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In Money: Master the Game, motivational speaker and life coach Tony Robbins argues that anyone can master money, achieve financial well-being, and create their dream lifestyle. In Robbins’ view, to master money means building an investing strategy that yields passive income for life and gives you the choice of when, where, and whether to continue working. Conversely, neglecting to master money means that you’ll always need to trade your time for money.

Our guide unpacks Robbins’s approach to changing your money mindset and financial strategy, and we contrast it with popular approaches to financial independence such as Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) and Early Retirement Extreme (ERE).

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Make a Plan

Robbins explains that most people end up without enough money because they never make a plan. Afraid to look at their finances, they simply hope that things will work out and tell themselves that financial skills are too far above them.

However, this mentality leads to uncertain outcomes: If nobody steers the ship, there’s no telling where you might end up. To ensure a positive outcome, make a plan and follow through with three key commitments: Focus relentlessly, commit completely, and embrace serendipity.

Commitment #1: Focus relentlessly. According to Robbins, your energy follows your focus—concentrating tenaciously on a goal causes your subconscious mind to direct all its power to achieving that goal. It does this by taking in and processing the information most relevant to reaching your goal.

  • Taking it in: The reticular activating system filters your perception so that you see the opportunities and connections that will help you achieve that goal.
  • Processing it: At the same time, your subconscious mind constantly uses this information to develop solutions to the challenges you focus on and intermittently sends them to your conscious mind.

(Shortform note: Deepak Chopra suggests that self-reflective practices such as journaling, meditation, and yoga play a part in rewiring your subconscious mind to focus on creativity and growth. He also claims that as you engage in practices that bring compassion and equanimity, your gene activity changes to alter your physiology: Genes that promote inflammation go down, while genes that promote health and healing go up.)

Commitment #2: Commit completely. Robbins says that when you give everything you’ve got to a goal, you’ll find a way no matter what. Get emotionally attached to your goal by refusing to accept a lower standard. As you go, deepen that commitment by persevering through the obstacles and learning from every misstep. This also embeds your commitment in your subconscious and further activates the benefits discussed in Step 1.

(Shortform note: In The Art of Learning, Josh Waitzkin argues that to live a life of excellence you can’t give yourself too much slack. It’s easy to make excuses when the going gets tough, but to truly achieve what most don’t, you need to hold yourself to your commitments even when you’re struggling or in pain. Like Robbins, he holds that learning from your mistakes is the fastest way to get better.)

If you face setbacks, use that disappointment to double down on your commitment. If you feel insecure compared to people who are doing better than you, choose to learn from them and improve yourself.

(Shortform note: In The Obstacle Is the Way, Ryan Holiday recommends choosing to view every obstacle as an opportunity. This is an extension of the classic Stoic view that we must only focus on what we can change, and it can help you discover strengths you didn’t know you have. For example, you might find a silver lining in the loss of your job—maybe you now have time to reconsider where you are in life, and whether you’re really on the path you want to be.)

Building a stable financial future is a long journey, and we all start from different places and have different ambitions. According to Robbins, you should define what success means to you and customize your financial goals accordingly.

(Shortform note: In Goals!, Brian Tracy writes that you should define what success means to you because chasing after other people's idea of success will only lead to unhappiness.)

Commitment #3: Embrace serendipity. When you’re relentlessly focused and completely committed, serendipity will help nudge you toward success. Robbins explains that when it feels like everything's just falling into place, serendipity is at work. He calls this God, or a higher cosmic order lending you a hand.

(Shortform note: In Mastery, Robert Greene explains that serendipity fuels creative insights and pulls you along your life path. The brain, he explains, evolved to find connections between different pieces of information. Like Robbins, he asserts that as you commit deeply to your chosen path, serendipity will begin to give you novel insights as the ideas you entertain chance to bump into each other. And, he says, you can’t find these insights with linear, rational thinking—you have to trust they’ll come about by chance.)

In other words, life rewards courage and commitment. The more you give to your passion, the more that giving comes back around to help you in the form of unexpected gifts, opportunities, and chance encounters that speed you along.

