Posts by Mark Morgan Ford
Take These 7 Steps to Get Unstuck
When you agreed to do it, it seemed like a wonderful challenge. Now, your deadline is fast approaching… and you haven’t even started. Getting the job done is a priority — yet it somehow doesn’t happen. Instead, it stays there on your daily task list — highlighted for attention but never attended to. What causes…
Read MoreThe Simple Concept That Made Me $6 Million Last Year
On Monday morning, you get a message indicating there’s a new balance in your PayPal account. You check and see that — while you were at the beach that weekend — more than $6,500 was deposited into your account. On Tuesday, you receive a check from a client: $4,000, which he sends every month. On Wednesday,…
Read MoreHow to Go from Good to Great — and Enjoy the Rewards — In 4 Easy Steps
It was awkward. A colleague had asked me to revise a sales letter he’d commissioned. He called it “run of the mill.” He wanted me to “bring it to life.” It was rather ordinary copy, and bringing it to life required changing nearly 30% of it. But the problem wasn’t the work. It was the…
Read MoreHow to Spend Yourself Poor
Making more income is the best way to build wealth. So long as you don’t spend it as fast as you make it. In other words, the shortcut secret to getting wealthy quickly and efficiently is to: Increase your net investable income. Save the lion’s share of that extra income. What do I mean by…
Read MoreHow to Grow Your Wealth for Decades Without a Single Losing Year
Maybe I’m lucky. Or maybe it’s just common sense. I’ve been involved in the investment advisory business for 30 years. And except for a few early mistakes buying real estate, the big financial hoaxes and bubbles that devastated so many investors never burned me. That made a huge difference over time. It allowed me to grow…
Read MoreHow to Get Richer Every Day
Of the hundreds of wealth-building strategies I’ve tried over the years, the best one was also the simplest: Make sure you get a little bit richer every day. This thought occurred to me more than 30 years ago. I’d recently decided to become rich, and that decision had me reading and thinking about wealth building…
Read MoreHow to Become Independently Wealthy
In order to become independently wealthy, you must first forget the notion that you’ll make millions quick on investing. Then answer these two questions…
Read MoreGetting True Value Out of Life
We were walking down a small cobblestone street in Aix en Provence. It was a perfect June day – sunny and still warm in the late afternoon. The old, unpainted buildings had an amber glow. Some of these buildings, we had learned from poking our heads inside, contained modest-sized apartments. Others enclosed elegant residences that…
Read MoreHow to Be Rich (2016 Edition)
“Contrary to popular modern belief, it is still quite possible for the successful individual to make his million — and more.” J. Paul Getty wrote these words in 1965 in his book How to Be Rich. I first read it more than 10 years ago and liked it very much. I read it again recently…
Read MoreHow to Remove the Financial Industry’s Horse Blinders
I am not an investment professional. I have never made any money managing other people’s money. I went from rags to riches the old-fashioned way: by working hard and then investing my income as carefully as I could. Because I’d done well on my own, I never considered seeking financial advice. Then a funny thing…
Read MoreBecoming an “Antifragile” Wealth Builder
Several years ago, Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan, came out with a best-selling book called Antifragile. You may have read it. If not, I recommend it. It’s one of those rare books that presents the reader with a feast of delectable ideas. I find myself savoring every page — as much as I…
Read MoreTake These 4 Vital Steps When Disaster Strikes
You reach for the mug and knock it over. Hot coffee washes over your laptop. You arrive home and realize you’ve left your shoulder bag — with all your IDs and banking information — on the subway. Your doctor reads your EKG and says, “Gee, I’ve never seen anything like this before!” Life dishes out…
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