Dear Leslie:

We have a quick question for you. We have been intrigued and energized by the Bob Proctor Success Puzzle tapes we recently purchased from you. In combination with your Jackrabbit Factor and Hidden Treasures books, they have really helped us to understand the laws of financial success. However, we have an unresolved question that has arisen. On one of the tapes, Bob Proctor suggests that if someone would like to afford and buy a house of their liking, they should just go buy it, then the means will come for them to afford it. We may misunderstand what he is saying, but this is the message we have taken from his statement.

Currently, we find ourselves in this very situation. We feel a need to move to a new location and a larger home, but we frankly can’t afford it. We have shopped around and have found a home that is an excellent buy, but it is still beyond our reach. We are working on additional sources of income (our rabbits), but they are taking some time to develop. We feel that to be financially prudent, we should be able to afford the house payments on our current base income and let any additional income be used for some of the other good things in life.

Here is the question. We've been advised to only purchase a modest home that we can afford and that we should live within our means. Not that we shouldn't increase our means, but that at any given time, we should live within our current means.

Based on your experience and philosophy, would you recommend that a family first develop the means, then buy the home of their liking, or buy the home of their liking first, which is beyond their current means, then allow additional means to present themselves? The latter seems to contradict the leaders of the Church, but you may have an insight that we have overlooked.

Thank you so much for the excellent resources you have provided and thank you for any insights you can provide regarding our question.

Sincerely, T and J

My response:

First of all, always live within your means.

Never make a purchase based on an expectation that you will somehow increase your means to cover the obligation. If the way is already identified, that's not as risky, but still, be wise.

There is a time and a season for everything, and in my experience there was a time for us to slow down and lay a better financial foundation, (even while people all around us were getting all the things we desperately wanted for ourselves), and there was a time for us to reap the benefits and enjoy an increased measure of prosperity.

These seasons are cyclical.

The concepts I learned helped me believe that one day the prosperity would happen for us, and gave me the courage to believe it was actually okay to reap a few benefits when the season for the harvest finally came. Without the principles, I would have been too afraid to receive them.

This is why it's so important to rely on personal inspiration to get the timing right. There are different times to put money to different purposes.

At a time when we were solidly bent on putting all the money we had into the purchase of our home so that it would have no mortgage, we were stopped at every turn until we finally considered the possibility that there was something else we were supposed to do with that money.

Once we finally started to listen again, we felt directed (against our comfort level) to get a larger home (so that we could finally settle down and focus on other things) and only put half of our money into it, leaving us with a mortgage. The mortgage payment was well within our means, but this choice was much less comfortable than the idea of having no mortgage at all.

To proceed with getting a mortgage was counter to what we originally thought was best, and we couldn't understand the reason until more than 6 months later, when we realized that the money needed to be liquid so that we could publish the book ourselves, something that benefited us in ways we never could have predicted.

I can't directly counsel someone to do half the stuff we've done, because timing, purpose, and direction will be different for everyone on each person's path. The only real security lies in gathering all the wisdom you can, making the wisest choice you know, and then seeing if you can get the peaceful assurance - your own personal revelation - that you're on the right track.

Some of the things we've done might appear irresponsible and foolish from the outside looking in, and we would never publish half of it. The main key is to do your research and then trust your own instincts. With a good understanding of general guidelines, if you do something completely outrageous, you are consciously aware of what you're doing and why, and can move forward with an assurance that you've made the right choice for you.

Bottom line, the principles I teach are there to help a person overcome the fear of following the right inner voice. They are not there to help a person overcome the fear of doing something stupid.

_________________

•   To discover how to start choosing more effectively now, read The Jackrabbit Factor (FREE!)  
•   If you want more step-by-step guidance on creating the life you really want, join me in the Mindset Mastery program.
•   If you want my help overcoming that giant obstacle right in front of you, learn more and sign up for Genius Bootcamp.