How to Become a Millionaire One Step at a Time

Ever dreamed of becoming a millionaire? Well, with the right mindset you could be one by following the steps outlined in this ehow article.
Being a millionaire takes determination and hard work. Before you can be a millionaire, you need to think like a millionaire. Millionaires did not become wealthy by spending their money lavishly. You need to have a defensive and an offensive strategy for building your wealth.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• determination
• will power

1. Step 1: Defensive strategy.
   
   A penny saved is a penny earned. Build your wealth by defending the money you have now. Start by looking at your monthly credit card bills to look for areas where you spend your money, then look at ways to reduce those expenses. For example, if you spend $150 a month on groceries, look at ways that you can reduce your grocery spending through coupons. I took an hour to go through every item in my fridge that I currently purchase then wrote down the name brand of each item. Next, I went to the website of each of those companies to download coupons. Looking at ways to cut costs is the number one way to saving your wealth. Next, I went through each bill: insurance, cable, phone and looked at how I could slim down and cut features or renegotiate with those companies.

2. Defensive strategy 2: stop frivoulous spending. Do you really need that $4 Starbucks coffee? Do you really need to buy lunch at the cafeteria? Look at all the ways that you spend your money each day and decide, do I really need this. I have started shopping at thrift stores for household items such a blenders, kitchen utensils, etc. If you are like me and lack the discipline to bring your lunch to work, try stocking some items in the refrigerator at work or bring some dry food that you can keep in your car trunk or near your desk.

3. Offensive strategy:
   The key step to building wealth is frugality. While defending your wealth is important, of equal importance is building your weath through an offensive strategy. Look for ways to take on more projects at work with greater visibility that may land you a promotion. Have you considered taking a evening job? Perhaps you can sell some of the items from your storage, basement, or things you just don't need anymore. Consider writing articles for eHow as extra money. It only takes a 10 minutes on a weekend, and the income is residual. For example, you can make over $50 a month on articles you write.

4. Once you have saved and looked for ways to generate extra money, the next steps is investing your money. Start by investing your money in a CD account which earns higher interest than a checking account. I use ING Direct, due to thier great CD rates and ability to automatically deduct x dollars from your check each month. It makes saving easy and I don't even realize I am doing it. After you have established a nice CD savings account for your self of a thousand dollars, look for stocks to invest in. I recommend a mutual fund with low risk but a higher return than your CD. The goal is to start saving slowing, this results in developing habits and gives your comfortability in investing in bigger projects later, such as an investment property.

[dressyourhorse]

on 9/13/2009 I can see you are determined and have the steps in mind. Good job on defending income. We don't have the gumption to put that much effort into saving our money - we need a tiny portion of what we want. Discipline? Yep. Really wise words, well put and thought out. But if you don't have much earning capacity, all of the scrounging and saving can't add up enough. You've got to get some irons in the fire, right?

[schuschan]

on 8/30/2009 Great advice as well as inspiring and encouraging!