7 Steps to Financial Abundance

Bankrate shares their seven steps to financial abundance as follows (along with my comments):

1.  Spend less than you earn. Creating excess earnings is the first step on the path to financial abundance.

Gotta agree 100% with this one. I have a whole category devoted to spending less than you earn.

2.  Maximize your financial resources. There are several ways to maximize your savings income and build wealth. For example, if you have a company-sponsored retirement plan, contribute enough money to earn the maximum amount your company will match.

Here are some of my thoughts on retirement plans, 529s, and health coverage -- all listed by Bankrate as ways you can maximize your financial resources.

3.  Minimize your taxes. Use every legal method to reduce taxes.

My best method: hiring a CPA.

4.  Manage your investments. Properly managing investments is critical if you want to remain in the land of financial plenty. If you manage your own investments, implement an asset allocation plan that allows you to sleep well at night. Low-cost index mutual funds provide superior long-term results for most investors.

The three keys to my investment plan: index funds, asset allocation, and rebalancing.

5.  Protect your financial resources. Fear of the unknown can produce a sense of scarcity. Proper insurance to protect your financial resources is important in keeping this fear at bay.

Here's a list of the five types of insurance we all need -- and here are some tips to saving on insurance.

6.  Control your personal finances. We may reduce our fear of scarcity by making the right choices about things we can control -- such as developing good spending habits and making saving for our family's future a priority.

One word: discipline.

7.  Have faith in continued abundance.

This one seems to be a throw away item. Why not just stop with six?

For a shorter list on how to become wealthy, see How to Get Rich in Three Easy Steps.

Comments

[Ron@TheWisdomJournal]

I like #3 because it's one area that many PF writers overlook. I really need to investigate ways to minimize my tax bite. Hmm, sounds like a blog post :)

[Jesse]

Great article I really enjoyed the ideas presented.

[AJ Cartwood]

It helps to know how much Net Worth you REALLY need, before you get started on these steps ... it's usually MUCH more that you think!

[Dr. Artfredo C. Abella Ph.D, San Diego,California,]

Let me present my own personal points of view on the 7 Steps to Financial Abundance:

1. Adhere to the Law of Attraction: Close all your doors to negative flow of wealth. Affirm all the positive measures towards wealth and the universe will conspire to you in the realms of financial abundance and money. Extend your gratitude to the God of the Universe as Christ is the center of the universe. Extending gratitude to the things that you already have, hence an acknowledgment that you are already financially abundant rather than concentrating on things that you do not have yet and that means your life is in the lack or poverty. Attune your mind on things that you want rather on things that you do not want. As the Thunderbird Indian Chief once said: " It is we who have been waiting for. " What you perceive in life and form in your thoughts become things of your outer world. This world is awash with money just like the Niagara Falls and yet some of us contemplate money just like water by the tea spoon. Change your inner world and you change your outer world in terms of financial abundance.
2. Create multiple streams of income. as Aesop's Fable once said: " Variety is the spice of life." The more streams of income the better that means that you must have many sources of income or create millions of alternatives to earn income to be financially abundant. It takes a million arrows to kill a dragon, hence if you want to eradicate poverty which is the dragon, you must have millions of arrows or income to slay the dragon which is poverty and be financially abundant in life.
3. Your outgo must not exceed your income otherwise your upkeep will lead you to insolvency. This is the common saying of produce more than you consume. Delay your instant gratification for the greater price of financial abundance in life.
4. Pay yourself first. If you cannot save money then the seeds of greatness is not in you. Save so that once it becomes substantial it will warrant you for avenues of investments. Tithe 10% of your income to your own self and build financial abundance in the future by making force savings in your salary, income and money windfalls. Part of what you earn is yours to keep as what the richest man in Babylon who advocate.
5. Persistence to attain wealth no matter what the economic conditions maybe is the only road to financial success. Genius will not, intelligence will not, hard work will not only the virtue of persistence will lead to financial success. Success begins with a fellow's will it's all in the state of mind but sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.
6. Money is the effect and it is not the cause. Many people would suffer financial debacle because they believe that money is the cause which is the opposite. Money is the effect - if you overspend your money more than what you earn then that is the cause the effect is insolvency. If you pay yourself first, delay your instant gratification and invest most of your income that is the cause, the effect is that you will have multiple streams of income and your money will produce more money which will make you financially abundant in life. Rich people make money work for them rather than them working for money.
7. In whatever you do your happiness in life will always be measured in terms of the integrity that you can show and apply in your life. The basic foundation of financial abundance is integrity. Integrity is the virtue which has lasted for centuries and will still last the nth times because it makes a person, institution and organization last, prosperous and financially abundant.