Self-Made: How to Win by Investing in Yourself

Self-Made:

How to Win by Investing in Yourself

Written by:

Carling D. Colbert, Sr.

Cadmus Publishing

www.cadmuspublishing.com

Copyright © 2023 Carling D. Colbert, Sr.

Published by Cadmus Publishing

www.cadmuspublishing.com

Port Angeles, WA

ISBN: 978-1-63751-080-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021921382

Cover Artist: L. Caldwell

All rights reserved. Copyright under Berne Copyright Convention, Universal Copyright Convention, and Pan-American Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

This publication is designed to provide competent and reliable information regarding the subjects covered. However, it is sold with the understanding that the author and publisher(s) are not engaged in rendering legal, financial, or professional advice. The materials presented in this book is for information purposes. While care has been taken to present the concepts in an accurate and updated fashion, the author makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for errors or omission. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or ensuing out of the use of the information contained here. Where the information is to be relied upon by the user, the information should be independently verified. The author and publisher(s), specifically, disclaim any liability that is incurred from the use or application of the contents of this book.

Dedication:

I would like to dedicate my work to my beautiful mother, Betty M. Thomas, who gave me life and loved me despite circumstances. This also goes out to my wonderful children: Carlee A’Tyshia-Bethani Colbert; Carling Durrell Colbert II; Daniel Cyntier Colbert, and Landen Tyler-Alexzander Colbert. I love you all and wrote this as a testament to a better future for our generation and generations to come.

Acknowledgements

I would like to first give thanks to the Great Architect of the Universe for the mighty blessing that had been bestowed upon me, and for keeping me in the light when darkness was all around me. Secondly, I want to acknowledge my three lovely sisters for supporting me over the last few years, especially my knee-baby, Ennis D. Thomas-Samuel. I couldn’t have done this without you, literally. I also want to thank my friends and associates that I’ve met through the military, especially those post military who have been support systems. This book has been a blessing to my life and I wouldn’t have started the writing process if it wasn’t for encouragement from my two college professors, Angela Consoni and Dr. Waller, who both taught at the Community College I attended.

I also want to give thanks to the people who are no longer here that gave me valuable lessons of the world that I’ve used throughout this publication. And to those of you who purchased this book, I send you my deepest gratitude. Your support will not only help me and my family, but others as well. I’ve made an obligation to give back by contributing a portion of all sales on any book I publish to Operation HOT GRITS and other charities/organizations. You can read more about it in the section about who I am at the end of the book. Finally, I’d like to thank my publisher and everyone who helped bring this to fruition from the artist, to the editors, and all the distributors who now have a place for me on their shelf or e-book catalog. I am thankful that a young Black man from a small town called Reynolds, Georgia can have a big impact on so many people. May the Great Architect of the Universe continue to shine his light on you all. So, mote it be.

Introduction

Were you financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic? Did it cost you or someone you know their job? Was the government and those stimulus packages a life raft during a chaotic 2020? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you chose the right book to help prevent another financial outbreak. This publication was written with several goals that I seek to accomplish by the time you finish reading it:

Establish a financial foundation on which you can build

Expand your knowledge base on various financial investments/securities in which to build wealth and create cash flows

Educate you on IRA wealth building strategies and

Extinguish the preconceived notion that money is evil

I know it may not be possible to accomplish the following goals with one or two books, but if I can achieve just one of them with you by the end of your read, then this book is a success.

Success in life is about becoming what you want to be, and by purchasing this book I deduce that you want to change your current financial situation. Therefore, I’d like to thank you for choosing this particular title to begin your journey to becoming self-made. Since a young age, I wanted to be financially free but grew up being taught that money was evil, especially having a lot of it. There were people in my socioeconomic group that didn’t truly understand the concept of money and continued to spread this vicious untruth when the truth is the love of money is the root of all evil. It wasn’t until I hit rock bottom and had a burning desire to change my financial situation, thus allowing my superior self to shine, that I was able to become a self-made man. Not everyone who has obtained financial success is greedy or unscrupulous. Yes, there are people who have achieved their status in life by using unsavory methods and this, more than likely, stemmed from a scarcity mentality, as well as, a lack of knowledge about money and finance. However, this doesn’t describe everyone who has achieved self-made status. To get where I want to take you in this book, it’s important to start having an abundance mentality. By thinking in this manner, you’ll start to look differently at the world and concepts like money, education, risks, and work.

Money

Money is a construct that was created as a medium of exchange or store of value; it’s essentially what we agree it is. Back in the day it was cattle; for some people it’s stones; and for others, inmates, it could be based on a bartering system that consists of cigarettes, food, drugs, or some other form of entertainment that serves as currency. The currency that we have in the United States was once based on the gold standard and made it worth something, but was taken off that standard in 1971, when former-President Richard Nixon closed the gold window. This then put us on the dollar standard, which is a fiat currency. What that means is that the currency is worth whatever the issuing entity states it’s worth. It’s based on trust and faith that the strength of the currency will last and not become worthless. This is why you need an abundance mentality and the ability to think differently about money. Maybe one day soon there will be no physical currency and it will all be digital. We already have Bitcoin and non-fungible tokens (NFT) that are taking over. Money has changed forms multiple times throughout the years and will continue to evolve; so should you.

