Category Archives: Mindset

Robert F. Smith, Blazing a Remarkable Path

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American investor, inventor, engineer, philanthropist, entrepreneur. Robert F. Smith is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, focused on investing and partnering with leading enterprise software companies.

The software titan Robert F. Smith is a philanthropist and the wealthiest African American in the U.S., with a self-made net worth of more than $5 billion. He was raised in a working-class Denver neighborhood in the 1970s. And, it was a high-school science class in his junior year that sparked his interest in transistors, the building blocks of computers, cellphones and other electronic devices.

Mr. Smith was educated as an engineer at Cornell University, earning his B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering in 1985. After graduation, he worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber, followed by Kraft General Foods, where he obtained two United States and two European patents for coffee filtration systems.

Upon receiving his MBA in 1994, he joined Goldman Sachs in tech investment banking, first in New York City and then in Silicon Valley. At Goldman, he advised tech companies such as Apple, Yahoo and Microsoft on over $50 billion of mergers and acquisitions activities. Mr. Smith knew his talents and his niche, and Goldman gave him the platform to showcase them. He became the first person at Goldman to focus purely on mergers and acquisitions of technology and software companies.

In 2000, Mr. Smith founded Vista Equity Partners to invest in businesses that develop and use technology, software and data to promote economic equity, ecological responsibility and diversity and inclusion for the prosperity of all. Vista invests and develops businesses focused on using tech to create value, new businesses, or helping to solve some of the world’s issues.

He is Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, which includes 64 companies. Companies like TIBCO, a technology company. He climbed from humble roots in Denver to the pinnacle of the 1990s dot-com boom as a Goldman Sachs banker in San Francisco; he went on to found Vista in 2000 in Austin, Texas.

Vista currently manages equity assets under management of over $81 billion and oversees a portfolio of more than 70 enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies that employ over 75,000 people worldwide.

Vista had grown into an impossible-to-overlook force, delivering a 31 percent average annual return since its founding. “Vista Equity Partners Emerges from ­Private-Equity Shadows” read a Wall Street Journal headline.

Mr. Smith is also the founding director and President of the Fund II Foundation. Started in 2014, the foundation has made significant contributions to support scholarships for minority students interested in science, engineering and math, research on breast cancer in Black women and the preservation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth and family homes. It also backed Mr. Smith’s recently announced Student Freedom Initiative to ease the debt burden of students at historically Black colleges and universities.

Throughout all of his successes, Mr. Smith has demonstrated the importance of giving back. In 2017, Mr. Smith signed the Giving Pledge and was the first African American to do so. In his pledge, Mr. Smith committed to investing half of his net worth during his lifetime “to causes that support equality of opportunity for African Americans, as well as causes that cultivate ecological protection to ensure a livable planet for future generations.”

But it took a grand gesture at Morehouse College to cement Smith’s status as one of the world’s most interesting philanthropists. To the shock of Morehouse officials, Smith went off-script during his commencement speech and told the 396 graduating students that he would pay off their student loans at a cost to him of about $40 million.

“I was looking at 400 students 400 years after 1619,” he says, referring to the beginning of American slavery. “And they were burdened. And their families were burdened. They had taken on a tremendous amount of debt to get that education. And liberating them was the right thing for me to do. Honestly, I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a deal,” he continued. “I mean, globally. I didn’t realize how many people understood the pain and debilitating effect that student debt has for decades—not just on that individual but on families.”

Mr. Smith believes strongly that “anyone can achieve success if they believe they are worth it and think deeply about how to achieve their goals.”

From an August 2020 article in Urbjournal.com, here are 5 pieces of advice Mr. Smith gives to all young professionals:

