No. 1: The Most Important Financial Decision You’ll Ever Make

The most important financial decision you’ll ever make is what percentage of your paycheck you will automate toward your retirement (or what I refer to as my Freedom Fund). Statistically, you have not saved nearly enough to be Financially Free. Many of us have fallen victim to the many false beliefs around retirement. Things like:

- I’m too young to worry about retirement

- I can’t afford to put money aside now

- Isn’t that what Social Security is for?

- My 401(k) and IRA plans will cover my needs

- I only need to put aside 10X my current salary

Pick up Money: Mastering the Game if you’d like a detailed explanation around why these and many other false beliefs have blinded you to the truth. For now, just know that you have been lured into a false sense of security and, if you’re not careful, you’re going to end up one of those 75-year-old Walmart greeters making minimum wage instead of enjoying your Golden Years.

To ensure you become financially free, take the salary you think you’ll need and multiply it by 20. That’s what you need to put away in order to live off the interest without touching your principle. To get there, you need to make the most important financial decision of your life. What percentage of your current salary do you take off the top and set aside? For me, that number is 25 percent. I know people who live off half their salaries (50 percent) and some who are taking as little as 10 percent.

But regardless of your number, you need to work with your payroll team to automate this so that you never see the money. Set up a separate account and have this amount deducted from your paycheck. Think of this deduction as your wealth tax. It’s what you need to do to ensure your financial freedom. Delaying this decision only hurts you, as you will miss out on the power of compounding (when invested correctly—see No. 2, below).

No. 2: The Most Important Investment Decision You’ll Ever Make

Once you have made the most important financial decision, now it’s time to make the most important investment decision you’ll ever make. What percentage asset allocation will your investments go towards? There are two asset classes: 1) Security oriented investments, and 2) Risk/Growth oriented investments.

The most important investment decision you’ll ever make comes down to how much risk tolerance you have as you look to compound the money you’ve set aside for retirement. Are you 80 percent Security and 20 percent Risk/Growth? Or are you 60/40, 50/50, or some other allocation?

This decision is best made with your fiduciary, who is a registered financial investor. That’s because whatever you believe your risk tolerance is, we’re only human, and it’s one thing to say you can accept losses when it’s not actually happening and totally different when a big chunk of the money you’ve set aside gets wiped out.

If you have a savvy fiduciary, talk to him or her about asymmetric risk. It’s the billionaire’s secret, whereby they get Risk/Growth-like returns with assets that would fall in the Security asset class. The wealthy risk very little and expect substantial returns. Most people risk most of what they have for a small return (which is why we remain, well, not wealthy).


No. 3: The Most Important Business Decision You’ll Ever Make

And finally, the most important business decision you’ll ever make is who you will model your success after. Great people building great companies have incredible mentors who have helped them achieve their success. Ask any successful CEO, and he or she will tell you who mentored them. If you want to grow, you need a coach.

If you want to grow massively, you need someone who has already accomplished what you want at a scale 10 to 100 times greater than you’re even dreaming about right now.

Which is why I urge you to sign up for Business Mastery. What other coach do you know who’s created a net worth of over $6 billion dollars and is willing to help you? If you know someone else like that, please contact me immediately. As Tony Robbins says, “Proximity Is Power.” Think about it. If you want to lose weight, do you seek the advice of a person who is obese? No, of course not. You find the person who is an absolute picture of health and vitality, and you model what he or she does.

Not only does Tony Robbins play full out with his time and energy, but he brings in several other successful billionaires who share their formulas for success. This week, I had a one-on-one conversation with Jay Abraham. If you don’t know him, he’s considered one of the top marketing minds of our generation. What’s that worth to my business? We’re talking millions once I implement the sage advice he imparted to me.

But here’s the best part. When you sign up, you have what I consider to be the most incredible money-back guarantee I’ve ever heard. You go to the first day (of a five day event) and if you don’t find insights that day that are worth at least $1 million dollars to your business, you get a full refund, no questions asked.

So yeah, I think this was the right choice for me. I have calculated at least $3 million dollars (this year!) that I will generate from the insights I learned this week, and when I continue to implement these incredible ideas, the ultimate outcome in the next decade will be in the eight or nine figure range.

If you want to be a billionaire, then you need to take massive action. That starts with having a coach who’s already done what you want to accomplish. If you don’t have that, then that’s your first order of business. As Tony Robbins likes to say, “When would now be a good time to make that happen?”

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