Keep these three commitments in mind as you make your plan, which involves these four steps:

Step #1: Get Your Bearings

The first step is to figure out where you’re starting from. Take an honest look at your financial situation, however scary it may be. As Robbins explains, you can’t get physically fit without acknowledging your current health and measuring your progress—and the same is true of your financial health.

(Shortform note: In contrast to Robbins, in The Obstacle is the Way, Ryan Holiday recommends starting immediately and adjusting as you go. If you struggle to take action, this can help you avoid getting bogged down in the planning stage and build momentum so that you’ll keep going. As you go, learn quickly from every mistake you make and adjust your strategy accordingly.)

Step #2: Set Your Destination

You need to set a clear destination in order to get anywhere: Calculate how much you need to save and invest in order to obtain monthly returns that can support your desired lifestyle.

Robbins says that you can reach financial well-being with much less money than you think. He suggests five levels of financial well-being:

Level #1: Financial Safety—you can cover five of your basic needs—housing, food, utilities, transportation, and insurance—with your investment yields. In other words, you don’t have to work to pay for them.

To find this number, estimate the monthly cost of each above expense, add them together, and multiply by 12. That gives you your yearly cost of basic needs—the amount you’ll need your investment yields to cover to achieve financial safety. For instance, $2,500 monthly expenses means you’d need $30,000 in annual investment income.

Level #2: Financial Robustness—You have enough additional investment income to cover half of your desired luxuries—such as gym membership, restaurant expenses, or nice-to-have software subscriptions—without having to work.

Level #3: Financial Sovereignty—You have enough investment income to cover Levels 1 and 2, as well as any other expenses that are part of your current lifestyle. Since you don’t have to rely on earned income, your life—your time—is now your domain, and you can work when and if you want to.

Level #4: Financial Autonomy—You’ve met the above goals and can also afford a few significant luxuries—such as a vacation house or long-term travel—without having to work for them.

Level #5: Complete Financial Autonomy—You can do whatever you want, whenever you want—without having to work to afford it. Money is no longer a concern for you or your family, and you can live your life entirely on your own terms.

Lean FIRE Versus Fat FIRE

Similar to Robbins’s suggested goals, the Financially Independent and Retiring Early (FIRE) community offers a few different lifestyle targets to pick from:

  • Standard FIRE ) means simplifying your lifestyle and saving somewhat aggressively. You aim to develop an asset base that will allow you to retire in your 40s or 50s.

  • Lean FIRE means living well below your means (such as in an RV) to save a high percentage of your income—think 50%, and even up to 85%.

  • Fat FIRE means compromising fewer creature comforts, and instead taking longer to retire but enjoying a more comfortable lifestyle.

  • Barista FIRE is similar to Lean FIRE, but involves supplementing your passive income with part-time or gig work to support your desired lifestyle. For example, you might work for pleasure and income at a coffee shop.

As always, it’s up to you to determine what works for you. Consider how much you could let go and still be happy, and practice finding pleasure from less if you can. In general, cut out consumption that returns only temporary, shallow pleasure—like a $4 muffin from a bakery—unless that muffin is truly meaningful to you.

Robbins recommends picking three goals from the above: An easy, medium, and hard goal. Achieving the easy goal will feel great, build momentum, and motivate you to reach for your medium and hard goals.

(Shortform note: In I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Ramit Sethi recommends that you think about your why. Clarifying why you’re working to achieve financial well-being can help prevent you from getting lost in the nitty-gritty of penny-pinching. For example, maybe you’re investing for peace of mind, so that you can live as you like without worrying about future income. Remembering this each day will help you to focus on money as a means to an end, not the end itself.)

Step #3: Start Saving

Once you’ve figured out where you are and where you want to end up, it’s time to start saving. Decide on a percentage—such as 10%, 15%, or 25%—of your monthly income to save, and “pay yourself” by setting that aside before paying any other bills or other expenses. If you don’t commit to saving a set amount, it’s all too easy to spend it without thinking. This is the principle with which you’ll start investing. (Shortform note: This is Robbins’s Step 1: Decide to invest and start saving.)

