The Seven Secrets of
Extremely Prosperous People
by Robert G. Allen

Let’s talk about the seven secrets of extremely prosperous people. I call them secrets not because very few of us are aware of them, but because very few of us practice them. The secrets are, in reality, skills…essential money skills that all wealthy people practice. I believe that if you learn these skills, wealth can also flow into your life....multiple streams of increasing prosperity. That'd be nice, wouldn't it? Money to buy whatever you want.... houses, cars, travel, freedom. Surplus to share with the people you care most about. Security. Peace of mind. That's what these skills will bring you. There are at least 5 things I hope to teach you in this special report:

 -How to gain control of your finances quickly and easily

 -How to cut your living expenses by 20% in 30 seconds.

 -How to invest your extra money at 20% plus.

 -How to earn an extra $40,000-$100,000 this year.

 -How to become a lifetime multimillionaire.

Well, let's get started. With the fundamental skills of money. Remember the 80/20 principle. 20% of the things you do give you 80% of your results. Well, the same holds true for money. Only about 20% of the things you hear are really critical for you to understand. And that should be comforting.....because there is a blizzard of financial information swirling around us every day. How can you make sense of it? It's only been in the last five years that the average person even understood what a mutual fund is...and think about all of the other new words derivatives, aggressive growth fund, foreign markets, draw down. Almost every day I hear words on the television that even I am not sure of......and I've been studying these things for years. It's got to be almost overwhelming to so many people....and intimidating. It seems as if we'll never catch up, or to be able to just understand what is being said, let alone do anything....and then, to be successful at it.
Well, you can relax....because in this one special report you're going to learn what you need to know about finances so you can cut through that blizzard of financial information out there to find exactly what you need to know and discard the rest. The bottom line is that there are only 7 essential money skills that will take you to financial security. Seven things that wealthy people are good at.....that take them with certainty toward financial success. You only need to do seven things well. I call these Money Skills. And they are:

-Money Skill #1. Value it

 -Money Skill #2. Manage it

 -Money Skill #3. Save it

 -Money Skill #4. Invest it

 -Money Skill #5. Make it

 -Money Skill #6. Shield it

 -Money Skill #7. Share it

 

Money Skill #1: Value It.

So lets get right into it. Money Skill #1 is to learn how to value each and every dollar that flows into your life. Because you can achieve Financial Freedom on just a Dollar a Day! That's right. A dollar a day. When you think about it, financial freedom all starts with a single dollar.

Dig one our of your wallet or purse and examine it. This simple piece of paper doesn’t appear to be worth much. Buys you a soda. A chocolate bar. A bad hamburger. So what if you waste one, or lose one or throw one away? It’s just a dollar. Losing value every second. It's just a dollar. Use it or lose it.

Or is it? Is this ordinary dollar bill more than what it appears to be? Could it be a magic ticket to a fuller more abundant life of anywhere/time/thing you want? I promise, when you've finished done with this tape, you'll never think of a dollar bill in the same way ever again. Ever.

You see, prosperous people don't think a dollar "is just a dollar." They imagine it is a seed....a money seed...that has the power to grow into a huge money tree, giving off fruit to fulfill every one of their dreams.

And they are absolutely right.

Every dollar is a money seed. Just like a tiny acorn contains the power to grow into a mighty oak tree, each dollar has the power to grow into a mighty money tree. If you destroy an acorn, the oak tree inside also dies. So, too, with a money seed.

You can grow one of these money trees....on as little as a dollar a day. Could you afford that?

In a few short years, your money tree will be full grown and majestic, growing right in the center of your future dream home. Imagine that! Branches of your money tree spreading along the ceiling into every room of the house. Every few feet or so is a nodule which pops open once or twice a day....and releases the fruit of the tree.....a crisp one hundred dollar bill. That hundred gently floats down and lands in the strategically placed basket. All night long you hear the pop, pop, pop as these nodules open and release their fruit. It takes only a few minutes to collect the fruit in the morning. 24 hours a day, your money tree is producing fruit. While you sleep. While you work. While you play. While you eat. It never stops. An endless stream of cash flow. Get the picture? That's why it is so important to preserve and protect each of these money seeds. Every time you waste one of those silly, green pieces of paper, it's just like throwing away a money seed. No seed? No tree.

So, how much is one those seeds really worth? That depends on how long you let it grow and at what rate of growth. Let's suppose you take one dollar and put it into a special bank account that will let the dollar grow, untouched by taxes and fees. How long will it take for this ONE SINGLE DOLLAR BILL to grow into a MILLION DOLLARS? That depends on what interest rate the bank account pays. If it's like ordinary bank accounts....paying 3 to 6% interest....then it's going to take a long, long time.

