The Perpetual Wealth Strategy Mindset

We get asked all the time about the mindset and approach to the wealth building strategies we teach here at Paradigm Life. We’re diving in deep to share the background best practices and benefits of maintaining your new financial mindset as you face new financial opportunities and some of life’s biggest changes. Let’s get started.

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My guest is someone that’s special to me and he has been with Paradigm for years. I’ve been here since the fall of 2012. It goes by fast. We have a running joke because I walked by his office and we don’t say hi. The danger is us starting to talk because it never ends. It goes on. I don’t know what our record is, but it’s definitely over 1.5 or 2 hours probably. You always stop in to say, “I’m hurrying off to this appointment and I got two seconds,” and we end up talking for an hour. Justin Atkinson is our guest. We’re going to be getting into a money mindset or financial perspective. This is important because the way in which we view the world oftentimes is very narrow and there are many different perspectives out there. With what we experience in society, those perspectives converge. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell what’s good, what’s bad, what’s true or what’s false. When somebody adopts the Perpetual Wealth Strategy as a means to achieve their financial goals, a mindset sets in. Mindset is important to understand because this is not the most common way in which people are managing their wealth and their finances. It is definitely cutting against some of the grain. Having a great mindset is vital. In your experience, what’s the significance of the right mindset when it comes to looking at money in general, especially after someone has adopted Perpetual Wealth Strategy?

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One of the biggest things that I notice a lot with clients is that what we’re teaching isn’t the typical thing that they run into. What’s essential is that they’ve got to be open to other possibilities. Without being open to other possibilities, they’re going to continually engage the old mindset or the old beliefs that they’ve been told. It’s going to get in the way of them fully experiencing what this system does. Being open is absolutely essential. It’s interesting saying that because when you have an epiphany or an idea, you’ve got this awareness or you’re like, “I should do this. I should do that,” or a different behavior that may get you different results and working out is one of the more common ones. In order for it to become a part of how you operate your MO, your modus operandi, there’s some repetition. There are some other things involved. That’s what’s cool about the foundation of the Perpetual Wealth Strategy, the wealth maximization account. It creates this discipline of systematically putting money aside. It works for us too. Putting money aside, say us saving and building up your reserves, building up your opportunity fund. The statements come and it’s like, “You need to pay this.” Some people pay on a monthly basis, but still you have contributions that come every so often they essentially create a habit of putting money away and you operate the rest of your finances around that. It reminds me of a client that I was doing a review with. We’re going over the policy loans and how she’s using that to be able to pay off debt and take over some debt that has been in the control of another financial institution. It’s not even a financial institution, it was the government. There was an energy, a feeling that she had whenever she made those payments to that institution. All of a sudden, she’s done this policy loan and she’s paid that thing off and now it’s in her control, yet she knows that there’s still the system to it. There’s this payment to it and she’s doing a great job of doing that, but she couldn’t contain herself. Many times, she’s like, “I am grateful to have this because now that I feel like I’m in control of this, that energy, that feeling is starting to flow over into other parts of my life.” She says, “I’m starting to feel this very peaceful, solid foundation that is allowing me to feel more confident in going out and doing what I’m doing in my life.” It’s spilling over into her entire life.

We have had this next conversation several times, but it’s the idea of control and what control gives us. It’s something people seek. People want to save. They want to be disciplined, but they don’t like to be disciplined. Meaning they don’t want somebody else disciplining them. That’s one of the main differentiating factors between the common wealth management strategies or wealth building strategies. What we advocate is we put our clients in the driver’s seat, whether it’s the way that they save, the way that they spend or finance. They have so much control over how it’s done, but in the end, it’s still done. It has that dynamic of certainty that we often talk about. Having that control is one thing. One of the mindsets that I see that a lot of clients have as a shift is in this day and age, many people want something and they want it now. They don’t want to wait. If it’s not done right now, then they’ll move on to something else. Unfortunately, the wisdom of allowing something to play out and allowing it to have that time, in a lot of ways, has been forgotten about. What I love about these systems is that it not only gives them something that they can do on a daily basis, but it allows them to stretch out their mindset and to start to think of things not in today or this week or this month, but what’s going to happen in a year from now. What’s going to happen five years from now? What’s going to happen ten years from now? When they’re setting up their own policy loan in the terms of how they’re going to pay that back, they’re starting to realize, “If I make this payment on it, it’s going to take this long to pay it off.” Whenever somebody has a credit card and use that specifically, how many people know how long it’s going to take to pay that off if they’re making a certain payment? They don’t think about that. All they think about is, “I can make this payment right now.” It’s just right now. What’s interesting is that the shift in mindset is that when somebody is in control of that policy loan and they’re creating their own schedule to see what it’s going to take. All of a sudden, they’re realizing, “If I do this, it’s going to take me this long. I don’t want to take this long.” They start to prioritize their money in a different way, which is going to be a much bigger benefit for them even in a longer term.

