What is your most effective money-making asset?
The answer is – your inner potential. If you work hard and maximize your abilities, you, and by extension your wealth, have amazing growth potential.
When you play chess, there are many different pieces and techniques to choose from. But YOU are the only one who can actually move the pieces around the board. Even if you play an automated chess game, it’s ultimately your decisions that help you win. Without you and the choices you make, there’s no game. Even the queen, arguably the most effective and versatile chess piece, can’t move by herself.
You have the power
Similarly, the surest way to build your wealth is to maximize your potential. How do you do that?
Education
Knowledge is power. Even if you were not raised with good financial habits, you can always learn. There is a wealth of online information about the basics of personal finance – such as stocks and bonds, how to budget, and investing techniques such as asset allocation, and much more. Arm yourself with knowledge, and you will have a greater potential to make sound financial choices.
Get good advice
Don’t make financial decisions alone. Find an objective, qualified financial advisor to give you clear advice and teach you. Although you ultimately make the choices it’s always good to have help in the form of a qualified professional.
Make the most out of yourself
More than any other wealth-building tool, your own earning capacity and self-discipline can determine whether you will succeed in becoming as “rich as a king.” In order to maximize your career opportunities, get out of your comfort zone. Earn what you are worth. Don’t look at yourself as a worker for someone else, but as a “personal service corporation.” Take responsibility for your position; act as if you own the company where you work.
For more about how you can develop your own potential into a money-making asset, listen to a six-minute podcast here.
Douglas Goldstein, co-author of Rich As A King: How the Wisdom of Chess Can Make You a Grandmaster of Investing, is an avid chess fan, international investment advisor and Certified Financial Planner.TM
