How to Become a Millionaire in Canada (The Truth No One Tells You)

Maybe that just sounds a little too simple. But that's how simple it really is because we know and I've experienced it sometimes what's going on up here, that's the problem. I haven't figured it out. And so we limit ourselves. You know, we've all heard about the case that, you know, we can get ourselves into a place mentally where we just don't believe.

How to become a millionaire. The truth no one tells you how. Have you ever wondered that? So it might not be a millionaire that you're focused on, but maybe you want wealth. And have you ever wondered what is it that I don't know today that I should know if I really want to get to a point where I'm independent and I have more money than I need? Because maybe your objective is slightly different than that, but it's really going to fit with what we have to say today. So I'm here with my colleague and friend Liz. Hi, Liz.

Hi, Dan.

My name's Dan. And we're going to cover this little topic. What would it look like if you wanted to become a millionaire or more, what would it take? And what haven't you been told that you probably should know? Well, maybe you've been told this, but we're going to build off of it anyhow. We've got about five things we're going to bring up today. And the first one, and I really like this one, I don't know about you, Liz, but I think it's really without this one, none of the other ones matter. And that's where we believe. If you want to know what it takes, and maybe no one's told you this, it starts with you. Maybe that just sounds a little too simple. But that's how simple it really is because we know, and I've experienced that sometimes what's going on up here, that's the problem. I haven't figured it out. And so we limit ourselves. You know, we've all heard about the case that we can get ourselves into a place mentally where we just don't believe that we can do something. So when you don't believe, you're not going to be likely achieve what you set out to do. So it's about being resourceful. It's really a mindset and I'd say it really does start with how you think. And if you can get to a place where you don't accept that, hey, I don't. I've tried this. It doesn't work. Well, have you worked with someone who has achieved what we're trying to, you're trying to do, go find someone who's done it and ask them, hey, how'd you do that? It's really not as difficult as we make it out to be. And other times we say, I don't know how to start. Well, today, what I believe is that there's so much good information available to you and all you have to invest is time. Because you look at the Internet and you just go into it cautiously and you really think about what people have to say. You can get a lot of great information about how to start right from there. So I'm going to say, and I know for all of us that are infinite banking practitioners like Liz and I, we heard from Nelson that if you're going to do something like this, what we're talking about today, or if you're going to become and practice the infinite banking concept and really learn how to become your own banker, it's going to start with desire. To me, that was the one thing, Liz, that I really thought it starts up here. It's going to take desire. What would you have to add around that?

Yeah. So thanks, Dan. Those are really good points. I think as well, one of the other mindset pieces that I find sometimes blocks people is feeling like they know everything that they need to know already about how things work. So understanding that maybe there's something that you may not have seen yet, maybe there's something new to learn. Even in something that is perhaps well known or well understood, there may be a different way of looking at it or a new way to learn it, and just by doing that opens up to new possibilities. So any kind of investing or creating wealth, there are so many moving pieces to it that it's most people, there would be something else that they could learn, a new strategy, a new way of doing it, and maybe you'll learn something that is a better fit for you and your personality, so to say, oh, I don't really like doing that, because that's not something I like. Is it the whole thing that you don't like, or maybe it was just one part of it that you didn't like? So in terms of a mindset about being willing to learn, being willing to grow, being willing to receive new information about different ways of approaching how you build that wealth for your own life and for your family. Well, that in itself, you know, I think this is why we're talking about this first, Dan, isn't it? Because this is really the crux of it all. Like your mindset is the thing that's going to determine your success, and without understanding your mindset and your desire, as Dan outlined, then everything else that we're going to say isn't really going to change. So this really is the most important point of what we're going to talk about. The other points that we're going to get to, though, obviously will also build off of that. But that's the first place to look. And sometimes it can be a little bit confronting to look at our own selves and, and what's blocking us. But just talking to other people is really helpful, just being willing to open ourselves up to new ideas and saying, oh, maybe I can learn something. And to Dan's point of talk to those people that already are doing or have the success that you want. And I've found in my lifetime, whenever I've reached out to a potential mentor, they've always been more than willing to share of their time and information. And I've been very grateful by the people who've been willing to mentor me over the years. And that's an ongoing and constant, constant process.

Exactly. No, that's well said, Liz. And so, yeah, you nailed it. If you've solved the one thing you need to solve is dealing with that first thing where it starts with you, then these other points that we're going to bring up, you can make them work for your benefit again. If you want to become a millionaire, what is it you got to focus on? And what is that secret that somebody may not have told you? And that is, hey, it's going to start with you. That's one thing for sure. Second one is, you're going to have to do something. You're going to have to take action. For me, when people ask me, well, how should I do this, dad? How should I get going on this stuff and start making a difference to me and my family financially? I said, well, one of the things I like to coach everybody to do is think about paying yourself first, take that action. And people ask too, well, how much should I pay myself first? Well, start where you can and build from there. So there's a couple of rules of thumb. And I don't know what you share with people, Liz, but I tell them, you know, 10% is a great place to start. If you can't start there, start at 5 and then build up from there. And what do we mean by pay yourself first? How would you describe if someone asked you, what does it mean to pay yourself first, Liz?

