This is the affluent entrepreneur show for entrepreneurs that want to operate at a high level and achieve financial liberation. I'm your host, Mel Abraham, and I'll be sharing with you what it takes to create success beyond wealth
so you can have a richer, more fulfilling lifestyle. In this show, you'll learn how business and money intersect so you can scale your business, scale your money, and scale your life while creating a deeper impact and living with complete freedom, because that's what it really means to be an absolute entrepreneur. We talk about this idea of building wealth, financial freedom, the fire movement, all kinds of things. And the question really is, how do we get there? And we get caught
up in what are the tactics? What do I do with investing? How do I build this up? What's the right investment? What do I do with my money? Should I pay my debt down? All these tactical stuff. But the reality is that I realized this early on when I first started teaching and openly working with folks and speaking, is that I thought I could give you the tactics. I thought I could give you the mathematics. I thought I could just give you the formula. And then they would
just follow it. And when they follow it, they would get the results. And now, all of a sudden, there's all these people running around financially free. And I don't have to tell you that that's not the way it worked, including for me, that I had all the tools, I had all the knowledge, but I wasn't employing them. I wasn't putting them in play, and I wasn't getting the results. And maybe that's the same with you. You might be sitting back saying, I know what I'm supposed to do,
but for some reason, I'm not doing it. For some reason, I'm not getting the results. Or if I'm doing it, I'm not doing consistently. It's like getting on a diet and falling off a diet. It's like going to the gym and then breaking it and not going to the gym. And so we do that. But what's really driving that? It's not the tactics, it's not the strategy. It's not even the plan. It's the thinking. And so
what I want to do is I want to break down. I see six levels of thinking that we need to be aware of and then understand where are we on the levels of thinking, and what should we be doing at each level to move us to a higher level? Because when we master the six levels of thinking will master our money, it'll master our behaviors, the behaviors will get us the results that we want. All right, so I'm going to jump to my iPad. I'm going to break this down for you. You're going to see
a framework here that I don't teach openly. I teach it usually to my, my coaching clients and that kind of thing. But I think it's really important that we get this dialed in for you. All right, so the first level of thinking, and I'm going to talk about the thinking. I'm going to talk about the focus and the results and the strategy. I'm going to talk about each of that in each of these, these places. So let's just talk about the first level of thinking.
This is the survival level. At the survival level, this is where you're totally focused on your immediate needs and what's happening here. And this is, and I get this, but what's happening here is you feel like the choices aren't yours. What's driving your choice is urgency. What's driving your choice is immediacy. What's driving your choice is the bill collector's calling or, or the, the hottest fire that is burning so you can put it out. You're driven by day to day living
expenses and day to day demands and immediate needs. One of the reasons I wrote the book, building your money machine. Okay. And if you haven't got a copy, go grab a copy. It breaks things down for you and gives you the recipe, the prescription that you need. But one of the things that, the reasons I wrote the book is I wanted to move you from a life that's built on daily demands, that is driven by the daily demands to a life that's driven by choice, a life that's driven by options.
And the way we do that is we build that money machine and do it in a way that gives us choice. So when you look at the focus here, it is on immediate needs and so, and day to day living more than anything else. And what happens if we look at the results? You've got limited savings and limited room to maneuver, limited room to do anything and everything,
little to very little to no investments. Now, the solution for most of these will be found in chapter twelve of the book with the the wealth priority ladder, because it's telling you specifically how to allocate your money. But that's a tactical thing. I want to get through the thinking piece so you can apply the tactics on a much greater scale. So what's the strategy that you need at this level? I think we need to be
very clear and have some short term financial planning. I think that we need to look at some things and say, I got to get a plan in place. Not now. Some people will call it a budget. I don't like calling it a budget because budgets are like diets. They feel like deprivation. What I want to do is have a proactive plan that is deciding in advance what you're going to do with each dollar, because now you are not reacting to what's going on, but proacting on what's coming in.
