Chapter 1 We Were Programmed to Fail from the Moment We Were Born Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. -- J OHN M AYNARD K EYNES Why is it that money seems to flow to some people like a magnet -- and seems to be repelled from others? This question has always intrigued me. And I was determined to discover the answer. I began to examine my own experiences in creating personal wealth. I talked with dozens of people: poor, well-off, and wealthy. Each person taught me something. I began to notice common threads and patterns. What I discovered was astonishing! Let me share with you a whole new way of thinking about money and a proven method of acquiring wealth.

In the process, I will put to rest (hopefully forever!) an incredible number of myths and misconceptions about what it takes to make -- and keep -- great wealth. As I will show you, most of what we know about money is based upon false assumptions. As the nineteenth-century humorist Josh Billings so aptly put it: "The trouble with people is not that they don't know, but that they know so much that just ain't so." How do people get to know so much misinformation about wealth? They are programmed. Of course, there is really nothing sinister about it. There is no conspiracy afoot to brainwash unsuspecting people into thinking "poorly." Actually, much of it is nothing more than the common sense of past generations taken to extremes. These widely held sacred-cow notions about saving, spending, borrowing, and investing are taught by well-intentioned teachers in our finest universities, in our newspapers, on television, from our pulpits, and in our homes.

We take them for granted just as people used to assume the world was flat or that the sun revolved around the earth. As a consequence, only a small percentage of the millions who try ever join the ranks of the wealthy. How can they? They are building on a shaky foundation. I'll never forget a radio interview I did in Pittsburgh. The host and I spent some time talking about the road to wealth. The host's assistant, a young woman, listened intently. After the interview she questioned me. "Mr.

Allen, all of what you say sounds interesting, even feasible. But it goes against everything my parents have always taught me!" I asked, "How are your parents doing financially?" She replied, "Terribly. They are really strapped for money." Then she laughed at what she had just said. She understood. Granted, it isn't easy to let go of our programming. There are lessons we feel we have learned from the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Great Recession of the 1970s, the Great Stagnation of the 1980s, or the great stock-market booms and busts of the last twenty years. But we don't have to be like the monkeys in a story I heard recently.

It seems that in Africa, the natives use an ingenious method for catching monkeys. They hollow out a coconut shell by cutting a small hole at one end. The hole is small enough to barely allow a monkey's hand. Inside the hollowed shell they place a few peanuts. They connect the coconut shell to a thin, strong cord and wait in hiding for the monkeys. When a monkey discovers the nuts inside the shell, he reaches in and grasps them in his fist. But the hole is too small to allow the tightly clenched fist to escape. At this precise moment, the native pulls on the cord, and the monkey, who won't let go of those peanuts to save his life, is caught.

Too often, we hold tightly to our own peanut ideas for fear that we may lose them -- when all the while it is these very ideas that hold us captive and prevent us from achieving financial freedom. Well, what are these fal.