Randy Gilbert


If making a million bucks were easy, we’d all be millionaires. Right? According to the statistics shared by Mike Peterson, co-founder of The American Credit Foundation and author of “Reality Millionaire: Proven Tips to Retire Rich,” most Americans are losing the money-making game. Take 100 people at age 20 and fast forward them to retirement. Only five percent of them will be financially okay. That’s not even ‘great’ or ‘independent’. Just okay.

In fact, most people lose in rounds one and two. “There are different levels to financial freedom,” says Peterson. “The first level of financial freedom is when you decide to take control of your finances. Let’s take another step, at the point that you manage your finances and income so you’re no longer in the red, but actually have a little money left over at the end of every month. Eventually we get to what I call ultimate financial freedom. I define that as, where you have enough money put away in investments that are spinning off enough of an income for you that you no longer have to go to work.”

The real key to getting started according to Peterson is that people need to make a decision to be responsible for their own finances. There are certainly many related causes for our society-wide tendency toward money blunders. Lack of financial education in schools is certainly a factor but Peterson thinks the real problem is closer to home. As an adult, there is no reason someone can’t go to a local library and tap into the wealth of information available and teach himself.

Once you commit to getting started, begin with rounds one and two below:

1. Round one is all about looking – really looking at your finances.

How much money will you need during your lifetime? Consider vacations, a child’s wedding, a house, cars and then add a million because you’d love to have a million someday and you will need something to retire on. Now consider how much you’ll earn. If you continue earning the same amount you currently do, how much will you earn over your working lifetime?

There’s a discrepancy there for most people and it’s easy to see why people who don’t pay attention are loosing the money game big time. Without conscientiously managing your money, the discrepancy will get worse, not better. Since most people don’t just buy a house with cash, they’ll actually be paying a lot more than the asking price. That goes for anything purchased with credit.

The great thing about money is that there are lots of ways to make it. Of course, there are at least as many ways to spend it. Riches, cautions Peterson, is not about how much you earn, it’s about how much you’re saving and how well that money is working for you.

2. Round two is about finding your own pot of gold with the 10-15% of your spending that doesn’t buy you very much and putting it where you need it most.

“I’ve been teaching classes in financial management for years, and I have never met anyone that couldn’t find this extra money in their current budget,” says Peterson. Start by writing down all of your monthly expenses. Most Americans can’t account for 10-15%.

To get more exact numbers, you need to actually track your spending for at least 7 days but preferably a month. Write everything, even the loose change vending machine purchases, down. Don’t change your spending habits just because you’re tracking it this time around. That will come next as you fund an emergency savings account.

The first two steps really do keep most people from winning. Once you’ve committed to controlling your financial future and you’ve found a little extra money in your budget, you’ll have the energy and excitement to move on to building an emergency fund, planning your debt repayments and starting to invest. If numbers aren’t your thing, there are online calculators and other free resources on Reality Millionaire’s book website that can help set realistic goals.

Ultimately, how far you go, and what you do are up to the attitude you start off with. In real life, unexpected costs are common and it is easy to lose confidence, but through persistence, patience, and above all, education and practice, you can achieve your dreams of being debt free and have a million dollars in your bank accounts and investments.

Nicola Cairncross


LANE #3 – Property Investing is the topic I’m going to cover in the second part of this article on how to become a millionaire in just five years.

what you will find is that as many wealthy people made their money in business, as property, and once they have made their money in one of those two lanes, they then invest in the other.

Why? you will find that property is much easier!

In the same way that you have two ways to make a million in business essentially, you have two ways to make a million in property, within five years.

Actually, there are SO MANY ways to make a huge amount in property – like buying, renovating and flipping – but most of them incur capital gains tax whcih will make my sums harder, so I’m going to concentrate on the simplest and most tax efficient methods.

To make (and keep) $1 million in property in five years, you could work out that you need to create $250,000 rental profit per annum, net of tax, or $416,666 per annum gross. That’s $34,722 per month.

If you work out that a good rental profit on a small condo or family unit is $200 per month, then you can see that you need 173 rental units to achieve your goals.

An easier way is to create a property portfolio that appreciates in value by $250,000, per annum, which you can periodically refinance to pull out your equity, tax free (it’s not earned income you see, so not taxable).

If you figure that property appreciates in value by 10% per annum on AVERAGE, which means that some years it will do better, some years not so well, but over time, 10% per annum is reasonable for most of Europe, the UK, the USA and I believe most urban parts of Australia.

So in order to own a property portfolio that will appreciate by $250,000 per annum and that’s 10% then yes, you’ve guessed it, you will need $2.5million worth of property.

