Judging by their behavior, most people have an obsession with wealth. Politicians promise to create it, most popular magazines are filled with gossip about those who have it, and the average person spends much of their adult life trying to obtain it. We are creatures obsessed with money, partly for what it can buy, but also as a thing of value in itself.
But most people misunderstand money. They don't really know how to obtain it, or how to hold onto it once they have it.
If you're interested in getting rich, I'm going to give you the simplest formula for doing so. In fact, if you follow it you're virtually guaranteed to build enough wealth to get you into the top 5% of society. As the shampoo advertisement says: "It won't happen overnight, but it will happen".
The hardest way to get rich
Before I go into my formula, let me tell you about hard ways to get rich.
One of the hardest is to be born into it. Of course, if you happen to enter this world as a Hilton, a Gates or a Windsor, then life is sweet. But since 99.9999% of the population aren't that lucky, I'm assuming you didn't win that particular lottery.
And speaking of lotteries, gambling is another very difficult way to get rich. Sure, some people buy a lottery ticket and win big, but most don't. You can gamble your entire life and you'll most likely end up broke rather than wealthy.
When I was younger, I thought the easiest way to get rich was to become famous through some kind of creative act. Stephen King got rich writing horror novels, so why not me?
I'm now much wiser and realize that the vast majority of novelists never even get published. Of those who do, most wallow in obscurity. Only very few make it anywhere near the best-seller list, and only one in a million will achieve any kind of serious wealth.
The same fate awaits the majority of musicians, software company founders, sportspeople and website creator. For every Google that makes its owners billions, there are a million websites that lose money. Creativity is the most fun and rewarding way to get rich, but it's also a very difficult way.
The reason the media raves about and idolizes those who've built wealth through creativity is because they're so rare. You don't hear about the vast majority who wallow in obscurity and poor pay, because they're not interesting. "Young genius makes $1 billion from website" is a great headline "Ten thousand young geniuses make nothing from their hard work" isn't.
I'm not saying you shouldn't keep your dreams alive. It's one of the best parts of life. But this article isn't about the most fun way to try and get rich - it's about the easiest way.
Okay, here's the system.
Step 1: Get a well-paid job
This is a reasonable amount of work, and takes a few years, but it's a virtually guaranteed way to make a good income. If they're willing to put in the work, almost any intelligent person can get a job paying $100,000 or more within the space of a few years. While it's not easy, it is by far the easiest and most likely way to secure a good income. In fact, I've already written an entire article on how to get a job paying more than $100,000 a year for those who wish to pursue this avenue.
Step 2: Get good tax advice
However you make your money, your number one expense is likely to be funding the government. In most developed countries, the average worker pays around 30% of everything they earn straight into the taxman's pocket. If you've taken my job advice, you'll most likely pay even more than that.
While taxation is necessary to fund the good things governments provide, you don't do yourself any favors by paying more than your fair share. If you're serious about building wealth, get a good accountant who understands how to legally minimize your tax bill.
Step 3: Save 20% of everything you ever earn
As soon as you get paid, arrange to have 20% of your income removed into a savings account. Many banks can do this automatically for you. Keep your savings account separate from your spending account, and you'll barely miss this money.
There's a saying in economics "expenses rise to meet income". This means money that's easily available to you is certain to be spent. That's why most people's paychecks disappear before their next payday. They get used to having a certain amount to spend, and habitually run down their bank account.
Have your savings moved somewhere it's a hassle to get them out of to avoid this risk. Many high interest accounts require you to give them a few days notice, which is ideal for this purpose.
Step 4: Conservatively invest the funds that build up in your savings account
Once a month, go into your savings account and divide the money by investing it into the three core conservative assets: shares, property and cash. Open a mutual fund account for shares, a property fund for property, and a money market fund for cash. Look for share and property funds that invest in a broad range of assets and most importantly charge very low fees. An index fund is ideal for the shares. An index of property funds is ideal for property.
