If you are struggling financially or just plain broke, it most likely isn’t because you deliberately set out to be that way. You are poor because that is what you understand. There are a million reasons for being poor, but I want to cover a few here that might shed some insight into your predicament and help you to see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Poor Parents

When I say “Poor” parents I mean they probably were good decent hard-working folks who had decent jobs and made their payments. In the old days, that is the only money-savvy thing you had to do. Work hard, save money, and get your pension. 

They probably had no reason or desire to learn about investing or finance. They probably did just fine doing what everyone else did. The world was different then. So in what possible universe would they take the time to teach you about money? Specifically, how would you have learned about investing, business, dividends, capital gains, real estate, cryptocurrency, or e-commerce? Some of these things didn’t even exist a few years ago. 

Poor circumstances

Most people are NOT rich. This is just a fact. If everyone was rich then there would be no such thing as “rich”. It would just be life. So because wealth and money-wisdom are such rare things, the odds of you stumbling across a rich person in your everyday interactions are low. You most likely live in a neighbourhood with people of roughly the same socio-economic status as yourself. Rich people tend to cluster themselves together and put up a gate. This is a problem.

People generally are the average of the 5 people they spend the most time with. Role-models influence us more than parental advice when we are developing into big humans. We learn by example, not by words. So even in the slight chance that your folks tried to impart financial wisdom to you, it likely fell on deaf ears. Only if you were rubbing elbows with well-to-do people willing to share their secrets, would you gain the proper knowledge to get ahead.

Poor Habits

We have all heard the term “retail therapy”. It is the burst of dopamine in our brains when we buy something new that feels really good in the moment. Dopamine is also the same chemical in the brain that is spiked when we do drugs. It feels good, but leaves us empty and craving more. We tend to pursue short-term emotional spikes instead of long-term planning and patience. My personal hero, Brian Tracy, speaks of a Harvard study that demonstrated that the number ONE thing that sets people apart and is a fairly good predictor of success is LONG TERM PERSPECTIVE. Not looks, or family connections or intelligence. Not even work-ethic. 

Poor mindset

In the book Scarcity we learn that people with money problems suffer from a lack of “mental bandwidth” due to their circumstances and naturally have less brain power to spend on other things. It is because they are constantly worried about money that they tend to spend money on silly things (to feel good), make poor decisions, and show higher degrees of impulsiveness. This is not an indication if how smart they are, it is just a result of their brain using up bandwidth thinking about (worrying about) money and how to get through the day/month/year. So there is a bit of a chicken and the egg scenario here - but I am suggesting that knowledge is the key to break the cycle.

Many rich people have said that they don’t care if they lost it all because they had the know-how to get it all back. That is the magic bullet. Knowing HOW to make money is true wealth.

Some ideas

If we are willing to understand that the above mentioned “reasons” for being poor are not your fault, and are not a “set in stone death sentence”, then we can take steps to break the chains of indentured servitude and rise above our circumstances. Just like a breakthrough in therapy, it is often just the self awareness of our plight that makes the difference.

1. Read Books - Specifically read as much as you can about money, finance and wealth building. There are a ton of really good ones out there. I recommend my Top 5 HERE. I also humbly submit to you my body of work, which I am certain will allow you to build wealth if you are willing to think outside of the box.

2. Take courses - I always thought that courses were a bit of a racket. It seemed that they were very expensive and out of reach for me as I had no money. When I finally took a few courses I realized that the value I got from them far outweighed the initial cost (investment). I have earned a lot of money from things I learned in courses and books. Check out my course - it is a complete step-by-step guide to building a fortune. It assumes the student knows NOTHING about money and guides you through to some very advanced investing strategies. Take the journey with me! It will be fun.

3. Spend time with rich people - I am not saying that you should dump your friends and go hang out at the yacht club, but if you find yourself in the presence of someone who has built a fortune, chat them up. Ask them questions. People love to talk about themselves (even rich people) and most successful people are quite happy to share their wisdom. You might be surprised how forthcoming a millionaire can be.

4. Question your beliefs about money - Ask yourself if the things you believe to be true about money are actually true. By reading, learning and having conversations about money you can overwrite some of these “poor” beliefs and learn new paradigms that will serve you, instead of hinder you. Your subconscious beliefs steer your life far more than you know. Feed your subconscious mind with good, true, useful information and watch your life change before your eyes.

I believe that every time I read a book and learn something new, I am a new person. I now know something useful that I didn’t know yesterday. I am MORE. This feeling is awesome and I chase that feeling over and over again by reading as many books as I can on the things I want to know. I have learned how to invest and build wealth from books, courses and mentors. I grew up with all of the “reasons to be poor” mentioned above and a few more. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. So I educated myself and had the courage to actually go out into the real world and try some of these things. I failed many times and won and lost a ton of money. But I learned. I took each victory and defeat and added that to my bag of tricks. 

I now have multiple streams of income and earn money while I sleep. I now earn more than I ever dreamed I would as a young man. My mind had to grow to accommodate this new realty. As Jim Rohn once said:

“If someone gives you a million dollars, you better get busy becoming a millionaire”

That is why most people who win the lottery end up broke within 2 years and many end up in worse financial shape than before they received the windfall. They didn’t have the financial literacy to be proper stewards of their fortune. 

I urge you to give yourself the gift of knowledge. Learn about the world of investing and money. We live in a world that is completely driven by commerce and money so you might as well learn how it works. Financial literacy is your superpower.

So it my not be your fault that you are poor, but in order to become wealthy you need to be proactive and set your course. You must take matters into your own hands and learn what you need to learn to get ahead. They often say that you struggle because there is something that you don’t know. It can be that simple. So love yourself by feeding your mind. 

Thank you.