MY PASSION

For every one physician
Treating the disease;
There are one hundred physicians
Treating the symptoms.

My passion is to treat financial disease everywhere.

Steven Down

HOW MY EXPERIENCES
CAN HELP YOU

I was born in 1957 at the peak of the “Baby Boom.”  At the age of 23, I declared to my wife, Colleen, that we would be millionaires by my 30th birthday.  The next few years came and went with a new condo, college, our first child and a budding career of financial planning to focus on.  My 30th birthday swept by with little memory of my original goal of financial freedom.  One day, my brother Dave reminded me of my goal.  “Steve, do you remember telling me you would be a millionaire by thirty?”  Laughing, he said, “You funny guy!”

I committed to myself that things would change, but more kids came and we moved to a new dream home.  I added some luxury cars as well.  The need for cash suddenly became enormous to support our lifestyle and pay the taxes.  I was on a financial treadmill; and the faster I ran, the faster the money would go.  I would deposit my big paycheck and helplessly watch it scatter to the wind.  We felt we were only working to support Uncle Sam, the bank and General Motors.  Then it hit me.  Instead of achieving my dream of financial freedom, I had unknowingly joined the “financial treadmill” with most of my fellow Americans.

I did not lack financial knowledge as a financial planner, but I did lack financial wisdom.  After proper reflection, I made a simple, yet profound discovery.  Wisdom, I discovered, is the combination of knowledge and experience.  Experience can be a tough, yet effective teacher.  A wise man is one who applies the wisdom or principles gathered from knowledge and experience.  A fool, on the other hand, is one who disregards learned wisdom or true principles.

The founder of a very long-time successful bank, said over a hundred years ago:  “If you wish to get rich, save what you get.  A fool can earn money, but it takes a wise man to save and dispose of it to his own advantage.” It was my wake-up call, and I felt foolish to find myself where my poor financial choices had put me and my family.  I knew better!

A Chinese proverb says, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten.”  Someone also once said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results!”  I was financially out of control, in debt, with no retirement funds.  I realized I no longer had time to waste.  I had to make a dramatic change in my life.  It was time to wake up and end the insanity!

Have you ever been so busy working you didn’t have time to make money?  That was my dilemma.  I also knew if I didn’t do something about it, another 10 or 20 years of hard work would slip by without stepping off the treadmill.  I finally realized that staying on an accelerating financial treadmill would be the same as committing financial suicide.

I decided to change the direction of my financial future... What happened is much more than a message of financial hope; it is a story of financial miracles. I went from over a million dollars in personal debt to millions in assets. My story is a timeless story of triumph over tragedy, of hope over despair, and of faith over fear. You may relate, since we all seem to share similar challenges.

My desire is to share with you the proven ways I broke the bonds of financial slavery and created true lasting wealth so that similar miracles can also occur in your financial life—start now! YOU CAN LIVE YOUR FINANCIAL DREAMS.