And you may be in debt, you may have the, the pressure of it. That's fine. Part of the plan is we get you on a debt payment plan, we get you out of debt, and we get you actually in a way that you know how to get, get there. And you're no longer in that survival thinking mode. So you may be in survival thinking. And there are those that I've even seen that have survival thinking, even though that they have investments, even though that they
are doing things, but they still have that survival thing. They haven't graduated to the next, the next level. And the next level. The next level of thinking is what I call safety thinking. Okay. When it comes to safety thinking, now, all of a sudden our focus shifts from immediate needs, day to day living expenses to financial safety. Financial stability. If you see me talk about the financial liberation journey, the very first
gateway you're going to go through is stability. And so right now, that focus when you're in a safety zone is sitting back saying, how do I become safe? How do I, how do I make sure that I have some things in place to keep me, my family and my future safe? That that means, like the strategy or the focus here is, is really driven by being prepared and that type of thing. You know, most of the time when you're looking at this, you, you're actually, your financial stress is starting
to decline. And because it's declining, because now all of a sudden, you've got some liquidity, you're putting some money away at the lower rungs of the wealth priority ladder, of the comfort fund, and you've got a debt payment plan in place. So you know that you may not be out of debt, but you are going to get out of debt in short order and you're putting a cushion aside. So if there happens to be an unplanned emergency or there is a something that, that
comes up, it's not going to crater you. Okay? And this is a time where you start to think about things like getting certain insurances in place, for instance. I think that a lot of people ought to think about, doesn't mean you need it. I'm not saying you need it, but you ought to think about long term disability insurance, especially if you're the primary income earner. And let me tell you, insurance companies don't need me selling insurance. In fact, I don't sell insurance or
investments. But what I want to do is sell you on, on the idea of your dreams and how to protect those dreams. And sometimes insurance is an element of that to make that happen. So safety level thinking is about preparedness. It's about stability. It's about making sure that you're taken care of in emergencies. It may be about insurance and it's about getting your debts in play. You're managing them. You may not be completely out of debt, but you're managing them. Okay. So that's, that's
level two thinking. Level three thinking though is where we start to go to more thinking beyond safety and more about comfort. Now we're looking at it and saying how do I achieve something that gives me comfort, that gives me a standard of living that I'm okay with? Now it may not be the lavish living or it may not be the vision that you have at this stage,
but it's something that is comfortable. And what you're going to see in the, in this, in this stage is now all of a sudden, all of a sudden your, your wealth is, is more systematic. Okay? In other words, what's happening is that you're actually systematically saving. You're following a plan, you're putting your 20% to 25% away or ten to 15%. We want 20% to 25%, but we know you got to start somewhere. Okay? But you're just systematically putting money away
in savings and investing and doing that work. You are creating a foundation of wealth, what I call that unshakable foundation for growth. You're starting to build that. You're participating in the company. Four hundred one k to get the match. You're following the processes in the wealth priority ladder and the work that we do. You are, maybe you're looking at buying a home at this stage, but doing it in a way that is effective. You're planning for
retirement. So now all of a sudden you put yourself in a place where you have steady wealth accumulation and you're starting to improve your lifestyle. You're starting to look at it and say, hey, this is the life I want and I'm going towards that. Not what someone else is dictating, not what social media says, not what the media says. Not what, the expectations of others and not being susceptible to temptation as much. So you're improving that and
you're starting to look at it from a comfort standpoint. So those, those are the first three levels of thinking. Now, the last three levels of thinking is where we start to shift. We start to transition beyond and start to look with a much greater growth mindset towards wealth, towards legacy, towards building a rich life in a, in a different way. And so, so the level four, the level four mindset or thinking is when we start to move
from comfort to prosperity. And when you have prosperity thinking, now, all of a sudden you're trying to expand wealth significantly. You're sitting back saying, all right, I now understand the idea of the wealth creation curve and the wealth flat line. Now, how do I, how do I make sure that I accelerate it? How do I get to that tipping point? So my money's working harder for me than it did
for, than I did for it. Okay, so now you're starting to look at things like diversifying your investment portfolio, owning multiple assets. Maybe instead of having one single target index fund, you might actually buy multiple funds. So now you have a two or three fund portfolio, nothing overly complex, but you are starting to look at how do I accelerate and expand my wealth significantly with this type of thing. This could even be a time where you start to look at building a business
or something of that nature that increases in. So now, all of a sudden, at the prosperity level, this is where we start to think in terms of freedom. What's it going to take for me to start building freedom into my life? So I have choice, so I have options, so I can do the things that I want to do. And so you're going to, when we do this, this is where all of a sudden you're going to see increased wealth. You're going to feel like you have a bit more freedom. You have the ability to make more
impactful financial decisions. Now, here's the caution, though. Typically when we start to grow like this, there's this tug at us to increase our lifestyle. And this is when you have to stay true to your plan, to your vision for your life, to not be susceptible to momentary pleasures or temptation, to not have to feel like you're keeping up with the Joneses or trying to compare to others and what others are doing. Because you weren't put
