99 Not-So-Secret Secrets To Getting Rich
Who doesn’t want to be rich? The worry-free lifestyle that money brings is a life desired by many. Dreaming about it is easy. Getting there, that’s the hard part.
Riches may seem unattainable. You watch television and wonder “How’d he get so much money?” The secrets to getting riches aren’t secrets at all. Most of them you’re already aware of. Now all you have to do is put them into practice.
These “secrets” of getting rich fall easily into three categories: making more money, spending less money, and thinking differently about the money you have.
Think Different About Your Money
- Decide you want to be rich. Until you make a conscious decision that you want to be rich, you don’t put forth the effort necessary to get there.
- Decide you are going to work to be rich because there’s a difference between wanting something and going after it.
- Set a goal and timeline. Decide just how rich you want to be and when you want to be there. Be realistic.
- Put your goal where you can see it. Being exposed to your goal will keep you motivated.
- Make a plan. Make a step by step plan that will get you to your goal.
- Review and revise your plan. Revisit your plan to track your progress and adjust as necessary.
- Start getting rich today. Don’t procrastinate.
- Set a household budget. Make a firm decision about how much money you will spend on housing, transportation, food, utilities, entertainment, and clothing.
- Stick to it. Once you set a budget, stick to it without fail. Exceptions will keep you from reaching your goal.
- Make friends with people who have similar goals and are working to reach them. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people will keep you motivated.
- Donate, tithe, or both. Call it a blessing or karma or just more tax deductions, the more you give, the more you’ll receive.
- Be honest in all your financial dealings. In the end, the saying holds true, “Cheaters never win.”
- Stay focused. You’ll be tempted to splurge, but remember that spending money on things that don’t appreciate in value will only cost you.
- Avoid get-rich-quick schemes. If there was a quick way to get rich, there wouldn’t be 99 items in this list. Every overnight success took years to make.
- Think rich. Don’t wait until you’re rich to start thinking like a rich person.
- Insure your assets, even your health. Disasters happen. The last thing you want is to cover a major setback out of your own pocket.
- Manage your money. Don’t let it manage you. Always be in control of your finances, dictating how, when, and where your money is spent.
- Stay away from debt. Debt will make you stay at a job you hate, sacrifice saving money, and keep you from reaching your goal of being rich.
- Involve your family. If you have a spouse and kids, make sure they’re aware of your goals and plan.
- Don’t sacrifice happiness for riches. It’s true that money can’t buy happiness.
- Reward yourself as you make progress, but be careful not to overdo it.
- Define what’s important to you and consider it in every financial decision you make.
- Be frugal, not stingy. Ironically, the tighter you hold on to your money, the easier it is to lose.
- Don’t save or invest money until you’ve paid off your debt. If you have debt, trying to save money is counterintuitive.
- Pay attention to where your money goes. Being mindful about how you spend your money makes you more aware of how you can optimize your spending and put more money towards your goal.
Make More Money
- Get a part-time job. More income makes it easier to reach your financial goals
- Ask for a raise, if it’s been awhile since your last salary increase
Make money from your hobbies.
- Turn your hobby into a money maker and profit from doing something you love
- Profit from your skills. People are always looking for ways to make their lives easier. If you can help, you can get paid to do it.
- Turn your idea into a product and sell it. A successful product is a gold mine because you can sell as much as you can produce.
- Start your own business. Being your own boss puts you in control of the amount of money you can make.
- Invest and save automatically. That way you don’t have to think about it. Set up automatic transfers into your investment or savings account (or both).
- Diversify your investment portfolio. Diversifying makes it easier for you to take risks. If one investment falls, you have others to balance it out.
- Learn about investing for free using the internet, library, friends, and family.
- Don’t get emotionally attached to your investments. It will make it harder for you to pull out or put money into investments.
- Don’t wait to pull out of a losing investment. Don’t wait around for a failing investment to improve because it might not.
- Invest in a high-yield savings account. Don’t waste your time on savings accounts that only offer partial percentages in interest.
- Contribute to your 401(K), especially if your company matches your contributions. You pay less in taxes and get your retirement partially-funded by your employer.
- Lose the fear of taking risks. Dependable interest bearing investments like savings accounts and CD’s aren’t the highest-yielding.
- Invest tax refunds. You may be inclined to splurge, but putting it to good use will help you reach your goal faster.
- Forget about your investments. Continuously checking on investments will foster unnecessary nervousness and concern.
- Reduce your tax liability by taking advantage of tax deductions.
- Sell your old clothes and shoes to consignment. Invest the proceeds.
- Sell old furniture and electronics that you no longer use. Invest the proceeds.
- Tap into your home’s equity. Sell your home for profit and move into a lesser-priced home.
- Invest in real estate. Do your research and learn the business before you decide to get involved.
- Take on a tenant, if you own a home.
- Invest cash advances on 0% credit cards. You have to be disciplined enough not to use the credit card for purchases and you pay the balance before the rate expires.
- Be a venture capitalist. Investing money in start-up companies can be lucrative if you pick the right companies to invest in.