Robbins also recommends saving up an emergency fund before you start investing. To do this, aim to accumulate enough money to cover your basic expenses for at least six to 12 months. (Shortform note: In I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Ramit Sethi suggests leaning on your family to help with emergency funds if yours dwindle too quickly. Alternatively, you can withdraw the principal from your investments, or use a credit card as a last resort.)

You’ll reach your financial goals more quickly by saving more and spending less. The more you save to invest, the faster your investments can compound. Robbins provides several ways to accelerate your savings. (Shortform note: This is Robbins’s Step 3: Speed up your journey.)

Accelerator #1: Put away more money each month. Robbins recommends doing this by living at or below your means. To cut down on unnecessary costs, make a list of all your expenses and consider which you could reduce or remove. For example, $4 saved daily from a bagel shop habit would compound to roughly $53,000 if invested at 6% returns for 20 years.

(Shortform note: Jacob Lund Fisker of Early Retirement Extreme suggests saving more than most by living on as little as possible. While he acknowledges that you should consider your happiness when changing your lifestyle, he also encourages trying to live with very little—for example, you might replace your car with an electric bicycle, downsize to a cheap apartment, or learn skills like home repair that enable you to cut costs even further. By doing this, he once reached an 85% monthly savings rate.)

Accelerator #2: Increase your earnings by becoming a more valuable individual. Robbins explains that we’re rewarded for the value that we bring to the market. So if you develop in-demand skills, especially creative thinking and entrepreneurial drive, you can become more valuable in your workplace and secure higher pay. You can also earn more by starting your own business.

(Shortform note: In The Millionaire Fastlane, MJ DeMarco argues that “active production” is the best way to become wealthy and liberate your lifestyle. As opposed to “hopefully accumulating” money via hourly or salaried wages, he advises using your time to create products—such as infoproducts or software—which you can do by building expertise in a given field. For example, you could learn photography from numerous free online resources, then develop specialized lighting techniques and sell them in an online course.)

Accelerator #3: Pay less in taxes and fees. Robbins recommends staying away from high-fee 401(k)s and other high-fee mutual funds. Even a 3% annual fee can significantly hinder your compounding interest, so choose low-fee investments instead. In addition, consider moving: Several US states have no income tax, while living abroad is often cheaper and can enrich your life.

(Shortform note: Ramit Sethi explains in I Will Teach You to Be Rich that only the super rich have access to genuinely legal tax loopholes. Instead of worrying about those, focus on setting up “good enough” tax efficiency by using Roth accounts and trust that the money you pay in taxes helps maintain national infrastructure—not a bad use for your money. In addition, take advantage of yearly tax refunds. You can often obtain a large lump sum that you can then reinvest.)

Additionally, avoid pitfalls that derail your progress. Robbins explains there are unsavory players who will take advantage of you to line their own pockets. In general, avoid getting sucked into marketing hype that encourages you to buy into the newest, “hottest,” investments. These mainly profit the brokers, not the investors. (Shortform note: This is Robbins’s Step 2: Gain insider knowledge.)

Pitfall #1: Misleading Returns—brokers/firms advertise average annual returns based on a lump sum investment compounded annually. Average returns usually look better on paper, but what you get are actual returns, which depend on your monthly contributions and variation in the market. Take it as a red flag if a firm tries to sell you on average returns.

(Shortform note: Average returns tend to look better because they represent the average percentage of yearly net gains and losses—not necessarily how much money you get. For example, if a $10,000 investment lost 25% one year, then gained 25% the next, you’d have an average return of 0% but an actual loss of 6.25%—$10,000 – $2,500 = $7,500, then $7,500 + $1,875 (25%) = $9,375. This is how firms can advertise returns that are technically accurate, yet misleading about how your money might actually do.)

Pitfall #2: Disadvantageous Products—Robbins explains that many financial products have high fees or disadvantageous terms. In general, avoid any fees over 1% annually. As a rule, avoid mutual funds and invest in low-cost index funds instead. Mutual funds depend on active managers—96% of whom lose to the market over the long term—while index funds mimic the overall growth of the market.

If you’ve invested in a 401(k), annuity, or target-date fund, check whether you’re paying more in fees than you need to be. Many 401(k)s and annuities invest through high-fee mutual funds with poor returns and have low-fee alternatives. Many target-date funds—a mutual fund meant to become more conservatively invested as you age—don’t follow the advertised adjustment curve and do not guarantee good returns.