  1. You need to recognize and use all your skills – Understanding and evaluating your skillset is important; it will let you know what skills you have and more importantly, which ones you need to improve or acquire. It will also give you a very good indication as to who you need on your team, depending on what skills they have.
  2. Give yourself the best chances of succeeding – To achieve a level of success, you’ll need to give yourself the best chances of succeeding by picking promising sectors and business industries which are projected to grow in the long-term. By focusing on growing and promising industries, you’ll give yourself the best chance of coming up with innovative products, services or solutions that create demand.
  3. Learn to take risks – Taking risks whilst you’re young is important. Smith has consistently taken risks. “So what makes me tick? I didn’t want to be ordinary. I wanted to create something that had not been done on this planet,” Smith said. Taking risks doesn’t mean jumping into any and everything – that can be as detrimental as not taking enough risks. In Smith’s words, “take thoughtful risks”.
  4. Recognize the importance of diversity, and work to increase it – Diversity has become increasingly important to companies, everyone is looking at ways to increase the diversity of their leadership and people. And, Black professionals have an important role to play: yet, to become successful, you first have to get through the door by creating processes and institutions which value equal opportunity above all else. “We must get as much mass pushed through the system by opening up the process as wide as you can. We need to take that approach instead of going retail in which corporations only select one or two exceptional students from elite schools,” Mr. Smith said.
  5. You’ll need to make sacrifices – It’s no secret that to achieve success, you’ll need to make some sacrifices. For Mr. Smith, it was work-life balance: “Our world isn’t designed for spectacular success and a balanced life” he said in an interview.

References:

  1. https://www.vistaequitypartners.com/about/team/robert-f-smith/
  2. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a32804478/robert-f-smith-summer-2020-cover-interview-philanthropy/
  3. https://2021.vistaequitypartners.com
  4. https://urbjournal.com/the-rise-of-robertfsmith/
  5. https://www.wsj.com/articles/whos-afraid-of-robert-smiths-philanthropy-11559084951
  6. https://robertsmith.com/videos/

The Youtube video interview features Robert F. Smith and Robert Green, President & CEO of the National Association of Investment Companies (NAIC). NAIC is the largest network of diverse-owned private equity firms and hedge funds. NAIC is focused on increasing the flow of capital to high-performing diverse investment managers often underutilized by institutional investors.

Financial Paradigm

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“We think we see the world as it is, when in fact we see the world as we are.” Stephen R. Covey

Paradigms [pronounced para-dimes], like mindset, represent your views of the world, your explanations for what you observe in and think about the world around you. 

You think that you see the world as it is. In fact, you really see the world as you are, Stephen Covey wrote in his seminal book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. “We project onto the outside world, our environment, the people we associate with, including how we see ourselves. We project out of our own conditioning experiences, our own background, a certain representation, a certain model, a certain set of expectations, a certain assumption on that reality out there. We think that’s the way it is.”

As a metaphor, compare your paradigms to the lenses in your glasses.  What you see isn’t a completely accurate reflection of reality, it is shaped by your beliefs, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviors and perceptions. Yet, “We are not our feelings. We are not our moods. We are not even our thoughts… self-awareness enables us to stand apart and examine even the way we ‘see’ ourselves,” according to Stephen R. Covey.

Your paradigms shape how you interpret the world, and your interpretation governs how you behave; thus, changing the lens we use in deciding how to change your behavior. Each person’s experiences and biology creates different paradigms, so two people with different paradigms can look at the same facts, interpret them completely differently, and both be right.

Covey referred to paradigm as a map; it is a map of your perceptions, your frame of reference, your worldview, your value-system, your autobiography that you’re projecting upon the outside world.

Paradigms are natural and inevitable, and they are useful to you in many ways.  However, sometimes your paradigms can become so far removed from reality that they become dysfunctional. 

A “paradigm shift” occurs when your paradigms change, allowing you to see the world in a new and different perspective.  Sometimes this can happen suddenly, and sometimes very gradually. 

“Paradigms are powerful because they create the lens through which we see the world. If you want small changes in your life, work on your attitude. But if you want big changes, work on your paradigm.” Stephen R. Covey

Any true happiness or fulfillment or success will have to come from the inside-out, and be based upon a sound character, Covey repeatedly stated. His message was a simple one: “for true success and meaning in life, we must be principle-centered in all areas [purpose, health, emotional well-being and financial] of life”. A teacher at heart, he often taught, “There are three constants in life: change, choice and principles.”

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” Albert Einstein

Most behavioral financial experts focus on an investor’s behavior and on emotions. Without a doubt, both of those concepts are very important regarding investing, but far more fundamental than either behavior or emotion, is a positive paradigm and a financial mindset. 

When you understand what’s guiding your emotions, thoughts and behavior, you can make a conscious effort to refrain from acting out of those paradigms and actually choose how you respond to a person or situation. 

Dr. Stephen R. Covey often proclaimed that, “the quickest way to change your paradigm is to change your role.” Become a successful investor. A parent. A leader. A business owner. It will alter your perspective overnight. You’ll see everything from a different point of view and mindset. 

Be Grateful. Be Kind. Be Generous. Be at Peace.

