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After studying billionaires, going to seminars, and reading countless books on the subject of building wealth I have found that one skill the millionaires/billionaires have in common is they all PAY THEMSELVES FIRST.

No matter, how little their paycheck or how large they always pay themselves first. It doesn’t matter if rent is due, or if expenses are to be paid. None of that matters. First thing you do is pay yourself!

If your serious about building wealth then you should begin paying yourself first as this will allow you to start growing your wealth.

So this is what the wealthy do, and it is exactly what I do and therefore I recommend you start doing the same. From now on, whenever you receive a paycheck right off the bat take 10% of it and put it away. NO MATTER HOW SMALL THE PAYCHECK IS.

For example, lets say your paycheck is $320 a week. You would pay yourself 10 percent of that so you would pay yourself $32.

Thirty-two dollars may not seem like a whole lot, however after you do this with every paycheck the balance will continue to grow.

The second step the rich take after they pay themselves is they treat the money as their slaves. They invest it into something that has a high ROI (Return On Investment) and then with the money they make from that investment they treat that money as the kids of the slaves and reinvest that. It’s a cycle that keeps going around and builds your wealth.

The beauty of this is money works for you and you don’t have to work for money.

I would say this is one of the biggest secrets of success the wealthy have. The normal person who wants to build wealth would just say something along the lines of “Oh I need to work harder and longer.” Well the longer you work the more money the government is going to take from you in the form of taxes. Follow the statement above and you will continue being in the rat race.

However paying yourself first allows you to have money work for you. Treat your money that you saved up as slaves or employees which work for you. Instead of you being a slave to money, make money
a slave to you.

I started doing this when I was 17. I worked at McDonald’s and would make about $200 a week. Next I would pay myself 10% of it which is $20. After doing that with every paycheck I would receive I would then invest wisely and the process of money making me money begun. I got so good at it that the money my money made for me was so great that I didn’t have to no longer work at McDonald’s as the money made from my investments covered my expenses. However, I continued to work as I worked to learn and not to earn and as I did my wealth begin to grow and grow and grow. Therefore, even though I was working, my money alone was making a whole lot more than the average person made working at McDonald’s.

So the lesson in all this is start paying yourself 10 PERCENT of every paycheck and invest that money wisely.

Hey, my name is Amtej Dosanjh and I’m the man behind this (fantastic:D) article. Make sure to check out more of my work here http://make-me-successful.com/ where you receive free down to earth advice on how to become successful in life.

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Financial Freedom is thought of as the coveted holy grail of financial well-being and rightly so. Who wouldn’t want to be in a position to exercise the choice of being financially free enough to never have to work again to earn money? Sounds good to me anyway!

Now, if I asked you to quickly write down on the back of a napkin how much money you’d figure you’d need to be totally financially free, it would be fascinating to see what number you’d come up with. It’s actually a pretty tough exercise for most people to do with any level of accuracy. Not to worry, help is at hand with this 5 minute formula!

In a previous article, we used this 5 minute formula to work out the exact sum of money you’d need to reach the first 3 destinations on the road to wealth creation 1. Financial Protection; 2. Financial Security and; 3. Financial Independence). Here we’re going work out exactly how much money you’d need to reach the final 2 destination: Financial Freedom and then just for the hell of it, Absolute Financial Freedom. Here goes, hang on to your hat!

1. Financial Freedom

You will have achieved it when you have accumulated a sufficient critical mass of capital to provide enough income for you to live the lifestyle you desire (accounting for inflation) without ever having to work again for the rest of your life. The keyword here is ‘desire’. This is what differentiates being financially free from being financially independent, which is defined more by what you ‘require’ to live reasonably comfortably.

