Do you think learning about money is boring? You certainly wouldn’t be alone. Many people think of managing their money as difficult or confusing or even the last thing they’d ever enjoy. It’s so… well, boring!
We think the opposite – and not just because of who we are. From the first moment of our lives where we learned about money, we’ve never seen managing it as a boring obligation.
There’s nothing we love to talk about more: We think money is magical!
That’s not a joke or an exaggeration, either: Learning about and understanding money is the quickest route to achieving your wildest dreams.
In fact, we believe in that so strongly that our first piece of financial advice has nothing to do with money!
Our first piece of financial advice is always this: Think about what you really want out of life.
Think about what would make you truly happy.
Think about what would fill your life with meaning.
Once you know that, the reason to get your finances in order becomes self-evident.
You shouldn’t learn to manage your money to please the tax man or your accountant or your mother. You should learn about money to make sure you’re supported along the path to your happiest possible life.
Dreams Matter – Even More than You Think
One of the most interesting studies we’ve ever read began 20 years ago, when researchers followed a group of people who were just starting out in their careers.
Of those people, 80% said they planned to work hard, earn enough money to quit, and then live their dreams.
Having enough money to pursue your dreams is a fine situation to be in. Your parents may have given you some advice that supported this goal, if you ever expressed your dreams of becoming a singer or dancer or Olympic show jumper. They might not have discouraged your dreams, but they may have told you to put those dreams aside until you were financially secure enough to pursue them.
Considering 80% of the people in this study said pursuing their dreams later was their plan, it’s likely their parents gave them this advice too.
But they might not have given that advice if they’d known about the other 20% of the people in the study.
The other 20% of people said they’d worry about money later. Right now, they were young, they were talented, they were ambitious – and they were going for it. They were going to do what they loved right now, right at the beginning of their careers.
They were going to shoot for the stars.
There were 1,500 people in this study. A little math shows that means there were 300 people who wanted to shoot for the stars and 1,200 people who preferred the more cautious route.
Out of all 1,500 people, 101 of them became millionaires.
100 of these millionaires were from the shoot-for-the-stars group.
This means that 1 in 3 of those who swung for the stars right out of the gate wound up making money not because they were trying to make money – but because they were trying to live their very best lives.
Of the 1,200 who were focused on money from the outset, who intended to make sound financial decisions and plan carefully for the future… only one solitary person became a millionaire.
So much for putting our dreams on hold, right?
What We Learn From This Study
It would be easy to say that the study proves you should follow your dreams and money will magically appear, but that isn’t likely.
What we feel the study proves is that when you pursue your dreams, your goals become very, very clear to you.
Nothing is haphazard. You don’t waste money showing off to your friends or trying to keep up with the Joneses. You don’t get tricked into taking a slightly higher-paying job that requires you to work 60 hours a week, leaving you burned out and unhappy.
When you pursue your dreams, you allocate all your efforts and resources on achieving that goal. You spend all your time on your passion. You spend all your spare money on it, too.
And that single-minded devotion has its rewards. You’re more likely to reach your goals and make great things happen. And when great things happen – well, yes, then the money does tend to follow.
If you’re truly passionate about reaching your goals, it’s unlikely that you squandered your money. You probably invested it back into your passion, and since you worked so hard to be a success, you probably saw a return on your investment.
Do that enough times, and guess what happens:
You become a millionaire.
What Does This Mean for You?
“Well, great,” you might be thinking. “But I’m not just starting out in my career. It’s a little late for me to go pursue my bliss. I’ve got debts, and a career, and responsibilities to think about.”
We encourage you to look beyond the bare bones of this study. It isn’t as simple as “follow your bliss.”
What you can do, right now, is decide what you want out of your life, bliss and all.
You can take a hard look at your financial decisions and determine whether they’re helping you achieve the life you want or not.
You can decide that you will single-mindedly pursue the life you dream of living, and start taking action to reach that goal.
You can do that right now, today, and there’s no doubt that you can create immense positive change in your life if you do.
Do those changes include becoming a millionaire? Maybe. Probably not – and being a millionaire isn’t the goal.
The goal for those people in the study was a life well lived. Becoming a millionaire was just the fallout from achieving that goal.
Isn’t having the ambition to create a life you can live well worth it for you?
If you silently answered ‘yes’ in your mind, then the Money Map Coaching Program is exactly what you need. It will teach you exactly how to figure out your financial goals, make a map to reach them, and set you on the path of achieving the life you want.
On your terms. No matter where you’re starting from right now.
Take a look at everything the program offers – we know it’s exactly what you might need.
Learn More about the Money Map Coaching Program Here
