What Makes You Rich?

For those of us who are serious about retiring young and retiring rich, it is worth it to remind ourselves constantly what makes people rich.

The constant saying of "If only I make more money..." or "if only I have this much money I could..." prompts us to think that if we have more money, we will be rich.

The truth is, money DOES NOT make you rich! 

We all heard stories of people winning big in lottery, only later in life they became more broke than they were before they won the jackpot. If money makes people rich, then these people who won a fortune of their life should have been rich. But no, not everyone makes it to become rich (of course, with the excessive cash a lot of the people do live a way better life without going broke). So, what makes you rich?

If we define intelligence as the ability to solve problems, then we will easily understand that there are many types of intelligence, because there are many types of problems in this world. For example, you will need very high math intelligence to solve complicated calculus problems. You will be able to communicate your ideas through writing really well if your language intelligence is high. If you want someone who you angered to like you again, you will need to turn to your people intelligence. 

If we look at the problem of "how does a person get rich?", what kind of problem is this? This is a financial problem. To solve this problem, you need financial intelligence!

For instance, if you want to own a $500,000 Ferrari, and currently you have $0, this is a financial problem of  starting at $0 and get $500,000 at the end. I bet that most of us can solve a problem of $0 to $1 (heck, we can grab our hat and beg on the street, or just ask a friend to spare us a dollar), but $0 to $500,000 is another beast. If you cannot solve it, it just means your financial intelligence is not high enough!

So, financial intelligence makes you rich. If you want to be rich, increase your financial 

intelligence! If you haven't known this, I hope this is great news to you, because this means:

1. If money does not make you rich, then it DOES NOT MATTER if you are poor, middle-class, or rich. You can still be rich!
2. It does not matter if you are an A, B or C student in school, since school have never graded you based on your financial intelligence. You can be rich no matter what grades you got in school. In fact, some of the richest people in the world never finished post-secondary!

The next question is, how do you increase your financial intelligence? I think there are 3 basic steps:

1. Find an area to focus on. There are so many different kinds of financial problems in this world. Do you want to start a business? What kind of business? Do you want to start from scratch, or do you want to use an existing system to build your business? What about being an investor? What do you want to invest in? How does real estates sound? What about paper assets like stocks? What about commodities like gold and silver? Does fundamental investing sounds interesting, or technical investing appeals to you? The list goes on and on. Find your passion, and focus on it so you become an expert in that area.
2. Gain knowledge in the area you choose. Information is easily accessible in today's world. Find your hero in the area you are interested to study in, and study what that person says and does. Learn the basics, like the terms used by the players in the area you study in. Play some games if they are available (for instances, if you are into stocks, there are various free stock simulators you can use). Listen to pundits in your area of study and see what they have to say. Talk to others about the subject you study and even teach them what you learn (teaching is a great learning experience). Go shopping. Shopping is free but will allow you to gain more knowledge. Someone who goes to grocery shopping a lot will be able to recognize a good meat deal when one is present. You will also be able to spot good deals quicker and more efficient simply by go shopping more.
3. Take actions and apply your knowledge! Words without actions are cheap! Go beyond your comfort zone, overcome your fear and TAKE ACTIONS. Nothing will increase your financial intelligence more than doing the actual thing and apply what you learn! Of course, you will have MORE OPTIONS in the actions you can take if you have more capital; however, there are things you can do even if you have little to no capital! Ask people in 90% Guardian, as a lot of people started with little capital!
   If you take an action, and if you win, great, you have more money. If you lose, great, you get smarter by learning from your mistakes! If you never step out of your comfort zone and do what you wouldn't do before, you will NEVER increase your financial intelligence. Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over expecting different results". If you keep doing the same thing you have been doing, how do you expect anything in you, like your financial intelligence, would change?

I hope we will all remember FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE is the most important in FINANCIAL SUCCESS, and we shall put this as priority. I hope the 90% Guardian will serve your need in your path to financial intelligence, and you will also share your knowledge to help yourself and others get smarter during the process!