNIZE negative thoughts when they come.
hint: they make you feel badly about yourself.

3. BREAK OUT of the thought. Snap. Clap. Shout.
(if you look or sound insane, you've got it right)

4. REPLACE that negative thought. (with a positive one)

5. FOCUS ON THE POSITIVE. MINIMIZE THE NEGATIVE. (was that mary poppins?)

What do you do to BREAK OUT of negative thinking? (say the word "stop" out loud)

Money 101: (required, no prerequisites)

Money motivates us whether we like it or not. Most of us go to college so we can get higher paying jobs. Even art majors need money to survive. Money will always be a big part of our lives.

If money is so important. Why don't we have better money management skills? Think back on your illustrious academic career. All the way from college to kindergarten. What have you learned about money in school? How to write a check? Shopping online safely?

If you had similar experiences with money, you can see that we need basic financial education. It's a need not met by our school system at any level. This is why "The 5 Habits of Money" was created. To help fill the gap in our financial education. The 5 Habits of Money teaches the basics of money. Although The 5 Habits are simple, there is nothing basic about how far you can go. These same habits have made ordinary people, extraordinarily wealthy.

Do you have a job, a business, or any source of income? Congratulations. You are practicing The First Habit of Money: Hustle. Make money anyway you can. The Second Habit of Money is "financial diet." It is summed up in one equation: INCOME=EXPENSES. Simple? Yes. But how many people are in debt because they don't practice this habit?

The Third Habit of Money is "Pay Yourself." When you spend money, everyone else gets paid. Why shouldn't you? After all, you earned it! Make sure you Pay Yourself at least 10% of what you make.

Once you have some money it's time to "Pimp Your Dollars!" You work hard for your money. Make money work just as hard for you. This is The Fourth Habit of Money. Go ahead slap your money around. You won't get in trouble. If you don't like what your money is earning in that savings account. Smack! Make it work harder somewhere else. This is where furthering your financial education comes in. Rich people aren't smarter than you. They just know something you don't.

The Fifth Habit is C.Y.A. or Cover Your Ass...ets. Protect your money from liability and taxes. The most common tool is using insurance. You probably have some form of insurance right now.

Out of The 5 Habits of Money, how many are you practicing now?

Eugene Saw is the speaker and author of The 5 Habits of Money. To learn more contact him @ 415.254.6185 eugene@5habitsofmoney.com

How can C.Y.A help you avoid paying taxes?

We all know that C.Y.A. stands for Cover Your Assets. What that means is simply to protect what you have from liability and taxes. One of the most common ways to C.Y.A. is having insurance. One way to control how much taxes you pay is using legal entities.

I just read an article in the New York Times, written by David Cay Johnston, about how a private equity firm has found a way to "effectively avoid paying taxes on $3.7 billion." What the partners will pay in taxes is $553 million. The craziest thing is that they will be able to deduct $1.1 billion over 15 years.

What does this all mean? They pay $553 million in taxes. They get back $1.1 billion in deductions over 15 years. In today's dollars, that's $751 million. From simple math the partners get back $198 million. Pretty sweet, huh.

How did they do it?

1. Using the best tax lawyers money can buy.

2. The $3.7 billion was considered goodwill. So it's deductible.

3. Using a "blocker" corporation. The deductions are taken out of the corporation.

MAJOR ACTION:

This is major league "covering your assets." If you'd like to start legally paying less taxes, then here are your first steps.

1. Education:

What is a corporation and how can I use it to pay less taxes?

What is good will? do I have any of it?

What is a deduction? How can I get some?

2. Planning:

Get with a CPA. If you can afford it, get with a tax attorney.

Find out what you need to do to legally pay less taxes.

Put your money on a diet

Atkins, South Beach, Low Carb, Veggies, Seefood. For as many different types of people, there is a different type of diet. Why do we still think that the next diet will be the one that makes us lose the weight we want?

We spend so much time and energy towards dieting. Why don't we spend as much time towards dieting our money. Huh? Money Diet??? Yup. Money diet. I'm not talking bout you eating money. I'm talking about putting your money on a diet.

Why do we work out and watch what we eat? To lose weight. To feel better. To look better. to be healthy. Did I miss anything?

In the same way, I'd like you to think what it'd be like to put your money on a diet. Imagine an overweight, lazy, couch potato dollar bill. Do you see him? That fat ass Washington is just chillin on your couch. Eating your food. Taking up space. Doing absolutely nothing for you.

Is this how you want your money to be?

Or can you imagine this: You as the ruler of Egypt. Nice tan! Gold head dress with a cobra at the top of it. You look down from your throne to see all your dollar bills working their skinny asses off for you. Watch as your money bosses whup those bills. Your cash slaves are creating little cash slave babies. Each of those cash babies belong to you. More dollar bills to build up your empire.

The second Habit of the 5 Habits is: Financial Diet.

Financial Diet is a plan to keep your Money Life in good shape. This means, for example, that if you take home $3000 per month, then you should only spend up to $3000 per month. It's simple but not easy sometimes.

Financial diet is not a diet where you follow it for a week or a month. It is a habit. A habit, good or bad, takes at least 30 days to develop. The habit of financial diet will take just as long. But it's not the effort involved that we should focus on. Rather the results.

How good would it feel to know you're living a healthy money life? No added debt each month. Bills get paid. You're focused on making more, saving more, and investing more. So when you're done you don't gotta work no more. sweet.

Financial Diet Action Program:
1. Write down how much money you take home each month.

2. Calculate how much money you spend each month.

3. Find out how healthy your money life is: Money made - Money spent

4. If you need to get healthier....
option 1: Earn more money.
option 2: Cut down on expenses.
option 3: Do a little of both.

Lemme know how I can help.

How do you hustle?

The first Habit of Money is to HUSTLE. The word hustle has been used to define a 70's disco dance. It also means to get money by cheating someone. It also means to sell something (usually drugs) for money.

I'm here to redefine the word for our generation. To be a Hustler or to HUSTLE means to make money. To HUSTLE is the first Habit of Money and the first building block of financial education.

How do you HUSTLE?

For most of us, we've got a job. For us entrepreneurs, we have our own businesses. There are pros and cons to both ways of life. Having a job means having a steady paycheck. We know we'll get paid on the first and fifteenth. We get benefits, stock options, health insurance for our families. The cons.... other people tell you when to come in, and when to leave. They tell us what we do and how much we get paid. The government bites off at least a quarter of our paycheck before we even see it.

Entrepreneurs live opposite lives of job holders. We have to build our business. We take on all the risk. There is no steady anything, especially in the building stages. We buy our own insurance and there are no "benefits." In exchange, we create our own schedules, keep most of our money, and control how much we earn. The sky is the limit when it comes to building a business.

Most of us are comfortable in the way we HUSTLE. I used to be a snobby entrepreneur. I thought: It's my way or no way at all! I'll never work for someone again!
Some people see the corporate ladder as the best way to get up. They like security and being able to see "What's next?"

I think that we can learn something from each other. As an entrepreneur building a new business, we need to pay our bills. That may mean having a part time or full time job. It's not forever, especially when you have vision.

As salaried employee, we've got our bills paid. But that's it. We are just getting by. Wouldn't it be nice to have more for ourselves? Wouldn't it be great to start a business without any of the risks and all of the rewards?

By adding another hustle to your current hustle, you will be able to earn more money. This means that you will be able to pay yourself more and pimp more dollars. Getting you that much closer to money mastery and financial independence.


Hustlers take ACTION:

1. Make a list of your hobbies, expertise and passions.

2. Brainstorm with someone on how you can turn your passion into cash.

3. Email me your ideas.

4. Get started today!