I once went to a Dan Kennedy seminar and heard a story that made me want to puke.  It was about Jeff Paul, the guy who maxed out his credit card to go to a Dan Kennedy seminar.  Of course, he made a TON of money after that.  This story illustrated what is possible if we “invest in our education”, i.e. buy more of Dan’s products.

But rather than me tell it…here it is from Jeff Paul himself:

Well, let me back up for just a minute. It cost an incredible $3,495.00 to go to this guy’s Seminar. Plus airplane tickets. And hotel. I had a little room left on my last good credit card, we borrowed some money from friends, and we went. At the hotel, we didn’t join the others in the restaurant. We ate peanut butter and crackers for dinner. At his Seminar, this remarkable guy sat down with us, told us we were 90% of the way there with our product and idea, he made a few suggestions, and sent us home. The month before, September, we had taken in only $1,090.00. Following his advice, our income exploded like a fireworks display. Here are the numbers, absolutely verifiable by my bank deposits: in October, we took in $13,400.00. In November: $26,200.00. December: $49,800. The next year, I took in over ONE MILLION DOLLARS, and I kept about HALF AS PURE PROFIT, after all my expenses. We run the business from a little 400-square foot office on top of the garage. I have no fixed overhead and no employees to worry about. No joke, some mornings I’ve made over $1,000.00 while still sitting around in my underwear, reading the paper, maybe talking on the phone with a customer – if I’m in the mood. I’m home for my kids. I bought a boat to go fishing on with my buddies. And it gets even better – wait until I tell you about “Auto-Pilot.” But, first:
I DON’T EXPECT YOU TO BELIEVE
A WORD OF WHAT I’M SAYING

I’m glad he added that last part there because I DON’T believe him.  I mean., it’s not like a sales letter would ever lie, would it?  And it’s not like a guy sued by the FTC would fib, right?  But even if I did believe it, maxing out your credit card to go to a seminar is ridiculous.  And it’s irresponsible for anyone to encourage such behavior.

Why?

Because no information product is worth going into credit card debt over.  That’s right.  I’ll say it again” NO INFORMATION PRODUCT IS WORTH GOING INTO CREDIT CARD DEBT!  Not a seminar, not a “course,” not coaching, not anything.

Let’s say you have a credit card with a $3,000 limit because your credit stinks.  If you buy a $3,000 info product today and make the minmum on your 18% interest rate card, you’ll pay it off in222  months and pay $3,923.08  in interest. You think that cheesed 500-page “course” is worth almost $7,000?

I know. I know.  At the seminars, they’ll tell you it’s like a college education.

“ A college education can cost you $100,000 (not really, but they do say that). If you invest that much in a college education, then our ‘Get Rich in Your Underwear Course is a drop in the bucket.  Besides, it’ll teach you real-world underwear-wearing get-rich-quick techniques.  Do they teach you how to get rich in your underwear in college?”

Of course, what they fail to tell you is that a college education gets you a DEGREE which you can leverage to get a good-paying job.  I’ve traveled around the world  all because of a college education that’s paid me back 10-fold.  And I majored in philosophy of all things!

But why would someone encourage you to pay for an info product by maxing out your credit card?  Why would they equate going into credit card debt with “commitment to success”?  It’s easy: TO MAKE THEM MONEY.

Yep, their job is to get rich while you go broke.

If you really want information that bad…go buy a book.  Just don’t max out your credit cards to do it.  You want the product that bad, save the money to buy it.

* Note: I recently read an article about Joe Vitale using this tactic for a coaching program.  I don’t know anything about Joe Vitale except that he was in The Secret, which is the worst ting to ever happen to personal development.  I say make up your own mind on him.  But let me end with this: maxing out your credit card to pay for an info product is not a sign of commitment, it’s a sign of stupidity.  Don’t do it.Similar Posts:

• Man With Millionaire Mindset Still Poor
• How Your Education is Preventing Me From Getting Rich
• How Owning Less Makes You Wealthier
• Seminars You’ve Been to But Were Called Something Else
• How to Go Broke Trying to Get Rich

The complete title is listed with the omitted word in parenthesis.

