Sharing my habits is quite a personal thing, so excuse me if I’m telling you too much.
My accountant is a top bloke. Loyal, reliable, intelligent, honest, all the things one might look for.
He’s my mate.
He’s also prone to grunting to demonstrate his disapproval of my spending habits.
Thing is, I don’t agree with him that my habits are all that bad.
Maybe the better word would be “re-investing habit”.
I suffer from a compulsion to pour a big chunk of my company’s profit directly back into the business.
The main weaknesses I have are marketing, software and staff.
The marketing bit really makes him grunt. It’s kind of like a “grrrrummmphhh” when he tells me what I’ve spent… as if I didn’t know that.
Most people don’t know how to think – they think like a bean counter. Bean counters are there to count beans, not decide how the beans are spent.
Successful people must think like successful businesspeople.
I.e., their job is to grow the business. “Stay small and die”, is one of my favourite business sayings. If you’re always counting beans, you’re going to stay small.
The other point I’d like to make is that cash is frikkin’ worthless until it’s used for something worthwhile, a la making more of it.
Inflation erodes the value of the humble dollar so you’ve gotta compound them.
The majority of investors (which in essence, I am) stop at their first property, or index fund, or one stock holding or one project. They usually spend or save the winnings which is a big mistake.
The dumbest thing most people do is prematurely sell.
Look at the smart ones, like Warren Buffet (“my style borders on lethargy”) they keep all of their successful investments and continue to re-invest and on and on and on and on.
This is a critical, vitally important lesson you must get your head around to succeed, and it’s a lesson that most accountants weren’t trained to learn.
They’re not programmed this way, and that’s cool. It certainly doesn’t make them any less important.
If you want to create wealth, ignore your accountant, and follow the recipe of the rich.
Book a call with me here if you want to run your ideas past me. You’ve got 10-minutes at no charge.1-hr consultations available at $299 plus gst. Strictly limited appointments each week.
Cheers,
Brodie Brown