Wealth Building & Investing

There’s a certain ingredient to success that I’ve talked about many times, but it’s not the core of my message.

And that thing is “Acting as if” you’re already successful.

You may have heard of this before, and it’s very popular in what I call the “woo woo”, or law of attraction space.

Because, while I believe developing the right skills and taking the right actions are the keys to success…

There’s another part of me that knows in order to be successful, you must also act the part before you become successful.

Because what’s the alternative?

Acting unsuccessful?

I think we both know if you act unsuccessful, you’ll stay unsuccessful.

So, today I wanted to share a few personal stories of times I “acted as if” to get what I wanted in life…

Or as Law of Attraction people would say “manifest” what I wanted in life.

I’ll also include specific videos to help you “act as if” so you too can “manifest” what you truly want out of life.

How I Surrounded Myself With Luxury While I Was Still Broke

When I first got started in business, I was dead broke.

I knew I had to get used to money and being around luxury if I wanted to make a lot of money.

So, instead of working at home, I’d set up my office in the lobby of luxury hotels.

I was surrounded by what I call ‘wealth triggers’.

I could barely afford anything from the restaurant except the occasional green tea.

Eventually I was able to eat lunch and dinner there, or spend the night if I wanted.

This is the power of your environment, which is why I always recommend if you want success to upgrade your environment first.

The Day I Bought My Dream Car

When I first got my driver’s license, I bought my Aunt’s old Ford Escort.

It had 100,000 miles on the clock, and the passenger side door didn’t work.

Everytime I drove mom to get groceries, she had to enter through the driver’s side door.

So, when I became financially successful, I’d had my eye on the Mazda Rx-8 for a long time.

Every time I’d see someone driving an Rx-8, I’d tell my friends…

“That’s my car.”

They’d say “No it’s not Dan, you’re not driving it.”

I’d ignore them and continue to tell myself that it was my car.

Every day I drove that car in my mind.

I’d go to the dealership and literally “smell the leather” of the car I wanted.

One day, I went to the dealership and told the salesman, I wanted to buy the Mazda Rx-8 and I told him exactly what I wanted in the car.

He looked at me puzzled…

“Don’t you want to take it for a test drive sir?”, he asked.

“No, just give me the papers to sign, and I’ll take the car.”, I replied.

He kept asking me if I wanted to test drive it, but I kept declining his offer.

After buying the car, you’d think I was excited driving it home, but I wasn’t.

It felt normal, because I’d driven the car so many times in my mind, it was like I already owned it.

Years later I’d upgrade to the Bentley, but that’s another story.

Why I Hired a Limousine To My Speaking Gigs

Many years ago, when I was just getting started as a speaker…

I used to take a cab to the airport, which would cost around $60.

I thought to myself, how can I upgrade my trip to the airport and act like a successful speaker?

I decided to take a limo to the airport instead.

The price difference was only about $40, but it made a huge difference to my confidence and the way I felt.

My audience didn’t know I rode in a limo, but I knew, and that was all that mattered.

I’d sit in the back of the stretch limo with my Fiji water and my music, and I noticed people always looked at the limo to see who was inside.

People couldn’t care less about who was riding in a cab though.

All this affected my performance and helped me present better than I did when I took a cab.

I even went back to cabs for a while and noticed my performance drop.

So after that, I said “no more cabs”.

What can you do to upgrade an area of your life like that?

It doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars, as I’ve just mentioned the difference in price for me was only $40.

Why You Can’t Get Rich Looking Poor

If you’re still not convinced how powerful it is to “act as if”…

Let me share with you something I teach my mentees.

That is, you can’t get rich looking poor, and you definitely can’t get rich feeling poor.

If you want success, you’ve got to look and act the part.

It’s the only way.

Why?

Because when you look good you feel good, and when you feel good you perform better.

I want to share with you a quick video that highlights this, where my social media director bought a suit just for our event >>

Finally, I found this video from my mentor Dan Peña where he shares his experiences “smelling the leather” as he calls it, and why it’s so important.

You can check out the 1 min video here >>

If you study any successful person, almost all of them will say acting “as if” is a key component of their success, on top of all the action they take.

If you look at the words “law of attraction”, the main word that makes up the word “attraction” is “action”.

That’s why positive thinking by itself doesn’t work.

But when you combine the right actions with “acting as if”, something magical happens.

To your success,

Dan Lok

P.S. – I created a program called Wealth Attraction Secrets, I think you’ll enjoy.

It’s designed to help help you unlock the magic the makes the law of attraction work.

Without this vital piece of the puzzle the law of attraction simply won’t work.

It’s a bold claim, I know, but click here to check it out while it’s fresh on your mind >>

I’ll never forget my financial difficulties…

Even when I started making a lot more money, I was still reckless with it.

