Automatic Wealth

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (February 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047171027X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471710271

There are 6 steps in this book in order to achieve automatic wealth:

1. Face facts – start now!
2. Plan to be wealthy
3. Develop wealthy habits
4. Increase income radically
5. Have additional streams of income
6. Invest

Masterson advocates that wealth should not be an end in itself but rather a by-product of doing what we love to do. Thus it is important to love what you do by asking (i) what (ii) where and (iii) with whom.

The chapter on planning to be wealthy is a good aid to help structure one’s lifetime goals into smaller and more manageable parts. This way, we can relate the little things we do now with the bigger picture. We split our lifetime goals into 7-15year portions, then yearly, then monthly, then weekly then daily. Tasks are split and ranked according to their urgency and importance.

Time can be streamlined by

1. Check email 2 times a day only (important stuff should be met over or discussed verbally)
2. Track time
3. Have agendas for meetings and jobs
4. Delegate
5. Hire great people and fire bad ones
6. Group similar tasks in blocks

Masterson makes it a point that we should get up early as a habit as we do more and that we should make healthy-lifestyle (diet, aerobic, strength, flexibility, mental) as one of our lifetime goals.

A way to supercharge income is to

1. Work hard
2. Be good at what you do (learn by telling, showing, involving and teaching)
3. Multiple streams of income
4. Live in an inexpensive home
5. Spend moderately
6. Save extraordinarily
7. Pay yourself first
8. Count your money

To be a great employee and supercharge your income

1. Worker longer, smarter and harder
2. Understand your responsibilities
3. Help your boss to do better
4. Be noticeably good
5. Let the right people know how good you are
6. Be invaluable
7. Learn a financially valued skill (marketing, sales for starters)
8. Know the company’s core profit strategy (and be the critical factor in this)
1. Primary benefits of products/services
2. Secondary benefits (psychological)
3. Competitive advantages and how they are employed

Masterson also highlights the essentials of marketing. His notes on multiple streams of income is split into income-generating businesses and equity businesses. There’s a huge focus on real estate as well.

Much of the information here can be found in his other book “Automatic Wealth for Grads” as well.