And before you tell me that this is impossible, let me tell you about my great friends Greg & Andy, who took £10,000 on a 0% credit card, bought property under market value, did it up a little bit, revalued, refinanced, pulled their deposit back out and went again, which enabled them to build up a £37 million (that’s pounds NOT dollars) within just 10 years.

if you visit our blog you can enjoy Greg & Andy’s very funny story.

They can pull out £3.what is even better is 7 million per annum, tax free.

Do the sums for yourself because every year, the compounding effect kicks in, and every year, their portfolio is growing exponentially, and so then is their available income every year.

One way to make money from property without even owning any (great for people without a deposit, who can’t get a morgage or who’s credit rating isn’t great) is to educate yourself about what makes a great property deal and then go and find those deals and then sell them onto investors with money but no time.

Another way is to find people who HAVE to sell, offer to buy their property at a future date at today’s full market value, then find people who can’t buy now but who can in the future (perhaps they are new to the country and haven’t built up a credit rating yet) and then strike a deal whereby the future owner moves in and rents the property, but has agreed to buy it for todays price, but in two years time. You make money from both deals and often an income at the same time. On The Money Gym blog we go into this in more depth.

There is another way to buy property – guaranteed 405 or 50% under market value. This is not an income strategy in the short term but it could certainly make you a property millionaire within five years.

I hope I’ve fired you up about the possibilities for becoming a property millionaire – there are just SO MANY ways to make money from property.

Look for Part #3 of this article to enjoy the extensive information on Lane #4.

Jeffrey Bodan


Of course it is possible to become a millionaire. My father told me a saying that a Jewish man told him once. “Even if you shovel **** for a living as long as you stick to it you make a million dollars.” Obviously knowing how to manage your money is the start of becoming a millionaire. As it has been said “The more you make the more you spend.”

Getting start is the hardest part for everyone. The excuses for not get started come so easy at first. A friend or family member will tell you that it can’t be done on so forth. The best way to get pass this phase is to hold on to the emotion of ‘desire’. Your desire of the end outcome of what you want to achieve, regardless of what or who may happen or say. I have even heard Donald Trump say on his TV show success starts with desire.

First of all this is going to be a no B.S. basic guide to where it is easy to start make money fast. But, it isn’t going to be easy at first, you will have to put time effort to get is started. Once you get started and see how more money you can make.

There 4 types of industry that make money to be a millionaire fast.

1.Real Estate – Everyone know the real estate is great for make money. But, a beginners with have difficulty even getting a loan from a bank these days

2.Stock Market Investing – Stock market is going to down the tube these days the only thing that is make a profit there are stuff that isn’t good for everyone. Like cigarette, oil, energy companies, etc. You get the point.

3.Business – Is great having your own business but again you will need capital. First you going have to pay to lease a place/building, pay employees, buy product at whole sale then sale it at retail cost. Not to forget shipping costs. This type work will take your whole day away from you.

4.Internet Business – This the best and easy way even the quickest way. Just a small investment in a domain name. You can sell information which doesn’t cost you in shipping. No employees to pay. You keep all the profit except the 3% the credit cards take when someone purchase with a credit card.

The time you put into starting an internet business is the set up. But once setup the only time need to invest is advertising. There many ways to advertise online. There is Google adwords, craigslist, posting banners, new groups, and more.

First, start up a website with something you enjoy doing, such as a hobby or pleasure of yours. There are websites that will show you and tell you everything to need to know and do to so.

I am part of club the showed me and taught me how to get start. This club has provided 100+ ideas for a website plus a rolodex on web design tools and advertisement site all for free.

Debra Dragon


It sounds like a lot, but pretty much anyone could become a millionaire with enough time and consistency. The trouble is, a million dollars in today’s money isn’t really worth a million dollars in the future’s money – but following the steps to becoming a millionaire will certainly be more rewarding and valuable then throwing your hands up in the air and saying “I can’t do it”! You can save a million even on average income, as long as you have determination and self discipline.

1) Earn consistent income.

Obviously, the more money you make the faster and easier it is to reach your million-dollar goal, but plenty of dedicated individuals have reached the coveted millionaire title on a typical $42,000 annual income. If you make even less than the median income, you don’t have to give up hope but you may want to consider what you could do to increase your income. Perhaps looking for a new career to replace what you currently do to earn money; or adding a second job temporarily may be the way to go. Regardless of what you earn and how you earn it, you can be sure that unless you hit a lucky streak at the casino or someone hands you cash – you can’t become a millionaire without having an income.

2) Learn to live frugally.

