Myth #27 – Only You Can Do It Right:  Many of us, and me included, often feel that if we want something done right we have to do it our self. I see my wife struggling trying to create a resource list for her networking group for the first time using Microsoft Word that looks like an

Myth #26 – Invest Instead of Save:    Many people believe they need to start investing right away, and that putting money in a savings account, or a money market account, is a waste of time. However, if you start investing before you start saving, what if you need money for something as simple as your car

Myth #25 – I Have to Work Hard for Money:       The myth for today that you have to work hard for money is closely associated with Myth 24, that hard work is supposed to pay more. And I explained value pays more than hard work. In this email, think of the quote from J. Paul

Myth #24 – Hard Work Pays More:                       Too often I hear someone tell me how hard they work, and it is not producing more income. What they fail to recognize is that working hard is not the same as producing more value. And the value is

Myth #23 – Wealth Is Not Fair:You may remember the protests in the streets about how unfair it was to have so much money in the hands of 1% of the population. The protesters were in the 99% of the population. You may have heard it said, that if all the money in the world were divided

Myth #22 – I Can’t Be A Philanthropist:   In Myth #19, I said many people live with either/or thinking. This idea really goes hand-in-hand with your thinking about what you can, and cannot do in the area of philanthropy. In Myth #20, I addressed the idea that you might feel like you cannot afford to donate to a charity

Myth #21: Plan for Saturday NightThere is a quote that is attributed to Gloria Steinem, that goes something like this:“The wealthy plan for generations, and the poor plan for Saturday night.” *Unfortunately, this myth appears to be real, and not a myth. It does appear that the poor, or those with a scarcity mindset, make very

Many people live with either/or thinking. This idea really goes hand-in-hand with your thinking about what you can, and cannot afford. What I will discuss here, is about the thinking that you cannot support yourself and donate to charity.

Myth #19 – You Can’t Have It All:   In Myth #18, I talked about how you speak matters, especially to yourself. This idea really goes hand-in-hand with the idea that many times we think we live in an either/or world. Either/or thinking says that if you have wealth, maybe you have to sacrifice happiness. However the wealthy

Myth #18 – I Speak Just Fine:   How you speak not only gives other’s clues on how to treat you, but it also tells you how to treat yourself. Language matters to the wealthy, both in how they speak to those around them as well as in their self-talk. I recently heard about Tara Westover’s memoir Educated. Tara was raised

Myth #17 – I Want a Big House:   I was recently out to dinner with my teenage grandsons and they asked me how you become a millionaire. My older grandson, who lives in an expensive city where the average home price is close to a million dollars, was trying to figure out how he could

Myth #16 – The Wealthy Don’t Share Their Knowledge:    If you read the headlines in our sensationalized news culture, you may believe that the rich get richer by hoarding their money and their information. But this isn’t true when it comes to the vast majority of wealthy people. Being rich versus being wealthy is an attitude.

Myth #15 – All Debt is Bad:   For many of us, the word debt, can be scary and intimidating. But not all debt is created equal. There certainly is high interest and misplaced bad debt. There is even necessary bad debt. However, there is also good debt that can help increase your personal investments. Combining

Myth #14 – Others Deserve Money More Than Me:   Have you ever seen the photos of the retired couple traveling the world, or overheard a family talking about their beach house and thought: ‘Wow! They must have worked very hard to be so wealthy. I should have taken that better job or not taken out loans

Myth #13 – Small Amounts of Money Will Not Lead to Wealth:   I’m sure you have heard the expression that it takes money to make money. If you take this logic to the next step, then it would seem that it also takes a lot of money to become wealthy. If you keep following this logic,

Myth #12 – I Read Plenty:   What does it mean to be an avid reader? Maybe you subscribe to two or three industry publications that you flip through while drinking your morning coffee. Or maybe you check your social media feed or read the Tweet or Facebook post of the day. Polls show that the average American

Myth #11 – I Need to Earn More Money:   As I mentioned in earlier myths, I was broke at age 50, and had to start over from scratch. Today the combined net worth of my wife and I puts us in the top 1% of Americans and this wealth was not achieved by getting a

Myth #10 – Thoughts Are Powerful:   Let me explain what I mean when I say it is a myth that thoughts are powerful. In one respect they are powerful; if they lead to an action. Unfortunately, most of the time a good thought is cancelled out by feelings that might be uncomfortable, or feelings come

Myth #9 – Do It Yourself:   One of the biggest lessons I learned in becoming wealthy was that it was a team effort, not a solo effort. Too many people think they can become successful and wealthy by themselves. This lesson hit me hard when I was the angel investor in a start-up when I did

Myth #8 – Details:  You may think the details of an investment are the most important. Yes, the details are important, but they are NOT the most important. The most important aspect of an investment is how it fits into the big picture of your life. If you want nothing to do with tenants, trash, or toilets,

Myth #7 – I Know This Already:   Like many teenagers, I thought I knew it all. As the famous UCLA basketball coach John Wooden used to say, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” Somewhere in my forties I learned that the wealthy ask questions when they hear familiar information instead of making statements. An example

Myth #6 – I Don’t Need to Know Money Terms:   Many years ago, when I was first learning the terms as a part of becoming a Certified Financial Planner®, I heard someone ask the instructor, “How important is it whether or not I learn all these definitions?” He was referring to the terms we were

Myth #5 – It’s Rude to Talk About Money:  You may think, and your parents may have said to you, “It’s rude to talk about money.” If that is the case, it is likely, your parents were not wealthy. Or even if they had wealth, they lacked a wealthy mindset. People with a wealthy mindset do not feel it

Myth #4 – Your Friends (Who You Hang Around With) Don’t Matter:   You may have some friends from when you were very young, or from high school, or from college, and you really enjoy hanging with them. Once per month I actually have lunch with 8 – 18 friends with whom I went to elementary

Myth #3 – You have plenty of time:   When I was young I thought I had plenty of time to plan for retirement. The myth that you have plenty of time to plan is deceptive. And the word retire was the word that was used to talk about a time when someone could choose not to

Myth #2 – Self-made Millionaires:   “Wealth is a Team Sport, not a Solo Sport.” – Rennie GabrielYou have probably heard the expression about a wealthy person that they are a self-made millionaire. Maybe the person who said it, was wealthy. DO NOT BELIEVE IT! If you look at the wealthiest people in this country, whether past

Myth #1 – Pay your Debts First:    Do you believe that you must pay down your debts before you start to invest? It doesn’t matter if I am talking about credit cards, car loans, or mortgages. This is the first in a series of 32 email and blog posts where I will uncover the many myths