How To Succeed With The Millionaire Mindset

By Jack Kelly

At the start of a New Year, we tend to think about how we're doing in our lives. Are we where we thought we'd be. This relates to your job, relationships and financial situation.

Many people would like to be wealthy or at least financially secure. It's an uncomfortable position to always have to worry about paying your bills, rent or mortgage on time. It's not just the money, it's what having the money represents—the ability to take care of your loved ones, not having to worry about the bills and enjoying some travel and nice things. 

Having money helps with making smart career decisions. If you accumulated a certain amount of savings, it buys freedom. You won’t have to accept a dead-end job that you hate just because you need the immediate salary. There will be no need to deal with an insufferable boss as you have a financial safety net which provides time to find a new job or just quit. You can afford to accept a role that pays less now but offer fantastic long-term upside. 

Becoming a multi millionaire is the benchmark for being comfortable and somewhat rich—depending upon where you live. It's not what it used to be, but having a million dollars or more provides for a nice life. Achieving this amount of wealth is possible. It does, however, take strong commitment, hard work, deferring gratification and a good deal of luck.

Here is what you need to do now. You need to develop a millionaire-mindset. This can be accomplished by thinking and acting differently. You will need to go against the crowd and the usual norms of society. 

It is important to live beneath your means. This boils down to spending far less than you earn. Our society pushes people to consume products. We equate success with accumulating things. Advertising brainwashes us to buy expensive luxury car brands, McMansions, clothing designed by the ‘right’ designers and all sorts of stuff which will supposedly makes us more attractive and happier. 

The brainwashing starts early in your life. You see television commercials and you'd badger your parents to buy the cool new hot toy. High school seniors select a college based on their reputation for parties, winning sports teams and the looks of the university. Once there, you may select a major that seems fun, interesting and easy. Unfortunately, these things are not a good criteria for earning a nice living after you’ve graduated. 

A student with a millionaire-mindset will select a major that will enable her to realize a good living with the ability to grow her career and become highly successful. She’ll be in her dorm room studying while her peers are out drinking and partying. Her friends may tease and pressure her, but she’ll stay the course, confident in the knowledge that her future will be brighter than her peers who are slacking off. The others will peak in college and flame out afterwards. 

Once you start working, you need to focus on your job and career. You need to work hard, show-up early and stay late. While you are young and have the energy, you should maximize your time. Pursue jobs that you possess the appropriate skills, temperament, are good at and enjoy. It won’t be drudgery and you’ll actually have fun at it. You will succeed because you found your right niche. Managers and bosses will notice your drive and enthusiasm, and will reward you with raises, promotions and bonuses. People at other companies will learn about you through your reputation and try to recruit you and offer more money to entice you to join them. 

The momentum will keep propelling you forward. While this is happening, keep mentally grounded. Don’t splurge on expensive apartments in trendy neighborhoods, eating out every night and going for drinks all the time.

It's an unpopular opinion and people will deride you, but live at home for a few years after college. You won’t have to spend a lot of your hard-earned money and will be able to save-up to buy your own home when you peers who didn’t follow your path can’t.

Participate in your company’s retirement or 401k plans. Put a large chunk of your salary into investments or savings accounts. You will be pleasantly surprised at how much you have ten to twenty years later.

A big problem is that people spend more than they actually have. For every dollar they earn, they’ll spend three dollars. They’ll borrow from their credit cards incurring predatory high interest rates. Homeowners will take out second and third mortgages to finance a lavish lifestyle. It becomes a competition among people to compare who has the best, coolest and chicest gadgets, toys, outfits and accouterments. It's all show and no substances. Big debts are run up to impress people who you don’t know or like. Meanwhile, you fall further in debt and owe so much to the banks and mortgage companies that you’ll never get your head above water.

A person with a millionaire-mindset doesn’t fall into this trap. This mindset requires you to live below your means. You’ll need to spend far less than you earn. You can’t buy a home, car or take four vacations a year that you can’t afford. There is no need to go to fancy high-end department stores and boutiques when a product of equal quality can be bought at a fraction of the price somewhere else. If you do buy something on your credit card, make sure to pay it offer in full before you’re assessed high interest charges.  

Most Americans want everything right now and with Amazon it's possible. People with a millionaire-mindset understand that they need to defer gratification. Instead of partying and goofing around with friends, the forward-thinking students will study hard in the early years to earn a scholarship when they go to college. Instead of dropping a small fortune on mindless trips over spring breaks and the summer, work a job to gain experience and earn money. 

The millionaire-mindset person is cognizant of the concept of compound interest. If you save money early on, the interest will grow. Money will beget more money as you earn returns on your initial savings plus the interest. The same holds true when you buy stocks, bonds, mutual funds and ETFs. When you save and invest, you’ll have less money now but will have significantly more in the future. You’re giving up some things now for your long-term future benefit. In addition to investing, it's smart to have other income streams too. It could be through purchasing real estate, starting a side business or have a couple of side-gigs in addition to your job.

The key is to think long-term. It's planning for the future and giving up certain things to achieve your goals. Your future self with thank you for making some sacrifices to lead a long fruitful and successful life.