Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 179
March 20, 2017
Who says baby food can’t be delicious and healthy?
My sweet granddaughter Coraline loves to eat. Can you tell? And her daddy Keegan loves to cook for her now that she can have solid foods. They’re a good team in the kitchen. In this picture, she’s “helping” him make some puréed veggies. You’ll find a recipe at the end of this post. (Yes, that’s a bottle of wine in the background. Neither cook is imbibing and it’s not an ingredient in any baby food recipe.)
“I’ve always really enjoyed cooking, especially for others,” Keegan tol d me. “Watching Coraline enjoy a home cooked meal brings us so much joy. I also think the whole process really connects her to the food she is eating. It starts with the grocery shopping. Coraline makes a trip to the store every Sunday morning where she is shown and handed all of the foods that go into her meals. I think it’s so important for people to understand where their food is coming from. It’s also significantly less expensive than purchasing baby food in jars or pouches.”
At the moment, she’s discovered something she seems to like a lot. Tofu. They cut firm tofu into small cubes (less than 1/2-inch) and lay them out in front of her.
“It took a few days,” said Keegan, “but she eventually started to get the hang of it. Tofu is nice because it mashes up fairly quickly once Coraline starts chewing on it. I think we’ve both been surprised at how much she seems to enjoy it. Big smiles are common. I think she’s pretty proud of herself.”
Source:
http://catchinghealth.bangordailynews.com/2017/03/16/recipes/baby-food-delicious-healthy/
6 SECRETS TO CREATING A SUCCESSFUL EBOOK
Many companies have taken notice of the trend. B2B brands love eBooks because 67 percent of their customers have read an eBook prior to making purchasing decisions. And of B2C organizations, 34 percent currently use eBooks in their marketing strategies, with 57 percent believing they are an effective form of content for generating leads.
No matter your industry, company size or product offerings, eBooks for marketing are a great way to collect prospects’ information, educate them and start them on the path to conversion.
So what makes a successful eBook? We’ve highlighted several top eBooks we came across in 2016. But if you want an asset that really shines and grabs your readers’ attentions, then check out our tips below on how to create the perfect eBook.
1. Take advantage of industry experts
Use subject matter experts, either internally or externally, to really make your asset stand out. Brafton Project Manager Eric Rubino said this can really boost the effectiveness of your eBook.
“Take advantage of SMEs to improve the quality and thought leadership-ness of your eBook,” he explained. “Their input is incredibly important to ensure you are providing your audience with unique and actionable insights, rather than just repeating commonly known information in a given industry.”
Leverage insight from subject matter experts to lend a more authoritative voice to your eBook.
2. Keep it simple
EBooks are meant to be easily digestible, so make sure your copy reflects that! Avoid using long, drawn-out wording, and cut the fluff! Your readers should be able to quickly get the information they are looking for without having to skim through paragraphs of information.
Also, save your citations for the end of the eBook. Including citations within your copy will make your sentences too long and clunky, taking away from the engaging tone that a successful B2B or B2C eBook should have. As long as you are attributing your information somewhere within the eBook, typically on the last page, you’re covering your bases.
3. Think outside of the box
Piggybacking on the point above, don’t be afraid to have fun with your eBook! They are meant to be engaging pieces of content, and applying a theme or using more conversational language will only help you to meet that goal.
Sure, B2B companies are typically less likely to utilize a more informal voice, but that doesn’t mean you have to be stodgy when it comes to eBooks. Speaking directly to your target audience is a surefire way to engage with them, and even start them on the path to conversion.
4. Create custom imagery
Content that features visuals sees 650 percent more engagement when compared to text-only formats.
By definition, eBooks are assets that include both text and visuals to inform and engage readers.
Custom graphics, whether illustrations or charts, can quickly convey key information you want to highlight, as well as ensure your readers are entertained. You can also include screenshots or photos to show off product features, as this will really help drive your points home when talking about what your customers need.
5. Add interactive elements
Want to kick your eBook engagement up another notch? Consider adding interactive features.
One example would be to create a table of contents that allows prospects to click on a certain section and be taken directly to that page. Or you can include a button on each page that lets readers quickly navigate back to the table of contents. Or both!
