15 RULES of MONEY

Ah, money. Some people say it makes the world go round. Some people chase it tirelessly, like a hamster running on a wheel. Some people speak about money, and others actually have it. Money doesn't care about your self-esteem, about your religion, about where you live or what your goals are. Money just is. You either have it or you don't. You're either making money or you're spending money.

What some of you might not know, though, is that money behaves like a force in society. It follows certain rules, certain laws that govern the creation and flow of capital. Today, we're sharing with you 15 rules of money that will change how you look at wealth. Welcome to Alux, the place where future billionaires come to get inspired.

Rule number one: Money doesn't change people; it shows who they really are. Think of money like a magnifying glass. Whatever traits lay hidden before are now 10 times bigger, and people can now notice them. That same magnifying glass can light the initial spark that awakes these traits that were dormant before. If you were an ahole before you got rich, then after getting rich, you're just an ahole who's got a larger bank account.

The other side of this coin is also valid. If you're humble and a generous person before, nothing is going to change who you are once you make it. Money also acts like gasoline; it makes the fire bigger. It allows you to move quicker, learn faster, and grants access to more tools, toys, and resources. It all depends on who you are and where you want to change. Channel its force. Money doesn't change people; it strips away the vulnerability of being poor and gives them the platform to be as they really are.

Rule number two: Never spend money before you earn it. If you want to be poor, keep spending money you haven't earned yet. This is the main reason why most people never escape poverty. They borrow money to buy things they don't actually need or can't really afford. So, whose fault is this? Well, some people will say the media, who's aggressively marketing products to those vulnerable individuals, promising happiness and the respect of their peers. Others say it's an education issue that nobody teaches you these things.

But actually, it's a personal thing. When you're maxing out a credit card to buy a new TV, you know what kind of choice you're making. You know it's not a smart purchase, despite the TV being smart. It's because of vanity; you're sacrificing your future at the expense of your present. People overspend on things they can't really afford, and that's why they'll never break the cycle. They're playing catch-up with the present, so there isn't enough time to move into the future.

Rule number three: Don't chase money; instead, be a money magnet. We know this rule sounds super cheesy, like some kind of Law of Attraction, but it's not. It's actually a lot deeper than positive thoughts in the universe delivering your ideal life to you. This rule can be broken down into two halves. The first part means you're always behind money, running toward it. The fact you don't have money is because you're stuck on this rat race, this hamster wheel. You're not getting anywhere.

As long as you're chasing it, you're the coyote, and the money is the Road Runner. Nobody likes to be chased or caught, so you best believe it'll always run away from you when it sees you coming. Now, the second part is about attracting money, which means becoming valuable enough by yourself that money comes to you because of your skills and aptitude. Let us explain. The more valuable you become as an individual, the more people will want you to solve problems for them. They will gladly run after money and bring it to you if you can help them out.

This is the fundamental difference between consumers of value and creators of value. One spends money while the other receives money.

Rule number four: Invest time before you invest money. This is the main thing holding people back from starting. A common belief of the average person is you need money to make money, but what these people never learned is that time is more valuable than money. Early on, you've got an abundance of time you're most likely throwing away. No matter when you start, it'll still take you, on average, 7 years to build a business, 10 if you're not as smart, and 5 if you've already got some money to begin with. But there's still a time requirement.

The sooner you start, the sooner you'll get there. You're smart; you chose to invest a couple of minutes of your precious time with us, and we could not be more grateful for it. But you still need to get your hands dirty, okay? You need to be in the field, whatever that field is for you, real-life or digitally. It's shocking to us how people can't find 2 hours a day to work on their side project. If you're not rich, it's not because you don't have money; it's because you're investing your time poorly.

Rule number five: The more you learn, the more you earn. Now, here's a very important distinction we have to make when it comes to learning. Learning, for us, is about acquiring knowledge that can be transformed into value in your life and the lives of others. That's what learning is. No one cares if you know all the Pokémon or the first 38 digits of pi. That's not valuable, okay? Life is not a trivia show. Knowledge that doesn't have the potential to be manifested is not knowledge; it's trivia.