And, Have a Positive Financial Mindset: When People are Genuinely Happy at the Financial Successes of Others, the Wealth Pie Gets Larger.

References:

  1. https://resources.franklincovey.com/blog/paradigms
  2. http://people.tamu.edu/~v-buenger/658/Steven_Covey.html
  3. https://resources.franklincovey.com/mkt-7hv1/paradigms-src
  4. https://www.shortform.com/blog/change-your-paradigm-change-your-behavior-7-habits/

Own Your Net Worth and Cash Flow

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8 out of 10 women will be solely responsible for their financial well-being. Some women will be ready. Many won’t. UBS Wealth Management Report

As women’s life expectancies increase and the rate of divorce for individuals over age 50 continues to climb, more women will find themselves solely responsible for their own current and long term financial well-being.

UBS Wealth Management embarked on research–Own Your Worth–to explore women’s thoughts and feelings, the challenges they faced, lessons they learned and advice they would impart to other women.

With the wisdom of hindsight, nearly 60% of widows and divorcees regrettably wish they had been more involved in long-term financial decisions while they were married, according to UBS’ findings. A full 98% of them urge other women to become more involved early on.

Unfortunately, too many women ignore the advice of widows and divorcees. In direct contrast to the advice, many married women are taking a lesser role in managing the household finances. In a counterintuitive twist, Millennials are the most willing to leave investing and financial planning decisions to their husbands.

Fifty-six percent of married women still leave investment decisions to their husbands, according to UBS. Surprisingly, 61% of Millennial women do so, more than any other generation. What’s more, most women are quite content with their backseat role when it comes to investing and financial planning.

UBS’ research reveals many reasons for women’s abdication, from historical and social precedents to family, gender roles and confidence levels.

So. why do women minimize their role in major financial decisions? According to USB’ research, the reasons vary:

  • Gender roles run deep – Gender roles are ingrained from early in life and often prove hard to shake. In many cases, married couples are simply imitating the gender roles they witnessed growing up.
  • Men are still the breadwinners – Within families, 70% of men are the main breadwinners, in part because of the gender pay gap and the career breaks women take to raise children.
  • Time constraints are challenging – Whether married or not, women have many demands on their time. They take on the majority of household duties, including childcare and chores, as well as paying bills and tracking spending.
  • Competence vs. confidence – Together, history and society have conspired to affect women’s financial confidence. Both women and men think men know more about investing, and women are less confident than men in making major financial decisions. Women consistently underestimate their own abilities while overestimating what is required to be financially involved.

Yet, most study respondents participated in some financial decisions while married, from handling cash flow and bills to saving and investing. Regardless of their level of engagement, however, most agree it wasn’t enough. The research shows:

  • 59% of widows and divorcees wish they had been more involved in long-term financial decisions
  • 74% don’t consider themselves very knowledgeable about investing
  • 64% of widows blame themselves for not being more financially involved (53% of divorcees)
  • 56% of widows and divorcees discover financial surprises
  • 53% would have done fewer household chores to find more time for finances
  • 79% of women who remarry take a more active role

USB recommends three actions to take today

The advice from women who have been there is clear: The time to become involved in your family’s present and future financial well-being is today, not when some unforeseen events happen in the future.

Women are encouraged to get involved in their financial well-being as a form of self care, much in the same way you would take care of your health by:

  1. Owning your worth – Know where you stand and what you want for the future. Take the time to add up your assets and liabilities, like loans, credit and other debts, and ask for full transparency from your partner.
  2. Finding your voice – Start the conversation with your partner. Talking about money is considered taboo to some couples, particularly before they are married. But if you found yourself alone tomorrow, do you know what you’d do to make sure you’re financially secure? There is a tremendous benefit to having open communication about money with a trusted confidante.
  3. Setting an example – Model financial partnership for your family and loved ones. According to our survey, women are repeating the gender roles they saw growing up. As you begin taking a more active role in your finances, you can set an example of financial partnership for the younger generation.

Though women are aware of their increasing longevity and the financial needs associated with it, most tend to focus their efforts on short-term financial responsibilities such as managing the household’s day-to-day expenses and paying the bills.

In contrast, taking charge of long-term financial decisions, such as investing, financial planning and insurance, can have far more impact on their future than balancing a checkbook.

By sharing decisions jointly, both women and men can face the future with optimism—and set an example of financial partnership for generations to come.

