“Some people are on the 10-year plan,” my dad told me.
This was a couple of months after I scored my first job – my first real job right out of college.
“What’s the 10-year plan?” I asked.
It’s simple.
The 10-year plan involves continuing to live like a college student for the first 10 years of your professional life, saving and investing as much of your salary as possible.
Then, you quit your job and live however you damn well please.
I wanted nothing to do with it.
After all, I just spent the last four years of my life in college.
No money. All work.
The last thing I wanted to do was continue living like I had no money because that had been my reality to get my 4-year degree.
After all, I had finally “made it.” Good job. Nice salary. I deserved to enjoy my hard work by finally spending some money, right?
I didn’t exactly like my job, but it paid the bills with enough left over.
And so I lived like a regular guy who made a good salary and thought he was “rich.”
House in the suburbs.
Corvette convertible in the garage.
Oh, and a brand-new Cadillac CTS in the garage, too. 🙂
I saved the bare minimum (about 4% of my salary). The rest went to whatever I felt like spending it on.
It cost me years of working a job I didn’t like.
Little did I know at the time, my dad had just given me the fastest way to become a millionaire: live like a college student for 10 years.
Then boom, you’re done.
I ignored every bit of it.
Whether or not you’re on the 10-year plan right now doesn’t matter.
What matters is that you’re making the right decisions with your money so you can retire before you reach your 60s.
And it starts with understanding this: millionaires aren’t millionaires because they earn millions of dollars from their jobs.
Millionaires are millionaires because they buy appreciating assets with their salary, and those investments make them millionaires.
Here’s your priority list for getting to a million as quickly as possible:
- Build a 3 to 6 months emergency fund (here’s how)
- Get rid of all bad debts, like credit cards
- Invest at least 20% of your income
- Use automation to make it easy (set it up now)
- Wait 10 to 15 years
- Enjoy!
Don’t worry about picking and choosing individual stocks. Consider the passive approach by investing in index funds and ETFs.
Index funds and ETFs are the Easy Button to investing.
Want to invest in real estate without buying pricey investment properties or becoming a landlord? Check out REITs.
Remember, millionaires buy assets.
Put yourself on the 10-year plan now. Make your future a priority.
There are about 60 million millionaires worldwide. What is stopping you from becoming one of them?
Chat with you next week!
