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Keys to Financial Freedom
Part 2: Building Wealth

Last month we covered financial defense: how to avoid debt and protect your credit rating. This week we look at the financial offense, how to make, save and multiply your money. Below I've included some tips from the super-successful in personal finance.

Panelists will include Julie Bordelon, Steve Miller and another guest.

What We Can Learn From Financially Successful People

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants. (Isaac Newton, hero to Einstein)

Professor Thomas J. Stanley studied over 700 multi-millionaires, super-successes at both business and accumulating wealth, asking them what factors were most important to their success. Below we listed only those items deemed important by over 50% of them. What a goldmine of advice! Reflecting on these helps us to see where to put our greatest efforts in getting ahead in life. Here's how they responded:

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SUCCESS FACTOR	TOTAL RESPONDING EITHER "VERY IMPORTANT" OR "IMPORTANT"
Being well disciplined	95%
Getting along with people	94%
Being honest with all people	90%
Working harder than most people	88%
Loving my career/business	86%
Being very well organized	85%
Having strong leadership qualities	84%
Having an ability to sell my ideas/products	82%
Having a supportive spouse	81%
Having a very competitive spirit/personality	81%
Making wise investments	76%
Willing to take financial risk given the right return	74%
Having good mentors	73%
Seeing opportunities others do not see	72%
Having extraordinary energy	71%
Having an urge to be well respected	69%
Finding a profitable niche	69%
Having a high IQ/superior intellect	67% (only 20% of these were "very important")?/font>
Being my own boss	65%
Being physically fit	65%
Investing in my own business	54%
Specializing	53%
Ignoring the criticism of detractors	51%

Today's Tips:

• Take the top three or top five, write them on a slip of paper, and work on improving them for the week.?/font>
• Which traits are you strong in? Which do you lack?
• Reflect on each "success factor." Note which factors are a surprise to you. Think of why those traits may be more important than you once thought.?/font>