Invest in you first

I am a process person, I can learn anything and do anything as long as there is a process.  Throughout grade school and my teens, I understood money.  I made it and spent it, that was my understanding of it.  That was the depth of my knowledge.  I don’t recall learning a very solid financial plan in school that made sense to me.  Maybe they taught it, but I just didn’t hear it.

I was introduced to a financial plan by my mentor Jim Rohn, he had what he called the 10-10-10 plan.  He basically said you gotta have a financial plan, and this was the one he came up with.  He said never spend more than 70 cents out of a dollar.  And use the other 30 cents this way.  Tithe the first 10%.  Tithe can mean giving to charity or giving to a church.  You choose.  The point is give it to something.  I have discovered the more I give the better I feel.  Obviously, I get excited about having the ability to give money and who it will help, but I like the feeling personally that I get when I give away money.  The second 10% you should save.  Save it, don’t touch it.  The last 10% you should invest.  He called it active capital.  Maybe you buy something for $2 dollars and sell it for $4, but use the money to invest in something that will provide a return, either short-term or long-term.

I am sure Mr. Rohn says this somewhere in all of his teachings, and maybe he counts this 10% in the investment part of his 10-10-10 plan, but I haven’t heard it clearly stated that way from him.  But I think you should invest no less than 10% in your personal and self-development. Mr. Rohn would agree I am sure. The great Brian Tracy says, for every dollar you invest in yourself on your personal development, it will have a $30 dollar ROI in your lifetime to your bottom line.  No other investment you can make will have that rate of return.

Mr. Rohn has a quote that I love:  “Never begrudge the money you spend on your own personal and self-development.”  I agree with that statement, but the thing that I would add is that you have to be intentional about your personal and self-development.  If you just go through the day without a plan, you most likely won’t fit it in to your day.  It has to be built-in to your day.

So what is my financial plan, I suggest.  Depending on where you are in your life and financial situation, I would suggest that you allocate 10% of your money to invest in yourself.  Maybe you use a combination of Mr. Rohn’s plan and include the 10% investment in your self somewhere in your budget. The investment could be a book, attending a seminar, a program on (you name it), a health plan, etc.  Invest in something that will make you better. When you get better things will get better.

Brian Willett