How to Make One Hell of a Profit and still get to Heaven by Dr John F. Demartini

I actually bought How to make One Hell of a Profit and still go to Heaven while attending one of John’s seminars (The Breakthrough Experience), otherwise I would have never even picked up a book with a cheesy title like this!

But, I was floating in the Demartini experience, which is exactly why they sell so much stuff at seminars!

But, let me tell you, I’m very glad I bought this book!

I don’t normally like finance books (you may not believe me, when you see how many I have actually read and enjoyed, but it’s the truth!), and you certainly won’t find me in the ‘wealth’ section of the book shop. Yet, this is definitely an area I can improve in my life, and as an independent woman, it can never hurt to learn about finances and put some plans in my place… I don’t want to end up at one of those seminars called A man is not a financial plan!

If you have read some of John’s books or been to one of his seminars, you will know that he draws on every possible area of study to support his theories: quantum physics, psychology, astronomy, religion, history… the list goes on. Ans this is exactly what makes him exciting. Emotionally, you can connect to his concepts, yet to understand where these concepts come from is intellectually challenging. John takes turns you didn't see coming and he sees angles others would have hardly glimpsed.

In How to make One Hell of a Profit and still go to Heaven, he explores various concepts, most of them based on the psychology of wealth:

At the most basic level, he explains the principles of fair exchange. We pay something, we get something. There is no such thing as something for nothing. This sounds very basic, but is a very important principle. Sure, most people will be happy about a freebie as part of a marketing or promotions gig, but constantly asking for freebies, wanting to win something or getting something for nothing is not fair. It’s like Karma, what goes around, comes around!

Once, I was in a job that paid quite a lot for fairly little work. My skills were totally under utilised and I often felt like I didn’t deserve what I got paid. I tried to justify it by saying to myself that they had agreed to the deal. But it didn’t change how I felt about it. After about a year, my invoices stopped being paid. I ended up taking them to court but never saw a penny. After learning about the principle of fair exchange, it seems clear to me that it could have only happened because I didn’t feel like I deserved what I got paid! Otherwise I would have fought much harder for what I thought I deserved.

Another basic and even more powerful principle in this book is about psychological balance:

Basically, if we have a lot of money we are elated, excited, our head is in the clouds. If we don’t have any money we are depressed, feel worthless and want to burry our head in the sand.
John’s method to avoid this bi-polar reaction to money is to build a safety cushion. By saving money every month (he advises an automatic savings plan) in an account that is set up solely for saving and investing (no, not investing in shoes and handbags!) we build up a ‘save-ty’ cushion.

The general guideline is to save about three month’s worth of your wage. Once you have saved this much you start investing in a very safe, low risk investment (for example a term deposit). Once you have three months worth of savings in this category, you move on to the next one, which is a little more risky. This way you work yourself up, until you eventually get to the more risky strategies, like leveraging your stockmarket investments with margin loans.

The psychology behind this concept is, that if we loose 10 percent or less of our money it doesn’t really affect us. We can continue business as usual without having to worry how to pay the mortgage on our house or put food in our mouths. So the bigger the cushion, the less you are affected by fluctuations. On the contrary, if all your money is leveraged in the stockmarket and all you can think about is the margin call you are desperately trying to avoid – then that is most likely what you are going to get!

The basic concepts of this book are what makes it worthwhile.

Of course, John also has lots of anecdotes of wealthy (or previously not so wealthy clients) who adapted his methods. The little psychological tips and tricks include carrying as much money as you want to earn in a day (watch out for the pick-pockets!) or writing yourself a cheque for the amount of money you desire.
And an interesting claim: Within three years, most of his readers (and attendees of his wealth seminars) are self-employed and on their way to financial independence…. Well I wrote that cheque, and it’s only been a few months, so who knows what’s going to happen?

You can check out How to make One Hell of a Profit and still go to Heaven on Amazon.