9 Money Rules
The ProProject Podcast has special guest Joel Salomon. Joel is the author of "The 9 Money Rules Millionaires Use: Only The Unconventional Ones" and a former hedge fund manager of his own fund.
He is currently a prosperity coach at SaLaurMor Prosperity Coaching which he named for his daughters, Lauren and Morgan.
Tune in for some unconventional money advice focusing on mindset, manifesting and creating your own path to financial freedom. Joel discusses his path from Citi to managing his own fund to becoming a prosperity coach. He discusses all of the 9 Money Rules.
Listen out for some giveaways Joel offers to the listeners of The ProProject Podcast.
#doubtthedoubt
PODCAST TRANSCRIPTION
Darell Brown:
Welcome to the ProProject Podcast with ProProject Bookkeeping. This is your host Darell Brown, bringing you bookkeeping tips and tricks to make your project finances run a little smooth.
Welcome back to the ProProject Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to switch it up a bit from talking about accounting and business finances to personal finances. There's been a lot of talk lately about savings, budgeting and investing and I have the perfect guest to discuss this. The best selling author of Mindful Money Management, Memoirs of a Hedge Fund Manager and his recent book, The 9 Money Rules Millionaires Use: Only The Unconventional Ones. He is a former manager of his own hedge fund, SaLaurMor Capital. We have Joel Solomon, a prosperity coach who helps others overcome obstacles standing in the way of their financial freedom. I'm going to let him introduce himself, but first I want to read a quote posted on salaurmor.com. "Joel was laid off from Citi in 2012, which gave him the kick and the butt to live his dream and start his own hedge fund." Joel, please introduce yourself and tell us how getting laid off gave you a kick in the butt.
Joel Salomon:
Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me. It's real pleasure to be here. I like to start by talking about the name of my firm which is SaLaurMor, S-A-L-A-U-R-M-O-R. And it's named after my daughters, Lauren and Morgan. And Lauren and Morgan teach me every day, they've taught me about unconditional love. And so I'm a very proud dad and I like to talk about that first. So that is why the company name is somewhat unusual.
So let me tell you a little bit about my background because I have a very unusual career history that got me to where I am today. So I started my career as an actuary. And some of you may know the difference between an actuary and an accountant, but an actuary looks at his feet when he talks, an accountant looks at your feet when they talk to you. They say an accountant is an actuary with charisma. And I'm not the typical actuary. Actually what actuaries do is they calculate the premiums you have to pay for your life insurance or health insurance, disability, or auto insurance, home insurance policy. So I did a little bit of that in a life insurance company and I had to go through a series of exams to get certified to actually sign the financial statements for a company called New York Life Insurance Company.
But I really wasn't enjoying my day. And one exam we had to take was all about investments. And I was doing my own investing and I was like, "Wow, this would be really cool if I could align my hobby in my career and actually get paid to do it, it wouldn't be work, it would be play." And so I finally, I checked out a lot of actuaries on Wall Street. I finally found one that gave me his route that he took to get there. So I started following his route and a lot of people when I talked to them when I was researching, they gave me doubt. They said, "Joel, you can't do this. You're an actuary and why would you want to switch? You actually have the best job in the country." In fact, the actuary was on the cover of Forbes magazine in 1992 as the best job in the country. And I had just gone through all the exams. So why switch?
So I had a lot of doubt. I knew I wanted to do it but I had no experience. I had no, he gave me the path but I didn't have an MBA, I didn't have any real experience so how do I do this? So now I teach my clients, hashtag doubt the doubt. Why do you have faith in your doubt, but have faith in your dreams and desires? So hopefully what I do with my clients, I shorten that period for 15 years to live the life of your dreams. So it did take me 15 years, but I started working at Citigroup in 2008, my first job where I got paid for performance. And it was my dream job as a hedge fund manager. So I was betting some stocks were going to go up, other stocks were going to go down and it really was my dream job.