Focus your learning on building a ladder for yourself to get out of this hole of mediocrity. Most of us begin our journeys by learning how to build each step and then following through with the execution. If your parents built you a ladder, then use it. If other people have documented how ladders are built, study them. We're all dealt different hands in this game of life. Maybe some holes are deeper than others, but the way out is almost always the same, and we would like to help you climb out of that hole.

With the Alux app, you get access to daily coaching sessions across five pillars of a good life: financial wealth, physical health, emotional intelligence, relationship wellness, and sharp intellect. Plus, we pay highly successful executive coaches thousands and thousands of dollars to create courses on your behalf, giving you access to the same mentorship as top-level executives for just $1.99 a year. To sweeten this deal for you, scan the QR code on screen to get 50% off your yearly subscription.

Rule number six: Never be a slave to money; become the master. Nobody wants to be a slave, yet the way society works, we're enslaving ourselves. We've invented this amazing tool called debt. Some people use it to set themselves free, while others lose even the freedom they once had to begin with. Bad debt is just the latest form of slavery. The moment you borrow money for whatever reason it is, your life is no longer yours; it belongs to the creditors, to the people who loaned you that money.

You will literally have to trade hours of your life in order for the proceeds of that work to go to someone else. Money is always floating in between. You either own that money or the money owns you. Your only goal is to be the master of money because, well, the alternative is terrible.

Rule number seven: You have to seduce money; don't let money seduce you. Money is slippery in the same way that a knife in the hands of a professional sushi chef is a loyal servant. In the hands of a child, that knife becomes a dangerous weapon. Money has the appeal of showing you everything you can do with it, all that is possible. It's easy to fall prey to its charms because who wouldn't want to fulfill their fantasies? But that's exactly how money escapes from you. The moment you give in, that's when you open up that door, and money slips away.

You've seen it numerous times with people who won incredible fortunes and ended up broke and miserable just a few years later.

Rule number eight: Money doesn't grow on trees unless you plant the right seeds. For some reason, people are only familiar with the first half of this rule. Everybody who's ever planted an apple tree knows what it takes to get to enjoy those apples. You first need to find the seed, then the right soil, water it, nurture it, take care of it, protect it from external forces, give it enough time, enough sunshine, and attention, and you'll eventually get to eat your apples.

This is exactly the same way you build a fortune. You've never planted the right seeds and never went through the process. That's why you don't have your own money tree yet. In the real world, we call these investments or businesses. Even the tallest tree started out as a seed, but seeds by themselves don't grow into beautiful apple trees. No, these seeds that we're speaking of are ideas. The world is filled with seeds, and the best thing is they are free. Ideas are free. You are the gardener; the seeds are the ideas. The sooner you plant this seed and begin nurturing it, the sooner you can eat those damn apples.

Rule number nine: Don't let your money get bored, because money hates getting bored. Okay? It hates it so much that it usually either dies off or flees to someone else who knows what to do with it. Money is kind of like a mako shark; it has to keep on swimming if it wants to stay alive. Money loses value when it sits and grows in value when it's used. Here's something you're probably unaware of: if you had $50,000 and put it under your bed for 10 years, at the end of that trial, your $50,000 will be worth approximately $30,000 in real marketplace value.

That happens because of inflation: the rise of property prices, developments, the cost of living increases, etc. That's the cost of letting money get bored. Put enough money aside for a rainy day and have it protected from inflation. Everything else? Use it to fortify your castle. Build things, grow things; use that money for what it's meant to be used for.

Rule number ten: Spend less than you earn. Now, we know this sounds obvious, but we still can't believe just how many people break this fundamental rule. There's a large population who just doesn't care about the reasons. They credit card everything. And there's an even larger portion of this population who spends everything they earn. The first ones are already drowning; the second ones are one wave away from joining them. Your inability to control your thirst for spending is the reason why you don't feel like your life is moving forward.

These people get seduced by money. They enslave themselves with bad debt. They let their pride and emotions take control of their spending. All debt is inevitably paid back with interest. If you can't afford to buy it now, you cannot afford to buy it with interest on top. If you're one of those people who don't like to budget things because it makes them feel cheap, it's okay, as long as you still obey this fundamental rule. You can either spend less or earn more. The choice is yours.

