Now that my dream of becoming a multi-millionaire within a year by laying horses has been shattered, I am having to revert back to my original plan of achieving financial freedom slowly and steadily.
How very boring. I can see why the News of the World thinks that a headline of "I made 20 million pounds in one year" is a little more eye-catching than "I made 1 million pounds over 20 years".
Never mind that there's at least a chance that the latter headline would be close to the truth.
I read an interesting piece on Investopedia.com about the ages at which millionaires first of all find their dream job, and secondly actually make that first million. It quoted the billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett as saying "Money is a by-product of something I like to do very much".
The article goes on to say that "Enjoying your work allows you to have the discipline to work hard at it every day. People who interact with money for a living, bankers for example, often love creating new deals and persuading others to complete a transaction. But finding your dream job may take time.
The average millionaire doesn't find it until age 45, and tends to be 54 (on average) before becoming a millionaire. Author Dennis Kimbro (who wrote "Think And Grow Rich") found that millionaires tried an average of 17 ventures before they were successful.
So, if you want to be rich, stop doing things you don't enjoy and do what you love. If you don't know what you love, try a few things and keep trying until you hit on the right thing".
That age of 45 just happens to be close to my age (47) when I discovered Betfair, something which I really do enjoy doing every day, which means that I should be achieving millionaire-dom within two or three more years. I think I may be slightly behind schedule.
Tuesday 30 June 2009
Back To The Drawing Board
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3 comments:
Better to be a little late than never.
"Think and Grow Rich" was a book I read many years ago; I thought it was by a bloke called Napoleon Hill, who wrote it after reading a Dale Carnegie self-help book.
For decades I've been thinking every single day. As yet, it has not worked for me. Well, not in money terms.
It all depends on what being rich means to one. If it's just to have more and more money then you may never be satisfied.
To be a millionaire today is not that big a thing either. The target is now to be a billionaire; a mere millionaire is just getting a toe on the money ladder.
In the great scheme of things it all boils down to nothing anyway.
Be Happy - that's the best target.
Brian - yes, a year or too late, and I won't complain too much.
Philip - money buys freedom. A billion might be a little ambitious, but there's no reason why a million isn't achieveable in life these days, but I agree that money isn't everything. I think health is the top priority in life - without that, everything else is kind of pointless.
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