How To Build Wealth From Nothing
You don’t make wealth. You build wealth from nothing, which turns into something.
We still can’t believe we paid our $185,000 mortgage off five years after buying our house.
Related: How we became mortgage-free
We went the opposite way of some kids our age when saving and spending money.
There are plenty of components that helped us to build wealth from nothing.
The number one point is that we did not inherit any money or win the lottery.
The income that we earned came before marriage, and to be frank, it hasn’t stopped.
We all know how much money we want to retire with, and it is possible but with effort.
Today, I want to share with you how both Mrs. CBB and I were able to build wealth from nothing.
When I say “building wealth from nothing,” we started our savings journey with a piggy bank.
Building Wealth From Six Hundred Dollars To Millions
Have you ever heard the expression that you build wealth from the ground up?
That means that you learn how to build wealth from nothing.
Although our journey started when we were barely walking, anyone can build wealth from nothing at any age.
“Undismayed and full of confidence in himself, Frank Hasenfratz soon found another job as a machinist.
From 1958 to 1964, he worked diligently to save his money for the right entrepreneurial opportunity. In 1964, the time was right.
He opened a one-person machine shop in his garage with the $600 he had saved from his six years of work.” – Source History of Linamar.
Imagine having $600 and turning that into millions of dollars and a legacy for your family.
Imagine you started a small business out of your garage, and now you have a multi-million dollar empire.
The story of how the late Frank Hasentfratz’s garage started Linamar Corp into a massive string of companies building parts for the automotive industry is impressive.
For some reason, I always get pulled back in his direction because many business owners start from home and go on to be successful.
Saving For The Future
How much money would it take to say you are wealthy and ready for early retirement?
Let’s see, $50,000, $100,000. million, two million and so on.
We all have financial standards that we want to be met by retiring.
That was a choice for those who have given up because they don’t think you’ll have any skills to offer.
We first wanted to be millionaires, but we’ve realized a million dollars doesn’t go too far these days as time goes on.
Ideally, two million dollars would keep us comfortable in our house, with no mortgage.
We will also be able to help our autistic son if he needs financial assistance or a place to live.
Perhaps I’m overthinking the money, or maybe you think our retirement lifestyle is far too posh.
We don’t know how long we will live or what the inflation rate will be like, and it’s scary or should be for everyone.
Start A Small Business And Dream Big
A friend of ours who was on employment benefits went back to school to learn how to open a business.
She chose business management to open a Personal Support Worker (PSW) and senior care operation.
When her dad was ill, she struggled to find help, and after he passed away and she lost her job, she knew what she wanted to do.
She wanted to make a difference for seniors, their families and medical care for the ill.
Can you believe she has a new office in a building, a fleet of cars, nurses and personal support workers in less than 7 years?
She was not trained in any medical field when she started this business, and now she’s earning millions.
How To Build Wealth From Nothing Fast
There’s no lie there because there are only a handful of ways people get wealthy fast.
- Win the Lottery
- Jackpot at the Casino
- Sizeable Inheritence of money or a business
Related: How To Earn Money Fast?
Did You Win Money?
The only two that I felt were relevant and not taking risks were winning the lottery and inheritance.
Scratch a lottery ticket and win instantly, yell BINGO or play Lotto Max and other Ontario Lottery Games.
Spending money to make money is the truth, such as playing games or slots at the casino.
If you win the jackpot or your money back, it’s a successful day of winning money.
However, someone looking for how to build wealth fast could instantly lose it.
When it comes to money, that’s the risk-taker where it’s a do-or-die financial situation.
How Much Money Did You Really Win?
Did you win? How many times have you played the lottery and lost vs. winning?
The same goes for playing Bingo, especially if you go a few days or nights a week.
Calculate how much you’ve spent before you won the jackpot.
Example: You’ve gone to Bingo every night for a week and spent $100.
During the week, you won the $1000 jackpot!! Yay.
$1000-$700= $300 – minus petrol to get there is what your take-home win would be.
Something is better than nothing.
The key is to not spend all of your money in hopes of hitting it big fast.
Strategies To Build Wealth Slowly From Nothing
Other than that, no matter what you do, building wealth slowly is the most intelligent way, in my opinion.
Rushing to build wealth often ends in disaster, missed opportunities and investing from your pocket.
- Buying and Selling Real Estate (flipping houses)
- Passive income such as running a successful blog,
- It was creating a product that is a Need and successfully marketing it globally.
- Live a frugal life working minimum wage jobs and up the ladder.
Unfortunately, unless you fall into lots of money, the best way is to build wealth slowly.