(Shortform note: In contrast to Robbins, Ramit Sethi recommends looking into target-date funds in I Will Teach You to Be Rich. While many have high fees, they also handle rebalancing for you and provide easy diversification—many feature a wide variety of diverse funds. As with all financial matters, do your own research to explore the options, and always look for low-fee options such as those provided by Vanguard, Robbins’s recommended firm.)

Pitfall #3: Self-Interested Brokers—Robbins explains that brokers have no legal obligation to put your interests first. Because they work for commissions, they have an incentive to sell you more expensive services—and they often get poor returns while charging you high fees. If they lose, you take the loss. If they win, they profit from your risk. Avoid working with brokers—below, we explain how to find a fiduciary, instead.

(Shortform note: To find a fiduciary near you, try searching the National Associations of Personal Financial Advisors’ (NAPFA) online database. They provide a ZIP code-based search to help you locate personal advisers near you, and they list only certified advisers who charge fees—not commissions.)

Pitfall #4: Unpredictable Tax Rates—when investments yield income, you must pay tax on that income. This means whenever you withdraw funds from an investment, as you would in retirement, you pay income tax.

While we can’t predict future tax rates, Robbins suggests that they may continue to increase. To avoid paying out higher taxes on your investments, use a Roth IRA and a Roth 401(k). Unlike normal retirement accounts, Roth accounts allow you to pay tax upfront. Each time you contribute, you’ll pay tax—but when you later withdraw funds, when the rate may be higher, you don’t have to pay it again.

(Shortform note: One tool that Robbins doesn’t mention is the 529 account, a college savings account described in A Random Walk Down Wall Street. If you have children or are planning to, you can use a 529 account to contribute up to $75,000 without paying tax. As always, look for low-fee options like those offered by Vanguard.)

Step #4: Allocate Your Assets

Your assets are your money-earning investments—stocks, bonds, and commodities. Allocation refers to how you divide your money among assets. In other words, to allocate your assets is to build a diverse portfolio of investments by splitting your money among different “buckets” or asset categories. (Shortform note: This is Robbins’s Step 4: Learn asset allocation.)

(Shortform note: Robbins also briefly discusses real estate investing and recommends investing in assisted living communities, since the “demographic inevitability” of the baby boomers becoming elderly is fast approaching. Alternatively, David Greene argues that you can create passive income with his BRRRR method—Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. Put simply, you can purchase cheap properties outright, fix them up and rent them, then take out a loan against your equity in the house to purchase the next property. Rent payments cover your loan and provide passive income, and you can quickly build a large portfolio of properties.)

Robbins recommends using three “buckets” or overall divisions of your money. Decide how to divide your money in whole number percentages (for example, 30%, 60%, and 10%), based on your own risk tolerance and age.

Bucket #1: Conservative investments—this bucket is for investments that will grow slowly but steadily, with relatively little risk. This involves cash (it’s important to hold some cash in case you need funds rapidly), government bonds, pensions, annuities, and life insurance policies. Be patient and hold onto these for the long term—in time, they’ll provide exponentially compounding interest.

Bucket #2: Aggressive investments—this bucket is for investments that might yield massive gains but are also high-risk. These assets include corporate stocks—through mutual funds, index funds, and exchange-traded funds—as well as real estate, commodities (such as gold, oil, and wheat), and foreign currencies.

Bucket #3: Enjoyable investments—unlike the previous two buckets, this one is for setting aside a small amount of money with which to enjoy your life now. As Robbins explains, there’s no point in getting wealthy if you aren’t living a good life along the way. Pick a small percentage and use that money to do things you love—such as taking a tropical vacation, going to the movies, or getting a new laptop. Investing in your happiness will help you enjoy life and stay moving toward your financial goals.

A Simpler Portfolio Setup

In The Simple Path to Wealth, JL Collins cuts past “buckets” to suggest just three tools to build a complete portfolio:

  • Stocks—Collins advocates for investing in a specific index—VTSAX, Vanguard’s Total Stock Market Index Fund—that gives steady, regular returns.

