How To Make Decisions Like the Wealthy | Begin With The End In Mind

I was driving up to South Dakota recently, and when I'm on a road trip I enjoy listening to podcasts and audiobooks. I stumbled on one where Tim Ferris was interviewing one of the Koch brothers.

I know there are a lot of opinions about the Koch brothers, but some of the themes touched on in the discussion really stuck with me. Tim Ferris asked Mr. Koch what one of his guiding principles was in life. Mr. Koch replied, “Begin with the end in mind.”

This concept really resonated with me as I realized I don’t do that often enough. Many of my decisions are made on impulse — with no analysis of where that decision will take me in 1, 5, 10, or even 20 years.

So much of our lives can be driven by instant gratification. We often find ourselves thinking, “How will this decision affect my day.”, but the wealthy don't think this way. They think, “How will this decision affect me in 10 years.” I would venture to say that this way of thinking for them is a big contributing factor to their success.

“So much of our lives can be driven by instant gratification. We often find ourselves thinking, “How will this decision affect my day.”, but the wealthy don’t think this way. They think, “How will this decision affect me in 10 years.””

Let me give you a few examples …

When taking out a loan to make a purchase on a vehicle we often think of how cool the car will be to drive and what people will think about us while we’re driving it. We don't often think about how that decision will affect our finances when we retire.

When you stop at Starbucks to purchase our 4th latte of the week you often think about how good that latte will taste for 30 minutes, but we don’t think about what those purchases will do to our financial future.

Do you see the theme here?

The wealthy weigh their decisions — is what I’m about to do going to help or hurt me in the future? I think we can learn a lot from that thought process.

If we use our handy compound interest calculator you can see below what those latte purchases can add up to in 10 years. If you invested $50 a month (your latte budget) into an account with an annual return of 7%, in 10 years you would have $8,289!

The principle of beginning with the end in mind can be applied to many areas of our life as well. If we learn to apply this way of thinking to our personal and professional lives we will reap many benefits. You will automatically put yourself ahead of the pack. Delaying gratification is one of the hardest things to master, but those of us that do it will separate ourselves from our peers. Not everyone has the discipline unfortunately to operate that way.

I hope we can all think a little more like the successful people that have come before us. I encourage you to begin with the end in mind. Before you know it you will be reaping the rewards of your efforts.

Talk soon,

Jarod Dickson
www.millenialecon.com

***This article was not written by a licensed professional and the information is for entertainment purposes only.***