It’s been said that in life, you get what you focus on. This rule applies to getting a new job, building a business, winning an award—but most especially to acquiring money, wealth, and a rich lifestyle. That is why you need to learn the secret art of how to focus on what you want.
But to get what you want in life and fix your limiting beliefs about money you need sound strategies and that's what we are going to cover in this blog post.
By the end of this blog post you'll learn the exact strategies on how to focus on what you want, become wealthy and live the life of your dreams.
#1. To Get What You Want - You Must First Decide to Be Wealthy.
One of the first requirements of becoming wealthy is to make a conscious decision to do so. When I was in graduate school, I decided to become wealthy.
Though I didn’t quite know at the time what that meant, “being wealthy” seemed as if it would provide many of the things I wanted in life—the ability to travel and attend any workshops I wanted and the resources to accomplish my goals and underwrite my hobbies.
I wanted to be able to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, wherever I wanted, for as long as I wanted. If you want wealth, too, you must decide now from the deepest place in your heart to have wealth in your life—without worrying yet if it’s possible or not.
#2. Next, Decide What Wealthy Means to You.
Do you know how much wealth you want? Some of my friends want to retire as millionaires, whereas others want to retire with $30 million or even $100 million.
Two friends want to become mega rich because of the philanthropic ability it would give them.
There is no right financial goal to have. But you do have to decide what you want.
If you haven’t yet determined your ideal vision from —including defining what your financial goals are—take time to do so now.
Make sure to include written goals like these:
- I will have a net worth of $ __________ by the year __________.
- I will earn at least $ __________ next year.
- I will save and invest $ __________ every month.
- A new financial habit I will develop starting now is __________.
- To become debt free, I will ____________________.
Remember you need to find ways to learn how to focus on what you want so that you can achieve the above 5 steps,
#3. Find Out What It Costs to Finance Your Dream Life…Now and Later
When creating wealth in your life, remember that there is the life you want to live now and the life you want to live in the future.
The life you are currently living is the result of the thoughts you have thought and the actions you have taken in the past. The life you live in the future will be the result of today’s thoughts and actions.
To get the kind of life you want 1 to 2 years from now, as well as the kind of lifestyle you want when you “retire,” decide exactly how much money you’ll need to live the lifestyle of your dreams.
If you don’t know, research how much it would cost you to do and buy everything you want over the course of the next year.
This could include rent or mortgage, food, clothes, medical care, automobiles, utilities, education, vacations, recreation, insurance, savings, investments, and philanthropy.
For each category, visualize those items or activities in your life, then write down what you would need to spend to get them.
Imagine eating in fine restaurants, driving your dream car, going on your dream vacation—even refurbishing your home or moving into a new one. Don’t let your mind tell you that these things are impossible or crazy.
For the moment, just do the research and find out exactly what it will cost to fund your dream life—whatever that is.
In simple words focus on what you want so that you can get what you want.
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#4. Get Real About Your Retirement.
Determine, too, how much you’ll need to maintain your current lifestyle once you retire and stop working.
Though I don’t ever plan to stop working, if retirement is in your plans, Charles Schwab suggests that for every $3,000 in monthly income you’ll want during retirement, you’ll need to have $430,000 invested when you stop working.
If you have $3 million invested with a 6% yield, that will give you a taxable income of about $10,300 on an average a month (as of 2024 this data may change if someone is reading this article in future)
Whether that’s enough will depend on a number of factors, such as whether your house is paid for, how many people you’ll be supporting, how much you will be receiving from Social Security, and what level of lifestyle you expect to live.
At any rate, today $10,300 a month may not be enough to support the extravagant lifestyle you may be envisioning for yourself.
If you are hoping to travel and have an active life, it may not even be adequate. With inflation, it may be less than adequate.
#5. How To Focus On What You Want And Become Conscious About Your Money
Most people are unconscious when it comes to their money.
For instance, do you know your net worth —your total assets minus your total liabilities?
Do you know how much money you have in savings?
Do you know exactly what your fixed and variable monthly expenses are?
Do you know the total amount of debt you are carrying and the amount of money you are spending a year on interest payments?
Do you know if you are adequately insured?
Do you have a financial plan?
Do you have an estate plan?
Do you have a will? Is it up to date?
If you want to have financially freedom, you have to get conscious.
Not only do you have to know precisely where you are but you also need to know exactly where you want to go and what’s required to get you there.
Just focus on what you want and keep doing it for 90 days and see your life changing.
#6. Focus on Becoming Aware of What You’re Spending
Most people aren’t aware of what they really spend in a month. If you’ve never tracked your expenditures, start by writing down all your normal fixed monthly expenses such as your mortgage or rent, your car payment, any other installment or loan payments, insurance bills, cable bill, Internet provider, health club, and so on.
Then go back over the last 6 to 12 months and calculate average monthly expenditures that fluctuate—utilities, phone bills, food bills, clothing expenditures, auto maintenance, medical expenses, and so on.
Finally, keep a record for 1 month of everything you spend money on during that month, no matter how big or small—from gas for your car to coffee at Starbucks.
Add up everything at the end of the month so that you are consciously aware—rather than unaware—of what you’re spending. Check off those items you must pay for and those things you have discretion over.
This exercise will get you conscious of what you’re currently spending and where you could cut back if you chose to.
#7. Focus on Becoming Financially Literate.
Not only should you stay conscious around money by reviewing your financial goals every day and tracking your spending every month, but I recommend that you also proactively learn about money and investing by reading at least one good financial book every month for the next year.
Another way to become financially literate is to seek out professionals who can teach you the money skills you’ll need to grow a healthy financial future.
You can invest your money in stocks and bonds, which pay you in interest, or you can invest in income-producing real estate, which pays you in positive cash flow from rental income that is greater than your mortgage payments.
#8. Wealth Has Many Aspects.
Lee Brower, the founder of Empowered Wealth and a member of my mastermind group, has developed a model to teach people how to deal with all of their wealth—not just their financial wealth. If you’ll look at the chart that appears below, you’ll see that you possess four different kinds of assets.
The first are your human assets. These include your family, your health, your character, your unique abilities, your heritage, your relationships, your habits, and your ethics, morals, and values.
The second are your intellectual assets, which include your skills and talents, your wisdom and your education, your life experiences (both good and bad), your reputation, the systems you’ve developed, your ideas, the traditions you’ve inherited or established, and the alliances you’ve built over the years.
The third are your financial assets, which include cash, stocks and bonds, money in your retirement plan, real estate, any businesses you own, and any other possessions you might have, such as your antiques collection.
The fourth are what Lee calls civic assets, which may include only the taxes you pay (and the services and infrastructure they provide).
It can also include the tax money that you “redirect” through contributions to worthy charities, and if you are one of the super wealthy, you might even have a private foundation.
When Lee asks wealthy families which quadrants they would pick if they could pass on assets from only two of the four quadrants, they universally say the human assets and the intellectual assets.
They know that if their children have those, they can always become wealthy by making more money. If they only have the money and not the other two, they will ultimately lose the money.
What Lee and his team at Empowered Wealth do is teach wealthy families how to maximize and pass on the assets in all four quadrants of their model to the next generation.
I want you to start thinking about how to build and optimize your assets in all four sectors of the Empowered Wealth Quadrants. If you focus on this, then you will create real wealth in a balanced and integrated way.
And you will keep money in its proper perspective. It is just a tool to be used for higher purposes.
