Welcome to Savvy Wealth Tools
Essential tools for the mind and journey of the active wealth builder
Savvy Wealth Tools is for Active Wealth Builders
1. I learned the hard way that there are smarter ways to build wealth.
The secret is there is no secret, but the myths, lies, and noise of conventional and mainstream strategies can lead you off course, like they did me.
Like many of you, I started out doing what I was supposed to. I went to school, got a good job (software engineer), and after several years, I could plainly see it wasn’t going to get me where I wanted to go. There was no end in sight to the grueling work and not much to show for it. I began looking for other paths.
I started businesses with my wife, but whether the wrong times or ideas, we worked extraordinarily hard, didn’t success financially, and left with major health problems and massive debts. Some would call those experiences failures, but they were also some of the most important learning.
I went back to full time work at a consulting firm, got an MBA from University of Chicago, then went another consulting firm, and eventually got downsized by surprise. I told myself I would never again let someone do that to me. I took control of my future by launching a real estate investing business and learned the hard way how to make and lose money in real estate. I climbed out of massive debt from grad school, business debt, and credit cards in large part because of the voracious learning I tackled to learn real estate investing.
That learning was incredibly helpful, but the ability to find profitable deals and get projects done was only part of the game. I had strong successes but also some abysmal failures. A few problems were from newbie mistakes in analysis, and some were from challenging partners that led to projects with massive cost and schedule overruns that I had to cover, investments outside my wheelhouse, and recovery from years of partner embezzlement.
But all problems of all sorts eventually traced back to me. Not because of missing strategies, techniques, checklists, mentors, or coaches on investing. Not a lack of capital or reserves. Not a mistake in analysis. The root causes were failure to perceive and guide my inner game.
The inner game is deeper than emotions. Emotions come up, and we might use them for guidance (or not!), but the inner game is the work we do that aligns emotions, thinking, and action. Without awareness of and work on the inner game, we can do lots of things that are out of alignment. Have you ever done something you knew was off kilter - what you say you want vs. what you really want? (E.g., eat donuts instead of apples; went to the bar instead of the gym - the possibilities are endless). Which is true? Which did you really want? How does your action reflect what truly matters to you?
Early in my real estate investing career, I was considering a land development investment with a partner from previous projects that had gone well. The numbers were fine, but this project was outside my experience and expertise, and I was relying on my partner to make it successful. In the bigger picture, though, I was investing on behalf of my wife and me for our future - not just for a hobby. After I invested, I told my wife, “I wanted to be a good partner!” Now, regardless of the deal, the partner, the numbers, the results… if I’m being truly honest about the real justification for this investment - what was it? My anxiety about not being a good partner led me to do a project that could have caused serious problems since I didn’t have the expertise.
Another project was a residential fix-and-flip project with a different partner, with whom I had completed a successful project before. On that one, the project got tied up for years for various reasons. During this time, I began hearing feedback from others that this partner was causing problems for others in our network, and they were losing money. It’s a long, sordid story, but what really matters is that my wife, who has a keen sense of people, had an inkling on the first deal with this partner that something was off. Is that enough evidence to kill an otherwise good deal? She was trusting me (and my focus, of course was numbers!), and I was pushing hard to do more deals and work with experienced partners. If my wife had had more confidence and courage to raise her concern with me, and I had listened more carefully to her and refined my sense about people instead of focusing exclusively on numbers, together we might have avoided a bad partnership. My over-reliance on perceived experts and my drive to keep making things happen for our future led me to enter a partnership that eventually cost us over $60,000 in losses.
The progress we had made with hard work and a lot of money at risk had major setbacks through just a couple of bad decisions. As disappointing as those experiences were, I raised my awareness of the inner game and my contributions to the challenges we were facing. These projects and interactions that led to serious problems showed me the layers beneath the numbers, beneath the partnerships, and beneath the effort. My wealth building capacity required better decisions and smarter actions. But what leads to better decisions and smarter actions? It’s the awareness of the inner game and knowing how to work on it.
I created Savvy Wealth Tools to share how, after 25 years of twists and turns in career, business, investing, and life, I had done the right work on myself to choose better goals, better education, better mentors, better information sources, and better partners. I had learned smarter strategies and better skills so I could make better decisions and get the most benefit for my capital and energy invested. I got to that place by working on my inner game, growing my ability to align intention, emotions, thinking, and action.
2. My Wealth Building Point of View
My point of view on wealth building is that your wealth depends on your ability to start, grow, and protect the compounding of your wealth. Myths, lies, noise, and other forces interfere with your compounding but only if you allow it. You begin wherever you are, and your wealth building capacity depends on
your ability to recognize and navigate the forces that affect your wealth compounding
your ability to manage the forces that affect your decision making
your ability to ensure the right actions happen to start, grow, and protect your wealth compounding
I understand many aspects of wealth building are outside your control. I intentionally frame my point of view with the ways YOU can control your wealth if you choose, and if you do the work on your inner game.
I continue to see advice out there that leads people to compromise their wealth compounding. I want people to have access to the ideas and tools I have found or built that have helped me escape or avoid poor wealth building choices.
Your journey to wealth might include ideas and strategies you’ve learned so far, some of what I’ve learned so far, and perhaps strategies you discover later. Although I may mention investing strategies, I cannot offer personal financial advice, and my investing experience and knowledge may not be appropriate for what you’re facing.
What I had to learn may not be exactly what you need next, but the work you do on yourself potentially pays off in better decision making in all areas of your life and leads you to more wisdom, peace, and happiness on your journey.
My ultimate goal is to help you see yourself more deeply and with more clarity so you can navigate the Financial Hall of Mirrors and get more of the best out of yourself in the inner game of wealth building.
3. We are wealth building explorers and doers.
I help curious self starters. We are the kind who like to know how things work. We’re not content just to do what someone else advises. We want to understand how to determine appropriate goals, how to make excellent decisions, how to build more competence, how to grow better or faster, how to be strong, how to be nimble, how to adapt when things change, and how to succeed when things get tough.
I hope to engage with readers who are in the game and want to try, learn, and adapt. Your questions and ideas are welcome, and hopefully I can shed insight or references to further your goals.
In this community, we will discuss patterns of Life, the Mind, and Wealth. The decisions we make can lead to opportunities, constraints, and risks. The Financial Hall of Mirrors out there can lead us to shoot ourselves in the foot. It certainly did that to me many times.
It can be a major challenge to get on a solid wealth-building track if we started off on paths that don’t really go where we hoped. It can be hard to switch paths to a new way especially when the new way is something you were taught is wrong. The shifts often must begin in our minds because the path we know doesn’t go where we were told it would. We use critical thinking and creativity. We need both.
At times, I will post spreadsheet tools you can use to see for yourself the ideas I’m trying to convey. With the utmost humility, I say I have experienced and learned the hard way a huge amount about money and investing, and I continue to be a student.
3. Posts
After I start with some fundamental content - several posts - I intend to post once or twice a week. Most content will be free. Some of the advanced concepts may be introduced for free but then fleshed out in subscriber content along with advanced spreadsheets. Some of the ideas require more background, and for the moment, I’m not planning to create the courses to provide all that background. However, I will provide references to books, courses, and mentors I have used or am using even now that can help you on your quest.
Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only. You should not construe any information or other material contained here or on our Sites at www.savvywealthtools.com or savvywealthtools.substack.com, as legal, tax, investment, financial, or any other professional advice. Nothing contained here or on our Sites constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer, by Savvy Wealth Tools or its owners, affiliates, or third party service providers to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.