There are many ways for a person to become wealthy in America today, however by following these 12 anchors of building wealth, you are increasing your chances of success. Here is a brief summary of the 12 anchors that will lead you on a path to prosperity.

Establish Your Financial Blueprint. This identifies where your finances are today: your income, expenses (and net income), and your net worth (i.e. your assets minus your liabilities). It’s surprising how many people can not tell you their net worth, or really don’t want to.

Establish Your Financial Independence Day. This is your goal – the result you will obtain by following the Wealth Cycle. You identify your expected net monthly income and net worth within a particular time frame. This is the lighthouse that guides you through the investment seas.

Conduct a Gap Analysis. What’s the gap between your destination and your starting point? The Gap Analysis helps you to determine which of the remaining nine building blocks you’ll do next. The process varies from individual to individual, so your sequence may differ from what I show here.

Create Multiple Streams of Income. This is not necessarily including your main job. Ideally, this is a business you created (possibly in addition to your job) that will produce additional cash flow for your future investments.

Entity structuring. To increase and sustain your wealth You’ll need to protect your assets and reduce your taxes by creating tax shelters. For example, entities like LLC’s and S Corporations protect you and your money in the long run.

Build a Wealth Account. You will purchase new assets and start new businesses from the money you have saved in your wealth account. You can manage your debt with other funds, but your wealth account money will be strictly used to buy assets. This will increase your monthly cash flow and your net worth.

Buy assets. Become an asset junkie. Invest directly in real estate, businesses, and even oil wells if possible. By doing so, you’ll increase your monthly cash flow and/or your net worth.

Forecasting. Start living and treating your life like a business. Properly forecasting your financial career will increse your wealth account exponentially.

Manage your debt. Reduce your debt(especially your consumer debt) – not first, but along with building your wealth account and buying assets. Often, your debt payments can be made from the money you earn on your assets, instead of from your paycheck.

Lead your wealth team. Work on your leadership skills so that you are leading your accountant, real estate agent, attorney, assistants, and others. Building your wealth is up to you, so don’t leave it in the hands of others.

Develope a strong mental muscle. All wealthy and successful people have developed a strong mental and emotional muscle. Basically, what keeps most people from becoming wealthy isn’t a lack of opportunity or time– it’s how they think and perceive things. Start thinking like a millionaire, and you’ll soon find yourself acting like a millionaire. Before long, you will BE a millionaire.

Work and Build a team. There is no such thing as a “Self-Made Millionaire.” There are only Team-Made millionaires. All the Donald Trump’s, Oprah’s of the world could not do it alone. They needed a team to get to where they are today.. So go out and build your team of investors, accountants, agents, mentors, and professionals. They will undoubtly get you to where you want to go financially.

I just can’t swing it!

Think it sounds too hard? Before you start to place all these negative financial thoughts in your head, let me ask you this? If you don’t put away for yourself and family who else is going to do it for you? If you’re a college graduate with a new job, you can’t wait till 35 or 40 to start thinking about putting money aside for retirement. If you’re a young married couple you should not believe that you need a new house, car, sofa, entertainment center, and any material goods you desire are more important than securing your financial future.

Debt will not help you

Ok, so you’re putting money aside in your mutual funds or 401k, but have accumulated a great deal of debt along the way. When it comes to finance, a positive plus a negative does not equal something postive. Look at it this way… we were not born into the world for the purpose of supporting Visa, Mastercard, and all the mortgage companies that gave us all these loans. One measure of our existence is to work towards creating a pleasant life and creating a prosperous future for ourselves and family.

Taking control of your personal finances creates a sense of empowerment that will reach and improve other areas of your life. The freedom that comes from knowing that you and your family are no longer a servant to the mighty dollar and that you can withstand any financial circumstances that may arise in future cannot be expressed in words. Honestly, I’m am not there yet but I know by paying myself first it will eventually push me towards that greater goal of being financially independent. Start today!!