Almost 60% of women do not engage in the most important aspects of their financial well-being: investing, insurance, retirement and other long-term planning. USB Wealth Management Report

References:

  1. https://www.ubs.com/content/dam/WealthManagementAmericas/documents/2018-37666-UBS-Own-Your-Worth-report-R32.pdf
  2. https://www.ubs.com/us/en/investor-watch/own-your-worth/_jcr_content/mainpar/toplevelgrid_1797264592/col2/teaser/linklist/link_2127544961.2019551086.file/PS9jb250ZW50L2RhbS9XZWFsdGhNYW5hZ2VtZW50QW1lcmljYXMvZG9jdW1lbnRzL293bi15b3VyLXdvcnRoLXJlcG9ydC5wZGY=/own-your-worth-report.pdf

The National Study of Millionaires

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“Anyone in America can build wealth. The only thing holding you back is you. Get out of debt. Save consistently. Keep your spending in check. Let time and compound interest do their magic. If you’re willing to work hard and keep the long-term goal in mind, you’ll reach the million-dollar milestone.” Chris Hogan

Summary

  • “The National Study of Millionaires” is the largest survey of millionaires ever with 10,000 participants.
  • Eight out of ten millionaires invested in their company’s 401(k) plan.
  • The top five careers for millionaires include engineer, accountant, teacher, management and attorney.
  • 79% of millionaires did not receive any inheritance at all from their parents or other family members.

The National Study of Millionaires by Ramsey Solutions concluded that millionaires successfully accumulated wealth through consistent investing, avoiding debt like the plague, and smart spending. No lottery tickets. No inheritances. No six-figure incomes.

Thus, according to the survey, there is positive news for Americans who may have lost hope that they can ever accumulate wealth. “The people in the study became millionaires by consistently saving over time. In fact, they worked, saved and invested for an average of 28 years before hitting the million-dollar mark, and most of them reached that milestone at age 49.”

The study’s results demonstrated a dramatic difference between how Americans think wealthy people get their money and how they actually earn and spend their money.

In a nutshell, regular, consistent investing over a long period of time is the reason most of the people in the survey successfully accumulated wealth. And, even when millionaires don’t have to worry about money anymore, they remain careful about their spending. Ninety-four percent of the people studied said they live on less than they make. By staying out of debt and watching expenses, they’re able to build their bank accounts instead of trying to get out of a financial hole every month.

A Wealth of Wisdom

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“By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investor can actually out-perform most investment professionals.” Warren Buffet

Warren E. Buffett, Chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and Charlie T. Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., provide “A Wealth of Wisdom” in this CNBC video:

https://youtu.be/rQJWHocG-50

Berkshire owns American-based property, plant and equipment – the sort of assets that make up the “business infrastructure” of the U.S. – with a GAAP valuation exceeding the amount owned by any other U.S. company. Berkshire’s depreciated cost of these domestic “fixed assets” is $154 billion.

 

References:

  1. https://berkshirehathaway.com/2020ar/2020ar.pdf

Positive Financial Mindset

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A person cannot achieve financial freedom and save by paying themselves first, invest for the long-term and accumulate wealth until they believe they can be financially free and successful.

Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., a Stanford University Professor of Psychology, who is considered by many the leading expert on mindset and human behaviors, and who wrote the book, ‘Mindset: The New Psychology of Success‘, says people have two core mindsets: a growth mindset and a fixed mindset.

A growth mindset is the belief that our skills and qualities can be cultivated through effort and perseverance: Our abilities are due to our actions. So many people do not obtain financial freedom because they do not have one thing: the right mindset. Everything starts with how you think about money, wealth and success.

Embracing a Positive Mindset

When you begin to embrace a growth mindset, you start to think differently about how you talk to yourself and think about financial success. This leads individuals to focus on saving by paying yourself first, investing for the long-term and accumulating wealth, rather than focusing on expenses, paying bills and paying off debt. Consider this, if you focus solely on paying bills or paying off debt, you’re limiting your ability to save, invest and accumulating wealth; effectively, you’re not focusing on growth.

One common financial myth held by many Americans is that to achieve financial success through saving, investing and accumulating wealth, a person must sacrifice their happiness, their families and often their health for a large paycheck. People must realized that no matter how successful and happy a person masked themselves to look outwardly, it means nothing if he or she wasn’t happy with themselves on the inside. Portraying an outward image of success no matter how one felt on the inside does not equate to wealth. Instead represents a path to misery and unhappiness.

