TU-Online

aecruiser:

Those who are financially independent (I define this as having enough money that your money makes more for you than you can for yourself) know that slow and steady wins the race. They aren’t into any get rich quick schemes and understand that what seems too good to be true always is. That is why smart young investors buy a variety of mutual funds and hold them for many years.

Most millionaires today are first generation millionaires. That is, their parents were not upper class. Would you like an example of how these people get this way? They aren’t lucky, they just understand how to manage money, the opportunity cost of spending it and the principles of dollar cost averaging and compounding interest. If you invest just $100 a month your working life from age 20 to 65 making the stock market average of 12% over the last 80 or so years, you would have almost 2 million dollars. Your pizza and cable money could change your family tree. Bump this up to $400 or $500 a month and you will find yourself in the top 1% net worth of America’s population by retirement.

The key is to spend less than you make and make it a priority to pay yourself first. Children do what feels good, adults devise a plan and follow it. Decide today that you are going to be on a written game plan, write up a budget and trim your expenses. The only way that you will build wealth is when you become fed up with the debt that you are in and the way you are managing money and decide that you will be wealthy one day.

Hope this helps!