Best way to become a millionaire?

[justJeff]

Thank you most sincerely for the warm welcom Shamou. This attempt to help mentor a neighbor and friend is a first for us. My wife and I talk a lot with each other, but not often with others about wealth building. I do think that there are some core similarities amongst those that have achieved some wealth. The methods or businesses of getting there may be very different, but I think some core attributes are common amongst them.

We both really enjoy rereading The Millionaire Next Door and the Millionair Mind, just because it is very interesting to realize how much we have in common with many of the people profiled.

For whatever reason we've really found our "wants" changing over time, and they're much less centered around material possesions now. We find it a great feeling to know that we can buy about any material thing that we may want, but choose not to do so.

I'm continiuing to enjoy reading old posts here on this forum. There is a lot of great information and advice. I hope to be able to learn as well as contribute over time.

[sirkinm]

Personally, I recommend the book The 4-Hour Work Week, which will help you call into question why we use the arbitrary $1,000,000 as a goal. He illustrates how having the financial freedom "live the dream" might involve a substantially smaller number, especially if you exploit currency differences (e.g., you can spend a month living richly in a cheap country for very little).

The risk is spending your whole life waiting to achieve that arbitrary number instead of living a adventurous, rewarding life right now. But I don't mean to rain on the parade -- there's all kind of great advice in this thread.

[Tracy]

real estate entrepreneurship. 'nuff said.

[Etcsizebid]

Easiest business to become a millionaire and industry with the highest percentage of millionaires is drycleaning.

over 40% of dry cleaners are millionaires. This is for two reasons..:

1. being a good drycleaner is not rocket scientist.
2. Of all small businesses, this is the easiest to expand and achieve economies of scale.

One central servicing center can take in clothes from multiple sites. Most drycleaning stores are just a counter and clothing racks. These stores process the orders and clothes are sent to central cleaning location and then trucked back to the store front. Thus if you have one store or 7 its the same.

It may be dumb mindless work...but if you want to be a millionaire become a drycleaner...

[Gene]

I voted other because no one of the choices fit my financial life. In reality my success comes from both entrepreneurship and agricultural real estate. It works for me.

[PipHunn]

For me, it's all about entrepreneurship.

I love real estate - I bought my first house at 18, and worked full-time for 4 years to pay it off. Now it's bing rented out by a friend while I move interstate, giving me a whopping $20 a week to spend on whatever I want... For the rest of my life!

Entrepreneurship is clearly the winner compared to real estate because you don't need to rely on anyone else, and you can control the intensity and direction your journey takes with a great degree of precision.

[tylersnard]

Start out as a billionnaire.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by tylersnard

Start out as a billionnaire.

Yes being the offspring of Donald Trump or Sam Walton gives you a head start to billionaire status.

[Andrew Brunelle]

How about not getting so fixated on the number. A million dollars is only as significant as you make it. How about "Best way to experience abundance?" I would have to say entrepreneurship is by far the best way to experience abundance, but it does take a lot of hard work. But if you are enjoying what you do, the hard work will feel like play and you will be inspired to work harder and longer because you are having such a good time.

[Gene]

Originally Posted by Andrew Brunelle

How about not getting so fixated on the number. A million dollars is only as significant as you make it. How about "Best way to experience abundance?" I would have to say entrepreneurship is by far the best way to experience abundance, but it does take a lot of hard work. But if you are enjoying what you do, the hard work will feel like play and you will be inspired to work harder and longer because you are having such a good time.

To elaborate on your post I would say that many millionaires and billionaires do not experience abundance. Great wealth as you say is just a number.

[Sam988]

Among Forbes' billionaires list, most of them are entrepreneurs. Opening a business is the way most likely to make one rich.

[The Big D]

I think the most consistent route to turn intelligence into money is via the financial markets. Other forms of gambling can be good too, but the liquidity sucks (as any blackjack pro will tell you).

If you don't have exceptional intelligence to apply to the problem, I like the dry cleaning suggestion and the reasoning behind it.

[TheColonel]

Originally Posted by Gene

To elaborate on your post I would say that many millionaires and billionaires do not experience abundance. Great wealth as you say is just a number.

It's funny, I know several multimillionaires - probably over 30 of them. The richest one used to be a billionaire, and now he's in the $xxx,xxx,xxx range.

Just last week, he told me he's spent the last 40 years scared and nervous about his money. I almost laughed at him. It's always been funny to my business partners and me that this guy drives a green Saturn and wears sweatshirts to work. When you go to lunch with him, he'll buy - but he tells you to leave the tip. He's a good guy, but he definitely does not 'experience abundance.' lols

[The Big D]

Originally Posted by TheColonel

It's funny, I know several multimillionaires - probably over 30 of them. The richest one used to be a billionaire, and now he's in the $xxx,xxx,xxx range.

Just last week, he told me he's spent the last 40 years scared and nervous about his money. I almost laughed at him. It's always been funny to my business partners and me that this guy drives a green Saturn and wears sweatshirts to work. When you go to lunch with him, he'll buy - but he tells you to leave the tip. He's a good guy, but he definitely does not 'experience abundance.' lols

I think this is pretty common. Most first generation wealthy had to do a lot of scrimping to save up the stake that got them started in business, or trading, or whatever. These stakes are typically 5-6 figures. All the people who failed to do that saving are more or less excluded from the multi-millionaire pool. And yes, I know there are a handful that got wealthy on no-money-down real estate or blogging or something, but they make up so little of the first generation wealthy population as to not really merit discussion. What this means is that these people have almost all been pretty cheap at some point in their lives, and that biases the whole population so that cheapness is actually a common trait overall even long after the need for it is gone.

Now the kids of the wealthy tend to experience plenty of abundance, often in excess of the money available

[TheColonel]

Originally Posted by The Big D

I think this is pretty common. Most first generation wealthy had to do a lot of scrimping to save up the stake that got them started in business, or trading, or whatever. These stakes are typically 5-6 figures. All the people who failed to do that saving are more or less excluded from the multi-millionaire pool. And yes, I know there are a handful that got wealthy on no-money-down real estate or blogging or something, but they make up so little of the first generation wealthy population as to not really merit discussion. What this means is that these people have almost all been pretty cheap at some point in their lives, and that biases the whole population so that cheapness is actually a common trait overall even long after the need for it is gone.

Now the kids of the wealthy tend to experience plenty of abundance, often in excess of the money available

This guy actually had wealthy parents, but I hear what you're saying. It's amusing to me when certain gurus talk about 'abundance mentality' and 'scarcity mindset' etc.

Of all the rich guys I know, very few of them have the positive, 'living in the moment' type personality that gurus talk about. The one commonality that I see is determination/force of will. They will find a way around, under, over or through whatever is in the way of their goal.

[vartann]

Originally Posted by stephencp

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