And in 2008, you may remember 2008 was not the best year on the stock market. The market went down 40% that year. Financial stocks, the only stocks I was managing were down 57%. And we made a little bit of money that year, we did better in 2009, but what happened was a couple of years later there was a law that was passed that said banks can't own hedge funds. So I was working at Citigroup at the time and so we were all laid off. And the reason why I say that gave the kick in the butt to start my own firm was because if that hadn't happened, I truly believe to this day I wouldn't be living this dream of being a prosperity coach, I would still be a hedge fund manager at Citi and probably not as happy as I am now. And by the way, rule number three in The 9 Money Rules is, can happiness buy you money rather than can money buy you happiness? And I truly believe that's a rhetorical question.
So, I believe you can become financially free when you're ecstatic and happy most of the time. So my dream was to be a portfolio manager but my true dream was really to have my own hedge fund. Manage my own money and other people's money in this fund and be my own boss and not have somebody telling me what to do. At Citi I was pretty much had a lot of autonomy, but my manager did come to me every once in a while and say, "Hey, Joel, why are you invested in this one?" And I didn't really want to have somebody second-guessing me because even though I think my self-esteem right now is much higher than it was back in 2008, but my self-esteem wasn't so high that if somebody started questioning I started doubting myself.
Darell Brown:
Yeah. It creates that doubt.
Joel Salomon:
So that's... And I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Like I could do it for Citi, but I also wanted to prove to myself that I could manage other people's money and do it well. So I raised money in 2013 and we had actually had a great year in 2013, we were up 10% in just six months. And we outperformed each year the hedge fund index while I was managing my own hedge fund.
Darell Brown:
So in terms of what gave you the kick in the pants, was it more so you got laid off of course but was it just wanting that autonomy? Because usually the first step someone gets laid off and it's like, "Okay, it's time to go find another job." But what gave you that kick in the pants to say, "You know what? I want to do my own thing."
Joel Salomon:
So, as I said back in, when I think back to, all the way back to 1993, that dream really was to have my own company and be my own hedge fund manager, not work for Citi or not work for a firm. So that was my true dream. And so I realized when I did get laid off that, "Oh my God, I thought I was living my dream but actually I'm not." And to be completely open with you and everyone listening, I did start looking for another job after I was laid off. And the main reason was I had a colleague who was working with me. He was my analyst at Citi. And when I hired him I told him, "If we ever get laid off, don't worry. We'll get a new job. I'll find a job for you."
So after we got laid off, I actually started traveling and he was pissed off with me because I wasn't focused on getting a new job, but I wanted to travel a little bit. One of my biggest passions in life is traveling. So I traveled a bit. And then when I came back I started helping him find a job, started trying to find another job as a hedge fund manager where I could be the portfolio manager and he would be the analyst. And it was taking me a long time. And then he found a job for himself which then I said to myself, "Wow, now is the time. Now I don't have to worry about him." His wife was pregnant with twins, he needed healthcare and he didn't want to wait for me to raise the money to start my own fund for a year. So, he got a job himself which then gave me the incentive to have my own fund.
So the kick in the butt from Citi was, it made me become more self-aware that, wait a second, my true dream was really having my own fund, not managing money at a company.
Darell Brown:
I just think that's so topical. Now especially you have people that are getting laid off and I'm, me personally as a bookkeeper, I'm getting a lot of inquiries from people who have started companies maybe three months ago saying, "Hey, I just want to know how to make sure my business finances are straight." And these requests are just pouring in and I'm just like, wow, it's interesting to see that during a time like this people feel confident enough to take that step to say, you know what? I think I have the skills. I have the know-how. But there's always that little something extra that gives them that kick to really start their own business. So, definitely wanted to address that.
Joel Salomon:
Yeah. Having the dream and keeping to the dream, a lot of people come to me also with a vision. I've helped two clients who were working at a company and were not happy. And I helped them to realize what their true dream job was. And then within, each of them within a year was working at their dream job. It was mostly working on mindset to get them confident enough because they had the skills. It was just getting them to be confident enough to go out into the world and look for that job that was, some may say completely different from what they were doing. But I shifted from being an actuary to being a hedge fund manager without all that experience. So, anybody can.
Darell Brown:
Well, okay, that's perfect. Because then I can go into your next shift from a hedge fund manager to a prosperity coach. So, what then inspired you to shut down your hedge fund and become a prosperity coach?