1. Rich Dad Poor (Dad)

Make your rich dad poor by following the bad advice in this book.

2. Why We Want (You) to be Rich

This gives tells you why the authors want to be rich and how you can help them accomplish this goal by buying this book.

3. Nothing (Down)

Nothing is what you’ll have left over when you follow the techniques in this book.

4. Mad (Money)

Mad is how you’ll feel after reading this “classic” by Jim “Bear Sterns” Kramer.

5. Real (Estate) Riches

The real riches made  are the royalty payments the author gets from YOU buying this book. Also, additional riches are obtained by the author when you go to a seminar sponsored by the author of this book.Similar Posts:

• How to Go Broke Trying to Get Rich
• 5 Signs the Self-Help Book You’re Reading is BS
• 3 Dumb Yet Highly Successful Get Rich Quick Schemes
• Why Getting Rich Quick Sucks
• You Too Can Get Rich…If You’re a Sociopath!

What cracks me up when watching a get-rich-quick commercial is how they constantly use the word wealth.  You’ve got these “cosmic wealth” “vibration wealth” or some other dung pile of verbiage.  They sit there in yachts, big houses, and a whole bunch of other “wealthy-looking” stuff.

But is having a lot of high-priced vessels of uselessness* the same as being “wealthy”?

I know a lot of people who are rich.  One guy I know in particular had (still has…as of this writing) all the usual trappings of wealth—the high-priced sports car, million-dollar home equipped with all the high-tech gadgets you could ask for, expensive furniture, the works.

You could say my friend had it all. But there was only one problem.

He was never home to enjoy any of it.

In fact, he typically worked 80-100 hours a week. He maybe got to ride in his sports car an hour a week. He never watched his large plasma screen TV.

But to those around him. He was someone to be envied. “Look at all that he has. If I had that, I’d be so happy.”

Who could blame them really. The problem though is that when most people think about wealth, they view it in terms of possessions. And those late-night info-mericials selling courses on real estate and other business opportunities only reinforce that idea.

But I define wealth differently. I define wealth as having the time to enjoy your life. The time to spend some time with the people you care most about.

Some people envy “the rich”. But I know better. I’ve seen too many of “the rich” work so much that they never see their kids and their house staff enjoys their homes more than they do.

That’s not wealth. That’s just having money. Wealth is not just having money, it’s having the time to enjoy it.

So, when you map out your career, don’t just consider how much money you will make. Think about how much time you will get to enjoy it.

P.S.

But don’t let those lame-o infomercials foll you with that “you’ll be sitting on a beach while money rolls in” junk.  Not only do 99.9% of them make you LOSE money..but that 1%who might actually make money at it (ahem–MLM–ahem) work those 100 hour weeks.

* vessels of uselessness-things that you have no use for, i.e. house with 30 rooms when only three people live there, a yacht that no one goes out on, a big TV no one watches, etc.Similar Posts:

• How Owning Less Makes You Wealthier
• How to Go Broke Trying to Get Rich
• My Beef with Self-help BS
• Wanna Get Rich? Try Working!
• 3 Wealth-Building Myths Most People Believe But Shouldn’t

Have you ever bought something and soon after wished you’d never bought it? Is it now occupying space in your house?  Is it in storage?

Look, we all know that we don’t need a bunch of “stuff”.  But why do we buy it anyway?  Some people tell me, they buy “stuff” because they need it (they don’t). Or some even are honest and say they wanted it (they didn’t).

Yep, you read that last sentence right.  I am convinced people buy things they don’t even want.  Come one…you know you’ve done it.  And don’t try to convince yourself otherwise.  At some point, everyone’s bought something they didn’t even want..maybe it was to impress someone..I don’t know.

