A Finance Guide to Success

1. A Finance Guide to Success Based on The Parable of the Talents and Parable of the Sower By Bryan L. Former Real Estate Investment Portfolio Owner “The single biggest difference between financial success and financial failure is how well you manage your money. It's simple: to master money, you must manage money.” T. Harv Eker A Finance Guide to Success is a re-boot from Bryan’s mini series, The Money Gap and The Bigger Money Gap.

2. Understanding Money A Finance Guide to Success is a series of stories of investing success, cancer, money failure and learning how to restart after your life becomes nothing. About Bryan L. Bryan L. is a self taught real estate investor who was in the process of building an investment portfolio of over 110 properties. Then cancer came along and took every penny and then future income. The lessons you learn here can save you much grief. Understanding Money is a much an attitude as it is an experience. Two lessons were learned. One, invest differently. And two, learn how to make hard decisions every week until all resources are spent. These two lessons are hard enough, then having to accept the responsibility for not planning better and coping better with the constant drain of non-insurance cancer expenses until a financial hole is dug so deep you want to quit life. I did not sign-up for suffering to this degree. But as Mick Jagger sang in one of this songs, “we don’t always get what we want”. Paul from the bible said the same thing with this addition. My grace (Jesus’ grace) is sufficient. Without His grace I would have said no to be being revived before a life saving surgery. Its time to get financially smart and this guide will teach you some deep truths about what money is and is not. Parable of the Talents – About Two Wise investors and one Foolish Investor. Parable of the Sower - How Some Wealthy People See Money. Money Habits – What Are They?

3. Parable of the Talents “If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.” Warren Buffett Parable of the Talents A Story About Investing taken from Matthew 25.14-30 The Message Some Bible versions refer to ‘a talent (instead of dollars) was a monetary unit worth about twenty years' wages for a laborer. Look at it this way, say your boss gives you 20 years of wages without you doing the labor, but he requires you to invest your wage, what will you do with it? Here’s the Story 14-18 “It’s also like a man going off on an extended trip. He called his servants together and delegated responsibilities. To one he gave five talents (300 years worth of wages), to another two talents and to a third one talent, depending on their abilities. Then he left. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment. The second did the same. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money. Learning Experience - Are you the type of person who only gives your employer or business what is necessary or do you give your best effort?

4. 19-21 “After a long absence, the master of those three servants came back and settled up with them. The one given ten talents showed him how he had doubled his investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’ 22-23 “The servant with the two talents showed how he also had doubled his master’s investment. His master commended him: ‘Good work! You did your job well. From now on be my partner.’ Learning Experience - Do you get awards, bonuses or raises because of giving your work 110% effort? 24-25 “The servant given one talent said, ‘Master, I know you have high standards and you hate careless ways, that you demand the best and make no allowances for error. I was afraid I might disappoint you, so I found a good hiding place and secured your money. Here it is, safe and sound down to the last cent.’ 26-27 “The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest. Learning Experience - Do you value how you conduct your work ethic? 28-30 “Take the talent (60 years worth of wages) and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.” What does outer darkness mean? Its a place where you don’t want to find yourself at. Broke, in-debt, bad with money, homeless are all found in the outer darkness. Learning Experience - If you have ever wondered why you have bad money and career results it could be that your personal, financial, work and spiritual value system is broken. If you want to have a retirement or saving plan, you will need to self-educate on where are the best places to invest on a monthly basis to get the best results over the long haul. About each Talent Skill. Verses 14-18 tells us about each investor. 1st investor five talents or 300 years worth of wages. 2nd investor two talents or 120 years worth of wages and the 3rd investor one talent or 60 years worth of wages, depending on their abilities.

5. Right off, the first servant went to work and doubled his master’s investment to 20 talents. That is a great deal of future income to live off of. The second did the same (4 talents. That is a great deal of future income to live off of. But the man with the single thousand dug a hole and carefully buried his master’s money. This person had no future income. “You are never powerful in life until you are powerful over your own money.” Suze Orman Depending on Their Abilities We can assume or guess that the first two people learned about how to make money multiply somewhere in their life’s journey, so they both had a strong concept of the value of investing. Both understood that the money they were investing was their future income. That is where their money wisdom surpassed the other person who for some reason had no interest or understanding of where their future income would come from. Unless you are like the first two people who were self-taught in money wisdom, you are guaranteed to be just like the third person with no future income.