Joel Salomon:
So, great question. So I had a epiphany at a personal development course that really changed my life. And what happened was, at this course they had a guest speaker speaking about stocks and stock options. And when he started speaking about options in particular, he made it sound like it was a get rich quick scheme. "You don't need much time. You don't need much money. This is how the rich people get rich." And options are essentially riskless.
So there were 200 people in the room, it was day two of the conference and they were tapping me on the shoulder, whispering my ear, "Joel, does this make sense?" So after he was done, we went outside, we left the auditorium and I said, please don't do this. He has no idea about your earnings or cash flow or tax status or risk tolerance. And most importantly he has no idea about your belief that you can make money in stock options, which is actually now rule number one in The 9 Money Rules Millionaires Use. When you believe. So, that happened. Then the second thing that happened at that course was we were given a wooden board two inches thick and we were told we're going to break it with our bare hand. I don't know if you've ever done this, but-
Darell Brown:
I haven't done it. I've heard of it.
Joel Salomon:
A lot of fear, there was a lot of fear in that room. The guy on stage for 45 minutes teaching us how to break the board, how to stand, how to shift your momentum. And the exercise was called obstacles of illusions. And on one side we had to write our biggest obstacle, on one side of the board. And on the other side we had to write our ultimate goal. And once on the side that I wrote my biggest obstacle was raising enough money for my hedge fund for it to be a long term viable entity. And on the ultimate goal side I wrote, making everybody in this room financially free. And I broke the board like everyone did in that room that day, went home that night and I couldn't sleep. It was 3:00, 3:34. And I kept on thinking about, well, the wooden board was staring back at me, actually half the wooden board, making everybody in this room financially free.
And I kept on mulling that over my head. And then it hit me if I could ever get up the courage to speak in front of 200 people, because my biggest fear in life at the time was public speaking. I could do a better job. This guy was misleading people at the very least some may say lying to them, and I could be authentic and actually teach them the truth. And so finally it hit me like 4:35 in the morning. I got up early. I went into Midtown Manhattan, my office on the 54th and sixth. And I sent an email to my investors telling them I'm shutting down my funds, I'm giving them their money back because I found my true purpose on earth.
Darell Brown:
Wow.
Joel Salomon:
And so my lawyer wasn't too happy, but it-
Darell Brown:
I could imagine.
Joel Salomon:
But it took some time, we spent 2016 shutting down legal entities and then building this up as well by the end of 2016. So, I became a prosperity coach teaching people about their money mindset, teaching people about investing and to be clear, I'm not a financial planner or a financial advisor. I don't sell insurance or annuities or mutual funds or stocks or bonds. All I do is teach.
Darell Brown:
So yeah, I'm actually curious about that since you're not a financial advisors, how do you go about growing your practice? I definitely love, I think, how your practice is rooted in mindset. So how do you grow your practice and get your clients on board?
Joel Salomon:
Well this is one way, by getting my name out there and telling people I give everybody 30 minutes free prosperity coaching. Anybody who's listening wants it. Just go on to my website, S-A-L-A-U-R-M-O-R.com, sign up. So I do coaching programs, but it's been word of mouth. Some people have come to me, they read one of my books, they read Mindful Money Management. It's networking. We met networking. So it's really been word of mouth and getting out there. Somebody read my book, somebody signs up for 30 minutes of free coaching, somebody listens or watches a podcast. So it's just been really those kinds of ways to grow the business. And it's really, it's been amazing for me personally to see the, when the light bulb go off and people actually see that the mindset is so critical and then they start shifting and then moving towards financial freedom. Because my goal truly is to help at least 100,000 people become financially free.
And I'm doing it through individual coaching but I also do group coaching and the group coaching I started last, just last year and it's been so just really puts a smile on my face. Because these people are manifesting significant amounts of money just by shifting the mindset, giving them affirmations and audio files, which by the way, I have free audio files on my website under the Manifesting Programs pull down. You go there and you can download these audio files. They're a minute or two, but there's about 10 of them. Whichever resonates with you take.