Put an equal amount into each account. This will diversify you against risk in any one particular asset. If you're younger, this rule is a little bit flexible, allowing you to take a little more risk and put more into shares and property if you like.
Step 5: Reinvest any income you get from your assets straight back into buying more assets
Mutual funds and property funds pay dividends. Money market accounts pay interest. Don't take this income into your spending account. Instead, select the option to have it reinvested into the fund that generated it.
Step 6: Never touch these funds and do your best to ignore them
The business press, like the mainstream press, loves a crisis. "Shares to skyrocket" or "Property to plummet" headlines will sell many more copies than "Things to continue steadily". All markets go up and down. Every day, some speculation will be published about some crisis or opportunity.
Ignore it all.
Just keep putting the 20% into your assets. Sometimes they'll go up and sometimes they'll go down in value. But over the long term, they'll almost certainly go up.
Step 7: Wait a decade
Do what I've outlined above and in a decade you'll be rich. Sure, you won't be Bill Gates, but you'll almost certainly be in the top 20% of wealth holders. Wait another decade and you'll be in the top 5% or higher.
That's the plan. It's not the most exciting or glamourous way to build wealth, but it's the easiest. Quite simply, this is how most rich people got there.
You too can join them, if you follow it.
Senin, 10 Maret 2008
10 Golden Rules To Become Rich!
Once you decide to put your money to work to build long-term wealth, you have to decide, not whether to take risk, but what kind of risk you wish to take. Here are 10 investing rules that can make you rich:
1. There's no escaping risk
Once you decide to put your money to work to build long-term wealth, you have to decide, not whether to take risk, but what kind of risk you wish to take.
Yes, money in a savings account is dollar-safe, but those safe dollars are apt to be substantially eroded by inflation, a risk that almost guarantees you will fail to reach your wealth goals.
And yes, money in the stock market is very risky over the short-term, but, if well-diversified, should provide remarkable growth with a high degree of consistency over the long term.
2. Buy right and hold tight
The most critical decision you face is arriving at the proper allocation of assets in your investment portfolio -- stocks for growth of capital and growth of income, bonds for conservation of capital and current income.
Once you get your balance right, then just hold tight, no matter how high a greedy stock market flies, nor how low a frightened market plunges. Change the allocation only as your investment profile changes. Begin by considering a 50/50 stock/bond-cash balance, then raise the stock allocation if:
* You have many years remaining to accumulate wealth.
* The amount of capital you have at stake is modest.
* You don't have much need for current income from your investments.
* You have the courage to ride out the stock market booms and busts with reasonable equanimity.
As these factors are reversed, reduce the 50 per cent stock allocation accordingly.
3. Time is your friend, impulse your enemy
Think long term, and don't allow transitory changes in stock prices to alter your investment program. There is a lot of noise in the daily volatility of the stock market, which too often is 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'.
Stocks may remain overvalued, or undervalued, for years. Realize that one of the greatest sins of investing is to be captured by the siren song of the market, luring you into buying stocks when they are soaring and selling when they are plunging.
Impulse is your enemy. Why? Because market timing is impossible. Even if you turn out to be right when you sold stocks just before a decline (a rare occurrence!), where on earth would you ever get the insight that tells you the right time to get back in? One correct decision is tough enough. Two correct decisions are nigh on impossible.
Time is your friend. If, over the next 25 years, stocks produce a 10% return and a savings account produces a 5% return, $10,000 would grow to $108,000 in stocks vs. $34,000 in savings. (After 3% inflation, $54,000 vs $16,000). Give yourself all the time you can.
4. Realistic expectations: the bagel and the doughnut
These two different kinds of baked goods symbolize the two distinctively different elements of stock market returns.
It is hardly farfetched to consider that investment return -- dividend yields and earnings growth -- is the bagel of the stock market, for the investment return on stocks reflects their underlying character: nutritious, crusty and hard-boiled.
