Tony Robbins’ “Money: Master the Game” book: Your Checklist for Success

With the rest of the book behind, Tony leaves the reader with a summary of what was discussed in the previous 600 pages.

Source: Pexels

As he puts it, this is a checklist for you to reference anytime you want to see where you are and what still needs to be done to move you towards your goals. There are 7 steps, one per chapter. I will leave a link to the chapter summary on each step.

Step 1 — Make the most important financial decision of your life

• Did you make the decision to become an investor, not just a consumer?
• Have you committed a percentage of your income towards your Freedom Fund?
• Have you automated the monthly savings?

Chapter summary available here.

Step 2 — Become the insider: know the rules before you get in the game

• Mutual funds can’t beat the market
• Mutual funds overcharge for fees
• Even a 1% difference in fees can make a tremendous difference in the long run
• When have you last evaluated the performance of your broker?
• Don’t confuse the advertised average returns with dollar-weighted returns
• Do you remember the difference between a broker and a fiduciary— have you hired a fiduciary yet?
• Structured notes, market-linked certificates of deposit, fixed indexed annuities are viable options to get returns while minimising risks
• Are you protecting your financial plans from making emotional-driven decisions instead of rational decisions?
• If your company offers a pension plan, have you compared its fees with the rest of the market?
• If you own a company and offer a pension plan, have you done your due diligence to offer the one with the lowest fees to your employees?

Chapter summary available here.

Step 3 — Make the game winnable

• Have you actually put to paper how much your financial dreams cost instead of only thinking about it?
• Have you found ways in your day to day life where you can cut back on things that no longer yield the same positive feelings they once did?
• Have you found ways to increase the value you can provide others, such as learning a new skill?
• Are you applying any of the strategies from step 3 to reduce tax costs?
• Have you applied any diversification to your portfolio so a loss here can be made up for a win there?
• Have you considered the option to move elsewhere where you can be more happy and/or even enjoy different financial incentives?

Chapter summary available here.

Step 4 — Make the most important investment decision of your life

• Have you diversified your portfolio to balance out wins and losses by putting your eggs on different baskets?
• Have you planned your Security Bucket with different safe investments to earn steady returns in the long term?
• Have you planned your Risk/Growth bucket to maximise returns while limiting the potential downsides of the riskier investments?
• Have you evaluated your risk tolerance effectively? — especially considering your current stage in life
• What is your current Security-Risk/Growth buckets split?
• How is your cash flow affecting how aggressive or how conservative your portfolio is?
• How is your Dream Bucket coming along? Are those dreams too far into the future or are there some bits you can enjoy today?
• Have you planned how to fill up your dream bucket?
• At what frequency are you re-balancing your portfolio? Are you sticking with that schedule?

Chapter summary available here.

Step 5 — Create a lifetime income plan

• Are you planning your portfolio to resist all seasons? Is it diversified enough, have the examples from the book served you well?
• Are you using annuities to create a lifetime income plan or at least protect you during retirement?
• Have you setup your living trust to protect your family from legalities in case of death?

Chapter summary available here.

Step 6 — Invest like the 0.001%

• Is it time to re-read the 12 interviews to get some real world examples from everything discussed in the book?

Chapter summary available here.

Step 7 — Just do it, enjoy it, and share it

• Have you connected to the truth that the future is exciting?
• Are you grateful for the things you already have today?
• Would you trade expectation for appreciation?
• Have you begun to think about your legacy?
• How often can you and do give to others?

Chapter summary available here.