On my path to becoming a millionaire, I have been learning a lot about what the concept of being a millionaire means. Honestly, anyone can become a millionaire—there is nothing inherently special about achieving this milestone.
But, yet there is something extraordinary about reaching a million dollars. I define a millionaire as someone having $1 million in an investment portfolio. To be specific, not $1 million in a 401K or TSP, but in a brokerage account.
No, I am not talking about $1 million net worth either. Just because someone bought a home in California twenty years ago doesn’t mean they have achieved this particular milestone. There is a reason I am so hard on retirement accounts and real estate.
Both of these methods can game the system by using time and the power of compounding. Working hard at a job and foregoing spending money for 40 years will make you a 401K millionaire. But what have you learned along the way? What value have you created that you can pass to other generations?
My wife and I are well on our way to becoming millionaires. We have achieved the most challenging part: investing our first $100,000 in our dividend portfolio. We went from standard Americans, living a middle-class life of debt and stress, and turned things around. I wrote about our experiences in “From -$77,000 to +$150,000 in 22 Months, (book)”
As we steamroll our way to $200,000, one quote stands out above the rest. “To have more, you have to become more.” I read that quote somewhere, and doing a google search leads to Jim Rohm as the author.
This quote truly has helped me put things into perspective. I can never return to the person that I once was—the person who was happy to play video games and drink all weekend. It was fun while it lasted, but now my family and mind need me to be more.
When I read “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” Robert Kiyosaki said that only 1% or less of humans would achieve a million dollars. Everybody wants a million dollars, but somehow the average person does not want to do what it takes to reach this milestone.
Right now, it is 2 pm on a Saturday in Japan. I am away from my family, and I am typing this article out because it is what I want. I may not make any money from this, but it is part of “The Practice” that I have directed myself to do. Why would I be drunk and playing video games when I can add value to the world?
But what is it that separates the 1% from the rest of society? Is it discipline, drive, motivation, childhood, or the lust for money that creates this division? Sure, it is all of those things, but overall it comes back to the above quote. Once someone discovers that they have to be more, they decide that it is easier to be less.
This is the typical reaction I get when I tell family and friends that I became a writer. In my first month of writing, I made $3, and in the fifth month, I made $40. To me, $40 is a considerable sum of money because it didn’t come from a boss or job; it came from creativity. Most people will say that they can make the same $40 working for two hours. This is true, but I can make $40 without ever having to work for it ever again. That is the difference between the Well-Rounded Millionaire and the average person, the understanding of passive income.
I am a US Marine, and I like to organize everything into specific groups. The Well-Rounded Millionaire has three mindsets that separate them from every other person. The three mindsets are functional mindset, financial mindset, and family mindset. You will have to conquer these, in this order, to be able to become a Well-Rounded Millionaire. Now let’s break these down and learn why I put them in this particular order.
Functional mindset is your day-to-day operations center consisting of beliefs, routines, morals, goals, and success. You must mold the functional mindset as early as possible by reading books and seeking mentorship through YouTube, programs, and mentors.
What are you trying to achieve with your functional mindset? Think of your functional mindset as an operating system on a computer, i.e., Windows. Windows has everything you need to be successful; you just have to input the proper commands. The same for functional mindset.
Before you can seek wealth and a strong family, you need to have self-discipline routines that you form well before you start building businesses and buying real estate.
Some of these routines are waking up early, making your bed, exercise, reading, critical thinking, leadership, work ethic, etc. The average person does not get past this stage of the Well-Rounded Millionaire journey. They want to live like slobs, be late to work, not stay in shape, and generally not strive to be the best. Are you one of the ordinary people who act this way? If so, stop!
I am going to link to a strange choice of articles, my Military Success 101 series. This series focuses on five different areas of fitness that I used to become an E9 (highest enlisted rank) in the US Marine Corps. I was twenty years in the Corps when we decided to strive for financial freedom and become Well-Rounded Millionaires. The five types of fitness are physical, mental, educational, family, and financial. I believe my success in the military parallels the traits needed in the civilian world.
So, your goal is to turn your brain, routines, and actions into a well-run machine ready to run any program, in this case, becoming rich. So, where do you start? Let’s start with three books about success. Read these because they are not geared towards a specific outcome but overall success. “It’s Rising Time,” “Be Obsessed or Be Average,” and “Limitless.”
