For more than three decades Tony Robbins has been
propelling people to take action and improve the quality of their lives.
The money expert has coached CEOs, celebrities, professional athletes and
U.S. presidents and has impacted millions of others through his bestselling
books, CD programs and seminars. As part of the competition, Robbins shared
some of his best money tips with GOBankingRates. Read on for this advice, as
well as some of the other best pieces of life and money advice Robbins has
shared over the years.
1. Don’t Lose Money
This is the single most important rule of investing, Robbins
told GOBankingRates. While so many of us are focused on making money, the most
successful investors on the planet are obsessed with not losing it. He’s
right, too. In fact, his advice echoes that of investing great Warren Buffett, whose No. 1 rule is to never lose money.
2. Take Small Risks
for Big Rewards
While there is no such thing as a riskless return, every
money master in the world will tell you, without exception, one of the most
vital components of your portfolio is to find investments with asymmetric risk
and reward, Robbins said. To do that, you should use the 5-to-1 rule. For every
dollar you risk, you have the potential to make five, he said.
3. It’s What You Keep
Not What You Earn That Matters
When it comes to our investments, we have been taught to
focus on returns. But it’s not what you earn that matters, it’s what you keep.
And if your portfolio isn’t tax efficient, then you may not be keeping as much
as you should be. In fact, he said taxes can dramatically erode your earnings
over time if you haven’t structured your portfolio with tax-advantaged
investments.
4. Diversify to
Reduce Risk and Maximize Returns
Most investors know that diversifying your portfolio helps
reduce your risk because you’re not putting all of your money into a single
investment. But diversification doesn’t mean investing in a random selection of
stocks and bonds. One way to get the diversification you need is to invest in
low-fee index funds.
5. Stop Mindless
Spending
Want to stretch the value of a dollar? Then you need to spend
on things that dramatically enhance your quality of life, and stop mindless
spending that doesn’t add any value to your life, Robbins told GOBankingRates. Think
of how you’re spending on things you don’t need to enjoy life, he said. For
example, spending $40 a week to go out to dinner instead of enjoying a low-cost
meal at home with friends can add up to more than $2,000 a year. If you
invested that money instead and earned an annual 8 percent over 40 years, you’d
have more than a half million dollars, he said.
6. Focus on Results
Instead of To-Do Lists
When Robbins recently was asked by LinkedIn to share his
secrets for being more productive, he said people should ditch their to-do
lists. You’d think an authority on leadership and performance would advocate a
method for keeping track of what needs to be done. But he wrote, the biggest
problem with to-do lists is that focusing only on what you need to get done
does not guarantee that you’re actually making any real progress.
7. Knowledge Is Not
Power, Execution Is
It’s important to always be learning. And Robbins does that
himself by seeking out people who break the norms and demonstrate what is
possible. But you have to take what you’ve learned and put it into practice. Just
make a little bit of progress each day or each week, and before you know it,
your path to financial freedom will be realized.
8. Notice What’s
Working and Not Working
As both a business and life strategist, Robbins asks
people to examine what they want in life. Part of that process of figuring out
what results you want involves noticing what is and isn’t working. When it’s
not working, change your approach. And keep changing until you finally achieve
what you’re committed to, he told Success magazine. This can apply to all
aspects of your life, including your finances. If your efforts to cut spending
to save more aren’t working, try another approach. If your attempts to
eliminate your debt are backfiring, look for another strategy. The key is to
learn from your mistakes.
9. Model Strategies
That Work
To achieve what you want in business or life, Robbins
advocates modeling someone successful. They’ve got a set of strategies that
they apply and those strategies work, he told Success.
10. Don’t Sabotage
Your Financial Success
The No. 1 thing that keeps people from achieving what they
want financially is self-sabotage, Robbins said. They sabotage their own
financial success because, on some level, they believe it will lead to more
pain than pleasure. They focus on the negative aspects of money
— worrying, for example, about the taxes they’ll have to pay as they earn
more. He said you should think about the pain not having money has caused you.
Write it down, then write down the positive things money offers to motivate you
to change your mindset.
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