Millionaire in You : Ten Things You Need to Do Now to Have Money and the Time to Enjoy It

by LEBOEUF, MICHAEL PHD

• ISBN13: 9780609610060
• ISBN10: 0609610066
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-06-01
• Publisher: Crown Pub

Summary

Wouldn't it be great to have the financial freedom to do whatever you want? Wouldn't it be better if you could also have the time to do it? Most of us would answer a resounding yes to those questions. For many people, the goal of making money is not the accumulation of wealth for wealth's sake; instead, the goal is to have enough money to do the things we're passionate about. But very few people have a lot of money and the time to enjoy it. Michael LeBoeuf knows how to obtain bothand he wants to teach you. LeBoeuf shows that there are only four things people need to know about money: how to make it, how to save it, how to invest it, and how to enjoy it. But most people never figure out how to do all four, although almost anyone can. The key to doing so lies in applying a simple principle called LeBoeuf's Law: Invest your time actively and your money passively. Based on LeBoeuf's Law, The Millionaire in You offers ten strategic choices designed to maximize your time and money: * Live the life you want instead of the life others expect. * Stack the odds in your favor instead of against you. * Be a supersaver instead of a big spender. * Increase the market value of your time instead of working long hours. * Do less better instead of trying to do it all. * Capitalize on the unexpected instead of being derailed by it. * Own the market instead of trying to beat the market. * Limit your losses instead of letting bad luck ruin you. * Listen to those who know instead of those who sell. * Do it now instead of regretting it later. LeBoeuf is living proof that this strategy can work. He is a former business professor who retired in 1989 at the age of forty-seven and is living off of his accumulated wealth. He didn't inherit a dime, and he didn't get serious about achieving financial freedom until he was thirty-five. This book is intended to help you do what he's done before you're too old to enjoy the money you've earned or invested.

Author Biography

MICHAEL LeBOEUF, Ph.D., is a business consultant, professional speaker, seminar leader, and the author of <b>Working Smart</b>, <b>The Greatest Management Principle in the World</b>, <b>How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life</b>, and <b>The Perfect Business</b>. He is a former professor at the business school at the University of New Orleans, where he taught for twenty years.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(6)
Part I---SEE IT!
The Time and Wealth Grid	7	(5)
LeBoeuf's Law-The Best-Kept Investment Secret in the World	12	(8)
The Master Key to Wealth	20	(9)
The Twentieth Century's Greatest Gift	29	(8)
Part II---DO IT!
Ten Choices for Achieving Personal and Financial Freedom
Live the Life You Want Instead of the Life Others Expect	37	(14)
Stack the Odds in Your Favor Instead of Against You	51	(12)
Be a Super Saver Instead of a Big Spender	63	(16)
Increase the Market Value of Your Time instead of Working Long Hours	79	(13)
Do Less Better Instead of Trying to Do It All	92	(14)
Capitalize on the Unexpected Instead of Being Derailed by It	106	(12)
Own the Market Instead of Trying to Beat the Market	118	(18)
Limit Your Losses Instead of Letting ad Luck Ruin You	136	(14)
Listen to Those Who Know Instead of Those Who Sell	150	(14)
Do It Now Instead of Regretting It Later	164	(13)
Part III---CELEBRATE AND ENJOY IT!
Stay Financially Independent	177	(6)
Keep Physically and Mentally Active	183	(6)
Experience the Joy of Giving Something Back	189	(8)
Remember, the Journey Is the Joy	197	(4)
The Millionaire in You: Summary	201	(2)
Acknowledgments	203	(2)
Index	205

Excerpts

LeBoeuf's Law-The Best-Kept Investment Secret in the World

We need education in the obvious more than investigation of the obscure. —Oliver Wendell Holmes

If you have ever been in any leadership position, ever worked as a manager, military officer, teacher or coach, you know how important strategy is to achieve your goals. I believe it was Napoleon who said that most battles are won or lost long before the first shot is fired. It's the game plan, more than anything else, that dictates outcomes. With an effective strategy, you can be successful even in the face of tactical mistakes. But if your strategy is poor, all the great tactics in the world won't save you. A poor game plan almost always guarantees failure. It's true in war, sports, business and life.

Your journey to the winner's circle begins when you realize that the key to financial freedom is about something far more important and precious than money. Wealth begins when you realize the value of your time and learn how to invest it effectively.

Unlike money, time is irreplaceable. You can't make it or save it. But like money, time can be measured, invested and enjoyed. Let's face it: If you don't enjoy your time, life will seem like forever. If you have ever been stuck in a bad relationship or a job you hate, or suffered through a lengthy illness, you know what I mean.