Additionally, adding buttons that help readers navigate from page to page makes the eBook easier to navigate and sets it apart from traditional eBooks that require you to scroll through.
6. Pay attention to text formatting
Using the right formatting styles for your copy can make or break your eBook.
“While it’s a no-brainer to make your eBook visually compelling, too often do content marketers often forget about the formatting of text,” Eric said. “Use bolds and colors, and highlight data points or specific sentences in colored boxes or leverage other ways to allow your reader to skim and pull out the important information.”
However, be careful not to overdo the formatting. Highlighting too much, using bullet lists on every page, or over-using other stylistic elements will distract your prospects, and your message will get lost.
With some time, patience and effort, you can develop an effective and successful downloadable asset that takes your eBook marketing goals to the next level and increases your conversions.
Source:
https://www.brafton.com/blog/creation/6-secrets-to-creating-a-successful-ebook/
Drake’s More Life Will Not Be Apple Music Exclusive
Drake has a long history with Apple Music. He rolled out his studio album Views exclusively through Apple Music/iTunes, and released his short film Please Forgive Me on the streaming platform as well. He even appeared in a promo video for the brand that featured him trying to bench press and sing Taylor Swift at the same time. Now, it’s been revealed that Drake’s next release, More Life, will not be an Apple Music exclusive. Sources close to Amazon have confirmed that the project will be available on their service at the same time as the Apple Music release. Spotify tweeted out the trailer for the “playlist” project on their official Twitter account; reps for Spotify declined to comment. More Life is out March 18.
New @Drake.#MoreLife coming soon. pic.twitter.com/TwGlwfB3zE
— Spotify (@Spotify) March 16, 2017
Source:
http://pitchfork.com/news/72288-drakes-more-life-will-not-be-apple-music-exclusive/
Artificial Intelligence Is Learning to Predict and Prevent Suicide
For years, Facebook has been investing in artificial intelligence fields like machine learning and deep neural nets to build its core business—selling you things better than anyone else in the world. But earlier this month, the company began turning some of those AI tools to a more noble goal: stopping people from taking their own lives. Admittedly, this isn’t entirely altruistic. Having people broadcast their suicides from Facebook Live isn’t good for the brand.
But it’s not just tech giants like Facebook, Instagram, and China’s up-and-coming video platform Live.me who are devoting R&D to flagging self-harm. Doctors at research hospitals and even the US Department of Veterans Affairs are piloting new, AI-driven suicide-prevention platforms that capture more data than ever before. The goal: build predictive models to tailor interventions earlier. Because preventative medicine is the best medicine, especially when it comes to mental health.
If you’re hearing more about suicide lately, it’s not just because of social media. Suicide rates surged to a 30-year high in 2014, the last year for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has data. Prevention measures have historically focused on reducing people’s access to things like guns and pills, or educating doctors to better recognize the risks. The problem is, for more than 50 years doctors have relied on correlating suicide-risk with depression and drug abuse. And the research says they’re only slightly better at it than a coin flip.
But artificial intelligence offers the possibility to identify suicide-prone people more accurately, creating opportunities to intervene long before thoughts turn to action. A study publishing later this month used machine learning to predict with 80 to 90 percent accuracy whether or not someone will attempt suicide, as far off as two years in the future. Using anonymized electronic health records from 2 million patients in Tennessee, researchers at Florida State University trained algorithms to learn which combination of factors, from pain medication prescriptions to number of ER visits each year, best predicted an attempt on one’s own life.
Their technique is similar to the text mining Facebook is using on its wall posts. The social network already had a system in which users can report posts that suggest a user is at risk of self harm. Using those reports, Facebook trained an algorithm to recognize similar posts, which they’re testing now in the US. Once the algorithm flags a post, Facebook will make the option to report the post for “suicide or self injury” more prominent on the display. In a personal post, Mark Zuckerberg described how the company is integrating the pilot with other suicide prevention measures, like the ability to reach out to someone during a live video stream.