So, affirmations, audio files and people are just shifting and money is just flowing. So I have specific exercises I give people in the group coaching classes and my individual coaching that work. And so it's great to see significant amounts of money. I think my first group manifested over $100,000. And then the next group manifested over 150,000. This one we're about three, well, no, six weeks in now and they've manifested over $70,000. So it's really cool to see money flowing to them, people finding new clients or just found money or tax refund or money just flowing from unexpected places, which is just so awesome.
Darell Brown:
Wow. Yeah, that definitely sounds awesome. When it flows from somewhere unexpected, cannot argue with that. So, perfect timing bringing me to manifesting. So one of the quotes, another quote that I got from your website is, "While it's true that manifesting requires belief in action, it's also true that your thoughts create the foundation for the magic associated with manifesting a prosperous life." So explain what you mean by that.
Joel Salomon:
So, one of my favorite books is, besides mine, is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And actually the first three words of that book are, indeed thoughts are things. And Napoleon Hill wrote this book because he was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, the richest man in the world in 1929. And he had over $400 million at the time. I think that's equivalent to like 40 billion today. And so he was commissioned by Andrew Carnegie to analyze the most successful people around the globe. Andrew gave him access to them, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison and others, and to figure out what the characteristics were of these people.
So one of the things he found is that their thoughts were really powerful and they had these big dreams. And he goes through discussing how thoughts become things. And that really, that book and a book called The Secret and a book that Mike Dooley wrote 20 years ago called Infinite Possibilities. And I'm actually certified to teach Mike's Infinite Possibilities concepts as a certified Infinite Possibilities trainer and trailblazer.
So, these all come together to, because they're really critical. If you have the right thoughts in place then you can create almost anything. And so that kind of mindset is what is behind manifesting. And so as I learned some of these techniques and I realized that mindset was so important for me in shifting what I wanted in my life, that I think it's really important to have that strong grounding and mindset and how to manifest. How to have thoughts become things. And in fact, so Mike Dooley was in The Secret, the book and the DVD saying, "Thoughts become things." So that's what manifesting is. And it gets a bad rap and oh, it's magic. But it's not because you think about everything is energy at the end of the day. Money is energy. If you look under a microscope, everything is moving. There's a frequency to every material thing. So, thought is just a thing as well. It's just energy.
Darell Brown:
I guess I come at it from the meditation sense. Like I'm definitely in the practice now of writing what I'm grateful for and making sure every day I have to write down three things that have happened that I'm grateful for or three things that I'm looking forward to even if they're like the simplest things to the greatest things, just to make sure my mindset is in that habit of looking for the good that's out there. So, yeah. It's like manifesting is like a portion of that. But manifesting for that particular thing like money, I'm wondering like with your clients, besides manifesting and focusing on the positive thoughts in terms of focusing on money and to say like in your groups they're manifesting $100,000, how do you get them to that point to say, "I want to manifest this amount." And then create the action behind it to go get it?
Joel Salomon:
Yeah. There are specific exercises we go through. There's the check game that we play. So you can put a number on a check. I actually did this after I manifested cotton balls. Believe it not. I put a check up on my ceiling and yeah, you remember that from my book. So, I talked about that in both of my books. And after that, I actually put a checkup on the ceiling above my bed. And for multiples of what I'd ever made in my life and I said, "I don't know how, I don't know why, but I do know it's coming." So it was, I had this belief. I was a 10. If you go on a scale from one to 10 where one is massive doubt and 10 is absolute belief or faith, I was a 10.
And expectation is when your desire is a 10 and your belief is a 10, then you're expecting it. So for me when I put the checkup on, and I didn't care, the other thing I teach is don't put a deadline on things. So don't put a date on it. It was more than 10 times what I'd ever made in my life. So I'd be ecstatic if it happened in six months or six years. And it came 18 months later when my boss at Citigroup slid a piece of paper to me in a conference room and said, "Joel, you had a good year last year." And my bonus was within $1,000 of the check I had up on the ceiling for the last 18 months. So it does work.
Darell Brown:
I think it's, I mean, definitely the idea that just seeing it maybe gives you that kick in the butt to go out and actually get what you're manifesting. And if you're not seeing that, maybe you're not envisioning that and you're not working to get that.