Most people are never able to achieve financial freedom because, for one, either they don’t know it exists or believe it’s possible for them; normally they’re never taught anything about it.

It begins with Mindset

“If you think the amount of money you have (or rather, don’t have) is due to someone else, you need to change your financial mindset.”

The key to saving, investing and accumulating wealth and achieving financial freedom isn’t starting off with a lot of money, it starts with one’s mindset…embracing a positive financial mindset. It all begins with the belief that you can realize and achieve it. Once you believe in your mind that you can, then you need to find a reason to keep this belief as strong as possible; this reason is your “Why?” Without it, at the first sign of adversity or when things begin to get challenging, you will quit.

Deciding to change your attitude regarding personal finance is one of the first steps in shifting your mindset and changing the of your outcome. A growth mindset means that you think with abundance and you believe that resources are not finite and that you can create more. With a growth mindset, you know that resources are infinite and that if you invest wisely, you’ll be able to achieve higher returns.

For example, people who focus on prosperity tend to look at their finances as an opportunity for growth — they focus on the opportunities for growing their income and net worth. But, in order to achieve this growth, you have to be willing to learn new things and step outside your comfort zone. Having a growth mindset with your finances empowers you to want to learn more about investing and ask a lot of questions about money; it helps you think like an investor.

A growth mindset is especially important with personal finances because it lets you accurately assess risk. A growth mindset knows that there’s always more to be made. It’s a prudent approach to savings as well as personal investing.

A person can find evidence of the Law of Attraction in the Bible in several places.  For instance:

“As a man thinks, so is he”-Proverbs 23:7

“A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaketh.”- Luke 6:45

“What you decide on shall be done, and light will shine on your ways”- Job 22:28

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.…”Matthew 7:7-8

“…whoever shall say unto this mountain, be removed, and be cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things that he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says”- Mark 11:23

Mindset is the key to changing your financial habits and building wealth. By changing your money mindset, you will be able to achieve your long term financial goals. Essentially, financial success–saving, investing and accumulatin wealth–is a mindset. A perso can’t truly be wealthy until they believe they can be wealthy.

References:

  1. https://theweek.com/articles/728758/how-growth-mindset-revolutionize-finances
  2. https://investmentu.com/how-to-beef-up-your-financial-mindset-for-2021/

Health, Financial and Emotional Well-Being

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“We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.” Anaïs Nin

Recent survey shows Americans are the unhappiest they have been in 50 years. Pandemic and health concerns, social unrest and economic distress have left Americans feeling tired, and living with a constant state of “brain fog” which are just a few symptoms of stress, anxiety, lack of sleep, and poor overall mental health.

People will exercise to help their bodies become fit, but when it comes to mental health, most people do nothing. Let’s be frank, the coronavirus has changed many Americans emotional, financial, and physical health circumstances dramatically and quickly. It’s important to take a holistic approach to your health, financial and emotional well-being. We know that planning for your future is about so much more than your finances – you and your family’s physical and emotional wellness are also a priority.

Time and time again, research has shown that “money cannot buy happiness” and that not only do you need a finite amount of money to be happy, but that prioritizing things like expressing gratitude, friendships, hobbies and family may actually lead to long-term well-being.

Keep physical, emotional and financial health a priority and in the center of your thoughts and daily life.

Overall emotional, physical and financial well-being are what your attempting to holistically achieve. It helps you feel more secure and less stressed in all areas. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your health – and your long-term financial security – is to tune it out the constant negative news. Here are some ways to tune out negativity during uncertain times.

  1. Put down the smart phone and turn off the news. Allow yourself just one hour of news time each day, preferably in the middle of the day. This ensures you don’t start or end your day anxious. It’s important to stay informed, but once a day should suffice.
  2. Stay positive and focus on an attitude of gratitude. List the top five (or more) things you’re grateful for each day. Your list may be the same from day to day or it could change based on the past day’s experience. It could be as simple as being thankful for the roof over your head or a smile from a stranger as you walk your neighborhood.
  3. Get physical and eat healthy. You’ve probably heard it before, and that’s because it’s true – physical activity is just as healthy for your mind as it is for your body. This doesn’t mean you have to participate in high intensity interval training. Start small. Simply going for a walk or doing basic stretches can help keep your mind and body at their best. Additionally, eliminate process foods, refined sugars and saturated fats from your diet. Eat more plant based foods and whole grains.
  4. Connect with family and friends. Having a strong support system is important during good times, but even more so during challenging ones. Reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a while to see how they’re doing. Send a text or card or give them a call. If your family is spread out across the country, use digital apps to connect and play games.
  5. Stick to a schedule. When you’re stressed, it often takes a toll on your sleep schedule. Keeping a consistent routine can help. Get up and go to bed at the same times each day, even on weekends. Know your stress triggers and pay attention when you notice them flaring up.

