Millionaires' Top Money Secrets

It’s common knowledge that millionaires handle their money differently than many, but what’s their secret? Does education have anything to do with it? Some say that you have to work hard, and others suggest saving every penny. But, which one is right for you?

In this article, I interviewed these millionaires and asked them a very basic question: “As a millionaire, what is your number one money secret that could help others on their way to financial independence?”. And, to my surprise, the answers were all different! Here are money secrets from millionaires. Let’s dig in and find out what they know!

Top Money Secrets As Revealed by These Millionaires

Focus on What You Do Best

A lot of people want to be good at everything. Marc Andre from Vital Dollar says a better and more profitable approach is to focus on what you do best and continue to improve your strongest skills. Being extremely good at one thing is likely to help you generate a lot more income than being pretty good at a lot of different things. Your weak areas really don’t matter all that much if you have transcendent skills in a particular area.

Think about a highly talented coder, a world-class athlete, a skilled musician, or a great salesperson. Their best skill is what matters and what makes them so valuable. It doesn’t matter if that’s the only talent they have.

Some skills are more valuable than others, so it also pays to do some research. If you’re not sure if a particular skill is worth honing, check to see what experts in the field are able to make.

Invest Where You Spend

Dr Jeremy Britton DFA SAFin DD, and CFO, BostonTrading.co says his money secret is “invest where you spend”. It’s a phrase he coined back in the early 2000s and featured heavily in his 2006 book, “Who’s Taking Your Money? (and how to get some of it back!)”. Britton didn’t realize it was such a revolutionary concept until thousands of readers told him so.

Dr Britton adds, “I used the same telco for years with my mobile and office phones and had stock in them. When their service turned sour, I switched providers and switched to owning stock in the new company. The former company continued with bad service, their stock went down, and stock in the new company soared.”

#InvestWhereYouSpend saved both Britton and his clients from losing money in the 1999 ‘tech wreck’ as the majority of the new and hyperinflated companies were not making profits. They prospered by investing in companies that had regular cash flow: suppliers of food, fuel, phone services, power, etc.

If you trust the bank with your savings, buy their stock. If you trust the energy company, grocery store, etc, buy their stock. Britton adds, “Remember to sell the stock when you’re no longer financially supporting them. When COVID-19 hit, nobody was spending money on rental cars or airfares (sell Hertz and airline stock). Everyone was working from home (buy Zoom, Microsoft, and home office suppliers).”

Get Yourself Financially Fit

Think of getting out of debt and into FINANCIAL FREEDOM like deciding to FINALLY GET IN SHAPE.

REDUCE EXCESS spending
TONE-UP your credit score
CONSUME healthy habits
and then stay STRONG – by INVESTING

“Think of this project like you’re BUILDING the MUSCLE of your FINANCIAL LIFE. And, by the way, another great benefit of being physically and financially fit leads to stress reduction,” says Cary Singleton, founder of MillionStories.com’s bite-sized entertainment and tools to start your financial fitness plan.

Just like you’re the CEO of your physical body, you’re the CEO of your financial life. Don’t be afraid to ask for COACHING. And perhaps you’ll want to pay a trainer who is a Certified Financial Planner. You can even build a team of friends and family members who motivate each other by breaking the taboo about talking about money.

Invest the Raises

Want to become a millionaire sooner than later? Michael Quan, Author of The F.I.R.E. Planner explains how he saved upwards of 70% of his income and didn’t feel like he was sacrificing his livelihood. First, Quan focused on saving and investing as early as he could. Quan started out investing just $20 per month into a brokerage account. And, this was an important first step to begin the momentum of saving and investing.

“The power of compound interest is real! Use it to your advantage.”

Michael Quan

Next, here’s the secret of how Quan accelerated his savings rate. “I anticipated my future raises before I earned them. Then every time I had a salary increase or bonus, I would take a portion of it (15%) and spend it on something nice to reward myself. The remaining 85% I would put away into savings and investments like ETFs. I made it easy for myself by automating the savings with free banking tools. And, I set up my investment contributions to be auto-deducted each pay period into my 401K,” adds Quan.

Build Wealth through Side Hustles

Clarlie Chang - a millionaire offering his money secrets

Charlie Chang, a real estate broker & YouTuber with over 350,000 subscribers suggests that for anyone who wants to build wealth is to start doing side hustles. “People that want to take advantage of the tax code and be able to stop trading time for money, it’s essential to start making 1099 income” adds Chang.

Indeed, 1099 income is treated differently than W2 income by the IRS. After college, Chang started doing things like tutoring, photography, videography, and modeling. While he doesn’t do those things today, they gave him valuable skills and contributed to his success in his current businesses.