I’ve lost count of how many visits this blog has had from someone wanting to earn money fast.
Let’s review a few to keep this post realistic and comparable to starting from scratch.
If you want to build wealth slowly from nothing and over 30, it’s better late than never.
Many readers of this blog range from 30-70 years of age.
Trust me when I say it’s never too late to build wealth from nothing.
How To Build Wealth Slowly When You’re Young
We both come from families who didn’t earn much money, and my mum stayed home.
My father was an electrician, but he didn’t like having a boss so he would contract out.
Although they owned a profitable business I worked at while going to University; they left me in charge.
They opened a second shop which wasn’t as successful, and eventually, they decided to close them both.
No, I did not earn any money from working for my parents as it was part of helping the family survive.
If I needed cash while I was at University, I’d ask them, but I did have money saved up.
In the midst of it all, I got a job as a dish boy at a local restaurant where I went to University.
That job paid the rent, bills, food and clothes, so I didn’t have to tap into my savings account.
I also paid for my years at University with the money I saved in a separate account.
To avoid getting a bank loan, I took on any job I could get growing up, such as cutting grass, washing windows, and grocery shopping for seniors.
Believe it or not, I bought my first car and my first flat with the money I had saved from random jobs and my paper route.
It was around when I joined Nielsen Home Scan in the UK, also available in Canada.
Without cleaning out my savings, I made sure I bought a used car good on petrol.
Building My Entrepreneurial Skills
I also knocked on doors and put signs up looking for small jobs to earn money for school, and it worked.
Before I knew it, my parents were getting calls for me from neighbours from the village needing small jobs done for cash.
When I was young, I did not want to spend money because I had ambitions for my future.
My dream was to become a young homeowner, and to do that, I had to learn how to build wealth from nothing.
We all start earning money from a clean slate unless we are born into wealth. I was not, and neither was Mrs. CBB.
My nerdy side came out as I would enjoy watching my bank accounts grow but with little knowledge about finance.
When I moved to Canada, I was living in my townhouse for 9 years and sold it for the highest I could get for it.
Before putting it on the market, my dad and I made some minor improvements, and I put a small white IKEA kitchen.
I worked full-time, on holidays and extra overtime in a grocery packing facility.
There was never a time I turned down earning double or triple wages during the holidays.
My work also had a pension that I still have and a state pension, but I’m not sure how much that will be.
Luckily my mum has been helping me with things while I’m in Canada, such as reading my mail (exciting) and buying gifts for my nieces and nephews.
Before moving to Canada, I sold everything I owned, paid for two flight tickets one way (dog and I), and went off.
The profit I earned from the sale of my house went into the bank, and there’s never a time I look back with regret.
My Wife And I Have The Same Financial Mindset
She says that the toilet didn’t flush, and we had to wait for our dad to fix it.
Then when it rained, we put buckets in the living room to catch the rain.
Everything we owned was from the 70s, and nothing changed unless we bought it for them as a gift.
Her parents were far from wealthy, and they didn’t understand the basics of budgeting.
Related: 10 Easy Steps To Learn How To Budget (10 blog posts in total for free)
As Mrs. CBB gradually understood what was happening, she went into money-making mode.
Like me, she worked overtime, on weekends, and on holidays to build her savings.
When you grow up poor, there’s something inside of you that wants to do better.
However, not everyone in poverty pushes themselves in that direction but follows their parents’ footsteps.
This again is a choice unless there are medical reasons why someone is unable to work.
She also had her first job handing the newspaper out to neighbours at age 12.
We both agree that this job was where our financial journey began as children.
Watching The Bank Account Like A Hawk
She remembers when she had $3000 in her Scotia bank account and thought she was rich.
Under no circumstances was her bank account to go below that number, or there would be a small fee.
She went to college and had a $7000 student loan to pay back, and she did.
After college, she struggled for work, but eventually, she found three part-time jobs.
Following paying off her OSAP loan, she bought a Hyundai Pony for $700, and that was her ride. (not the animal)
After college, not much changed for her apart from being on welfare until she found work.
Today welfare is called Ontario Works/Social Assistance, which I find is a much better name.
To claim Ontario Works, you must provide your finances and be willing to look for work.
She fought so hard not to stay in the system because she was fit and ready to work.
Staying home all day did her no justice, and she was bored as most people would be.
Thankfully, it turned out good for her, and her Scotia bank account began to grow.
Bank Accounts We Bank With In Ontario
I found it interesting how many Canadian bank accounts we’ve had over the years.
Each of them offers different needs for us and my blogging business.
- Scotia bank account and we still have it.
- Royal Bank of Canada she no longer has but was used for her OSAP loan and college savings.