But I’ve pinpointed 3 reasons why we do it.   Knowing these could change your life.

Reason #1: Boredom

Most people I know who absolutely hate their jobs, their careers, or even their lives in general buy a LOT of “stuff.”Seriously.

We often buy things because we have nothing better to do. In this case, buying things is a substitute for doing things. If you are bored or hate your job, then maybe it is time to re-evaluate your life.

You can always look for another job. Or start creating experiences. Want to live abroad? If you have a college degree, you can teach ESL all over the world. That’s what I first did when I graduated from college. And it led me to a fulfilling career in writing…and it’s still paying off as I am now back in South Korea writing educational textbooks.

You will thank yourself time and time again for changing your life rather than trying to buy your way to happiness and excitement.

Reason #2 Low feelings of self-worth = Equating ourselves with what we own

This is a big one. How many people do you know who can’t WAIT to show other people their things?

“Come see my house.”

“Come see my new car.”

“How do you like my new $300 dress?”

But on a lesser scale, how many times have you bought something that you thought would make you feel better (a new car is a good example of this type of purchase), only to find that later you don’t feel any different?

Many times we buy things we don’t need because we want to feel better about ourselves. Just like those people who aredying to show you what they own. You might think they are arrogant, but 9 times out of 10 these people do this because they get a feeling of self-worth from what they own and they need others to reinforce that feeling.

But the truth we are not what we own…we are more than what we own. We have infinite potential whereas we can only buy a finite amount of things. Instead of throwing money away on objects to make you feel better about yourself, I suggest investing in things that will lead to personal growth.

For example, I invest in violin lessons. I can’t tell you how much benefit I get from this both in terms of musical training and in learning about my limitations and how I can overcome them.

Reason #3 Loneliness

I told this last reason to a friend of mine, and he mocked me. Yeah, I know.  But he’s my friend, so I let him run his mouth a little bit.

“You buy things ‘cause you’re l-oooone-ly?”

Sarcasm noted. But I do think we often buy things out of loneliness. Mankind might be social animals but the simple fact is in the end we face death alone and at some point in all of our lives we feel alone.

And yet, we need interaction. But often our interactions with others are less than satisfactory.

We are often misunderstood, mostly because we don’t understand ourselves. And this longing for acceptance from ourselves and others leads us to buy things we neither want nor need.

This longing leads us to buy things to impress others. It leads us to buy things that we think we make us more appealing to others. But the simple truth is that if people want to be with you because of what you have, they will be gone the minute you lose it.

And those are not people worth having in your life. So, if you feel lonely, think twice before buying things you don’t really want. Ask yourself why you are really buying them. If it’s to impress others, you are better off without those things (and the people that come with them) both in the short-term and in the long-term.Similar Posts:

• Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned from Mr. Rogers
• How Owning Less Makes You Wealthier
• 5 Sequels to Bestselling Self-help Books
• Should You Be Taking Economic Advice from Motivational Speakers?
• Quitting is for Winners!

A lot of people I know say they want to get rich.  Even more, some people pay thousands of dollars to learn how to get rich.  Even though I think getting rich is not that worthwhile of a goal, I thought I’d save all of my readers the thousands of dollars you might otherwise spend learning how to get rich at a seminar.

I’ll teach you a way that, whereas it might not make you a multimilioaire, it will put more money in your bank account. The question is: will you do it?

Let’s Start with….The Couple Who Spends Together…

A couple I knew were expecting their second child.

The only problem with another child, however, was the financial burden another child brings.  And they were worried about it.

You see, my friends had a problem. They had over $30,000 in credit card debt, 2 car payments, a mortgage payment, and that was the tip of the iceberg. So, when I went to their house the next week, imagine my surprise when…

…their house as outfitted with brand new furniture they had bought over the weekend. And in their driveway…

…a brand-new car.

