Self Talk and Positive Thinking.com

The business philosopher Jim Rohn once wrote, “Becoming a millionaire is not that difficult, but it is not the most important thing. The most important part of becoming a millionaire is the person that you have to become to accumulate a million dollars in the first place.” This is a wonderful insight. In order to become wealthy, you must develop a completely different mindset from the average person who worries about money most of his life. You must develop a completely different character, personality and set of habits if you are to achieve your financial goals, and then hold onto the money once you acquire it.   Once I heard somebody saying, “The first million is extremely difficult to acquire, but the second million is almost inevitable.” When you become the kind of person who can earn and accumulate a million dollars or more, you will also be the kind of person who can earn the second and third million as well. Even if something unfortunate happened, and you lost all your money, you would be able to make it back again fairly quickly because you would have become the kind of person who can become a millionaire. And once you become that kind of person, you never lose it.  Perhaps the most easily identifiable habit of self-made millionaires is the habit of frugality. Wealthy people are careful with every penny and every dollar. They allocate their funds carefully and with great deliberation. They never buy new when they can buy used. They never buy if they can lease, and they never lease if they can rent. They never rent or lease if they can borrow. They know that, as the English saying goes, “If you take care of your pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves.” For example, most self-made millionaires do not buy new cars. They wait until a good quality car is about two years old before they buy it. Even then, they have the car thoroughly checked out by a reputable mechanic. Once they feel confident that it is an excellent buy, in good condition, they buy the car and then they drive it for
five or ten years before replacing it.  Most new cars drop 20% in value as soon as you drive them off the lot.  After two years, many cars have lost 30% – 50% of their value. They are still in excellent condition, and often they are still covered by factory warranties. When you buy a good quality used car, you can save many thousands of dollars, all of which can be saved and invested and allowed to grow at compound interest toward your ultimate goal of financial independence.