Learning / Experience / Financial

Mr. Eric Lefkofsky And Mr. Brad Keywell

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So I met these guys today… You may or may not know who they are. However, you may have heard of Groupon. These guys are the founders of Groupon (the world’s fastest growing company in history) [as of the writing of this].

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

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Well, it’s that time of year again. Here’s to a happy, healthy, wonderful, and wealthy new year to everyone! Best wishes!

Mr. Joe And Mrs. Rika Mansueto

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So… I crossed off one of the things from my bucket list today.

  • Meet A Billionaire

I have to tell you, I was NERVOUS AS HECK. However, it was a HUGE thing for me.

POSITIVE NET WORTH!!!

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Well… Today is THEE day… I checked my accounts and I have a Net Worth of more than ZERO. Very exciting! See the graph below:

 

Ag's Net Worth 05-27-2011 (Positive)

You’ll notice a small “blip” in the graph, there was a small issue with logging into one of my retirement accounts. It has been resolved. Anyway, I’m finally in the green!!! In other news, I’ve recently accepted a job with the University of Chicago which gives me a salary increase of about 25%. I’m still planning on breaking out on my own, but I’m not quite sure when. I’ve looked into MBA classes (at Chicago Booth School of Business). Just last night I took a class with Craig Wortmann who was recently in Inc. Magazine as having one of “The 10 Best Entrepreneurship Courses of 2011“ which was very interesting. I’ve had other classes where the professors (literally) wrote their own textbooks, but not classes where the professors were featured in magazines. Anyway, I’m still trying to figure out which avenue I’m going to pursue. Who knows, but financially, I feel much better. ;)

WOW! Breakthrough!

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WOW!!! So, today was a HUGE day for me. Over the course of the last 9-10 months, I have increased my Net Worth by almost $50,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW MUCH THAT MEANS TO ME!!! I’m afraid to tell any of my peers (thus, the point of this blog) because they may start to take it personally (there’s so much negativity in the world). Even according to Felix Dennis, (if I remember correctly) you spend most of your time trying to hold onto the money you earned (especially once your peers find out how much money you have). Besides, in some of the books I’ve read, there was talk of “Stealth Wealth“. Which is basically where nobody really knows how much money you are worth. Not that I’m very wealthy. After all, in the grand scheme of things, $50,000 is not that much. However, this is definitely still the beginning for me and even on my small scale, $50,0000 is A LOT of money. My Net Worth is still around -$1,000 but from almost -$48,000 9-10 months ago, I don’t think that’s too bad.

The next post will probably be me FINALLY HAVING A POSITIVE NET WORTH! Anyway, here are the graphs (below, from Yodlee.com).

Ag's Net Worth 04-29-2011

Ag's Net Worth 04-29-2011

And… The last 12 months…

Ag's Net Worth 04-29-2011 (Last 12 Months)

Ag's Net Worth 04-29-2011 (Last 12 Months)

And the Year-To-Date…

Ag's Net Worth 04-29-2011-YTD

Ag's Net Worth 04-29-2011-YTD

By the way, I finished “88: The Narrow Road” (By: Felix Dennis) as well. Yet again, another interesting set of words. A blazingly fast read (way faster than “How To Get Rich”). For the most part, many of the same concepts, but virtually no anecdotal evidence whatsoever.

Finished “How To Get Rich” (By: Felix Dennis)

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How To Get Rich - Felix DennisWell, since there was not real easy way to listen to Felix Dennis’ book, I had to manually read it. It’s not too bad of a read. I finished it in about a week. I really NEVER read and that’s the honest truth. However, I felt that this book has some information in it that I thought I would need in order to move forward. Sure enough, it did. There was one point where I read something that put me in shock! I was actually trembling, and got really cold. He refers to it as 1500 words. If I remember it correctly, it starts at around page 250. It was quite eerie, but very very very powerful at the same time. Either way, it was a great read.

On the other hand, I’m sort of burning out from working so hard, but I’m sure it will all pay off eventually. I looked at the sky and noticed it looked pretty (see the image). Other than that, working on quite a few different endeavors that so far, seem to be working. Anyway, this was just a quick note, nothing large. Enjoy!

Beautiful Sky

Another Book Done…

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Well… I’ve finished another book… This one (The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class [By: Keith Cameron Smith]) was pretty good. It’s short enough to finish relatively quickly. Personally, I feel like I can’t really stand reading, but when the information seems to be something that I’m interested in, it really doesn’t “feel” like reading. Anyway, I usually lean toward the audio book versions of most books anyway. This way, I can do something else (walking, etc.) while “reading” the book. It seems much more efficient, at least to me it does.

On another subject, my Net Worth has taken a huge hit. It turns out, I was entering certain information on Yodlee.com incorrectly. It was about a $2000 – $3000 discrepancy. Either way, I’m still in the RED. Hopefully, my tax refund will make up for it. We’ll see though.

Anyway, here’s another look at an updated Net Worth chart (Yodlee.com)…

Ag's Net Worth 03-17-2011

Ag's Net Worth 03-17-2011

And here’s the last 12 months…

Ag's Net Worth 03-17-2011 (Last 12 Months)

Ag's Net Worth 03-17-2011 (Last 12 Months)

If you look, you’ll see that there are a few changes. The gauge for the assets (in blue), now displays $80,000. This is a significant improvement from the graph from 07-28-2010 where it displayed $60,000. Exciting stuff!

Poor People Have Big TVs, Rich People Have Big Libraries

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I came across this just now and wanted to post it on here. Once again it brings the power of your thinking to the forefront.

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Have you made up your mind that you are ready to move into the field where the big earners play? You’re tired of low-income wages. You’re tired of barely getting by. You’re sick to the teeth of scrimping and never having enough. You are desperate for things to not just be better, but to be really great!

