The Rules That Create Millionaires

1. Never spend more than you make - When I was 10, I started cutting grass to earn money beyond my meager allowance. Minutes after earning my first buck, my mom was stuffing me in the car for a trip to the bank to open my first passbook savings account. Fifty years later, priority one is still to put something aside from every paycheck and send out less than I bring in. Of course, life being what it is, hasn’t always worked out that way. But in general, getting richer every month is as simple as spending less than you make, and getting poorer is as simple as spending more than you make. 2. Avoid debt like the plague - Most people treat debt as if it’s a normal part of life. They divide it into categories like “good debt” and “bad debt.” They discuss it endlessly, as if it’s some mathematical mystery. Debt is not complicated. Paying money to temporarily use other people’s money makes you poorer. Charging money to temporarily let other people use yours makes you richer. Since paying interest makes you poorer, you only do it in two situations: When you have to in order to survive When you’ll earn more on what you’re financing than what you’ll pay to finance it Unless borrowing is ultimately going to make you richer, don’t do it. 3. Buy when everyone’s freaking out, and sell when everyone thinks they can’t lose - Rich people ring the register when the economy is booming, but that’s not when they created their wealth. You get richer by investing when nobody else will: when unemployment is high, the market is tanking, everybody’s freaking out, and there’s nothing but fear and misery on the horizon. The cyclical nature of our economy all but ensures bad times will periodically occur, and human nature all but ensures that when bad times happen, most people will freeze like a deer in the headlights. But downturns are the time you’ve been saving for. If you think the world is truly ending, buy canned food and a shotgun. If not, step up. As billionaire investor Warren Buffett famously advised, “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.” 4. You can either look rich or be rich - When I worked as a Wall Street investment adviser, I quickly learned that people who have tons of money most often don’t look like it. They don’t have to. So, who are the big shots wearing the fancy suits and driving the Porsches? Often, it’s the people who make a living selling stuff to the rich people. I can’t remember the last time I wore a fancy suit. I’ve never owned a new car, and I live in a house that’s worth about one-third of what I could afford. Diverting your investable cash into things like cars, clothing, vacations and houses you can’t afford will make you look rich now, but prevent you from actually becoming rich later. 5. Live like you’ll die tomorrow, but invest like you’ll live forever - You should always strive to get as much out of life as you can each and every day. After all, you could die tomorrow. But here’s the thing: You probably won’t. Put something aside so you can continue soaking up what life has to offer for as long as possible. 6. Time isn’t money, money is time - Whoever said “Time is money” had it backward. Time is the one nonrenewable resource you have. Once your time is up, it’s up. So, the trick is to spend as much of your limited time as possible doing stuff you want to do, rather than working for other people doing stuff you have to do. Money is the resource that allows you to do this. If you go to the mall and spend $200 on clothes, that’s $200 you could have invested. If you’d earned 12% compounded annually on that $200, in 30 years you’d have accumulated around $6,000. Ignoring inflation and assuming you could live on $3,000 a month in retirement, forgoing those clothes today means retiring two months earlier. Of course, you must have clothes. But maybe you don’t need $200 worth, or maybe you could have gotten them for less. It’s your choice: stuff today or time tomorrow. Those who choose the first often stay poor. Those who choose the second often get rich. Which will you choose? Source: Stacey Johnson, Money Talk News, 10/21/21.

25 Suggestions That Will Make a Butt-Kicker Out of You

‘Progress Equals Happiness' I can say a lot of things, but I don’t think I can say anything more impactful for the average person than that. List these 7 areas of your life: Physical body, mental health, family, finances and contributions, career, relationships, and spirituality. The areas above where you feel ‘happiness’, are the ones where you have had recent progress. The areas above where you feel ‘frustration’, are the ones where you have no recent progress. Here are 25 ways for you to make progress today and EVERYDAY: 1. Sleep well. 2. Learn daily. 3. Eat clean food. 4. Drink lots of clean water. 5. Walk every day. 6. Have three important things to accomplish each day… start your day completing them. 7. Do something kind for a stranger, that behavior will leak into your closer relationships. 8. Set aggressive timelines so you become more productive. 9. Write down three things you’re grateful for every morning to start your day (don’t just think of them… write them down with pen and paper). 10. Don’t work to be the best… work to be the ONLY! 11. Judge less and be judged less (life is a mirror). 12. Set a MONSTER worthy goal that matters to you. Get emotional leverage on yourself. 13. Show others you love them. 14. Don’t be wasteful with your time, focus or money. 15. Track your finances. 16. Fail fast. 17. Learn new skills. 18. Concentrate on finishing rather than starting, you’re measured in life by what you finish not what you start. 19. Invest. 20. Journal. 21. Meditate. 22. Get a mentor and a coach. 23. Tell yourself you can accomplish ANYTHING and believe it. 24. Build your network. Your greatest successes will come through others. 25. Get around people that think BIG. Bonus: Rather than seek focus… eliminate distractions. Double Bonus: You’re going to die anyway… you might as well try. Make small progress in each of the 7 areas and watch how your life transforms. When one area falls away make sure the others do not follow creating a negative feedback loop. You heard it here first. You can do ANYTHING THAT YOU PUT YOUR MIND TO! Who is holding you accountable? Source: Paul from 911 profit, 10/3/21.