While it’s important to be aware of what’s going on in the world, focusing on the bad news won’t help your financial strategy, your emotional well-being or your physical health. Remember, you’re in it for the long term.

During the current coronavirus pandemic, instead of ‘social distancing,’ our focus should be on ‘physical distancing’ and ‘social connection.'”

Maintain mental health and emotional well-being

Focus on the now. Worrying about the past or the future isn’t productive. When you start chastising yourself for past mistakes, or seeing disaster around every corner, you’re only creating more stress and anxiety in your life.

It’s important to stop and to take a breath and ask yourself what you can do right now to succeed. Find something to distract you from destructive thoughts and reset your attitude.

Achieving a healthy frame of mind can seem more challenging than in years past.

Having a daily moment of intentional quiet can go a long way toward a better outlook.

Try this five-minute meditation routine that combines both yoga and balance to steady the mind, utilize the breath to become more mindful, and reduce stress.

Mindfulness meditation does, in fact, decreases anxiety and improves self-esteem, studies have shown.

As you move through Mindfulness meditation, focus on deep breathing. Inhale and exhale through the nose, and start by filling up your lungs with air. Then feel the air rise up into the chest. As you exhale, empty the chest first and then feel the stomach deflate like a balloon. This slow, conscious and specific breath pattern aids in focusing the mind to the present moment.

Finally, if your mind wanders easily during this sequence, you can focus on a one-word mantra to recite silently to yourself. Choosing a word like “serenity” or “peace” or “confidence” and syncing your movement with your breath can help transport you to a different world that quiets distractions from the past and future.

References:

  1. https://www.synchronybank.com/blog/millie/money-and-happiness/https://www.synchronybank.com/blog/millie/money-and-happiness/
  2. https://apple.news/Am_LnLhs1Q22oltXhOLcRLg
  1. https://www.edwardjones.com/market-news-guidance/client-perspective/your-health-your-finances.html
  2. https://www.edwardjones.com/market-news-guidance/guidance/tune-out-stressful-times.html

Churchill on Success

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“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” attributed to Sir Winston Churchill

The quote, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”, is often attributed to Sir Winston Churchill. However, Churchill did not utter these words according to many Churchill scholars including historian Richard Langworth.

During a speech at the University of Miami, in February 1946, Churchill commented:

“I am surprised that in my later life I should have become so experienced in taking degrees, when, as a school-boy I was so bad at passing examinations. In fact one might almost say that no one ever passed so few examinations and received so many degrees. From this a superficial thinker might argue that the way to get the most degrees is to fail in the most examinations. 

This would however, Ladies and Gentlemen, be a conclusion unedifying in the academic atmosphere in which I now preen myself, and I therefore hasten to draw another moral with which I am sure we shall all be in accord: namely, that no boy or girl should ever be disheartened by lack of success in their youth but should diligently and faithfully continue to persevere and make up for lost time. There at least is a sentiment which I am sure the Faculty and the Public, the scholars and the dunces, will all be cordially united upon.”

Churchill spoke a lot about success. In the speech he gave at the University of Miami, he spoke about how poorly he did in school as a child, yet how many degrees he either earned or was awarded in his adulthood.

He conveyed to the audience that with determination and perseverance, those who feel like they’re failing should not be discouraged. Since, by being diligent in your pursuits, and with determination, you can ultimately achieve your goals. Because, any goal that is worth pursuing is going to end in multiple failures before success is finally achieved.

References:

  1. https://richardlangworth.com/success
  2. https://inspire99.com/success-is-not-final-failure-is-not-fatal-winston-churchill/
  3. https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/did-winston-churchill-really-say-that-answers/
  4. https://www.developgoodhabits.com/success-not-final/

Financial Security Begins Within

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Mindset matters.

With the right mindset and hard work, achieving your financial goals are possible. However, you have to start by understanding and eliminating your negative thoughts. If you believe there’s no point trying to achieve your financial goals and to go for the life you want, then you’ll never achieve them. Therefore, you might be tempted to make choices that make your financial position worse.