In essence, this would include having and enjoying all the luxuries in life such as:

Second Home in the Sun ($700,000) – $3, 500/month
35 Foot Boat ($150,000) – $1,500/month
Mercedes Benz ($100,000) – $1,000/month
1 Luxury Holiday ($12,000)- $1,000/month
Harley Davidson ($20,000) – $400/month
The additional monthly unearned income needed for these luxuries comes to $7,400/month i.e. $88,800/annum. Therefore the total cost of being financially free is the $51, 600/annum figure needed to achieve Financial Independence (which we worked out in a previous article) PLUS an additional $88,800/annum = $140,400/annum

Again, using the benchmark of an annual 8% return on investment would mean you’d therefore need a critical mass of capital amounting to $1, 755,000 in order to be financially free. So, as you can see it’s a decent sum of money but I believe within the realms of possibility for anyone who sets about achieving it and re-thinking their approach to income generation and financial planning.

2. Absolute Financial Freedom

When you think absolute financial freedom, think total rock star lifestyle! You can pretty much remove any financial limitations and pick up your air guitar for this one!

You will have achieved this financial level when you can pretty much do whatever you want, with whomever you want, as much as you want – without ever having to worry about money or work again.

So, assuming we’d still like to keep everything we have/do from our list, we now add all the new dream capital items we’d love to have that are not in our previous list. For example:

35-Yacht ($500,000) – $5, 000/month
Ferrari Testarossa ($250,000) – $2, 500/month
Piper Cherokee 140 or Cesna 172 Private Plane ($30,000) -$3000/month
Own desert island ($7,000,000) – $14,000/month
Additional monthly unearned income needed for these dream luxury items comes to $21,800/month i.e. $261,600/annum. Therefore the total cost of absolute financial freedom is the $140, 400/annum needed to achieve Financial Freedom PLUS an additional $261,600/annum = $402,000/annum

Again, using an annual 8% return on investment would mean you’d need a critical mass of capital amounting to $5, 025,000. So, by today’s standards it’s a very significant sum of money/capital. In order to have built up this level of personal wealth, you most likely will have become a noteworthy business owner and quite a sophisticated investor i.e. you’ll be a total money master!

Conclusion

So, there you have it! Financial Freedom and Absolute Financial Freedom defined in terms of an absolute sum of money required each year. So, now you know EXACTLY what it’s gonna take for you to eventually quit working for money and finally have money working for you; to escape the daily grind and retire to Margaritaville…should you want to! Check out my other articles on Personal Finance, Business and Wealth Creation tips to help you reach the financial freedom finish line…fast!

P.S. Visit MillionaireMindsetSecrets.com and sign-up for FREE insights, tips and exclusives on Financial Freedom – utilizing our powerful financial and wealth building strategies can fast-track your financial freedom and career.
P.P.S. Why not signup NOW for more insider secrets on Financial Freedom at MillionaireMindsetSecrets.com for FREE & download for free the “The 7 Secrets of Wealth Creation” e-book.

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Have you ever heard people make comments when they see a nice car go by about how that guy is “lucky” or “greedy”? Well if you haven’t, I know you could hear it very easy on a common street corner nearby your home if you really wanted to. I think it is funny how people are so quick to be willing to associate someone’s wealth to greed and luck. The people who think these things about people who are wealthy, will never be that wealthy. If someone associates negative attributes to becoming wealthy, then that is how they think they will achieve wealth. Becoming wealthy requires someone to think like a millionaire, not like a pessimist.

It’s truly amazing how many people like to associate wealth with bad things. I used to think rich people were bad people for a long time as well. I used to think that they cheated, lied, and stole from other people in order to get what they had. I came to a point of realization while reading a book about the mentality of rich people. I realized that if I think that way about rich people then, first: I will subconsciously never want to be one, and second: I am associating the same bad thoughts about money itself. Let’s say that for some pretend reason, I were to think the exact same way about an actual person in my life. I’m certain that person would not want to be around me anymore. Money works the exact same way. If you think money is all just rewards for lying, cheating, and stealing, then you are incredibly doomed if you ever want to have any. Lying, cheating, and stealing will all land you in prison, or dead, before you ever become rich from them. Hard work, loyal business actions, and maximizing opportunities is the true path to creating wealth. Wealthy people don’t associate money with bad things, they think of money as an old friend that they never get tired of seeing. Wealthy people think of money as something they get as a result of all their hard work. How do you think of money?

