It’s that time of the week again!! SATURDAY … If your weekends are anything like mine, they are jammed packed with all sorts of thing to do – some of those things are alot fun to do … some not so much! The big thing I LOVE to do on Saturdays is host the RichLIfe Show. Here’s your invitation for you to call in today and tell me what makes YOUR life RICH!!

We have had some really great financial questions come in over the past couple of weeks and was I was able to get some of them answered on last Saturday’s show. And, we’ve got more to answer this week!

What big money question has been on your mind? If you have a financial question that you would like me to answer for you, send it to me and I will be sure to get it answered live for you either this Saturday or on one of our future shows! Here’s my question Beau!

I really want to thank everyone for all of the great feedback that the January Practicing Wise Stewardship series has received!! It has totally blown me away. Because of the response this series has gotten, we will be continuing with it tomorrow on the RichLife Show.

This week we are going to be wrapping up our “What Does God Have To Say About Money” series. We are talking about the “Stewardship of Responsibility” and why it’s NOT their fault out there. If you’re wondering what that means, be sure to tune into the show at 12:00 pm EST to get the answer! … You can Join us live at AM550 and FM102.9WDUN. Out of town friends stream live at www.wdun.com.

One of the things that I love about hosting the RichLife Show is that I get to meet and talk to some of the most amazing people. Last week, we were blessed by Grayson Smith’s story. Grayson is just the most amazing young man – 12 years old and a successful entrepreneur living his RichLife already! He has a great story and an even better mission in life – assisting with raising funds for the Water For Life Program and he has almost reached his goal!

Grayson’s heart is to help as many people as he can have access to clean drinking water. 1 Billion people in the world today do not have access to clean drinking water. 50% of those folks will develop serious diseases because of contaminated water and many will die. Did you know that 60% of infant deaths are directly related to water borne illnesses. It takes $4,800 to build a well that will give 1,000 people clean water for the rest of their lives.

Grayson has raised almost $7,000 so far.

If you missed Grayson’s story on last week’s show, you can download it to your favorite listening device right from my website.

RichLife Story – Grayson Smith Interview

[audio:http://www.richlifeadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/RichLife-Show-January-21-2012-Grayson-Smith-Interview.mp3|titles=RichLife Show January 21, 2012 Grayson Smith Interview]

If you would like to contribute to Grayson’s cause, you can contact Joy Allgood at RelyLocalHall.com and ask for more information!

I was so impressed by Grayson’s passion and determination to achieve his financial goal that I’m going to be keeping tabs on him. Expect to see him back on the show in the next few months reporting on his progress!

Elise Adams’ story touched a lot of people. Several of our listeners wrote in and asked if she would be able to come back on the show again. Good news … I think that we are going to be blessed to have Elise on the show again in the next couple of weeks! As soon as we are able to firm up the date, we will let you know! Elise has some amazing updates to give us about promotion in her RichLife!

And here is some weekend inspiration I want to share with you from my good friend Steve D’Annuzio!

Life is Dynamic – Steve D'Annunzio

Life is dynamic. And for that reason, the bad news is never as bad as it seems.

Whatever may happen, whatever condition may arise, you can adjust to it and make the most of it. Not only can you survive in the face of changing conditions, you can indeed prosper.

When you look at new developments through the lens of your existing assumptions, they can often appear overwhelmingly negative and hopeless. Yet when you start working your way through the new conditions, brilliant opportunities begin to appear at nearly every turn.

Circumstances are constantly changing, and even the changes are constantly changing. As you continue to adapt, and as those around you also adapt, positive new possibilities emerge and take root.

It's difficult to know precisely what tomorrow will bring. Yet you can know with confidence that whatever tomorrow does offer, there will be a way for you to make the most of it. For the value and goodness of life never go away. They just continue to be presented to you in new and more fulfilling ways.

I have some REALLY awesome news to share with you! The RichLife Book is now available at Amazon.com. Here is a really special request from me to you – if you have read the book, I would really appreciate it if you could take a few minutes and write a review of the book at Amazon so that everyone can see how you have benefited from the book and what they can expect for themselves when they purchase it! I truly appreciate all of the RichLife friends and family who are helping us get the word out in such a big way!!