If you can read these books, you may be one of the 1%. It may sound like a low bar, but we live in an unhappy society. Your society wants you to remain soft and live a subpar life. If for some odd reason you want to read more from me, try these articles “Become CEO of Yourself (book)” and “JOMO- The Joy Of Missing Out (book).”
Remember, the goal of the first stage is to become a well-run computer. You should have a morning routine, read books daily, exercise, eat a healthy diet, talk to family, look to achieve work-life balance (book), and read positive news articles that will help you build up your life.
This stage may take you 3-6 months to achieve. As you progress, you will start to lose friends—that is part of the game of life. You are a composite of the five people you spend the most time with. Do you want to be like them?
Now that you have done all of these, you are ready to download the app you need to become wealthy, the financial mindset app.
Financial Mindset. I can already hear it, “Josh, Josh, Josh. Why did you put money ahead of the family?” My dad told me a long time ago that love is discipline; discipline is love. This lack of discipline is what I see in today’s American society.
The men are quote, un-quote “being great fathers” by driving their kids to soccer practice, playing games with kids, doing everything their wives want them to do, forming hobbies, and generally just staying in the house all day. I guess that counts as a “good father.”
We don’t understand that this is the lowest bar we can set for a man. This life does nothing for the long-term wealth and health of a relationship (with wife and kids) and family.
The reason that financial mindset is higher than family is that love is discipline. Focusing your attention on obtaining assets is the difficult road in life, the one less traveled. However, in the long run, the family with the most assets is more likely to stay united over the low-income family that played soccer together.
The parents need to learn finance, obtain assets, and share this information with their children. Playing soccer and other such activities is a waste of time. Sorry, but it is true. I was 38 years old when I learned about passive income, dividends, real estate, and royalties. If I had known about those earlier, my life would have taken a different trajectory. So, yes, a financial mindset needs to be higher on the list than a family mindset.
Have you ever heard the saying on the airplane, “In the event of an emergency, put on your gas mask first, then assist others?” How can you assist your kids and family when you are still working 9-5, struggling financially, and stressed out. Becoming rich helps everyone on their journey.
Whew, if you are still here, let’s dig into the financial mindset. Luckily, I have already written extensively on this topic. We need to take a holistic approach to build wealth. No, we can’t just invest in the stock market, crypto, or real estate. We can’t just start one business and leave it at that.
We need to look at our retirement goals, our passive income goals and combine that with our family’s needs. $1 million in our investment portfolio is just the tip of the iceberg. We need to state and write down our total passive income monthly goal. For simplicity’s sake, I will throw out a number like $20,000/month passively.
$20,000/month may sound like a lot, but we will break this down into our different sources of passive income: retirement, investments, crypto, real estate, and business. Initially, you will be stronger in some of these areas than others, but that is okay. You have to learn the others because diversifying your passive income (book) is a must moving forward.
Let’s take me, for example. Let’s say I wanted to split my $20,000/month goal into $4,000/month from each of my asset classes; how would that look?
Retirement. I am lucky that I will have a nice retirement check coming, courtesy of the US military. If I continue to do 30 years (22 down so far), it will be roughly $10,000/month. So I am good on this front.
Investments. My wife and I are working on our dividend portfolio, which is currently at $160,000. This amount pays us roughly $500/month. We will need to achieve $1.5 million to get us to $4,000/month. This goal will probably take us another 6-7 years.
Cryptocurrencies. We just started our crypto portfolio, and it pays us $6/month in interest. So we have a ton of work to do. There are cryptos out there that pay 7-9% interest, so that we will need roughly $600,000 at an 8% yield. Since we don’t want to overload on crypto, it will probably take us 20 years to reach this, maybe 15.
Real Estate. We currently are making $2,500/month in rental income. We would need to buy another couple of homes, add a tiny house, or create a storage unit area to maximize this asset class. We can achieve this in the next few years.
Business. I started my Kindle book business five months ago, and it currently brings in $40/month. My goal is to get this up to $1,000/month, probably over two years. When I return from Japan, Kris and I will build some automated businesses like renting out cars or 18 wheeler trucks (book). We can get to $4,000/month over the next five years.
So, there you have it. Once you take a holistic approach, it isn’t that hard to achieve your goals. Remember, to have more; you need to become more. You will need to understand all of these asset classes, plus taxes and leverage. Lucky for you, I have been writing like a madman and leaving breadcrumbs from my experiences and books I have read. Here are some places to start.
