“Start small; Dream big”, wrote Robert Kiyosaki in “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. This book, as well as others he has written, changed the way a whole generation of people thought about money and wealth.

You’ve probably heard this already, but you’ve got to have a dream or a vision of what you want to achieve. Otherwise, it just doesn’t happen. This dream motivates you to put in the effort. If you don’t do anything towards getting what you want, you probably won’t get it.

If you set out on a road trip without deciding where you want to go, you’ll probably end up somewhere you wouldn’t want to be. The same applies to financial security, as with so many other things in life; you need to know what you want before you can set out to achieve it. Make sense?

Are you one of the many people who think that you need to have lots of money to be able to set yourself up as financially secure? Robert Kiyosaki certainly doesn’t think this. He had to start small because he came from an average middleclass family, but he had big dreams; he knew what he was aiming for. People who have no dream and aim at nothing, usually have no trouble getting it.

So, dream big. How would you design your perfect life? What would you love to have? How would you spend your time? What about holidays, cars, homes, designer clothes, retirement? How would you like your future to look – financially secure or struggling to make ends meet?

Some people like to start up a dream folder where they stick in pictures of the things they want and how their future is going to look. You can have lots of fun with this, so give it a go. Your dream file is a wonderful help for keeping you on track.

I can hear some of you saying “it’s alright for other people, but I’ve got………..” Sure, everyone has stuff going on in their lives but the ones who succeed are able to put that stuff behind them and concentrate on how they want their lives to be. Focus on how it can be, not on how it is; look at the solutions, not the problems. It might be hard, it might even hurt, but this short-term pain is nothing when compared to the fabulous future you can have. 

Just like nothing happens without a dream, nothing happens without a plan. As Robert Kiyasaki says, “Your plan is the bridge to your dreams.” So, build your bridge; plan to be financially secure, whatever that means to you.

Here are some other things to put in your plan to become what you want – plan to succeed. Plan to have a few hiccoughs along the way.

Plan to make some uncomfortable decisions. The reason you are not already financially secure means that you have some changes to make so you can be; some of these are going to be uncomfortable.

Plan to do what rich people do (whatever it takes to get their dreams); to think like rich people think (ie: think bigger); to talk like rich people talk (ie: positively); to use money the way rich people use their money (ie: they make their money work for them).

Now comes the part where you’ve got to do something, because a dream and a plan are useless unless you take action that takes you towards that dream and follows that plan.

Always ask yourself, “Is what I am about to do going to take me closer to my dream or further away?”  Any action in the direction of your dream is better than no action.

No action is ever too small, as long as it in the right direction.

You’re probably going to find other people are not necessarily going to support you and your dream. Some will put you down or try to discourage you. “You can’t do that!” or “That will never work!” they will say. These people have a ‘poor’ mentality; you need to be around people who have a ‘rich’ mentality.

Look for small ways you can change the way you use your money. Create new habits to help you break some old ones that aren’t helping you get to that dream. Ever heard financial gurus telling us to give up our daily Starbucks coffee and save the money? This is just one way to start small in becoming financially secure.

Here are some other small things that people have tried:

Pete says – “Learn the difference between wants and needs and control your spending on ‘wants’. I discovered that most of the stuff I bought, I didn’t really need so it was fairly simple to change my spending habits to save money.”

Mary-Ellen says – “I had to have everything straight away; I was a shocking impulse buyer. Then a friend told me how she learnt about delayed gratification – putting off buying stuff until she could afford to pay cash. She got rid of her credit card debt using this.”

Tarahas this idea – “I made a game of finding new ways to stop spending everything I earned so I could save. When I found a new way, I bought a small treat and then put the rest into my growing savings account. Gee, it mounts up quickly!”

Bobbi started cooking at home instead of always dining out. “I discovered I really love to cook. I have found new recipes, I eat more healthy food and I have even lost a few pounds. All this and I save more than $100 a week!”

Rowan says that the best thing he did to achieve his dream of retiring by age forty, was to educate himself on all things financial. “The more I learnt about financial stuff, the more interested I got and the easier it was to make the small changes that gave me extra savings to invest. I now have two investment properties and am planning my third!”

What would you do, who could you be, what would you dream, if you knew you couldn’t fail? So dream big, comforted by the knowledge that it’s OK to start your financial journey small. Remember, everything big was once small at the beginning!

So, are you dreaming big but starting small?

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