The next step would be to use AI to analyze video, audio, and text comments simultaneously. But that’s a much trickier engineering feat. Researchers have a pretty good handle on the kind of words people use when they’re talking about their own pain and emotional states. But in a live stream, the only text comes from commenters. In terms of the video itself, software engineers have already figured out ways to automatically tell when someone is naked on-screen, so they’re using similar techniques to detect the presence of a gun or knife. Pills would be way harder.
Prediction Before Prevention
Ideally though, you can intervene even earlier. That’s what one company is trying to do, by collecting totally different kinds of data. Cogito, a Darpa-funded, MIT-spinoff company, is currently testing an app that creates a picture of your mental health just by listening to the sound of your voice. Called Companion, the (opt-in) software passively gathers all the things users say in a day, picking up on vocal cues that signal depression and other mood changes. As opposed to the content of their words, Companion analyzes the tone, energy, fluidity of speaking and levels of engagement with a conversation. It also uses your phone’s accelerometer to figure out how active you are, which is a strong indicator for depression.
The VA is currently piloting the platform with a few hundred veterans—a particularly high-risk group. They won’t have results until the end of this year, but so far the app has been able to identify big life changes—like becoming homeless—that significantly increase one’s risk for self-harm. Those are exactly the kinds of shifts that might not be obvious to a primary care provider unless they were self-reported.
David K. Ahern is leading another trial at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, where they’re using Companion to monitor patients with known behavioral disorders. So far it’s been rare for the app to signal a safety alert—which would activate doctors and social workers to check in on him or her. But the real benefit has been the stream of information about patients’ shifting moods and behaviors.
Unlike a clinic visit, this kind of monitoring offers more than just a snapshot of someone’s mental state. “Having that kind of rich data is enormously powerful in understanding the nature of a mental health issue,” says Ahern, who heads up the Program of Behavioral Informatics and eHealth at BWH. “We believe in those patterns there may be gold.” In addition to Companion, Ahern is evaluating lots of other types of data streams—like physiological metrics from wearables and the timing and volume of your calls and texts—to build into predictive models and provide tailored interventions.
Think about it. Between all the sensors in your phone, its camera and microphone and messages, that device’s data could tell a lot about you. More so, potentially, than you could see about yourself. To you, maybe it was just a few missed trips to the gym and a few times you didn’t call your mom back and a few times you just stayed in bed. But to a machine finely tuned to your habits and warning signs that gets smarter the more time it spends with your data, that might be a red flag.
That’s a semi-far off future for tomorrow’s personal privacy lawyers to figure out. But as far as today’s news feeds go, pay attention while you scroll, and notice what the algorithms are trying to tell you.
Source:
https://www.wired.com/2017/03/artificial-intelligence-learning-predict-prevent-suicide/
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Methods To Overcome Your Fear of Failure
I believe we all have dreams to do the things that we love most–to feel alive and fulfilled in every way possible. We’re here to find tasks that give meaning to our existence and make this mundane life livable. Philosopher Richard Taylor says our life is meaningless–what gives it meaning is a sense of purpose: the will to survive.
How many of us actually make those dreams a reality? The trouble is that before even beginning to achieve that dream, many of us have doubts about our ability to do what we love. We are apprehensive and hesitant to try out something different.
The voice in our head often says: “I don’t have the time or the money . . .”
“I say this to myself alone: when you feel crushed, those around you look broken. When you glow, darkness turns to black light. If you hurt, even the comforts you are offered wound you. As you prosper, your failures prove to be just the right thing, perfect.”–Bahauddin, The Drowned Book: Ecstatic And Earthy Reflections Of The Father Of Rumi
Self-sabotage is any kind of behavior or thought that keeps us away from what we desire most in life. Reluctance on our part to take up new challenges is a characteristic trait of self-sabotaging behavior. It is the conflict that exists between our conscious desires and unconscious wants–or as Sigmund Freud would describe it, our identity versus our ego–that manifests itself in self-sabotage patterns.
This self-sabotaging behavior originates from our fear of failure. The overwhelming sentiment growing inside of us, gnawing at us, and saying, “You cannot do this,” is what deters us from our goal of achieving the greatness we are born to do.
What can we do to stop sabotaging ourselves?
1. REMEMBER, REGRETS ARE WORSE THAN FAILURES
When I begin to fear failure, there is one thing that stops my fear in its tracks. I just think about that dreaded, terrible feeling of regret.