Joel Salomon:
Yeah. So that and belief is so critical. So what I teach my clients is, don't put a number there where your belief is a one. That's not helpful. I mean, you could, but it might take a really long time because you got to get your belief up first. So start with something. And what happens is when you start manifesting things, your belief gets higher. So I had a client, we did 30 minutes free. She didn't even sign up for a coaching program for three or six months. She did the 30 minutes free and manifested over almost $7,000, just three weeks later. And so I said to her, "Well, Lynn, why don't you go to 70,000?" And she said, "No, I can't." And I said, "Why?" She said, "Because I don't believe it." "Awesome. So why don't you go to, can you believe 10 or 12 or 14?" She said, "Yes." I said, "Okay, pick that number like 14 that you know is going to happen and start there. But don't go from seven to 70 if your belief level goes to a one because it's not going to happen."
And no one talks about that when they talk about manifesting or living your dream life. "Oh, dream big." Which I'm not saying don't dream big. But if you're dreaming for that private jet and your belief level is a one, sorry, it's not coming.
Darell Brown:
I think, I mean, I think with manifesting, a lot of people like to dream on manifestings that they've maybe seen on TV that it's not something that's necessarily in their head that they have the belief system for. But it's like, "Oh yeah, this person has this. Let me manifest that." Because it's just something that they've seen that might look luxurious, but they're not really thinking about that in terms of themselves and what they actually want out of life. So that's one of the things I've found that really makes it unattainable and then of course it gets a bad rap as a result.
Joel Salomon:
Yeah, absolutely. So, desire and belief. And I did wanted to go back to gratitude because being grateful is rule number five in The 9 Money Rules Millionaires Use. And I talked about in my book and I actually have a gratitude journal I started back in 2012, writing down five things I'm grateful for every morning. And then at night you write down five things. And believe it or not. Before 2012, I would, before I go to sleep, think about all the things I did wrong or could have done better that day. Being critical. And it wasn't helpful. But starting in 2012, I started thinking about the good stuff, what I can be grateful for that happened that day and focusing on the positive and it was a psychologist, Dr. Seligman. He actually did a study.
He put electrodes on the brain of people who did the gratitude journal. Not only writing down three things they're grateful for, but why they're grateful for them. And at the end of the 30 days he checked the brain synopsis and there were actually expansion. So there was expansion in the brain in the areas around happiness. Which again is role number three. So when you're more grateful, you're more happy, which creates financial freedom.
Darell Brown:
I mean, I can say I use a little bit of an aid, so I have something that prompts me with different questions. So a lot of times I definitely at night get that negative thought like, oh, I was supposed to do this today and I didn't do it. So I'll go through those prompts and see, okay, so I don't want to be on the negative so what simple things am I grateful for today? Or what things am I looking forward to tomorrow? Just to get myself out of that mindset. Like, okay, maybe this didn't happen today but there are still some things that happen today that you can be grateful for.
And even some things like I use like a meal planning app and I can say, "Hey, I made a nice gourmet meal for dinner today and I didn't have to go eat at a restaurant." And it could be just the smallest things. And then when you think about it maybe in a couple days you're like, "Yeah, I actually really did do that. And that was a lot of fun and it tasted really good." And it really just so simple things can change your mindset.
Joel Salomon:
Absolutely. It doesn't have to be big substantial things. Although I do write, I'm grateful for Lauren and Morgan every morning and every night, but it can be just like the sun came out today and I was able to jog, go out for a nice jog. Or it could be at the end of the day, I'm grateful that this day is over.
Darell Brown:
I could say, yeah, that we had the hurricane on Tuesday and I'm like, yes, I'm so glad the hurricane came and went or excuse me, the tropical storm and I didn't lose power and my trees are still up. So that was definitely a major gratitude for me.
