Do you want to achieve wealth but don’t think it’s possible? Are you convinced that you have to be born into a wealthy family or have some other sort of advantage to amass a fortune? Well, I’m here to tell you that this simply isn’t the case. You can achieve wealth from absolutely nothing if you put your mind to it. In this blog post, we will discuss how you can make this happen. So read on and learn how to create wealth for yourself!
Why it’s important to have wealth
There are a lot of advantages that come with having wealth. For one, you can have your pick of the best opportunities. You won’t have to worry about money troubles and can live a comfortable life. Plus, you can help out others who may not be as fortunate as you are.
Money provides options. Choices. That’s the most essential benefit of having true wealth; it is the definition of freedom in the most elemental, basic way. Being rich doesn’t just open doors to opportunities… it provides the doors to begin with. You don’t have to live in poverty to realize that your choices are limited; if you’re living paycheck to paycheck, you’re in a similar set of circumstances, just higher up the ladder of wealth.
Starting from no money or deep in debt
Perhaps at the moment of reading this, you have no money. Or maybe you have negative net worth becasue you’re so deep in debt. The worse case scenario is having negative cashflow every month because you are hemorrhaging cash.
Whatever your situation, it is NOT hopeless! You can do this. No matter how discouraging your present situation, your “balance sheet” has assets along with those liabilities.
Look for whatever assets you have. I don’t mean ‘assets’ in the traditional sense like real estate, stocks, cash in the bank, fine jewelry, etc. I’m talking about more tangible, ready-to-leverage advantages you may have in your life and be completely unaware of.
Uncover hidden assets you may be unaware of
You might have a great relationship with your boss. Maybe you’re the best salesperson in your company. Perhaps you’re bilingual and can be a translator for business meetings. You might have an extensive network of influential friends. All of these are assets that can be leveraged to create wealth.
Let’s drill down and go even more basic. Do you live in an area with relative population density? You will have more job opportunities available than someone living in a rural area, simply because there are more businesses and more diversity of business opportunities in areas with more people.
in an area that has relative economic prosperity? You might have more time than money, but others in your community have more money than time; find out what they need and provide those services.
Has anyone ever been impressed with your knowledge of a subject, or commented that your solution saved them time? It could have been in a workplace setting or even amongst your own family. Use that; create a simple product and publish it to Gumroad, then ask your friends to review it so it is live in the public marketplace. Then you can put a small cost on it, $10 or less. Gumroad integrates with email responder services like Convertkit so you’ll be able to build an email list, build the relationship with your subscribers, provide value and make even more money.
Stop spending
It’s common sense, but if your problem is having no money, stop digging a deeper hole — stop spending money you don’t have. Learn to live within your means. Create a budget and stick to it.
Create a budget
One of the best ways to save money is to create a budget and stick to it. A budget will help you track your spending and see where you can cut back. There are a number of different ways to create a budget, but one of the simplest is the 50/30/20 rule.
Under this rule, you would allocate 50% of your income to essential expenses like housing, utilities, and groceries. 30% would go towards non-essential but still important expenses like entertainment and dining out. And 20% would be saved or invested.
Once you have a budget in place, it’s important to stick to it. One way to do this is to set up automatic transfers into your savings account so you’re not tempted to spend the money. Another way is to give yourself a cash allowance for non-essential expenses.
Extra Income
Look for any opportunity to make extra income — a part-time job, a side hustle, buying and selling (yard sale arbitrage, dropshipping, selling imports, etc.). With proper time discipline and commitment, you might work up to a dozen different income streams!
Emergency Fund
You’ll also want to develop an emergency fund, which is a savings account for unexpected expenses. You should aim to save enough money to cover three to six months of living expenses. This will help you stay afloat if you lose your job or have another financial setback.
Pay off debts
Once you have started saving and living within your means, you can begin working on paying off your debt. Make a list of all of your debts, including the interest rate and monthly payment for each one. Then, you can create a debt payoff plan.
There are a few different ways to approach this. You can either focus on paying off your debts with the highest interest rates first or you can focus on the debt with the lowest balance first. Once that debt is paid off, add the monthly payment to the amount you pay on the next debt. Whichever method you choose, make sure you stick to your plan and don’t incur any new debt.
A final word about saving
One of the best ways to become wealthy is to start saving money. Even if you’re not making a lot of money, you can still save as much as you can. The earlier you start saving, the more time your money has to grow. This is the principle of compounding interest. If you have savings, it is compounding in your favor (your money is doubling itself as it grows).
If you have debt, it is compounding against you; it is doubling itself to create twice the problem and twice the time to get out from under — all the while, preventing you from increasing your value. Debt kills wealth. That’s a general statement and true the vast majority of the time.