“When lying in bed at night and regrets from the day come to steal your sleep:
‘I should have’
‘If only I’d’
‘I wish I’d’
. . . grab one of them and turn it into an ‘I will’ and sleep peacefully knowing tomorrow will be a better day.”–L.R. Knost
One feeling that lasts much longer and is more powerful than fear is regret.
2. IDENTIFY THE ROOT CAUSE
Where does our fear of failure originate? Identifying the root cause is the first step to acknowledging our fear and overcoming it. I sit down, close my eyes, relax, take deep breaths, and try to understand my fear. Coming face to face with our anxiety is the best way to get over our trepidation.
3. KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE GOAL
Once I have identified the cause of my fear, I try to focus on my goals. Every time a thought like “I can’t do this because . . .” comes up, I try to recalibrate myself, and focus on the small tasks that move me toward my overall goal. To conquer fear of failure, we must set our mind completely on the outcome that we want to create. The more we can focus on our end game, the more we obliterate pessimism from our mind.
4. ACKNOWLEDGE AVOIDANCE AND FOCUS ON MOVING FORWARD
Once we shift our mindset from being the victim to being the bold one who wants to achieve their destiny, we have to take action. When we are scared, often we fill our days with busy work to avoid real issues. This avoidance through being busy justifies our lack of progress. To move forward, we must stop spending our valuable time on mundane activities.
5. NEVER SAY NEVER
“We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming–well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate.”–Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses
We need to ask ourselves “How badly do I need to complete this . . . ?” At the end of the day, we are our best motivators. Failure is a part of life; it is failure that makes us stronger and more persistent to achieve our goal.
6. TRUST YOUR INNER GUIDE
Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters To A Young Poet wrote:
“Works of art are of an infinite solitude, and no means of approach is so useless as criticism. Only love can touch and hold them and be fair to them. Always trust yourself and your own feeling, as opposed to argumentations, discussions, or introductions of that sort; if it turns out that you are wrong, then the natural growth of your inner life will eventually guide you to other insights. Allow your judgments their own silent, undisturbed development, which, like all progress, must come from deep within and cannot be forced or hastened.”
That says it all. In the moments of doubt and fear, I now trust the guide inside of me. I believe it has the solutions to all my problems. This inner guide is more powerful than any external influence, and has the ability to dissipate my fears from my goals. Many of my failures came from not trusting in myself.
7. PATIENCE AND FAITH ARE OUR BEST FRIENDS
No one can determine the final destination of our life’s journey. Therefore, the next best thing to do is to keep our cool and have faith in ourselves. Whenever I feel I am detouring from my destiny, I try to remind myself that my journey is my path. It’s a journey full of peaks and valleys, sunshine, and rain. This faith allows me to explore unchartered territory with confidence. I am at ease to fail forward. Because even when we fail, we do not lose it all–we can learn valuable lessons, and build the foundation for our next chapter.
Keeping a can-do attitude helps us to never give up on ourselves. It allows us to recharge, reinvest, and reinvent ourselves by melting down our fear.
Source:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3046944/7-methods-to-overcome-your-fear-of-failure
March 19, 2017
March 17, 2017
Adult coloring books: a synonym for stress relief
As young children, many of us can likely recall spending a good amount of time flipping through the pages of our favorite coloring books, spending countless hours (if added up all together, that is) working on our latest pieces of art.
After reaching a certain age, though, many people put those books away and don’t really think twice about the coloring fun they once had. Here’s the thing, though: Adult coloring books are now filling the aisles, and they’re selling rapidly! Why? As it turns out, coloring can help reduce stress! How does it do this, though? And what are some of the health benefits of this calming activity? These questions, and more, are answered as follows…
Adult Coloring Book for Stress Relief: Gardens, Mandalas, Flowers, Butterflies, Animals and Owls
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Available on Amazon
To begin, how do adult coloring books help to relieve stress? According to an article written by Elena Santos on http://www.huffingtonpost.com, “The practice generates wellness, quietness and also stimulates brain areas related to motor skills, the senses and creativity.”
It enables participants, if you will, to focus on the task at hand without thinking too much about other, more stressful subjects.
