evanichka

it is always easier to make money when you have a lot of initial capital

stock market, real estate, small biz, you need a decent amount of initial capital. stock market is no fun with very low initial capital, and you cant really buy anything useful in real estate with small cash.

One easy way to make money is buying a decent land-size lot in a nice neighborhood across or next to nice houses (as they say, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!) and then fixing it up to sell it at a nice profit.

another thing to remember is to keep your credit as clean as possible. one good thing my parents did for me is giving me a credit card when i was in 5th grade, buying real estate under my name, and NEVER paying bills late. Last time I checked, I supposedly had a credit rating only 1 out of 10,000 ppl have. With such a credit, I found out I could get really low rates for loans, which would come in real handy if I wanted to start my own business or buy a house. Credit is a scary thing, I mean a bank willing to loan me couple hundred thousand just based on my credit kinda freaked me out - I'm only 20 yrs old!

luckily for me, my parents are pretty well off. they may not be the richiest ppl in the world, but i know for a fact that my dad is at least a multi-millionaire (although he denies it), and my mom already put my name under two houses valued at combined 3 million. when i asked my mom what i kind of work i should do after i graduate, she said, "why the hell do you want to work?" (talk about killing my motivation to work!)

that brings me to the second topic of this thread.

money does give you power and to some degree, happiness. you can do a lot of things with money, i mean i know these brothers (i think 5 in all) at MIT that all got in just because their dad donated 26 mil to the school. also, having material things does bring me happiness. of course, i try not to buy useless things, but if there is something that will make my life more interesting or efficient, at least i have the power to buy it.

but would i give up what assets i have now to turn back time and prevent my parents from divorcing? yes, i would give up whatever money i have if that was possible. can money buy you true friends, the kind of friends who would sacrifice their lives for you? probably not. what i am saying is cliched, but a cliche is a cliche because it just can't be stressed enough.

love, i am not too sure. depends on your definition of love. if you love money... i guess money does bring you love and happiness lol. as for me, i do not want to attract girls because of my wealth.

however, money does not give you respect. i know my share of billionaires, and one of them claimed, "hell, i could be a mayor if i wanted since i have so much money." thats a pity, because all the political people just laughed at him. i mean, yes, having money does help you get ahead but you do need respect from others to be able to keep that position (and move even higher up).

just make sure you have the personality to attract other people's respect. i probably sound like a kid trying to sound intelligent (hehe perhaps), but i have seen my fair share of deals under the table. Networking is pretty important in life, almost as much as (if not more than) money. Knowing the right people will get you very, very far. Money may buy you some connections, but the real connections will come through other's respect for you.

and to make my post at least a bit credible, i am a MCSE (altho these days, it literally means **** =( ), realtor, manager of a Shell gas station, and a physics/econ major at a pretty good college. i know i do not have the game of life figured out, but i think i grasp a little bit of knowledge on perhaps how to live life easier

just my (long) 2 cents

good luck with whatever you decide to do, and make sure you do enjoy it!

one last thing i wanted to stress is... if you have money, dont be afraid to use it! this billionaire i know wont even buy his poor sister a plane ticket to attend their mother's funeral! that is not just being stingy, that is like commiting a crime. as others have stressed, why make money if you arent going to enjoy it? don't spend money like a rich, spoiled 15yr old school girl, but do not be too cheap either. and it's ok to let go once in a while! you can be more conservative when you get older and save up for your children/grandchildren. as long as i can remember, my mom/dad hardly ever spends money on themselves these days, all the money is spent on me and my sister. My mom drives a 95 bmw or a mid-range jag, and my dad drives a chrysler or a hyundai (oh, the horror!). Yet they bought me a c230 for my first car and a sl500 for christmas, and now, a sl55. So i believe people should enjoy their money as much as they can in their youth if possible. but also make sure that you think of those who are less fortunate than you and donate money to those in need (although personally, i think offering services for free rather than just cold, hard cash or offering them jobs are better)... and not just for tax purposes.

evanichka

and reports say more ppl are millionaires than you think... well at least in hawaii (and looks like metro-boston too and probably any top 15 metropolitan areas), you better be at least a millionaire if you want to live a descent life. I know the average 8,000 sq ft house in a OK neighborhood in hawaii goes for about $700,000. average price for a house in a good neighborhood is around $1.4 mil., with beach front houses in Kahala/Diamond Head going for anywhere from 6-15 mil.

Seeing how gas prices in hawaii are about $1.80 for 87 octane, and cost of living being high, if you arent a millionaire, you are not gonna live comfortably... so i think the term "millionaire" is quite overrated.

i am not too surprised to hear that most millionaires drive a jeep cherokee.