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We often talk about behavior and essentially behavior patterns and this is adopting certain principles in certain ways of doing things financially. What are some of the long-term benefits as this way of managing your wealth creates new habits? When they start to see things as more of a long-term, it begins to shift what they’re doing right now. We’ve had this conversation before. The only time that I have any power or control over is right now. That’s something I know that another client was saying, “401(k), that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.” I’m like, “Why would you say that?” He said, “Because I’m giving somebody my money that I have no control over right now and they’re telling me I’m going to have access to it at some point, wait out in my life.” He says, “I’m probably going to be dead by that time.” He’s like, “I’m giving somebody else control over something that I’m never going to use possibly.” What I’m seeing happening is because they’re looking at things more on a long-term basis and how long it’s going to take to pay it off or what it’s going to look like for them down the road, they’re starting to make decisions now that are different than what they normally would have made otherwise, which is going to affect the overall down the road and put them in a position where they want to get to. That’s allowing them to be a lot more conscious of the decisions and choices they’re making now and how that’s going to affect their overall picture.

Let’s tangent into this idea of knowing right now about certain things that are going to happen in the future and how it affects everything else in life. If you’re to boil down every different facet of life, whether it’s your relationships, finances or health, if you’re to look at every aspect of your life and choose one to let go, most people would let go of their finances. They wouldn’t sacrifice their spirituality for their finances. They wouldn’t sacrifice their relationships for their finances or most people at least. The idea of money being one of the main contributors to stress in all of those areas is because of the degree of uncertainty that exists. You and I love the idea of uncertainty, variety, adventure and things that are different. Life would be boring if we didn’t have those things. However, setting up your financial situation so that there is a high degree of certainty allows you to experience that uncertainty. It’s not by having money in the market or by trading this or trading that or hoping that this cryptocurrency goes to the moon or that this thing is going to pan out and make you $1 billion. It’s this idea that it establishes a foundation so that you can look to the future knowing certain things are going to happen and essentially be present to the things in life that bring uncertainty but are healthy. Whether that’s working out and going to movies or going on vacation or starting a business. The list goes on forever. To me, it unlocks a whole other world that people normally don’t have access to because they’re so concerned and stressed. When they’re sending so much energy to the concern and stress, that energy is going to concern and stress. There’s nothing left that they can use to focus in another area that can start to create more possibilities. This whole idea of having the foundation, that’s why I love the pyramid, the Hierarchy of Wealth and how they set that foundation. Once you got that set, all of a sudden, you’ve got something you can stand on. That goes back to my client that’s saying, “I have this overall sense of well-being that I didn’t have before.” When I heard that, I’m like, “This is why I’m here. This is why I’m doing this at Paradigm Life and sharing this message.” It’s powerful.

People want to be disciplined, but they don't like to be disciplined. Click To Tweet

You look at the wealth maximization account in setting up insurance as your foundation. I look at those tools being incredibly valuable. At the same time, tools are only tools. How they’re used is where the value lies. How you essentially build in these habits and ways of doing things produces a lifestyle that’s up here. If you boil down life, most people make decisions and do things because they want certain reactions and emotions. They want to feel a certain way. Most people want to feel confident and certain about their money. At the same time, you’re going to have curve balls. You’re going to have things that happen, Black Swan events whether it’s life or financial or otherwise. You’re going to have these events that are part of life. Looking at adopting this mindset, it does happen over the course of time. Talk about ways in which we communicate with our clients, especially during those times where uncertainty could creep in a bad way. The one thing that happens to most people, and I know you’ve talked about this a lot, but in America, even a very wealthy country, there’s very little amount of saving. Most of the savings, somebody feels they can put their hands on or liquid savings. Because of that, whenever you have these curve balls thrown at you in life, stress level goes way up. All of that energy is focused with what we’re doing here and as they’re building up money inside of this. This money is accessible regardless of age, financial status, if you have a job or don’t have a job. Because it’s accessible, all of a sudden when these dire moments come up, there’s not the high amount of stress and anxiety that goes with it. There’s this sense of peace saying, “I actually have something that can address that.” You’re still going to have a situation where you’re now accessing money from the policy or borrowing against it. You set up a way to pay it back, but you’re in control as to how you pay that back, which therefore keeps the stress levels down. That gives you the access of the energy that you have to continue to focus in other areas where normally it was all stuffed over here. I know I keep saying that, but it’s so important for someone. You don’t realize that’s what you’re doing until you have something else available.

There’s a statement I like which is, “Experiences trump beliefs.” The experience that you’ve had, the experience that we’ve had collectively as a company with thousands of people, we come to the conclusion that because we see it consistently throughout the lives of people, of humans, especially in the US with the way in which we’ve been taught about personal wealth management and what we should be doing with our money, whether it’s the stock market or qualified plans or our retirement accounts, what it all comes down to is establishing a life of happiness, a life of fulfillment and a life that people love. There’s a formula to doing so, which we advocate in what we teach. We advocate the principles of the Perpetual Wealth Strategy. Discipline is one of the most important things to understand, but it’s not being disciplined by somebody else. It’s setting yourself up to be disciplined, so that you have that degree of certainty that will allow you to take advantage of the opportunities that you’re going to have throughout your life. That’s an inspiring place to be. That brings forth inspiration. It brings forth empowerment, which is an energy. You’re surrounding yourself with that energy by having this system. It’s a whole different world. What’s cool is that it happens now. The typical financial plan is to do something now for something that happens in the future. This is setting something up for right now so that you can live right now as opposed to living for something in the future.

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It is the only place that I have any power over anyway. Justin, this has been awesome. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate it.

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Join us on the next episode as we get into some of the most compelling benefits of the Perpetual Wealth Strategy and the 150-year-old foundation that makes them all possible.