Being rich…what does it mean to you? Or do you want to be wealthy? Being rich has different meanings for different people. You can perfectly be rich without having any money. But it is definitely harder to pay for your education and enjoy life without money. During my career I travelled in more than 20 countries and I have seen a lot of poverty. Money is a mean that helps you in life and makes life easier.

Why are most people not rich? Why don’t most people succeed in growing their money? Because they do not succeed in following the correct steps. They want to run because they can walk and then they lose money as a consequence. They lose their motivation, their focus and then suddenly a lot of time is wasted. If you want to be financially independent, you have to start today to execute the right steps.

But being rich, being financially independent, doesn’t come for free. You have to follow the below three steps. People who become rich suddenly, win the lottery or get a big inheritage but seldom stay rich. This is because they do not understand how the world of money works. If you want sustainable wealth, you have to follow the three steps : LEARN – EARN – RETURN.

# 1. LEARN

Collect as much information as possible about money. There is a lot of information on the Internet, there are seminars, books, videos you can consult on YouTube, podcasts for your phone…you name it. If you want to learn about managing money, you don’t have to ask parents, friends or colleagues. You have to do IT YOURSELF !

If you want to earn more money, you can either cut your expenses or increase your earnings. But first of all, you need to learn how millionaires make their money grow. They know how to make their money grow. Most people around you can not tell you as they are not rich themselves.

# 2. EARN

Most people save for a rainy day, unexpected costs or planned large expenses. 15% of Belgians don’t save at all…So it is much better to invest for a sunny day. Imagine that you earn €40.000 per year and you save 10% of your income, then you have saved after 10 years €40.000. Not bad but this won’t make you rich.

When you invest €4.000 in your personal and professional career, the chance is big that after 10 years you don’t earn  €40.000 per year but €400.000. That is an amount that you can put to work to become rich.

 

# 3. RETURN

Stay always focused with the growth of your money and don’t switch to auto-pilot. In Belgium for example 90% of the population did switch to auto-pilot by putting their money on a savings acccount. Keep on learning and keep on investing, doing nothing is going backwards. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, and ask questions. Know your money and take it serious. Money is a mean and it is meant to work for you. We live in a world where everyone has the right to be rich. We can be rich in everything that we already own and happy with what we have. But money is like the sun, it is in abundance and it’s there for everyone. You only have to learn how to use it efficiently and keep on learning how to put it to work over and over again.

We learn math, languages, science, history and even sexual education. But we learn almost NOTHING about the way how to deal with our money, how to make ourselves to become rich. The goal for EVERYONE can be to become financially independent, independent from a salary where you work hard from 9 to 5. Then you become wealthy and you can decide about how you spend your time. I am always grateful with what I have today in my life but I always aim to become financially independent, rich or wealthy…dependent on your definition. I know it’s a marathon, not a sprint while I enjoy life by travelling the world.

Remember….LEARN -> EARN -> RETURN !