There’s a saying that money isn’t everything. That’s true, but most people also acknowledge that money is essential. If you have it, you can live a comfortable life, and if you’re a millionaire, it may be that much more comfortable.
For instance, millionaires don’t usually have to turn to tools like a loan repayment calculator. They’ve achieved a status where they have financial insulation from that kind of thing (typically because they’ve reached that status by handling money well). If you want to get to that point, you can do a few things to increase your chances. We’ll talk about three of them here.
Save
Saving more means you’ll have more money later. That seems obvious, but if you want to increase your chances of becoming a millionaire, you must conserve more money than you spend and get into this habit as early as possible.
That’s probably going to mean saving until it hurts. Some experts say that saving 10% of your income is the key to generating long-term wealth, but to become a millionaire, that’s probably insufficient.
You’ll need to be extremely frugal to eventually get to millionaire status unless you win the lottery. Setting aside a situation like that, to become a millionaire, you’ll likely need to get into the habit of saving every penny you can. Saving 15-20% of your income for your entire working life might be necessary.
Invest
There are all kinds of investment possibilities out there, and you’ll probably need to rely on some of those if you hope to become a millionaire. We mentioned saving fanatically, but socking that money away in a high-yield savings account probably won’t give you the returns you’ll need to eventually confer millionaire status.
Instead, you’ll want to invest your money. That might intimidate you if you’ve never done it before, but there are certain proven investments that mitigate common risk factors.
For instance, putting your money into the S&P 500 is a proven strategy for long-term investing. The S&P 500 is made up of the 500 large companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the long-term, this index trends up, which means so can your money.
Increase Your Income
With inflation, living costs go up each year. That means if you want to keep saving and investing, your income must go up each year as well.
Because of this, if you want to reach millionaire status, you’ll need a position or career path where you’ll make more as time passes. You can’t stay in a job with an income ceiling that you can’t break through.
If that means leaving a position or company to find a higher-paying one, that’s probably what you’ll need to do. If your income is stagnant, but living costs keep rising, that will hurt your chances of putting more money into savings and investing it, decreasing your chances of ever becoming a millionaire.
Becoming a Millionaire is Possible
Becoming a millionaire is not as unachievable as it might seem if you engage in the activities we’ve mentioned. Make sure you choose a career path where you can make more money each year to combat inflation. Doing so means you can put money toward saving and investing as you move through life.
Using proven investment vehicles, such as putting your money into the S&P 500, will likely increase your wealth faster than sticking it in a savings account. Saving as much cash as possible is also critical. If you can save as much as 20% of the money you have coming in, you’ll reach your goal sooner.
Becoming a millionaire will require a concerted effort on your part to focus on your finances, but it’s possible if you’re mindful of the path we’ve outlined and follow it.