Joel Salomon:
Me too. I didn't lose power either. So I'm very grateful. A lot of, I think 1.7 million people lost power in the New York metropolitan area. So-
Darell Brown:
Yeah. Yeah. I know. Yonkers and I know West Chester has been pretty crazy getting the power restored, but hopefully, I think today they're on it a bit more than yesterday. So, actually, that brings us into the next topic which is your book, The 9 Money Rules Millionaires Use. You already explained a few of the rules and I just have to say I looked up the book about two weeks ago and I'm expecting it to be very much like, "Oh, sign up for an account with Fidelity and create like a stock picker screen and go to this step and this step." And then I read it and I'm like, "Wow, this is not what I expected at all." It's really about, I think gaining that self-confidence to get you to that point where you feel confident enough to do that. So please talk about The 9 Rules Money Millionaires Use and yeah.
Joel Salomon:
Yeah. So the first six rules are very much what I would call spiritual rules. Whereas the last three rules may be more process-oriented. So we went through a little mention rule number one which is when you believe. And one really great technique I have for listeners is to write down your level of belief from one to 10 in each investment you currently own or you're thinking about investing in. And you can do this with anything. We talked about dream building and what's your belief in your dream? But write down your level of belief from one to 10. And if you're not a 7, 8, 9 or 10, I wouldn't go there. Because what's going to happen more likely than not is you're going to be selling when you should be buying and buying when you should be selling. So your level of belief is really critical. I go into a lot of detail on this. I have a lot of stories about it, but in my life I found that if I'm not believing, I'm making poor decisions.
And rule number two is trust or intuition. And I will tell you as a former hedge fund manager, if I didn't trust my intuition, I either made less money or lost money. And it's strange for somebody who's an actuary and analyst to talk about that. But it's really, I say intuition is just a buildup of learning and experience over at least this lifetime and some may say prior lifetimes as well, if you believe in that. So it really is powerful. And I found it steered me really well many, many times. So decision making based on intuition. If you ask the most successful people in the world I think they'll also tell you they make a lot of their decisions based on their gut feel or intuition.
And I have a number of stories on that, but one particular one was when I was working at Citigroup in 2008 and we shorted AIG, American International Group. We were betting it was going to go down. And a couple months later it had gone down, we made a little bit of money and my analyst came to me and said, "Joel, it looks like it's going back up." So I did the work and I analyzed it and I agreed with them it's going back up. So we got out, but my intuition was screaming at me it's going lower. And two days later it's down 10%. Which is like 300% in a month. So it's like 36 times your money in a year. But my intuition was screaming at me it's going lower. So we got back in. And then just four months later it's down 60%. So we made 60% on our money by trusting my intuition.
Darell Brown:
Wow.
Joel Salomon:
So it's powerful. So we talked about rule number three which is be happy. Can happiness buy you money? Absolutely. If you're really ecstatic 24/7, it's actually the same vibration happiness as gratitude and appreciation and abundance and prosperity. So that's a really powerful one.
Rule number four is visualization. And visualizing your dreams is really important. And I have a six step process that I give to my clients to actually create visualizations. And I recommend spending five minutes closing your eyes. And it's funny because people will spend five minutes a day brushing their teeth, but they won't spend five minutes on their dreams, on their future life. And just, if you spend five minutes thinking on purpose, I call it day dreaming on purpose. So if you're, day dreaming on purpose, thinking about dreams for five minutes a day, it's a really powerful tool.
Darell Brown:
Something I've done too is creating a vision board and making sure to actually look at it on a daily basis to say, okay, this is what I want. This is what I'm work towards. And having that in focus, something that I can actually look at, obviously similar to what you did with the check, but making sure that I kind of have multiple things up there to keep me on track and things that I can think about. I know I've heard the phrase creating a mantra. So I actually have a little mantra on my vision board as well that can come into my head if I'm having a bad day or thinking, "Oh, I don't feel like doing this right now." To have that come into my head so I can work from there and keep on that goal.
Joel Salomon:
Yeah. I have two vision boards, one just solely about travel and that works too. So I had pictures of Bangkok. So I created this vision board in 2017. Pictures of Bangkok, three pictures, one of the golden palace, which is a really amazing place. So last year I took on a project, a long-term project with a company in Connecticut. And I started working with some of the people on the project in the Philippines in Manila. And the guy who was managing the project said to me, "Joel, you've been working with these people. I think I'd like you to meet them." So I was like, "Okay." So I'm jogging the next morning and then I was like, oh my God, how far is Manila from Bangkok? And I got home and I checked and it was a two and a half hour flight.
