11 Self Made Millionaires Share Their Top Tips to Aspiring Millionaires

What does it take to become a millionaire? These personal finance bloggers worth over seven figures share the tips that helped them get there.

Invest in your career. It’s a multi-million dollar asset that will be worth much more if you take the time to grow it.  How do you do that? Read, learn, grow, study what makes others successful in your craft or business and do what they do. The time you invest could easily yield you an EXTRA $1 million or more over the course of your working lifetime.

– ESI from ESI Money

If you want to go for seven figures, there are several things you can do that will help. First, get up early. With the additional time you have in the mornings, exercise, read or otherwise educate your self.  Second, get self employed.  People who are self employed or partially self employed have substantially higher net worths than those who work for wages. Third, start a profitable business. Literature on American millionaires such as Stanley and Danko’s The Millionaire Next Door, show pretty convincingly that small business owners are well represented among those with net worths more than a million dollars.  Third, take risks. Invest in assets that are going to grow your wealth very quickly such as small business start ups, or fast moving stocks.  Fourth, invest consistently. You will need a least a decade or two to accumulate the kind of wealth you need to reach seven figures.

– James from DINKS Finance

If someone wants to grow to be a millionaire, I believe they should first look to find enough in their current life.  Find the parts going well – appreciate them.  By enjoying the ride, you can stop trying to seek happiness by inflating your lifestyle.  At least hold your spending constant, maybe cut the most wasteful bits out.  Keep on enjoying yourself.  And translate this passion to your work life.  Be a better employee wherever you are. If you hate it – find another job.  If you can’t find one offered that you like – then make a job up yourself.  Whatever the path, excel at it.  The raises/bonuses will come, or make them come.  Learn a bit about investing & finances; pay attention to your numbers.  With a locked in expense rate, you’ll blow through a million dollars one day and hardly even understand how it happened.

– Bubba from Southern Fried Finance

Figure out your WHY first.  There are many people who want to become a millionaire, but not a lot of people are willing to do what it takes to actually become one.  So, the most important question you first have to ask yourself is WHY do you want to become a millionaire?  Do you want to find significance through hard work and effort?  Do you want to contribute to a special cause?  Or, maybe you just want to take care of your family and not worry about money as much as you do now.  Remember, be specific as possible so you have no doubt in your mind WHY this is so important to you.  It is this WHY that will give you the emotional juice to get the hard things done and keep you on a path of consistency.  Remember, becoming a millionaire is NOT hard to do, but so is NOT becoming a millionaire.  Figure out your WHY and you will find out that financial freedom is everything you’ve ever dreamed about and more.  Life it short.  WHY not??

– Michael from Financially Alert

Take action, and don’t give up. Lots of people stand on the sidelines their whole lives because they’re too afraid to take action, or because they think they’ll never make it. Don’t defeat yourself by saying you can’t possibly save enough to make it work. Find a way. Start small and make consistent progress. Build up momentum. Eventually the little sacrifices will turn into a decent chunk of money, and then your money will start to make its own money, and before you know it, you’ll be well on your way. And if you hit a roadblock along the way, don’t let that shake your resolve. Every time you fail, ask yourself “What’s Plan B?” Keep taking action. Sometimes failure can be a catalyst for great things.

– Yetisaurus from YETInvesting

It’s not easy to reach 7 digit net worth, but I firmly believe anyone can do it. You just need to invest early and often. It’s not easy to save and invest when you’re young and not making much income, but that’s the most important phase of investing. You will take full advantage of compounding by investing early and letting your investment grow. Investing will also help you control lifestyle inflation. Invest early and these two things will power you to 7 digit net worth in the future. Good luck!

– Joe from Retire By 40

My best advice is to never take on debt that doesn’t earn money for you, meaning avoid consumer debt at all costs. Since the bulk of our net worth is in real estate, I am biased toward that path. When deciding to purchase investment property, be very cautions , but don’t overthink it so much that you miss out on great opportunities. When searching for our first rental property, we missed a great deal because we needed a day to think about it.

– Kim from Eyes on the Dollar

There is no shortage of advice on how to get rich; spend less, earn more, clip coupons and rob banks (just kidding). While all of those things are helpful (that last one may even get you free housing), there are two purchases that if done right, will become the foundation of a solid financial future. These purchases are cars and housing. For some reason, way too many folks think that just because they get a promotion at work, they have to get a better car and a bigger home. I’m here to tell you that the old Honda Civic that got you to the grocery store when you were in college will do the same job just as well when you’re making the big money. That big luxury home also comes with luxury property tax and utility bills. Put the new car and big home on hold for now. Invest the money wisely and with temperance. You’ll be a millionaire that much sooner for it. If you still want the nice car or big home, do it when you have so much money that a Porsche wouldn’t even dent your portfolio. I suspect you won’t want it anymore though.

– Mr. 1500 from 1500 Days To Freedom

I don’t think the goal can just be “to become a millionaire”. It has to be more specific. What does your life look like after that million? Will you stop working? Will you travel? What will your budget be and how does your lifestyle change as a result? With that future outlook vivid in your mind, it will make current decisions about money easier. Every dollar that leaves your pocket delays achievement of your goal. Rethink eating out, your electricity and water consumption, taking the car when you could be bicycling, etc. All aspects of your life can be improved and slimmed down to meet your goal!

– Amanda from Freedom With Bruno

Reaching a million dollar net worth sounds like a daunting task.  In reality, it just takes planning, commitment, and perseverance.  Plan your finances so that you have plenty of money left over at the end of the month.  Do this by making more money or cutting your expenses (you choose).  Consistently invest what you don’t spend.  Make a commitment to yourself that your plan is worth following and will get you to the seven digit net worth end goal.  Persevere over the long haul by shrugging off peer pressure from others to spend your hard earned money while keeping the saving and investing going.  Reaching millionaire status is not a difficult path, but it’s certainly a lengthy one requiring many years of effort.

– Justin from Root of Good

The secret sauce to becoming a millionaire is  1) Get rid of bad debt as fast as you can so have a great foundation to grow on  2) learn to not keep up with the joneses so you build your money pot and deploy it on the right opportunities, 3)learn to build an appetite for clever risk taking through businesses/investments and still be able to sleep at night, 4) learn to work 10% more than the average person and be more productive with your time, every little bit adds up 5) learn to build multiple streams of income and have each tied to a goal/purpose 6) invest in yourself and never stop learning by reading as many books, blogs and training materials to build up your knowledge – knowledge is power 6) start taking action now, most people won’t, but if you do, you will be well on your way to becoming a millionaire.    I just finished writing an article about the habits of self-made billionaires and after studying almost a 100 of them, all of them have these qualities.

– Tracy from Financial Nirvana Mama