At 3% it will take 468 years for a single dollar bill to grow into a million dollars.

What? Not planning on living 468 years? Relax. We're not done with that dollar bill yet. We've got to supercharge it, so those nodules can start popping in your lifetime. How can we do this? Rather than just planting one money seed, could you plant them more often? Could you afford to put away a dollar a day? Just a dollar a day. $30 bucks a month! You can do that.

Well, a dollar a day at 3% grows into a million dollars in only 147 years. That's still not fast enough, is it?

What if we raised the interest rate from 3% to 5%. That cuts the time down to about 100 years. Still not fast enough. How about ten percent interest? Only 56 years.

Hmmm. Not bad. A dollar a day becomes a million dollars in only 56 years. Let that sink in for a minute. A measly dollar day can grow into A MILLION DOLLARS in a the span of a normal lifetime. If you put just a dollar a day away for each of your children or grandchildren on the day they were born, they could all be lifetime millionaires.

But what about you? Is it too late for you? Could you still be a millionaire on a dollar a day? It's going to take some fancy work, but I think there's even hope for you. First of all, we'll have to find ways to fertilize your dollars so that they grow even faster. Suppose someone had put a dollar a day away for you ...stuck it under the mattress...the day you were born and every day thereafter. By the time you were to reach retirement age.....there would be $25,000 waiting for you. Now, what if they stuck it in a bank at 3%. There would be about $75,000. At 5% there would be just under $200,000. At ten percent interest, there would be $2.7 million. At 15% there would be $50,000,000. That's right. Fifty million dollars. And at 20% there would be......One Billion Dollars!. That's one thousand million dollars. All from one dollar a day.

I hope that sinks in deep. Most of us waste dozens of dollars a day without even thinking. No big deal. It's just a dollar. But extremely prosperous people know the real truth about dollar bills. Each dollar bill is a million dollar money seed. After all, it only takes a dollar- a-day.......JUST A DOLLAR.....to grow into a fortune.

Now, it's no small feat to make your money grow at 20%, year after year. I'll show you several ways to do this later. But for now, I want you to just become aware that a single dollar bill has incredible power.

You could be a millionaire in about 30 years on JUST A DOLLAR A DAY!

Still not fast enough for you? OK, there's a way to speed things up. Could you plant two or three seeds a day? Or five? Or ten? What does that do? We'll let's cut right to the chase. If you put ten lousy bucks a day away every single day and put it in the right mutual funds, or stocks or real estate and let the clock tick at 20 %, you're a millionaire in just 20 years! (Pop, pop, pop, pop) Excited yet?

What makes a few dollar a day grow into such huge amounts of money? It's the power of compound interest. You've heard of this before but I want you to really understand the concept because it's going to power you on to your dreams. Einstein himself, said, "The most powerful invention of man is compound interest." Compound interest is a magic money magnifier. Compound interest works for you while you sleep.

Remember, money that's compounding never sleeps. Every second of every day. 24 hours a day. 365 days a year. You've got to figure out a way to get money working for you instead of you working for money. And all it takes is a few lousy bucks a day! You don't have to be a financial genius. You don't have to own a big company. You can do it from your kitchen table using the money that you're now foolishly throwing away. If you just re-divert a few of your ill-spent dollars and funnel them to some well-timed investments, you can achieve financial success. It's within your grasp.

Look again at that dollar bill. Take care of it. It's a money seed. I'll bet you'll think twice before you throw away one of those silly, green pieces of paper. It's like throwing away the seed to a million dollar money tree. (maybe even a billion dollar tree.)

Every time you save one of those money seeds, you start your way to wealth. The real key is to keep socking away the money, even if it’s only a dollar. Let the numbers whisper their silent but relentless message. Consistency. Day in. Day out. Save. Save. Save. Invest. Invest. Invest. It doesn't much matter what investment you choose. Low yielding government securities are fine.....just as long as you invest consistently for the long haul.

Constantly save. Consistently Invest. Like clockwork. Old Faithful. It might be boring. It might be dull. It might be hard. It might take discipline, persistence, sacrifice. No matter. Just do it.

I met a young man in Chicago who had made the decision to make his future bright by dimming his desires today. He worked full time as did his spouse. If they had been like the normal (broke) young married couple, they would have pooled their two paychecks and bought a new car (with a fat monthly payment) stretched themselves into "too much house" and stressed out for the next 30 years. Instead, this young couple make an uncommon decision. They decided to live in "too little house." Then they disciplined themselves to get by on her paycheck and to save his entire $2,000 a month income. They put the money into well-selected mutual funds and watched the cash begin to pile up.

