Six Simple Signposts of Wealth

Early to bed, early to rise, Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

- Benjamin Franklin

This exercise will help you put first things first in your pursuit of wealth. Set aside 10-15 minutes to walk through this. Be sure to have paper & pencil (or keyboard) in hand. Answer all the questions as quickly as you can. Don't dwell on any one thing and don't let any roadblocks rear their ugly heads to keep you from finishing.

1. Make an inventory of your dreams, the things you want to have, be, do and share. Include work, family, relationships, mental, emotional, social, material, physical and health. Include what you have now and what you want to have. You should come up with 40-100 or more dreams or goals.

   Is your dream to marry LeAnn Rimes or Guy Ritchie? Or maybe someone you have a little more in common with. Or have you already found a good mate and want to stay together forever and watch your children grow up together? Or maybe the independent life is more exciting for you.

   Do you want to be the boss, or do you hate making decisions and being the responsible one? Do you like to be surrounded by swarms of people, or is a hermit lifestyle more your cup of tea?

   Must everything you own be brand new, or do you hate the painful anticipation of waiting for your new car to get its first scratch?

   Who are the people, what are the feelings and where are the places you want to be a part of your life? How will you feel when you are surrounded by the people who really matter in the places you want to be?

2. Rank your dreams in order of most prefered.

   Rewrite your list with #1 being the absolutely most important thing, #2 the next most important thing, all the way down to the least important thing. There will probably be some dreams where you have no preference of one over the other and you could "flip a coin" and be equally happy with each outcome. Write these on the same line.

3. Write down if each goal is sustainable, or potentially a "flash in the pan."

   Wealth is about lasting value. If your goal is to be the headline for the nightly news, I would venture to say that dream does not increase your wealth. However, if name recognition leads to a career advancement, or pumps up the sale of your book, that goal does increase your wealth.

4. Take the list you just made and write down whether you have already achieved that dream.

   You may find, to your surprise, you have already had some important dreams come true. Or you may find you expect some things to happen "Some day" but not today. Imagine what you will see, hear and smell when you achieve each of those goals.

5. For those dreams you have not yet accomplished, determine what the likely cost is.

   Use your list very carefully. You may find that you have accomplished #40 to #50, but you have not achieved #1 to #10. Would you be willing to let go of the lower ranked goals to free you up to pursue the higher ranked goals?

6. Decide if the cost of your dream is worth it.

   On the other hand, you may find that you have accomplished goals #1 to #20 and you are NOT willing to give them up to pursue goals #21 and higher. If this is you, congratulations. You have the wealth of Solomon in your hands. Treasure your blessings and guard them well. Not many are as fortunate as you.

NOTE: Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold.

1 Kings 1:14

This translates to 666 talents, or about 600,000 troy oz, which is currently around $578/oz or a total of $346,800,000. At over $346 million per year, King Solomon was wealthy enough to rival Michael Jackson, JK Rowling AND the Queen of England.