By the same token, speculative return -- wrought by any change in the price that investors are willing to pay for each dollar of earnings -- is the spongy doughnut of the market, reflecting changing public opinion about stock valuations, from the soft sweetness of optimism to the acid sourness of pessimism.
The substantive bagel-like economics of investing are almost inevitably productive, but the flaky, doughnut-like emotions of investors are anything but steady -- sometimes productive, sometimes counterproductive.
In the long run, it is investment return that rules the day. In the past 40 years, the speculative return on US stocks has been zero, with the annual investment return of 11.2% precisely equal to the stock market's total return of 11.2% per year.
But in the first 20 of those years, investors were sour on the economy's prospects, and a tumbling price-earnings ratio provided a speculative return of minus 4.6% per year, reducing the nutritious annual investment return of 12.1% to a market return of just 7.5%. From 1981 to 2001, however, the outlook sweetened, and a soaring P/E ratio produced a sugary 5% speculative boost to the investment return of 10.3%.
Result: The market return leaped to 15.3% -- double the return of the prior two decades.
The lesson: Enjoy the bagel's healthy nutrients, and don't count on the doughnut's sweetness to enhance them.
5. Why look for the needle in the haystack? Buy the haystack!
Experience confirms that buying the right stocks, betting on the right investment style, and picking the right money manager -- in each case, in advance -- is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Investing in equities entails four risks: stock risk, style risk, manager risk, and market risk. The first three of these risks can easily be eliminated, simply by owning the entire stock market -- owning the haystack, as it were -- and holding it forever.
Owning the entire stock market is the ultimate diversifier. If you can't find the needle, buy the haystack.
6. Minimize the croupier's take
The resemblance of the stock market to the casino is not far-fetched. Yes, the stock market is a positive-sum game and the gambling casino is a zero-sum game . . . but only before the costs of playing each game are deducted. After the heavy costs of financial intermediaries (commissions, management fees, taxes, etc.) are deducted, beating the stock market is inevitably a loser's game. Just as, after the croupiers' wide rake descends, beating the casino is inevitably a loser's game. All investors as a group must earn the market's return before costs, and lose to the market after costs, and by the exact amount of those costs.
Your greatest chance of earning the market's return, therefore, is to reduce the croupiers' take to the bare-bones minimum. When you read about stock market returns, realize that the financial markets are not for sale, except at a high price.
The difference is crucial. If the market's return is 10% before costs, and intermediation costs are approximately 2%, then investors earn 8%. Compounded over 50 years, 8% takes $10,000 to $469,000. But at 10%, the final value leaps to $1,170,000 -- nearly three times as much . . . just by eliminating the croupier's take.
7. Beware of fighting the last war
Too many investors -- individuals and institutions alike -- are constantly making investment decisions based on the lessons of the recent, or even the extended, past. They seek technology stocks after they have emerged victorious from the last war; they worry about inflation after it becomes the accepted bogeyman, they buy bonds after the stock market has plunged.
You should not ignore the past, but neither should you assume that a particular cyclical trend will last forever. None does. Just because some investors insist on 'fighting the last war,' you don't need to do so yourself. It doesn't work for very long.
8. Sir Isaac Newton's revenge on Wall Street -- return to the mean
Through all history, investments have been subject to a sort of law of gravity: What goes up must go down, and, oddly enough, what goes down must go up. Not always of course (companies that die rarely live again), and not necessarily in the absolute sense, but relative to the overall market norm.
For example, stock market returns that substantially exceed the investment returns generated by earnings and dividends during one period tend to revert and fall well short of that norm during the next period. Like a pendulum, stock prices swing far above their underlying values, only to swing back to fair value and then far below it.
Another example: From the start of 1997 through March 2000, Nasdaq stocks (+230%) soared past NYSE-listed stocks (+20%), only to come to a screeching halt. During the subsequent year, Nasdaq stocks lost 67% of their value, while NYSE stocks lost just 7%, reverting to the original market value relationship (about one to five) between the so-called 'new economy' and the 'old economy.'
