{"id":8028,"date":"2024-09-08T16:39:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-08T20:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com\/?p=8028"},"modified":"2025-04-02T19:47:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T23:47:40","slug":"the-big-wins-manifesto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com\/the-big-wins-manifesto\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Wins Manifesto (with real life stories inside)"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Ever wonder why some people achieve massive success while others stay stuck in the grind?<\/span><\/p>\n

In this article, I’ll break down the concept of Big Wins and show you how focusing on a few key strategies can outshine the usual advice.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What do I mean by Big Wins?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cBig Wins\u201d are the game-changers that transform your financial life, going beyond minor tweaks and daily sacrifices. They\u2019re the strategies and actions that drive substantial, long-term progress, like setting up automated systems or negotiating significant salary increases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead of getting bogged down by small, incremental changes, focusing on key moves can lead to dramatic results and real success.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Let\u2019s compare two people trying to get an edge<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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John, 28, earns $62,000\/year as a project manager. He used to have $8,200 in credit card debt from overspending, but he\u2019s been slowly paying it down over the last two years, and now it\u2019s $6,400. How?<\/span><\/p>\n

He tried all the typical personal finance advice: He set up a budget, cut back on his daily lattes, and made a list of goals he wanted to achieve. Yet last week, he took an honest look at his life and realized he\u2019s still treading water.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite paying off part of his debt, he still has years ahead of him in debt\u2014plus, he has no real savings or investments, and something always comes up, causing him to yo-yo back and forth on his goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris, 32, earns approximately $120,000. Four years ago, Chris was making about $60,000\/year, but he was barely getting by\u2014he had $50,000 of student loan debt and, most days, would eat the free snack bars at his office instead of buying lunch.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet within four years, Chris paid off $50,000 of debt, amassed a savings account of tens of thousands of dollars, and more than doubled his salary. To do this, he set up automated systems to pay off his debt. He turned his skills into a side income, earning over $1,000\/month on the side.<\/span><\/p>\n

He knew he was slightly socially awkward, so he took courses to improve his social skills and negotiated multiple salary increases, including a $50,000 raise two months ago.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The key difference between John and Chris<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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John focused on tiny, meaningless tactics experts told him he \u201cshould\u201d do. Chris, the successful student with the dramatic results, focused on doing a few important things and mastering them. He focused on Big Wins.<\/span><\/p>\n

Chris is, in fact, a real person \u2014 the only student who has joined every single one of my courses.<\/span><\/p>\n

A national reporter also wrote about Chris in a <\/span>recent 6-page Fortune profile of my teachings<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a reason why many of my IWT students have results like Chris’s \u2014 results that include earning tens of thousands of dollars more every year, paying off $50,000 in debt, and leapfrogging their peers to landing their Dream Job in their 20s \u2014 while so many other people are stuck cutting back on $3 lattes with no discernible results and a side of soul-crushing guilt.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Another real-life example from my podcast focusing on Big Wins<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Meet Michelle and Kevin<\/span><\/a>. They are $300,000 in debt and are drowning in debts mortgages, credit cards, car loans, and student loans. Despite this financial strain, they still splurged on a ridiculously expensive car.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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[00:28:48] Ramit: Okay. Let\u2019s see. Michelle, let\u2019s do the net worth. Can you read the word in bold and then the number in full next to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:00] Michelle: Sure. Under assets there\u2019s $251,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:02] Ramit: Okay. Next.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:03] Michelle: I keep going. Okay. So investments is $43,700. Savings is $500, and debt, $628,500<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:14] Ramit: Okay. Total net worth?<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:16] Michelle: Negative $333,300.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:19] Ramit: All right. What do you think about that number?<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:22] Michelle: Not where I want it to be.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:22] Kevin: Nowhere near where it should be.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:25] Ramit: Okay. So the 251,000 is your house.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:30] Michelle: Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:30] Kevin: Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:30] Ramit: Okay. And your investments, fine. Savings, okay. And your debt, break that down for me. $628,000 of debt. What is that?<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:39] Michelle: So 414,000 is the mortgage. 30,000 is my car. 69,000 is Kevin\u2019s car. My student loan\u2019s 18,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:54] Ramit: Mm-hmm.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:29:55] Kevin: Mine are about 12,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:02] Michelle: Credit card debt, about 73,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:07] Ramit: 73,000 in credit card debt.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:09] Michelle: Right. So one of them is a loan for 55,000, and the credit card debt\u2019s 18,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:15] Ramit: What\u2019s the loan?<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:17] Michelle: It\u2019s a consolidation of all the other credit card debt, so that\u2019s why I put it all under the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:24] Ramit: Okay. What\u2019s the interest rate on that consolidation? Do you know?<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:28] Michelle: 17%.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:29] Ramit: All right. It\u2019s effectively credit card.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:31] Michelle: Right.<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:32] Ramit: How come we spent so much time talking about 7-Eleven snacks but we\u2019re over here with over $70,000 of credit card, a 69,000-dollar car loan?<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:30:45] Michelle: I know. Yeah, I knew that was coming. I don\u2019t even know why we got that car, to be honest. Because we did the math on it, and we couldn\u2019t afford it. And then I don\u2019t know what happened, and we\u2013 not that I don\u2019t know what happened. I know what happened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:31:00] Ramit: What happened?<\/span><\/p>\n

