Do you expect to be rich?

[97guns]

I never expected to be rich but i thought about it very often starting at a young age, usually in the form of brainstorming ways to create wealth, never dreamt if winning the lottery and I am a gambler by nature. . Some things that ran through my mind were opening a restaurant, several invention ideas that I actually have a patent on one of and buying real estate to create an income stream. I went the route of real estate and it has literally made me rich in the short 6 years that I've been in it

[DecisiveParadox]

completely differant

In my experience (YmmV) I have seen different ways to becoming wealthy.
I worked with smart people who worked 14 hours a day 7 days a week and after many years they were working towards becoming rich.

Some people say its a lottery mentality. I believe it is. There is actually a lot of studies done into the mentalities and traits of entrepreneurs. The key trait I believe was the ability to gamble/take the long shots. the whole Win big or go home mentality. Like with gambling you lose often enough EVENTUALLY you will win.

I'm not rich, . . yet. we have made almost 500K in 12 months of being in our own business and are well on track to have a 1.5 Million pulled in before 24 months are up.

If you read other business success stories, when you 'make it' its a meteoric rise from nothing to something. actually experiencing it I would say exactly that it feels like winning the lottery. IMHO.

Nobody ever saved their way to rich, you simply spent less then those who have nothing. Rich, As I Define it, is income. and you have to increase this income as much as you can.
When that income equals your expenses, your living. when this income reaches magnitudes to the 10 of your expenses you have peace of mind and security. and when you have enough income to never worry about expenses then you are free and rich.


DP

[DecisiveParadox]

completely differant

In my experience (YmmV) I have seen different ways to becoming wealthy.
I worked with smart people who worked 14 hours a day 7 days a week and after many years they were working towards becoming rich.

Some people say its a lottery mentality. I believe it is. There is actually a lot of studies done into the mentalities and traits of entrepreneurs. The key trait I believe was the ability to gamble/take the long shots. the whole Win big or go home mentality. Like with gambling you lose often enough EVENTUALLY you will win.

I'm not rich, . . yet. we have made almost 500K in 12 months of being in our own business and are well on track to have a 1.5 Million pulled into savings before 24 months are up.

If you read other business success stories, when you 'make it' its a meteoric rise from nothing to something. actually experiencing it I would say exactly that it feels like winning the lottery. IMHO.

Nobody ever saved their way to rich, you simply spent less then those who have nothing. Rich, As I Define it, is income. and you have to increase this income as much as you can.
When that income equals your expenses, your living. when this income reaches magnitudes to the 10 of your expenses you have peace of mind and security. and when you have enough income to never worry about expenses then you are free and rich.


DP

[Fishindude77]

To comment on DP's "lottery mentality" comments.
I don't believe that theory at all. In my opinion, nose to the grindstone, consistent and steady wins the race to earning and keeping wealth.

Have seen lots of overnight big shot business people come and go. One day they are an average dude, the next day they land some big contract and the money starts rolling in. Problem is, they behave like it's going to be there forever and their spending gets out of control along with it. Next thing you know they get so caught up in showing off their new wealth that they neglect business and things start going south while they are unaware. A couple years later the auctions and bankruptcy's start and they are quickly humbled, have trashed their reputation and back to starting over. Have watched this scenario repeat itself so many times in business, that I can darned near predict it now.

[avil_saver36]

In order to become rich, you have to take certain measured calculated risks. In my opinion, ability to take smart risks is what separates rich and the middle class.

No, I don't expect to be rich. I do not have the ability to take such risks. Why not? Who knows really. I have a theory it's a product of one's upbringing. You need to encourage children from an early age to experiment and let them fail in small ways. Unless they "really understand" risk, its potential fallout and also the potential riches, they can't become rich.

As a middle class employee, I still make a comfortable living, but both me and my spouse have talents that we can utilize to create our own businesses - this is not just tooting our own horns but an acknowledgement of our abilities. But we have never seriously invested time, energy and most importantly, our own money to do it big scale. My wife runs a 0 cost tutoring business and everyone has told her what a great teacher/tutor she is. I am an excellent programmer and I can put together the entire front/back end together in a few months and allow her to run her business on the web globally. Yes, we can invest in it and try to do it big time, but we haven't. We are too comfortable with our current lifestyle, current income and current wealth to even try.

We are trying to raise our daughter differently though. I want her to exceed what we accomplished. I want her to be able to take risks. There are several ways in which I let that happen - maybe a topic for another discussion thread. To close the response, I strongly believe it will be extremely important to raise your children to be entrepreneurs in the 21st century instead of employees (like me and my wife) - unfortunately, our K12 education system is churning out employees by the millions. We for one do not give even an iota of importance to the K12 - I believe K12 will be totally outdated and hopefully be modified/replaced in the next few decades.

[corn18]

Since SA made me read the book The Millionaire Next Door, it has defined my life and concept of rich. I am not rich, yet. But thanks to that book, I am now getting there. Rich for me will be when I have no debt and have enough money saved to retire that day. The current plan has me rich in 12 years. I could be rich in 5 years if I cut expenses down to emergency level. Not prepared to do that yet, but sure would be fun to try.

