This Issue: Keep Your Nest Egg Growing and Safe

A note from the Editor: Donald J. Trump recently contributed a series of posts to the Trump Blog about the Seven Deadly Sins. With their unique way of applying ancient wisdom to achieving success today, they scored a bit success with our readers. I decided to collect these seven posts and combine them into this story, which delivers all of that wisdom in just one dose. Take a little time reading this story and reflecting on it. It will shorten your path to success.

Recently, I read an article from Careerbuilder.com about the Seven Deadly Workplace Sins. I’d have to agree that the authors did a pretty good job of pinpointing the vices that can surely get you in trouble at work. Missing only the stone tablets and Moses, they’re some pretty good sins to avoid if you want to succeed professionally.

Here’s the full list of the sins.

1.      Pride

2.      Envy

3.      Anger

4.      Greed

5.      Sloth

6.      Gluttony

7.      Lust

Taken without explanation, it sounds highly biblical. And I’d even argue that you need a lot of these traits, at least in small doses. But let me break it down and give you my take on each one.

Pride

In one sense, pride is absolutely necessary. You have to be proud of your work, proud of your accomplishments, proud of your abilities. That’s an undeniable given. Personally, I don’t want people working for me who aren’t confident in their talents and skills and aren’t pleased with their success.

But there’s a fine line. Rarely do people achieve everything alone. Be sure to acknowledge the work and the contributions of your co-workers. If your ego gets too big for the room, you lose the respect and the support of your team. And no one can go it alone.

Also, avoid taking too much pride in the moment. There is no eye of the tiger in a complacent man. To stay on top, you must keep learning and adapting. Trump University has many resources that will keep you at the pinnacle of your business performance, like our courses in wealth creation.

Envy

Jealousy is stupid. It is a waste of time and it’s destructive. Nothing good can ever come of it, so there’s definitely no room for it in the workplace. If a co-worker gets a project or a promotion that you wanted, then don’t spend time stewing over it or lamenting that it should’ve been yours. Instead, turn the opportunity around.

Use the situation to motivate yourself to work harder, to achieve more so that next time you’ll be the one who gets the chance to make the big deal or who gets the big client or the big raise.

In addition, if your peers see that you are envious of their success, it will do nothing but create a rift between you and that creates an unhealthy working environment. You have to work as a team and that just can’t happen when there’s an underpinning of resentment.

Use someone else’s success to fuel your own motivation.

Anger

This is a tough one. In general, I’d have to agree that anger doesn’t belong in the workplace. It can create a hostile environment and people who are prone to angry outbursts are often seen as unprofessional by their employers.

However, I think that leaders occasionally may have to use their anger in the workplace. I don’t mean that they should run around yelling at their employees, slamming doors and punching walls. But often people who are too soft-spoken and easy-going are steamrolled by those who work for them and with them. If they use their tempers wisely and show people that they mean business, all of a sudden those clients and employees and co-workers will sit up and take notice.

Like in all aspects of life, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. You don’t want to be squeaking (or in this case, yelling and screaming and pounding the desk) too often. But if you do it occasionally, you’ll make your point.

Greed

One of my often-quoted sayings is “Greed is good,” so I have mixed feelings about greed being a workplace sin. I believe that you have to be motivated by some sort of insatiability for success. I guess that’s greed in a way. If you’re not driven, you won’t succeed.

Where greed can hurt you is if you want too much too soon and you only consider the short term, forgetting that some time you have to sacrifice the here-and-now in order to plan ahead. It’s worth it in the end when you work hard toward a long-term goal instead of only living in the present.

So, yes, greed is good, because it inspires you and drives you to work hard so you achieve and win and succeed. But don’t let it get in the way of long-term success.

Sloth

There are few things I hate more than laziness. I work very, very hard and I expect the people who work for me to do the same. So if you’re lazy at work, you will get absolutely nowhere. While you’re sitting back twiddling your thumbs, you will watch everyone else whiz right by you on the fast tracks of their careers.

If you want to succeed, you cannot relax. You can’t do just the minimum, just what it takes to get by. Complacency is ridiculous for anyone who has aspirations of success. Treat every day, every project, every client as if your entire career depends upon how you handle it.

I never take vacations because I can’t handle the time away from my work. I recently read that these days, a high percentage of the people who do take vacations tend to check email and voicemail and call in to the office when they leave. Those are the people I want working for me.

Never be lazy. Never be complacent. When you sit down to do nothing, everyone will race by you.

Gluttony

When it comes to success, it’s hard not to want it all. And, to be honest, I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing. This, to me, is a lot like greed. If you have high aspirations and yearnings for big things, then you work hard and long and fast to get it.

But the caution here is that if you gorge yourself on just one thing - like someone sitting down at an incredibly prepared meal who later can’t push away from the table - then you lose. You become overwhelmed by that one experience and maybe too sluggish to tackle other projects or maybe even other parts of your life.

Some people think my work is my life. That’s true in a sense. But I also have time for a wonderful family and some fun, especially golf. Even then, I do business while I’m out on the links, but I enjoy what I do.

Overindulging in any one thing isn’t healthy - even if it’s work. Find a way to maintain some kind of balance and you’ll succeed.

Lust

First of all, it’s not what you’re thinking. Get your mind out of the gutter. When I’m discussing lust in the office, I mean an intense longing for other people’s success or other people’s work instead of your own. (Not an intense longing for the attractive person in the next cubicle.)

Here, they liken the sin of lust in the office to the “grass is always greener” theory. If you are obsessed with what your co-workers are accomplishing or striving for, then it’s guaranteed that your own achievements will pale in comparison.

