A Simple Way to Become Wealthy
June 18th, 2010 | Published in Finance & Investment
A story of a junior enlisted member of the United States Air Force becomes a millionaire over the long run trough investing. Read the story…
My first real job was as a junior enlisted member of the United States Air Force. I had great benefits, but as a low ranking enlisted member my take home pay wasn’t worth bragging about. I was earning a comfortable living for a 19-year-old,, but I didn’t think I had enough money to invest. It turns out, I was wrong.
A talk with one of my mentors, a senior enlisted member in my squadron, made me rethink the way I viewed investing. During one of our conversations, I brought up the topic of investing and mentioned I would like to start in a couple of years when I had more money. He listened to me give several excuses why I couldn’t invest, and then he said something that changed the way I think and act about investing.
He told me saving and investing wasn’t hard, you just have to treat it like a bill. He said, “When your paycheck comes in each month, you pay your bills, right?” I nodded. “So treat investing like a bill. If you want to max out your Roth IRA, divide the maximum contribution by 12 and send that amount to your investment account each month. If you want to make it easier, then go to the finance office and set up an automatic allotment from your paycheck, and you’ll never think about it again.”
It turns out, he was right. It’s not that I didn’t have enough money to invest. I just wasn’t prioritizing how I used my money. Treating investing like a bill forced me to make investing part of my budget. I followed his advice and set up an automatic withdrawal from my paycheck, and I began investing in a Roth IRA. I maxed out my IRA contributions in each of the eleven years following our conversation. That 15 minute conversation literally changed my life and might just make me a millionaire by the time it’s all said and done. Read the full story