If you have consistent income but you regularly run out and spend every last dime each paycheck (or worse – you spend more than you make with credit cards and loans), you’re not going to become a millionaire. Heck, you may not ever become a thousand-aire with that type of lifestyle! Living frugally does not mean going without everything, it just means making wise choices regarding how and when to spend money, and not having to buy the most expensive version of everything you do need to purchase. Cut back living expenses by finding ways to save on utilities, find ways to reduce waste, and cut your grocery bill with simple methods. The money you save can be applied to your savings.

3) Save, save, save.

Everyone will tell you to pay yourself first, because what happens after you’ve paid the bills, living expenses, had a few drinks at the bar with friends? There is rarely anything left to save, right? Figure out how much you can afford to save per pay period, and consistently set that amount aside into your savings account (preferably one that offers interest, until you have enough to move into other investments and saving opportunities). If you wait until everything has been paid, you’ll rarely, if ever, get any money into your savings. Start small if money is tight, but get into the habit of saving that amount each and every pay period until you find ways to increase income or reduce expenses to increase the amount you are able to save.

4) Look for investing and savings opportunities.

As you are putting money into your temporary savings account, you can keep an eye out for opportunities to increase the return you get on your money. You might want to consider a variety of investments and deposit accounts to diversify your portfolio and maximize your returns while reducing risks.

5) Rinse, lather, repeat.

As simple as the instructions on the shampoo bottle – you can become a millionaire. You make money, you save it, you repeat. Consistency is the key. There are many factors that play a role in how much you’ll earn in interest, but using these basic steps you can eventually reach the millionaire status you’re looking for.

R. Taylor


Defining Investing Education

Principled investing is a misnomer these days. As facts say, most investors today wish that they want to learn more about investing. Therefore, common financial literacy is not so common after all. The need for people to be educated in a dynamic system should be taken into account. Thankfully more and more people are finding online education advantageous in improving their investing education.

Investing education is an abstract idea for most people. This is because that they value investment as a way to save money with the expectation that their finances should advance. Yet what they don’t see is that there are methods where investing can become an instinctive exercise to achieve financial freedom. This entails developing the perspective to find investing opportunities where most people find nothing. A quick refresher on investing education will teach students to change the way they look at different investment opportunities, risks, and rewards.

Investing education is also important in having a better read of today’s financial situation. As an analogy, anyone can enjoy a delicious cheese cake. But only informed people can dissect what is the real value of the cheesecake according to its taste and other characteristics that the uninformed eye cannot see. Therefore this education is a form of shaping and training that makes a student notice what he does not see in his first look.

Importance of Online Education

Online learning is in the center of the purposeful information marketplace today. Students of distance learning are seen to be highly motivated individuals who are able to adjust to the dynamics of different training materials and mediums that will allow them have a unique view of what education and training is all about. This dwells more on the practical and quantitative goals. This is evident in continuing internet based learning where the student is updated with the latest trends according to his field.

With the latest trends brought by the internet, online investing education is a practical side track to one’s personal development. Just imagine any full-time worker seeking to increase his finances to ultimate financial freedom. While he is severely tied to his career, he can scotch over some time to invest in his personal training. Web based learning then becomes an efficient method to acquire such knowledge because of its flexible and mobile advantages. Time saving and personal management is in itself a practical application of the objectives of online education and 21st century education.

Mindset Development through Investment Education

A positive impact that is not readily observable is the relationship of investing education and developing a millionaire’s mindset. Smart investors are able to find ways to generate income without much work. The thought that runs through a millionaire’s head invokes an encouraging level of attraction that will allow money to come to an individual. Investments should not be a methodical tool but a rational decision led by an instinctive millionaire’s mindset.

Everyone can become a smart investor through constant investing education. As you will learn smart investors completely do the opposite things and would rather be out leading. Leaders in the investment game are usually the risk takes that leave the average investor guessing. Planning ahead and thinking three steps ahead is one of the leading principles of investor education.

Investing education through online learning will teach you not only the methods of becoming a smart investor, but the mindset shift that will give you the instinct to be a smart investor and a wealth creator. The bottom of it all is that it should not be about the rules of the game. Instead, smart investors look at these rules smile at it and go the other direction; such a nugget of knowledge from 21st century educators.

Calvin Woon


I hope you’ve read my other article, the ‘Seven-Step Formula to Financial Abundance’. If not, I highly encourage that you read it as in this article I’m going to elaborate further into adopting the million- dollar mindset, which is the first in the Seven- Step Formula to Financial Abundance.

This is widely regarded as the most important step too. This is because in order to be achieve financial abundance, your mind has to be first conditioned for it. Always remember that millionaires think and see the world very differently. Unless you condition your brain to think the same way, you will fail to identify and spot the opportunities and lessons hidden amongst obstacles and failures. Only with the million-dollar mindset will you develop the drive, focus and determination to take the necessary action to propel yourself towards financial abundace.

