Many so-called experts will tell you, "In order to be rich, you have to live below your means”. It’s the IDEA that you should not spend more money than you bring in each month.

The reasoning behind this “lie” is...

Many people are poor because they cannot control their spending. As soon as they get their paycheck, they go on a shopping spree, spending it all on things like clothes, cars, and more. And the only way to stop this cycle of financial destruction is living below your means.

On the surface, it makes sense. You shouldn’t outspend your income on things like liabilities. 

But the idea of restricting your means is a poor mindset. Only poor people would think like that.

The rich don’t think of restricting their means, they think of ways to expand their means.

As kids, whenever we wanted something nice, my poor dad would say, “We can’t afford that”. When we pushed back and asked again, he would say, “The most important lesson I can teach you is living below your means”.

The funny thing is, by many standards my dad was well off. He had a good, stable, high-level government job. He was well educated. But he knew nothing about money...

As a result, even though my poor dad preached the idea of living below your means, he struggled financially all his life.

The problem with adopting this kind of mindset is, it teaches you to think too narrowly. Rather than teaching you to be creative in making more money, it teaches you to be merciless on what you spend your money on.
If you live below your means, you can never add assets, so you’ll never break the chain of cutting costs to afford something.

The good news is, anyone can begin to shift from a live-below-your-means mindset to an expand-your-means mindset...