Summary: How Much Money Do You Plan to Make Cliff is forming a Podcast Mastermind group. He has an application he sends those that wish to join the group. It has a number of yes or no questions and he anticipates that most, if not all answers will be a yes. One question received a no by 13 of the 50 people that completed the application. The question is, “Have you decided how much money you desire to make over the next 12 months?” Not how much, but have you decided how much. In other words, do you make goals for your future – financial or otherwise? While money should never be the most important thing, it is important. If you work hard, you should expect to be rewarded. We place value on family and friends; we should place a value on financial security. If we place no value on family or friends, they might not stick around, if we place no value on money it might not stick around either and we do have needs that require payment. You Always Hit What You Are Aiming At The bottom line is if we have no goals in life, no target then we’re sure to hit it. We need goals to help us focus on what tasks are important. We need to identify the next level we want to achieve (doesn’t have to be a monetary goal) and writing it down will help us put our thoughts in motion on ways to accomplish that goal. Tracy’s three keys to success are: First believe it’s possible, if you don’t believe it can happen – it won’t. Write the goal/dream down. Tell others about it. It not only helps us think about way to get it done, but when we tell others they will offer ideas for us to help us obtain our goals. We can adopt the victim mentality when we don’t get what we want and say it’s our circumstances or someone else caused it, but if we fail to make goals, we don’t earn the right to whine about it. If we make goals, believe in them, work toward it, things will get better. The Power of Goals and Focus Cliff gave four examples of things that happened to him that show how true this process is. He and his wife were newly married with not much money. Cliff saw a PC he wanted, but it was way out of their budget. He made getting the PC a goal so he could set some things in motion that would eventually help them reach other goals. Once he had earning the additional funds for the PC in his mind, his subconscious that works 24/7 gave him ideas to make enough money. He bought the PC. He and his wife were at a Dave Ramsey event and were exposed to the need for an emergency fund of one-thousand dollars. Dave Ramsey said this was essential to financial security and living debt free. He said he knew many people would say it wasn’t possible to have an extra thousand dollars to build the fund, but he told them if they had a sick child, but no insurance and that the child needed a seven-thousand dollar surgery within the next 30 days or that child would die and the surgery had to be paid for prior to the day of surgery, they would find a way to get the money to save their child. Think of this emergency fund the same way. You need it to move forward toward a debt free life. Cliff and his family lived in a very old, very drafty home. The kids kept getting sick. Their top goal was moving into a healthier home. Once that was a goal, they actively made choices that led them to be able to build a new home and move in within nine months. When his wife had their first child and wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. They had discussed that they couldn’t afford to go to a single income family at that time. Through no fault of hers, his wife was wrongfully terminated (she was later found not to be a fault, and was asked to come back to work). Suddenly, they were a single income family. They set goals, trimmed back the budget and made things work. When she was invited to return to work, she was able to continue her goal of being a stay-at-home mom because of the choices they made to adjust their budget.
