Who wants to be a millionaire and why?

How many people want to become millionaires? If this question were asked in a seminar, the majority of attendees would raise their hands. Millionaire status has now become the American Dream equivalent of the white picket fence in the U.S. While millionaire status is an admirable goal to strive for, many of us have not really asked ourselves why we truly want to become millionaires.

Sure we all want to be able to pay off our bills and have a little money set aside for emergencies, but getting to that point can easily be achieved with a bit of discipline in your money management. Do you really want to have a million dollars sitting in the bank? Is it the money you want or the lifestyle that comes with the money. Most of us would agree that if we could achieve a similar lifestyle without the exchange of currency, we immediately say yes to the change in lifestyle. If everything we free, would you even want a bunch of green paper with numbers on it?

With that said, we can avoid the dreaded feeling of lack by creating the closest thing to a millionaire lifestyle (in your opinion) as possible. So ask yourself, how would you create your version of the millionair lifestyle?


The first thing you want to do is verbalize your definition of the millionaire lifestyle. As you do, keep in mind that a million dollars ain't what it used to be. Millionaires can not honestly go around spending unlimited amounts of money on frivolities without eventually ending up in an undesirable situation (think lottery winners). How many times have we heard the stories of wealthy celebrities ending up in financial dire straits. The reason for the financial demise is because he or she did not live a realistic lifestyle in accordance with their amount of wealth, even if that person was worth a million dollars.

If you were to become a millionaire, you probably would spend most likely pay off your debt, save for the future, fully enjoy the time you have, give to the less fortunate, take on more leisure activities, and build stronger relationships. Feel free to add to this list according to your desires but I believe that this short list would be a part of everyone's agenda once they came into a ton of money.

So how can you live like a millionaire on your current budget? First of all you should let go of limiting beliefs that keep your mind closed to the possibility of living the life you've always wanted. Start by asking yourself, how can I feel more wealthy right now? One answer to that question would be to take control of your finances. Controlling what you do with your money gives you power over your finances. Watching the money grow from your actions will make you feel wealthier. The first step in creating a millionaire mentality is to start controlling your money, otherwise known as allocating your paycheck. Set up an automatic way of allocating your money properly so you can free up more time to focus on more important actions. When allocating, you should make sure to pay off debt and save for rainy days. Millionaires have money to pay for unexpected circumstances. Once you automate the allocation of your funds, you too will have money to pay for unexpected circumstances.

Another luxuary of the wealthy is the ability to better control your time. Wouldn't you want to have more time to do what you want to do? Well you do, you just aren't taking advantage of the time you have. You probably are saying to me, "I have to work forty hours a week, I don't have time do to what I'd like to do." Well I have news for you my friend, millionaires, on average, work around 70 hours a week. If you worked 70 hours, would you be able to watch the evening television shows you now are able to induldge in?

You should realize that you have been given the same number of hours in each day as someone who is worth millions of dollars. The major differences lie in how each person chooses to make use of the time given. Perhaps you don't want to spend your extra time creating or building a business, that is completely up to you. What you should do instead is figure out is how you want to spend your extra time. Yes that's right, I said extra time. Watching television can be relaxing but if you chose to watch television every single night and weekend, you are not living like a millionaire. Worse yet, you are spending your extra time on non-fulfilling activities. How many people would say that if they had a million dollars, they would spend every evening in front of the television?

If you had lots of money, you probably would involve yourself in more extracirricular activities. You may take up tennis lessons or some other past time. Why not take on your new hobby now? Tennis lessons may be expensive but if you enroll in classes from a community college or a local recreation center, you can experience a millionaire intention with your current cash flow. What else would you do if you were a millionaire? If you were purposeful with your actions, could you be able to experience some of those desires right now?

If you are living paycheck to paycheck and can not afford to spend on anything but your bills? You too can experience a life as a millionaire. To do so, you must effectively incorporate the habit of creative visualization. Yes, I know that visualization may not seem like an acceptable substitute for the real experience, but if used consistently and effectively, visualization will help you obtain the "millionaire lifestyle" in two ways:

1. You can actually see yourself as a wealthy person, and a such, over time you will begin to subconsciously take on the qualities of one who immersed in abundance.

2. You will generate the feelings associated with living in abundance. You will see your time as valuable, your relationships as valuable, and yourself as having great values. One major barrier you now have to living the millionaire lifestyle is not having the feeling of living in abundance. When you see yourself clearly enjoying the millionaire lifestyle, living in abundance will seem like second nature to you.

Stop focusing on the dollar amount you have (or don't have) and begin to pour your attention on the intangible qualities of becoming a millionaire. If you commit to doing so, you no longer will feel helpless because of the amount of money you possess. Instead you will begin to feel overwhelmed because of the amount of wealth in your life.

The right way to shop for quality without going broke

As a self-proclaimed cheap person I often feel a sense of pride when I tell myself, and others, that I refuse to spend over a certain amount on basic items such as shoes, clothes and other necessities. Sales and clearance items always caught my eye. I relished every opportunity to brag on how little I spent on my personal items. The less I paid for an item, the more I believed that I had made a great buying decision. Lately, however, I have begun to undergo a mental shift in how I perceive my buying decisions. I started to cross over to the dark side and spend a bit more money on some of my purchases.


Whenever I do spend a little more for an item that I use frequently, I usually can immediately tell the difference between the quality of the item compared to its less expensive counterpart. After experiencing this scenario on several occasions, I finally had to make the decision to allow myself to purchase "higher end" items with a few ground rules:

Purchase high quality items at lower end retailers
There's no need to overpay for quality items when you can purchase the same quality for half the price. Stores such as Marshall's, Ross, Burlington, and TJ Maxx often have a great selection of name brand items at huge savings. Why pay a few hundred dollars for a high end bag when you can buy the same brand name product for pennies on the dollar elsewhere.

Spend a little more only on high quality items I use on a regular basis
I can not tell you how many times I suffered the consequences of buying a $10.00 pair shoes at a discount store. Because shoes suffer a lot of wear and tear, I found myself on more than one occasion with broken straps and severed heels, while out in public, as a result taking the cheap route with my shoe purchases. By spending a little more on better quality shoes, I avoid additional trips to the store and end up buying fewer pairs of shoes in the long run.

Never pay too much for high quality items
There comes a point where paying more for better quality goes too far. Paying a few dollars more for an item could mean that you are paying for additional quality but paying 200% or 300% more than the median cost for an item is an extreme. When you pay that much more for an item, you go well beyond the point of paying for the additional quality and you go into dangerous territory of paying more for the name on the product. That is not what you want to do. Avoid that situation by creating an expense threshold that you make sure not to cross.

Take better care of your stuff
Before deciding to spend a bit more money on some of my purchases, I wouldn't put much effort into the preservation of the item. Another $10-$20 dollars would not be a big a deal for me to spend to replace my broken or torn product. Now that I spend a little more for some items, I find myself taking better care of my belongs as a wonderful consequence. The more care I put into preserving my belongings, the more money I keep in my pocket by not having to replace that item.

Don't get me wrong, I still browse discount store and clearance racks for sale opportunities of a lifetime. The difference now is that I ask myself if the super-discounted price is worth the possible trouble and headache of having to replace that product in a short period of time. Spending a few dollars more for the quality may be a bit painful in the beginning, but in the overall scheme of things, I feel that I am holding fast to my "cheap" nature by not having to spend more money to buy that same item again in the near future.