You may ask this question ‘Is the Million Dollar Mindset really so powerful?’ The answer is ‘Definitely!’ If you have the million- dollar mindset, you will not let failure destroy you. And mot importantly, when faced with obstacles, you do not admit defeat but rather you will overcome them and emerge stronger.

One very good example would be famous real estate mogul and host of popular TV show ‘The Apprentice’ – Donald Trump. The Donald Trump you see today is a billionaire and has achieved immense success. However, many people may be unaware that he actually lost his entire fortune when property prices crashed in the early 1990s. Most people facing such a huge setback would inevitably concede defeat. But certainly not Donald Trump, who managed to overturn a $900 million personal debt and nearly $3.5 billion in business debt into a $3.7 million fortune. The reason is because his mentality is different from the average Joe and he refuses to let setbacks dominate him.

So what is the million- dollar mindset? Basically, it is the way we perceive the world. It is the way we frame, filter and make sense of the events and experiences in our life. Thus, the million- dollar mindset is made up of your habits, beliefs, values and attitudes. So with that, lets move on to explore the ‘Nine Habits of Self- Made Millionaires’ which will enable to think like a millionaire too.

Millionaire Habit 1: Be a Value Creator by Always Exceeding Expectations

There are basically three categories of people in life. The first is what I deem as the ‘Value Reducers’. People who fall under this category have a habit of doing less than expected. Therefore, they reduce the value in whichever organization they belong to. As such, they are considered as liabilities and expenses to a company.

Then you have the second category of people who have the habit of doing exactly as expected. These people sustain the value in whichever organization they belong to as they merely do what is expected of them. As such, they are considered as dispensable assets and low return investments to a company.

Lastly, there is this minority but yet most powerful category of people known as the ‘Value Creators’. These are the people who do a lot more than expected. Through their own initiative, they will always exceed others’ expectations of them. Hence, they create tremendous amount of value for their companies. And because of that, they are considered indispensable assets and high return investments to their company. These are the people who do not have to worry about getting retrenched because their bosses will eventually notice their efforts and pay them more and more in order to retain them. Even if their current bosses do not recognize their value, they do not need to worry as other companies will definitely hunt them down for the value they create.

Thus, tell yourself that you must always strive to be a value creator from this moment onwards!

Millionaire Habit 2: Be Proactive and Make Things Happen

The second millionaire habit u need to adopt is to be proactive and make things happen. People who are proactive do not wait for things to happen, but rather, they take the initiative to make things happen. When there are no opportunities around, they do not sit and wait for opportunities to come knocking on them. Rather, they go out and seek opportunities for themselves. Likewise, when faced with setbacks or problems, proactive people will go all out to find solutions to their problems and overcome their setbacks. Therefore, they have the choice to change and control their life.

On the other hand, reactive people wait for things to happen. If there are no opportunities around, they just sit back and wait for opportunities to come. But they fail to realize that opportunities do not just come by so easily. Reactive people when faced with setbacks or problems will simply concede defeat and choose to complain instead of trying to improve the situation. As such, they are often not in control of their lives but rather, they choose to let other people control their lives.

Hence, only when you are proactive will you be in full control of your success and wealth. So start making things happen straight away!

Millionaire Habit 3: Do What You Love

The next habit you need to adopt is to do what you absolutely love most. This may sound stupid as you may ask why will anyone do what they ****. However, take a good look around and you would see many people working in industries they do not have a passion for. Why do most people complain about going to work each day? Its simply because they do not have a passion for their work, and thus they simply dread it. When things do not go their way, they will simply complain.

However, most successful individuals have one thing in common. They love what they do. And it is because of this intense passion for they what they are doing that drives them to succeed. To these people, their work is equivalent to play. Thus, they are enjoying every single moment of their work and their motivation is natural.

Only when you eat, breathe and sleep your field of work, will you be the best in the industry you are in. And in today’s competitive world, when you are far from the best in your industry, you are going to find it extremely hard to survive. Hence, start identifying what you are strongly passionate about. Thereafter, think of who can learn from in that industry and strive to be the best. When you are able to do what you love, you will never have to ‘work’ another day of your life!

Millionaire Habit 4: Believe in Delayed Gratification

This is one habit which many people are guilty of not being able to keep up with, including myself. Yet, it is one habit which will determine if you are going to be financially free or not. You see, there are effectively two ways you can use your money. One is to spend it, the other is to save or invest it. Most people opt for the former, because you get instant gratification from it. When you spend your money on the new watch or designer clothes, you get instant happiness. Thus, instant gratification is the habit of wanting to enjoy now and not having the patience to wait for future benefits. People who constantly desire instant gratification rarely have the discipline to save and let their money compound and grow. Not surprisingly, they will never be wealthy.

