David Ragland - Wealth Made Simple (yes, really.)

Its summertime in Atlanta and the Olympics are in town. Ive been attending events with friends and family, snapping pictures to memorialize the once in a lifetime event. I rushed to the local drug store to pick up the prints (before the days of digital everything) and I begin flipping through the photos.

After our family dinner that evening, everyone gathered around the table to look at all the pictures. They were awesome; track and field, rowing, baseball events, the venues and all the parties. Everyone laughed and joked about the pictures and about the great times we were all having at the Olympics. I just sat dumbfounded.

Of course I could spot myself in all the photos and I wasnt believing what I was seeing. Was I really that much heavier, okay fatter, than just a few years ago? Waking up every morning and seeing yourself in the mirror you dont really notice the change. Slowly but surely I had put on seventy-five pounds since college and hadnt realized the huge weight gain.

At that moment, I knew I had to make a change. I did not yet know how, but I knew I had to make a change. To me it was simple. I was taking in too many calories every day and because I wasnt exercising, I was gaining weight. I knew that I had to begin exercising and reducing my caloric intake on a daily basis.

Simple, right? Yes. Easy? Not exactly. To date, I have completed sixteen Ironman competitions and its still simple. I exercise every day and I watch what I eat.

I had dinner last evening with an old college roommate. Back in the day, Jeff was the lead guitarist for the local garage band that played for fraternity and sorority socials in Athens, Georgia. Playing these events allowed Jeff to scrape together enough money for tuition and to pitch in and help with the utility bills that kept the heat on during the winter.

Today, its Doctor Jeff and hes a highly respected general surgeon who is the real deal. Forget the TV show ER; Jeff is the guy you want if you ever end up on the operating table. Jeff recounted his day operating on an individual, and as he talked about the surgery, all I could think about was how did he keep everything straight? Half-way through his story I blurted out, Man, that sounds really complicated! He responded, Its simple if you are doing it right.

The next morning I was meeting with Sarah, a new client who is in the process of down-sizing her business. Sarah is happier because she has pared down her employees to herself and a few trusted key players. Sarah is making more money and most importantly, her employees provide greater productivity. What especially caught my attention was what one employee said: There is no more drama in the office and everything is just simpler.

In our world today it is easy to get overwhelmed. With job, family and the internet, someone or something is always begging for your time or attention. With all that goes on, how can you keep up with the latest and greatest ways to grow your wealth? In my twenty five years of working with individuals and companies in growing their wealth, I have come to find that it is really as simple as this: If you have more money going OUT than coming IN, you are in trouble.

As Dr. Jeff said, If you are doing it right, its simple; its when you are doing it wrong that it becomes complicated.

Its just that simple.

Keys to Wealth Building

> THE SIMPLER YOU MAKE ANY TASK, THE EASIER IT IS TO COMPLETE

> FINANCIAL CLUTTER IS THE ENEMY OF WEALTH ACCUMULATION

Growing up in a family of six, I am the youngest of four boys. Dinner time came promptly at 6:30 every night and if you wanted to eat you were on time! At an early age, I learned that I was expected to work and to contribute. First, it was household chores (unpaid, of course). Working outside the home for money came next.

My first recollection was helping my older brothers with the neighborhood lawns. I earned a whopping 25 cents for pushing the lawn mower a couple of miles to and from the yards and then emptying the grass clippings from the bag when they became full.

As soon as I was able, I graduated to having my own lawns which increased my income from 25 cents to $3.00 per lawn. Here I first learned of expense management and the dreaded TAX MAN! You see, my father required us to pay for our own gas and he also deducted $1.00 per lawn as a tax which he collected to fund a new lawn mower every year. Mowing twenty lawns a week required reliable equipment!

At the age of fifteen, I began working at the local Chick-fil-A. There I learned to become a team player and I earned my first real paycheck. While in college, I began working for a bank. Cashing checks, making deposits and opening savings accounts kept me busy during my summer holidays and spring breaks. On Fridays, payday for most people, I would cash checks and pay out more than $20,000.00 in cash. In todays dollars that would be close to $50,000.00! I remember thinking after that first summer that money just became a form of payment and it lost some of its mystery to me.

I was blessed to be able to graduate from college in four years with both my undergraduate degree in accounting and a masters in tax accounting. I was ready to GO! The time had come to get out there and conquer the world without having to listen to my parents. I had been working for fourteen years mowing lawns, working fast food and cashing checks. My time to make some REAL money had arrived!

How quickly my outlook changed. Before graduating, I had loving parents who helped support me throughout college. While working summers, they paid the housing, food, insurance and utilities. My income only had to cover my car and gas. Now I had to cover everything. I realized early that I no longer had to listen to my parents, but I was now working for the man nonetheless. I had bills to pay every month and when the alarm clock went off, I did not have a choice of whether to get up or not. I got up!

In 1986, I was facing another forty-three years of working before I could retire at the age off sixty-five.

This was NOT fair! I had already been working for such a long time. At that moment, I dreamed of only one thing: Financial Freedom.