In Jake Swank’s never-to-be-humble opinion, it’s not enough to set your goal on becoming a millionaire. He’d suggest at least ten million for starters. Inflation is a capricious mistress. The important things are to start early, work hard, and never look back. We’re starting to sound like Benjamin Franklin here.
Let’s get specific.
The Right Kind of Debt
Make it an ironclad rule of your life to never use debt unless it will make you money. Pretty simple, right? This is not to say you can’t borrow to buy a car, but it better be a car you’re going to use on a sales route or something that will bring in more income than what you’re shelling out as a monthly payment. It’s simple. Consumer debt keeps you poor. Poor and swanky should never be used in the same sentence. In case you’ve never noticed, rich people use debt as leverage to exponentially grow their investments. Poor people buy stuff that deteriorates in value and makes rich people richer. Which do you want to be?
Oliver Stone Was Right
A few years back, director Oliver Stone released a sequel to his 1980’s hit Wall Street. This one was subtitled: Money Never Sleeps. Call it crass capitalism if you want (Stone surely would), but it’s the truth. Those who take to heart this little phrase will start to realize that there isn’t enough time in the day, working at an hourly rate, to create the kind of wealth you want. You’ve got to find investments that allow your money to work for you around the clock because, you know, money never sleeps.
Ten Million is the Minimum
Like we mentioned back at the start of this article, for too long people have been talking about how they want to be a millionaire. Problem is, unless you’ve established the kind of cash flows to support a net worth of one million and beyond, you’re going to go through that stash all too fast. Think bigger. Ten million at least. It’s not a zero sum game. The world’s not going to run out of money, and innocent kids won’t starve in Africa just because you’re getting wealthier.
A final bit of advice. Don’t ever waste your time with get-rich-quick schemes. In a word – or three – stupid, stupid, stupid. (Image: Flickr | enkhtuvshin’s 5Dmkll)
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Derek and the Swank Life Team