But we need it…

Here they were struggling to support a new child, but still bought a new car and furniture.  And for what?

With people like that couple there is a pattern at work:

• Work hard to make money
• Money’s not enough to get everything now.
• Go into debt to buy more things
• Work harder to make more money
• To buy more things
• To go back into debt

Yep, your money is there to buy “stuff.” And with debt,  you find that that “stuff” you think you own…

…THEY own YOU!

Get Rid of Your Stuff

Most people associate wealth with possessions. You know how I know that? I watch infomericals.  Whenever the guy on TV is tryingt to sell you some lame-brain get-rich-quick “course” he emphasizes things. The yacht.  Big house. Rolex.

They look at fancy houses, clothes, cars, and other sorts of “status symbols.” And most people fall for it.  But what happens when you don’t buy those things? What happens when you don’t have all those expenses?

That’s when you can accumulate wealth!  And by “wealth” I mean not only money but also time.  Those possessions demand a lot of your time…think about it.

How many times have you wanted to go somewhere or do something but didn’t have that money? Or the truth is you DO make enough money, but all it goes to paying for things you bought years ago. Or maybe you are still paying too much for that car that stretched your budget or the house that was a little bit more than you could afford?

By keeping it simple, and buying fewer things, you will find yourself living more contented and even treasuring the things you do have, instead of renting storage space to keep it out of the way.

A Truly Simple Life:

A news story I read about a couple of years ago was about a woman who lived in an 84 sq. ft. home.  Most people I know thought it was funny. But I didn’t think it was funny.  I thought it was brilliant.   When a reporter asked the woman why she wanted to live in such a small house, she answered,

“A simpler life, time, more money. I don’t have a mortgage. I don’t have a big utility bill, I’m able to offer money to my family if they need it, (and to) my friends if they need it.”

I suggest reading the whole article and watching the video. I am not saying for everyone to go get small homes like this, but I think it is instructive on what’s possible.

Let me leave you with this thought:

With no mortgage, a $6 summer utility bill, and more time–what could you accomplish?

Similar Posts:

• The Difference Between Being Wealthy and Being Rich
• 3 Reasons Why We Buy Things We Don’t Need (or Even Want)
• How to Go Broke Trying to Get Rich
• My Beef with Self-help BS
• Man With Millionaire Mindset Still Poor

What if I told you that you could work 2 hours a week from the beach and watch as unlimited funds roll into your bank account?  Would you be interested?

What if I told you that there is an effortless way to achieve wealth that the rich have been keeping secret from you?

Today, I am going to tell you the secret on how to use the Carlonian “law of opposites attraction” to attract UNLIMITED wealth—from your pocketbook directly into MINE.

Let me take you by the hand and walk you step by step through the process:

1. Buy my book, “How to Effortlessly Attract Unlimited Wealth”

In my book you will discover platitudes in which I berate people with money for having money and tell you how to get your hands on it WITH NO EFFORT.  Even better, I tell you everything you were taught about wealth was wrong.  It’s not because you spend too much money, save too little, or invest in dumb get-rich-quick schemes.  It’s because you just don’t know the secrets of effortless wealth that they don’t want you to know about.  This book is filled with inspirational stories of rich people who did not follow even a single word of what I wrote, but they are there for dazzling effect.  In short, my book “How to Effortlessly Attract Unlimited  Wealth” won’t tell you jack about getting rich, but it will make you feel all motivated–motivated to take the next step! GOING TO MY “FREE” SEMINAR.  Did I mention how effortless this all is?

2. Go to my free seminar

My internationally famous “The Totally Effortless Way to Get Rich Today” seminar will again tell you absolutely NOTHING about getting rich.  But you will hear me talk about how great it is to be rich (even though I won’t be rich until you buy my stuff).  I won’t actually tell you how to do anything.  Instead, you’ll get a free no obligation sales pitch to buy my effortless wealth attraction “course”

3. Buy my $499 get rich course at the end of my free seminar

This is course is 700 pages of big font, small formatting that could probably fit in a 20-page binder.  In this course, I tell you the best way to attract wealth is to go to my $5,000 “Effortless Riches Seminar” where I will tell you the real secrets of unlimited wealth.