How to invest money
Investing is how you grow your money. When you invest, you’re essentially putting your money into something with the expectation that it will grow. This can be done in a number of ways, including stocks, bonds, real estate, and more.
There are many different investment strategies out there, so it’s important to do some research and figure out what makes sense for you. For example, if you’re young and have a long time horizon, you may want to invest in stocks. But if you’re closer to retirement, you may want to focus on more conservative investments like bonds or real estate.
Once you have a plan in place, it’s important to stay disciplined and stick to it. Review your investments periodically to make sure they’re still on track and rebalance them as needed. Talk to a financial advisor to learn more about how you can grow your wealth.
What you earn vs. what you keep
Wealth doesn’t come from what you make or the amount your spend on tangible depreciable assets like expensive cars or affluent toys… Real wealth comes from what you save and keep. So make sure to put away as much money as you can each month. Invest in a 401k or IRA, start a savings account, and look for any opportunity to make extra income.
Start a business
Another way to achieve wealth is to start your own business. This can be a risky venture, but if it succeeds, it can ultimately make you very wealthy. But at this point, your goal with any business should be positive cashflow, NOT wealth.
Examples of businesses that require little startup costs are vending machines, ATM’s, self-serve carwash and laundromat. Look for a location that is well trafficked by middle income earners, low crime, and underserved in the area.
Getting loans
If you don’t have any money to start a business, some would recommend you get a loan from a bank or investors. This is usually ill-advised because it’s completely against the idea of getting out of debt. But if you’re confident in your ability to repay the loan AND turn it cashflow-positive, it can be a viable option in some circumstances.
Borrowing money – real cost
If you are determined to ask for a loan, you must know what interest rate. The interest you pay to repay the loan is the cost of the money; how much is this loan costing you? Take into account not just the actual money repaid but the time it will take and the DECREASE in cashflow available to you while you repay it. That decreased cashflow is a direct hit to your income.
For example, let’s say you own a business and your profit is 30%. That means for every $10 in sales, you’re putting $3 into your pocket. Now you plan to add a loan to the mix… Unless that capital is directly going to increase your income, the monthly payment will decrease the net profit on your business. Instead of putting $3 in your pocket, maybe you’re only profiting one dollar. Is that sustainable?
Avoid fooling yourself by saying it’s only temporary, that within three or four months you’re “sure” it will pay off. There are few scenarios where it will pay off.
When it makes sense to borrow
For example, here’s one scenario where it might make sense to take on a loan. Let’s say you create a craft product that sells out at every fair you enter. Even though you have developed streamlined process to create each piece, you find that you’re working round the clock to create the products and yet, you never have enough supply to cover the demand.
In one sense, you are cashflow positive and that is a good thing. But in another sense, your market has proven time & again that it demands this product, but with unavailable supply, you are losing revenue and opening up yourself to copycats to steal your idea and run with it.
You figure out that if you contract with a third party, you can not only triple your product availability but do so for half the manufacturing cost. The catch is, you have to invest a large sum to qualify for the manufacturing minimum.
In this case, a loan might make sense: you have a proven buyer audience for what you’re selling; you can reduce overhead in production; you can take the added profit and expand to a broader market to find more customers.
Invest in yourself
Finally, you should invest as much as possible in yourself. This includes investing in education, training, skills and knowledge. The more you know, the better equipped you will be to make money.
There are many ways to get an education these days, and many of them are free or very low cost. You can find online courses, evening classes, and even some bootcamps that will help you learn new skills. And if you’re not sure what you want to learn, there are plenty of free resources out there to help you figure it out.
How to set financial goals
In your life plan, you should have financial goals for 10 years from now, 5 years from now, 3 years from now and 1 year from now. The 1 year goal is a step along the way to your 10 year goal; it is a clear process from one wealth step to another.
As we have discussed, you can’t build wealth while you are servicing debt or living under the stress of paycheck-to-paycheck.
Your one year goal should be further broken down to monthly or even weekly and daily goals. Maybe your one year goal is to make six figures; that’s $274 income every day.
Define wealth for you
When it comes to wealth, there’s no magic number that signifies success. Everyone’s definition of “rich” is different. That being said, it’s still important to set financial goals so you have a target to aim for.
Some people choose to set a certain dollar amount as their goal. Others focus on generating a certain amount of passive income each month. And still others focus on becoming debt-free or saving a certain percentage of their income.
No matter what your goal is, make sure it’s specific and measurable. “I want to be wealthy” is not a good enough goal because it’s neither specific nor measurable. “I want to earn an extra $500 each month” is a better goal because it’s specific and measurable.
Conclusion
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how to get rich from nothing. But there are some general principles you can follow to increase your chances of success. The best part about these strategies is that today is the perfect day to get rich from nothing!