This is true prosperity.

Live on less than you earn.

Invest the surplus.

Avoid debt.

Build long term security

It's my not be get rich quick. But it's get rich sure.

It's not the exciting rabbit.

But the tortoise laughs slowly all the way to the bank.

But there will be no billions, no millions, no thousands, no nothing at all unless you get started with this plan....... you need to start today. Because waiting even one day can be extremely expensive as I shall now demonstrate.

Suppose you could sock away $200 per month. You set a target to have it grow at 20% per year for the next 20 years. Now, 20% is no small feat.....but with some fancy stock picks, some real estate and perhaps a small business on the side, you think you can pull it off. According to my calculator, $200 per month at 20% for 20 years grows into $632,000. Not bad!

Now, suppose, instead of starting now, you wait a year to get started. This leaves you only 19 years of growth instead of 20. How much is in your bank account in 20 years from today? Only $516,000. That's $116,000 less than what you could have had if you had started on schedule. In other words, your procrastination cost you $116,000 future dollars! Procrastination is expensive.

For each of the 365 days that you waited, your future portfolio was shrinking by over 300 dollars. (116,000 / 365= $317.81) In other words, every day you put this plan off, costs you $300 future dollars. Every hour you wait costs you more than $13. You are wasting 13 dollars an hour, 24 hours a day.

What if you were to invest the same $200 per month over thirty years? The cost of waiting that extra year is now a whopping $842,803. That's right! Waiting an extra year cost you almost a million future dollars. That's over two thousand dollars a day. Or almost $100 per hour!

Let me say this again for emphasis. Every day you wait, every hour you delay, is like burning up your financial future. Do it now. Yes, it will take sacrifice. It means deferring gratification for a while to allow your money tree to grow. When you prematurely pick the fruit from your money tree, you stunt it's growth and this can dramatically slow down the time for you to enjoy a fully matured, fruit bearing money tree.

Now, why do all of this money multiplying? In the truest sense, money is a spiritual concept. With proper planning, you can not only take care of yourself and the ones closest to you but you can leave a positive legacy for your posterity. If you won't do it for yourself, at least do it for them.

Now, look at that dollar bill one more time.

This simple money seed contains the power to bless you and countless future generations...if you'll start now. A wealthy future is awaiting you. It's worth the sacrifice. Let nothing divert you from your task. As we continue, I'm going to share with you the six other secrets or skills of that will make this bright financial future become a reality for you.

Remember, it all starts with a single dollar bill.

The Rockefeller Rules

As I said earlier, money is a game. If you know the rules, you win. And if you don't know the rules, you don't win. Warren Buffett, who became the world’s wealthiest stock market multi-billionaires has two important rules. Rule #1. Never lose money. Rule #2. Never forget rule #1. And here are some other simple rules to the Money Game.

Every dollar is a money seed.

You can grow rich on the money you're now wasting.

You can't make poor decisions today and expect to be rich tomorrow.

The longer you wait to get started the steeper the climb.

A dollar squandered today destroys a hundred thousand future dollars.

And since you are planning on spending a lot of time in the future, it would be nice to have plenty of money there waiting for you when you arrive. Wouldn't it? So if valuing money is skill #1. What are the other 6 skills? Let just say, that a couple of the skills are hidden in the following quote from a book called Kids and Cash about the Rockefeller family. Let's see if you can pick them out.

According to Nelson Rockefeller, the one time Vice President of the United States, his father John D. Rockefeller, Jar, gave each of his five sons an allowance "We got 25 cents a week, and had to earn the rest of the money we got." To earn part of that extra money he raised vegetables and rabbits........"We always worked. All the boys were required to keep personal daily account books. They were required to give 10 percent of their income to charity, to save 10 percent, and to account for all the rest." They had to balance their account books every month and to be able to tell what happened to every penny they earned. (From the book, Kids and Cash Ken Davis and Tom Taylor 1979 Oak Tree Publications)

The Rockefeller kids were taught a specific pattern for dealing with their money. I call them the Rockefeller rules.

Work for all you get

Give away the first 10%.

Pay yourself the next 10%.

Live on the rest.

Account for every penny.

