Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Top 5 Tips For Becoming A Millionaire
There are a lot of ways to become successful in life. And your definition of personal success might be measured differently than someone else’s. But becoming successful – in life, in business, as a parent — is oftentimes the result of a more formulaic than it is dumb luck. Today, we have Kevin O’Leary’s top 5 tips to achieve success and become a millionaire.
Becoming a millionaire is easy (in theory) and everyone can do it. No, really. You can become a millionaire if you start saving and investing at a young age. It will be more difficult with age, but building wealth is all about using your money to make more money. For most people, becoming wealthy requires not only a sound strategy, but also the willingness to make sacrifices and be patient.
Recently, Shark Tank’s very own Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O’Leary shared his 5 tips for success and how you can set yourself up to become a millionaire on his Instagram.
Kevin O’Leary’s 5 Tips For Becoming A Millionaire
1. Expect saving money to be really hard.
Saving money is hard. No matter what people say or your income level, saving money is not as easy as some people think. But as Kevin O’Leary says, everyone can find ways to save better.
What O’Leary says:
Everyone is wasting money on something. The world wants to take money from you, it’s not easy to commit to saving and investing instead. You have to have the discipline of finding $100 and putting it to work, no matter how hard it is to say no.
2. Have a long-term investment strategy.
For most people, the best long-term strategy to building wealth is s set-it-and-forget-it ETF like VOO, SPY or VTI.
What O’Leary says:
I’ve made some really stupid choices along the way, but one thing I’ve always done is take a portion of my wins and put them aside in long-term investments. If you have no long-term investment strategy, you’re naked in the wind, and you’re in a very bad place when you reach 65.
3. Use history as your guide.
The next time someone tells you that investing in the stock market is risky, point them to the historical average return of the S&P 500. Sure, buying individual stocks can be risky, but holding the 500 biggest companies in America has proven to be a winning strategy.
What O’Leary says:
There are no guarantees in investing, of course, but history is a pretty good guide. If you trust the stock market to do what it’s done historically, which is deliver average annual returns of 6% to 8%, you’ll retire at 65 to 68 with a million and a half bucks in the bank.
4. Understand the difference between speculation and investing.
Day trading is a great way to generate income on a day-to-day basis. But it is not investing. If you want to day trade, keep your kitty at 5% or less of your investable assets. That will allow you to have your speculative fun and still be able to sleep well at night.
What O’Leary says:
Day trading is highly speculative. My style is to put money aside for my whole life and leave it invested. I have no problem with people day trading if they enjoy it, I just want people to understand that it’s not investing.
5. Never feel selfish for investing in yourself.
Whether you’re investing in your education, your mental health, your physical health, real estate crowdfunding, or dividend ETFs, never apologize to anyone for trying to create a better life for yourself. Like we always say… No one is coming to just hand you millions of dollars. No one is coming to save you.
What O’Leary says:
It’s not selfish to think about you. The biggest reason to invest for your own future: No one else is going to do it for you.
Conclusion
At the outset, saving and investing isn’t a lot of fun. You’re young, your income might not be very high, and you’re watching your friends have fun while your money is growing very little. Fast-forward 10 years and you will be amazed at where consistent saving and investing will take you.