Needs Versus Wants

Focusing on Necessities vs. Luxuries

Fact #1: You need a home, food, water, clothes, income source, doctor, transportation, utilities, and some money. You do not NEED anything else. If you have those things, relax, you are in a safe place to start. If you are missing any of those things, you need to solve that right away.

Fact #2: You want a lot of other things that cost money that aren't needs! You want to look good, smell good, have clean teeth, talk on your cell phone, drive a nice car, own a Jet Ski, go on trips to the city, wear new clothes, take a college course on art appreciation...you want millions of things! And you will always want something new! The key is to manage your wants very strategically so they work toward your end goal of financial success and prosperity.

Now here's the key point. Are you ready? OK, here it goes:

Rich People Don't Fulfill Their Wants Often While They Get Rich -- They Focus on Their Needs.

Most self-made multi-millionaires are so focused on their passion to build a business and financial future, they rarely EVER buy or do anything that isn't directly related to achieving those goals. Their NEEDS are their WANTS. They know the difference between needs versus wants, and they act on it all the time by focusing on their end goal of making money.

That means if you want to dramatically improve your financial future, you must tame the WANTS which don't lead to fulfilling your NEEDS. You need to go for necessities vs luxuries.

For example, Thomas Edison was an extremely prolific inventor who would try and fail hundreds or thousands of times getting his ideas to work. This persistence resulted in the first light bulb, phonograph, and electrical power station, among other things. He was also passionately committed to entrepreneurship and turning his inventions into profitable businesses that provided value to people. His success (his WANT) became his passion (his NEED). That is why he was ultimately successful.

You must do the same thing! You must only buy, invest in, and concentrate on the things that are economic necessities for yourself, your family or your business. Frivolous wants must get put off until your debts are paid and you are very rich. You and your whole family need to adopt this approach and really run with the entire wants vs needs concept!

A Simple but Powerful Needs vs Wants Solution!

Now we're going to do a simple but powerful exercise. Take a piece of paper and create two columns labeled NEEDS and WANTS. You can do one sheet for yourself and the rest for any dependents (children, spouse, parents, etc.) that you have. List all the needs you can think of, starting with yourself. Finally, list all the wants you can think of.

Don't worry about getting this perfect. All we're doing is putting things on paper. This will be a "living list" you can update whenever you think of a new NEED or WANT.

You can also separate the frivolous luxuries from WANTS that might lead to fulfilling a NEED. For example, if you want to get a professional degree and this will lead to making more money (a need), then it can be on the list. Every other want should be crossed out or tagged for discussion. You should now have a great necessities vs. wants list to work with.

Now, the next step is absolutely critical!

TAPE THIS LIST TO YOUR BATHROOM MIRROR!

Every morning when you walk in to the bathroom, you will see your NEEDS and WANTS looking back at you. This is the quickest way to develop financial discipline and focus on necessities vs. luxuries in the shortest time.