- If you loan money, charge interest or hold collateral. The exception to not loaning money at all is charging people who ask to borrow money. Be prepared to enforce collection.
Spend Less Money
- Reduce your monthly expenses. The less you spend, the more you can save, the sooner you’ll be rich.
- Avoid impulse buys. These are usually outside of your budget.
- Pay off your credit card and loan balances sooner. The quicker you pay off your credit card balances, the lower the amount of interest you end up paying.
- Negotiate lower interest rates to lower your finance charges.
- Pay on time. Late payments are expensive and every fee you pay puts you another step away from riches.
- Don’t go over your credit limit. Over-the-limit fees hinder your progress just like late-fees.
- Order credit reports for free. Federal law gives you the right to a free credit report each year from each of the three credit bureaus.
- Don’t accumulate new debt. Debt is the polar opposite of being rich. Stay away from it.
- Avoid store credit cards. Store credit cards try to lure you into accruing more debt by offering rewards for using the card.
- Improve your credit. Bad credit causes you pay more in security deposits and interest.
- Don’t pay for a checking account. If your bank is charging you for an account, it’s time to switch banks.
- Know what’s in your account at all times. Not knowing how much money is in your account is a formula for disaster. You could mistakenly overdraft your account.
- Negotiate out of overdraft fees. Many banks have a set number of overdrafts that you can have waived.
- Use credit instead of debit. A lot of banks charge for debit transactions made using your check card. If yours is one, use credit instead of debit.
- Don’t close your account too early. Your checking account agreement may include a fee for closing your account early. Leave your account open if such a fee applies.
- Buy, don’t rent. Renting an apartment is like living in a hotel. Once the money’s gone, you don’t have anything to show for it.
- Get a low interest rate on your mortgage. The less you pay on interest, the sooner you’ll own your home.
- Put down 20% or more. Avoid paying money towards private mortgage insurance by saving up a sizable down payment.
- When you rent, get your deposit back. Don’t leave your current apartment without getting as much of your deposit back as possible. Make repairs to the apartment if necessary.
- Pay less for rentals. Negotiate a lower rental rate or find a place for less.
- Get roommates to share in the cost of renting.
- Pay less income tax. Adjust your withholding as necessary to avoid overpaying the government. Tax refunds are nice, but extra income each month is even better.
- Spend much less than you make. This is a good habit to follow even if you’re not trying to get rich. Overspending will push your further and further away from your goal.
- Use your local library. Instead of buying books, take advantage of the library that your tax dollars pay for.
- Eat in more, eat out less. Eating out costs you twice as much as buying groceries and preparing your food at home.
- Use less electricity. You not only cut down your electric bill each month, you also conserve energy.
- Cut out bottled water. Instead invest in a good water filter.
- Stick to the necessities. The road to riches isn’t paved with a lot of short-term rewards. You have to learn to go without some of the luxuries for awhile.
- Don’t spend what you don’t have. Debt is not a detour to riches, it’s a roadblock. As long as you have debt, you will never truly be rich.
- Cut out expensive bad habits, like smoking, drinking, gambling, etc. The things cost more money than they can possibly bring in.
- Don’t go grocery shopping without a list. A shopping list will keep you on track and keep unnecessary items out of your buggy.
- Don’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach. Your stomach will cause you to spend more than you set out to spend.
- Reduce your cell phone bill by getting the right rate plan.
- Choose a cell phone or landline phone, not both. Evaluate the rest of your family’s need to make this decision. If you’re single with no children, the decision will be a little easier.
- Avoid car payments. If you have an auto loan, pay it off. If you don’t have one, keep it that way.
- Buy don’t lease. Leasing a car is like a long-term rental. At the end of the lease period, you’re left with nothing.
- Keep maintenance costs in mind if you’re shopping for a new car.
- Buy a good used car one with low maintenance costs and a good price.
- Buy commuter passes, if you use the subway, train, or bus.
- Save on gas by carpooling, combining your trips, and keeping your car maintained.
- Shop around. Comparison shop for everything you can and buy at the lowest price possible without significantly sacrificing quality.
- Cut out your $5-a-day routine. It might be Starbucks coffee, Dunkin Donuts, or something else. Whatever it is, it’s costing you $1,825 a year, more if you pay sales tax.
- Don’t loan money you can’t afford to give away. When people figure out that you have money saved up and stashed away, they’ll ask you to fund their own rainy days. Be able to say no.
- Be entertained for less. You don’t have to go to every movie premiere, eat at the newest restaurants, or run up large bar tabs to have fun.
- Dump name brands, especially on clothes, shoes, jewelry, and accessories. They cost extra without providing a great deal of value.
- Evaluate your health club membership. You may find a membership cheaper. Let the membership go if you aren’t using it.
- Forget about renting-to-own. You’d come out much cheaper buying the merchandise right out.
- Buy in bulk when it makes sense. If you don’t use bulk quantities of certain items, don’t buy them. You’ll only end up wasting money.
- Vacation on a budget. The extravagant vacations and wait until you’re rich.
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