A couple of people have asked what we can do for people that already bought the ebook and would also like the physical version. That’s a fair question and I’m more than happy if that’s you and you buy a hard copy too, to then send you an additional copy free of charge.

Just order as normal and tell me you demand a free copy in the comments field! No fibbing though because I’ll check.

Each book sold helps us put another 10 into the hands of people that either couldn’t normally afford to buy one, or wouldn’t be exposed to such material, so every penny counts.

Nobody Is Motivated By Money

We talk in the book about the simply amazing stat that people who are paralyzed in a road traffic accident are no less happy after recovery than people who have won a 7 figure salary in the lottery.

Time and time again research has demonstrated that money doesn’t motivate people (other than in the immediate short-term) and it doesn’t make them happy. Granted, not having any at all and being faced with the problems that can cause is a great way to ensure misery, but that’s not the same thing at all.

One of the main reasons we take so much time in 'How To Be Rich and Happy' helping people to understand what's important to them in terms of their values, is because that way they can then set meaningful and motivating goals.

NOBODY is motivated by money, people are motivated by what they think money will give them and that usually means happiness.

So what stops you working out what makes you happy and then seeing how much money you need to do that? Isn’t that a more sensible option?

What stops you downsizing and taking a job you love for less money or going back to school to satisfy a life-long ambition to be a teacher or a nurse? How about pulling your 401K to start up your own business?

If that applies to you I'll tell you what stops you, it's fear. But what’s the reason for the fear?

It’s the erroneous and self-limiting belief that you cannot earn less money than you do now and yet be happier.

The reality is you can and I know because I’ve done it and I know plenty of other people that have too.

Not only can you earn less money and be happy, you can earn less money and be more motivated and energized. Doing things you love puts you’re in alignment with your values and that’s about as motivating and inspiring as life gets.

You have one crack at life, just one, so find out what makes you happy and then look for ways to afford to do it.

This particular day happened to be the day after Thanksgiving, North America's busiest shopping day of the year. They don’t call it Black Friday for nothing and you can read more about my experience in more detail here.

I was in a sports store with my wife and she was trying on pairs of sneakers. As a nurse who spends a great deal of time on her feet it’s important that she wears something that will remain comfortable all day long.

I think she’d tried on somewhere in the region of two hundred pairs and I sensed she was literally within hours of making a final decision as she had narrowed it down to only two pairs.

I sat watching her go backwards and forwards between the shoes and I could almost hear her mind whirring. Finally, she pointed to the pair she was going to buy with all the enthusiasm of a chicken announcing to his family he’d just landed the job as night watchman at the alligator farm.

I questioned her on this and then the real reason came out for her decision. The pair she was choosing were cheaper. In fact they were over $40 cheaper and no way could she justify spending $90 on a pair of sneakers.

That’s weird I thought, she never has any problem justifying spending $250 on a pair of boots that she’ll wear a fraction of the time.

The shopping trip 2 years ago was a rare moment of clarity for me into a Rich and Happy formula that I never even knew existed, and one that it took me another 18 months to reacquaint myself with.

I pointed out to Helen that the shoes she was about to buy were about as important a purchase as she ever made. Having shoes that were cheap and didn’t feel great when she was going to be wearing them for upwards of 60 hours per week made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

In terms of a Rich and Happy return, having good shoes ranked up there with just about anything you can imagine and certainly well above Coach purses, Channel Perfume and DKNY jeans.

There are multiple sides to being rich and happy and the reason that most people don’t hit the state and stay there for any length of time is because they focus all their energy in one area.

Until very recently I was as guilty (if guilty is the right word) of this as anybody else by neglecting the financial side of my life and trusting that “things will turn out ok because they always do”.

Then about 6 months ago after a meeting with John about the book, I was sat at home staring at my bank statement online. It certainly didn’t look like I was particularly Rich and Happy. Ok, so maybe I was doing what I wanted when I wanted most of the time, but I also wanted to go back to the UK for Christmas and it was looking unlikely.

Trust me, the irony was not lost on me.

Something else that was not lost on me was the multitude of debits on my statement between $4 and $7. I decided to total them up and came up with the grand total I can still remember (for obvious reasons), of $76.66 for the month with a couple of days still to go.

