Saturday, May 21, 2011

Wants to Become A Millionaire?

I've read yesterday's article from Yahoo Finance 5 Easy Steps to Become a Millionaire and started thinking: Is that really easy? If becoming a millionaire is so easy then how come that majority of the world's population belongs to the negative zone (expense is bigger than income). And I must accept that I still belong in this category.

Erin Joyce mentioned in his article the last and the most intriguing part for me: Don't Live the Millionaire Lifestyle. He narrated that "Warren Buffett's frugal lifestyle (especially relative to his net worth) is the go-to example for this point. The average value of the surveyed millionaires' homes was $320,000. The bottom line is, those who spend their money on non-appreciating assets cannot put that same money in an asset that will net them a return and increase their wealth. If it is important to you to build your financial worth, stop spending it on new cars, toys and clothes. (The Oracle of Omaha has a net worth in the billions, but his lifestyle is not as rich as you may think.)"


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I must agree with Erin Joyce. Most Filipinos I know who belong to Middle Class lives like they are millionaire. You can categorize them by the cars they drive and by the signature shirts they wear. Unfortunately, they are not. If you will know them personally, their credit cards are overly used and over-swiped. On one hand, I can't blame them for behaving that way. Our culture somehow favors those who are visibly "rich". If you wear ordinary clothes, then you are "poor". If you commutes, then you are "poor". If you don't possess a flashy, top-of-the line cellphone then you are "poor". On the other hand, I want to blame the culture itself. It's hard to live simple in this kind of culture and poor-mindset environment, unless you wouldn't care what other people might say about you.

I'd rather be a millionaire who looks "poor" than becoming "really poor" because I'm living the millionaire's lifestyle.

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