A friend recently opened his payslip after having received an increase and said disappointedly, “Is this how much I’m worth?”
To answer my friend’s question, let me tell you about a dream I had. In the dream, you and I were standing on top of a golden dune in the desert. There was a clear blue sky – stretching as far as the eye could see. Suddenly – walking up the sand dune, appears a grey haired English man who is wearing a pith helmet, porting a handlebar moustache. He hands me a squarely folded piece of paper, and gives you a bank note. You look at the folded paper in my hand and ask, “What does it say?” “I don’t know,” I replied as we swapped paper for bank note. You fold open the paper and read the words, “It’s a dream”.
Now, if what I had just described in my dream happened in real life, you would turn to me and say, “That dream wasn’t worth what I paid for it”. And I would agree with you. In life the majority of us trade away our dreams, the opportunity to express our true, inner genius and ultimately our freedom for money in order to buy tokens that represent our dreams, but are really shadows of the real thing. And as most individuals that are employed and have jobs trade their time for money, we are essentially trading away our lives and don’t have anything of substance to show for it.
Wait! Before you pop open that tub of expensive, velvety rich ice cream to drown your sorrows with, let’s see if there is more to the story and to try and find the answer to our question.
“I believe I have the answer,” says Mr. Handlebar from our dream, “but I’m too embarrassed to tell you”. We both look inside the tub of ice cream and wonder if we’re still dreaming or if it’s the ice cream speaking. “Well, the answer is awfully simply, old fashioned but it really works” proposes Mr. H, as we later come to call him. “You spend less than you earn, first save, then later invest the difference, and soon the world’s your oyster!”
You may be surprised to hear that Mr. H is actually right. Sometimes, the world’s greatest secrets are hidden in plain sight. The first time, you decide to not spend all you earn, and start creating a wedge between what you earn and spend, you in effect start saving towards a deposit that will become the down payment on the early beginnings of your dream, that will become the fuel for your passion, giving voice to your inner genius and ultimately open the gates to your financial freedom.
The elementary mechanics of creating wealth are as follows:
- Earn income once;
- Take a portion of earned income (in other words savings) and buy assets that earn income;
- take income earned by assets and buy some more assets that earn income;
- Repeat until thoroughly satisfied!
Our story started with a dream, and it is only appropriate to finish it with a dream. What are you worth? You are worth the things and people you value most, the dreams you once had that you have long given up on because they seem impossible to achieve or that life has just slowly killed. You are worth the unexpressed inner genius that the world desperately needs to hear, feel and see or it will be a poorer place without it.
If you believe that you are worth so much more, will you join me in making the following declaration and promise to yourself?
Declaration: today, I declare that I will start to save (choose one) R50, R500, R5000 a month, and find a safe place to invest it, so that I can change my life and achieve the dreams I have in my heart and live a generous life with those I love.
Now that you declared it – we look forward to your great success and realising your dreams.