Achieving a positive mindset can be difficult, but there are some proven techniques that’ll help you:

  • Take care of yourself physically and emotionally
  • Know where you stand financially
  • Set achievable financial goals
  • Make small changes
  • Try to see the positive and maintain a positive attitude

Your financial security and well-being are determined by your mindset. Financial security gives you the time and opportunity to do the things that might make you happy. Taking control of your financial life and changing the way you think can make a huge difference.

With a positive and determined mindset, you can set goals and make plans to achieve them. You’ll remain focused on your goals and create the extra money to save and invest toward achieving those goals.

For example, if you want to retire early, the way to do so is to make more money, spend less, and invest more. You’ll need to resist temptation to spend what you have or to not spend what you haven’t got.

Even with a positive mindset, you won’t achieve your goals overnight. But it’ll put you on the right track to take more control over your finances. 

There are three ways to take control and have more money to invest and accumulate wealth.

  • First is to make more money.
  • Second is to spend less.
  • Third is to invest for the long term and grow your money.

You’ll need to combine financial literacy with a plan and self-control. And when life throws you a financial curve ball, you’ll need to stay positive – remaining focused on your goals and not make excuses.

Financial security

Safety and security are incredibly important human needs. And, people must feel secure before they’re able to address their “higher-level” needs of belonging, esteem, and self-actualization according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Security expert Bruce Schneier states, “Security is both a feeling and a reality.” But feeling and reality can be quite different. “The reality of security is mathematical,” says Schneier. It’s all about the probability of risks and the effectiveness of corresponding countermeasures.

Most of people try to achieve financial security mathematically. We consider all the potential financial risks we face – unemployment, illness, unexpected costs, etc. – and try to determine reasonable countermeasures for each of those risks. You might not consider yourself financially secure until you have adequate emergency savings to last being unemployed for 6 months.

Security is a feeling on your psychological reactions to both risks and efforts to reduce risks. You can create a reality of security and still not feel secure. Similarly, you can feel secure and yet not really be secure in your current position.

When it comes to finances, you can stable employment, be in great health, and have money saved up – and still not feel secure with your money.

Financial goals are great, but if your fears and worries about money are holding you back, there’s a lot to be said for simply trusting in yourself and your abilities.

Build your savings. Find the ideal job. But also give yourself the proper credit for being able to make due when the unexpected happens.

Having a positive financial mindset is the foundation for taking control of your money and becoming more financially stable. Setting yourself goals, addressing and eliminating bad habits, and learning how to get a handle on your thought processes will help you to manage your finances and put you in a better position with all aspects of your life. 

References:

  1. https://www.moneymanagement.org/blog/what-does-it-mean-to-be-financially-secure
  2. https://www.dollarbreak.com/wealth-creation-mindset/
  3. https://www.credit.com/blog/why-financial-productivity-begins-with-w-positive-mindset/

The Five Simple Rules to Investing | TD Ameritrade

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Investing does not have to be complicated and can be a hedge to expected strong inflation.

https://youtu.be/NxEcO7ITtMo
 

“Global investment managers are more worried about the risk of inflation on markets than they are about the risk of Covid-19.” Bank of America survey

72% of global fund managers expect strong inflation to be transitory, despite US prices surging 5% year-on-year in May, according to Bank of America’s latest survey. The Bank of America survey polled 224 managers with $630 billion in assets under management between March 5 and 11, 2021.

In their collective opinions, trillions of dollars in federal stimulus spending in the United States helped set the economy on the path to recovery, but it’s also fueled concerns about ballooning levels of debt and the rapid inflation that could accompany the injection of so much money into the fragile economic system, according to an article in Forbes. 

Despite the risks, investor sentiment overall is still “unambiguously bullish,” the survey found, with 91% of fund managers expecting a stronger economy in the future and nearly half of fund managers are now expecting a v-shaped recovery in global markets. 

“Investors (are) bullishly positioned for permanent growth, transitory inflation and a peaceful Fed taper,” said Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at BofA, adding that 63% of the investors believe Fed will signal a taper by September.

References:

  1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahhansen/2021/03/16/inflation-not-covid-19-is-now-the-biggest-risk-to-markets-bank-of-america-survey-shows/?sh=6f5fd2db3b1f
  2. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-markets-survey-bofa/investors-see-transitory-inflation-and-peaceful-fed-taper-bofa-survey-idUSKCN2DR0Z9