Month: March 2021

I have worked in and around the money industry for more than 27 years. I have known billionaires, millionaires and those that aspire to be. I’ve also made and lost millions running my own business, evolution media group, for over 20 years.

During that time I have made countless observations about people who have money. How they act, how they speak, even how they dress. And while there are many things that are different about all these people, there are two common denominators that come up time and time again.

Firstly, they believe in themselves. Implicitly. While not always arrogantly (although same are!) very confidently and totally. This belief is due to the fact that they have made it. That sort of belief is unshakeable simply because it is true. Of course we have all heard before that you have to believe in yourself to be successful, or that to attract money you need to believe you can – and will.

The second trait they all shared was a passion or purpose that money fulfilled, but wasn’t the reason.

Particularly billionaires, I have found, actually don’t think about money much at all. They are more likely to drive older cars, and even buy bargains – most I meet don’t waste money, and in fact are far more likely to be frugal. Why? Because their money fulfils a bigger cause for them – their passion. Whether that passion is philanthropy ( and increasingly was for those with billions) or investing, (which in nature creates wealth) these billionaires pursued their passion relentlessly.

So how can we learn from these two traits – belief and passion to increase our money situation? Increasingly, it is obvious that if you just do a job for money, you are doing the wrong job. Our work takes far too much of our life force to spend doing something we don’t care about.

You are far more likely to increase your financial position, and your belief around your worthiness for it, by doing something you are…

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Vanessa Stoykov writes for Secrets of the Money Masters, a programme she founded, now owned by tech giant Iress for the education of financial advisers

Until next time,

No matter whether you had an idyllic happy childhood, or a less than perfect one, everyone is influenced and in many ways controlled by the way they grew up with money.

The attitudes our parents and broader family/community had about money are still in us – and whether or not you unconsciously follow these lessons, and go out of your way to NOT be the same as your parents, your upbringing still has a massive impact on how you think and behave financially.

I grew up in the country, rural NSW. At that time, farming and mining were both booming, and Gunnedah was quite a prosperous town. My father worked in the coal mines and my mum ran everything else. They were an amazing couple and as a result we had an idyllic childhood – holidays at the beach, a nice house to live in and Christmas and birthday presents.

Everyone in town had much the same. Of course there were those that lived on the top side of town near the golf course that had the nicest houses, and the sole town lawyer drove a Porsche – other than that everyone had ordinary cars and a level life. This meant that I never really grew up comparing myself to others – there was no need. Most had the same. It wasn’t until I got to University that I realised that people had all sorts of backgrounds – some had a lot of money, and some had very little…

Today it feels like that difference is visible everywhere you go – in who you see and what news you read about. There is a massive gap between have and have not.

So how did you grow up? Who and what did you see in your neighbourhood? Was it tough? How did people talk about money? When you start to think of your childhood solely in relation to money, you may start to…

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Vanessa Stoykov writes for Secrets of the Money Masters, a programme she founded, now owned by tech giant Iress for the education of financial advisers

Until next time,