You never know who is a millionaire these days, or do we? You may be surprised to know that a millionaire might live next door to you.
Unfortunately, not all wealthy people like to discuss their finances or tell the secrets that helped them achieve financial freedom.
A record-breaking 12 million people were millionaires in 2013, and researchers predict that the number of people with a net worth of at least a million dollars would continue to increase in the coming years.
Their survey also showed that most of these millionaires reside in North America, specifically in the United States, the land of opportunity, while its close friend, Canada, isn’t far behind with almost 500,000 millionaires living there.
Nobody Needs To Know If You’re A Millionaire
Now, if we look closely at those numbers, we can conclude that the chances of you knowing a millionaire have increased over the years, and so have your chances of being neighbors with a millionaire.
You may not know it yet, but Mr. and Mrs. Smith may be millionaires, but they don’t want you and their other neighbours to find out because they don’t like the attention and prefer to live a simple life.
That’s right. Most millionaires are not fond of bragging about their net worth to others, nor do they want to show off to residents in their neighbourhood.
Millionaires do several things that their friends or neighbours may not know.
There are some secrets that millionaires like to keep for themselves that their non-millionaire neighbors should know too:
1. You need more than one source of income
Most millionaires these days didn’t get rich because they inherited a considerable amount of money. Those days are long gone.
The truth is that several millionaires today are self-made, who worked hard and took advantage of every opportunity.
They didn’t settle for the salary they were receiving from their job; millionaires don’t like to live on only one source of income.
One of the reasons they’ve been able to get where they are now is because of their multiple income streams.
Also, they know that it would be hard for them to accumulate wealth relying on just a single income and that it would be easier to save for their future if they had multiple sources of income.
2. Start investing and saving as soon as possible
If you’re going to ask a millionaire, what is the thing that they regret the most?
One of the common answers that you’ll hear from them is that they are not able to start as early as possible.
If you’ve tried to ask for advice from a millionaire, the most common advice they would give you is that you should NOT wait until you do something to achieve your life goals.
You should pursue your dreams now, not tomorrow.
Why?
It’s because being able to start young enough means you can take advantage of the time that you have.
Something others who started late cannot take advantage of.
If you’re going to ask me, time is indeed more important than money, and this quote right here says it all:
Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.” – Jim Rohn
3. Always live below your means
Millionaires already know that living way above what your salary can get you is not the formula for accumulating wealth.
They all know that. You should, too.
I’ve read a book called The Millionaire Next Door, and the authors wrote that living below your means will never get you in trouble.
I can’t help but agree with them on that because what can possibly go wrong living below your means?
You can’t get into debt, spending only what you can afford to lose, nor can you run out of money.
If you’re interested in reading the book, please check out my review of The Millionaire Next Door first.
4. Investing is a nice hobby to have
Do you know why the wealthy don’t have to work too much for too long?
Well, it’s all because those smart, wealthy people are investors.
They have investments that can give them passive income.
What is passive income?
Passive income is received regularly, with little effort required to maintain it.
Sorry to disappoint you if you want to get this type of income now. It will take some time.
They didn’t set those up last year. It took them years to get some income from their investments and a lot of planning.
Another not-so-good thing about this one is that investing isn’t really for everyone, so before you make it one of your hobbies or participate in it, you’d better assess yourself first to see if you have what it takes to be a good investor.
Tip: Find yourself an investing mentor who can guide you along the way
5. You should only get married once
We often see rich people get divorced, right?
Of course, that’s what the media wants us to think: that rich people are more likely to get divorced than regular people.
The thing is that’s not true.
Most millionaires can build up their wealth and maintain it because they’ve been lucky enough to find the right partner to help them do those tasks.
They know that finding the right person to marry and be with is essential for them to be happy, and that divorce can not only ruin their life, but also take away their wealth.
With the help of a great attorney, your ex-wife or ex-husband can take everything you have worked for, and you wouldn’t want that, would you?
Maybe that’s why your “millionaire” neighbors have been married for years. Why don’t you ask them and find out yourself?
We all have secrets, which are just some that your millionaire neighbour may be hiding from you.
I hope you learned something here and that this article may serve as a reminder that wealth will only come to those deserving of it and that hanging out with millionaires can be a very cool thing.
Discussion: Do you know other secrets that your millionaire neighbor has told you before?
Please leave your comments below and share this post with someone you think might like to read it.
Post Contribution by: Mark Ross is the founder of the Money Saving Dude, a personal finance blog that aims to help its readers save money and grow their wealth by sharing different money-saving tips and advice weekly. You can get in touch with him through X.
If you want to contribute a post for Canadian Budget Binder and are a personal finance blogger, contact me today!
Nice article Mr. CBB,
I totally agree with the multiple streams of income suggestion.
It was a well written piece,thanks to my good friend Mark at Money Saving Dude…. Thanks for dropping by Frank!! MR.CBB
I’ve read that book a couple of times thanks to the library and found it quite interesting. I keep watching to see if it shows up on the tables at the book sales but it hasn’t yet. I don’t think I would be doing much investing as I currently don’t understand it enough to do so. All in all a very good article…Thanks Mark and Mr CBB!!!!
Thanks Christine! I hope you can get your own copy of the book soon.
Yes, most people if they looked at my husband and myself, they would never know we are millionaires. Always dressed very casual, drive second hand vehicles, live in modest accommodations, and are very frugal.
We were never on a high income and accomplished it by buying rental properties. Not for the ‘faint of heart’.
My advice would be very similar to your post.
When we need to clean up after tenants..usually when we evict them…we are always finding coins strewn all over the place, and several dollars worth of money back bottles. I guess it is an attitude towards money..or what it represents. (for me money is freedom)
Yes. Millionaires are good at blending into the environment they live in whether it’s in a high class neighborhood or in the middle- or low-class neighborhoods, aren’t they Kathryn?
I used to work for a self-made millionaire. He’d bought a business (off a family member) for far more than I thought it was really worth. However he managed to quickly add value and grow the company. Despite many more frugal years paying off the sizable loan he took out to buy the company, by expanding slowly over time he’s now sitting pretty and taking home 6 figures a month.
I suppose the moral of the story here is that if you’re focused on building wealth, don’t be afraid to use debt as a tool to achieve your dreams.
Another lesson could be that the value of a business can be far higher than the asking price *if* you know the industry and can see easy ways to rapidly add value and increase profits.
Great story Richard! Thanks for sharing that one.
Working on the multiple streams of income one right now. 1 rental property in the works, hopefully with more to come, and after that, who knows what? Also, I love the only get married once part. So good for your happiness, family, as well as your bottom line. Great tips!
Live below your means; such a simple concept that we are never taught in school. Thanks for the great article!