here to live others lives, you were here to live your life. And so unless what others are doing helps you define your life, which it shouldn't, you should define it internally. So so what we want to do here at this level is make sure that we are living our life, our way for the purposes of building our financial freedom. That's prosperity thinking. Now we go to thinking level five next. And this is where, all of a sudden, we are looking at a wealth
building thinking, okay, at. At this level now, all of a sudden, we're focusing not on just expanding wealth, but maximizing it. How do we maximize it? How do we optimize it? How do we multiply it? How do we really multiply it? So now we put it on supercharger. Okay, this is where we start to look at our investment portfolio even more strategically. And looking at, am I going to expand into international markets and other. Other types of investments? We might start looking at real
estate and making other investments in that. This is a time where it is really starting to look at growth, like accelerated growth, that we're looking at it from this point to have significant growth. Generational wealth is where we start to look at. We start in this wealth building time and start to look at, how can I expand my impact, in other words, my philanthropic kind of opportunities. So my financial freedom, my financial wellness, can actually
impact others in a positive way. This is the kind of thinking that you have at this wealth building level, at level five thinking. Now, then we hit level six thinking, this, to me, is really where we want to end up. Now, level six is all about legacy thinking. Now, I actually think legacy thinking should start at the beginning anyways. But this is when you're thinking long term and beyond me. Okay, this is when you start to look long term and beyond me. Now, we start to
look at things and say, not. Not just what's the legacy I want to leave? Because I actually believe that legacy is not something we leave behind. I think legacy is something we create in the moment. I think legacy is what we leave in someone
when we interacted. And so in order to do that, we have to be living our legacy daily, moment by moment, by giving the moment the reverence it deserves and making it as powerful as possible, no matter what status we are, as far as finances go, as far as any of that goes, we still have the opportunity to change someone's life, to create legacy.
And so at this stage, though, we are thinking much grander in our legacy level thinking, level six thinking, because we're thinking not only the impact today to our immediate family, our immediate generations, but the impact beyond. We're starting to think about estate planning. We're starting to look at
charitable planning. We're starting to think about, like, for instance, I have a charitable foundation that deals with abuse and violence against women and children to sit back and say, how do I extend my beliefs, my desire to impact elements of society in big ways? So now we start to make significant investments into projects, into philanthropic
projects. We start to look at, how do we make sure that we are training and skilling up the next generation so they have the skillset to steward the money machine that we're building, to protect the machine, but also project our values and our desire to have an
impact beyond our years. And so we start to look at things through those eyes and creating something of lasting impact in our communities, opportunities for other people to get involved, the way that we preserve our wealth, moving across generations, and not just for our immediate gratification. So these are the six levels of thinking that I think that we go through, and we go through all of them. Now, I think that you can actually build from the very
beginning. And ultimately, the level of thinking you're at isn't necessarily tied to the level of wealth you have. Because, remember, the thinking will determine the behavior, the behavior will determine the results.
So the more we can start to understand the six levels of thinking and move up the levels of thinking, the more that we can build the behaviors, the skill sets, the knowledge, the mentorship, the coaching that we need to keep us at the higher levels of thinking that give us the higher levels of behavior that create the level of wealth that we want. And so I thought this was a really important thing that I go through in much more detail with my clients and the
families I work with. But I just wanted to expose you to this, because too often we get caught up at the tactic level of building wealth. What do I invest in? What accounts do I want? All that stuff, which is great, and it's necessary. But until we figure out the levels of thinking and we start to build on the levels of thinking, we can sustain the tactics that we're using. And that's why we start with life. We build a plan. We create a strategy. That strategy will define the tactics,
and the tactics will define the actions. And all of this will be driven by the six levels of thinking. All right, I hope that you found this helpful. I hope you found it valuable. I hope that you'll take it to heart and go back and watch it and see, where am I? What do I need to do to transition to the next level of thinking? To grow in my thinking, so I can grow in my behavior, so I can grow in my skillsets, so I can grow in
my wealth, all right? And along the journey, know that I'm here. I'm here. I'm going to be putting more content out, helping you out. I've got my book, building your money machine and all the content. If you have not subscribed to this channel, what's wrong? What's up? Subscribe to this channel. It takes like a 10th of a second because like I said, you can use this channel to help you on the
path to financial freedom. I'm on a crusade to light the path to financial freedom for a million families, and I want one of those to be you. I'm not selling you investments. I'm not selling you insurance. I just want you to grab ahold of your dreams because I believe they're possible. I believe financial freedom is your birthright. Let's give you the path to claim it, all right? Until we get a chance to see each other in another episode or
on the road or while I'm out there speaking. Always, always strive to live a life that outlives you. Cheers. Thank you for listening to the affluent entrepreneur show. With me, your host, Mel Abraham. If you want to achieve financial liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join me in the affluent entrepreneur Facebook group now by clicking on to melabraham.com group. And I'll see you there.