Don’t become consumed with anything but your own work and your own triumphs. Any other obsession will create a negative environment and foster resentment and just not be constructive.

In the office, the only passion you should have is for your own work and your own victory. Don’t watch anyone else climb the ladder of success. Focus on yourself and you will succeed.

 Does retirement planning scare you?

If so, you’re not alone. As soon as the subject comes up, most people start to sweat. They worry that they haven’t saved enough. Or they blame themselves for waiting too long before thinking about their retirement years.

Put the blame game aside. The good news is, you can change that kind of thinking in a day. You can do it now if you confront the issue of retirement head-on, and take some small steps to get started.

Do the Simple Stuff First

There are lots of complicated things you can do to plan for retirement. You can read reams and reams of complex investors’ information on the Internet. You can meet with an investment advisor and take home a briefcase stuffed with information about stocks, funds and bonds.  You can call your friends and relatives and listen to their advice about what you are doing wrong.

But why start by putting more obstacles in your way? To get a quicker start, take a simple look at the things you already have in place. If you work for a company and have a 401(k), for example, set your contributions to the highest possible level - especially if your employer matches the dollars that you put in. If you forgot to increase your 401(k) contribution after your last raise, do it now. Also monitor your Social Security account so you always know how much income you’ll get when you retire.

Keeping your eye on the basics will add more money to your retirement accounts than you can imagine. Best of all, you are doing that by controlling retirement accounts that you already have - not ones that it will take you months to research, set up and fund.

Start Saving and Investing Today, Not Tomorrow

Thanks to the magic of compounding, even late starts can make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars -maybe hundreds of thousands - and a better-funded retirement.

Starting today gives you a psychological edge too. It builds your confidence and momentum.

A good investment advisor can help. To find the right one, get referrals from four or five friends and meet with the advisors they recommend. To keep your selection simple, go with the advisor who takes the most time with you, who shows interest in your objectives and situation - and who shows no frustration about answering all your investment questions.

If one of them makes you feel dumb for asking basic questions - well, that is a dumb advisor.

Get Realistic about Spending

The point of accruing wealth is to live an interesting and rewarding life. Everyone at Trump University is in agreement with that idea.

But there is a difference between living well and throwing money away. And part of the problem is that some of the acquisitions you make today can cost you a lot of money tomorrow. (And for many of us, “tomorrow” translates into “retirement.”)

For example, the residences you buy today will become more expensive to own in the years ahead. You have to think about that. Property taxes, on luxury residences especially, could well increase four or five times in the next 15-20 years. So the point is, ask your financial planner to help you decide when you are reaching the point of being overextended in your real estate holdings.  Remember that the expenses you can carry today are not necessarily the expenses you can handle tomorrow, because some of them will grow.

Also get in the habit of buying only things that you know you will use and enjoy. When a new gadget appears that you want, wait for the price to fall before you buy it. It makes financial sense to treat money with respect. And if you have children, you’ll teach them the value of what a dollar can buy.

Talk to Your Investment Advisor about Risks

Investment advisors, you have noticed, like to talk about potential earnings - and rarely like to tell you what can go wrong.

The simplest way to learn about risk is to keep aksing about it. Some good questions to ask are: 

• “Is my return on this investment guaranteed by any government agency or some other entity?” 
• “How much money can I lose if this investment fails?”
•  “Do you have your own money in this investment account or vehicle?” (If the answer is no, find out why!)

Remember, you might not hear about risk unless you ask about it.

Get Smart about Your Insurance Coverage

Don’t spend such a fortune on insurance that you become insurance poor. But do buy enough to make sure that your residence, possessions and autos are covered - and that their full replacement value will be yours in the event of catastrophic loss.

Also review your liability coverage. If a guest becomes injured in your yard or home, for example, will you run the risk of losing everything?

The bottom line . . .

When you retire, you want your nest egg to have grown. But you also need it to be safe and sound, because a lot of money that is at risk does not represent security.

Just remember that it is not beyond you to reach those goals. The key is to get started today.

For more wisdom on keeping your assets growing and protected, be sure to read Trump University Asset Protection 101. It is the first book of its kind - the only one to offer truly powerful advice on protecting what you have worked so hard to achieve. 

As billionaire John D. Rockefeller once said, the key to succeeding in business is to “own nothing but control everything,” and that pretty well sums up my strategy for you to properly structure your assets. Let me share with you one of the approaches I explain in my new book, Trump University Asset Protection 101.

Let’s face it. The odds of you or your business (or both) being the subject of a lawsuit at some point are pretty good. Meanwhile, potential plaintiffs are finding more and more creative ways to get their hands on your wealth. To protect your assets, you’ve got to come up with new strategies for using all of the asset protection tools at your disposal, including entities, to make sure that both your personal and business assets are as protected as possible.

One tactic I recommend is separating your trade from the tools of your trade. The strategy is to avoid having direct ownership of the tools you need to conduct your business. The ownership of those tools should be kept out of the name of the business itself.

In many businesses such as construction companies, their primary asset is not any type of inventory but rather their construction equipment: bulldozers, cranes and so forth. What if your construction company simply leased all of its equipment from a separate LLC you create that actually owned all of the equipment?

Once again, should your construction company fall into the hands of a judgment creditor, all you would have to do is wave goodbye to the old business and start a new one with all of your equipment ready for you to use.

This strategy is often used by doctors, dentists, and other businesses too, with high-dollar equipment. By separating the equipment into a separate entity, they safeguard these assets from liability associated with the operation of the trade or business.

To learn even more powerful strategies for protecting your assets, be sure to read Trump University Asset Protection 101, my new book from Trump University.