Reversion to the mean is found everywhere in the financial jungle, for the mean is a powerful magnet that, in the long run, finally draws everything back to it.
9. The hedgehog bests the fox
The Greek philosopher Archilochus tells us, 'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one great thing.' The fox -- artful, sly, and astute -- represents the financial institution that knows many things about complex markets and sophisticated marketing.
The hedgehog -- whose sharp spines give it almost impregnable armour when it curls into a ball -- is the financial institution that knows only one great thing: long-term investment success is based on simplicity.
The wily foxes of the financial world justify their existence by propagating the notion that an investor can survive only with the benefit of their artful knowledge and expertise. Such assistance, alas, does not come cheap, and the costs it entails tend to consume more value-added performance than even the most cunning of foxes can provide.
Result: The annual returns earned for investors by financial intermediaries such as mutual funds have averaged less than 80% of the stock market's annual return.
The hedgehog, on the other hand, knows that the truly great investment strategy succeeds, not because of its complexity or cleverness, but because of its simplicity and low cost. The hedgehog diversifies broadly, buys and holds, and keeps expenses to the bare-bones minimum.
The ultimate hedgehog: The all-market index fund, operated at minimal cost and with minimal portfolio turnover, virtually guarantees nearly 100% of the market's return to the investor.
In the field of investment management, foxes come and go, but hedgehogs are forever.
10. Stay the course: the secret of investing is that there is no secret
When you consider these previous nine rules, realize that they are about neither magic and legerdemain, nor about forecasting the unforecastable, nor about betting at long and ultimately unsurmountable odds, nor about learning some great secret of successful investing.
In fact, there is no great secret, only the majesty of simplicity. These rules are about elementary arithmetic, about fundamental and unarguable principles, and about that most uncommon of all attributes, common sense.
Owning the entire stock market through an index fund -- all the while balancing your portfolio with an appropriate allocation to an all bond market index fund -- with its cost-efficiency, its tax-efficiency, and its assurance of earning for you the market's return, is by definition a winning strategy.
But if only you follow one final rule for successful investing, perhaps the most important principle of all investment wisdom: Stay the course!
[Excerpt from Investing Rules from the Masters by John C. Bogle, a doyen of the American mutual fund industry who was designated by Fortune magazine as one of US investment industry's four 'Giants of the 20th Century.']
1. There's no escaping risk
Once you decide to put your money to work to build long-term wealth, you have to decide, not whether to take risk, but what kind of risk you wish to take.
Yes, money in a savings account is dollar-safe, but those safe dollars are apt to be substantially eroded by inflation, a risk that almost guarantees you will fail to reach your wealth goals.
And yes, money in the stock market is very risky over the short-term, but, if well-diversified, should provide remarkable growth with a high degree of consistency over the long term.
2. Buy right and hold tight
The most critical decision you face is arriving at the proper allocation of assets in your investment portfolio -- stocks for growth of capital and growth of income, bonds for conservation of capital and current income.
Once you get your balance right, then just hold tight, no matter how high a greedy stock market flies, nor how low a frightened market plunges. Change the allocation only as your investment profile changes. Begin by considering a 50/50 stock/bond-cash balance, then raise the stock allocation if:
* You have many years remaining to accumulate wealth.
* The amount of capital you have at stake is modest.
* You don't have much need for current income from your investments.
* You have the courage to ride out the stock market booms and busts with reasonable equanimity.
As these factors are reversed, reduce the 50 per cent stock allocation accordingly.
3. Time is your friend, impulse your enemy
Think long term, and don't allow transitory changes in stock prices to alter your investment program. There is a lot of noise in the daily volatility of the stock market, which too often is 'a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing'.
Stocks may remain overvalued, or undervalued, for years. Realize that one of the greatest sins of investing is to be captured by the siren song of the market, luring you into buying stocks when they are soaring and selling when they are plunging.
