Down to my last dollar!

MSN have a little feature today called 12 steps to become a millionaire.

There are a couple of good tips, though it eventually drills to down savings and investments linked to various third parties.

Do take note of the earlier steps, before it goes ‘commercial’. 

Here’s a tip that I find useful: It often helps to approach a challenge from a different, less obvious, direction.

Many successful entrepreneurs have used similar methods as a way to ‘bluesky’ their way to a fortune. Do you remember Alex Tew, founder of the Milliondollarhomepage? Who would have though that the answer to making a million was staring out from the pixels on his PC screen?

When considering how to turn one’s last dollar into something more substantial, remember the telescope effect. What do I mean by that? Well, when we look through the small end of a telescope, we see an object in the distance, enlarged. However, when we turn the telescope round and look through the wide end, objects appear very small. Looking at our last dollar and trying to fathom how to turn it into, say, a million, the problem seems almost too big. So turn the problem around: Pretend you have already achieved your goal, in this case that you already have a million dollars. Don’t you feel a long way from that lonely dollar?

The next step, of course, is to look back on how you made that million from a dollar. An hour spent on the internet will show you that the rich made their first million in many different ways. How did you make yours? Coming up with the ‘big idea’ is the subject of another post.

For the time being, the message is that it can be more productive to imagine yourself at the destination, looking back, rather than at the start of the journey, looking forward.

I love this kind of story. CNBC’s stock-picking contest comes with a million-dollar prize. The likely winner is a 46-year old waitress from Ohio who never picked a stock in her life. I could do it! You could do it!

I found this article on the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper website. It’s obviously UK-centred, but still has plenty of ideas to increase your disposable income, if not actually increase your income!

Million Pound Property Experiment was a television series in 2003-2004 which aired on BBC Two in the United Kingdom. Starting with a loan from the BBC of 100000 pounds, designers Colin McAllister and Justin Ryan bought, renovated and re-sold properties for a profit, with the ultimate goal being a sale of a property for £1 Million.

After a fraught journey of two and a half years and eight properties the boys finally made it, with a net profit of 290000 pounds.

It looks fairly easy to do when neatly split into eight 30 minute TV episodes, but I’m sure there’s a lot more to it.

A tempting idea though! Could it work in ‘real life’? Just need that bank loan…

Warren Buffet aka ‘The Sage of Omaha’ counts his wealth in billions. He was probably down to his last dollar in around 1930 (when he was aged 11). However, his advice on successful investment applies whether you have a dollar or a billion dollars.

According to this fascinating article, he attributes his success to reading one book, ‘The Intelligent Investor’, by Benjamin Graham. To get a free summary, read the article, to get the full lesson, you’ll need to get your hands on the book.

No, this isn’t another tale of corporate greed, we’re talking about real food (and real profits). According to this article in the UK Daily Telegraph, baking is booming. So here’s my thought: at a pinch you can purchase cake ingredients for less than a dollar. Bake a cake (or persuade a family member or friend to help you!). Your next stop is ebay. There you can sell your creation for upwards of 5/10 dollars (if you don’t believe me, check this out). Be sure to put your profit back into more ingredients and that dollar really begins to grow.

And chef, be sure to let me know how you get on!

Thanks to the thoughtful person who recently sent me a copy of a new book called ‘The Power of Nice’ by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval of The Kaplan Thaler Group. It’s subtitled ‘How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness’, but the many hints and tips it gives are applicable to all of us in our everyday lives. You might think that being nice is a fairly obvious way of doing well in life, but believe me, plenty of us could benefit from the lessons in this short book! I’m a firm believer that cynicism kills (dreams, ideas, people, you name it) and ‘The Power of Nice’ certainly affirms my belief. N.B. The Kaplan Thaler Group is ranked as one of the fastest-growing advertising agencies in the United States, with over a billion dollars in billings - so they are definitely worth listening to!

Being down to your last dollar means different things to different people. You might adjust your family budget when you check this and find out what being down to your last dollar means in some parts of the world. For instance, you’ll be amazed by what $350 means to a family of four in rural Bangladesh.

This great little book can be read in one session and the lessons learnt can be applied immediately. Though it is aimed at teenagers it will be of benefit to financial beginners of all ages. I just finished it over the weekend, but I am already applying the principles!

Compound interest, the ‘rule of 72′ and so on are well known to all millionaires (though not to me until recently). This book explains how to make a small amount of money become an unbelievable amount of money in language every layman can understand.

If you don’t have the $2000 the title suggests, then there is a whole chapter devoted to how to create that amount with minimal effort in a short amount of time.

When you’ve read ‘Making a million with only $2000′, let me know what you thought.

Oh, and the author’s website is here.