Howdy friends and neighbors. Look out!!!! High School seniors are being turned loose! It’s graduation season around here. Tassels, gowns, ties, and flip-flops are in style. These ot niner’s are planning to take over the world. Well, I’m about ready to just give it to them!
All the ot eight’s are looking around and saying, “Big deal,” as the o’ tens are just saying, “Get out of the way!” No different than when I was a graduating senior. I wish the newly freed high school grads all the best of luck.
The rest of us just look at them and say, “Oh, if we had it to do over again, but with the knowledge I have now!”
If I had a chance to talk to some graduating senior I would simply pass on this little bit of information that I’m not sure is taught in any class. Seniors, or anyone else that cares to read, if you have dreams of becoming wealthy and successful someday, you should study wealthy and successful people! You should do what wealthy and successful people do!
What’s my definition of a wealthy and successful person? That’s a fair question. In my pea brain mind a wealthy person is not someone with a large estate and huge bank account. They’re not the ones you see on T.V. living what Hollywood considers wealthy and successful; because if you watch that same channel and hour or two later, you’ll see the, “has-been Hollywood and sports elites” going into or coming out jail, rehab, or court. I consider wealthy and successful people the ones that live just down the road a bit that have been married for 50 plus years, absolutely love what they are doing and have been doing all there lives, have many loving friends, neighbors, and/or family, stay active in community groups or projects, belong to a loving church, and by the way, when they have all the above, they usually have plenty of money to maintain their lifestyle and to give like congress only wishes they could give.
Now, you may think I have flipped my lid, but according to the book, The Millionaire Next Door by Tom Stanley, PhD and William Danko, PhD, I have just described ninety-four percent of the first generation millionaires in America today! These people are labeled millionaires due to the fact that they have a net worth of at least one million dollars.
Danko and Stanley studied millionaires and the people I descried above were and are the common threads of millionaires. Next, the most common theme was they had no debt and constantly saved a portion of their income. No magic get rich quick or sophisticated investment schemes. They persistently saved and lived within their means. Other commonalities included that they bought only used cars and lived in modest houses – not exactly what you had in mind when you thought of a millionaire, is it?
The last common theme among wealthy and successful people was that they all loved what they did for income. In other words, they loved their job and most of them never consider retiring. They also never consider what they did to be work. They just simply did what they loved to do and figured out a way to make money at it.
The last common thread of first generation rich millionaires is that once they reach a certain point in life, spiritually and financially, they try to give as much of their success away as possible and all of them say it is the most enjoyable thing to do with wealth.
Seniors, simply go at life with enthusiasm and find what you love to do. The money will then find you.
I’m Monte Tucker “PhD,” and that is what’s under my tassel. (PhD = Piled Higher and Deeper with a minor in Post Hole Digging.)
