When you put your hard-earned money into Wall Street, guess what Wall Street does with your money? It goes directly into high-risk, unpredictable investments, managed by professional fund managers who are essentially having fun gambling with your money. Wall Street has benefitted handsomely from an enormous cash infusion in recent decades, as ordinary Americans use Wall Street to save for retirement and try to beat inflation.
But how have you really benefitted from this scenario that Wall Street has cooked up? The reality is that the returns that ordinary investors see are eaten up by hefty investment fees, charges, and taxes. Furthermore, the ordinary investor must endure wild market swings that seem to wipe out earnings as fast as they materialize. Many Americans are frustrated and ready to get off this roller coaster, but they stay put because they don’t know of a better alternative. You don’t have to be a victim of Wall Street any longer. Here are four tips for finally getting off Wall Street’s financial roller coaster:
Getting of the Wall Street Roller Coaster
- Resist the gambling mindset: As much as you’d like to convince yourself that Wall Street is a solid investment choice, it’s really glorified gambling. When you put your money into the financial markets, you must pick a particular set of cleverly packaged investment products – and then hope your picks will earn you a strong return on investment. News flash: This is the definition of gambling! Even if you get a rush out of gambling, it’s absolutely not financially prudent to gamble with your savings, ever.
- Admit why you’re so fearful: The reason you’ve stayed on the Wall Street roller coaster for as long as you have is because you’re fearful. You’re fearful of what will happen if you get off, and you’re fearful that ultimately you’ll wish you had stayed aboard. It’s OK to admit these things; they’re very understandable fears. Once you can admit them, you can examine your fears critically and understand whether they’re truly warranted. For example, when you look objectively at your ubiquitous 401(k) retirement savings plan, what you’ll find is that your plan is setting you up for a lifetime of financial volatility that will never ease up, even after you’ve retired. Objectively, is this really the most financially prudent route to go?
- Create a solid foundation for wealth-building: Once you commit to leaving the volatility of Wall Street behind you, you need to have a true wealth-building strategy in place. To lay the foundation for this strategy, you need to educate yourself about investing and seek to identify pathways to achieving the most important qualities of any wealth-building plan – namely, security, liquidity, and minimal tax liability.
- Leverage your assets effectively: Wall Street offers investors a linear strategy for investing, in which you put money in and hope to get more money out at the other end. When you recognize that this strategy cannot maximize your return on investment, you can look outside Wall Street to identify alternatives. What you really want is to leverage your assets, so that the money you invest remains available for other investments. Whole life insurance is the best example of this circular investing strategy: You borrow against the cash value of your policy to make other investments, such as real estate or commodities, even as your life insurance policy retains its full value.
The Wall Street roller coaster can give us quite the adrenaline rush at first, but unfortunately, it always leaves us in the end feeling queasy and nauseous. You can learn to reject these volatile, non-secured investment outcomes by resisting the gambling mindset that is rampant on Wall Street, acknowledging the reasons you’re fearful, establishing a foundation for a wealth-building strategy, and learning to leverage your assets effectively through a circular investing strategy.
Are you ready to re-think your wealth building strategy? Our Infinite Banking 101 e-learning course will help you get started.
Get Financially Educated and Arm Yourself with Knowledge
