Where does the money go?

If it takes an average of just 2-and-a-half years for UK lottery winners to blow 44% of their winnings, where does the money go?

Well, Camelot (the operators of the UK lottery) commissioned a follow-up report in 2002:

A third of winners (34%) buy a car straightaway, while one in 10 (11%) buy new clothes or new jewelery. For around four in five (77%) the most expensive single purchase is a house, followed by a car (14%). A quarter of winners give up to 10% of their winnings to their family, while nearly a half more (45%) give family eleven to thirty percent. Almost three in five give up to 10% to friends, while two thirds give up to 10% to charity.

Why do these winners figuratively throw their money out the window?

I think I’ve stumbled on a clue; they think that they can just win it all back again:

As to doing the Lotto, four in five jackpot winners (82%) still play every week — and one in five (21%) is very confident of winning again.

And, I think that in here is a very important lesson for those of you lucky enough to become successful with your Making Money 201 (Wealth Acceleration) activities:

Don’t spend your money as though you can just keep on making it all over again … you take on huge (hopefully, calculated) risks to reach your Number by your Date.

But, once you get there, switch to Making Money 301 (Protecting Your Wealth) because you just may not be so lucky the next time around

Planned giving?

To give or not to give … that is your prerogative.

BUT, if you do decide to be a giver, then this video is a nice intro to tomorrow’s challenging question …

People came to him for financial advice!

This video commercial from the New York Lottery shows Louis Eisenberg, the then biggest ever lottery winner with $5 million.

The trouble is he is now broke and living on social security in a trailer park …

… until then, people actually asked him for financial advice:

All of a sudden, people were asking, ‘Lou, what about this?’ ‘What about that?’

All because he – temporarily – won $5 million!

A manifest error?

Last days for ‘pre-applications’ to become one of my 70 Millionaires … In Training!

I am offering the first 70 – and, 70 only – of qualified readers free lifetime access to all of the Premium Content on the site.

First, though, you’ll complete a short application form, so that I can see whether you will be a contributor to the program, or just a freeloader

Better hurry, free is a pretty good incentive and I reckon you’ll be fighting for your place …

Click here to find out more …

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In an interesting experiment in the ‘dark arts’ of using visualization and other techniques a la The Secret, Steve Pavlina challenged his readers to attempt to ‘manifest’ $1,000,000 each:

This experiment is based on the intention-manifestation model of reality, where the goal is to generate $1 million of additional wealth for each person who chooses to participate.If you wish to participate, all you need to do is to decide to put forth the following intention:

In an easy and relaxed manner, in a healthy and positive way, in its own perfect time, for the highest good of all, I intend $1,000,000 to come into my life and into the lives of everyone who holds this intention.

The experiment claims $5.5 million that participants would not have received in ordinary earnings, and Steve Pavlina achieved over $100k in 18 months all on his own.

But – and, this is a big BUT – Steve did set the bar at $1 million dollar each, but NONE of the participants achieved that target.

More importantly, as the graph shows, our readers (most of whom, presumably, did not use creative visualization, chants, or the suchlike) actually achieved a much greater average result!

In fact, as I pointed out in my last post:

In that 18 month period, nearly 1,600 participants [in Steve Pavlina's Million Dollar Experiment] reported ‘manifesting’ anywhere from $504,873.56 (in just one day; if you choose to believe him) down to just one cent.

The average was closer to $3,500 in less than a year, with the median being just $180.

Our response to this challenge ‘produced’ more than an average of $18.5k for each $7m7y participant (!) …

… I don’t know how the Universe really works – or whether there is any Power in Intention – but, can I at least claim the Power of Reading the $7 Million in 7 Years blog as the key to manifesting your own millions?

The fundamental rule of money?

Here’s the difference between conventional personal financial advice and 7m7y thinking in one slide; according to Brian Taylor the fundamental rule of money is to:

Either earn more than you spend or spend less than you earn.