- TD Canada Trust she still has, plus our American bank account and Blog Savings.
- Simpli Financial was (PC Financial), and we still have it, and it comes with no fees.
- Tangerine Bank is new for us
- EQ Bank is new for us as well.
The last two banks that we have are online banks which means there is no brick and mortar building.
Moving To A New City For Employment
Eventually, she moved to the city we are now and rented an apartment.
She was earning $15 an hour, and eventually, she had a 2000sq ft house built at the age of 30.
Although she could pay the bill, the finances cut it too close, so she sold the house.
She was earning $21 an hour by then, and even her frugal ways stressed her out.
This is where her world of finance became a hot topic on her agenda as a priority.
Shortly after, she moved into a room for rent and spent two years paying her vehicle off.
If she bought clothes, she went to second-hand stores or bought items on sale.
Then I came along, and we pooled our savings together and moved into the house we are currently in.
Although we had an $85,000 downpayment together, that was money we saved for the day we bought our first home.
Being frugal is where we began, had a bumpy ride, and learned from our mistakes.
We bought life insurance right away as we didn’t want to pay for mortgage insurance which we weren’t interested in.
We contacted a lawyer who drafted our Will and Power Of Attorney after her father’s death.
Related: Your Will And The Legal Ramifications Of Death
The lawyer charged us $1000, but we wanted to ensure we covered all of our bases.
That was a fair price as the going rate was $450 for each person, and now it lives in our fireproof safe.
However, you can create a Will online for cheap with Epilogue Wills, which is simple, fast, and online.
Building Wealth From Nothing To Something
If you’ve been reading my blog for years, you already know how frugal we can be.
Still, today we follow the same frugal lifestyle so we can finish remodelling our home.
Below are the ways we could build wealth from nothing into something.
You see a timeline of our lives and a snippet of what we did to become millionaires early.
How We Became Millionaires Before 40
- Both started a paper route
- Saving money in a piggy bank
- Opening a bank account to store our savings
- I worked at my parent’s shop and went on to complete my University
- Found a new job in a kitchen washing dishes
- Mrs. CBB worked In fast food for 5 years before college
- I bought a flat while attending school
- Sold the flat for-profit and purchased a townhouse
- Saved money using Neilsen HomeScan and ate the same foods daily
- Spruced up the house with paint and a new Ikea kitchen
- Sold the house in record time and for a significant profit.
- We got married for $1000, and I moved to Canada.
- Mrs. CBB was working, earning $21 an hour and saving everything she could
- I returned to school to begin a new career
- Savings became a priority for both of us, as did a paper budget
- We became extreme couponers and saved a fortune on food and health and beauty products
- Shopped second-hand whenever we could and garage sales during the summer
- Rarely eat out, but we do have an allowance of $50 each a month
- Paid off the last few payments on our van, which were 0% interest
- I managed to get hired in a dream job earning a fantastic salary with a defined pension plan
- We bought a family home that needed renovations inside, which I’m currently doing
- Mrs. CBB lost her job due to downsizing the organization
- We hosted several students from China, Germany, Spain and France with Red Leaf Canada. Being a host family net us thousand of dollars which were tax-free. It was a fun experience.
- I opened a TD Canada Trust US Bank Account and another savings account for the blog.
- Turned to Simpli Financial and PC World Elite MasterCard, Costco MasterCard and Canadian Tire MasterCard for points and savings.
- Paid our house off in 2013, so she stayed home to watch and teach our son, who is now 7
- We did pay into our investments as we went along and opened a TFSA and maxed them out.
- A life insurance policy from Sun Life and Manulife was a must. We also bought a life insurance policy for our son, which costs $500 a month for 10 years; then, he will never need to buy one in his life, and it’s invested to earn money.
- Opened non-registered investment accounts to move extra money into each month
- Blog income is stored in a TD savings account, and we update it monthly.
- I paid $47,000 cash for my truck after negotiating it down from $89,000 loaded and 6000km.
- Save money using savings apps such as FlashFood, Checkout51, Rakuten Canada, etc.
- You can find all of the savings apps and coupon apps we use by reading my Canadian Savings Deals and Coupons post that I update regularly.
Don’t Waste Time Not Building Your Wealth.
There are plenty of ways we were able to build wealth from nothing, but we both agree that without dedication, you’ll always fail.
You either do it or don’t—the end of the story.
On that note, I hope this post gives you lots of ideas to get you started. I’ve linked to other popular pages about this topic for your reading pleasure.
Discussion: At what age did you start earning money, and did you save the money?
Please leave me your comments below, as I’d love to read where your financial journey began.
