Preserve Your Wealth or Grow It?

So if a man begins to develop his body by exercising regularly and lifting weights and he eats all the right foods, while avoiding the wrong ones, we can all pretty much agree that he will be successful. He will develop a fine physique.

Now suppose upon getting this fine physique, he then decides to “preserve” it by not using it, because he does not want to “wear it out.” What do you suppose will happen to his fine physique? Will he be able to preserve it by doing this?

Of course not! Well I realize this sounds perhaps a bit silly to even ask, but how might we apply this same thinking to other areas of our life? Let’s say in money, for example. How many companies began with a great idea for a new product or service, grew that company until it became quite large and successful, only to change its stance in the marketplace?

Many companies, after gaining a good share of their respective marketplace somehow decide that they need to shift their focus from growth to maintenance or preservation. They begin to seek out ways to cut costs through finding cheaper vendors, becoming more tight-fisted with annual raises in salary for its employees, etc.

What generally happens to these companies? Do they continue to enjoy their coveted place in the market, or does this become threatened? Most employees can see this pattern and recognize it long before upper management even becomes aware of what is happening. That is if they become aware.

We can see the same thing in what we consider to be intelligence. Why is it that so many people act as if education stops after high school or college? Think about technology especially. You can know and understand a great deal about the newest technological toys today, but if you do nothing to continue learning, you will be technologically illiterate with a few short years.

Life continues to move along at different paces, depending on what area of life you wish to focus. Everything is changing, and we have to change accordingly or we will get left behind. With everything in life, we must continue moving forward or we get left behind. There is no standing still. It doesn’t exist.

Saving for retirement? Having a savings plan is very important. I fully encourage it. But there is something more you might consider. Savings alone is stagnant wealth. It has no power. A large savings can be wiped out rather quickly with a medical emergency, for example.

Have you heard of residual income? This is money that may come to you without your actually doing anything. I don’t mean to mislead you, however. You do need to first do something to create this residual income, but once you do that something, the income will continue for a long time after.

A common example is a book. You work to write that book and promote it when it comes out, and if it is successful, it will continue to sell for years to come. Most everybody has at least one book inside of them. Or perhaps you don’t consider this to be a possibility for you. That’s ok. There are many other options.

How many business owners have actually freed themselves from their business? You spend time in creating and building a business. You hire a good, reliable manager, and you let the business run itself. Another option is an online business that you can easily setup to run on autopilot. This is becoming more popular these days.

Another option is investing. You work hard and save as much money as you can. Then you use that money to invest in something that will likely give you a return greater than you need to live on.

Perhaps you are drawn to Real estate. This is another form of investing. If you have the means to purchase a property (or properties), you might rent this property to enjoy an active income while the property increases in value.

Are you creative? Create a new product. If you own rights to an invention you can sell those rights to another company and earn a percentage of the profits they earn by manufacturing and selling your product.

Can you sing, play an instrument, or write music? Record your talents and sell them. This can be a very pleasing way to earn some residual income.

Perhaps you have something you can teach others by way of audio or video recording. You could even write a course planner, a simple set of lessons on how to learn something that you can teach.

Perhaps you would like to sell someone else’s product. Network marketing may be the way to go. You work hard to get a good down line to work for you. Then you simply enjoy the fruits of their efforts. Think multi-level.


Here you have just a few ideas. Believe me when I say there are many more. Everybody has something to offer. The idea of your life is to find that something and cash in on it. Make it pay you in residual income, and you will not have money worries. There is one more thing about residual income.

Residual income doesn’t have to be a lot of money form one idea. When you get started with your first residual income stream, you will then have the time to look for or create another stream, then another, and another, and another. This is called Multiple Streams of Income (MSI’s). On this topic, we will talk more of next week. Until then, take care and bless.

Jeff Brandt




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