In the aforementioned article, Santos also adds a quote said by psychologist Gloria Ayala: “The action involves both logic, by which we color forms, and creativity, when mixing and matching colors…The relaxation that it provides lowers the activity of the amygdala, a basic part of our brain involved in controlling emotion that is affected by stress.”
It certainly does.
In addition to keeping our minds stimulated and occupied, adult coloring books also have a sort of nostalgic effect, as they remind us of our childhood and of simpler times. Santos, a bit later in her article, adds another quote from Gloria Ayala regarding this aspect: coloring “brings out our imagination and takes us back to our childhood, a period in which we most certainly had a lot less stress.”
It enables us to remember and reflect upon those younger years when we spent a lot of time doing just as we pleased, but also helps our minds to concentrate and focus on what is important to us right now.
Now, what are some of the health benefits associated with adult coloring books? For one thing, they enable users to take a mental relaxation period during hectic (or not-so-hectic) days at work, school, or just in general, really. In fact, Jason Abrams, “an account manager at North 6th Agency, a New York City-based public relations firm,” told http://www.foxnews.com back in 2015 that “We’ll meet in the conference room on Friday afternoons and get our coloring session in…to help relieve the stress.”
Even some businesses are taking part!
As well as being a great tool for increasing levels of calmness and relaxation, though, these books are also helpful in pushing out negative thoughts: “Unplugging from technology”(www.colorit.com) and reducing anxiety levels. In the website mentioned previously (www.colorit.com), the author referenced Dr. Scott Bea, a clinical psychologist, who says that coloring “relaxes the brain. When thoughts are focused on a simple activity, your brain tends to relax” and nervousness levels, amongst other factors, as well, seem to decrease.
All in all, it’s clear that these adult coloring books really do seem to help us “de-stress” and to relax in our ever-so-chaotic lives. They enable us to focus on our happiness and health a little bit more, to remember our childhood, and to put away stressful thoughts and situations–at least for a little while.
And, though there is a difference between Art Therapy and coloring, in the words of Dr. Marygrace Berbarian, whose name is mentioned multiple times in an article (on Adult Coloring Books) on http://www.cnn.com, “Coloring definitely has therapeutic potential to reduce anxiety, (to) create focus…”
With all of this in mind, why not give it a try?
Source:
http://bphawkeye.org/features/2017/02/23/adult-coloring-books-a-synonym-for-stress-relief/
Before You Scroll, Try This Mindful Social Media Practice
How many times a day do you check into your social feeds? How many times do you hit refresh in one visit? Our need to be social can backfire on social media, when we accidentally activate the comparing mind, which is a source of much unhappiness. Of course, this can happen offline, too. But the toll looms larger online, with of all those perfectly curated images of people’s lives inviting us to compare our insides to other people’s projection of their outsides.
For teens and tweens, who are actually hardwired for self-consciousness, the constant comparing and curating, which used to end with the final bell of the school day, when kids could go home and put on their sweatpants, is a twenty-four-hour-a-day job. Socializing and social comparison begins first thing in the morning and ends last thing at night. Predictably, psychology research consistently shows that social media is making kids unhappier and more narcissistic.
The sheer volume and instant nature of digital media means that when we log in, we are drinking from a fire hose of emotional stimulus. We can be anywhere in the world and be met by friends’ posts that trigger joy, resentment, sadness, laughter, grief, jealousy, and more—all within moments. None of us, adults or children, are wired to take in that much emotional content at once without reacting.
Research also reveals that social rewards and punishments feel the same online and off. If someone interacts with us in a positive way online, we get the same neurochemical rewards in our brain as we would in person. When we (or our children) are rejected or ignored online, we get the same feeling of rejection as we would in person. More interestingly, the sense of emotional attack activates the same part of the brain as physical attack does. Emotional pain is just as painful, just as real, as physical pain, whether it comes from the virtual world or not.
Mindful Social Media
Yes, social media is contributing to a new era of adolescent (and adult) social stress, but when we accept that it is here to stay, we can also see it as a new opportunity for connection and mindfulness, if we build it. Mindfulness tells us there is insight to be found in anything when we approach it with mindfulness, and that even includes social media.
