Unless you were born a millionaire baby to multi-millionaire parents, there may have come a time in your life when you said to yourself, “I’d like to become a millionaire”.

 

You may have seen millionaires on TV or in magazines, having a great time, playing with their millionaire friends, playing with their millionaire toys or looking happy in their millionaire homes or on millionaire holidays. Seeing these glamorous images, you may have thought to yourself, “I’d like to do that. I’d like to have that. I’d like to be like that.”

 

The dream of having “stuff”, being rich and happy is a common enough dream among common enough people and it is especially common amongst the youth.

 

Depending upon your age, you may have also come to the realisation that you were possibly not going to get to the dream; or at least, you were possibly not going to get there by going the same way that you were already going.

 

Working on the traditional working plan that was common enough for most working people, an average wage earner would earn over a million dollars in their lifetime. This unrealistic plan for accumulating wealth made no allowances for taxes, the cost of food, shelter, fuel or clothing and was not the same as the life that was portrayed on the TV. Obtaining a glamorous millionaire lifestyle by working hard was a plan that was clearly NOT working.

 

There seems to be conflicting advice from different sectors: on the one hand, people may have been telling you that in order to make money you needed to work, and to make more money you needed to work harder. On the other hand, the popular image of the millionaires seemed to feature them always playing or not working very hard at all. How could this be true?

 

The answer could well lay with chickens. Not only do chickens follow the rule of “early to bed and early to rise” (do you know the rest of the proverb?); they also know the riddle of “which comes first”.

 

ABS Census data shows us that the “average” Australian gives away less than 2% of their income, usually in unplanned giving such as doorknock appeals or shopping centre donations. The same data shows us that the millionaire Australians give away almost 6% of their income, often in planned giving.

 

The chicken-lovers among you may now be saying “It’s easier for the millionaires to give away more money, because they have more money to begin with”; whereas the egg-lovers may be asking “Did the millionaires receive more money because they gave away more money?”  (Can you really reap before you sow?)

 

More than 80% of the world’s millionaires and billionaires are “self-made”, that is, they created their own wealth and did not inherit it from family. To discover their secrets, you will have to learn the rules of a new life game: a game that was not taught to you by your hard-working parents.

 

Trying to succeed at the game can be quite hard work, especially if you are playing badminton whilst others are playing tennis. But success does not have to be hard work. You can just learn some new rules and your outcome will be different. One new rule is here, and there are others to follow.

 

Start by copying billionaires such as Gates, Buffett, Winfrey and Branson: planning and regularly giving away 5% of your income. Sowing & reaping takes time; you may not become a millionaire instantly, but, at the very least, you will feel better about yourself and you will definitely be “above the average”.

 

-Jeremy Britton, guest contributor

 

About the author:

Jeremy is an independent wealth coach and business adviser who uses the methods of the very rich as ideas for wealth creation. For more information, click here.

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