How to become rich from nothing

How do you become rich from nothing?

In order to become rich from nothing, you must commit to becoming wealthy. Building wealth requires a plan which includes budgeting, growing your income, and investing. Becoming rich requires you to stay focused on your goals and continue to evolve as a person.

Imagine, being the first person in your family to save $1,000,000. Just because your family didn’t have money doesn’t mean that you don’t have to have money.

Anyone can build wealth if they put their mind to it.

Luckily for you, I’m going to show you how to become rich from nothing. Follow these basic steps to stop wasting money and use money as a tool to increase your net worth. Building wealth takes time, so don’t expect overnight success.

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How to become rich from nothing

In order to become rich from nothing, you must focus on increasing the gap between your income and expenses. You must use your savings to invest and take advantage of compounding interest. The more money you invest, the quicker you will build wealth.

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Commit to becoming wealthy

The first step to becoming rich is to commit to becoming wealthy. Most people say they want to become rich, but few want to take the necessary actions. Ask yourself if you want to become wealthy or do you just think you want to become wealthy?

Building wealth is no joke. You can’t just wish your way into building wealth. Instead, you need to make significant changes to your lifestyle in order to make more money.

Everyday, you are going to have to wake up and see how you can make more money. You are going to have to focus on your finances. Simply put, you are going to have to live a life of continual improvement in order to become rich. 

Remember, building wealth doesn’t happen overnight. Instead, building wealth happens when you take consistent action over a long period of time.

Budget your existing income

One of the reasons most people don’t build wealth is because they aren’t tracking their current expenses. You need to know how much money you are making and how that compares to how much you are spending. At the end of the day, building wealth is about investing more money than you are spending.

Most people who remain poor are not tracking their expenses. Do you know how much money you make every month and how much you spend?

A lot of people are surprised to hear that they spend $2,000 per month more than they are making. When you don’t Track your spending, it is easy to overspend.

Honestly, I can see why it is so easy to spend more than you make. Everyone has to pay rent, for utilities, gas for their cars, and daily living expenses that really add up. Life is expensive and  the cost of living can easily eat up anyone’s paycheck.

Even just the act of having a little bit of fun on the weekends can throw you over budget. Tracking your expenses is how you can help yourself identify how much fun you can have. You can’t go through life without knowing how much you are spending and making.

Plan your path to wealth

You need a plan in order to build wealth. How are you going to get from nothing in your bank to saving $1,000,000

Realistically, making money is about numbers and nothing else. You make ‘x’ amount of dollars and spend ‘y’ amount of dollars. The difference between X and Y is your savings which can be invested for Z% return on investment.

Those are the only variables when it comes to building wealth. You can make more money, or spend less, or get a better return on investment. 

Most people start out by reducing their spending. However, you can only reduce your spending by so much. After all, you still need to be able to live.

Most people have very little control over the rate of return they get on investments. So what matters most is that you are investing in something like exchange-traded funds. Once you learn more about building wealth, you can start to learn more about rates of return.

However, most of us have more control over how much we make. We can start a side business or switch jobs to a higher paying career. It may not feel like it, but making more money is the easiest way to build wealth.

You can use investment calculators to create your plan for your financial goals. Use these calculators to figure out if you need to save more money or make any changes.

Live like you are broke

The minute most people get a paycheck, is the minute they start increasing their lifestyle. People start to feel entitled to the money they are making and spend it on stuff they don’t need. Lifestyle inflation is one of the most dangerous things you can do if you want to become wealthy.

Simply put, the less money you are spending, the easier it is for you to invest. Assuming two people make the same salary, the person living on $30k per year does better than the one living on $50k.

Increase your income at work

Remember, you can only decrease your expenses so much. At some point, you will need to focus on increasing your income to build more wealth. The best starting point is to see about increasing your income at work.

You can see about getting a raise or finding a different company that pays higher. I am a huge fan of constantly shopping around for different work. You want to work for the company which has the most competitive salaries.

Changing jobs is the simplest way to make more money. I once knew someone you got a 50% pay increase by finding a new job. They were significantly underpaid in their current role and did a little job shopping.

Don’t be scared about leaving your company. Your job wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of you if they started to struggle financially. You need to look out for you and your family.

Add a second stream of income

You should also try to build multiple streams of income. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen layoffs happen at my company. Most of the employees only have their job as their primary source of income.

So what happens when you get laid off? You lose your entire source of income. However, what if you had a second source of income that you could then live off of?

Most wealthy individuals have multiple streams of income. They use these multiple streams of income to continue to invest and build more wealth.

These multiple streams of income also provide the benefit of job security. You could get laid off tomorrow and still have some income coming in. 

Invest consistently

The best way you can build wealth is to invest your money. When you invest your money, your money begins to make you money through compound interest. Eventually, your money will start to make more money than you are making at your job.

Investing is hard for most people to start because they don’t see immediate results. A 10% return on investment of $1,000 is only $100. However, a 10% return on investment of $100,000 is $10,000. 

Now imagine having $1,000,000 invested. A 10% return on investment would make you $100,000. The problem is that it takes a long time to start seeing good results.

It might take you seven years to reach your first $100,000. However, each of the $100k increments afterwards tend to go faster than the last. Therefore, it might take you five years to get to $200k and three years to reach $300k.

Continually learn

Wealthy people understand the need for continued education. Money making opportunities are all around but you need to have knowledge to take advantage of them. Therefore, you need to have an interest in learning about money making opportunities.

You might watch YouTube videos on real estate investing. You might throw $100 into a trading account and practice swing trading. When was the last time you visited a library and checked out a book?

There are plenty of ways to learn about money making for free. The internet is a powerful tool and everything you need is online.

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Summary: How to become rich from nothing?

As you can see, becoming rich from nothing is a matter of investing your money. In order to invest money, you need to know how much money you make versus how much you spend. Most people track their income and expenses through budgeting.

Your goal should be to increase the gap between income and expenses. Take your savings and find a way to invest it to make even more money. To find the best money making opportunities, you need to have knowledge about building wealth.

John is the founder of TightFist Finance and an expert in the field of personal finance. John has studied personal finance for over 10 years and has used his knowledge to pay down debt, grow his investment portfolio, and launch a financial based business. He is committed to sharing content related to personal finance based on his experience in his career, investing, and path towards reaching financial independence.