How to Avoid “Financial Multiple Personality Disorder” Thumbnail

By Kristoph Matthews from SmashingEntrepreneur.com – A young entrepreneur’s guide to harnessing passion, ideas and business to live an epic lifestyle.  Kristoph is new Yakezie Challenger.

I remember when I first started my quest for wealth. It was all about money, without much discretion to the method of its attainment. “How do I get from point A (living off my parents’ income while in college) to point B (generating $1 mm per year in passive income)?” I knew that just managing my finances well wasn’t enough. I needed some sort of “vehicle” to get me from point A to point B.

I quickly learned about several of such vehicles and tried to “ride” one after another. I initially became drawn to stock and commodities trading, and then selling in B auctions, and finally start-ups. Until I engaged in start-ups, I had developed a sort of “financial multiple personality disorder,” chasing all sorts of opportunities. Instead of focusing on and mastering a single method of gaining wealth, I dabbled in several, and consequently spread myself thin.

After some success as a serial entrepreneur and after realizing my passion for solving problems by creating businesses, it became clear that I needed to focus on and master entrepreneurship. The clarity was empowering.

In order to gain wealth you need to contribute value through a particular vehicle. That vehicle should be tied to your wealth personality or “wealth profile,” as Roger Hamilton puts it. The social entrepreneur documented 8 different “wealth profiles” or personality types that categorize how people have made it big:

  • The Creator exercises the power of ideas and creativity to start businesses or invent products (entrepreneurs, inventors, designers).
  • The Star builds an influential brand and grows and leverages his/her celebrity status (authors, actors, artists, bloggers).
  • The Supporter assembles exceptional, high power teams (executives, marketers).
  • The Deal-maker finds two parties that need each other and makes a deal happen (real estate/sport agents, joint venture partners).
  • The Trader buys goods, commodities, or stocks at low prices and sells them at higher prices.
  • The Accumulator buys assets for long term investments.
  • The Lord controls cash producing assets (real estate investors, business acquirers, oil well owners)
  • The Mechanic creates duplicable systems (fast food franchisers, computer manufacturers)

As an entrepreneur I fall under the “creator” category. I carry a black pocket book wherever I go, and when I notice a problem, something strange, or something remarkable and effective in one industry that I think can be applied to one of my niches of interest, I jot it down. Being a “creator,” this book serves as a brainstorming platform for me to innovate new products or ways of doing business. I certainly considered and drew upon some of the other personality types, such as the “trader” and the “deal maker,” but those personalities didn’t call to my soul as much.

For example, trading goods seemed too mechanical for me–I wanted to create something that would directly benefit someone (i.e. a customer) and would allow me to use my imagination. Although I depend on some of the other personalities (through myself or others), I’ve adopted the “creator” type as my dominant profile for making money and adding value to society.

Which personality type are you? Pick one and only one to start with and master it. Don’t develop financial multiple personality disorder (MPD). Once you’ve achieved clarity on how you can add value in the world and receive wealth in return, find successful people who have personality types in an area that would complement yours, and before you know it, you’ve created a support team that can help you generate multiple streams of income—all without the frustration and confusion of financial MPD.

RECOMMENDATION FOR BUILDING WEALTH

Manage Your Finances In One Place: The best way to become financially independent and protect yourself is to get a handle on your finances by signing up with Personal Capital. They are a free online platform which aggregates all your financial accounts in one place so you can see where you can optimize. Before Personal Capital, I had to log into eight different systems to track 25+ difference accounts (brokerage, multiple banks, 401K, etc) to manage my finances. Now, I can just log into Personal Capital to see how my stock accounts are doing and how my net worth is progressing. I can also see how much I’m spending every month.

The best tool is their Portfolio Fee Analyzer which runs your investment portfolio through its software to see what you are paying. I found out I was paying $1,700 a year in portfolio fees I had no idea I was paying! There is no better financial tool online that has helped me more to achieve financial freedom.

It’s 2015 and the bull market continues. Make a decision to be wealthy by taking control of your finances!