Rule number eleven: Money is your personal army; it should go out there and bring back prisoners. Billionaire investor Kevin O'Leary kept pushing this metaphor, and you know now it's something that we've incorporated into the way we think about money. Every dollar you have is like a personal soldier. Every morning, you send them out into the battlefield. Some will die; some will conquer. Your goal is for more of them to return back home with prisoners.

If you start thinking about your dollars as freedom soldiers, you'll begin to be a lot more careful with the troops you give away. When someone asks to borrow some of your soldiers, every time you give someone money, you run the risk of this person killing your soldiers and never seeing them again—soldiers that otherwise would have served you very well.

Rule number twelve: The right partner can make you rich; the wrong partner can make you poor. You'll never understand just how expensive it is to be with the wrong person until you are in that relationship. The wrong person can hold you down. They're so close to you they have the power to alter your fate. They can help you to build wings for growth, or they can chain you to the ground.

We cannot stress enough just how important it is to be with the right person, someone to call your partner who is willing to go through this journey we call life together with you. You need this person to be strong, competent, and have the same goals and desires as you do because the road ahead of you will be filled with ups and downs, with hardships, and nobody who isn't fully committed to this journey will be able to push through. So, find the right person, and life will be a marvelous adventure.

Rule number thirteen: Money will solve all of your money problems, nothing less, nothing more. For some reason, people expect money to solve every problem out there. And look, okay? It's true; it can solve most of the problems, but certainly not every single one of them. Money is like a universal key that can open up more related locks. Need a roof over your head? Money can solve that. Wondering what you're going to eat tonight? Money's got you covered. Your kids need school supplies? Money to the rescue.

These are all money issues; money works for these. But it's stupid to think that just because you've got a key, you can go through a brick wall if there's no door in sight. If you're poor, all you see is money problems. Once you overcome these, you end up realizing there are other types of problems out there where money has little to no power.

Rule number fourteen: There are people who have money and then there are people who are wealthy. So, what does wealth mean, and when do you know you're wealthy? Well, for us, wealth is that point in your life where your desires and expectations match your reality. That's when you win. But it's about the winning combination of all pillars in your life: emotional, intellectual, physical, relationships, and finances. It's pretty much like collecting all of the Infinity Stones for a successful life.

Some people are lucky if they get one or two out of those five. The peculiar thing is that these pillars are connected. It's hard to win at relationships when you're emotionally damaged. It's hard to build your financial empire if your relationship sucks, and so on. This is why you see rich people who are not happy or fulfilled in their pursuit of financial gain. They forgot about all of the other important pillars.

Rule number fifteen: Your rewards in life will always be in exact proportion to your contribution. If you've ever questioned why you earn as much as you do currently, it's because of this rule. This is the recipe for calculating how much reward a person should receive. The bigger the contribution, the bigger their reward. If you serve 10 people, your reward will inevitably be smaller than someone who serves a million people.

This applies to the poorest person and the richest person. It's the foundation of value. Starting today, you can immediately increase how much money you can earn if you just follow this rule. In order to increase your rewards, you have to increase your contribution, and you can do this by serving more people, improving the quality of your service, or finding new ways to contribute. This is all there is to it.

Write these three things down and go through them every day until you figure out how to apply any of these three in your life, and you'll immediately see a jump in the rewards you receive. Any of these 15 rules we've mentioned are valuable and strong enough to build wealth for those who not only are aware of them but put them to good use.

And, of course, for those of you who always stick with us until the end, we've got a bonus. And that bonus today is: Would you rather be tired or broke? Because it is your choice, okay? We believe this from the bottom of our hearts. Every person can achieve financial success if they choose to stop being lazy. Most people think that being lazy is the opposite of working hard, but that's not quite the truth.

If all it took was working hard, then the richest people in the world would be coal miners or people installing roofs in July. Being lazy has to do with your mindset, with your choice of picking hard things over convenient things; of reading a self-help book instead of watching reality TV; or sleeping two hours less than your friends so you can work on your project.

Not being lazy requires you to sacrifice comfort in the present for the potential of the future. Not being lazy means doing the things that they are not willing to do today so you can live the way they can't. We really hope this bonus made it worth your while today. If you watched this thing in its entirety, please write "money rules" in the comments. We are so genuinely happy to see when the community engages like that.

We'll see you in the comments, my friend. Until next time, take care.