Chapter 4: The Roadmaps to Wealth - The Millionaire Fastlane

CHAPTER 4: THE ROADMAPS TO WEALTH

If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
~ Lewis Carroll

The Compass for Wealth

If you don't know where you are going, how will you know if you get there? If your destination is undefined, undoubtedly you'll never arrive and likely end in a place you don't want to be. Wealth is found with a roadmap, not a dartboard.

Self-made millionaires don't become millionaires by stumbling into money, just as financial failures don't become failures by stumbling into poorness. Both are the direct result of the financial roadmap chosen and the actions and beliefs that evolve from that roadmap. Your financial roadmap is definitive to process, and it's the first tool for your road trip to wealth.

Your current financial situation is a product of your existing roadmap, whether chosen or not. Your roadmap guides your actions, and the consequences of those actions have created your financial life. How your life unfolds is determined by your choices, and these choices originate from your belief systems, and those belief systems evolve from your predisposed roadmap. If you want to change your life, change your choices. To change your choices you must change your belief system. Your belief system is defined by your roadmap.

How do beliefs affect finances?

Beliefs preceded choices, which precede action. For example, if you believe “rich people got rich investing in mutual funds” your actions will reflect that belief. If some financial guru tells you to cancel your credit cards because “all debt is bad,” you do it. If an author says, “$50 invested today will be worth $10 million in 40 years,” and you believe it, your actions reflect that belief.

Beliefs are powerful mechanisms that drive action, whether true or not. Our parents said Santa Claus was real and we believed it. We left cookies, we looked out the window for the flying reindeer, and we wondered how he got his big butt down the chimney. We believe what we're taught until we gather evidence to the contrary.

Your belief system acts like a roadmap, a compass that, if errant, can lead you to a lifetime of detours. Fictitious beliefs are lying roadmaps; they escort you down dead-end roads where “Wealth: Next Exit” never happens.

The Three Financial Roadmaps to Wealth

Plotting your course to wealth and building your process starts with an examination of your current financial roadmap and the alternatives. There are three financial roadmaps:

1. The Sidewalk Roadmap
2. The Slowlane Roadmap
3. The Fastlane Roadmap

Within these three roadmaps lies a psychology, a belief system that dictates actions relative to each roadmap. More importantly, each roadmap operates within a “universe” governed by a mathematical “wealth equation.” Whatever roadmap you choose, your universe for wealth creation will abide by each map's respective wealth equation. Additionally, each roadmap is naturally predisposed toward a specific destination. Those predispositions are:

• The Sidewalk >- Poorness
• The Slowlane >- Mediocrity
• The Fastlane >- Wealth

Whichever financial roadmap you follow will predispose you to the destination inherent in the roadmap-the roadmap's “true essence.”

What is true essence?

If you play blackjack and win 15 consecutive hands, you violate the true essence of randomness. The natural state of randomness is to not deliver 15 wins in a row. When a wild African lion is tamed to perform in a Las Vegas magic act, the lion is trained to violate its true essence. The lion naturally wants to be wild, to hunt, to kill, to feed, to mate. The lion wants to revert to its natural self, which is why some flamboyant magicians get their heads bitten off. You have to be special to bend the laws of true essence.

Similarly, the roadmaps each possess a true essence that leads either to poorness, mediocrity, or wealth. For example, if you follow the Sidewalk, you'll likely end poor. While wealth is possible using any of the maps, finding it via a roadmap not predisposed to wealth is improbable.

Each roadmap contains key mindsets that act as signposts, or “mindposts,” that provide direction and guide actions, just like a roadmap. Those mindposts are:

Debt Perception:
Does debt control you or do you control your debt?

Time Perception:
How is your time valued and treated? Abundant? Fleeting? Inconsequential?

Education Perception:
What role does education have in your life?

Money Perception:
What is money's role in your life? Is money a tool or a toy? Plentiful or scarce?

Primary Income Source:
What is your primary means of creating income?

Primary Wealth Accelerator:
How are you accelerating your net worth and creating wealth? Or are you?

Wealth Perception:
How do you define wealth?

Wealth Equation:
What is your mathematical plan for accumulating wealth? What wealth equation defines the physics of your wealth universe?

Destination:
Is there a destination? If so, what does it look like?

Responsibility & Control:
Are you in control of your life and your financial plan?

Life Perception:
How do you live your life? Do you plan for the future? Forsake today for tomorrow? Or tomorrow for today?

The Roadmaps Operate within Distinct Universes

Each roadmap operates under a specific set of mathematical formulas, the wealth equation that determines the speed at which you can create wealth. Like Einstein's E=MC², these formulas govern your wealth universe much like physics governs our universe. And because physics is bound by mathematical absolutes, so are your equations (and probabilities) to wealth.

The velocity of wealth acceleration evolves from your chosen roadmap's “universe,” and it is within these universes that your financial plan accelerates or stalls. Think of it as a railroad track, with each track having its own set of speeds, rules, and laws. You can hop aboard a track that allows speeds of 20 mph or speeds of 200 mph.

If you're unhappy in your financial situation, you can change your universe immediately by switching roadmaps. However, first, you have to understand the roadmaps to swap them. Let's dissect the three roadmaps in the next three parts of the Millionaire Fastlane: the Sidewalk, the Slowlane, and the Fastlane.

Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions

• To force change, change must come from your beliefs, and your roadmap outlines those beliefs.
• Each roadmap is governed by a wealth equation and predisposed to a financial destination-Sidewalk to poorness, Slowlane to mediocrity, and the Fastlane to wealth.