Impulse is your enemy. Why? Because market timing is impossible. Even if you turn out to be right when you sold stocks just before a decline (a rare occurrence!), where on earth would you ever get the insight that tells you the right time to get back in? One correct decision is tough enough. Two correct decisions are nigh on impossible.
Time is your friend. If, over the next 25 years, stocks produce a 10% return and a savings account produces a 5% return, $10,000 would grow to $108,000 in stocks vs. $34,000 in savings. (After 3% inflation, $54,000 vs $16,000). Give yourself all the time you can.
4. Realistic expectations: the bagel and the doughnut
These two different kinds of baked goods symbolize the two distinctively different elements of stock market returns.
It is hardly farfetched to consider that investment return -- dividend yields and earnings growth -- is the bagel of the stock market, for the investment return on stocks reflects their underlying character: nutritious, crusty and hard-boiled.
By the same token, speculative return -- wrought by any change in the price that investors are willing to pay for each dollar of earnings -- is the spongy doughnut of the market, reflecting changing public opinion about stock valuations, from the soft sweetness of optimism to the acid sourness of pessimism.
The substantive bagel-like economics of investing are almost inevitably productive, but the flaky, doughnut-like emotions of investors are anything but steady -- sometimes productive, sometimes counterproductive.
In the long run, it is investment return that rules the day. In the past 40 years, the speculative return on US stocks has been zero, with the annual investment return of 11.2% precisely equal to the stock market's total return of 11.2% per year.
But in the first 20 of those years, investors were sour on the economy's prospects, and a tumbling price-earnings ratio provided a speculative return of minus 4.6% per year, reducing the nutritious annual investment return of 12.1% to a market return of just 7.5%. From 1981 to 2001, however, the outlook sweetened, and a soaring P/E ratio produced a sugary 5% speculative boost to the investment return of 10.3%.
Result: The market return leaped to 15.3% -- double the return of the prior two decades.
The lesson: Enjoy the bagel's healthy nutrients, and don't count on the doughnut's sweetness to enhance them.
5. Why look for the needle in the haystack? Buy the haystack!
Experience confirms that buying the right stocks, betting on the right investment style, and picking the right money manager -- in each case, in advance -- is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
Investing in equities entails four risks: stock risk, style risk, manager risk, and market risk. The first three of these risks can easily be eliminated, simply by owning the entire stock market -- owning the haystack, as it were -- and holding it forever.
Owning the entire stock market is the ultimate diversifier. If you can't find the needle, buy the haystack.
6. Minimize the croupier's take
The resemblance of the stock market to the casino is not far-fetched. Yes, the stock market is a positive-sum game and the gambling casino is a zero-sum game . . . but only before the costs of playing each game are deducted. After the heavy costs of financial intermediaries (commissions, management fees, taxes, etc.) are deducted, beating the stock market is inevitably a loser's game. Just as, after the croupiers' wide rake descends, beating the casino is inevitably a loser's game. All investors as a group must earn the market's return before costs, and lose to the market after costs, and by the exact amount of those costs.
Your greatest chance of earning the market's return, therefore, is to reduce the croupiers' take to the bare-bones minimum. When you read about stock market returns, realize that the financial markets are not for sale, except at a high price.
The difference is crucial. If the market's return is 10% before costs, and intermediation costs are approximately 2%, then investors earn 8%. Compounded over 50 years, 8% takes $10,000 to $469,000. But at 10%, the final value leaps to $1,170,000 -- nearly three times as much . . . just by eliminating the croupier's take.
7. Beware of fighting the last war
Too many investors -- individuals and institutions alike -- are constantly making investment decisions based on the lessons of the recent, or even the extended, past. They seek technology stocks after they have emerged victorious from the last war; they worry about inflation after it becomes the accepted bogeyman, they buy bonds after the stock market has plunged.
You should not ignore the past, but neither should you assume that a particular cyclical trend will last forever. None does. Just because some investors insist on 'fighting the last war,' you don't need to do so yourself. It doesn't work for very long.