Try this social media mindfulness practice to explore what your favorite sites are communicating to your subconscious:
Find a comfortable, alert, and ready posture. Shrug your shoulders, take a few breaths, and bring awareness to your physical and emotional state in this particular moment.
Now open your computer or click on your phone.
Before you open up your favorite social media site, consider your intentions and expectations. As you focus on the icon, notice what experiences you have in your mind and body.
Why are you about to check this site? What are you hoping to see or not see? How are you going to respond to different kinds of updates you encounter? By checking your social media, are you interested in connecting or in disconnecting and distracting?
Close your eyes and focus on your emotional state for three breaths before you begin to engage.
Opening your eyes now, look at the first status update or photo, and then sit back and close your eyes again.
Notice your response—your emotion. Is it excitement? Boredom? Jealousy? Regret? Fear? How do you experience this emotion in the mind and body? What’s the urge—to read on, to click a response, to share yourself, or something else?
Wait a breath or two for the sensations and emotions to fade, or focus on your breath, body, or surrounding sounds.
Try this practice with one social media update, or for three or five minutes, depending on your time and your practice.
Noticing how social media makes you feel can help you discover how to use it more mindfully. As you become more aware of the emotions you’re actually inviting into your day when you visit social media sites, you’ll be able to make better decisions about how often to visit those sites.
And, keep in mind, the science of social media is more complex than we might think. For example, research shows that the more we look at others’ carefully curated social media status, the worse we tend to feel. But, the opposite is also true: if we look back at our own updates, we often see the positive aspects of our life presented and tend to feel better. So consider scrolling through your own updates sometimes, as you look at everyone else’s.
Technology does not define us, despite social media trying to put us into categories and reduce us to a series of likes and interests. Examining and changing our own relationship to technology opens the door for us teach through example and to practice new ways of making technology foster community and wellness.
Source:
http://www.mindful.org/before-you-scroll-try-this-social-media-practice/
Hachette Partners with Wattpad to Produce Audiobooks
Wattpad, the online writing and reading community and entertainment platform, is partnering with the Hachette Book Group to launch Hachette Audiobooks: Powered by Wattpad, a joint venture that will produce 50 audiobooks based on Wattpad stories.
The 50 initial Wattpad audiobook titles will be available beginning in the Summer 2017. Authors and titles will be named at a later date. The partnership will focus on popular Wattpad writers, using actors to adapt their stories into audiobooks for distribution beyond the Wattpad platform.
Ashleigh Gardner, Wattpad’s head of partnerships, said Hachette Audiobooks: Powered by Wattpad is the latest effort by the online community to bring the works of its writers to a broad audience. Wattpad writers continue to sign book deals with conventional book publishers, but Wattpad has also added content deals with film and TV companies such as Turner Broadcasting and Universal Cable Productions to expand the reach of its content.
Gardner said the Hachette partnership will experiment with audio formats other than the standard audiobook format. Hachette also plans to produce Wattpad audiobooks in the physical CD format for libraries and on demand for other interested parties.
The initial release of Wattpad audiobooks will include a wide variety of genres. The titles will be sold digitally and will be available via major online retailers, among them iTunes, Barnes & Noble, Audible.com, Audiobooks.com, Bandcamp, and eStories.
Anthony Goff, senior v-p content development and audio publisher at Hachette Book Group, said “content development is an important initiative for Hachette. We are excited to be working with Wattpad to amplify the audience and broaden the channels of discovery for their unique brand of storytelling.”
Source:
How to Actually Become a Millionaire
I recently finished reading The Millionaire Next Door, in which authors Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko summarize more than 20 years of research into the most effective wealth-building habits of real millionaires.
Although the book was first published in 1996 (a new version was released in 2010 with a new preface), and being a millionaire ($1 million net worth or more) doesn’t mean as much today as it did then, many of the principles of wealth accumulation are still relevant today. In fact, the book is currently the #1 bestseller in Wealth Management on Amazon, which is a testament to its timelessness.
If you have a goal to grow your wealth and become financially independent, but haven’t had a chance to do much research into what actually works, this book recap is for you.
