53 Billion

I’m not talking about some national debt or a new bailout plan or any other political suicide bill that Washington DC is debuting. I’m talking about your time.

The polling firm Nielsen specifically reports that they have tallied 140,336,000 Facebook users in the United States. And they have further documented that 53.5 billion minutes of Facebook time is spent each month by Facebook users here in the United States. Divided that 53 Billion minutes by the 140,336,000 users and then by the 31 days of each month and you come up with an average time spent per person per day on Facebook, here in the United States, of 12.30 minutes. [i]

Now I use Facebook, fact is I have two accounts, one personal and one for Life Benefits, but I spend less than 5 minutes a week actually on Facebook. So statistically other users are spending more than their 12.30 minutes a day to make up for the 81.10 minutes per week that I’m not spending on Facebook.

This brings up a very interesting thought. One thing I often hear from people just beginning to learn about privatized banking is that it must take a lot of time. Well, with the record keeping necessary for documenting the loans and tracking the payments and the interest calculations it does takes some time. But the truth is the time it takes might be 30 to 40 minutes a week. Put into perspective this is less than half the time folks are spending on Facebook every week.

Now I like the way Facebook accomplishes the social services that it provides. Fact is the small amount of time that it requires to maintain that social contact is what makes it so attractive to me. And not only me but obviously many others as well. But what can you expect to get in return for spending 30 to 40 minutes a week learning the concepts behind “Becoming Your Own Banker?”

To start with what about increasing your positive cash flow?

Most business people realize that cash flow over a specific period of time can either be positive or negative. With a positive cash flow you’ll have more operational, investment and financing options and capabilities. With a negative cash flow these same options and capabilities will be non-existent.

The same is true in your personal life. The more cash flow that you have the greater your opportunity is for taking that vacation, buying that new car or even giving more to your favorite charity. With negative cash flow you might even be forced to sell your car and buy a less desirable one, forgo your vacation and cut back on the amount you are giving to charitable causes.

Learning how privatized banking works can increase your liquidity.

Suppose all you owned was the inventory in your local Wal-Mart Superstore. That’s a lot of stuff and you’d be considered pretty wealthy by most folks! But along with that ownership suppose you had no way of liquidating it... i.e., selling those goods to others...because regulations kept you from giving, selling, or bartering that merchandise for goods and services that you really need or desire? You’d be in a bad way because you can’t possibly use all those goods yourself and living in a Wal-Mart Superstore is not the most luxurious living quarters.

The same is true of the method you’ve chosen to provide for your future needs. If you have all the money in the world but it’s tied up in a plan which prevents you from using it now and/or penalizes you heavily when you eventually do take it out, you’re hardly any better off than if you didn’t own that money at all. But that is exactly what most people have been encouraged to do. Save for your future in a place which penalizes you heavily when you take it out and regulates you from using it now.
By “Becoming Your Own Banker” you avoid the penalties and therefore your liquidity is increased. Increased liquidity allows for you to grow your capital (sell, trade, or give away all those goods in your Wal-Mart Superstore) and keep the profits.

A third advantage of “Becoming Your Own Banker” is that you control the time value of your money.

A banker uses the time value of money in his favor to win at the “borrow and lending” game.

When a banker borrows $100.00 (takes your deposit) they turn around and loan your $100.00 out to others. If the bank agrees to pay you 1% over a 1 year period of time for your deposit they may charge me 3% over that same 1 year period of time to borrow that your dollar from their bank. In this scenario the bank earns $2.00 and you as the depositor would make only $1.00.

Now, if the banker allows me to borrow your $100.00 from his bank and pay it back over time, he will benefit from the time value of money. Over the next 4 years I’ll pay the same 3% interest rate and the banker will make $2.16 while you as the depositor will make $4.08.

But consider what is happening here. As I pay back my loan to the bank the first year the banker is able to loan out again the part of your $100.00 that I paid him back. This, repeated throughout the 4 year time period, will increase the money a banker profits off your dollar because each time the banker lends out your money again he earns 100% of the profits on those loans because the $100.00 lent to me in the first loan is paying for all the interest that the banker has to pay you for your deposit. By using your dollar more than once the banker increases his profit...this is called velocity of money and it doesn’t cost the banker a dime to accomplish. Each time the banker loans your money out again in this 4 year time period is just pure profit for the banker as he doesn’t have to pay you again for the use of your dollar.

When you become your own banker you get to capitalize on this velocity of money just like a banker does by leveraging with your own dollars. This means higher interest earnings (volume of interest) which banks always enjoy because of the time value of money working in their favor.

Finally, “Becoming Your Own Banker” frees up your time.

We are all constrained by time. There are only so many hours in a given day.
With increased cash flow, increase liquidity and learning the skills to actually control the velocity and time value of your own money, you will have mastered the art of creating more time. Time to enjoy life, time to help others, time to explore other interests, time to develop further skills, time to be with family, time to travel, time to live, time to...just be you!

Awhile back I posted on my Facebook Wall a question. It went like this. “What would your world be like if you spent as much time learning something new as you do on Facebook?” I didn’t get any Likes or Comments on that post. Maybe my Facebook friends didn’t have time to post a response. But my point was and still is...life is short and time is limited...what are you doing to make your days and hours count most?

For me and the hundreds of clients we have helped with “Becoming Your Own Banker,” the answer is easy... improved quality of life.

If you had more cash flow, more liquidity and more control over your financial future you’d see and increase in the quality of your life too. The method is simple and you can start today by downloading your free copy of the book Prescription for Wealth, then call me and find out how easy and timely “Becoming Your Own Banker” really is.

By Tomas McFie

[i] Social Media Report: Q3 2001