Rowdy Audi

You can become rich in just about everything you do. If you manage your money well and save your money it will pay off in the future. For example: I've been working full time since I was 14, making poor wages at 14, but it helped that I was still living at home. As time passed I made leaned more skills and got payed more money. All I did is save up and buy the best bike money could buy at the time, and saved the rest. At 18 I moved out on my own, couldn't stand the idea of paying someone rent and making them rich, so at 20 I bought myself a house and I pay just a little bit more than what I was paying for rent. So far owning my own home has been a good thing... I guess what I'm trying to say is, save your money (set about 10% of your paycheck aside into an account, or into stock and never touch it for any reason) find a job that you enjoy doing, if you don't like what you're doing you will never be happy and what is the point of life if you're not happy, get a job that has a lot of room to grow. Don't work at McDonalds and hope you can become a manager and make $10.00 a hour. As far as schooling goes, I would suggest taking business and accounting classes as well as taking classes in what you are interested in. But that's just my opinion. Look below at what I drive, it's no AMG, so I could be wrong.

davezaristo

That's hella cheap compare to SF bay area...I am paying $2.40 for 91 and all 3 cars in the house eats that. The shack my parents gave me to live in is worth about $650,000 and it only got 3 bedroom and about 1800 sq ft....But it's cool since mostly me and my gf lives here and my parents go back and forth HK all the time...but they are stuck here for awhile now due to SARS...so no more shaky shaky at nite...ahhahahah

c32god

these are some great posts! do you people (wealthy ones) have businesses that you opened through no experience or do you guys have a degree in the job you hold now? right now i go to college and have no idea what I want to major in, but I do have some good business ideas that I would like to try.

FC Corp

Interesting. You went to Le Rosey as well?

lesterm

Well, here is the way my life is going right now:
I'm going into my second year of undergrad as an economics/philosophy major, and plan to go onto law school and become a corporate lawyer. Law is what I've always wanted to do, and I'm hoping it will make me money. I don't want to pick a career merely for the money; I want to do something that I enjoy.

It is also interesting to find out that many millionaires drive cheap cars. My experience was entirely different. There were a plethora of Manhattan's elite at my HS, and at 3pm, there were usually $500,000 worth of cars parked outside, mostly with chauffers. Well, actually, Heraldo's son went to my school, and Heraldo drove his own Bentley.

At any rate, do what you love doing. If there is one thing I've learned in my short (19 years) of life, it's that money isn't everything. I was fortunate enough to be bestowed with the title of "millionaire" at age 6, but it was because of the death of my father. Would I give it all up just to have grown up with a dad? Of course. I'd gladly live in a crappy apartment in the Bronx rather than a multi-million dollar apartment on the Upper East Side. I would rather go to a school with guards and metal detectors than a $20,000 a year private school. I would rather take the bus than drive a $80,000 Mercedes. Without friends and family, money means nothing.

oh, please forgive the rather poor grammar, i'm running a fever and am on meds at the moment

karl k

First:

You have NO control over the most important things in life! Enjoy the moment, the journey.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery.

Second:

Develop spirituallly.

Third:

Show up, and develop habits of reliability, so that you can be trusted and depended upon.

Fourth:

Whatever you do, be passionate about it.


Fifth:

Save your money while you are young,
so that you can afford the young when you are old.

GCalo

Get your priorities in line and quit making your objective a high priced auto. Education is far more important.

You need a qualified college degree, then a respectable graduate school degree such as law, business, medicine.

Then you need to make your objectives and goals realistic and realize that it will take 20-30 years to build up a good net worth to be able to comfortably afford the cars and the life style that goes with owning those cars. It takes doing without the modern gadgets every young one feels are necessary. it's called sacrafice and goal setting!

Those of us with advanced degrees and years of professional and business experience have sacrificed plenty to get where we are, and we invest money into real estate, businesses, etc. not cars. Cars devalue;real estate and businesses increase in value.

People who make large sums of $ don't waste the $ on buying new cars. Most who buy new cars can't afford them anyway, and then smart people buy them from those who thought they could!

At 18, your goals should be education and learning about life. make sure they are.

[180]

It seems that a lot of people in this thread are recommending a high-level education, then going onto a well-paying job.

In Robert Kiyosaki's book, he explains there are three types of income: Earned, Passive, and Portfolio.
According to this book, earned income is the worst because it has the highest taxation rate.
Passive and portfolio income can be re-invested, and therefore avoid the high levels of tax.
This can explain why the rich don't work for money - instead they get their money to work for them.

So... what I've come to conclude is that while it's possible to make a decent living from working, if we want more luxury goods - such as a nice house, boat, cars, etc.... we will have to use a different approach.

Although I know the theories and concepts, I don't know how to apply them...

suntubi

Most seemed to have missed the point, the truly wealthy are driven to where they go!

Most don't even know if they own an automobile.

Really want to be wealthy? Do what you like, live in the day and enjoy what you have achieved.

brembo

My question is...

If given the job opportunity, which one will you take?

Income of $100,000 a month but you live a misearable life

or

Income of $1,000 a month but you live a very happy life


Brembo