On the other hand, people who opt to save or invest their money believe in delayed gratification. These are the people who will not spend their money impulsively on things which will not bring them future benefits. Rather, they will spend their money wisely, choosing to invest in seminars, books. They will also invest their money in stocks and bonds, and allow their money to compound and grow. Initially they may not see huge returns, but they have the patience to wait for their money compound slowly but surely.

Therefore, start analyzing your spending habits today and ensure you believe in delayed gratification.

Millionaire Habit 5: Never Get Complacent and Constantly Improve Oneself

What major reason why people fail is because they get complacent. Problems often occur when you get complacent. When you are complacent about your business, you tend to relax and that’s when your competitors will overtake you. When you are complacent about your health, you tend to neglect it and that’s when illnesses will attack you. Therefore, no matter how successful or wealthy you might think you are, always ask yourself how can be the best.

Hence, always strive for excellence in whatever you do and continuously seek ways for improvement in all areas of your life.

Millionaire Habit 6: Be 100% Committed and Make it a MUST to Succeed

So what does it take to be 100% committed? People always think that they are committed to achieving success or wealth. However, there’s a clear distinction between wanting to succeed, and being 100% committed to succeed. When you are 100% committed to succeed, you make it an absolute MUST to succeed. You will do whatever it takes to succeed. If it means having to only sleep 4 hours a day, you will do it. Do not worry though, as I’m not encouraging you to sleep only 4 hours. But you must be able to see the clear distinction. Making something a MUST means making it your number one priority and stretching yourself way beyond your comfort zone to achieve it.

When you are not 100% committed to achieving something, you will never achieve it. This is because the path to success and wealth is never easy. Thus, people often give up when the going gets tough. It all boils down to the fact that they have not make it a MUST. When you are 100% committed to be a millionaire, you will do whatever it takes to overcome the challenges you might face. However, if you only ‘wish’ or ‘want’ to become a millionaire, your mind will eventually be filled by other ‘wants’ that will eventually take away all you attention and time.

Start asking yourself this question now, ‘Is success and wealth a must for you? Or is it only a want?’ If your answer is a ‘MUST’, then you should change the way you are spending your time now and be 100% committed to achieving it.

Millionaire Habit 7: Instill a Sense of Integrity

This is indeed one very important value you need to adopt, as people will only trust those with integrity. Once you lose your integrity, you also lose the trust that people have in you, and you will lose your friends and business partners. Having integrity involves doing what you say you will do. You must be someone who is reliable and responsible and only then will people want to associate with you.

So, start instilling a sense of integrity in you right now and wealth will come to you!

Millionaire Habit 8: Have Self- Discipline

In order to succeed, you must have the discipline to go through all that is necessary for you to succeed. Even if the journey is tedious and boring, you must have the discipline to persist. You must have a set of rules for yourself and you must stick by it no matter what it takes. Only with discipline can you overcome all challenges and create wealth.

So, start instilling a sense of self- discipline in you and never compromise on your rules.

Millionaire Habit 9: Perceive Failure as Feedback and Turn it Into Success

The final millionaire habit is the ability to perceive failure as feedback and turn it into success. What many people do not know is in actual fact, many millionaires today have experienced major failures in their life. The truth is that everybody fails at one point or another. However, while most people will allow failure to kill their faith, successful people are able to perceive it as feedback and turn failure into success.

There are three ways people respond to failure. The first group of people will get extremely disappointed and they just give up completely. The second group are slightly more determined as they will not give up instantly. Rather, they will keep trying but using the same strategies over and over again. As a result, they will continue to fail many times until they become disillusioned and also give up eventually.

However, successful millionaires perceive failure differently. Every time they encounter setbacks, they do not see it as failure. Rather, they perceive it as feedback that they are not using the right strategy. Hence, they will accept this feedback and change their strategy until they achieve what they desire.

Remember this quote: ‘Success is the result of good judgment. Good judgment is the result of experience. Experience is the result of bad judgment’ Anthony Robbins.

Hence, accept the fact that we will bound to experience failures. However, do not perceive it as failure but rather see it as feedback and let it help you achieve success!

So, there you have it! The Nine Habits of Self Made Millionaires. Master them, and I guarantee that you will experience a positive change in your life. To study the other steps in greater depth, you need a practical, powerful and comprehensive wealth creation programme. To learn more about how you can create, manage, multiply and enjoy your money, visit Best Secrets of Millionaires

Corey Whitlaw


The mind of a millionaire may seem tricky, but it’s not as complex as you might think. When you look at it in depth, most millionaires have a few things in common. If you are going to learn how to become a millionaire, you’ll be best served to learn how to think like a millionaire.