And so almost exactly a year ago today I was in Bangkok. I happened to pick a hotel. I'm not sure why, but I don't believe in coincidences. I only believe in synchronicities. So I go to the rooftop, I wanted to find a hotel that had a rooftop bar and a pool. So there was only a few. I happened to pick one and I'm up on the roof taking pictures of the view and I got chills. As I'm taking a picture of the golden palace I realized it was the exact same view that was on my vision board for the last two years. The picture of the golden palace, the guy who had taken that photograph must have been on the same rooftop at that hotel.
Darell Brown:
Wow. That is amazing. Not only just the trip to Bangkok, but literally the view that you had been looking at from your vision board.
Joel Salomon:
So vision board's work. It's really powerful. I interchange vision boards and visualization. So we talked about rule number five, which is gratitude. Giving is rule number six. And I will tell you, giving may be the most powerful of The 9 Money Rules. And people say to me, "Joel, but if I give my money away I have less money. How does that work?" Well, we talked about money being energy earlier. Money is just energy. And by putting that money out into the world, that must flow back to you.
And generally what happens I found is it flows back to you in multiples. And the other thing that's happening is when you give to a charity or something you're passionate about is you're changing your mindset. You're telling yourself I got plenty to spare and share, and then you do. And then the other thing I talk about is giving doesn't have to be just about money. You can give your time, you may have a special gift. Why not share that with the world? You could give a smile to a stranger. You could give a compliment to a stranger. You could even give 30 minutes free of prosperity coaching to the world. See it does change, giving does change the world and I found that it's a really, really powerful tool that people don't use and you can do it every day.
Darell Brown:
So now to the process steps. So we've gotten into like, I guess the belief systems. So the process steps, what are those?
Joel Salomon:
Yeah. Great. So yeah, the last three are all process oriented and I know budgeting is like a four letter word to most people, but I will tell you more than 80% of millionaires budget. I'm sure this is true to your heart as well. Right?
Darell Brown:
More [inaudible 00:38:16]
Joel Salomon:
So, it really does work, and having a plan and knowing where your money going is really important. The name of the chapter part two chapter one is, Where is my Cash Going? It's important to know. It really is. Because if you don't know, you don't have no place to start from. You have nowhere to say, "Okay, I need to cut back on this or this expense." So budgeting is really important. I actually have two chapters on budgeting related to money and budgeting and credit. So, knowing your credit, knowing your credit score as both a business and an individual is critical because it impacts how you can borrow. And what rate you can borrow at.
And then the last two rules are pretty controversial, I think. Rule number eight is DIY investing. And most people come to me and say, "Joel, I don't have the time. I'm not smart enough. I'm not good in math. And these are just limiting beliefs. It's not that you need to work eight hours a day on your investing. I know plenty of amazing investors who work. I wouldn't say work. They're passionate about it. They enjoy it. At least one or two hours a day. So DIY investing is, I teach that. I have my five step proprietary stock screen. I have a seven step real estate screen. A chapter in real estate. But it's wherever your passion lies, because if you're not interested and excited about it, then it doesn't work. And that's why rule number eight is, don't diversify. And people look at me, I've been at networking events, I've been on other podcasts and people, "Joel, are you serious? Come on, everyone knows. It's a common knowledge." But I will tell you, it's a limiting belief that won't serve you.
It's serving financial institutions very well. Because they'll sell you their mutual funds. They'll sell you the ETFs. The exchange traded funds and make their one or two or 3% on them. But I know the richest people in the world like Jeff Bezos of Amazon is not diversified. He has all of his net worth in one company, Amazon. So, the richest people in the world don't diversify. They have all their money in their business or they've invested in just a few specific investments. I will tell you as a hedge fund manager, both at Citi and my own hedge fund that I made 120% of my return from my top five investments. The other 50 or 60 investments lost me 20%. It's really hard to find 100, 120, 200, 1,000 great ideas.
