How To Become A Millionaire From Nothing (5 Steps)

Everybody wants to be a millionaire, right?

If you’re a doctor or other high income earner then you may think you’d have a better chance of attaining millionaire status vs the average person.

Not so fast.

Not only do we start practicing later in life (sometimes in mid to late 30’s) but our debt load is typically much higher than what most a lot of people have.

The first step you must do is change the way you look at money because being a millionaire these days ain’t what it used to be.

For instance, if you have $1,000,000 in the bank and use the 4% rule each year to access your money ($4K/month), with no income, you’d run out of money in 25 years.

Who can live off of $4K a month?

What about when you’re wanting to retire? What do you think $4k/month is going to buy you? Nothing more than a weekend road trip staying at a mediocre hotel.

So when people talk about becoming a millionaire, again, you have to change the way you think about money.

And with no income coming in, you’re going to be worried living off of $4K/month.

So let’s do something about it….

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How To Think About Money

When I interviewed Grant Cardone (see video below), he stated it best: “Millionaires are basically middle class people that are worried about money.”

He’s best known for his 10x Rule book and because of this, he thinks the number we should shoot for is $10 million with no income and then you could probably live the life you wanted to.

How To Become A Millionaire From Nothing (X Steps)

#1. Set a target

Most of us shoot for the wrong target because we’re doing the wrong math.

Doctors are the worst about this because we’ve put off and delayed gratification for so many years that when we do finally graduate, the dam bursts.

Our targets become I’ve got to get: the new car, the new house, the new watch or whatever because now I’m finally making a lot of money.

These liabilities become the new target. But these are the wrong targets to go for if you want financial freedom. 

Your attention needs to be on the new target. It’s not the watch, the car or vacation.

It’s freedom.

So you got to change the target and look at it on a daily basis. If you’re struggling, then you have the wrong target.

When you change the target, everything changes. And now when you’re thinking about buying the new Lexus, you’ll automatically shift to your new target. A great financial future. 

And if your freedom number is the $10 million we talked about earlier then you’ll know that the Lexus is going to keep you from getting there.

Having a daily target will help you stay on track to reach your financial goals. 

#2. Save 40%

By far, this will be the hardest step because too few people will actually change their lifestyle to do it. But if they do, then freedom is coming to them much sooner than age 65.

Think about how you’re living right now and how much of your gross income you’re saving. What does the average financial advisor tell us to save?

10%,15%, maybe 20% at most? Why?

Because they’re all teaching the same thing. Their financial planning consists of the Accumulation method to retirement.

Put your money in a 401 k for 50 years and then you’re ready to enjoy life.

What at age 80? What if I want to ski for 3 months out of the year? It’s hard to do when I’ve had both knees and hips replaced at age 80!

The new goal is getting to the point where you can save 40% of your gross income.

$10,000/month

So if someone makes $10,000 month and wants to save 40%, then they’d have to pay the IRS 40% then pay themselves 40% which leaves only $2000 a month to live on.

Remember, the IRS doesn’t trust us to pay them so what do they do? They take their money BEFORE we get it, right?

It’s deducted first from our check before it ever gets into our hands. So if you’ll pay the IRS $4,000 out of $10K, then you need to figure out how to pay yourself $4k.

I understand that $2k/month isn’t much money to try to live on especially if you’re married! The bottom line is when the conversation comes up that you need a new car, you don’t have any money for it!

What you’re supposed to be doing instead is saving, no storing (better word) that money each month. You’re stockpiling it. But you’re not going to store it too long because it eventually becomes worthless. If it sits there too long, it eventually dies. I’ll disappear.

Do you remember what happened to all of Pablo Escobar’s cash that sat too long? Bugs and mold got a hold of it. Thieves took it. So for him, because he didn’t use his cash, it was destroyed or was taken.

$20,000/month

Now instead of someone making $10K a month, let’s increase it to $20k/month. Now you’re going to be:

• storing $8K
•  paying the IRS $8K
•  living on $4K

 This is the right way to do a budget.

$30,000/month

If you’re making $30K/month then you’re:

• storing $12K
• paying the IRS $12K
• living off of $6K

 At this point you’re saving $12,000/month or $144,000/year.

Now you’re starting to realize that you’ve got to be making at least $300K/year to live on if you want to serious about building wealth.

That’s 1.4 million in 10 years.

Now you’re finally a millionaire. A millionaire stored that is.

#3. Go broke and invest the storage

Now that you have enough money in storage; it’s time to get it invested. The golden goose is only good if she lays eggs. Money needs to make babies and the only way to make more money is to put it in circulation, which is why it’s called  cash flow, right?

In our example above where you’re storing $12,000/month or $144,000/year, you don’t want to invest in anything that’s a “maybe“. In other words, you don’t want to risk your money. 

Warren Buffett said:

• Rule #1 – Don’t lose money.
• Rule #2 – Never forget rule #1.

One of the best examples to invest your money is with real estate. I’ve personally been investing in syndications for several years. More importantly is that each year I add a new deal to my portfolio, I form additional streams of income. 

#4 Passive income exceeds active income

You want to get to the point where your monthly passive income exceeds the income from your job. By doing this, it’s going to provide the motivation to help you stay on track. 

Related article: Why Passive Income Beats Active Income

Each month and each year, your job is to store excess cash somewhere where it’s protected.

Then when you started investing it for cash flow, you start to get a little drip each month or quarter.

But you continue to keep adding to it until eventually, the drip gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

Then one day you’ll look up and you’ll have extra money coming from multiple different sources and if you ever want to get off the treadmill then you can once you reach your goal.

#5 Give yourself time

Do you remember what the first goal was?

Set a target, right? Too many people set their sites on “becoming a millionaire” by age 30 or 40 or some other number.

But you must realize that anything worth obtaining in life takes time and patience and even the richest people have had to struggle at some point.

Nothing happens overnight, so you have to work hard each day to reach your goal.

The good news is becoming a millionaire is simple: It’s all about changing your perspective on money and not letting it control you.

You simply need:

• the right millionaire mindset
• some hard work
• perseverance

Too many people fail today because they either don’t set realistic goals or don’t set any at all.

What is it that your really want? What are your dreams?

Once you create these, then it’s time to get on the right path to create guaranteed income so that even if things don’t go as planned, you’ll still have something to fall back on financially.

Now the questions remains…..is becoming a millionaire hard? Not really.

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