What’s Your Reason? | Post by Steve May

It’s a sad fact that most Australians feel they will never become wealthy.  Exactly what ‘wealthy” means varies from person to person, but if most don’t feel they will ever reach their version of wealthy, then there must be reasons why.

Here are the reasons I feel are most to blame.  Which one do you most relate to?

• Information.

In times past, it was lack of information that caused inaction.  These days it has become a case of there being too much information!  With modern internet search engines the world is awash with articles and references to creating wealth.  I just googled “Wealth Creation” and 191 million search results popped up.  Add to that the plethora of free property, shares, gold, futures, self managed superannuation and other seminars that abound and it becomes information overload. People find it hard to decipher what information is relevant to their circumstances and become confused and don’t ever act.

• Distraction

Life is busy these days – it was busy in the past too, believe it or not.  Jobs, study, careers, kids, sport and leisure, keeping fit and so on take up so much time that people can tend to let other important things, like creating wealth, slide to the bottom of the list.

• Procrastination

There can often seem like better things to do than get started on thinking about money matters.  “I’ll knuckle down after Christmas”, “I’ll wait until my next pay rise”, “first I’ll pay off the car”, “when I get back from holidays I’ll get started” and “we’ll just finish off the house renos” are some of the reasons I’ve heard people give when they are procrastinating.

If you’ve ever heard the proverbial saying “Procrastination is the thief of time” it sums the situation up perfectly.  By delaying starting on the wealth creation journey people miss out on the power that time and compounding returns can give them.

• The magic solution

People love to think about getting rich quickly and easily – the perfect get rich quick scheme.  We’ve all heard the stories about the person who cleaned up big on the races, won the jackpot on the pokies, invested in shares and made a squillion or bought 20 properties in quick time and is now a multi- millionaire.  The truth is, trying to get rich quickly rarely works.  In fact far more risk is taken on than is advisable in most cases.

Get wealthy steadily is probably the best motto.

• They don’t believe it’s possible

The way people feel about money has a huge influence on their ability to create wealth.  There have been many studies and books written on this topic and a few sentences here won’t do it justice.  It suffices to say that the way we feel about money has a massive influence on our wealth.

• No help

All successful sportspeople have coaches and advisers, pretty much without exception.  Even us amateurs still go to the effort of having golf lessons, go to netball training, pay personal trainers, go to craft classes and so on.  We wouldn’t even think about being able to improve on those skills without assistance from those more experienced than we are.  Learning and accountability are the key reasons.

So why is it that most people don’t get help with the important issue of their finances and wealth creation?  A reputable financial planner can make the world of difference when it comes to learning about, and implementing, powerful strategies and habits to create wealth.

Maybe you can relate to all these reasons, or perhaps one resonates more than the others.  Whatever your reason, try to think beyond it and get started on your journey to personal wealth now.