2 How Much is Enough (Chapter 2)You Were Born Rich Audio BookBob Proctor

In Chapter 2, the author discusses the concept of how much money is enough. They emphasize the importance of being specific about the amount of money one wants and the reasons behind it. They suggest making a list of all the things or activities one plans to spend money on in the next year and determining the cost of each item. The author also mentions the importance of life insurance and the common underinsurance of individuals. They conclude by encouraging readers to start living the good life now and to continue reading for more information. Chapter 2 How Much is Enough How much is enough? Earl Nightingale said most people think they want more money than they really do, and they settle for a lot less than they could get. For you to get this prosperity concept into high gear, you must be specific. Exactly how much money do you want? Remember, you are working with your subconscious mind, and the subconscious does not think, it merely accepts images and then moves them into form. So for you to say I want lots of money isn't good enough, because no one, least of all the subconscious mind, knows how much lotsa is. I strongly recommend that you get very serious about this chapter, because the idea it contains could literally change your life. But understand that thinking by itself is not enough. You must move into action. There are certain things you must do, and the first one is to decide how much money you want. For you to answer this question, it would probably be a good idea for you to decide what you want the money for. But to simply say I want the money to live on is not good enough, because first of all you should realize our society is structured in such a way that the government will keep you. In fact, in most places they will even mail a check to you. You can sit at home and still receive a living wage. At this point you are probably saying to yourself, oh yes, I know that, but I want to live better than that. Well, let's get specific, how much better? Bearing in mind that this kind of an exercise is going to require some serious planning on your part, get out a sheet of paper and draw up a list of all the things or activities that you plan to spend money on over the course of the next year. To assist you in getting started with your list, I have outlined several sample categories below. Food, rent, mortgage, clothes, automobiles, utilities, education, vacations, recreation, insurance and savings. Understandably, these are just a few of the many possibilities, so keep working on your own list until it is complete. And remember, you do not fill in the amounts you are now spending, rather you take each item on the list, visualize how you want to live, and then fill in the amount of money it will cost you to do so. For example, you might only go out to a nice restaurant to dine on very special occasions, but you might visualize yourself spending a very enjoyable evening out for dinner once a week, where the service is excellent, the food is even better, and the environment is fit for royalty. How much would that cost? That is the figure you are looking for. You could be driving a car that is getting tired and is showing signs of rest, but you might visualize yourself driving a brand new car of your choice that you trade every year or two. How much would that cost? Remember, you do not have a contract to live forever, nor is this a practice run. This is your life, and you should be enjoying it to the fullest extent humanly possible. Therefore, you should have the amount of money you need to provide the things you want to live the way you choose to live. Let me caution you. It would not be unusual for your mind to be playing tricks on you at this point, and you could be thinking, this is really crazy. I am never going to have the money to live the way this book suggests. I want to remind you, however, that there are many people who do have enough money to live the way this book suggests, and they were not born with it, and no one left it to them. They were born rich in the sense of having the God-given potential to succeed. Everyone is. But like most people, they were at one time short of money. And that you, too, can succeed, and you will, if you will only do as this book suggests. As I am writing this, I feel compelled to digress for a few lines, to remind you that you have great resources of talent and ability locked up within you, just waiting to be expressed. In this vein, I can vividly recall listening to a tape a number of years ago that Earl Nightingale made on attitude. I must have listened to that tape literally hundreds of times, and there was a part on it where he said, Now right here we come to a rather strange fact. We tend to minimize the things we can do, the goals we can accomplish, and yet for some equally strange reason, we think others can do things that we cannot. Earl went on to say, I want you to know that that is not true. You do have deep reservoirs of talent and ability within you, and you can have the things you want. I wouldn't even want to speculate on how many times I heard that section without really understanding what he meant. And then one day I heard it, and every cell in my brain seemed to resonate with the truth of what he said. I suddenly realized what he was driving at, and I knew deep down inside of me that if they can do it, so can I. If I am willing to pay the price. Please understand you too can do it, because what Earl had to say is as true of you as it was of me. But part of the price for you is to figure out how much is enough. So don't just pull a figure out of the sky. Do it right, because when you're finished, you will be glad you did. Moreover, this exercise will also help you to develop a more disciplined mind. At this point, you might be thinking this section doesn't even concern you, because you are already too deeply in debt to start accumulating a sizable amount of money. But you will be happy to know we have a great idea which will help you deal with that problem as well. Furthermore, you will be delighted to know that in many situations, and yours may be one of them, a person can become wealthy even if he or she never earns any more money than they are earning currently. That thought alone should give you the encouragement you need to continue reading. By now you should have completed your list and arrived at a figure. So take pen to paper and write that number down in big bold figures. Now clear your mind of that idea and move on with me to another very important idea. Realize that although this idea might not apply specifically to you, at least at the present time, it certainly will apply to many readers. Moreover, even if it does not apply to your particular situation, it is worth thinking through anyway, because you certainly