If that describes you, there are some questions you will need to face squarely and answer honestly.

1. If you want to become a millionaire (that’s fairly wealthy, wouldn’t you say), how do millionaires act?
2. If you want to become a big earner, how do big earners think?
3. If you want to be rich, what is it that differentiates the rich from the poor? Most people answer these questions something like this:

  1. Millionaires live in big houses and buy luxury cars.
  2. Big earners think about how much money they have to spend and where they’re going on their next cruise.
  3. Rich are different from poor because they have more money.

Wrong, wrong and wrong!

You Will Never Join the Rich if You Never Know the Rich

Let’s take this questioning a step further. If you wanted to be a corporate executive, wouldn’t you need to know what corporate executives do and what it is that works best for them? If you wanted to be a sky diver, wouldn’t it be in your best interest to find out what successful sky divers do and what works for them? If you wanted to ski double-black diamond slopes, will you just head for the slopes one day and jump in with the veterans? Am I making my point?

If you want to be wealthy (rich) doesn’t it stand to reason that you would learn how wealthy people think? And learn how they are different? To believe you become truly wealthy just because you gain a ton money; is similar to thinking you are an expert sky diver just because you know how to strap on a parachute. There’s so much more to it!

This article is much too confined to do justice to such as study as this, but let’s make a brief, general overview. Hopefully it will create a desire in you to learn more. Just for clarification: we are referring to the rich as those who are wealthy inwardly as well as outwardly. If they lost everything tomorrow, they would have the wherewithal to build it all over again, because it isn’t the money, but their mindset.

Let’s begin by taking the cue from our title: Wealthy people invest in self-improvement of mind and spirit. Poor people invest in things like big-screen TVs.See how it works? Here are a few more.

  • Wealthy people are willing to take calculated risks. Poor people want a guarantee (i.e. steady paycheck). They feel that the whole world is out to get them.
  • Wealthy people step out of the pack; they are not afraid to work independently. Poor people have a herd mentality; they watch a lot of TV and let the world do their thinking for them.
  • Wealthy people are solutions-minded; problems are just an annoying bump in the road. Poor people crash at the first sign of a problem – they were sure it wouldn’t work all along. The problem proved them right!
  • Wealthy people are big thinkers; they aren’t afraid of a few extra zeroes in their income level. Poor people think small – after all, it’s safer that way.
  • Wealthy people make quick decisions; they are always moving forward. Poor people procrastinate, and then procrastinate some more. They are waiting for the “just right” time to get onto that road to success. If these concepts and this way of looking at life are new to you, it’s time for you to get busy! Stop wasting time. As business philosopher Jim Rohn says: “We all have two choices: We can make a living or we can design a life.”

It’s pretty obvious that wealthy, successful people have chosen the latter. Which will you choose?

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By: Rob Walcher (From: Here)

More Books “Read”…

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Just to add to the list of books I’ve read:

How To Argue And Win Every Time
By: Gerry Spence

How To Win Friends & Influence People
By: Dale Carnegie

Emotional Intelligence
By: Daniel Goleman, Ph.D.

Whoa! Millionaire Statistics…

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Whoa!

So I was listening to a set of audiobooks (Dave Ramsey – Financial Peace University [don't worry I'm not going to say go out and buy it... If you're interested, you can probably get it at a local library or borrow it from someone else]) and toward the end of one of them, he says something to the effect of “the average millionaire reads a non-fiction book or two a month…” (after further research, it seems that they read even more than that). I was floored. I thought I was the only one who made virtually daily trips to the library to LEARN, LEARN, LEARN… There are also a TON of millionaire statistics in the book “The Millionaire Next Door” (by: Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D.) and “The Millionaire Mind” (by: Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D.).

Other thought processes of Millionaires. ;)

7 Core Beliefs of Millionaires:

1. Millionaires Believe in Having Balance in their Lives: Millionaires do first things first. They ask themselves, “What is the most important thing that I can be doing right now?”

2. Millionaires Know They Can’t Make it on Their Own: Millionaires leverage the power of the mastermind group. Millionaires surround themselves with other like-minded people to help them achieve far more than they could have done on their own or thought possible.

3. Millionaires Believe They Have No limitations: Millionaires don’t believe that the sky is the limit; that would be silly to believe such a thing. Millionaires believe there are no limits. The only limitations we have are the ones we put on ourselves. Millionaires also understand that all roadblocks to success are mental roadblocks. All problems and solutions rest within our own minds.

4. Millionaires Believe They are the Makers of Their Own Destiny: Millionaires choose to live and run their own lives. They do this by not letting setbacks and unwelcomed circumstances hold them back. Millionaires have a winner’s way of thinking; they go forward with the attitude that “Failure is not an option”. Robert G. Allen has referenced himself many times asking, “Could I do it if a loved one depended on me accomplishing this task or goal?” and you’ll find that the answer is always a resounding YES.

5. Millionaires Believe in Giving: Millionaires believe in the law of abundance. Millionaires know that there will always be plenty to go around. They also know that as they give, the universe will give back to them in greater abundance. Millionaires believe the more they give of their time, talents, knowledge, and wealth, the universe will give back exponentially to what is given.

6. Millionaires Believe That at the Root of Every Problem is a Seed of Opportunity: Millionaires believe they can turn any negative situation to a positive situation. Whether it’s personal, family, or financial; they see problems as an opportunity of improvement.

7. Millionaires Believe in Education: Millionaires don’t believe in having solely college education, they believe also in self-education. The average person reads less than one book per year; the average millionaire reads two books per week. I’m not talking about books such as Harry Potter either, rather, books such as Think and Grow Rich and 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Millionaires become successful through their reading habits.

ENJOY!

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