I get asked pretty often for advice on how to build wealth or what to invest in. Essentially, it’s people wanting to know how to get rich; What is the secret to it? The answer I give often leaves them underwhelmed, as if they almost expecting a quick fix which will change their lives.

The truth is that what I tell them actually is a secret. A secret in that it is not common knowledge; and not many people utilise it, (but anyone can).

My answer, I hear you ask?

Lay your foundations and become financially fit!

I’ll explain…

Foundations:

– Create a personal P&L, know where your money gets spent and manage accordingly.

– Understand the difference between your salary, cash flow (P&L) compound interest and what is a true asset.

Financial Fitness Boot Camp:

– Start to invest. As a minimum, you should set up an ISA, a SIPP and possibly a LISA. Depending on your circumstances, there’s also physical gold & silver, real estate, peer to peer loans, and bonds.

Even if you put a Tenner a month into just a few of these things, you must start.

By doing so, you will be forced to understand what they are and learn. Learn about compound interest, how an asset can grow your balance sheets and how some assets can also kick off cash flow as well.

You’ll learn the minutia between stocks, index funds and mutual funds. When you learn and see your investment grow, guess what?

You will likely enjoy the process and want to put further investments in these (instead of wasting money in William Hill or costa coffees!)

If the game you want to know is wealth and money you must learn wealth and money.

You must start now. There is no excuse.

Think of it like this…If you want a train to become an accomplished boxer the first thing to do would not be to rock up to a fight. If you did, you would gas out and get taken out the game by your opponent real quick, right?

Instead, you would begin to learn boxing starting with getting boxing fit. You would get up early to run/ hit the roads (ISA). You would jump rope (SIPP), you would spar against other fighters (educate yourself on stocks & funds).

You would also start your training camp less intensive and then ramp up the volume (tenner a month investment to begin with).

Eventually, when you fight you will be well equipped to win or at least survive.

I always hear people saying that if they came into money their money problems would all be solved.

“If I won £50K on a scratch card, my life would change.”

This is like saying if you gave a terrible sniper the most powerful gun he would start hitting the target.

The truth is he’d shoot himself in the foot.

If a person is uneducated and pour with money and you then give said person a lot of it…Guess what they’ll fuck that up even harder!

If you are currently one of the many who are in the race to zero each month and wait for your paycheck, then your issue isn’t the amount of money you have, it’s your relationship with that money.

Earning 10 times that amount for keeping the same actions on the journey to zero – You would still ultimately arrive at nothing.

It may just take you a little longer.

Even if you have a bit of savings in the bank without investing and building your asset pile…it’s impossible to get truly financially free.

This is why you see so many lottery winners bankrupt soon after.

Or professional sportsmen retire, having gained millions and they soon have nothing.

Both were constantly spending their cash on a journey to zero and relying on income…Rather than building their financial IQ and their asset column.

For the people I have advised over the years who are not lottery winners or sports stars…You must increase your financial fitness and be prepared for the journey ahead.

This…THIS…is the secret of how to build your wealth and change your future.