An intriguing revelation lies in the fact that a significant portion of the world’s wealthiest individuals have emerged from humble working and middle-class origins, serving as a testament to the potential for upward mobility and financial success within such backgrounds.
Middle-class individuals often wonder if achieving wealth and financial abundance is attainable on their income level. The straightforward response to this inquiry is a resounding yes.
Only in some places where inherited wealth dominated, like some parts of Europe.
.Theodore Johnson died with $70million after a friend told him about investing and he got into it.
Yes, you read that right. $70million. Now sure, when he started investing, 14k-15k a year was worth 50k-75k in today’s money.
Yet it still wasn’t a huge salary. So, how did he manage it? Well, he invested very smartly in long-term investment.
He wanted to make a difference when he died, so he gave his wealth to charity.
He isn’t alone. Another man was a janitor called Ronald Read who accumulated $8million.
Now you might think these are one-offs. However, statistics show that 14% of the world’s millionaires are teachers, and about 65% are sales professionals.
The reason is simple. Income doesn’t always rise exponentially with time. Wealth can.
Warren Buffett was once asked why he was so rich. He said three reasons:
- Being born in America at the time it was, which gave him business opportunities.
- Good genes. So, he has lived a long, healthy life.
- Compounded returns.
He didn’t make his first billion until he was about 55. Now he is worthy $100 billion.
He would have had more if he hadn’t given so much to charities since the mid-2000s when he started to donate to the Gates Foundation.
Same with many of those people above. Plenty of them probably only had 1m at say 60, but the extra time allowed them to accumulate more.
So, leveraging time is one way to get wealthy, although not the only way.
Another way is to leverage tax advantages you might have, for example, if you become an expert.
As a final comment, I will talk about risk, as it is the most misunderstood subject.
Do you assume that you are playing it safe with money in the bank?
You are fooling yourself and here is the reason why
1. If you save money in the bank as you are buying into the sure risk of inflation.
2. If you only rely on your savings for retirement, you are risking everything on the assumption that things will go as planned.
But life doesn’t always go as planned. Some sort of risk is inevitable, it’s everywhere.
It is far better to:
- Put your eggs in numerous baskets and not just the bank or property
- Pick the risks you will take. It gives you more control.
- Take action, rather than setting New Year’s resolutions to save/invest more money or losing weight and forgetting about it!
Take the opportunity to acquaint yourself with the compilation of my written works: A Heaven On Earth, Discover The Fortune, Peak Performance Power Tools, Your Book Of Wisdom and The Winning Secrets.