4. Go to my $5,000 Effortless Riches Seminar

For a mere $5,000, you will learn the real secrets of effortlessly attracting unlimited wealth.  The secret you learn at this seminar is that you should buy my supplemental course for $999. And the BIG secret is that you can’t effortlessly attract wealth alone.  You need a group of like-minded people to help you.  You need mentors. And who are those people?  Me and my staff, of course.   But if you need our help (and you always do because someone has to take you step by step through the process) you’ll have to go to the next step

5. Join my $999/month mentoring program

If you’re wondering how to get rich, you can have total 24 hour access to ME (just excuse the fact that I sound Indian over the phone).  You will get scripted advice on wealth and life, and I’ll even give you your daily horoscope since most of my scripts are variations of horoscopes.

6. Join my private invitation-only power riches mastermind networking group

For a token $25,000 a year, you too can join the movers and shakers of effortless wealth.  There you learn the real secrets: go broke by investing real estate for NO MONEY DOWN and work 90 hours a week and make no money by selling MLM stuff.

And there you have it.  A fast and easy way to attract unlimited wealth—from your pocket and into mine.  Don’t use the $45,000 or so that I am asking you for to invest wisely.  If you want to learn effortless wealth attraction, you have to “spend money to make money.”

So, don’t hesitate.  Start the process of attracting wealth to me TODAY.  Just start giving me money.  There’s a donation button up there.  What are you waiting for?  Don’t you want to be wealthy?

Don’t  delay.  I might run out of books.  I might go on a farewell seminar tour.  I might retire tomorrow.  I might have retired already and take my secrets with me.  Who knows what I’ll do?  I’m completely unpredictable.  Hurry, hurry, hurry…Similar Posts:

• Give me $25,000 and I’ll Tell You How to Overcome All Your Problems
• The 20 Worst Self-Help Books of All Time
• Seminars You’ve Been to But Were Called Something Else
• 4 Fool-Proof Ways to Become a Law of Attraction Expert
• 5 Signs the Self-Help Book You’re Reading is BS

I hate slogans.  I don’t mean advertising slogans.  I mean those self-help slogans people recite ad nauseam and never even give a single thought as to whether they are true or not. How many times have you recited some “truth” you heard on some tape, or in some book, or at some seminar because it sounded true but never really gave any thought to whether it was actually true or not?

Some can be a little harmless (not completely harmless, just a little harmless).  But those that I think can do the most damage are these so-called financial truths.  These “truths” cause some people to change their views on money, but what they got was a bill of goods instead because their original view was right.

Well, I decided to look at some the common wealth-building “truths” that I hear a lot, and see how well they hold up to critical analysis.

1. “Don’t work for money, make money work for you.”

If you’ve ever been approached by a pyramid…I mean MLM distributor, then you’ve heard this one a million times.  I know I have.  I hear it every time one of those guys tries to sell me something…actually, they try to get me to sign up to sell the products that I don’t buy in the first pace.

I have to give this slogan one thing: it sounds smart.  It sounds real smart.  But if we use our critical thinking skills, does this slogan give us something to build our financial future on?

Let’s see.  To take this to its logical conclusion: If we want money to work for us, then we should quit our jobs and live off our investments.

What was that you said?  You don’t have the money to do that?

Then, you’re SOL.  Because if you don’t work for money (no income), then you have no money to invest in order to “make money work for you”  So, this slogan is essentially meaningless for you and 99.9% of the people out there.

Even the super-duper rich don’t just stop earning money to live off their investments.  And speaking of the rich, this brings me to the next one…

2. The Rich Get Richer, The Poor Get Poorer

I learned this one at a young age.  But with all due respect to my elders, they were wrong.  The truth is the rich get poorer sometimes.  And people with no money do get richer sometimes.

