Making Yourself Rich

Rich; adj. possessing great wealth , abundance. Who's rich?

There are 3,800,000 households in the United States that have a net worth over $1,000,000. Most people decide that someone is rich based on outward appearances, fancy cars, big boats, large houses, estates, ranches, airplanes and tropical locations. If your goal is to have the trappings of the rich and famous, all you will need is a large monthly cash flow. Decide what you think rich is and that can be your long term goal.

How do you know if you are rich? Because a persons definition of what constitutes a lot of money is relative to how much money they have, I present to you a different, more individual answer to the question of what rich is.

A definition of "Rich" : You are rich, when you have enough cash flow coming in each month to handle all your obligations with enough left over to do those things you truly wish to do without much consideration as to the cost of doing those things that you truly wish to do.

I decided on this definition when I turned 30 and found that I was not a millionaire yet. I realized acquiring a million dollars was not a realistic goal and that it would keep me feeling depressed and feeling like a failure if I simply gave myself more years to reach a numeric dollar amount.

I was reminded of this definition again when one of my daughters came home from school and asked me, "Daddy are we rich?" In explaining to her why the kids at school thought she (we) were rich, I refined the definition that I present here for your consideration.

My answer to my daughter's question was, "Daughter, you grew up with a lot of things that you consider normal, such as having your own TV, VCR, phone, your car, checking account, and credit cards. As well as birthday parties, pool parties, summer trips, all the school activities, new clothes, going out to eat and movies most weekends, your job at one of our businesses etc. A lot of what you consider normal, daily activities a lot of kids see as luxuries. You have these things because your parents work hard and choose to provide them. Your responsibility is to be thankful for what you have, make the best of your life and never treat others as if you are better then they are. Family, friends, and your health, are the most important things, everything else can be replaced."

People considered us rich because our monthly cash flow provides the trappings that encourages people to consider us rich. If you had a million dollars in a bank C-D you might get $50,000 a year in interest. I would rather have a million dollars worth of real estate making me $50k a year. Why? Because I can borrow the million dollars to control the real estate, I don't have to have it. If you work on getting the monthly cash flow, getting rich will take care of itself.