Getting Rich Takes Time

 

I know, we all want to be rich and we want to finds ways that will get us there the quickest. News headlines all over the place are titled how to make money fast or quickly or instantly. But I am here to give you the sobering truth: getting rich takes time. There, I said it. Now before you go run off and search for ways to make money in the blink of an eye, let me save you some time. Whatever trick or strategy the article claims works doesn’t.

Or, it will work but it’s a scam. It most likely is an illegal way to make money . And as great as it is to have cash pouring in hand over fist, sooner or later, the law is going to come knocking on your door. And that is the key right there. Get rich quick schemes don’t last. And in many cases, you will end up back where you started or even worse. So take the steps below to heart about getting rich. They work. They may not be what you want to hear, but they are the truth.

 

3 Tips For Getting Rich

Learn To Value Your Money

Why do so many lottery winners end up broke ? Because they never learned to value their money. Think about it. If you are spending more than you make now and you suddenly win $50 million in the lottery, are you going to save any of it? Doubtful. Most likely you are just going to increase your spending.

You didn’t value money when you were making $30,000 a year so you won’t suddenly value it now that you have $50 million. You have to learn to value money and be disciplined with it.

This means learning to not buy everything you want and knowing the real difference between a want and a need. Until you learn to value money, you will never become rich because you will spend it as fast as (or faster) than you make it.

 

Growing Your Money Takes Time

I like to compare the journey of having millions of dollars with that of becoming a professional athlete. When you really think about it, the two are very similar. We see a millionaire and think all we have to do is come up with one great idea and boom – instant millionaires.

We look at a professional athlete and think they were blessed with the talent to play a sport for a living. But there is a lot more hard work in both cases. Most millionaires don’t have a simple idea and become millionaires overnight. It takes them time. Most don’t even have an idea, they just control their spending, save and invest for the long-term.

When it comes to a pro athlete – we only see the finished product – just like with millionaires. We never see the 8 hours a day in the gym and training virtually every day. If it was that easy to become an athlete or even a millionaire, there would be a lot more of both. But there aren’t because it takes work and discipline. So if you never want to put in the work, don’t expect to see any results.

Growing Your Money Means Being Smart

You also have to be smart with your money. Not just with what I mentioned above about spending and saving, but also with investing. You have to know that if something seems too good to be true, it most likely is.

You also can’t be chasing returns in the stock market. If you want to jump in and out of investments, you are probably never going to make money. In fact, odds are you are going to lose money because you will be acting purely on emotion – and we both know how great things turn out in our lives when we make decisions based on emotions. That’s right, things turn out horrible because we make irrational choices.

To be successful in the stock market takes a long-term approach. Find good, low-cost mutual funds and ETFs and buy them. And keep buying more shares. Don’t sell when the market drops because in time, it will come back up. Don’t stop buying when the market rises either because in time it will go higher.

 

Final Thots

So there is the sobering news for you – you most likely won’t become a millionaire overnight, or next week for that matter. But the good news is, that becoming a millionaire is still possible. You just have to realize it will take time.

I encourage you to run the numbers to see how long it will take you. If you don’t like the answer, don’t give up, but figure out a different path. Maybe it is earning more income through a raise or side business. Maybe it’s through cutting some spending from your budget. The key is that there are many ways to become a millionaire; you just have to play around with them until you find a path that works best for you.

 

Author Bio

Jon writes at Penny Thots, a personal finance blog whose writes about all things personal finance. The goal of the site is to improve your finances to positive, one day and one penny at a time.