What bothers me about this is that it plays on class affiliation and in the myth that “the rich” think differently than “the poor”.  In fact, a lot of wealth-building sloganeering plays upon people’s insecurities about not having enough money.

But let me say this: don’t fall for that poop.

“The rich” are not some monolithic group that knows something that you don’t.

But rather than hearing my opinions, let’s put this to the logic test.

If it were true that the rich get richer then it follows that the rich would always get richer.  Since they do get poor sometimes.  (ahem..Bernie Madoff), then it’s just not true.

This next one is one of my favorite myths because so many peple beleive it and who could blame them, because the media is always hyping…

3. The “Lottery Winners go broke myth” AKA Poor People Don’t know how to Handle Money

First off, playing the lottery is stupid.  Your chances of winning are low.  Better to invest that money than spend it on lottery tickets.  But there are a lot of misconceptions about the lottery.  Here are a few:

• only poor and stupid people play the lottery
• lottery winners spend foolishly
• lottery winners go broke

I’ve seen this “truth” in a ton of “wealth-building”, “wealth attraction” and some finance books.  These books just take it for granted.  But I have this habit that annoys most of the people around me:

I QUESTION these “truths” and I subject the “truth” to critical analysis.  So, how does this whole lottery winners go broke myth do?

Well, I did a little research and unfortunately, for some financial gurus, the facts don’t back up this “truth”.

In a study on lottery winners, Professor Roy Kaplan found that:

“Specifically, winners came from various education and employment backgrounds and they were clustered in the higher income categories than the general population indicating that lotteries might not be as regressive as popularly believed. Winners were older than the general population and more often male (60 versus 40%). There was significant association between the amount a person won and his or her work behavior. Individuals with psychologically and financially rewarding jobs continued working regardless of the amount they won, while people who worked in low paying semiskilled and unskilled jobs were far more likely to quit the labor force. Contrary to popular beliefs, winners did not engage in lavish spending sprees and instead gave large amounts of their winnings to their children and their churches. The most common expenditures were for houses, automobiles and trips. It was found that overall, winners were well-adjusted, secure and generally happy from the experience.”

If you want to spend $34 to get a full copy of the study, then by all means do so.

So, let’s see.

Only poor people play the lottery—WRONG. People with more money play the lottery more often.

Most lottery winners spend lavishly—WRONG.  They spend rather conservatively.

Most lottery winners quit their jobs—WRONG. Most stay at their jobs if it’s a job they like.

Hmmm…sort of puts a large scoop under that poop some get-rich finance gurus preach about the lottery.

You see, I think this myth also perpetuates the idea that “the rich” think differently than “the poor”.  But as you can see.  The rich play the lotto more often.

In this case, DON’T imitate the rich.

To end, I thought I’d have some fun and make up some smart-sounding financial slogans and attach bad advice with it.  Do NOT follow this advice.  If it sounds like advice you’ve been given, then you were given bad advice.

Don’t pay for your house, make your house pay you. (buy a house, rent it out, while you rent a cheaper apartment…in 30 years you’ll have a free-and-clear house)

The more money you spend, the more money you make. (rich people spend a lot of money, so you should too in order to become rich)

Don’t pay the tax man, make the taxman pay you. (earn as little money as possible so you can qualify for the Earned Income Credit).

Poor people have lots of cars, rich people have lots of boats. (buy boats instead of cars…”park on a yacht–not in a lot”)

No plane, No Gain. (you ain’t rich till you own your own plane!) Similar Posts:

• Penn and Teller are Full of Bullshit
• Twitter Weekly Roundup for 2010-02-06
• 3 Reasons People Fall For Get Rich Quick Schemes
• The Douche
• How 5 Best-selling Finance Books Would be More honest if You Omitted One Word From the Title