A Multi-Millionaire Shares Her Advice On How To Become Rich
I read an excellent article today over on MoneyTalksNews.
Stacy Johnson, creator of the site and a multi-millionaire, shared her top ten pieces of advice for those wanting to follow her path and become a millionaire themselves.
She said these ten rules are “the best of the best” of those that he heard and learned over his 40-year career.
When a successful person wants to share their knowledge, I am certainly listening.
Since I had recently acquired a bunch of John C. Maxwell courses from my 30-day Goodwill Outlet challenge, I feel that this quote of his is most appropriate.
“It’s said that a wise person learns from his mistakes. A wiser one learns from others’ mistakes. But the wisest person of all learns from others’ successes.”
Let’s start learning, eh?
1: NEVER SPEND MORE THAN YOU MAKE, EVER.
A recent study from CareerBuilder found that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
At best, these people are treading water. Most likely they are drowning slowly.
Why is that? I mean we all have different incomes. Do they earn exactly as much as their neighbors?
I don’t think they do. Yet they live in the same area with similar housing costs and probably shop at the same grocery store.
So why are both of them living paycheck to paycheck but with different incomes? Bluntly, it’s probably not their income that is the problem. It’s because they can’t control their financial spending habits.
Stacy says getting richer every month is as simple as spending less than you make.
2: AVOID DEBT LIKE THE PLAGUE.
Do you know what you have when you don’t have debt? Money!
It’s not complicated people. Putting that vacation on the credit cards and then making the minimum payments
guarantees that you will have to work even longer to pay it off than if you had just saved up the money in the first place.
Paying interest on your debt makes you poorer, earning interest on your investments makes you richer.
Stacy says to only pay interest under two conditions;
- In order to survive
- When you buy an asset that will earn you more than you’ll pay in interest.
3: BUY WHEN EVERYONE IS FREAKING OUT, AND SELL WHEN EVERYONE THINKS THEY CAN’T LOSE.
Economies are cyclical. Always have been, and always will be.
People don’t learn though, and so human nature will cause the majority of people to buy high and panic sell low.
Rich people make their money buying assets when everyone else is in panic mode.
Hmm, that reminds me that we just hit a low of unemployment and businesses are hiring like crazy. I wonder which part of the cycle we are near. (Hint: the higher side)
4: YOU CAN EITHER LOOK RICH OR BE RICH, BUT YOU PROBABLY WON’T LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO ACCOMPLISH BOTH.
“Fake it until you make it” is probably not the best way to handle your finances.
Remember rule #2? Buying those expensive things using debt will make you poorer in the long run.
Heck, most people who make it big still just wear jeans and a t-shirt. Because once you “make it” you really don’t care to display it.
Most people who look rich are actually far from it.
5: LIVE LIKE YOU’LL DIE TOMORROW, BUT INVEST LIKE YOU’LL LIVE FOREVER.
Live life in a full way (which doesn’t have to cost much money), but always be putting some money away for the future. That way you are not sacrificing the future for the present.
Nobody wants to grow old and eat cat food.
6: THERE ARE ONLY SIX WAYS TO GET RICH.
- Marry into money
- Inherit money
- Exploit a unique talent
- Get exceedingly lucky
- Own or lead a successful business
- Spend less than you make and invest the savings wisely over long periods of time.
Stacy says that even if your plan is one of the first five, always do the last one and you are guaranteed to eventually become rich.
7: THE RISKIEST THING YOU CAN DO IS TAKE NO RISK.
Sure, you can invest $250 per month in bank CD’s and earn maybe 3% a year. If you do that for 40 years you will have $230,000.
Invest that same $250 every month earning 12% annually and you will end up with almost $2.5 MILLION.
That 2 and a quarter million dollar difference is huge and a result of taking a chance. Yes, a CD is guaranteed, but after inflation you are hardly even coming out ahead.
You have to take calculated risks to become wealthy. You have to put your money into a situation where it can go down in value. But you have to do it intelligently. Research and study can mitigate the worst of the risk.
8: NEVER MAKE YOUR WELL-BEING SOMEONE ELSE’S RESPONSIBILITY.
Stacy says to never turn over complete control of your money to someone else. He says to learn all you can about finance as it is actually pretty simple when you get down to it.
Seek advice from those in the field, but always control where your own money goes as no one else but you cares more about it.
9: WHEN IT COMES TO INFORMATION, LESS CAN BE MORE.
The news cycle is endless in modern society. The media will blow any tiny thing out of proportion just so they can keep talking. Often, the news will be negative as fear holds human attention better than good news.
If you watch your investments every day you will eventually sell out over some minor thing you read or heard about.
So buy high-quality investments and hold them for a long time.