  • Bonds—to balance your stocks, Collins suggests Vanguard’s Total Bond Market Index Fund (VBTLX). Bonds are advantageous during periods of deflation and when you’re nearing retirement.

  • Cash—although cash doesn’t earn anything, you’ll always need some on hand in case of emergencies or dropping prices. You can earn a small amount on it by placing it in a money market account,a special savings account that’s FDIC insured and offers slightly higher interest rates.

Collins emphasizes that your approach to investing shouldn’t be overly complicated. If you’re stressing yourself out, you’re doing it wrong—instead, follow time-tested strategies and let your investments sit. This will give you peace of mind and reliable investment income.

Create Steady Gains While Minimizing Losses

Once you’ve developed a plan, the next step is to learn from those who’ve proven their skill—in this case, America’s top billionaire investors.

After meeting with many top investors, Robbins advocates for building an investment portfolio that mimics the market and minimizes losses while growing steadily over time. This implements three principles: Play the long game, diversify your assets, and mitigate your downside. (Shortform note: This section includes Robbins’s Step 5: Ensure life-long income, and Step 6: Learn from top investors.)

Play the Long Game

As Robbins explains, the most reliable way to build wealth is to hold your investments for a long period of time. The best way to do this is with an index fund, a collection of stocks that mimics an overall market index, such as the S&P 500. In other words, owning an index fund means you own stock in every company on that index.

Since the market averages growth over the long term, holding an index fund nets you returns that mimic the growth of that index. If you own an S&P 500 index fund and the S&P 500 grows, your investments grow too.

Robbins says that you don’t need to take big risks to have big success. While index funds grow modestly over time, they offer consistent growth, and many experts consider them to be invaluable assets.

(Shortform note: Legendary investor Charlie Munger recently stated that diversified index-based investing might not be as reliable for younger generations. Citing increasingly high housing prices, he argued that, due to inflation, it’ll be harder for recent college graduates to get and stay wealthy—and that young investors should seek out personalized investing advice rather than general strategies. Like anything, he said, investing takes practice: It’s a skill that you’ll build over time.)

Diversify Your Assets

Earlier, we explained how to divide your investment funds into three buckets as part of allocating your assets. It’s also important to properly allocate within each of those buckets—for example, by holding multiple types of bonds or multiple index funds.

The overriding goal of diversifying your assets is to build a portfolio that can withstand both good and bad market conditions: If one asset plummets, the rest buffer the loss. The market always “reverts to the mean”—booms and busts are temporary, while average growth is the general rule. If you allocate intelligently, you can mitigate your losses in bad times and ensure substantial gains in good times. To do this, use the following three tactics:

Tactic #1: Diversify between asset classes. In other words, buy some bonds, some stocks, and some commodities.

Tactic #2: Diversify between markets. In addition to holding both stocks and bonds, aim also to hold different types of stocks and bonds. Since the markets don’t all move together—for example, real estate is only loosely related to oil prices—you can mitigate market drops by holding assets in a wide range of markets.

Tactic #3: Diversify over time. You can also diversify across a period of time by using dollar-cost averaging. Since timing the market—knowing when to buy and sell—is nearly impossible, instead commit to investing the same amount each month regardless of market fluctuations. This takes advantage of market volatility for long-term gains: While you’ll sometimes buy when prices are up, you’ll gain a larger number of assets by spending the same amount when prices are down. Then when prices rise again, you’ll get larger dividends.

Additional Tips for Diversification

In A Random Walk Down Wall Street, Burton Malkiel discusses “Modern Portfolio Theory,” a Nobel-prize winning approach to diversification that shares qualities with Robbins’s advice. Here are a few key points:

  • Diversifying between markets/industries gives decreasing marginal returns: Researchers found that beyond 50 well-picked stocks, additional stocks do little extra to provide the stabilizing benefits of diversification.

  • International markets move conversely to the US—Because of this, holding stock in developed foreign markets can offset your losses. For example, invest in foreign oil to benefit when rising oil prices cause a downturn in oil-dependent countries like the US.