One way to start is with reading the right books. Two good examples are How to Think Like a Millionaire and The Millionaire Next Door. Once one digests the information inside, the millionaire mindset becomes apparent. In particular, there are five things that stood out for me:

1. Passionate to succeed in life’s goals – If you want to be successful in anything, passion is a requirement. If you don’t have that passion, achieving your goals is going to be like climbing Mt. Everest.

2. SMART Goals – This is a famous project management skill. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. If you make sure your goals have those qualities, you should know where you stand.

3. Belief in Self – While you may think this is common sense, you’d be surprised how many people miss this crucial detail. You simply have to believe in yourself or no one else will believe you have what it takes to become a millionaire.

4. Learn from Mistakes – Everyone makes mistakes – you are going to make them too. The difference is that millionaires learn from them and use it to their advantage. If you are like many people, you may be tempted hang your head in shame. That’s a recipe for failure. Worse yet, you may stop trying to execute on the plan for fear of making more mistakes. Remember, even Bill Gates misjudged how important the Internet would be.

5. Ability to Save Money – It’s hard to have a million dollars in the bank when you are spending it at every point. There’s some truth to that. However, a lot of people who have a million dollars did it by saving and investing in small increments over time. In order to have this money to invest, you should try to spend less than you earn. Of course you could just be lucky or extremely talented, but since you can’t count on luck or being that talented, you can control your own millionaire destiny by being frugal.

Are you on your way to becoming a millionaire? Do you have the millionaire mindset?

Mika Hamilton


Once upon a time, a millionaire was a rare thing indeed. But that’s not the case anymore. Of course, money has depreciated over time thanks to inflation, so that a million dollars now does not have the same buying power that it did in the past. But that’s not the only reason that more and more people are able to claim that they are millionaires. Part of the increase in membership into this once highly exclusive category is that people are becoming much smarter about how they use their money. They have come to understand the magic of compound investing and how powerful a tool it is to understand when it comes to getting your money to work for you.

As discussed in other articles, remember that money has time value. While a million dollars captures a certain meaning to us now, it will not have the same meaning in 10, 20 or 30 years when you are ready to retire. So just understand that even if you are able to call yourself a millionaire, that doesn’t mean that you will be living the lifestyle of what you see today’s millionaires doing. By then, it will take multiple millions of dollars to enjoy the same type of lifestyle that today’s millionaires enjoy. All the more reason to begin your wise investing as soon as possible.

So how can you get to the goal of becoming a millionaire? Well, first you need to adopt the millionaire attitude by taking an honest look at your current financial situation. Chances are you can first change some of your spending habits so that you are losing less money. The more money you can invest now instead of spending it on unnecessary items, the more money you will have for your retirement. Where are you currently in debt? There is ‘good’ debt, such as a mortgage, which in most cases means that what you have purchased is appreciating in value. And there is ‘bad’ debt, such as a new car payment, which has you paying for an item that is depreciating in value. And for many of us, the worst debt is also the most commonly held credit card debt. If you are paying for the right to use credit, you are probably living above your means. Not to mention the fact that once you are considered a good risk by a credit card company, you are more readily able to get credit from other companies as well. So all too often, you can end up making minimum payments on a number of credit cards, making it difficult to ever pay off any of them entirely. Of course, you can’t change what you’ve spent in the past, but you can change what you spend in the future. Stop spending what you can’t afford, pay off high interest debts, and invest as much as possible.

The exact investment requirements needed to reach the millionaire mark depend on how much, at what interest rate, and for how long you have to invest your money. But, let’s say that you are 35 years old and you want to retire at 65. You are starting from scratch on your account and want to get to $1,000,000 by 65. At 8% interest, you would need to save $8,826 per year, or $735.50 per month. What if you can earn 10%? Then you need $6,079 per year, or about $506.58 per month to reach $1,000,000 by 65. Of course, if you had 40 years to reach the millionaire mark, you’d only need $321 a month at 8% or an amazing $188.25 a month at 10% in order to hit your goal. The moral is, the sooner you start, the more magic compounding interest can do for you.

Nicola Cairncross


We usually teach people at The Money Gym that there are only four wasy to make money. The Four Lanes Of The Wealth Highway stop people becoming overwhelmed. Any number between three and seven is good, so Four Lanes is manageable.

By breaking it down into the “Four Lanes” we can break down the question of how to become a millionaire within five years and examine each lane to see how suitable it is, as a vehicle to reach this goal.

We can then look at the fastest way to make money in each lane, then examine how achieveable this is, then look at what will need to happen to tackle the plan, then time-line it so we have some interim goals.

