By Todd Tresidder
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How The Last Ten Percent Will Make-Or-Break Your Financial Success
Key Ideas
- Reveals how the 10% rule can multiply your results.
- Shows how your success is built at the margin.
It takes 80%-90% of your energy just to break even – to maintain status-quo.
The last 10%-20% is where you build wealth.
That's why so few people succeed financially. They stop moving forward after getting 80%-90% of the way there.
That's a prescription for mediocrity because the last 10% is where all your forward progress occurs.
How To Multiply Your Success Using the Ten Percent Rule
I was reminded of this lesson during my regular workout in the gym this morning. A personal trainer commented that all reps prior to the last two are just a warm-up for the “real” workout – those lasttwo reps when you're straining and your muscles are aching.
If you quit before those last two reps, you'll deny yourself most of the value of the workout.
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I thought that was amazing – that's the same principle I teach my financial coaching clients.
You work your tail off just to support your lifestyle and survive. By the end of a long day, you're tired and just want to rest – but you're only 90% of the way there.
You've only done enough to survive, and now you must put out that last 10% to move your life forward. That's the Ten Percent Rule.
Related: Why you need a wealth plan, not a financial plan.
You must use that last ten percent to:
- Improve your financial intelligence by reading and researching investment strategy.
- Earn the extra income needed to purchase investment assets.
- Control expenses so that more of what you earn makes it to savings.
In short, you must do what others won't, so you can have what others never will.
Success occurs at the margin when you give it that last 10%.
How Most People Fail The Ten Percent Rule
But what do most of us do?
We stop after 90% because we're comfortable. Our lifestyle needs are satisfied, and we feel tired.We've earned a little rest.
Putting out that additional 10% is hard work which takes us from an already comfortable situation into an uncomfortable one.
Needless to say, we don't do it. Nobody wants to get uncomfortable, so they don't give it that last 10%.
That's why so few people succeed financially.
The gym is a perfect analogy. Think about it. You just did 10 reps with the barbell, and your arms are shaking and aching. You're tired and want to set the weights down.
Those extra one or two reps will hurt,yet that's where all the forward progress happens. You don't want the pain, but you have to go through it if you want the gain. It's a cliche, but it's true.
The same holds true after you've worked all day to pay your mortgage and bills.
You don't want to spend your evening reading investment strategy articlesto improve your financial intelligence. You certainly don't want to be bothered fixing the leaky faucet to keep expenses down.
You want to chill out and hire the plumber to do the dirty work because you're tired and deserve a break.
But if you don't put out that last 10%, then you make no forward progress that day. You just break even.
Financial success requires 100% effort - 90% won't get you to where you need to go.
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When you do put out that last 10%, then you make a small contribution to your financial freedom. You increase your financial intelligence and you increase your assets that day – just a little.
And everyday those little differences begin to accumulate.
At first, it isn't much – a few hundred dollars here and there. But over time, it can and will compound into financial freedom ifyou persist.
How The Last 10% Multiplies Into Wealth
In fact, there are two ways this small 10% multiplies into something huge.
The first way is through the compounding equation as illustrated above, and the other way is through the principle that wealth is built at the margin.
For example, one exercise I take beginning financial coaching clients through is tracking how they spend their waking hours each day. It's a simple process of labeling each hour either “current lifestyle” or “future financial freedom.” Try it and you might be surprised how little of your time is dedicated to your financial growth.
Preparing meals, recreation, and working to pay the mortgage all count as current lifestyle activities.
Earning income to fund investments and learning investment strategy count as financial freedom activities.
Related: A better investment strategy than buy and hold
Assuming you're like most people, more than 90% of your hours are dedicated to maintaining and supporting your current lifestyle. For many, the number is 100%.
That means just 10% or less of your hours are dedicated toward financial freedom.
Now, ifyou refocus slightly so an additional 10% is dedicated toward financial freedom, your progress toward the goalcan double, triple, or quadruple. That isn't a little change, but a dramatic change.
In other words, a small incremental change multiplies the gain – and that's how success is created at the margin.
But none of this happens without that last ten percent effort, and that's one reason so few people succeed financially.
So what about you?
Are you putting out that last 10% so you can enjoy financial security?
Are you multiplying your success at the margin?
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