[00:31:01] Michelle: We still went for it because I was just being an enabler, and I said, yeah, it\u2019s okay. We\u2019ll figure out how to make it work.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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One solution we discussed on how to improve their situation is the perfect example of a Big Win. They can sell that expensive car and put the money towards one of their larger credit card debts. Even though selling the car at a loss won\u2019t feel good, achieving that Big Win will feel great after paying off a credit card.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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[01:02:09] Ramit: Yeah. What do you want to do to fix cost? We need to get this number down.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:13] Michelle: The glaring numbers, obviously the car.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:16] Kevin: I guess I\u2019m really going to have to go and figure out what options I have to getting out of that car payment.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:25] Michelle: Because we can\u2019t do anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:29] Kevin: I definitely would love to get into a new car payment. I just don\u2019t know how to go about it. I guess I would\u2019ve to go to a dealership, look at some cars, and then see what options I have.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:36] Ramit: No, fuck that. You\u2019re not going anywhere near a dealership. Every time the two of you go into a dealership, you end up buying another luxury car.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:43] Michelle: Yeah. I\u2019ve never felt good leaving a dealership ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:45] Ramit: Oh, shocking. That\u2019s really shocking. Wow.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:47] Michelle: Yeah.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:48] Ramit: So, no, what do you want to do?<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:53] Kevin: I don\u2019t know.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:54] Michelle: Sell the car.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:56] Kevin: Sell the car.<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:02:58] Ramit: It\u2019s going to suck. You\u2019re going to lose money. But over the course of 12 months, 18 months, 36 months, that\u2019s when you\u2019re really going to start to see those savings. And it\u2019s not like you\u2019re going to get a big fat check that says, here, you did the right thing. It simply means that the amount you\u2019re paying towards your car payment is slowly going to go down. You\u2019re going to have a little bit more cash every month. And that is money that can be used for what?<\/span><\/p>\n

[01:03:23] Kevin: Credit card payments.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Michelle and Kevin are lucky because they can realistically achieve this Big Win by selling their luxury car and using the money to pay off their debts.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Why focusing on Big Wins leads to bigger impact<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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True masters of human behavior understand our shortcomings and use systems, automation, and judicious use of our limited willpower to tackle the things that really matter while ignoring the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you adopt this mindset, you\u2019ll see it everywhere. People dutifully try to cut back on small daily expenditures, then get frustrated when they add up to very little\u2026and yo-yo right back to their former behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll see them sporadically jumping from expert to expert, as others jump from diet to diet, searching for the one \u201cmagic bullet\u201d that will solve all their problems while never understanding the mechanics of what actually works.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, if you suggest they focus on doing a few Big Wins (e.g., learning how to negotiate their salary or earn money on the side), the same people will claim they\u2019re \u201ctoo busy\u201d to do that. Indeed.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How sticking with the familiar may be hurting your progress<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This is a fascinating wrinkle in human behavior. People will continue to do something \u2014 even if it doesn\u2019t work \u2014 instead of potentially trying something that might work but is novel (and therefore scary) to them.<\/span><\/p>\n