Yeah, great question. So look at the amount of money that's coming into your household and work out first before you do anything else, how much you can take out of that account first. So put it aside into another account. We're not going to use it for your day to day expenses. Bring that money out of a place where you're tempted to use it for something that's not going to grow your future. So. So that's the key to paying yourself first. And to Dan's point, that can start as a small amount of money like we all have obligations we need to meet, but just understanding that you're doing a lot of hard work to earn that money, I think understanding that you deserve to be getting some benefit of that apart from your day to day living expenses. And that's really the crux behind paying yourself first is putting yourself as the priority and yourself can be you and your family, but you building something for yourself out of all this hard work you're doing is really the key to the paying yourself first concept. To say the thing that's the most important is that I meet this obligation that I have to myself each fortnight, each month, however often you get paid and then you work out how to cover everything else and it changes, funnily enough, your mindset in terms of what you're doing with the rest of your money.

Exactly. Well said. And I think experience has been out there, evidence is out there. If you go the opposite way and pay yourself last or wait till all your bills are paid and then see if you can save, it just doesn't work that well. Everybody that's been really successful at improving their financial position as a rule has started with, I make it a commitment to pay to save first and foremost instead of waiting to see if I got anything left. Because if you use that second method, not so likely that you're going to get to your objective. Because our expenses are real and they will chew up everything that we get if we allow it to. So it's just a great habit to get into.

Well, I think another part of action too, to mention briefly is people can sometimes with your, you know, steps can get into what I would call analysis paralysis. So it's simply like, well, I could take action on this thing or I could take action on that thing, or I could do that. But really I need to understand the numbers like for the next year before I do anything. Well, that's fine. But I think most of us know that once we've reached a certain amount of education and understanding of something, the next way to learn is actually taking action in it. Try it out with a small amount of money, right? Whatever it is that you're wanting to do, just dip your toe in the water, even perhaps. And so that you have enough understanding to know that it's a good step forward. We're not saying to do it with anything. We're just saying once you've done a reasonable amount of education. But then you do need to take some action. You do need to see how it works, because that's where the second part of your education on how to do something that's going to create wealth for you is really going to start to kick in.

All said, Liz, and that is key. And as you were speaking, I thought of Robert Kawasaki's book and Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And that's one of the things, as he gets into the book, he says, you got to start doing something. And he tells you you can start small. But yeah, take action. That was a great one. Our second point was just take action. It's really important that you do that if you want to make a difference and you want to get to that objective. You said becoming a millionaire. So what is number three? Well, that was consistent effort. So that's another.

Can I get rich in six months?

Dan yeah, no.

It is.

I think we all live with that. We like that instant gratification thing. And yet, you know, what is it in life that.

If you want to get it done, what is it is out there that doesn't require you to commit to, and not just for a day, not just for two days, but it takes a commitment to get you from where you started to where you're going. It's usually a journey. And the things that are worthwhile doing, in my opinion, you have to apply yourself to them and you have to have a, I guess it's a certain level of, you know, even when you're, you know, you get to those highs and you get into the lows and you just got to keep on pushing through. Now, I think consistent effort is going to be a key thing for people to understand. And what do you got to add about that? Liz?

Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we can tie it back to point one again around mindset. But expecting with all of these things, if you go in with the expectation that this is not just something you're going to try for the next three months and see whether you make a million dollars, but you actually go in saying, this is something that I'm actually going commit to doing, I might adjust and change what I'm actually doing along the way. But My expectation is to be consistent about this. If we look at exercise, I'm pretty sure most of us would agree we're not going to maintain the physique that we want if we only did it for three months and then stopped and expected not to do anything for the rest of our lives. It's exactly the same with everything, right? To maintain it, to create something, to build something, to create what we want for our own lives, requires regular, consistent effort over a long period of time. So the great thing about that is it doesn't require a massive amount of crazy energy at the start. You will still achieve your results.

And actually faster by a continuous effort, more so than just one big amount. And then being frustrated that you didn't get where you needed to go, but just doing a little bit every day towards your goals is what's going to create the results that you're looking for. And it won't create it for you immediately, but you will start to see, as Dan outlined, those high points, where you're like, oh, I got to this next goal. I got to that next goal. And that's something that is really fun to work with people around, because once you get there, certainly my experience, Dan has been as well, is that once I get to the. To achieving my first.

Milestone with my consistent effort, my mind opens up to where I could go to next. And, you know, it's. It's that consistent effort that enabled that to happen.