Unfortunately, if you’re hoping for a get-rich-quick guide, you won’t find it here. Stanley and Danko prove that building wealth takes self-discipline, sacrifice, and hard work more than anything else.
Here are my main takeaways from the book on how to become a millionaire:
Offense is important
Income generation (what the authors refer to as “offense”) is highly-correlated with net worth. The authors found that more than 2/3 of the millionaires in the U.S. had an annual income of more than $100,000 (equivalent to $157,000 in today’s terms). The more you earn, the more opportunity you have to become affluent.
And just in case you need additional incentive to make more money, life expectancy has been shown to greatly increase with income. The more you make, the longer you live.
Defense is even more important
While offense is important, defense (being frugal, budgeting, and planning) is even more important on the path to becoming a millionaire. The authors found that once you are a high earner ($150–250K annually or more in today’s terms), the amount of money you make is less important than what you do with what you already have. In fact, many extremely high earners do not become wealthy because they spend everything they make.
The authors assert that it is easier to make a great salary in America than it is to accumulate wealth — and even if you can’t increase your salary significantly, you can certainly still become affluent by playing great defense. Numerous millionaires were profiled in the book who made less than $80,000 per year, yet still managed to become quite wealthy through rigorous budgeting and planning.
Live well below your means
Being frugal is the foundation for growing wealth, and the number one common habit among millionaires. This means having the discipline to pass on the luxury car, fancy house, or designer clothes in order to live below your means and grow your money. As of the latest edition of the book, based on 2007 IRS estate data, millionaires who had estates worth $3.5 million or more owned homes with only a median value of $469,021 — which worked out to be less than 10% of their median net worth. Bottom line — whatever your income, live below your means.
Invest at least 15% of your pre-tax household income each year
Saving and investing 15% of your annual income every year is a simple strategy for becoming wealthy. And the earlier you start investing your income, the greater your opportunity to accumulate wealth. So start the process of earning and investing as early as possible in your life, and put away 15% or more of your income every year for investment purposes. The compounded growth over time can be remarkable.
Invest Wisely
Wealthy people spend more time planning their investments, and they typically hire a high-quality financial advisor to help guide their investment portfolio. Although millionaires are typically frugal, they recognize the importance of working with (and paying for) top experts to help grow their wealth. The authors found that millionaires are actively involved with the planning of their investments, and often ultimately make their own investment decisions (with consultation from a financial advisor), but they are not “active” investors. Less than 10% of millionaires interviewed by the authors held their investments for less than a year, and 42% of the millionaires made no stock trades at all in the prior year. Millionaires spend their time on a small number of stocks, focusing on companies they know and understand well, and then stay in it for the long haul. Aspiring millionaires should follow the same approach.
The typical millionaire, based on the book’s research, held about 20% of their wealth in publicly traded stocks (and never more than 30%), and had 2.5 times more money in investment real estate than in their own personal homes.
You’re more likely to become a millionaire if you are self-employed
The authors found that people who are self-employed are 4 times more likely to be a millionaire than people who work for someone else. Self-employed people accounted for less than 20% of U.S. workers, but more than 2/3 of all millionaires. However, the authors are also quick to point out that many entrepreneurs and self-employed people never become wealthy. As we all know, it is hard to become a successful entrepreneur or business owner, and most never make it. High risk, high reward.
You can do it without the help of a trust fund
The authors note that 80–85% of millionaires are self-made. They are first-generation rich, meaning they did it on their own without huge cash gifts and ongoing economic support from their parents. It should come as no surprise that self-made affluent people are typically frugal and price-sensitive.
Spend your money on the important things
Millionaires are often frugal when it comes to consumer goods and services, but they do spend their money on investment advice, legal services, medical care, education for their children, and even vacations and other experiences with friends and family. The lesson is to cut back on your consumption lifestyle and spend your money where it will make a difference.
I hope this book summary provides you a solid foundation to grow your wealth and become financially independent. I am certainly no expert in this space, but I found this book to be incredibly helpful, and I hope this recap does the same for you.
Andrew Merle writes about living well, including good habits for happiness, health, productivity, and success. Subscribe to his e-mail list at andrewmerle.com and follow him on Twitter .
Source:
How to Actually Become a Millionaire