“The way I look at it is, trading time for money results in a cap in a person’s income, and if you want to start scaling to 7 figures and beyond, there are very few W2 jobs that pay $500/hour or more”, says Chang. Start doing side hustles, those will lead to real businesses that are scalable, and that is when big wealth can be achieved. Last, Chang reminds me that he always tells people to not be scared to fail! Indeed, he has started dozens of businesses and almost all of them have failed or fizzled out. Just start, don’t overanalyze, and good things will come from it.

Make Money Work for You

“Don’t work for money, let money work for you, the biggest secret of them all,” says Harvey Raybould, owner of Freedom Via Property. The earlier in life folks adopt this principle, the quicker they will become a millionaire. When we trade our time for money, our earning potential will always be limited to the physical number of hours we can work in a day. “All millionaires and billionaires leverage other people’s time and build their own assets to give them limitless hours of earning capacity. They make money even when they’re sleeping.”

Rayboulds’ three keys to becoming a millionaire are to build cash flowing assets, build a great team around you and build multiple streams of income. During his own journey to becoming a millionaire, Raybould had to make many sacrifices and went through hard times. “I remember when friends of mine were out partying or going on amazing holidays and I couldn’t go because I didn’t have any money,” adds Raybould.

But gradually during his 20’s, things started to turn around. Rayboulds’ business started to make money, he bought his first property and became more financially literate. He stopped buying things he didn’t need, especially on credit and store cards and started saving and investing all his spare cash.

Fast forward to today, Raybould now has a multi-million-dollar property portfolio that is looked after by his team. “I recently sold a business for hundreds of thousands of dollars. I have angel invested in nearly 30 companies, I have stocks and shares in pension funds and a cryptocurrency portfolio. Plus blogs I am building an income stream from and a real estate development business” says Raybould. So, there’s something to be said about having multiple sources of income.

Marry Smart

“One of the biggest drivers to building wealth for me was to marry smart”, says Jon Dulin, Founder of Side Hustling Money. Dulin wanted to be with someone who shared many of the same values as himself, both financially and non-financially.

Financially, Dulin has always been a saver and investor and needed a spouse who not only was a saver but also had similar goals to himself. This included retiring early and living life on their own terms. “By having a partner on the same journey with you, you not only get enjoy everything more, but you get there faster too in many cases”, adds Dulin.

This isn’t to say they agree on every aspect of money and don’t get into disagreements about spending money. They do. It’s part of life. But the key is they agree on the bigger picture, the long-term goals. “If we didn’t there would be a lot of arguing and unhappiness”, says Dulin. And this type of arguing can potentially turn into a divorce, which means you lose a good portion of what you both worked so hard for.

Of course, divorce can happen at any time and for many reasons. But finding someone on the same page as me when it came to the bigger things in life, has made my life that much better. And being happy helps Dulin to be motivated to reach his goals.

Diversification Is King

Income diversification may sound like very old advice but, according to Ryan Scribner, “Diversifying my income helped me climb the top of the ladder faster and maintain that status.”

Scribner decided to build an online business in 2016. His first venture was a Youtube channel which now provides him a $30,000 monthly revenue. It was not an easy journey though. Like most business owners, they have their own share of struggles, but it can be worth it.

“As soon as I earned thousands of dollars from my Youtube channel, I began to look for other baskets to put my eggs in,” adds Scribner. His next venture was a blog called “Investing Simple” which he built together with a business partner in 2018. “With the Youtube channel and blog earnings combined, they’re bringing in $40,000 – $50,000 revenue in total!” says Scribner.

But Scribner didn’t stop there. He looks for other platforms to diversify his income. He’s invested in real estate, bitcoin, blue chip stocks and bonds and other trading platforms.

Stay Focused

The biggest secret Steve Oliverez has learned is to stay focused on the big picture and things that are really going to move the needle. “I’ve seen a lot of advice about cutting out spending on things like $5 coffee from Starbucks. Sure, overspending can get you into trouble, but that coffee isn’t preventing you from being wealthy. I’ve watched someone spend four hours just to save $10 on an oil change.” says Oliverez.

Instead of focusing on ways to save a dollar here and there, Oliverez refocused his energy where it would have the greatest impact. He spent time every week working on his resume and researching job opportunities. Then, he put together all the reasons he should get a raise and asked for one, and ended up doubling his salary! When it came time to buy a house, he researched and negotiated until he got a great deal and the best interest rate he could get on the mortgage. “In the meantime, I started a side hustle that eventually let me leave my day job entirely. The net result was more money than I ever could have possibly cut from my budget,” adds Oliverez.

By focusing on the big picture items, Oliverez never had to give up the small luxuries like an evening out with friends or the occasional caramel macchiato.

Continue reading on The Financially Independent Millennial: These 25 Millionaires Share Their Top Money Secrets