This article is in three parts so make sure and hunt down Part 2 and Part 3!

We have a lot of experience in strategic wealth creation planning, hundreds of clients have been through The Money Gym and we have heard every variation of every question.

First though, let’s look at the definition of a millionaire and then lets dare to ask the question “why”?

1. What is the definition of a millionaire?

The official definition is someone who has more than £1 million in assets, after taking all liabilities (debts) into account. You must also consider how much that debt is costing them – how much does it cost to service it.

Thus who is better off? Someone who has over £1 million pounds worth of equity in their house and a mortgage of £500,000 at 6% over 25 years, with no consumer debt? Or someone who has £1 million of equity and a mortgage of £200,000 at 6% but £100,000 of consumer debt at 14%.

Once you know that £3000 of consumer debt at an average %, who is only paying just over the minimum off per month, will take 37 years to clear…it becomes obvious who is the more financially intelligent person there.

So once we know that you need a million pounds worth of assets to be classed as a millionaire, we can look at questions like “is it better to have a million in the bank or a million in equity in your house?”

The latter is the financially intelligent answer, as the million in equity has traditionally doubled in value every 7-10 years in most of Europe, the USA and Australia, so £1 million in equity will make another million in 10 years. What’s more, there are ways to get at that money legally and tax free!

Whereas £1 million in the bank might be making 6-10% per annum at a push, but the rise in the cost of living and the fact that you will pay tax on any interest at your highest rate (40% or more if you have those kind of assets) will ensure that your million is effectively shrinking not growing at all.

don’t take my word for it about it doubling in value? check your local Office of National Statistics website)

2. Why Would You Want To Become A Millionaire?

Moving onto the question of “why” we have to consider the question of why you would want to become a millionaire?

Most people would answer one of the following:

1. Freedom

2. Choice

3. Peace

Freedom from a job they hate, to spend time with the kids, to travel. Choice of how to spend their time, whether to have another baby, where to live. Peace from worrying about money and from having to do things they ****.

Well, you don’t need a million to achieve all that. I could not believe my ears when I found this amazing fact out!

You just need to create a passive income from your investments to be able to cover your living expenses.

If you are having a pretty nice life on say $2000 net pay a month, and you are working for that and having tax deducted from your gross pay, then you only actually need to generate about $2500 gross a month from your investments, as there are quite a few more tax breaks for business people and investors than there are for the employed. (A great book to explain this clearly is “Swimming With Pirahna Makes You Hungry” by Colin Turner).

So let’s say a really great living would be $5000 a month and you don’t need a million in the bank, then all you have to do is look at each “Lane of the Wealth Highway” and figure out which one is most likely to get you to a passive income of $5000 a month the quickest.

So what are those “Lanes” that I keep talking about, then?

1. Property Investment

2. Business

3. The Stockmarket

4. The Internet.

LANE #1 – THE STOCKMARKET

Now, I’m going to largely leave the stockmarket for now, as the learning curve involved is a bit steeper for most people, but briefly, in order to generate 12 x $5000 a month, you would need to be generating $60,000 per year from your investments.

If you assumed that a good investment was generating say 20% per annum (and I know of many simple strategies that do that and more) then you could say that you would need to have $300,000 invested to generate $60k a year at 20% return.

The other challenge with the stockmarket is that you have to sell, to realise the cash, and that incurs charges, and capital gains tax.

LANE #2 – BUSINESS

Business is the way many of the wealthiest people in the world have made their money. They then often put their money into property and I’ll come to that lane in a moment.

So what would it take to become a millionaire from the business Lane of the Wealth Highway?

You have two ways, to create a business that can pay you, over and above the amount you need to live on, $1 million over five years. So say you need that $60k to live on every year, your business would have to pay you $60k x 5 = $350,000 plus another $1 million (or $200,000 per year).

Now that nasty thing tax kicks in again.

if you want $1,350,000 out of your business but you are on 40% tax again, that $1,350,000 represents 60%, so you will need to be paid $2,250,000 in total over the five years or $450,000 per annum gross.

I worked this out by dividing the amount you want to take home by 60 then multiplying it by 100 to get the gross, after 40% tax has been deducted.

If you calculate that a business can afford to pay…..say…. 10% of it’s profits to it’s founder, then in order to pay you $450,000 gross per annum, then it must be making $4,500,000 ($4.5 million) per annum in pre-tax profits.

Now all you have to do is figure out which business to start that has that potential, and start building it.

The other, more attractive way, is to build up a business and sell it, usually for a multiple of turnover or profit – each industry sector is valued differently. Sometimes businesses are valued and then sell for x 5 annual turnover or x 10 annual profits for example.