That’s not a huge amount of money, until that is, you realize they were all paid to Starbucks for coffee and the occasional scone.

As I stared in disbelief at my calculator I realized it was actually significantly worse than that because sometimes I paid cash, and on other occasions I went to Panera Bread instead and I wasn’t even looking for those payments.

It became sickeningly apparent I was spending well in excess of $1,000 per year on coffee above and beyond what I drank at home (or in other words, more than the cost of a return flight to the UK). I suddenly remembered a client once telling me if you worked out the weight of coffee in a Starbucks latte, it's literally more than the cost of gold.

That thought didn’t make me feel as good as the 15 minute buzz the coffee gave me let me tell you.

However, fortunately for me, the wisdom of John Strelecky, combined with the cost of coffee has allowed me to become consciously aware of the money I’m spending and it’s real value.

So now I no longer buy coffee on auto-pilot just because I’m driving past Starbucks on the way to the dog park. Now I ask myself if I really want it and more often than not the answer comes back, “ no not really, and certainly not to the tune of $1,000 per year”.

A How To Be Rich and Happy Update.

We sent out an e-mail to all people that have bought the book announcing we will be undertaking some free teleseminars with myself and John starting next month. Primarily, this is for people that have the book and want help in certain areas.

However, assuming we have space on the call we’d also like to invite people that are toying with the idea of buying the book and putting it into practice. We know it’s an investment in money and also time and we want to make it as easy as possible. Please let us know any areas that you would like us to cover off because this is for you.

We have also doubled the size of the free download to give you a better taster of the what the book is all about. You don’t have to give any e-mail details to get the free sample. Simply click here and it will automatically download to your computer.

We have also started a Facebook fan page and would love to have you on board. Yoy can post questions to myself and John and generally talk about Rich and Happy stuff.

By way of a first post, we're simply letting you get a taste for the book that goes on pre-sale on 22nd September and full release on 5th October, by reproducing the introduction.

How To Be Rich and Happy - An Introduction

Congratulations on taking one of the most important steps you’ve ever taken in your life. You’ve decided to decide. You’ve chosen to choose versus live a life that others chose for you. That right there makes you one of a select group of people.

If you read the information in this book, and apply it in your life, you will be part of an even more exclusive group- those who are Rich and Happy.

As you embark on this adventure, you may be wondering how this book came to be. How and why do a best selling inspirational author who’s works are in nineteen languages (John) and a renegade life coach with one of the most left field and successful life coaching blogs on the Internet (Tim) pair up to write a book called “How to be Rich and Happy?”

The answer is actually pretty straight forward. Part of it you’ll find in the personal story described in the the opening chapter. That will explain our own motivation for discovering the formula for being Rich and Happy. The other part, which is why write the book now, is simply because we listened to what people are asking for.

We have been friends for a number of years. A friendship that began because although we operate in different arenas (Tim in life coaching and online blogging and John as an author and speaker) and we have very different styles (Tim relies heavily on a very English sense of humor to get his message across whereas John is more serious and inspirational) we have a similar life purpose, which is to help people.

And when we would get together for a round of golf, or grab lunch, and discuss how things were going and what people were telling us, it kept coming back to the same answer- people are really struggling. We knew from our interactions with them, and through our own life experiences, that even if they couldn’t actually name it, what they wanted was to be Rich and Happy.

Tim was seeing it through his work with individual clients, and via his blog, and John was seeing it at his events when he was speaking to large audiences.

So when people asked us what we were working on next, we started telling them that we were working on a book called “How to be Rich and Happy.” And literally every single person responded with something close to “That’s the book I need.”

If you are familiar with John’s previous books; The Why Cafe, Life Safari, and The Big Five for Life- Leadership’s Greatest Secret, this will be a very different type of read. Those works are fictional stories with inspirational messages.

This is a non-fiction, tell it like it is book. That said, the underlying focus is still the same - to help people live the life they want live.

Although the book is written by both of us, for ease of reading, you’ll see that it reads as if there is just one author. The word “I” is the collective I of both of us. Think of us as science experiment gone mad, where two people’s brains and life experiences have been merged into one. Or, just realize that it is a heck of a lot easier to explain the stories and material the way it’s written than for us to keep clarifying who is saying what.

And now, let’s move you toward what you want and deserve- to be Rich and Happy.

John and Tim