Retirement. I wrote an extensive series of articles on retirement. You can read the series here, and the book “Retirement Planning at Any Age” covers everything as well. If you want to take a look at a specific timeframe here you go: 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s.
Investing. The article “How We Plan to Retire on Dividends” should be enough to get you started; the book “How We Plan to Retire on Dividends” adds in some books to read as well.
CryptoCurrencies. I am still young in the world of crypto, so I don’t have too much content right now. I have the CryptoCurrency 101 series and also the book “Stocks vs. Cryptos.”
Real Estate. I love real estate as we own three properties. The article “Financial Independence through Real Estate” is a great place to start. The book “Financial Independence through Real Estate” adds some books to get you started.
Business. Learning about design, advertising, writing, and creative work has been the highlight of a year away from family. Business is a fantastic asset class. The article “Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business” is a great place to start. The book “Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business” adds some books to get you started.
The world is full of opportunity; you will just need to learn how to see it. Some people see a world of limitations or scarcity; others see a world of abundance. These thoughts are called limiting beliefs. To overcome these limiting beliefs, start by building your functional mindset and adding in your financial mindset.
Together, with the proper habits and routines and the right education, you will find yourself moving forward in life, relationships, and wealth. Take it slow. Set goals that will not cause stress. Maybe you start with a $200/month plan in passive income in the five assets classes. The person you become to reach those goals will be different from the person reading this article today.
Trust me; I transformed and continue to improve my routines daily. I love the person I am today.
Family mindset. There isn’t too much cover in the family. Your family will always come first. However, they are not a reason to make excuses or hide from self-education.
You can accomplish a lot during the magic hours, so get to work on building a passive income stream. If your spouse doesn’t understand your newfound passion for passive income, I recommend reading “Be Obsessed or Be Average” together.
I swore I was going crazy when I started my journey. But this obsession has led us to be rich already. Now we are just continuing the journey at our own pace. We can reach $1 million in two years or twenty years; it is all the same. We have no financial stress, AT ALL, because of the steps we have taken. It feels good to be in control of our finances.
I leave you with one more recommendation for you and your spouse, “Strong Finances, Strong Marriage” (book) is an article I wrote to capture life when you are financially free. You do not know the stress that debt puts on your family until you are out from under it. Another reason that I put finances ahead of family.
The things you used to fight about are no longer an issue. You will be able to take your spouse out on the town, hotels, and trips, all with passive income. It is truly amazing to have lots of money after 15 years of marriage. And we plan to pass this education and assets to our children as well.
Conclusion. This article covers a lot, and it may take a couple of months to unpack everything. The main takeaway is that “To have more, you will need to become more.” Who you are today will not get you to the point of becoming a Well-Rounded Millionaire.
You will need to work on your habits and routines, your financial education and action, and envision your rich life with your family. If you can do these things, you will have it all. Your life will make sense, and you will no longer worry about money and relationships. You will have the ability to assist family and strengthen your journey with your spouse.
If you are serious about your journey, consider adding my website to your favorites and visiting often. I post an article every day about financial mindset, investing, crypto, retirement, real estate, and business.
I also release books that gather up my thoughts in one place for those that want to have easy access to information. Consider adding my page, “Free Kindle Ebook Schedule,” to see what I am offering for free. I provide a different free book every day.
If you found value in this article, please consider hitting the like button, which will help push it out to others. Thank you for your time. Good Luck, Millionaire!
The Biggest Book on Passive Income. 310 Chapters, 1,250 Pages. Everything you need to start your Passive Income Journey. Read more and download the 20-page Table of Contents. View on Amazon.
Financial Mindset: Become CEO of Yourself (book)
Retirement Planning: Retirement Planning at Any Age (book)
Investing: How We Plan to Retire on Dividends (book)
Cryptocurrencies: My First Book on Cryptocurrencies (book)
Real Estate: Financial Independence through Real Estate (book)
Business: Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business (book)
Everything plus way more: The Biggest Book on Passive Income Ever! (book)
Download Passive Income Printables for Your Financial Journey (here)
Read My Books for Free: Free Kindle Books Schedule also on Kindle Unlimited Join me on the best app for Crypto- Voyager
Follow us on our Facebook Page (here)
Join our Facebook group (here)
20 Books that Will Make You Rich (here) part 2 (here)
See all my books on Pinterest (here)
Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
Leave a Reply