The Grand Strategy

Believe it or not, I've discovered a single simple principle that will enable you to get a terrific return on your investment of time and money. Like Albert Einstein's formula of E=MC2, it's simple but incredibly powerful. Here it is. Etch it in your brain:

LeBoeuf's Law: Invest your time actively and your money passively.

Actively investing your time means deciding how your time will be spent rather than spending it according to current circumstances or the dictates of others. Begin by taking a look at your life, your dreams, what's most important to you and what you want. Then resolve to spend your time doing what will get you from where you are to where you want to be in a way that's most satisfying to you.

Just as a financial portfolio allocates dollars among various types of investments such as stocks, bonds and cash, you have to decide how to allocate your portfolio of time. A good time portfolio invests waking hours in four basic activities:

*Learning

*Earning

*Living

*Giving

How much time we allocate to each area depends on where we are in life. For example, our early years are primarily devoted to learning, our young-adult and middle years to earning and our later years to living and giving. Obviously we want to be engaged in all four activities throughout our lives, but the allocation will depend on where we are and what we want. Actively investing time means deciding what you want, making conscious choices to live that life and spending your time accordingly.

Money, on the other hand, should be invested passively. Passive investing means buying and holding no-load, low-cost index mutual funds with performances reflecting that of entire markets. Here's the plan in a nutshell:

1. Choose how you want to allocate your investment money among stocks, bonds and cash. You might allocate your investments this way:

*50% domestic stocks

*20% international stocks

*20% bonds

*10% cash

This decision is called "asset allocation," and it will have the greatest impact on your future returns.

2. Buy no-load, low-cost index funds according to that allocation. Put 50% in a total U.S. stock-market index fund, 20% in a total international-stock index fund, 20% in a total bond-market index fund and 10% in a money-market fund.

3. Contribute at least 10% of every dollar you earn to the portfolio. The more you contribute, the sooner you reach financial freedom.

4. Check the portfolio once a year. If your allocation of stocks is within 10% of the original allocation, do nothing. Rebalance it whenever your stock allocation varies more than 10% from your plan.

That's all there is to it. It's no-brainer investing that outperforms at least 70% of the investment gurus who get paid to manage money. Best of all, implementing it takes little time and minimal financial knowledge. It's a financial plan that anyone who can understand and calculate simple percentages can do.

Why Is It a Secret?

Why do I call LeBoeuf's Law the best-kept investment secret in the world? It must be a secret, because the overwhelming majority of people do the exact opposite: They invest time passively and money actively.

That great philosopher Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot just by watching." You don't have to be an observer for very long to realize that most people manage their time like sheep. Instead of taking charge, they let circumstances and others dictate how their days are spent. They allow others to tell them when to get up, when to go to work, what activities to perform, when to go home and how much they get paid for their time. Then one day they wake up and realize that they're spending their lives in the time/money trap.

When it comes to investing money, most people do one of two things. Approximately two thirds of them pay brokers, financial planners and/or money managers hefty sums to actively manage their money. Those fees and commissions contribute to the investment pro's wealth instead of the investor's. The sad truth is that most investment professionals charge their clients fees and commissions for underperforming the market most of the time. The vast majority of brokers, money managers, mutual-fund managers and financial planners get paid to deliver smaller returns than clients could make on their own by investing in index funds. Most don't add value. They reduce value and charge clients for it. (Is that why some are called "brokers"?)

Other investors choose to go it alone and manage their own money. The typical do-it-yourself investor wastes countless hours of time trying to beat the market. He spends enormous amounts of time and energy agonizing over what investments to buy, when to buy and when to sell.

The research is clear and conclusive: Trading is hazardous to your wealth, and market timing doesn't work for the vast majority. Passive investing over the long term is the least time-consuming and lowest-cost investment method; it is highly tax-efficient and very effective. The important thing is to have a plan and to start investing now. Waiting for the ideal time or believing that some investment expert is going to come into your life with a sure-fire formula to beat the market is pure fantasy. As the Prussian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz wrote, "The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of the perfect plan." He who waits for the perfect plan waits forever.

Invest your time actively and your money passively. It's the best-kept investment secret in the world. It's so simple, so obvious and so rarely practiced. If more people did use it, there would be more people with fortunes living the life of their dreams and fewer people with frowns. Don't waste your time playing the market. Own the market, live your life and enjoy the journey. That's the essence of LeBoeuf's Law.

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Excerpted from The Millionaire in You: Ten Things You Need to Do Now to Have Money and the Time to Enjoy It by Michael LeBoeuf
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.