10: TIME ISN’T MONEY; MONEY IS TIME.
You can get more money, but your time is finite.
People often use this as an excuse to spend all their money having fun today.
I see it differently.
The money I am saving today will be used to buy me time in the future as I will no longer have to work to support my family. Investments will do that instead.
I don’t seek to become rich for material sake, but to claim back my limited time.
Stuff or Time?
Wow, ten great tips that will help you grow rich and live the life you want.
As Stacy says, it all really boils down to this: stuff today or time tomorrow. Those who choose the former often stay poor. Those who choose the latter often get rich.
Which one will you choose?
Wow, this is really brilliant advice. I've got to resteem this!
One thing: Stacy is not a "she" :D
Oh dang, you're right. Edited. Thanks.
No problem.
I enjoyed reading this article.
Everyone is different and for me, I got rich because in my business I positively impacted so many people’s life. Same time learning to live frugally even when I’m rich
You got it! The more people you serve, the richer you will become.
you couldn't be more right! Those are some solid crypto rules. I upvoted :) Can you upvote my latest post as well? You're the best! :) https://steemit.com/life/@parkermorris/i-m-back-to-steemit-a-lot-has-changed
excellent recommendations that you give us today. Sincerely every day it is difficult to maintain economic stability in Venezuela. however the effort is made to be stable in the middle of the crisis
Oh, it's probably a good time to start buying up assets in Venezuela. I mean, if you have the money to do so. The dark times never last forever (even if everyone thinks they will in the moment).
I would go for number 2!
The only debt we have is our mortgage! Which is of course one of the biggest one you can have, but at the end it is cheaper then renting a house or apartmen. A litle bit less than 13 years to go! It would be great if we could do it faster!
Pay it off faster then! You can do anything within your power, and earning more is certainly within your power. :D
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Oh, use these rules and you'll be a thousandaire sooner than you think!
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Great....I personally enjoy reading motivation talks, articles or shows. Do you remember the day I joined steemit? (I think you were among the first one I saw). Well, in just 5 months there have been measure changes, I think something changed from the steemit exposure.
I now see a step forward and atleast drawing some future pictures and probable investments.
Cheers, well done @getonthetrain
Oh wow, I didn't know that was your first day.
Yes, you become what you think about the most and by reading motivational posts you will become driven to succeed.
Yeahhhh...true
Oh I like posts like this. Now if only I can do all of these I will be a millionaire too!
What's stopping you? Yourself?
I've been doing some of them already. And yeah I only want to be a millionaire sometimes, not all the time. :) You know, coz of all the tax and paperwork, stuff like that. :P
Great article. Many timeless truths. I especially liked #10 that money is time. Several years ago, I realized that the best way to earn "time" is through passive income. Go get some! https://steemit.com/masternode/@cocryptominer/masternodes-part-1-a-new-way-to-generate-passive-income
Interesting post @getonthetrain. The only one that surprised me was number 7 - THE RISKIEST THING YOU CAN DO IS TAKE NO RISK.
Probably because the one time when we took a big risk, although it didn't look like one at that time, we lost big time and are still paying for it nine years later!
Things went well for the first three years and then the banking crisis made it next to impossible to remortgage and the company who had our money went bankrupt.
I suppose it was just unlucky since very few people predicted the banking crisis that unfolded.
Ah well. Onwards and upwards. 😊
Just because you 'lost' once, don't let that experience turn you off from it. You should be investing in something. I know the returns in England aren't the best, but you don't have to invest in England.
We are investing @getonthetrain but I don't have much time to learn about riskier stuff, or interest for that matter, so we're moving money around these days.
Any spare time I have for this I'm putting into learning about crupto so we can start investing here.
Oh darn, wish I had some SBDs right now - I'd buy you a few upvotes (by possibly breaking the rule #1 of this very post) because this. Post. Is. Solid. Gold.
Might be the first Steemit article I actually bookmarked. These are all the rules I need to memorize.
Oh hush, you are too kind my friend.
Oh boy... @getonthetrain...
I hoped I could " Marry into money " to get rich. But I think I will have to Spend less than you make and invest the savings wisely over long periods of time.
Need to read your blog more often ^^
Well, maybe your boyfriend will come into money real soon! :D
These are excellent and timeless rules. I will be sharing your post with my friends and acquaintances, @getonthetrain. Even for myself, who have been living according to these rules for some time now, it was useful to go through them once more and reflect on the truth that they hold. I particularly liked the one about being rich, not looking rich. All around me I see people sacrificing their long-term prosperity and well-being by pretending to have what they don’t have and being what they aren’t.
Thanks for reading, Oleg. These rules are sure to bring someone closer to financial freedom so sharing with those you like is a prudent idea.