Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life: How to Unlock Your Full Potential for Success and Achievement

Create Your Own Future
➤
207
ccc_tracy_11_201-221.qxd  6/23/03  3:38 PM  Page 207

---

of many thousands of workers. The decline in recent years of the
frantic investment activity that had been seen during the 1990s trig-
gered the layoffs and firings of tens of thousands of people in the fi-
nancial services industries. It goes on and on, and will continue.
Only the names of the industries will change. This rapid shift in jobs
and industries is going to happen more and more often to more and
more people.
■
YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
The world of finance and investments is constantly changing. The
markets are increasingly volatile. The old philosophy of “buy and
hold” is no longer relevant to the world of today, and tomorrow. If
you have money invested, you should be thinking continually about
what might happen if your investments went bad and you lost all
your money. You should always be preparing against the worst pos-
sible outcome of a particular investment.
There is a direct relationship between how much time you in-
vest in thinking about and planning your financial life and how
likely you are to become financially independent. According to Dr.
Thomas Stanley’s interviews with thousands of self-made million-
aires, they share a common characteristic: they spend far more time
thinking about financial matters than the average person.
The average adult, even though he or she worries about money
much of the time, spends only two to three hours per month actu-
ally thinking about his or her finances, usually at bill-paying time.
The average 
affluent
American, in contrast, spends 20 to 30 hours
per month thinking about his or her money. As a result, they make
far better spending decisions and more intelligent investments than
the majority. They become increasingly skilled in money matters,
and eventually pull ahead of their peers.
■