This Is The Exact Amount You Need To Save Every Day If You Want To Become A Millionaire

Jul 23, 2018 by apost team

So the gloom and doom news these days is that there is worse income inequality now than there was during the infamous Gilded Age. The recent recession, gig economy, low wages and high rents are not making life comfortable for The 99 Percent.

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But that doesn't mean the American Dream is dead. There are still people with ordinary jobs and ordinary lives who have been able to quietly get rich, without having to create some razzle-dazzle multi-million dollar corporation.

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We are talking about people like Ronald Read, the janitor who amassed an $8 million fortune. Or Sylvia Bloom, a legal secretary who similarly was worth $9 million when she died.

How does an ordinary person do that?

Well, this seems to be the basic formula:

  • Live beneath your means.
  • Invest the money, don't just save it.
  • Be consistent over time.

These days, living beneath your means can be challenging. With high rents and roughly 17 percent of GDP going to medical care, many people are feeling the squeeze. So, unlike so many articles, we won't propose that you just drink one less cappuccino a day. Here's real advice that can actually make a difference.

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One of the single best investments you can make in your financial future is to keep yourself healthy. This doesn't require a doctor's visit. It means you need to eat right, exercise, brush teeth, don't smoke, keep your weight at a good place and all that other boring advice that you hear constantly and blow off.

Yes, you can do this even while poor. Can't afford a car? Walk everywhere. There's your exercise. And even fast food places these days have healthy options on the menu and health information available.

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Once you have a good lifestyle going where you won't be constantly surprised with unexpected medical expenses and the like, then you need to carve out some discipline for putting some of your money away instead of spending it. Studies show that people with financial goals outperform those without financial goals. This may be in part because investing becomes their new hobby, so their hobby makes them money instead of costing them money.

Start with this simple savings calculator and play with some numbers. How many years until you are retirement age? What kind of interest rate do you think you can get?

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If you are one of the many gig workers out there and saving X dollars per day to get to a million sounds like crazy talk because your income varies from week to week, check out this nifty chart. Print it off, post it to the front of your fridge and use it to mark off how much you saved this week. At the end of the year, you will have $1000.

Want to save more than that? Create your own variation of the chart with adjusted dollar amounts in the 52 boxes. Or just print several of the charts and use them concurrently. For example, if you want to save $3000 this year, tape three copies of the chart to your fridge and mark a box off on each of the three charts every week.

Maybe you should start an investment club with your friends. Send them this and ask if they would like to join you in your new saving and investing hobby.