Note that investing in foreign markets can be risky, and most investors recommend a portfolio weighted toward US stocks and bonds with a small amount set aside for betting on emerging or developed foreign markets.

The final key to proper asset allocation is to continually rebalance your portfolio. This means maintaining the same proportional divisions that you first start your buckets with—for example, a 50% conservative, 30% aggressive, 10% “for fun” allocation.

These proportions will go out of balance when the buckets rise or fall according to their assets’ performance. When this happens, reallocate funds until you’ve reestablished the original proportion. For example, your aggressive bucket might have a fantastic month, returning enough to become 40% of your funds. To rebalance, you can move money from that aggressive bucket into the other two until the proportions are correct.

This matters because long-term investing requires you to set up a strategy and commit to it. If you get excited by short-term gains and fail to rebalance, you’ll lose that much more money when the markets inevitably fall again.

How Often to Rebalance?

While rebalancing often might seem important, a recent paper from Vanguard’s research division found that it had little to no positive effect on reducing a portfolio’s volatility.

At the same time, rebalancing more often takes more of your time and energy—so it’s actually reasonable to rebalance no more than once annually, or when your allocations go beyond 5% out of balance. Regarding when to rebalance, consider doing so at the same time you handle other financial responsibilities—such as tax season in April. If you receive a tax return, it’s the perfect time to reinvest that lump sum or use it to rebalance your holdings.

Mitigate Your Downside

The final principle is to mitigate your downside. In investing, losses are more impactful than gains: If a $10,000 investment drops 25% to $7,500, you’ll need to gain 34% ($2,550) to break even again. So above all else, avoid losing money as best as you can. Robbins offers these tactics:

Tactic #1: Find opportunities for asymmetric risk/reward. This means that you only risk your money if the chance of gains is higher than the chance of losses. For example, you might use an annuity that insures your principle up to 100% while guaranteeing modest returns. That way, you can only gain money and you’re protected against the downside.

(Shortform note: In Skin In the Game, Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues that pursuing wealth while minimizing losses is actually unethical. Because you have nothing to lose if you fail, you’re free to pursue your self-interest without thought for the consequences of your actions. If investing is a zero-sum game as Robbins says, then every dollar you earn risk-free is a dollar someone else loses. Taleb argues that we respect those who gain wealth through risky endeavors, such as running a tech startup, more than those who gain wealth via risk-free means.)

Tactic #2: Get tax efficient. Several different accounts—most notably Roth IRAs and Roth 401(k)s—allow you to pay tax upfront so that you need not pay tax when you withdraw funds later on. In addition, Robbins recommends specialized life insurance plans—such as the TIAA-CREF—that allow you to invest through a tax-free insurance “wrapper,” so that your compounding avoids tax and accelerates much more quickly. (Shortform note: In 2019, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association stopped offering the special life insurance plans recommended by Robbins.)

Find a Fiduciary

Additionally, Robbins recommends working with a fiduciary. Wealthy investors have financial teams to help them, and the average investor can mimic this strategy by finding a reliable fiduciary. You wouldn’t want to be your own doctor, and the markets are at least as complex as medicine—hence the need for a full-time professional to help steward your finances.

A fiduciary is a financial professional with a legal responsibility to act in your best interest. You pay them directly via fees, and they cannot work for commission. This prevents a conflict of interest—whereas brokers work for commissions that incentivize them to sell you more expensive products.

A fiduciary can help you optimize your financial strategy according to the above principles. Your fiduciary will help you build your portfolio, and allowing them to guide you helps you take your emotions out of the game. If you get too wrapped up in the stressful fluctuations of investing, you might make bad decisions. The more you can depend on a trusted financial professional to help you, the more you’ll avoid making irrational, emotionally driven mistakes.

Managing Your Own Money

In I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Ramit Sethi asserts that the average young person can manage their money just as well as the average financial adviser. While he agrees that it’s important to find a fiduciary to help with complex financial situations—such as those that involve an inheritance or estate—you can do your own research, form an investment plan, and set up your own investment accounts.

If you do opt for an adviser, be sure to ask them whether they’re a fiduciary. If not, Sethi warns that you can get scammed by firms that don’t disclose all of their fees or underperform on their promises.

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