Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

balance. I think about my in-laws.
For twenty-five years my wife’s parents owned a variety 
store, a low-end version of a 7-Eleven and a lot smaller. Most 
of their income came from the sale of cigarettes, candy bars, 
ice cream bars, gum, and sodas. They didn’t even sell lottery 
tickets in those days. The average sale was less than a dollar. In 
short, they were in a “penny” business. Still, they saved most 
of those pennies. The didn’t eat out; they didn’t buy fancy 
clothes; they didn’t drive the latest car. They lived comfortably 
but modestly and eventually paid off their mortgage and even 
bought half of the plaza the store was located within. At the 
age of fifty-nine, by saving and investing “pen-nies,”my father-
in-law was able to retire.
I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but for the most 
part, buying things for immediate gratification is nothing more 
than a futile attempt to make up for our dissatisfaction in life. 
More often than not, “spending” money you don’t have comes 
from “expending” emotions you do have. This syndrome is 
commonly known as retail therapy. Overspending and the 
need for immediate gratification have little to do with the 
actual item you’re buying, and everything to do with lack of 
fulfillment in your life. Of course, if overspending isn’t coming 
from your immediate emotions, it arises from your money 
blueprint.
According to Natalie, another of our students, her parents 
were the ultimate cheapskates! They used coupons for every

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thing. Her mother had a file box full of coupons all sorted by 
category. Her father had a fifteen-year-old car that was rusting, 
and Natalie was embarrassed to be seen in it, especially when 
her mom picked her up from school. Anytime she got in the 
car, Natalie prayed that no one was looking. On vacation, her 
family never stayed in a motel or hotel; they didn’t even fly, 
but drove eleven days across the country and camped the 
whole way, every year!
Everything was “too expensive.” The way they acted, Na-
talie thought her parents were broke. But her dad earned what 
she believed was a lot of money at the time, $75,000 a year. 
She was confused.
Because she hated their stingy habits, she became the op-
posite. She wanted everything to be high-class and expensive. 
When she moved out on her own and started making her own 
money, she didn’t even realize it, but in a flash, she had spent 
all the money she had, and then some!
Natalie had credit cards, membership cards, you name it. 
She racked up all of them to the point where she couldn’t even 
pay the minimums anymore! That’s when she took the 
Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar, and she says it saved her 
life.
At the Millionaire Mind Intensive, during the section where 
we identify your “money personality,” Natalie’s whole world 
changed. She recognized why she had been spending all her 
money. It was a form of resentment toward her parents for 
being so cheap. It was also to prove to herself and the world 
that she wasn’t cheap. Since the course, with her blueprint 
changed, Natalie says she no longer has the urge to spend her 
money in “stupid” ways.
Natalie related she was recently walking through a mall and 
noticed this gorgeous light brown suede and fur coat

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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
hanging in the window display of one of her favorite stores. 
Immediately her mind said, “That coat would look great on 
you, especially with your blond hair. You need that; you don’t 
have a really nice, dressy winter coat.” So she walked into the 
store, and as she was trying it on, she noticed the price tag, 
$400. She had never spent that much on a coat before. Her 
mind said, “So what, the coat looks gorgeous on you! Get it. 
You’ll make the money up later.”
This is where she says she discovered how profound the 
Millionaire Mind Intensive is. Almost as soon as her mind 
suggested that she buy the coat, her new and more supportive 
mind “file” came up and said, “You’d be much better off 
putting that four hundred dollars toward your FFA account! 
What do you need this coat for? You already have a winter 
coat that’s okay for now.”
Before she knew it, she was putting the coat on hold until 
the next day instead of buying it right there in the moment as 
usual. She never went back to get the coat.
Natalie realized that her mental “material gratification” files 
had been replaced with “financial freedom” files. She wasn’t 
programmed to spend anymore. She now knows it’s fine to 
take the best of what her parents modeled for her and save 
money, and at the same time, to treat herself to nice things 
with her play account.
Natalie then sent her parents to the course so they could be 
more balanced as well. She’s thrilled to report, they now stay in 
motels (not hotels yet), they bought a new car, and in learning 
how to make their money work for them, they’ve retired as 
millionaires.
Natalie now understands that she doesn’t have to be as 
“cheap” as her parents were to become a millionaire. But she 

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also knows that if she spends her money unconsciously as 
before, she’ll never be financially free. Natalie said, “It feels 
amazing to have my money and my mind under control.”
Again, the idea is to have your money work as hard for you 
as you do for it, and that means you have to save and invest 
rather than make it your mission in life to spend it all. It’s 
almost funny: rich people have a lot of money and spend a 
little, while poor people have a little money and spend a lot.
Long-term versus short-term: poor people work to earn 
money to live today; rich people work to earn money to pay 
for their investments, which will pay for their future.
Rich people buy assets, things that will likely go up in value. 
Poor people buy expenses, things that will definitely go down 
in value. Rich people collect land. Poor people collect bills.
I’ll tell you the same thing I tell my kids: “Buy real estate.” 
It’s best if you can purchase property that can produce positive 
cash flow, but as far as I’m concerned, any real estate is better 
than no real estate. Sure, real estate has its ups and downs, but 
in the end, be it five, ten, twenty, or thirty years from now, you 
can bet it will be worth a heck of a lot more than it is today, 
and it could be all you need to get rich.
Buy what you can afford now. If you need more capital to 
get involved, you can partner with people you trust and know 
well. The only way to get in trouble with real estate is to 
overextend yourself or have to sell in a down market. If you 
heed my earlier advice and manage your money properly, the 
likelihood of this happening will be extremely slim and likely 
none. As the saying goes, “Don’t wait to buy real estate, buy 
real estate and wait.” 

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Secrets of the Millionaire Mind
Since I gave you a previous example involving my in-laws, 
it’s only fair I give you an example involving my own parents. 
My parents weren’t poor, but they barely made the middle 
class. My dad worked extremely hard and my mom wasn’t 
physically well, and so she stayed home with us kids. My dad 
was a carpenter and recognized that all the builders who 
employed him were developing land they had purchased years 
and years ago. He also recognized they were all fairly rich. My 
parents too saved their pennies and eventually had enough to 
buy a three-acre parcel of land about twenty miles outside the 
city in which they lived. It cost them $60,000. Ten years later, a 
developer decided he wanted to build a strip mall on that 
property. My parents sold for $600,000. Less their original 
investment, that’s an average earnings of $54,000 a year from 
their investment, while my dad earned only about $15,000 to a 
high of $20,000 a year from his job. Of course they are retired 
now and live quite comfortably, but I guarantee that without 
the purchase and sale of this property, they would have been 
living by the skin of their teeth. Thank goodness my father 
recognized the power of investment and especially the value of 
investing in real estate. Now you know why I collect land.
While poor people see a dollar as a dollar to trade for 
something they want right now, rich people see every dollar as 
a “seed” that can be planted to earn a hundred more dollars, 
which can then be replanted to earn a thousand more dollars. 
Think about it. Every dollar you spend today may actually cost 
you a hundred dollars tomorrow. Personally, I consider each 
of my dollars to be investment “soldiers,” and their mission is 
“freedom.” Needless to say, I’m careful with my “freedom 
fighters” and don’t get rid of them quickly or easily. 

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