Wishing you a blessed weekend. Be sure to let me know if you dial into the show today at 12:00 pm EST. Let me know what gives meaning to YOUR life!!

Why Isn’t Anyone Doing Anything?

Vicki Moore and Rahab’s Rope RichLife story #18:

Last month we talked about what it means to be mission driven and the true wealth that arrives when service to others becomes the point of our focus. In response to our question: "Got a mission or know somebody who does?" I recently had the opportunity to talk with Vicki Moore, founder and active leader of an organization called Rahab’s Rope.

The mission of Rahab’s Rope is large: to give hope and opportunity to the women and girls forced into the commercial sex trade of India. Through the efforts of their volunteers and supporters, Rahab’s Rope has provided safe houses, rented flats for vocational training as well as basic education in Bangalore, a flat and a medical clinic in Goa, and worked directly in the brothels of Mumbai. They have provided health and nutrition, groceries, hygiene education and supplies; they have helped girls to find jobs or re-enter school.

They have also provided medical needs, including a life-saving surgery for one girl whose sinus cavities had been horribly destroyed through multiple beatings.

 
Talk about a mission! But what I found most interesting about Vicki’s story was how it all began.

  
In January of 2004, I came across a story on the internet about the every-day reality faced by millions of girls and women living in India. The story told of the more than two-hundred women forced into prostitution daily. How they are sold or kidnapped into the sex trade as early as age five. How these women are held captive, beaten, raped, and humiliated. How they are made to believe that their only real value is the price that their body will bring. By their late teens, the majority of these girls are considered "used up" and are cast out onto the streets to survive on their own. With little to no skill set and little to no money to their name, these girls return to prostitution as a means of survival, and the hopeless cycle continues.

According to Human Rights Watch, there are approximately fifteen million prostitutes in India today; these are women and girls, mothers and daughters, most of them between the ages of fifteen and thirty-five.

I was a stay-at-home mom with children of my own. I had no experience with human trafficking and the more research I did, the more alarming global statistics I found. These stories broke my heart, and I couldn’t get them out of my mind.

That day in the comfort of her own home, Vicki Moore asked the question,
“Why isn’t anyone doing anything about this?”

And then she heard the answer,
"I would like for you to do something."

As is often the case, if the question appears inside you, the answer is there, too.

How many of us wait for someone else to do something?

How many of us think the problem too big, or ourselves too small?

In the words of Vicki Moore:

“We believe nothing in our lives happens by chance and timing is God appointed. As God was opening my eyes to the women in crisis in India, I was also taking an Old Testament Bible class and was studying the story of Rahab the prostitute found in the book of Joshua. The rope in the story represents Rahab's rescue both physically and spiritually, and there is a high probability that Rahab made the rope herself. It is our hope that just as the rope that Rahab made represents her rescue, the skills taught to the women at our Women's Centers will represent their physical and spiritual rescue as well.”

Plans for the organization include reaching out to more girls in more areas, adding a new safe house for underage girls, and their current work of acquiring and outfitting a new housing facility for women in aftercare. If you would like to find out what you can do to support the ongoing mission of Rahab’s Rope, please visit their website at www.rahabsrope.com.

With all Ms. Moore has given throughout the past seven years, we asked her, “What has the experience of helping these women given back to you?” Her answer: 

“A joy and excitement to life that can't be explained.” She writes:

“I have met so many wonderful people all across the U.S. and in India that have helped in so many ways, and many have become very good friends. These people have poured into the ministry with their gifts, talents and finances, and poured into me with their encouragement and kindness. I would never have had this experience had I not been working with these girls in India.”

What experiences are awaiting you? What do you wish someone would do something about? It was the answers to these same questions that led Ms. Moore to discover her mission, and the gift she had to offer the world.

To the world you may be one person –

but to one person you may be the world.

