Six key insights to greater success with money

Many people ask us what can they do to accelerate their personal wealth and how to get better at life faster.

This leads to the same conversation about concerns for their kids and how they will need to face more complex issues than the generation before them.

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Our response normally starts with our core philosophy.

Get good guidance, make good decisions, be good at life. Our ability to change is what makes us human. The decision to change is what makes us successful

The problem of taking a passive or DIY approach to life and getting ahead

Taking a DIY approach to your finances, investing or growing a business is the slow and unpredictable way.

The only way you can accelerate the growth of your wealth and get ahead is by learning from others and their mistakes and successes.

Unless you have a bottomless bank account and an abundance of stress-free time, you need to change your current thinking, learn new skills and mindsets and leverage your education.

Six keys to building greater success with money

Why isn’t everyone wealthy when it looks so easy? Why do so many people fall victim to internet scams and why is there so much free information about how effortless it is to become wealthy fast? Maybe if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

1. The one essential ingredient common to all

Regardless of where you may be on your wealth journey, the one common denominator that connects us all is the need for time and stability.

Time for our education to complete, time to gain more experience, time for our income to increase. More time for our investment property to increase in value and more time for shares and stock market investments to weather the inevitable fluctuations that seem to occur in the markets.

2.  Educate yourself and be prepared to spend time and money to invest in your education

Get used to talking with professionals and how to seek advice. Good advice has a process and logic to it. If someone can’t explain it to you simply, they probably haven’t mastered that particular skill sufficiently yet.

Be careful of who you take advice. You need to recognise that people are often affected by a number of interconnected issues that can distort how they see the opportunities about them. Limited qualifications and experience, people's mindsets, beliefs, attitudes, connections and outlook all affect our understanding of protecting, providing and creating wealth.

A bank employee probably may have an academic understanding of some small business risks but usually, lacks the practical experience to connect with a small business owner or their family.

The most expensive advice is free advice from an ill-informed person

3.  You need an adviser or coach to help accelerate your success

When it comes to a haphazard DIY approach to anything important, there is a very real risk that you'll lose time and expose yourself to self-mistakes learning. Good advice from a professional who knows the environment you need to excel in, can compress time for you to get results faster.

4.  Surround yourself with bigger thinkers - proximity is power

In practical terms, you'll benefit from some form of relationship with a financial adviser. Surround yourself with people further along the journey than yourself.

We believe that people become like the people they hang out with, listen to and connect to. Maybe it’s time to stop to rethink and redefine what your definition of normal is.

Everything you know you need to learn from somewhere or someone

5.  Identify the important areas in your life and put a bigger thinker into that space to help you see what you cannot see

Sometimes a 'little bit of knowledge' can do you more damage than good and unwinding a problem usually takes longer than avoiding one. This is especially important if you’re an overly analytical person as it adds to the lag time delay in your decision making.

6.  Keep your mindset open to change, whatever your age

So much of our advice actually looks like education

We suggest you only use an adviser who has been in business for at least 5 years and who will be in business for the next 10 years. Choose a mobile and digitally literate adviser with up-to-date electronic capacity; one who can Skype with you when you need it and who can txt and email as required (rather than one who you need to take a day off work to go and see at the corporate office).

A low tech adviser may suggest that they won’t be there for the long term as evidenced by their lack of investment in their education and digital literacy and leadership.

If change is happening on the outside faster than on the inside, your end is in sight - Jack Welsh former CEO General Electric

If you want to get better at life and money, never seek to stay the smartest person in the room. Your income and your thinking usually become the average of the 5 key people in your life. Maybe it's time to pause and redefine what you want from life and what the new normal should look like for you, your family, and your business.

Drew Browne is a specialty Financial Risk Advisor working with Small Business Owners & their Families, Dual Income Professional Couples, and diverse families. He's an award-winning writer, speaker, financial adviser and business strategy mentor. His business Sapience Financial Group is committed to using business solutions for good in the community. In 2015 he was certified as a B Corp., and in 2017 was recognised in the inaugural Australian National Businesses of Tomorrow Awards. Today he advises Small Business Owners and their families, on how to protect themselves, from their businesses.  He writes for successful Small Business Owners and Industry publications. You can read his Modern Small Business Leadership Blog here. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.  Any information provided is general advice only and we have not considered your personal circumstances. Before making any decision on the basis of this advice you should consider if the advice is appropriate for you based on your particular circumstance.