So the top five, usually the 80/20 rule, the Pareto principle works in investing like anywhere else. So you make most of your money from the top 20% or the top five. Stocks, three to five. And so I recommend, don't diversify. In fact, Charlie Munger, who's Warren Buffet's right hand man, who's worth over a billion dollars said if you know nothing diversify. If you know nothing diversify. Warren buffet even said, if he had his druthers, he would put more than 50% of his net worth in one stock.
Darell Brown:
Yeah. I think that's definitely a pretty scary concept for people to get into. But I think, yeah, definitely if you go into the belief systems of it and you're confident in it, like with the Jeff Bezos example, he had to have extreme confidence that his company was going to grow the way that it did to put all of his investments into that. And I mean, obviously without a doubt, it'd paid off I'm sure a thousand fold.
Joel Salomon:
Yeah. So it's, diversification is based on fear. And I talk about that in my book as well. And even Harry Markowitz who's the father of the modern portfolio theory said, if you want to maximize your return, don't diversify. To quote from the white paper on modern portfolio theory which says, to have a large number of investments. But that doesn't maximize your return. It maximizes a different type of measure, but not your return.
Darell Brown:
Wow. So that's definitely some unexpected advice all the way around from the belief systems to the final process steps, which I definitely hope are helpful to everyone listening. So I definitely want to thank Joel for being on today. I want to give Joel a chance to close out. Any closing remarks or any other information you want to give us.
Joel Salomon:
Sure. So I did want to give one lucky winner a free 9 Money Rules Millionaires Use. So email me and I'll give one lucky winner. So it's joel@S-A-L-A-U-R-M-O-R.com. Also, I'm going to give, talking about giving, I want to give something away for everybody who's listening. I wrote a white paper called The Five Mistakes New Millionaires Make. Five Mistakes New Millionaires Make. So, anyone listening just text to the number 668 66. That's 668 66, 9moneyrules. The9moneyrules, the first four, three words in my book, 9moneyrules. 9, M-O-N-E-Y-R-U-L-E-S and you'll get my free white paper.
And there's a ton of free stuff on my website. Again, the website is S-A-L-A-U-R-M-O-R.com. There's the audio files. There's free affirmations. There's some pretty inspiring quotes. I actually have my travel vision board up there if you want to look at some places I've been to or want to be to, want to go to. Yeah. So there's a lot of free stuff on there. You can sign up for the free 30 minutes coaching. Yeah. And all the, my YouTube videos on there too. So I think I have 250 now, YouTube videos, if you want to troll through those, a lot of great information.
Darell Brown:
All right. So everyone please check out salaurmor.com. I'm going to ask Joel to give one more thing, which is a closing quote that he'd like everyone to keep with them.
Joel Salomon:
The biggest idea I have right now for everybody is, don't work hard and become financially free. So again, it's a limiting belief that you have to work hard, be rich and successful. So, this is what I teach, don't work hard and become financially free. So working hard means 12, 14 hours a day and really grinding it out. But I will tell you when you are having fun enjoying what you're doing, it's not work and it doesn't need to be 12 to 14 hours a day.
Darell Brown:
So you heard it directly from Joel. Don't work hard. If you want to get in touch with Joel or hear some more unconventional advice, check him out at salaurmor.com. That is S as in Sam, A-L-A-U-R-M as in Mary O-R.com. Also Joel will be giving one lucky listener of the ProProject Podcast, a free copy of The 9 Money Rules. So please email Joel at joel@salaurmor.com and let him know that you heard him on the ProProject Podcast. And I'd like to thank him again for being a guest on today's episode. I've always believed that having a good mindset and understanding of your personal finances lays the foundation for your business finances. So I'm thrilled to have him on to discuss the more personal side of that. And if anyone needs that personal finance coaching, please get in touch with him at salaurmor.com.
Also you can text 9moneyrules to the number 668 66 to receive a copy of Joel's white paper, Five Mistakes New Millionaires Make. The number again is 668 66 text 9moneyrules. That's the9moneyrules all one word to get a copy of Joel's free white paper. And of course if you have any questions around your business finances, please reach out to me at info@proprojectbooks.com. Once again, that's info@proprojectbooks.com.
This is Darrell Brown signing off in the words of my guest Joel, hashtag doubt the doubt.