have many friends and associates it does apply to, and you will be able to share it with them. I am going to explain this idea to you as if you were a married person with a family to support, and you are either the sole breadwinner or an important contributor. Now one of the principal reasons for wanting the amount of money you desire is to provide for your family, and not just in an adequate manner. After all, you want them to live life to its fullest. Realize therefore that as long as you live and are able to follow the plan outlined in this book, you will be able to do as you want with respect to your family. However, if you really stop and think about it, you will very likely agree that you would want your family to live the good life even if you were suddenly removed from the picture, wouldn't you? Jokingly, you might say, no, who cares if I'm gone? But this is not a joking matter. This is a very serious matter. Of course you care. I know it, and so do you. Now if you are alive and healthy, you will create this wealth for your estate. But what if you die or are permanently disabled? Well, our society is taking care of that situation as well. We have life insurance, and we have disability insurance. But let's get back to your thinking again. You might be saying to yourself, life insurance, what a ripoff. This guy Bob Proctor really doesn't know where he is coming from. Now let me tell you that when it comes to life insurance, I believe I can claim to be an authority of sorts. For I have conducted seminars for the insurance industry for almost 10 years, and I have had close to 50,000 people from that industry go through my seminars. Therefore I can assure you that when I say approximately 95% of the people whom you talk to are almost completely ignorant when it comes to the subject of insurance, I am not talking through my hat. Granted, many of these people hold important positions in business and in industry, in government, or in the professions. And because of their positions, it would be very easy to just assume they know of when they speak. But the sad fact of the matter is, many of them are either badly misinformed or completely uninformed when it comes to the important subject of life insurance. Understand this, there is no way to replace your income and create a certain and instant estate other than life insurance. And statistics indicate that although most people are insured, the vast majority of people, at least 90%, are dangerously underinsured. That is to say, when they die, most people leave behind only enough money to pay for their funeral and possibly enough money to cover their family's living expenses for one year. The unfortunate part is that for a relatively small sum of money, these people could have had their financial affairs set up in such a way that if something did happen to them, their financial goals would automatically have been reached by their families. Since this book is designed to help you reach a substantial financial goal, I felt duty-bound to include the information on life insurance. Indeed, the book could not be complete without it. Keep in mind there are only two ways to earn money, people at work or money at work. You will be happy to know that the remainder of this book is designed for the person who is going to live, so keep reading and bloom where you are planted. When do you start to live this good life? Is that the question you are beginning to ask yourself? You start now. Start by answering the following questions. How often do you pay your phone bill? How often do you pay your rent or mortgage? How often do you pay your grocery store? How often do you pay for gas for your car? How often do you pay your doctor? How often do you pay yourself? That last question seems like a strange one, doesn't it? But do you realize that less than five people in every hundred ever pay themselves? And if you were to ask the other 95 why they don't, they would probably tell you that by the time they pay everyone else, there is nothing left for themselves. Clearly those four or five people in every hundred who do pay themselves have found a way around this problem. And although the idea which they are employing has been around for centuries, hardly anyone today is aware of it. What is that idea, you ask? Simply put, it is this. They pay themselves first. This is better known as the Babylonian law of financial success. A part of all you earn is yours to keep. If you think about it, you must admit this law or principle makes a lot of good sense. Therefore let me repeat it. A part of all you earn is yours to keep. More specifically, what you earn Monday morning is yours to keep. So it would go directly into a special account that you do not have easy access to. Your financial independence account. What you earn on Monday morning probably represents 10% of your income. Therefore you should pay yourself at least that 10%, right off the top. Example, not after everyone else has been paid. In your financial independence account, you first pay your insurance premium, because that instrument creates your instant estate. The remainder of the money then goes into savings, until such a time as you have accumulated enough capital to make a wise investment. Remember, you do not touch this account or the interest it will yield. Therefore within a very short period of time you will witness sufficient progress to gain the motivation and inspiration which you need to continue. Moreover, the knowledge that you have an instant estate, if anything should happen to you, will give you additional serenity of mind. Orderly debt repayment program. You could already have debts that seem to be eating up your entire paycheck, leaving nothing for yourself. But understand this, these debts can be retired. So the amount of debt you have incurred will, of course, determine the length of time it will take you to clear the slate. And for the purposes of the following discussion, you must consider your mortgage or house payment, probably one of your largest monthly payments, as an investment, not a debt. Debt clearance account. Whatever money you earn Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning should go directly into your debt clearance account. This represents 20% of your income. You should also sit down and draft a letter, which you will send to all of your creditors advising them of your plan. However, before you mail the letter, you should first draw up a list of your creditors to determine what proportion of this 20% each of them would receive. It could conceivably be more money than they are presently receiving, or it could be less. But whichever way it works out, that will be the sum of money they will each receive. Nevertheless, whatever sum they do receive, they will receive it regularly on the stipulated dates. The following is a sample letter you could use as a guide in drafting your own letter. Dear Whomever, As you know, I am in debt to you for X number of dollars, and I intend to pay you in full, plus interest. In order to achieve this goal, I have been devising a plan during the past few days to put myself in a stable financial position. To this end, I have opened a debt clearance account, and 20% of my income is going directly into that account. That will enable me to have sufficient resources to live on without worry or stress, and it will prevent me from falling further into debt. This week, or month, you will receive a check for X number of dollars from my DCA, until my account with you is clear. I am aware that this is not the figure I had previously agreed to pay you, but I am sure you will be understanding and appreciate what I am doing. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I am quite excited about my new plans, and if you would like to have me review them with you so that you might help others who are in your debt, I would be pleased to do so. Thank you in advance for your kind cooperation. Have a wonderful day. Sincerely, John Doe. Understand that your letter to your creditor is a statement of fact and not a request. It is you who are in charge of your finances, not your creditors. Be sure to have your letters neatly typed and enclose your first new payment with your covering letter. Realize there is an outside chance that some unreasonable person will not want to cooperate with you. They might even go so far as to phone you and attempt to intimidate you with threats of taking you to court, etc. But please hold your ground, because there is no court in the country that would not congratulate you when you explained your entire plan for financial independence. Moreover, you will find that 95% of the people whom you write to will be most cooperative. Now give yourself a good pat on the back, because as of this moment, you are well on your way to starting a completely new way of life. Let's briefly review what you have accomplished thus far. 1. You have an instant estate if anything should happen to you. 2. You have a savings account. 3. You are paying yourself. 4. You have an orderly debt repayment program. 5. You have 70% of your income to live on, to run the house, and for entertainment. 6. Your mind is clear to carry on with the big ideas coming your way in the remainder of this book. From this moment on, never think debt again. Remember that has all been taken care of, so just focus on your savings account and watch it grow. Repeat, I am wealthy, money is good, I use money and I love people. Metaphorically speaking, getting your present finances in order is very similar to having your automobile tuned up for a journey which you are about to take. Realize therefore that as of this moment, you are tuned up for your journey. And although you might only be earning XX number of dollars per year presently, you must see yourself on the screen of your mind already earning the new annual income which you have calculated you need to buy the things you want in order to live the way you choose to live. If you are seriously interested in becoming financially independent and you have not yet acted on the preceding ideas, I would strongly recommend you do so now, or to continue on to the next chapter without having done so, would be comparable to leaving on your journey with your car firing on only half its cylinders. You can be almost certain that your automobile will break down preventing you from reaching your desired destination, but by making certain that everything is properly tuned up, you can relax and adopt a calm, serene attitude knowing that you will get to your destination and you will certainly be able to enjoy the scenery along the way. If you find that the task of getting your financial world in good order for this exciting journey is something which you are not able to do alone, I would strongly suggest you seek out professional assistance. This is something that almost all wealthy people do. That is to say, wealthy individuals follow the advice of financial experts. It is similar in principle to the idea that if a person's body were sick, he or she would likely seek out a skilled physician for advice. Moreover, you should also keep in mind that even healthy people, if they are wise, periodically go to a doctor for check-up. In other words, you do not always need to get sick in order to get better. It has already been brought to your attention that very few people ever develop real expertise in the area of serious financial planning. Therefore, you should seek out a competent financial counselor in much the same manner as you would seek out assistance in matters of a legal nature. There are companies that provide this type of financial service in every city. In some places, they are not too easy to find, but they are there if you will only look for them. I had the pleasure of being instrumental in the start-up of such a company in the city of Toronto, Canada, in 1979. The name of the company is the McCrary Group. Today, the company has almost 5,000 happy clients who are well on their way to financial independence. The McCrary Group makes all its clients very aware of an interesting financial fact, which I would like to share with you at this time. This fact is, people fall into three distinct categories with respect to finances. 1. Deficit position, in debt. 2. Break-even position, just getting by, but debt-free. 3. Surplus position. It would be very easy to trick oneself into believing that if one were in Category 1 or 2, all one must do is earn more money, and then one would automatically graduate into the third category. But of course, that is not necessarily true. For if a person is in a deficit financial position, it means they are in the habit of spending more money than they earn. Similarly, if they are in a break-even position, they are in the habit of spending everything they earn. Since we are all creatures of habit, it follows that earning more money would not necessarily change our overall financial position. It is therefore vitally important that when you decide how much is enough, you also design a new financial plan, or have one designed for you, which will force you to discipline yourself at least for a month or two, until you form the new habit of living by the new plan. The next chapter, The Image Maker, will help you to understand how and why you must begin to see yourself already earning that new figure. But for the time being, just bear in mind that as your income increases, the 10% you are saving increases, and the 20% that is going into your DCA increases, which means that you will be able to retire your debts faster. Furthermore, you will then be left with 90% of your income on which to live. I can see you getting excited about this idea already.