Isn’t it interesting that Rockefeller made his kids learn the habit of work? But why do you think Mr. and Mrs. Rockefeller taught their kids to give the first 10% to charity? Now, if you're an atheist or an agnostic, or in any way squeamish about the subject of God, you'd better skip over this section. It's just going to make you all grumpy. But if you believe there is a Supreme Being, then, read on. The Rockefellers, like almost all of the great American billionaires, looked upon their wealth as a sort of spiritual stewardship. They believed that God gave them the money. It wasn't theirs....they just were caretakers over it. They felt a duty to manage it for the betterment of others......while thoroughly enjoying it themselves, of course. If every dollar they received was a gift from God, they were glad to pay 10% of it back. (Andrew Carnegie gave all of his wealth away before his death.) You'd be surprised how many very successful and very wealthy people today and throughout the past 200 years have felt the same. God, for them, was always the best silent partner. And they didn't do too badly for God and his children, either. Today, the Ford Foundation gives away hundreds of millions of dollars PER YEAR to various charities. The Rockefeller foundation gives away almost 50 million dollars.

I wonder if God knew this was going to happen. Looking down on the earth in the late 1800's did he say to himself. "To whom shall I give the idea for the automobile? And which lucky person is going to end up with the concept of oil? Hmmmm...let's see. There's that Rockefeller fellow. He's going to end up pretty decent. And most of his money is eventually going to go to help others. I think he should get a big chunk of oil. There's that scrappy Henry Ford down there in Michigan. He's got a few glaring blemishes but eventually, the money he makes with this idea is going to belong to his foundation and will bless millions of people. Let's give him a big chunk of the automobile."

How did Bill Gates end up with the computer? Or Andy Gove with the silicon chip? Or the guy (what was his name anyway?) who started Amazon.com? These days, billions can be made and lost in a single day in the stock market. Who's going to get the next billion dollar concept? Do you deserve to get it? What would you do with it if you got it? Could God trust you with it? Would you squander it? Or would you be a wise steward over it? Would there be anything left to bless the lives of others? Tough questions. I would encourage you that, no matter what your financial circumstances, invest 10% right off the top in your favorite charity or church. If you don't know where to put it, follow your heart. One day, all the money in the world, will not keep your heart beating. Sharing 10% with others will remind you that God owns everything and we're transients here.

Now, after you pay the first 10% to your "Silent Partner" you need to pay yourself next. In the classic, "The Richest Man in Babylon," George S. Clayson tells the story of the wise investor whose primary rule was, "A part of all you earn is yours to keep." (If you haven’t read this book yet, buy it today and read it.) And then, when these two items are taken care of, Live on the rest. Make the decision that, starting today, you will no longer go into debt to support your lifestyle. You’re going to live below your means....no matter what. It may take you months to turn your spending patterns around (for an oil tanker to change course 180 degrees takes many, many hours and hundreds of miles to accomplish....you're like that tanker, it will take time to turn your financial bad habits into good ones....so be patient with yourself.

And finally, account for every penny.

This is the part that all of us seem to hate so much.....accounting for every penny. I remember when I was doing my initial research, I looked, in vain, for a way out of this requirement. It seemed every successful money manager I interviewed was scrupulously meticulous about knowing where every penny went. And, of course, this was the exact opposite of my personality. Although my father was an accountant, I just didn't seem to be blessed with the same genes. I knew how to spend money really well.....but I couldn't save a dime. One day I woke up and realized that in my business career I had literally gone through millions of dollars in profits and royalties. If I had religiously saved 10% of that income....if I had lived the Rockefeller rules....I should have had a bank account filled with millions of dollars. But I didn't. I asked myself....of all the millions that had gone through my life, couldn't I have lived on 10% less. Of course, and that's when I started to live this rule.

Now, I know that the subject of budgeting and saving and penny pinching seems tedious to most Americans (as it did to me for most of my adult life), yet, I can also attest to the fact that these skills or habits must become part of your life if you ever hope to achieve any measure of financial success. Don't give me your old excuses. I used all of them myself at one time or another and not one of them every made me richer. Don't you dare tell me you're not good at math, or that you hate to balance your checkbook, or that you don't have a head for numbers, or that you never went to college, or that you don't know how to work a calculator, or that your spouse takes care of that stuff, or that you don't have the time, or that life is short and that you'd better enjoy it while you can. Odds are, you're going to live to a hundred years old.......that's thirty five years past retirement..... and you must plan for it by taking charge of your finances NOW.

You can't delegate this to anyone. You've got to do it. Truth is, nobody can watch over your money like you can. (Farmers have a saying that the best fertilizer is the farmer's own shadow.) Strangely enough, when you make the commitment to watch every penny, the dollars start to add up quicker. If compound interest can make a single dollar bill grow into a million dollars....then it can also make a single penny grow into a million pennies..... and that's ten thousand dollars. From a single penny? Have you ever walked by a penny on the sidewalk and not picked it up because it was just a penny? The truth is, that hidden beneath that penny is a pile of a million pennies. Pick up that penny and invest it right.