“A road map to making your first million by 50; Successful investors share similar traits”, the article outlines a number of key traits shared by many of the world’s millionaires. The article is accompanied by a picture of Donald Trump, who I don’t think is very representative of most wealthy people, but regardless, there are some good points. ** They really want to be millionaires One of the things I teach in my programs is the incredible importance of having a “burning desire”, which comes from the classic book, “Think And Grow Rich”. The first step to being successful is having that burning, insatiable hunger to want to succeed, because that leads to your willingness to do what it takes, no matter how steep the hill gets. ** They love to save money and watch it grow I definitely love to watch my money grow, but I can’t say I love saving. I DO save money and invest it, but only because I know what doing so will bring for me. I don’t enjoy the act of saving.. but I’ve created the habit of when I have extra capital, it quickly gets invested before I spend it on “doo-dah”. ** They start young I suppose I’m relatively young, given that this article is about people who want to be millionaires before they’re 50 (I’m 36). I’ve been fortunate enough to create a million dollar net worth in three different industries, which I think is rare. A key part of that was starting my own “real” business full-time when I was 21, so starting young certainly gives you an advantage. ** They take big but calculated risks I would have to agree wholeheartedly with this. You can’t find new worlds if you’re always afraid to leave the port, and I’ve taken a lot of ‘calculated’ risks in my business career. Some uncalculated ones too, that usually worked out for me. As I move along, I’ve realized the need to try and recognize, mitigate and manage risk in the decisions I make, but I am a believer that if you want to make it big, you have to think big.. and this takes the willingness to risk. ** They learn from their losses One thing I’m very grateful for is that I haven’t incurred a lot of major losses in my career. I’ve had some bad investments, some bad deals, but nothing crippling. And I’ve always been able to learn from having made mistakes in those investments. Most people point the finger of blame at someone or something when an investment goes bad. I’ve tried to build the habit of being accountability for all my own losses, and trying to learn from where I went wrong – whether it be I didn’t understand what I was investing in, I trusted someone that hadn’t earned it (and I was just being lazy), or whatever the case was. ** They can handle debt My parent’s generation was taught that all debt is bad, and that the greatest place to be in life is debt-free. I agree partly with this — but I do believe there is good debt and bad debt. Good debt is paid by someone else (like all the mortgages on our properties being paid by the tenants) and helps you build your appreciating asset base, while bad debt has to be paid by you, is usually not deductible, and/or is taken on to buy something that goes down in value. Understanding the difference between good and bad debt is one of those distinctions that I find separates a lot of wealthy people from those who are not. Even though I have millions in debt in the form of mortgages, I sleep well at night because it’s all based on a plan. And, since I have no personal or consumer debt, all of the debt I have is helping building my asset base, not taking away from it. ** Their investment style suits them My investment of choice is real estate, for which I have a real passion. I do love it, and the way I invest in real estate wouldn’t suit everyone. I’ve changed my strategy over the past several years to allow for market changes, as well as changes of who I am as an investor. I think this is one thing that hurts a lot of new investors – they try to take one investment strategy they learned, and blindly apply it in their own market. Knowing that you need to find your “own” method and style of investing is critical. ** They know all their costs This applies really well to real estate, because most starting investors don’t realize all the different costs (seen and hidden) that can cause a good deal to turn into a bad one. A lot of investors don’t factor things like vacancy, unforeseen repairs, advertising and other things into their statements. Then, they can’t figure out why their great paper deal looks bad once they buy it — they haven’t factored all the costs into the deal, which comes with experience. Overall, I think this article is a great outline of some of the key skills and traits necessary to be successful financially, whether it’s in real estate or anything else. You can download a full copy of the article here. Based on this article, there are things I’ll write about in the future, along the lines of Lessons Learned From Being A Millionaire. There are a lot of interesting things I’ve learned after having achived some financial success that a lot of people probably wouldn’t realize or expect until they get there. Probably the biggest one is, Money Doesn’t Make You Happy. It can certainly remove a lot of the barriers, but if you’re thinking money will make you happy, think again. In any cause, if your goal is to become a millionaire this year, this article is a great primer for some of the traits you’ll find common in a lot of millionaires!]]>