8. Sir Isaac Newton's revenge on Wall Street -- return to the mean
Through all history, investments have been subject to a sort of law of gravity: What goes up must go down, and, oddly enough, what goes down must go up. Not always of course (companies that die rarely live again), and not necessarily in the absolute sense, but relative to the overall market norm.
For example, stock market returns that substantially exceed the investment returns generated by earnings and dividends during one period tend to revert and fall well short of that norm during the next period. Like a pendulum, stock prices swing far above their underlying values, only to swing back to fair value and then far below it.
Another example: From the start of 1997 through March 2000, Nasdaq stocks (+230%) soared past NYSE-listed stocks (+20%), only to come to a screeching halt. During the subsequent year, Nasdaq stocks lost 67% of their value, while NYSE stocks lost just 7%, reverting to the original market value relationship (about one to five) between the so-called 'new economy' and the 'old economy.'
Reversion to the mean is found everywhere in the financial jungle, for the mean is a powerful magnet that, in the long run, finally draws everything back to it.
9. The hedgehog bests the fox
The Greek philosopher Archilochus tells us, 'The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one great thing.' The fox -- artful, sly, and astute -- represents the financial institution that knows many things about complex markets and sophisticated marketing.
The hedgehog -- whose sharp spines give it almost impregnable armour when it curls into a ball -- is the financial institution that knows only one great thing: long-term investment success is based on simplicity.
The wily foxes of the financial world justify their existence by propagating the notion that an investor can survive only with the benefit of their artful knowledge and expertise. Such assistance, alas, does not come cheap, and the costs it entails tend to consume more value-added performance than even the most cunning of foxes can provide.
Result: The annual returns earned for investors by financial intermediaries such as mutual funds have averaged less than 80% of the stock market's annual return.
The hedgehog, on the other hand, knows that the truly great investment strategy succeeds, not because of its complexity or cleverness, but because of its simplicity and low cost. The hedgehog diversifies broadly, buys and holds, and keeps expenses to the bare-bones minimum.
The ultimate hedgehog: The all-market index fund, operated at minimal cost and with minimal portfolio turnover, virtually guarantees nearly 100% of the market's return to the investor.
In the field of investment management, foxes come and go, but hedgehogs are forever.
10. Stay the course: the secret of investing is that there is no secret
When you consider these previous nine rules, realize that they are about neither magic and legerdemain, nor about forecasting the unforecastable, nor about betting at long and ultimately unsurmountable odds, nor about learning some great secret of successful investing.
In fact, there is no great secret, only the majesty of simplicity. These rules are about elementary arithmetic, about fundamental and unarguable principles, and about that most uncommon of all attributes, common sense.
Owning the entire stock market through an index fund -- all the while balancing your portfolio with an appropriate allocation to an all bond market index fund -- with its cost-efficiency, its tax-efficiency, and its assurance of earning for you the market's return, is by definition a winning strategy.
But if only you follow one final rule for successful investing, perhaps the most important principle of all investment wisdom: Stay the course!
[Excerpt from Investing Rules from the Masters by John C. Bogle, a doyen of the American mutual fund industry who was designated by Fortune magazine as one of US investment industry's four 'Giants of the 20th Century.']
How To Become Rich
The Old Fashioned Way of Working and Saving is the Best Method
There are a number of ways to become rich and here are a few of the more common ones:
1 Inherit a fortune – for the most part this is a matter of luck in that you either have to be born into a family with a rich relative who will leave you their fortune or you have to encounter and befriend a wealthy person who is childless and decides to leave you their fortune. Both of these are long shots.
2 Win the Lottery – this is every sucker's dream, but frankly, the odds of meeting and befriending a childless stranger are probably greater than winning any lotteries. As for the lottery run by my state (Arizona, and probably every other lottery in the world), I had a mathematician demonstrate to me once that your chances of winning the lottery by purchasing a ticket are statistically only slightly (very slightly) greater than your chances of finding a winning ticket on the ground that someone else brought and lost.
