Maybe you are like me, and want a financially free life. Perhaps you want to make or save a few extra bucks. Or what if you just want to manage your money better. No matter what your goal, it all starts with a single unit of currency, and the difference between the rich and the poor starts with the way they view that unit.

            This may seem like a waste of time to learn. And truth be told, when I started reading this stuff I thought it was a waste of time too. Only after reading countless books, going to dozens of seminars and listening to tons of CD’s, did I begin to understand this simple concept: before people become wealthy they start with a shift in their thinking, in the “way” they view money. The shift is usually quite subtle at first. Just think that one change in a thought process could have the potential to make you rich. And it all starts with that one unit of money.

            Most people who look at dollar can’t see past the ink on the paper or the mark on the coin. They will see it for what it is, a dollar. People who are prosperous however, view this same dollar much differently. They view it as a seed. They see it as a seed for endless potential. Just like an acorn or apple seed. Except this is a money seed.

            A money seed is a special kind of seed. Just like an acorn has the power to grow into a mighty oak tree, a money seed has the power to grow into a money tree and bear fruit for years to come. You must make sure to take care of your seeds though. You may pick the money fruit, but be sure to leave some seeds to plant for the following years. For you may never know when a hurricane or crop killing bug might come around.

            If you destroy an acorn, the potential tree inside dies with it. This is the same with money. When you waste a dollar, the potential for that dollar to grow also dies. Now you will need to earn that dollar again just to have the same potential back. This is why it is so important to preserve and take care of your dollars.

            The important thing here is to look at how much that dollar could potentially be worth. If you put that dollar into a bank account that was not affected by taxes and fees, and wanted it to grow to a million it would take a while. Figure 1.1 below shows what this would look like.

Figure 1.1 -The Time It Takes For 1 Dollar To Turn Into A Million

Source: Multiple Streams of Income p.2

Not very excited? Me either. I don’t have 468 years either. The next post in the series will look at how we can turbo charge this process, and make that million achievable in a normal lifetime.