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[su_quote cite=”Will Smith” class=”wwd-post”]
Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.[/su_quote]

Dear FutureMoneyTrends.com Member,

I want to talk to you about real wealth. This is an important topic because most of our parents failed to teach us what real wealth is. The technical definition of the word wealth is, “an abundance of valuable possessions or money.” The orgin of the word wealth comes from “well” or weal”, deriving from the word health.

My good friend Marshall Reddick is often heard saying, “health is wealth.” Doug Casey says that the knowledge in your mind and the skills you possess are the only things someone can’t physically take away from you. They are your true wealth. The last private conversation I had with Rick Rule, he talked about the feeling of wealth being part of certain decisions you might make, specifically on paying off debt.

I think many people are searching for wealth or the feeling of wealth, but they are far from finding the answer. Everyone knows of or has personally experienced the feeling of owning a new car. From this experience you get about 72 hours of a great feeling everytime you sit down in the drivers’ seat and then about 30 seconds of a similiar “new car high” when you show the vehicle to friends and family for the first time.

After that initial artificial feeling of wealth, the average American is left with a life style of perpetual poverty.

Most people in the U.S. pay a steep price for this short term feeling of wealth. The average auto loan is 65 months; that is over five years time! According to Experian, 20% of new car loans are 84 months (7yrs) with some being as high as 97 months (8yrs). The average monthly auto payment is $460.

This may be normal, but if you want real wealth, this has to be unacceptable in your life.

So many people have chosen a lifetime of interest payments. Just this weekend my wife told me about a couple in their 60’s who plan to sell their home and buy a more expensive one where they plan to sign up for a brand new 3 decade loan.

In our September 11th Weekly Wealth Digest, we touched on the all in cost of comitting to a 3 decade loan.

Lets say you buy a $300,000 home and you put 10% down ($30,000) and you have a loan for $270,000 at an interest rate of 6%. Over the next 3 decades if you follow the plan (conventional wisdom), you will have paid $582,763 in mortgage payments, $180,000 in taxes (2%), roughly $50,000 in insurance, $50,000 for major repairs, and about $36,000 for maintenance ($100/month). In total, including your down payment, you could end up paying about $928,763 for home ownership.

The interest came out to to over 300,000 dollars, add up auto loan interest, credit cards, college, and personal loans, I would bet that your average American pays close to a million dollars in interest throughout their lifetimes.
My friends, that is not wealth and in my opinion it isn’t even the feeling of wealth.

What is wealth?

I’ve given this a lot of thought since it is important to me that I live every day to the fullest. A good exercise I did that I reccomend to all of you, is to write down 3 things you want to be remembered for at your funeral.

It is likely these 3 things are where you will find your real wealth; what gives you great value and satisfaction.

For me, the first thing that came to my mind was that I wanted people to say I was good father.
The second, was that I was a good husband, and the third idea that came to my mind was to be a fun-loving, and helpful friend to all.

My definition of wealth from this exercise is how I spend my time. The average person lives for 78 years. That gives you roughly 28,000 days to live. It’s hard to tie any of my success or definition of wealth up with material things knowing that I am going to die.

Things that add to my real wealth:

Living debt free, this frees up my time and lowers my stress level. Financial obligations can be the worst and most difficult to overcome.
Focusing on residual income as well as saving money. Money is not the key to happiness, but it sure does make things a lot easier, which is why I have spent a great deal of time building and developing businesses.
Rejecting the crowd lifestyle. Don’t get suckered into having the latest iPhone, brand name clothing, or the nice house that comes with a 3 decade loan. Live your own life, I promise you, no one cares about what kind of house you have or car you drive.

You can’t get your time back, it is pricesless. Focus on real wealth, be happy, and live your own life, don’t follow the path of all these idiots who are literal debt slaves to corporate America.
Watch this Digest in Video form, click below

I truly hope you have a prosperous life,
Daniel Ameduri
President, FutureMoneyTrends.com