Financial Freedom

How much is enough?  How much money do you really need to feel financially secure?

Human nature is to just raise the bar every time you achieve your current goal.  If we have to grow to feel significant, we will never grow enough.

Start rich, and then get financially free as well.  Plenty of money will not make you happy.  Wealth comes from a life of gratitude, and from contribution to others.

Can you be an honest person, but not be honest in the moment?

Secret to Financial Independence
1. Spend less than you earn
2. Reinvest your returns
3. Reach your critical mass

People cannot tell you how to do the following:

• How to raise your children
• How to deal with your health
• How to handle your money

You need a money machine, something that will generate you money while you are sleeping.  To help feed you without having to spend time on it.

Income is what makes you wealthy, not assets.  Assets you can buy and it fluctuate in value, but it is not an income, it is an acquisition.

"I'm building a money machine, and its purpose is to provide me with income without working."

Pick a specific % of your income to invest, and pay the investments first before doing anything else.

Success in life comes from good judgement and good decisions.
Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience is coming from bad decisions.

80% of wealth is psychology
20% is experience

The mistake is Asset Allocation
Out of the money you want to invest you will create 3 buckets
Pick your % for each bucket and don't vary based on opportunities

1. Security - Fixed Income investments - low risk (bonds)
- 2-6 months of cash to cover your living
- Insurance
- Home
2. Growth - Greater return/loss, greater risk
- Buy and Hold
- Financial trader (time for money/money for money)
3. Dream bucket
- Travel
- Assets
- Break your pattern, change your location

If you do the right thing in at the wrong time, you get pain.
If you plant your seeds in winter, no matter how hard you work, you will not reap the benefits.
The more successful you get, the more people want to be with you / do things for you

Click here to watch Tony Robbins video on Financial Freedom

Feeling Depressed

Demartini has an insightful way of dealing with depression.  No one person has all the answers, and not everything anyone says can be  taken as truth. It is common to state that your happiness (or lack of) cannot be resolved external from yourself.  Instead of looking externally, depression should be addressed internally.  We may have gotten used to the idea that depression is a clinical condition, but more than often it is because we are comparing our reality to a fantasy of what we think our life should be like, and we fall into a sense of unhappiness.

This is caused due to an unrealistic expectation of ourselves or someone else.  If you set expectation on yourself or someone else other than what really is, we set ourselves up for disappointment.

The ABCs of depression:

Anger at the world
Blame of self
Critical of others
Despair

Depression is your body's way of telling you you have unrealistic expectations.  Use it as an indicator that
something is not in balance.

Depression is the comparison of your current reality to unrealistic expectations that you are addicted to.  As long as you are addicted to anything that is a fantasy, that there is going to be a benefit without a drawback, peace without a war, nice without a mean, kind without a cruel, gain without a loss or any one-sided world, the other pole is there to balance you and give you feedback to help you set realistic expectations on real goals, to what is true and reset your life to a state of gratitude of what you.

Stop, think of what you are depressed about, what are you comparing your life to, what are you holding on to.

What would be the drawback if that was real?
What are the benefits my current state has?

No matter what you do there will always be a benefit with a drawback.

Click here to view his video


What does this mean for me, today?

When you sit down to explore the reasons you are down, you may want to start saying things that will hurt others, so you don't say it.  But in order to get over the hurdle of how ridiculous the fantasy is,  I will need to explore some reasons for my supposedly depressing state.

I find myself in this avenue many times before, thinking that life can be different.  If only...   Interesting that the above advice is not to wallow any longer in the benefits of the fantasy, but rather the drawbacks.  And then to dwell on the benefits of reality, current state, to balance the automatic thoughts in favour of the fantasy.

So lets give it a go.

What are the drawbacks of the fantasy of being alone:

• When you are not in a relationship, you have no choice but to be alone.
• Life persists with what you resists, by removing people from your life does not mean you're dealing with the anger, fear and denial.  Others will show up eventually, presenting the same problem with a different face.
• You will not have more intimacy alone than when you do with a loved one.  
• Your fear will follow you everywhere until you deal with it.
• A busy life is not a happy life

What are the benefits of the current state:

• In a relationship, you have the choice of being alone, as long as you allow yourself to enjoy it without guilt.
• Have someone to share life with, it is your own choice if that life is shared on a couch
• I have someone who loves me
• I have 2 beautiful kids and a nice house
• I have a job to put food on the table

What a contrast to think of the other side of the coin.  To often we think of the drawbacks of our current state and the benefits of a fantasy.  Even when the fantasy come true, it is never as great as it seemed.

What am I going to change to find more joy?

• Get off the couch!!!!
• Complete writing my love strategy
• Sing and play guitar once a week
• Hang pictures of our life together
• Start a shrine
• Go to the beach, even if it is cold!