You Have the Power to Transform Your Financial Life NOW

I want to start this blog with a few questions to get you in the right frame of mind.

The first one is: Where do you want to be in 10, 20, even 30 years from now? 

Ok, don’t answer that! 

Sorry, don’t you just hate that question as much as I do? 

I used to ask my clients that question – and frankly, I’m pretty sure we both wanted to run out of my office when I did. They would look at me like I had two heads. The most common response was, “Are you kidding me right now, John? I’m barely surviving today! I want to know where I’ll be tomorrow – not 30 years from now. 

Have any of you ever felt like that? 

Ok, so here’s the real questions I want you ponder? 

Do you want to continue living the life you’re currently living? 

Financially speaking or in general? 

Let me repeat.  Do you want to continue living the life you’re currently living?  

Here are a few more questions: 

• Would you be in financial trouble if you lost your job today? 

• Are you or someone you know living paycheck to paycheck? 

• And lastly and most importantly, has money been a cause of stress in your life? 

I speak all over the world and the answer to that last question is often a resounding yes.  

Seventy-eight percent of people are living paycheck to paycheck. Not just in the US, but everywhere. 78%! That’s a staggering number. It was 73% just a few years ago. This problem is getting worse, not better despite all the mountains of financial information available, new financial tools, fancy software, and new and easier ways to invest.  

You’re not alone in your financial struggles! 

I talk to people all the time and they say to me they want to change, they need to change, they even say they’re committed to change, but I’m not always sure they really believe that they can, in fact, change.  

I’m not always sure they believe in their core that they can actually make the changes they need in order to live the life they envisioned and the life they deserve to enjoy.  

I’m going to say it: you do have the power to transform yourself right now. But, you need to believe it. And you need a process that gets to the core of who you really are.     

I’ve been in the personal finance industry for over 25 years and have had a very successful career. I’ve seen this business from a variety of angles. I had all the credentials, the awards, and the accolades. I was on TV, radio, and I’ve been a contributing writer to some major publications. I built a very successful business - and I estimate that I’ve probably worked with over 5,000 individuals in one way or the other from all walks of life and levels of wealth.  

All that being said, I have a very sad confession to make. Looking back, I’m not sure I was making any real difference to my clients’ lives. I thought I was. I was fully committed to helping them reach their goals.  

I can honestly say, I don’t think anyone worked as hard as I did when it came to my clients.  

Yet, despite my efforts, my clients were not changing their harmful behaviors surrounding money. They could not and would not stick to any financial plan we would agree to.  

No matter how much counseling I gave them or how much planning we did together, and despite their absolute commitment to the plan, nothing changed. Within a short period of time they were back to making the same mistakes that got them in their mess in the first place.   

And very quickly they were spiraling out of control and back to living a life of pain, stress, and anxiety. They fell back onto what I call Pain Island. Many of you may be living there right now. 

I’d show my clients where they are and where they’re headed if they continue doing what they’re doing and in most cases it wasn’t pretty. One spouse would nudge the other and say, “Honey, we have got to get serious. This does not look good.” I’d show the charts, the graphs, the plan and map out an overall strategy. With their absolute assurance that they were ready to get started, we would hug, shake hands, high five, and pinky swear. But as soon as they left my office, they were off to Best Buy to purchase a new 75-inch flat screen that would max out credit card for another month. Their commitment to the plan had a shelf life of less than five minutes.  

Can you relate?  

What I finally figured out was that it wasn’t their fault. People have been programmed to fail financially.  

I’m sure many of you here know what I’m talking about. 

If you’re like my clients, you’re smart and you’re motivated and you try to be careful with your money, but somehow you still find yourself struggling financially and those goals you set for yourself never seemed to work out.  

But, of course, that’s just one kind of financial pain. 

Some of you have plenty of money and yet you’re still unhappy, unfulfilled or dissatisfied in some way. It seems like the more you get, the more you need to be happy. 

Here’s the deal: everyone has the exact same problem when it comes to money. It boils down to one thing: your relationship with money. Most people have an unhealthy and even toxic relationship with money.  

What does that mean? Most people are using their money to dull their pain rather than fulfill their purpose. 

I’ve already talked about how the school system has set you up to fail financially. Add to that the traditional methods of delivering financial advice -in other words- the financial industry, fail to address the core issue with people and do not effect meaningful and lasting change. I saw it every day. Selling someone a financial product is not what people need. Telling someone what to do and what not to do with their money is as effective as telling a drug addict to stop using drugs or they’ll die. It does nothing to cause real or meaningful change. 

Let’s face it, if information and graphs and charts were all we needed to change our old ways and habits, we’d all be rich, skinny and happy, right?

So, here’s what’s going on.  

It took years of my own frustration, but I finally realized the reason so many of us have an unhealthy relationship with money and constantly struggle to make and stick with our financial goals, even those some big salaries. It’s about something deeper than just a lack of financial education, literacy, or certainly information.  

It’s rooted much deeper than that.

Any success you desire in life starts in the mind and this is no different when it comes to your financial life. That’s the missing piece. That’s what the financial industry is missing. 

Changes to your circumstances are in direct proportion to changes to your mental state of mind or being.

Based on what I’ve learned, there is simply no other way to achieve true, lasting financial peace without incorporating a process that taps into your brain and makes changes at the core of your mental programming, 

Buying a mutual fund or an annuity is not the answer. Those are just tools. Neither is providing information, graphs, charts, or financial plans in fancy leather binders. These things are not enough to cause the biological change you need to discover true and lasting financial freedom and peace of mind.  

I’ll get more into this as we go along. The purpose of this segment is to get your mind thinking that there are better and more effective ways to solve your financial situation. And it’s easier than you think. 

It’s never too late to start your journey to achieving true, lasting financial freedom and peace of mind.