3 Be born with a talent in great demand – This one also depends upon luck but you do have more control and greater chances with this than with numbers 1 and 2 above. Inventory your talents to see what you have and what the market wants – athletes, singers, entertainers are currently hot commodities. Then work very hard at developing your talent and you just might make that fortune. While it may look easy, when you take time to study the background of the beautiful millionaire model or the the athlete making millions throwing a football, you will find that an incredible amount of time and effort went into reaching their present position and the stress of their present fame is usually more than most of us want to have to endure.
4 Grab an Opportunity and Run With it – Get a good education in a hot area, such as IT, web design, nano technology, etc. Work hard to become a leader in the field and keep watching over your shoulder for the next opportunity in the field. Then, when the opportunity presents itself, throw all of your time, energy, and every cent you can get your hands to to start a company to produce the product or service. If you guessed correctly and the product or service is just what the public wants NOW you can either go public and make a fortune on the sale of some of your stock or sell it for billions to a company like Google (a la You Tube) or Yahoo. Of course your plan could bomb and you could find yourself with nothing but a pile of bills or, worse, fail because you were too early and have to endure the pain of seeing someone else make a fortune with the same ideas a few years later when the market is right.
5 Be Old Fashioned, Work and Save – This route is open to practically everyone and the younger you are the better. It involves working hard and saving. In their book, The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy, the typical American millionaire is described by authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko as a very ordinary person who has slowly and steadily accumulated wealth through work and savings. Most live typical middle class lives with few outwardly displays of wealth. In fact the only thing that distinguishes them from their other middle class neighbors is the size of their bank accounts. Most of these millionaires own their own business but they are traditional low tech businesses. While their neighbors live off of credit and spend thousands each year on finance charges, these people save (earning interest) and pay with cash. Their homes are comfortable suburban tract homes, their cars are late model family type cars, their clothes are off the rack. The author's point is that these people are no different than the vast middle class that makes up America other than they are more focused on their work and they save rather than borrow. By middle age these people are usually very wealthy but their habits remain those of the middle class. In fact when Stanley and Danko were writing their book they held a series of focus group sessions in fine hotels and invited people whose financial status put them in the millionaire class, and asked them to describe their lifestyle and how they made their fortunes. In the room where the focus group was held they arranged for a table of free drinks and snacks that included fine wines, expensive mixed drinks, caviar and other expensive appetizers. For variety they also included some beer and traditional appetizers. What surprised Stanley and Danko was that the beer and traditional appetizers disappeared fast while the wines and caviar type food and drink went untouched. The work and saving are habits that are developed and cultivated over a life time.
6 Retire a Millionaire – for a young person this is probably the easiest road to wealth, but they have to wait for it. Simply open a Roth IRA account with a good Mutual Fund or other investment company when you get your first job at 16 or 17 (or later, but the longer you wait the less time you will have for the money to grow). Arrange for your paycheck to be deposited to you checking account automatically and, at the same time, arrange for the mutual fund or investment company to automatically withdraw a fixed amount from your checking account each month, say $25, $40, $75 whatever you can afford. It may hurt for the first couple of months but then you will get used to living off of the lower amount (your take home pay minus the IRA deposit) and forget about it. In time your income will go up and you can either leave your IRA withdrawal the same or increase it by part of the raise. Over the course of the next 40 – 50 years, the reinvested income from your deposits will grow to many times the amount that you are investing and when you retire you will not only have accumulated close to a million dollars or more but, after age 59 ½ you will be able to withdraw it tax free.
There are a number of ways to become rich and here are a few of the more common ones:
1 Inherit a fortune – for the most part this is a matter of luck in that you either have to be born into a family with a rich relative who will leave you their fortune or you have to encounter and befriend a wealthy person who is childless and decides to leave you their fortune. Both of these are long shots.