6. Parable of the Sower “If you want to become wealthy, then you have to find out what the top 5% of people do financially and do the same thing.” Myron Golden The Parable of the Sower Concept in Matthew 13 Four Different Types of Soil Then He (Jesus) spoke many things to them in parables, saying: a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. The concept here is, what are you doing with what you have. Are you the person with 5 or 2 talents back in the parable of the talents or are you the person who buries the one. Any good farmer knows his soil must be tilled, fertilized, and watered before it can receive seeds and be a means of growth. Soil, as used in this parable, is people.

7. Just like in the bible and where to plant scripture, it just as important to plant your financial seed in the right place. How do we know where to plant our financial seed? Read through to number four. One. Hard Ground (mind set) and the seed could not sprout or grow at all and became snatched up instantly. The mind can be a place that will not accept a can do mindset. Learning Experience - If we have a don’t care mindset, our mind is hard ground. Pride is hard ground and can lead to fewer life achievements. Two. Stony Ground (unwilling to learn). The seed was able to plant and begin to grow, however, it could not grow deep roots and withered in the sun. The stony ground is someone who shows interest in learning but then quits because of lack of discipline. Learning Experience - Pride is also stony ground with a lack of soil to product top quality returns and at the end of life we have very little to show for ourself. Three. Thorny Ground (easily distracted). Although the seed could plant and grow, it could not compete with the number of thorns that overtook it. The thorny ground is a person who gets easily distracted by other things in life and soon becomes uncommitted. Learning Experience - If you and I keep sowing good seed in the wrong places you and I will continue to get the sames wrong results. Four. Good Soil (hears understands and carries out). This person allows the seed to plant deep, grow strong, and produce fruit. It takes Discernment to know where to plant your financial seed. The good soil person is someone who has heard and accepted the commitment to achieve wealth building. Learning Experience - Good soil is teachable sower with a strong understanding of where and how to plant seeds that flourish. Talents are what are given to us and sowing is knowing where to plant the investment seed.

8. Money Habits “If you want to be financially-free, you need to become a different person than you are today and let go of whatever has held you back in the past.” Kim Kiyosaki We allow or permit the wrong thoughts into our mind and then we agree with them. The bible says to take every though captive. In other words do not allow incorrect thinking to remain. According to Proverbs 23.7, “For as he thinks within himself, so he is”. We do not always act and speak what we think. Its like our outer persons lies for our inner person. If you want what you say you want then your actions would make your thoughts a reality. At the end of the day it is more important to be a person of value, and remember this, Maya Angelou said, “How you make people”. Daniel 9.23 says you are greatly loved. Those with a strong inner value aka love speak blessings into other peoples lives. Who do you listen to? Proverbs 16:20, Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers, and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord. Do you think that financially affluent people seek out people who are bad with money to learn all about their money skills? Wise people listen to wise people.

9. Your belief system has to become bullet proof against your feelings. 1 Corinthians 10:13 NKJV, talks about “no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. Everyone has the same opportunity to deal with their feelings and not be ruled by them. “To get rich, you have to be making money while you’re asleep.” David Bailey Think on this one for a bit. If your value system is all about you, guess what? All the money in world won’t change that. People will start to ask what does he or she do with all their money? Answer – spent it on themselves. Set a Budget, Period. This is the starting point for every other goal in your life. Here’s a checklist for building a knockout personal budget. Allocate at Least 20% of Your Income Toward Financial Priorities. By priorities, we mean building up emergency savings, paying off debt, and padding your retirement nest egg. Seem like a big percentage? Make Bite-Size Money Goals. One study showed that the farther away a goal seems, and the less sure we are about when it will happen, the more likely we are to give up. So in addition to focusing on big goals (say, buying a home), aim to also set smaller, short-term goals along the way that will reap quicker results— like saving some money each week in order to take a trip in six months. “A person either disciplines his finances or his finances disciplines him.” Orrin Woodward

10. In Closing Money will only make you more of what you already are. T. Harv Eker “If you don’t, it won’t.” Bryan L. See Bryan L. on LinkedIn A Finance Guide to Success is Powered by Eye Catcher Business Publications 3.16 He Loves You All Rights Reserved and Copyrighted 2024 By Bryan L. / The Bryan K. Long Company A Finance Guide to Success Eye Catcher Real Estate Ventures Eye Catcher Publicaitions