Yes, opportunity is knocking for American investors. Less than two weeks ago Spectrem Group of Chicago released its latest annual report of American millionaires. About 200,000 new millionaires were added last year, for a new total of 8.6 million.
True, that’s less than the 9.5 million at the 2006 peak, but it’s still great news along with the Dow industrial’s 994 point first-quarter rally of 8.1% first quarter ending last Friday, two clearly positive signs of a recovery.
In short, you can still become a millionaire. Here’s the secret: It’s all in your head, your attitude, your state of mind. If you want to retire a millionaire, you can. Here’s how: You control your mind.
A few decades in business, and years writing about behavioral economics and psychology have convinced me of this one simple truth: Becoming a millionaire really is all in your head. It has little to do with wealth-building techniques, tools and rules.
In fact, you could forget all the usual stuff: asset allocation, stock picking, savings plans, budgeting and so on. I know, that’s what the experts tell you to focus on. But if you’re not in the right state of mind, none of that matters.
Seriously, I’ve read the books: “The Millionaire Mind,” “Instant Millionaire,” “Automatic Millionaire,” “Millionaire Next Door,” “One-Minute Millionaire” and many more. Even wrote a couple, “The Millionaire Code” and “The Millionaire Meditation” and worked on Wall Street as an investment banker with Morgan Stanley.
But I keep coming back to this one simple fact: Becoming a millionaire really is all in your head. Period. No excuses. You decide to become a millionaire and it will happen — in a bear market, a bad economy or riding a bull.
So here are the 10 best tips I picked up over the decades, tips that’ll help you become one of...