How would you like to be able to build a wealth building plan from affordable resources that are available out in the public? Well, you can.
I find it extremely interesting that the personal finance space is overrun with information and individuals, many of both which are very high quality, focused on managing your wealth but there is less high-quality information or individuals out there who are focused on helping you create that wealth in the first place.
Why is that? Well, for starters the wealth management industry is structured to train and credential individuals in those areas that are traditionally sought after from those individuals that already have financial resources.
This does make sense from the standpoint that in order to protect you as an investor the regulators need to ensure that individuals who pass themselves off as professionals in the financial management space actually have attained a threshold level of competence.
This ensures that an individual investor is not being taken advantage of or given irresponsible financial advice based on their specific financial situation.
Wealth Managers manage wealth, they don’t help create it
As a result, although there are many wealth managers and financial planners that are incredibly adept at the principles of wealth building and wealth creation, they don’t necessarily spend their time working with clients on assisting them to create a wealth building plan nor helping them create the financial resources to begin with, just in helping them invest and protect those resources once they’ve been acquired.
What I have found over the past couple of decades of trying to identify how to build wealth is that there are so many more resources and individuals available to assist someone once they’ve reached a certain level of wealth.
I’ve also noticed that those professional and more curated services have moved steadily up over the years as to who they will assist, from a starting net worth of $500,000 several years ago to a minimum of $1 million dollars, to many higher end boutique financial planning firms now requiring a $5 million net worth.
What is an individual looking to actually create that initial wealth in the first place to do? Although I would argue that what is needed is a full-blown ‘wealth creation academy’ that focuses exclusively on the steps required in order to build wealth, in the absence of something like that actually existing or being available (I am in the process of doing exactly that!) I would highly recommend that someone simply build a basic framework for their own wealth creation.
How do you build a wealth building plan?
For starters, you should develop a wealth building framework that is made up of proven wealth building strategies. Although there is not a ‘clean continuum’ of products, books, courses, resources, etc. from one individual or entity where there is a consistent philosophy or methodology…yet…the following is a suggested compilation of resources of what I would recommend at least as a start to develop a semblance of a wealth building plan or ‘framework’:
1. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki:
Although perhaps not a framework for creating or building wealth in a systematized manner and more of a parable on building wealth, this book certainly has a place when creating a wealth building plan.
I realize that not everyone out there is a fan of this approach to wealth creation BUT aspects of what is in this book, especially the lessons on assets and liabilities, truly have become legendary in the wealth creation community.
I believe that the primary take away from this book is the framework that it is critical to be an owner of income generating assets such as businesses, rental real estate and paper assets like stocks and bonds.
2. Millionaire Fastlane by MJ Demarco:
Again, the critics might take aim on the author’s approach to building wealth but I haven’t run across many books or written resources that lay out so clearly how the wealthy get wealthy in the first place.
In my opinion, the author does a fantastic job of describing the modern western economic system of how individuals create wealth from offering something of value to a large market and how leverage of something with breadth and depth creates wealth.
This is also an important book in relationship to whether one should work for oneself or someone else.
3. The Millionaire Maker by Loral Langemeier:
Not as well known of a book perhaps but one that I think that has huge merit in laying out a solid framework for how wealth is created in the first place. I particularly like how she approaches the process of creating a ‘money machine’ and the aspects that go along with that approach.
Essentially, she creates a blueprint for starting a side hustle in business or real estate for someone.
4. Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence by Chris Mamula, Brad Barrett, Jonathan Mendonsa:
What I would suggest will become the go-to reference book for those individuals looking to follow the financial independence way of life.
It describes in pretty good detail all of the major concepts and principles of financial independence and how to create wealth in a predictable and non-reckless manner.
5. Financial Freedom by Grant Sabatier:
For someone who is looking to find a blueprint on how to model their life so as to create wealth, get out of debt and develop financial independence, this is one of the better books written on the subject.
The author does a great job of explaining some of the more challenging money concepts for those individuals who may not have had a solid money foundation.
6. Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robins:
Perhaps the seminal work and classic manuscript of the financial independence movement. I believe it is safe to say that it was the original book written on the subject of Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) and was written even before the FIRE moniker existed.
This book does a phenomenal job of laying out the value of money relative to the value of one’s life.
It truly is a ‘stop and think’ book and one that is worthwhile to have in a library on how to structure one’s life as it involves money. THE classic!
7. 12 Months to $1 Million by Ryan Daniel Moran:
Not exactly a comprehensive blueprint on how to create a philosophy or operating system for creating wealth but a pretty good technical step by step book on how to create a physical products based entrepreneurial venture.
I consider this the ‘how to’ on starting a side hustle for a physical products business.
8. Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson:
What I would call the bible on setting up a digital and social media marketing framework for promoting and advertising any business. As having a ‘wealth accelerator’ is so important to creating wealth, being able to have customers and clients know about and find that business is the lifeblood of that business.
The author does an amazing job in my opinion of laying out a practical guide on how to use and create online assets, campaigns and pathways to someone’s website and landing pages.
As much as I can’t say enough about the importance of starting a side hustle, I can’t emphasize more the importance of knowing how to get that side hustle seen by the ideal customer.
Conclusion:
Although DIYing your own financial planning and wealth creation effort is certainly doable, there aren’t as many ‘whole systems’ out there teaching how to create wealth as you would think and much of this is due in large part to the industry that exists, called ‘wealth management’, is there to manage money that’s already created.
So in the absence of a ready-made wealth creation program, I would recommend these 8 books to help someone form their own wealth building plan. Although it’s not ideal, it certainly will get you thinking!