[VinceMcMan]

Yes it's all about building more and more each day and each month until things are on autopilots and you get paid to do nothing in essence. I always look for how to set up things online to make me money the lazy way. That way I can play video games and do what I want all day. And sleep and get paid for it!

Working hard as is breaking my back is for losers. I know how the real money is made, and I refuse to work a regular job. I'll be sharing my ideas and tactics for on this site very soon! Good to finally find people interested in the big money !

[corn18]

I just quit my loser job so I can be fully prepared to receive your wisdom and knowledge. Just wish I didn't have to read through 15 of your most helpful posts to get the info. The anticipation is killing me.

[amigo1989]

at least I have a dream

[MaryTres]

Being Rich doesn't necessarily equate to happiness. I would rather have a lower paying salary and be content than a high-stress high-paying job. Of course, this all depends on your life situation (if you have kids etc.) Happiness and health > everything

[clatoden99]

Why is everyone trying to get rich?
Well, to be fair, not everyone is trying to get rich. Perhaps you can say that many people are. There are several reasons:

1) Competitiveness. The people who are trying hardest are competitive. They don't want to be just rich, they want to be richer. Richer than the other people trying to get richer. (The consequence is you CAN tax these people more without discouraging their efforts.)

2) Insecurity. When you are poor, you are vulnerable. The thinking is that if you are rich, you are insulated from all the troubles of poverty. You can afford health care, a house in a safe neighborhood with a security system, enough food.

3) Social pressure. In the US, the culture, media, movies and commercials assume you want to get rich and push it. It is assumed to be the goal. No company makes money by selling the message "You've got enough already, enjoy and economize."

4) Because of what it gets you. Like it or not, there is a slice of the female population (and we can debate whether it is 1% or 99%) that is attracted to wealth. Some women openly admit they want ot marry rich. You can see examples of unattractive, unpleasant, old rich men with beautiful, young women. So some men use wealth as a strategy to have a good (or envious) sex life.

Now as for the second question "If you already got rich ...", that raises the question "How rich is rich?" I don't feel rich. I have children I need to put through university and all the expenses that follow that in life. Most people in poverty would look at me and call me and my neighbors rich but we don't feel we are. So I'll suggest that few people would declare themselves rich. As you can see, I don't feel qualified to answer ".. is it what I was expecting". I feel middle-class.

[FLA]

I never aimed for rich, I aimed for comfortably independent. I went into a field of service fully aware of the low rate of pay compared to other fields, fields I could've been successful at. I saved as much as possible to grow my retirement accts but I did not do huge amts of overtime, or have some sort of side business. I wanted a work day that ended at 8 hrs so I could go home and be with my kids. I had achieved balance on that work-to-live/live- to-work scale.

at 40 I had amassed enough to retire at 55, but I never even let myself think about doing that. I loved my job and figured 62 would be a better age. Then I got sick at 45 and can no longer contribute to retirement vehicles. When it first happened I called an investment advisor at Vanguard as well as the man who managed my 403B. They showed me I could still live comfortably and can take out a certain amt monthly if needed and never touch the principle. I was in a panic then, I need to make appts to go through it all again.

If this scenario pans out and I am able to live comfortably yet still have money to leave to my kids, then that is "wealthy" to me. I'm a saver and I invest fairly aggressively. Even on a year of disability, I managed to save 50% to build up my emergency fund. That's pretty well funded so next I need to find out how to invest outside of retirement vehicles for down the road.

I lived frugally by choice all my life, so I'm sure that will not change as I age. I have no need for a big house, I will be perfectly happy in a small condo when it's time to sell this house. I do not need to own lots of stuff, there is too much stuff in this house and it bothers me. Give me enough to have that condo, a dog, be near a library, a very compact car and the money to travel to see my kids and other trips, that's plenty rich enough for me.

[corn18]

I am rich. But it isn't what I thought it would be.

4 years ago, I thought I was rich. I made a lot of money. I had a nice house, fancy cars for fun, horses, was planning to send my kids to private colleges, multiple resort vacations each year. That's what it means to be rich, right? Have all the rich people stuff? I was very unhappy. I had a ton of debt and no savings. My net worth was negative and getting more negative every day. I was not rich.

I stopped all that "rich" behavior and changed to a more sustainable lifestyle. I can't say that I am frugal by most measures, but I di manage to save 50% of my after tax income last year and plan to save 64% this year. I spend less than half of what I was spending before, I still drive my 8 year old pickup (sold the BMW), I have no debt except the mortgage, and I feel a lot richer than I ever have. I must confess that I sometimes find my mind wandering towards thoughts of a $12k watch or an Audi R8, but so far I have stayed grounded and stayed on course.

I think financial security and then financial independence would be my definition of rich, not material possessions or income. A person who spends $50k / year can be "richer" than a person making $500k / year. I just wish I had figured it out a long while ago.

Tom

[Therstrand83]

I think luck is not every thing and we can only make money with hard work and it is way of only patience to make money.

[tripods68]

I'm not trying to be rich, I'm trying to be successful in Life!