I like that. And as you're speaking, I thought of the old, you know, the turtle in the hare, and, you know, it's slow and steady wins the race. And that's just the analogy that came to mind as you're speaking about that, Liz, because that's really the difference, because that, you know, jackrabbit can get a great start, but he doesn't have. Doesn't hold in there. All of a sudden, the old hair takes over and wins in the long run. So that's a great way to help people understand it's going to take consistent effort if you want to achieve something like becoming a millionaire or whatever other goal you set for yourself financially.

And while you're taking that consistent effort, I think Dan goes into our fourth point really well, which is you need to control Parkinson's Law. Now, I'm going to let Dan explain Parkinson's Law in a moment, but it's important to maintain the Parkinson's Law and continue to.

Not have our expenses become larger than what our income is going in, Continuing to maintain.

Our expenses and keeping those manageable Even if our income or the opportunities that we have increase, but actually keeping an eye on what we're doing with our money. Do you want to outline a little bit more, Dan, about Parkinson's Law?

Sure. No, I'd love to. So, yeah, Parkinson's Law. If you haven't read the book, it's by Northcott Parkinson, it's just called Parkinson's Law. It's a great little read. It's got a lot of good information about human behaviors in there. And one of the elements that we're talking about now is how, you know, a luxury once enjoyed becomes a necessity. You can expand that to other things because it's really about. If we see something shiny that we'd like to have, it's going to be part of our human nature, is going to want and desire that. And if we can't control those desires, you can outspend any amount of money you make. So you can get to a point where you make a huge amount of money and it's a lot coming in, but you're spending it all. And I always think about, make big purchases small. That's one thing I coach people to do when they start to think about, well, how would I change things? Because you can go buy a $60,000 vehicle or you can go buy a $30,000 vehicle, and it's going to do the same job for you. And, yeah, I'd love to. I love Land Rovers. I like how they look and all those things. But that's a huge chunk to take on if you're really trying to save money. So you got to think about those things. And. Yeah, and our desires, our wants. And a lot of times, those wants become needs because we convince ourselves it's a need. And that's where I get out of Parkinson's Law. A luxury once desired, once enjoyed becomes a necessity. So we convince ourselves that we have to have that. And so then we go out and we spend money on it, and it just takes us away from our goal. Now, I'm not going to preach scarcity, because scarcity is not what we're talking about. We're talking about setting yourself up for the future. And what does it take to do that? Well, it takes a mindset, a desire, and you really have to control human behavior. And that's what Parkinson's did such a great job of speaking to, is our human behaviors will always try to sidetrack us as we go towards this goal. And that's going to be a huge one for you and I to overcome as we Go through life, you never get to a point where you don't have to think about Parkinson's Law. I've just made it part of what I do now. And it's just like, is that really something I need or is that something I think I need?

And something that a lot of wealthy people talk about is if they really decide that they need that Land Rover, say they need to go first and create an asset that generates the cash flow to fund that, so they're not depleting from what they already have. They're expanding. So it's also about thinking about, again, not to the point of scarcity. That's not what we're saying. It's like, how can I change my approach such that if it's something that I really desire, that I can create a way to build my wealth while doing that as well. So that's a really, really important part of understanding how to control what we're doing and understand. And I think that leads really well into our fifth point, Dan, which is constant reassessment. Need to be constantly reassessing what we're doing, what we're at, where we're at. Having the idea that I'm going to do this one strategy and it's going to serve me well for the next 20 years is probably not entirely realistic. The world is changing, the options are changing. We needed to be constantly reassessing where we're at financially as well as where we're at with what the strategies we're using to create wealth, because our consistent effort also needs to be reassessed. Is the effort that I've been taking still in align with getting me to my goals, or do I need to start taking different actions? Do I need to readjust my mindset? Do I need to learn something else? So the constant reassessment ties back into our other four points of I need to be reassessing on a fairly regular basis all the things that I'm doing to see how can I get to my next, you know, milestone of what I'm trying to achieve. What do you have to add to that, Dan?

Really like that, because it's. It's all about, you know, being able to stop and reassess at some point. You know, have I got. Have I actually achieved what I hope to achieve at this point? And if I haven't, what do I need to change, you know, and as I thought about all these points that we're making last too, I just go like, when I'm in a conversation with someone like, you are on that I say so when you think about doing this, what is it you got to think about as some of the fundamentals like where do you put your money? And that's don't put it in a place where it's going to be inaccessible and you can't use it multiple ways. That's the things that we help people with when they come to us and say how would I do this? How would I get started? We teach them where to put it and we just didn't show them why. And then as you go through that journey we're there to help you and we're there to help you with that reassessment and do you need to reset that goal or those are just the pieces that are going to come with this? Like anything else in life you have to stop at some point reassess am I getting the results that I hope to get and if not what do I need to change.