The RichLife Story ~ Beau Henderson, Founder of RichLife

I never approached financial advising as just a job. I always sought to be more than a money-mover for my clients. But after eight years of hearing the stories of nearly two thousand clients, an idea began to take shape in my mind, a new way of looking at my job. Really, at everything I do. And then two unique stories made it all come together. This is the story of how RichLife was born.

When the referral came in, I was excited to meet my new client. We’ll call him Tom. Tom’s net worth was just shy of $20 million, and as I drove to that meeting, I was imagining what he would be like, this man who by most people’s standards had truly “made it.” But when I met him, I was stunned. The man who sat with me—this person who had achieved every single financial goal he’d ever set for himself— was not only miserable, but also unhealthy.

A lot of people tell me their stories. I love to hear them. But rarely had I heard one that impacted me so much. In that first meeting, Tom told me that his health was failing and his single-minded pursuit of money had alienated every member of his family. The people who were supposed to surround him in his aging years don’t even speak to him today. Tom had spent his life chasing what he—and a lot of other people—believed to be the most important goal. But there he was, wealthy beyond his every need, and his life was missing everything that might matter, everything that might actually bring him joy.

A few weeks later, I met Mark Thompson. He had also come to me through a referral, but instead of maximizing a vast fortune, Mark wanted help managing his middle class income to afford a modest fixed retirement income for himself and his wife. And that’s not where the differences between Mark and Tom ended.

Mark met me at the door, and I could already hear the happy voices that filled that house. There was a different tone and feeling in the Thompson house, a wonderful one. I stayed for dinner and heard the family story not just from Mark and his wife, but from their adult children and several grandchildren, who all took turns jumping in on the story, laughing as they shared the memories they’d all made together.  When he walked me to the door later that evening, Mark asked, “So, do you think you can help us out?” Of course I said yes, but inside I was thinking, You’ve got your answers figured out. My help will be the easy part.

I drove home that night wondering how two people could be so different. Tom had every possible resource he needed to create a happy life, but he had nothing. And Mark, who was just hoping to scrape together a couple thousand dollars to cover the very basics when he finally retired, lived like a man with his every wish fulfilled.

That’s when I realized that having a rich life has nothing to do with money, and that I had the ability to help people had lives like the Thompsons. If I approached my job in a certain way, I could encourage and support my clients to life a life full of meaning and joy: a RichLife.

From that moment I asked everyone I met, What are the three things in your life that truly give it meaning? Everyone’s answers are different, but one thing is very common— most people don’t know those answers off their tops of their heads. I realized that would be part of the job of helping clients live the RichLife, guiding them toward those answers.

As I met even more clients and heard even more theories on what made their lives rich, a couple of common threads began to appear. The people who were leading RichLives had all nurtured the relationships that were important to them. Relationships were almost always a priority. The other common factor was experiences. The people who’d built RichLives had intentionally created experiences that were uniquely meaningful to them, and those experiences had become a storeroom of joyful memories. So that added another level to my job—help clients focus on relationships and experiences.

When most people look for a financial advisor, they really just want a person they can trust. Someone who will take care of their money. Intuitively, I was already doing more, building long-term trust and relationships. But now I know that I can better serve my clients by going even further, by helping them achieve their RichLives.

When I started approaching my work that way, I began to realize I was doing more than serving clients. I was definitely serving them, but I also became friends with these people, a trusted friend. And suddenly I had a RichLife too. I mean, how much better is it to have a job where you’re taking care of people as opposed to being the person who simply minds their mutual funds?

That’s where the RichLife started, but that’s not where it ends. As I’ve talked to other professionals, I’ve discovered that a lot of people are impacted by and believe in the RichLife philosophy. Now I know that there’s the possibility of surrounding yourself with advisors—RichLife advisors— for more than just finances, but everything. And that’s the goal of RichLife: to make sure that everyone has the support, the resources and the opportunity to create one.

RichLife Stories: Life Without Limbs – How Nick is Living the RichLifeLife

Nick has likely never heard of RichLife but it’s clear after watching the video below that he lives it.   From time to time we’ll want to inspire you with RICH stories of people LIVING their RichLife.

Art Williams shows us how to live a RichLife.