rich Archives - the frugal millionaire

Six Smart Financial Moves for Future Millionaires

Whether your goal is to become a millionaire by a certain age or to save a set amount of money so that you can retire early, the way to get there is deceptively simple. Save more, spend less. It sounds easy, but if it were easy then everyone would do it. Here are a few tips on how to build your wealth.

1. Clearly Define Your Goals

When you decide to start getting serious about saving money, it is a good idea to have a set of goals in mind as well as a plan for how to reach them. Think about writing down a business plan of sorts, with a timeline, goals, and small clearly defined actions that will allow you to reach those goals. It is very important to be clear about what you are trying to accomplish, whether it is retiring early with a set amount of money in the bank, saving money for your children’s future, or something else.

2. Pay Yourself First

With any income you receive, whether from your full-time job or a side hustle, pay yourself before spending money on anything else. This means to put money towards savings before you start spending your income. Some people put a set amount into savings every month, and those that have a more variable income will sometimes save a set percentage of their income towards retirement, other investments, emergency fund savings, or college savings funds.

3. Have a Side Hustle or Two

Frugal Millionaires know that while having a full-time job is a great source of income, you are not limited by your FT salary. You can always start working on the side to increase your income, and if you’ve already been living on your full-time salary alone then you can devote your side hustle income entirely to meeting your financial goals faster.

My side hustle is blogging (learn how to start your own profitable blog here!). This month, I’m on track to make close to $700, and I spent maybe 8 hours this month blogging! It took some time to build up an audience and create posts, but now my income is steady and dare I say…passive? Which leads to the next point…

4. Set Up Passive Income Streams

Passive income is money that you earn without having to do very much for it after an initial output of effort. Something like writing an eBook and self-publishing through Amazon, designing and selling a course on Udemy, or even simply selling t-shirts and stickers with a logo you designed are all ways to earn passive income.

5. Always Have Insurance

Frugal millionaires like to cut costs in order to put more money towards their financial goals, but having proper insurance will save you money if you are ever in the position of needing to use it, and is not a smart way to cut costs. Renter’s or homeowner’s insurance, good car insurance, life insurance, and health insurance are all important and well worth the cost. Visit this link to learn more.

6. Maximize Your Tax Breaks

Never pay more in taxes than you are legally required to. This means fully funding your IRA and any other pre-tax retirement accounts you have, investigating whether you should itemize your deductions or take the standard deduction, and following any other advice your accountant provides you.

Through setting clear goals, increasing your earning and saving while minimizing your effort, and protecting yourself from financial catastrophe, you should be able to meet your savings goals. With common sense and determination, you can be a millionaire.

Our Four-Step Plan on How to Become a Millionaire

Today I’m getting back to the roots of this blog: Our journey on becoming millionaires.

John and I are just your average couple. We both work full-time with average salaries. We have our own side businesses. John works in construction and gets roughly one job per month. I am a freelance writer and blogger, making between $500-$3,000 extra per month (you can read my income reports here). We’re not unlike any other couple or family that I’ve met. We have kids, we have bills, and we work hard.

However, John and I have a big goal to become millionaires at some point in our lives (the sooner, the better). Here is our four-step plan on how to become a millionaire. As a disclaimer, this would be a “perfect” scenario. I know life can, and most likely will, throw us curveballs that will set us back. One of us might get laid off, we might have a medical emergency. You can’t predict the future; but I think it’s always good to have a plan and goals in mind 😉

Can money buy happiness? I say yes, but the reasons might surprise you

There’s much debate over whether or not money can buy happiness. The Wall Street Journal recently posted a rather interesting article on this very topic. The study found that as incomes rise, happiness and overall satisfaction with life increase. In fact, 100% of those making over $500K a year consider themselves “very happy” and “very satisfied” with life.

A previous study by Princeton University found that happiness did not increase much once annual household income reached $75,000. So if you’re making $75,000 now and you get a raise or pick up a side job and increase your income to $125,000, don’t expect to feel that much happier.

I get that. Our household income will probably be right around $75K this year. If we both do well with our businesses and our income hits $100K, I really don’t see us being that much happier than we already are. But, I do still believe that money can buy happiness and here’s why:

What to you is “rich?”

Lately I’ve been thinking about what my definition is of “rich.” According to this study, rich is an annual gross income of $160,000+ and $3.2 million in net liquid assets. I think we can all agree that that is rich, but specifically, what does it mean to be rich to you?

Rich is a subjective term – just like a lot of things in life. Think about these questions:

How many kids is “a lot?”
What temperature is “too hot?”
What’s “too cold?”
How many square feet in your ideal house?
What’s your ideal weight?
How many hours a week should you work?

etc, etc, etc. So many things in life are subjective. Most likely, no two people will answer all of those questions the same. To me, rich is a very subjective term. What’s rich to me could be poor to someone else. Of course, we can probably all agree that once you cross a certain threshold, you’re rich (like the study I mentioned above), but for the average person the term can vary greatly.

How to feel rich regardless of income

Happy Wednesday! Before I dive into today’s topic, I don’t know if anyone noticed but I got a new theme installed on my blog! It’s from Pixel Me Designs and I could not be happier with it. Laura, the designer, is wonderful to work with. I purchased a pre-made theme but emailed her a question and she responded immediately. I am all about good customer service and Laura surpassed my expectations! For those of you new to my blog, I have a self-hosted WordPress site and am using Genesis Framework. Laura provided me with the Child Theme that goes along with Genesis Framework. You can read more on how to start a blog here.

The original theme I was using didn’t properly load “page 2” and on, making it difficult to navigate my site. I deleted that theme a few weeks ago and was just running off of Genesis Framework. I took my time purchasing my current theme because I wanted to find one that I LOVED and that was functional. Having an appealing, easy-to-navigate, fully functioning site is vital if you wish to make money from your blog.

Anyways, on to today’s topic…