Stop Moving Backwards!

Why investing in assets first will safe guard your finances.

As a society it seems that we are forever doomed to do things backwards – simply because that’s the way the generations before us have done it, and investing and looking after our own financial well being seems to be no different at all.

Our spending habits are no different. For some reason we buy the nice home, the car, and all our modern gadgets and accessories before we are even able to afford them. In fact we often would rather first spend all our money on liabilities (those things that make money leave our bank account every month) than we would on income producing assets.

Doesn’t it make more sense to make the money first before we spend it? In all honesty, I have fallen victim to this way of spending too, until I recently re-read Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. A part of me feels that I should really be kicking myself for completely forgetting this rather important lesson – if you want financial freedom, then I highly recommend that this is something you really start to apply to your life and spending habits TODAY!

So how do you go about doing things the right way around?

Well first things first – start by changing the way you think. Let’s for example look at buying a car – quite often this is one of the biggest liabilities a lot of us will take on.

Look at the car you really want, and ask yourself “How can I afford it?” – and ask yourself this question seriously. It is actually something I have started to apply very regularly whenever the wife and I go shopping, whenever one of us looks at a “big ticket” item – usually the type the requires some kind of payment plan, I ask “how can we afford it?”

But I don’t just stop there, I look at the item’s price, work out what the monthly instalments would be, and how much we would end up paying for the product at the end of the day. You will absolutely amazed at how many times adding interest almost doubles the end amount paid. If you can, rather choose a lay-bye option, you might get your new items later than you would like to, but you will save a lot of money on interest.

So once we know how much we can expect to pay, and for how long we will be paying for, I then ask, what income producing asset we can invest in that will create the income we need to cover the expense of the item.

Now there in lies one of the biggest secrets to financial success – first invest in assets that will pay you the money you need to purchase liabilities. Do a little research and see what you need to do to earn that extra money. Perhaps you would need to add more rental properties to your portfolio, or perhaps invest in more dividend paying shares, or grow a network marketing business, take on more freelance work, etc… you can even be creative, do a little research you may be surprise by what you can come up with.

Believe it or not, but by doing this and starting to apply this practice to your spending approach, you will find that you are far less likely to find yourself in a “spot of financial bother” later down the line when the expenses on your liabilities far exceeds the amount of money that you have coming in.

And to make sure this is a lesson that I never forget again, I have actually invested in the audio version of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” too… for me to listen to a lot more regularly, I highly recommend that you do the same, click on the image below to get your copy now.