Look
around. The stock market is back to setting all-time highs. The housing market
is percolating again, at least in most parts of the country. The economy is
picking up, while unemployment is falling. That means raises and outside job
offers can’t be too far behind. And small-business owners are about as
confident as they’ve been in six years, with plans to hire and expand.
Not
surprisingly, with all this wind at their backs, millionaire households are on
the rise. In fact, for the first time ever, the number of seven-figure
households in the U.S. is approaching the 10 million mark, according to the
Spectrem Group.
While
the financial barriers to joining this exclusive club have been coming down
lately, though, the psychological hurdles persist. You know the ones we’re
talking about. Like the widely held myth—perpetuated by the personal financial
industrial complex—that if you didn’t start saving aggressively right after
college, you’re now behind the eight ball.
Or that
you’ll have to learn to invest like the best pros to make your portfolio grow
fast enough. Or that the only way to create a million-dollar business is to
come up with a million-dollar idea.
In
reality, you don’t have to invent the next Twitter or invest like Warren
Buffett. Those skills are required only if you want to become a billionaire.
As hard
as it is to accumulate $1 million by the time you retire, there are plenty of
steps you can take—by saving, investing, owning real estate, managing your
career, or starting a business—to help you get there. Some of those moves,
which are laid out on the pages that follow, simply require time, while others
require planning. The biggest myth, however, is that the work is too hard and
the sacrifices too big to make it worth reaching for your goals.
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