21st Century Academy

Rather than take the government’s word for it, consider the recent report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that states Australia’s economy is the one of the least affected by current recessionary conditions across the globe. Compared to other advanced members of the OECD, Australia is currently one of the healthiest countries, economically, throughout the world.

Current State of the Economy

Although the year 2009 has yet to end, the OECD forecasts the economic growth of our country to end somewhere around a positive 0.8 percent and expects it to increase another 2.4 percent in the upcoming year. Compare this to the economies of other OECD members which are expected to have decreased in 2009 by approximately 3.5 percent. The prediction is that the year 2010 will show only a modest economic growth of 1.9 percent.

Earlier forecasts regarding the unemployment rate have proven to be less than accurate, as well. According to OECD, it is expected that unemployment in 2010 will peak at 6.3 percent, far below the average of 9.1 percent in other advanced OECD countries. This is also much less than the government’s forecast of 6.75 percent.

Major infrastructure projects financed by the government and slated for the next year will boost company profits. Business credit has been very weak but with an economic rebound, that should change. Stimulus funds will be gradually reduced as the interest rate increases, both signs of a healthy economy. Housing prices are rising along with demand.

Good News for Investors

For the investor, a stronger economy represents real opportunities to become financially independent. This is a great time to invest in the stock market or real estate market. With recent ETS legislation shot down, investments in utilities and manufacturing are sure winners.

Learn more about how to take advantage of the strong economy and identify the best money-making opportunities by enrolling in Jamie McIntyre’s 21st Century Academy educational courses. As one of the country’s premier financial consultants, Jamie McIntyre is an expert at identifying economic factors that influence the ability to make a profit and is the best advisor regarding current investment prospects.

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Besides making Jamie McIntyre aware that he was really living in denial of his desire for money, his millionaire mentor gave him another piece of wisdom.

“If you want to become wealthy, you must not make money your god. Instead you have to learn to master money. If you can learn how to master it and have it work for you as opposed to you working for it, then money will no longer be an issue. Those things that are important to you like family, health, career, and relationships will always be your top priority.”

(from What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had)

The Turning Point

This conversation was a turning point for Jamie. Having decided that what his mentor said made perfect sense (and it does, doesn’t it?), Jamie started to shift his way of thinking about money. In the book he tells us,

“So I went from denying that I was interested in money to admitting that I was very interested in money because I loved my family dearly and valued my time and wanted to control my life. I decided right then that I was prepared to make the effort to master money, because if I did I could have the freedom I wanted. I learned subtle shifts make a big difference to what is going on inside our heads and this became a huge turning point for me.”

Permission To Care

Jamie and his mentor have put this all in much more understandable terms. It is very hard for people to let go of the feeling that they don’t care about money, mostly because we’ve spent decades in that line of thinking. Having a good reason to admit that you do care about money—like being able to take care of friends and family, and having the freedom to enjoy the important things in life—buffers the landing, so to speak.

When you permit yourself to care about money, you permit yourself to make it enough of a priority to make the other priorities of life top on your list. Caring about money is not equal to not caring about people or anything else; in fact, in truth, it is exactly the opposite. But it’s all in how you master it. Master money, master your life, and don’t let making money be your master any longer.

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2009

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“Have you heard the phrase that success leaves clues? I have found in my experience that failure leaves more clues.”

–Jamie McIntyre, What I Didn’t Learn At School But Wish I Had

This is a quote taken directly from page four of the first chapter in the book. It comes at a point where Jamie is talking about being completely honest with ourselves in order to figure out what is holding us back from creating wealth—what is keeping us from being wealthy, despite the fact that we all have it within us to succeed.

Identifying The Clues Left Behind

The trick is to be able to identify those clues that failure leaves behind. For Jamie, that led him to the realization that largely, he was living in denial, and that that denial was a crutch that he used to keep himself from facing reality and the more uncomfortable parts of making money and building wealth.

What Denial Looks Like

If you put some thought to it, it’s not hard to recognize this type of denial. Any time you have ever said that you don’t care about money, or that there are more important things in life, you have denied your real desire to have money and build wealth.

Denying our desire for money is entirely counter-productive; and there is not a lot of sense in it. All that denial does is holds us back from achieving financial freedom. And that keeps us from achieving the lifestyle that we want—from enjoying those things that yes, are more important than money, but that we are left with no time or energy to enjoy.

An extremely important first step in creating wealth and achieving a freer lifestyle lies in facing our denial head-on, and acting to counter-act it. Money is not an evil. It is a tool. It is a thing, but it is also the thing that can allow us to find that life balance so that the more important things in life can and will be enjoyable.

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2009

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It’s important to go further than to achieve a dollar-figure for wealth. We talked last time about the 1% who will be “rich” by age 65. But what we didn’t do is qualify that categorization in terms of achieving real wealth.

More Than Money

Here’s the thing—being wealthy is about more than just reaching a magical number. It’s not about having one million dollars in the bank, or about owning your home, or several homes. It may be in part about those things, but achieving wealth (at least what we are trying to achieve through the 21st Century Academy) is really about achieving lifestyle. So what is lifestyle, then?

What Is Lifestyle?

Jamie McIntyre defines lifestyle with this simple equation:

· Lifestyle = Time + Money

You see, achieving a wealthy lifestyle is not just about getting money into your bank account. It’s not just about owning property and “things.” Achieving the wealthy lifestyle is about having money, but also time. You can, and many people do, have money without the time—these are the people, probably most of the world’s population, who work and have money, but need to continue working to maintain those properties, life needs, and possessions. If those people stopped working tomorrow, they’d lose their things. So they have not really achieved a wealthy lifestyle. Obviously you could have time on your hands and not have money, but that would leave you without the lifestyle you are dreaming of, unless that lifestyle is to be penniless and homeless.

You do not have freedom in lifestyle until you have the financial flexibility to make your choices and pursue the lifestyle you want. That comes from having an abundance of not only money, but time, too. When you can say truthfully that you have a level of freedom, comfort, and flexibility in both, you can say that you have successfully achieved financial freedom and a wealthy lifestyle.

To Your Continued Success!
Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2009

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Moving along into Jamie McIntyre’s eBook, and into the first chapters referenced in the wealth vision videos, we start to look at an elemental wealth creation question:

Why Do Most People Fail?

Or, to be more specific as Jamie puts it,

“I live in one of the wealthiest nations on earth—so why am I not rich?”

These are really just two versions of the same question. There is no good reason that more people in such highly successful nations as Australia, the UK, the US, and many others should not be sharing the wealth. If you understand why people do not, then you can begin to figure out which of these reasons applies to your own life and begin to work to overcome them.

The Success Formula

One of the first reasons we look at for popular failure is the formula for success that most people follow. Jamie had identified this as:

• Going to school
• Getting a “good education”
• Working hard for long years until retirement

This is the formula that has been ingrained in us all. It’s true in Australia and it’s true in nations all over the world, from Russia to the United States and points north and south. But if you look at the statistics and the results of following that formula, which we will do in an upcoming post, the formula is flawed.

Finding the flaw in our formula has to be the first order of business if we are to succeed and be wealthy. Much as we’d like to believe that this formula is noble and reliable, the outcome tells another story. Join me back here in the coming days as we explore this simple formula for success further, and work to find out what is really impeding our wealth and success.

Sean Rasmussen
21st Century Academy
Universal Wealth Creation © 2004 - 2009

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