A large number of people who are considered poor or middle class tend to see money as a way to get things, while the rich and wealthy see it as a tool to invest. Take how lower income people create scams, some wealthy individuals, too, that take money away from people only to spend it and come up with some new scheme. Or take how when lower income people get raises, bonuses, or a tax refund, most tend to spend it on things of no real value, or their expenses rise with their pay. I may be philosophical when I say this, but if you look closely at my previous statement about money being what we agree it is, then you can essentially get something for nothing. Imagine if you purchased a multifamily apartment complex with today’s U.S. Dollar and five years from now the dollar becomes worthless or all currency becomes digital. You seemingly got this building for nothing. Also, for the record, I’m not advocating that you don’t enjoy the fruits of you labor and only invest, what I am saying is that most people choose, whether consciously or unconsciously, to buy things out of lack of understanding while others that are more knowledgeable, buy things out of abundance. An abundance mentality will allow you to change your thinking. Take for instance how a multibillionaire lost over a billion dollars in the stock market during a one-day period, and how he made a joke about losing so much money. Some people probably would have gone insane, committed suicide, or felt life was over. That didn’t happen with this gentleman because he understood the concepts of money and was able to shrug the loss off because he knew he could make that billion back, and more. I’m sure people complained about what could’ve been done with so much money, but that’s the way life goes. If you look at the bigger picture, then no one can be kept poor because opportunity has been taken away or because certain people monopolized all the wealth. New money is literally printed or created daily, and trillions of dollars change hands in a matter of milliseconds in the markets, so stop focusing on what everyone else has and start focusing on what you want, and you can get. There is enough to go around for everyone and it’s not difficult if you stop having a limited mindset.

To become financially successful or self-made, you have to stop thinking of spending and think more on investing and acquiring assets. If not, then you’ll continue to stay in the lifecycle of working for money, paying taxes, and hoping that circumstance will change, i.e., you hitting the lottery or receiving a large raise. Once you begin to see money for what it is, a tool to invest, then you can begin to achieve a level of financial freedom that you crave and finally become self-made.

Education

Words can be used interchangeably and can often be subjective. Therefore, I encourage you to have an operational definition for yourself of what financial freedom, success, and being self-made means. I am a believer that it’s not possible to live a really complete and successful life unless you have some similitude of financial success or wealth. You can be happy with what you have and live a decent life, but in order to do so you still need money. If that’s the case, then why not live life and enjoy it to the fullest? Making money is not difficult in today’s time, especially with the advent of the Internet. Instead of browsing social media sites and posting selfies, why not use the world’s two most powerful tools, your brain and the internet, to make thousands or even millions. Information is at its most accessible, unlike during my time when you had to go to the library, check-out books. or read newspaper articles and reviews to get information.

Educating yourself on a subject leads to wisdom and wisdom leads to abundance. I can attest to this because I wanted to learn everything I could about finance. I was ignorant on the subject until I start reading and getting the knowledge. My education began with two books: The Complete Day Trader and The Richest Man in Babylon. Since then, I have continued to expand my knowledge base into trading and investing in instruments such as stocks, dividends, commodities, futures and options, real estate, debt, and other financial systems.

My desire to learn and change my socioeconomic status far outweighed the situation I was in. My top goal has been to create wealth and not be at the mercy of an employer to give me a job. If you want to succeed, then your desire must be stronger than the need to save, hang with family and friends, or living paycheck to paycheck.

Achieving the financial success of self-made status is no different than doing simple math—both require a process that must be followed to achieve an end result. The only difference is that math is a science and becoming self-made is a hybrid of art and science. To get where I’m taking you, it doesn’t matter where you come from because anyone can achieve success if they have the ability to think, understand and apply key principles, and maintain consistency. Like causes will always produce like effects.

Risk

In 2018, there was an article in USA Today that interviewed high net worth individuals. In this article it claimed that 61% of the people interviewed achieved their wealth by taking risks, while the other 39% claimed it was all luck. If you look at this on a deeper level, you’ll see that risk was involved with the entire group because some sort of action had to be taken by the smaller percentage, and this action involved some potential risk in the hopes of a bigger payoff. Most people don’t take risks because they are afraid they’ll fail. The ones who are successful may have been afraid as well, but they knew that you’ve only truly failed if you choose not to do anything at all.

I’m not saying that you should risk everything you have on some investment with the hopes that it will work, that would be insane. What I’m saying is that if you have sufficient information on an opportunity, and the capital to support making the investment, yet you do nothing about it, then you’ve failed. Failed because you didn’t take the necessary risk to ensure the financial success that can help you. I missed out on an opportunity some years ago because I was afraid, and mention this in Introduction to Financial Success.

As many of you may know, 2021 presented opportunity if you chose to seize it. The trading situation where traders were purchasing shares of AMC and GameStop presented a short-term chance to increase your capital if you got in at the right moment. I’m not saying that what those traders from the Reddit group WallStreetBets did was right, what I’m saying is that an opportunity presented itself, and some people capitalized on it. The share price on the stock market is typically a reflection of the business a company is doing. At that time, AMC and GameStop were failing due to advancements in technology, the way people were viewing movies and buying games, and because of social distancing protocols. Those companies didn’t adapt quickly enough and could find themselves faltering