So for you to pocket $1 million within five years, you need to enter a sector with good high valuations on sale, and then build your business to the levels when it becomes attractive to a potential purchaser.

If you are in a x 10 multiple of profit kind of sector, you need to build your turnover to profits of $100,000 per annum. Other factors are a good database of customers, repeat business ideally on some kind of automated marketing system and they really don’t want the business to be dependent on you being there!

“Rich Dad’s Guide to Investment” by Robert Kiyosaki is one of the best books I’ve ever read on this topic.

So that covers the stockmarket (not in detail but it’s there) and the business Lanes of the Highway.

in the second part of this article i will cover Lane #3.

Vince Shorb


You can become a young military millionaire with simple steps. Many people find this hard to believe because they don’t know many military millionaires; however do not buy into that belief. With some simple steps you can put yourself on the road to enjoying the perks of young military millionaire status.

Attention young military personnel. You can turn that military paycheck into a million just by following a simple, consistent, investment plan. Just by automatically investing on a regular basis you could be on your way to an early military retirement. For example:

-A $174 invested monthly starting at 18 years old could make you a young military millionaire by age 53.

-A $701 invested monthly starting at 18 years old could make you a young military millionaire by age 40.

Knowing how to handle your military money gives you advantages that the most people miss out on. You can afford an early military retirement just by following a simple investment strategy. Starting an investment plan young may be enough to ensure you become a young military millionaire.

Because you have the power of compounding interest on your side it’s easy to become a young military millionaire when you start young. Compounding interest is defined as the interest earned from the initial money you personally invested from your military money plus the interest earned from the amount your investments have already returned. To clarify, the money that you already made from your investments starts to earn you money. That means that every year you are making money off money your investments have already paid you.

By investing your military paycheck at a young age you are able to fully harness the power of compounding interest. This is because you’re earning a return (making money) on what your investments have already paid you. The younger you start the faster and larger your investment account may grow. That’s why investing while you’re young and earning a steady military paycheck gives you a huge advantage.

1) Save Money. The first step on the road to becoming a young military millionaire is to set up a simple savings plan. Pay yourself first by setting money aside into an investment before you start spending your military money. The habit of paying yourself first will benefit you throughout your life and will help you retire young.

2) Invest Young. You may not of been taught how to invest in high school but don’t let that hold you back. There are basic military investment strategies that offer a great way for beginning investors to profit.

The stock market offers some investment vehicles that are perfect for the new military investor. There are lower-risk investments that offer the potential for long-term gains that may help you to put your military money to work.

One type of investment, known as broad based market index investments, may offer you a simple way to get your military money working for you. ‘Broad market index investments’ are simply investments in the overall market like the NASDQ 100 and S&P 500. To illustrate, one S&P 500 index traded fund will allow you to own a portion of all 500 stocks in that index. The S&P 500 index is one way for the new military investor to profit from the stock market without having to have a lot of experience.

3) Consistent Investments. There is a basic military investment technique called ‘dollar cost averaging’. A dollar cost averaging plan is simply buying a fixed dollar amount of your broad market index investment at the same time each month. Your bank and brokerage firm can be set-up so it automatically invests the amount you want at the same time each month. Once this structure is set up you can sit back and just review your monthly statements. With a consistent military investment plan you could reap huge profits over a long-term.

The basic investment method discussed will get your military money working for you. If you’re looking to become a military millionaire young there are other ways you can increase your returns. The investment vehicles discussed below take more effort however you will be able to reach your military millionaire status sooner.

5. Real estate. Real estate investing can be credited with making the majority of young millionaires. It gives you the power of leverage so you are making money of money the bank loaned you. When done right you could expect to double your investment each year! Just by purchasing real estate while you’re young could easily make you a young military millionaire.

The military offers many benefits that will allow you to become a homeowner. VA loans allow you to borrow 100% of the purchase price which means you won’t need money for a down payment in most cases. Combine that with BAH (Basic Allowance for Housing) for civilian housing and you can have your mortgage payments paid for.

This is a huge benefit because you purchase a $100,000 home your property could be valued at over $570,000 in 30 years. The best part is using BAH you could of not even made a payment with your own money.

6. Entrepreneurship. Being in the military you can start a part-time business that earns you an extra few hundred a month or one that surpasses your military paycheck. Either way it can help you to become a young military millionaire or just added another income so you can invest more. There are also tax benefits available to business owners that will keep more of your military paycheck money in your pocket.

Becoming an entrepreneur can help you become a young military millionaire and give you the luxury of being able to retire young.

The sooner you start investing the sooner you can become a young military millionaire. Start now and the take steps to become a young military millionaire today!