Simple … and, much better than the alternative (spending more than you earn) …

… but, wrong!

There is only one fundamental rule of money:

Earn more than you spend

Can you see why? Your financial future depends upon it

Reader Poll: Manifesting Millions?

IMPORTANT: Please read this post in full, THEN choose the FIRST answer that applies.

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There are two groups of people in this world:

- those who believe that there are two groups of people in this world, and

- those who don’t

At the risk of parodying myself, I think there are two groups of people in this world:

- those who believe in The Secret, and

- those who don’t.

I want to conduct an experiment, right here / right now, to see if The Secret works …

First though, in case you’ve been living in a cave for these past few years (in which case, you have probably already developed powers far beyond those of The Secret), you will already know that The Secret is the most recent in a long series of books, blogs, and banter about the ‘power’ of creative visualization …

… see it in your mind and you will manifest it into reality.

Believe it, and it will be so.

I don’t know how The Universe works, so I can’t tell you whether I manifested my millions (perhaps by concentrating on my Life’s Purpose and the Number required to get me there) or was merely driven to make it at all costs … you could certainly mount an argument either way.

Also, I am an experiment of one …

Fortunately, we have Steve Pavlina who is an expert in these matters, and  is also the creator of a very interesting project, aptly called the Million Dollar Experiment:

The goal of this experiment is to attempt to use the power of intention to manifest $1 million for each person who chooses to participate.

From what I can see, the experiment ran from November 2005 until July 2007 … just over 18 months. Here’s what happened:

In that 18 month period, nearly 1,600 participants reported ‘manifesting’ anywhere from $504,873.56 (in just one day; if you choose to believe him) down to just one cent.

The average was closer to $3,500 in less than a year, with the median being just $180.

I’m not sure what you would count as a worthy ‘manifestation’ amount (I mean, would you dream of anything less than $10k in a year?), but 120 people - just 7.5% of those participating - ’manifested’ $10k or more in that period.

Cast your mind back 18 months: how much have you manifested in that timeframe? I guess by ‘manifested’, I mean by following Steve Pavlina’s instructions to his own readers:

Only count the new money you feel has come into your life as a result of your participation in this experiment (i.e. the manifestation of this intention), not your regular income. Obviously your interpretation of that will be subjective, but this is a subjective experiment. Just do your best, and trust your intuition.

Just pretend that you signed up to Steve’s experiment 18 months ago … what money (if any) that came into your life since then would you have reported on Steve’s blog?

Oh, and feel free to tell me what you think about the power of The Secret, Steve’s Million Dollar Experiment, and/or this post … but, don’t forget to scroll back up to the top and make your poll choice first

My Holiday Wish For You …

… a five pound box of money!

[AJC: I wonder how much that is?!]

Have a safe and wonderful Xmas and New Year!!

The story of banking ….

Forget the “banks make money from thin air” assertions at the beginning of this video, but watch the cartoon rendition of the creation of the modern-day banking system for an understanding of how banks really work.

While it is true that the dollar is no longer backed by gold (in 1933, President Franklin D Roosevelt suspended the standard and revoked gold as universal legal tender for debts), just remember that each George Washington is still backed by “the full faith and credit of the United States government” … now that should be enough comfort for anybody

The end of capitalism?

I love Michael Moore, he can make shotguns in the hands of teenagers seem like a bad thing …

… and, now he’s on to big, bad, ol’ Capitalism.

I wonder how much of the proceeds of this film he’s donating to equalize wealth across the American population? And, I wonder what he’s proposing to replace capitalism with?

If you’ve seen the movie, or have any for/against ideas of your own, let us know by dropping a comment …

Are we all broke sheep?

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This should be an interesting movie [thanks to KC for the link!] … interesting because I’d love to know how they plan to fill up theaters with a documentary on the economy.

Expect it to be filled with wonderfully breathy comments like “Warren Buffett has more in common with a great poker player …” Oooooh!