How to Get Rich

By eHow Personal Finance Editor

Rate: (73 Ratings)

It's easy to get to Easy Street: Buy hot stocks, start your own Internet company, hit it big in the lottery. Right? Wrong. Getting rich in America takes a sensible and sane approach.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

Financial Calculator
Personal Financial Software
Brokerage Accounts
Bank Account
Financial Advisers

Step1

Decide what 'rich' means to you. Does it mean money for everything you need? Money for everything you want? Enough to retire where you live now? Enough to retire and live in Costa Rica?

Step2

Start saving. Most experts agree that investing 10 to 15 percent of your gross monthly income creates a very comfortable nest egg for later years.

Step3

Take advantage of compound interest, earning interest on your interest by letting investment returns accumulate and build on themselves.

Step4

Resist temptation, whether that means a brand-new car right out of college or weekly dinners at nice restaurants. Invest the money you save by buying a used car or going out only twice a month, and you will have thousands of dollars more at retirement.

Step5

Take care of yourself. This will reduce medical costs later on in life, as well as extend the years you can work and save.

Step6

Go to college. By one study, college graduates earn roughly $20,000 more per year than people with just a high school diploma, and a post-graduate degree nets $20,000 more than a bachelor's.

Step7

Get married. Married people are generally healthier than singles. Plus, they can economize on expenses, and they have more to invest. And because married people live longer, they can work and save longer.

Step8

Enjoy the ride. Don't be so concerned with amassing a fortune later on that you neglect to enjoy life now. Strive for balance.

Tips & Warnings

Use a planning calculator (available in personal-finance software or on financial Web sites) to learn how much you need to save per year to achieve a specific goal.
Little expenses add up. Switch to regular coffee each morning, rather than a double-shot, half-caf foamy latte. Put the extra $1 or $1.50 you save in a mutual fund, and you could have $90,000 more at retirement.
Figure out how much you'll need to maintain your current lifestyle. Ask a financial adviser for help if you need it.
Don't waste the money you do have on 'get-rich-quick' schemes, lotteries or gambling.

Comments

nomader said

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on 7/12/2008 been ACCOUNTING (scary word? then you're not fit for riches, trust me) and go invest in a training seminar. There are countless out there. Research and find one that'll teach you what you need to know.

I recommend Robert Kiyosaki's "trilogy" (look it up on Amazon), T. Harv Eker's "The Millionaire Mind" book, but oh, there are so many others. There is so much information out there on how to get rich. You do NOT have to ONLY do what this article says and remain forever in the wretches 95% percent of humanity which lives just so that one day it can get old and begin enjoying its dying years. Who wants THAT?

Remember, folks. Nothing is easy - but WHO WANTS NOTHING? HUH? *I* sure as hell don't.

To recap: this article is but ONE SMALL, TINY, MICROSCOPIC (although still very important) part of the FORMULA.

www.SixDigitEarnings.com

nomader said

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on 7/12/2008 Do what this article says, absolutely - including the tithing suggested by another commentator; very important - because that is the SECURE plan that will hold you up lest your grand ambitions were to "fail" (if there is such a thing; in reality, there is only giving up).

Once you've done that, GO PUT TOGETHER YOUR PLAN FOR ACTUALLY GETTING *RICH*.

Learn what kind of risk you can expect, and start being CREATIVE (like yet another commentator inadvertently managed to bring up). What do I mean by that?

Start your own company or found one with partners. Build it up. Create value. Sell it.

Start your own business. Create your own patent. Become an expert in something, write a book about it, create a training/speaking company and start drumming up business. Then sell it.

Learn to invest - prudently, NOT like a GAMBLER, folks. Learn the language of money, which is and always has

nomader said

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on 7/12/2008 "Being good to your children, and children in general, will make you richer than owning anything ever could. Have children once you have stable income and the richness they bring to your life is beyond material means."

Useless happy-go-lucky comment. People reading this article want to learn how to get RICH, not how to have kids.

As far as the article goes, it's sensible advice - and that is precisely the "problem."

The issue is not that the article is not correct in the advice it gives. In fact, it is crucial. However, it is only ONE part of a bigger plan, and anyone who goes along with this will invariably end up with exactly what the article says:

Old and grey, with a "few thousand dollars" extra.

Who reading these words wants to live his entire life waiting for the day he's old and has a "few thousand extra dollars," huh?

Here is the truth, folks:

Do what this ar