2 Win the Lottery – this is every sucker's dream, but frankly, the odds of meeting and befriending a childless stranger are probably greater than winning any lotteries. As for the lottery run by my state (Arizona, and probably every other lottery in the world), I had a mathematician demonstrate to me once that your chances of winning the lottery by purchasing a ticket are statistically only slightly (very slightly) greater than your chances of finding a winning ticket on the ground that someone else brought and lost.
3 Be born with a talent in great demand – This one also depends upon luck but you do have more control and greater chances with this than with numbers 1 and 2 above. Inventory your talents to see what you have and what the market wants – athletes, singers, entertainers are currently hot commodities. Then work very hard at developing your talent and you just might make that fortune. While it may look easy, when you take time to study the background of the beautiful millionaire model or the the athlete making millions throwing a football, you will find that an incredible amount of time and effort went into reaching their present position and the stress of their present fame is usually more than most of us want to have to endure.
4 Grab an Opportunity and Run With it – Get a good education in a hot area, such as IT, web design, nano technology, etc. Work hard to become a leader in the field and keep watching over your shoulder for the next opportunity in the field. Then, when the opportunity presents itself, throw all of your time, energy, and every cent you can get your hands to to start a company to produce the product or service. If you guessed correctly and the product or service is just what the public wants NOW you can either go public and make a fortune on the sale of some of your stock or sell it for billions to a company like Google (a la You Tube) or Yahoo. Of course your plan could bomb and you could find yourself with nothing but a pile of bills or, worse, fail because you were too early and have to endure the pain of seeing someone else make a fortune with the same ideas a few years later when the market is right.
5 Be Old Fashioned, Work and Save – This route is open to practically everyone and the younger you are the better. It involves working hard and saving. In their book, The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America's Wealthy, the typical American millionaire is described by authors Thomas Stanley and William Danko as a very ordinary person who has slowly and steadily accumulated wealth through work and savings. Most live typical middle class lives with few outwardly displays of wealth. In fact the only thing that distinguishes them from their other middle class neighbors is the size of their bank accounts. Most of these millionaires own their own business but they are traditional low tech businesses. While their neighbors live off of credit and spend thousands each year on finance charges, these people save (earning interest) and pay with cash. Their homes are comfortable suburban tract homes, their cars are late model family type cars, their clothes are off the rack. The author's point is that these people are no different than the vast middle class that makes up America other than they are more focused on their work and they save rather than borrow. By middle age these people are usually very wealthy but their habits remain those of the middle class. In fact when Stanley and Danko were writing their book they held a series of focus group sessions in fine hotels and invited people whose financial status put them in the millionaire class, and asked them to describe their lifestyle and how they made their fortunes. In the room where the focus group was held they arranged for a table of free drinks and snacks that included fine wines, expensive mixed drinks, caviar and other expensive appetizers. For variety they also included some beer and traditional appetizers. What surprised Stanley and Danko was that the beer and traditional appetizers disappeared fast while the wines and caviar type food and drink went untouched. The work and saving are habits that are developed and cultivated over a life time.
6 Retire a Millionaire – for a young person this is probably the easiest road to wealth, but they have to wait for it. Simply open a Roth IRA account with a good Mutual Fund or other investment company when you get your first job at 16 or 17 (or later, but the longer you wait the less time you will have for the money to grow). Arrange for your paycheck to be deposited to you checking account automatically and, at the same time, arrange for the mutual fund or investment company to automatically withdraw a fixed amount from your checking account each month, say $25, $40, $75 whatever you can afford. It may hurt for the first couple of months but then you will get used to living off of the lower amount (your take home pay minus the IRA deposit) and forget about it. In time your income will go up and you can either leave your IRA withdrawal the same or increase it by part of the raise. Over the course of the next 40 – 50 years, the reinvested income from your deposits will grow to many times the amount that you are investing and when you retire you will not only have accumulated close to a million dollars or more but, after age 59 ½ you will be able to withdraw it tax free.
Langganan:
Postingan (Atom)