I spent it like it was going out of fashion, and invested in 10 bad tech projects which lost me A LOT of money.

One of the most important things to have in your arsenal is your ability to manage money, no matter how much you earn…

Because, if you can’t manage $5K per month, you won’t be able to manage $50K per month.

Managing money is a habit and skill, however, a lot of people think they’ll be able to manage money better the more they earn.

But what always happens, is the more they earn, the more they spend.

So, in this week’s newsletter you’ll discover some of the ways I like to manage money, and how to ensure you keep more money every year.

Let’s begin…

3 Financial Goals You Must Have Every Year

If you want to succeed financially, there are 3 things you absolutely must do.

This is outside of investing, which is a whole other topic,  because if you don’t do these things, you won’t have any money to invest.

I’ve already sent out a newsletter on how to invest your first $1K.

You may like to check your inbox for that one, but as a recap, I believe the best way to invest your first $1K is by reinvesting in yourself.

That will give you the biggest return month on month.

So here are your 3 goals.

1. Increase your earnings by at least 10% per year…
2. Increase the amount you save each year…
3. Increase the percentage of your income you save…

Really, if you achieve goals 1 and 3, you’ll achieve goal 2 at the same time.

How To Know How Much To Save At Different Income Levels

As you earn more, you should naturally increase the amount you save.

If you don’t, you’ll allow yourself to spend all the extra money you earn, and you’ll never make any progress.

So here’s how much you should save at every level of income up to $1 million.

Less than $50K save 10%.

More than $50K but less than $200K save 15%.

More than $200K but less than $500K save 25%.

More than $500K but less than $1MM save 35%.

More than $1MM save 50%.

It’s important you don’t fall into the trap of living a lavish lifestyle as your income increases.

I know it’s tempting, and there’s a time and a place for that, if you’re making a lot of money.

The good thing is, you don’t need to make millions of dollars to live an amazing lifestyle.

If you follow what I teach in my book FU Money, you’ll see you can live your dream life without earning millions of dollars.

How To Allocate Your Money Effectively

Believe it or not, money has 4 jobs.

To spend, save, invest, and donate.

It’s important you give to causes or people less fortunate than yourself and pay your success forward.

So, how do you manage your paycheck each month, so you have money to save, spend, invest, and donate?

Here’s how.

I learned this strategy from the book The Richest Man In Babylon by Samuel Clason.

For the purpose of this exercise let’s pretend you make $1K per month.

Each month you’ll put a certain amount into a designated bucket so you know how much you can spend, save, invest, and donate etc.

Necessities = 60% or $600 

Investing = 10% or $100

Learning = 10% or $100

Emergency = 10% or $100

Fun = 10% or $100

As you can see above, we’ve allocated the full $1K to different buckets.

You can keep track of these in a spreadsheet each month or put them in different bank accounts.

You never want to touch your emergency funds, unless you absolutely need to, and it’s important you only use the money in each fund for its specific purpose.

The fun money you can do whatever you want without feeling guilty.

3 Money Traps To Avoid Like The Plague

Unfortunately, there are many money traps the average person falls victim to during their lifetime, that kill their chances of financial success.

Not Having a High Income Skill

You hear me talk about this particular trap all the time, and that’s not having a high income skill.

I believe everyone who wants to be financially successful should have a high income skill.

Because, compared to a high income job where your company decides what your income is, the better you are with your high income skill, the more money you make.

Not Having Financial Goals

I’m always shocked when I ask people what their financial goals are, they don’t have a specific answer for me.

If you want to be successful, you must have clearly defined financial goals.

“Making more money” isn’t a financial goal, it’s a wish and a hope.

“$10K per month” is a clearly defined goal.

It tells you how close or how far you are from hitting your goal.

So, get clear on the amount of money you’d like to make, and if you can’t hit that goal with your current job, then it’s time to upskill to something that will help you get there.

Once you hit your goal and can maintain that level of income for at least 6-12 months, it’s time to set a new goal.

Not Being Financially Literate

As making money is the whole reason you go to school, you would think the school system would teach us how to make, manage, keep, and multiply money.

But unfortunately, it doesn’t.

And although it teaches you to read and write it doesn’t teach financial literacy either.

What you don’t know can hurt you, so you must take it upon yourself to become financially literate.

If you want an overview of financial literacy, then click here for a beginners guide >>

There are 3 more money traps you could find yourself in, so click here and watch the first 3 in this video I shot for you >>

There’s a lot more we could talk about it, but I think you have enough to work with.

If you implement just a few of these strategies, you’ll be in a far better position financially in the years to come.

To your success,

Dan Lok

P.S. – You hear me say it all the time, but a high income skill is your key to making more money, even in your spare time on top of your 9-5.

If you’re yet to begin developing your first high income skill, then click here to check out some of our trainings at the Dan Lok Shop >>