I’m sure if you are reading this article, you are wondering if I am wealthy. I will tell you the truth that I am not a multimillion dollar guy who just likes to talk about how negative people are about the rich. I will also say that I have been making more money every year since I started using an online system to make money off of bulk pricing compared to individual pricing. If you are interested in seeing this system that I use to make money from right here at my computer, you can check out the website on this article. I believe that good things should never be kept secret if they can help even one other person in the world. That is why I hope you take a look at how I make some extra money in my life, and see if it is something you could do. Believe me, anyone can do it.

Sincerely, and with best wishes,

Alexander J. Brittain

http://www.easy-1million.com

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Is it possible to become wealthy as a renter? Absolutely! How? It is quite easy really. The concept of renting is not a negative to creating wealth as many people would have us believe. On the contrary, renting can and does offer some very advantageous benefits to your wealth creation program. Just compare the real costs or renting a home compared to buying a home.

In many instances as a renter all you need to pay each month is the rent and utilities bills. Whereas as a home buyer you have to pay, in many instances, the mortgage including the cost of interest, the utilities bills, the local government rates and other charges such as water and land tax. In fact, from a pure cash flow point of view renting is usually the best alternative, especially if you have minimal equity in your property.

Imagine two people just prior to the GFC, one who is a renter, the other a home buyer with say 20-30% equity in their property. The renter has a fixed monthly commitment and saves their surplus money in a bank account or other such cash based investment vehicle. The home buyer uses all their spare cash to pay off the mortgage and is building equity in their property. Then the GFC hits…now what happens?

The renter is still paying their rent as before and saving their surplus cash in a bank account or other such cash savings account and unless they have lost their job not much has changed to their wealth building activities. The home buyer on the other hand is still paying their mortgage but has lost most if not all of their equity as a result of the drop in property prices. In fact, they really must keep paying their mortgage to keep whatever equity they have left because they have little or no choice if they want to keep their equity. It could take years for the property market to get back to the levels they were before the GFC.

Being a renter makes a lot of sense when you consider the real cost of home ownership where the buyer borrows money to buy the home. Imagine a home buyer borrows $200,000.00 to purchase a home at an interest rate of say 5% per annum over 30 years. The total amount they would pay in 30 years, not allowing for any interest rate changes, would be a whopping $386,511.00. If they borrowed $400,000.00 as many people in Australia do at interest rates of 6% or more they would pay a staggering $863,352.00! That’s an average interest cost for an Australian home buyer over the life of the loan of $1,287.00 per month, or $297.00 per week. You can rent a home for that amount or not much more and this is just the interest component of the loan repayments each month.

The only real winners in the mortgage business are the banks. The home buyer wears the bulk of the risk and gets little of the capital gain because the cost of interest on a principal residence in Australia is not tax deductible and as such the property has to grow by this amount just for the home buyer to be in the same position as the renter. Well even that is not true because the renter would have been saving their surplus cash of $1,111.00 per month towards a home. Therefore, depending when the property market crashes would determine when the renter becomes a buyer, if they ever do.

Imagine having paid your mortgage for say 5 or 6 years and then the GFC hit. All your equity has gone but for the renter they would have saved their $1,111.00 per month for the same 5 or 6 years and would have amassed between $66,666.00 and $79,992.00 not counting earnings. Furthermore, they can continue to save, whereas the home owners must still keep making the mortgage payments every month. So what is the answer? The answer is do not buy a home until the total monthly costs of living in your home are equal to or less than the amount you would pay to rent an equivalent property.

If you resist the urge to buy before you can afford to maintain your savings ability as a renter you avoid the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket and you also do not limit your choices of alternative investment opportunities. Staying liquid is what it is all about and the more liquid you are the more opportunities you can take advantage of. So there you have it, a simple look at one reason why renting is your way to wealth.

David is an experienced financial adviser and entrepreneur with a passion for helping people realise financial independence through structured learning. Author of the book “Wages to Wealth…11 Steps To Turn Your Wages Into The Life You Want To Live” and a regular contributor to http://www.MoneyToolkits.com, a site designed specifically to teach kids about money, David is able to share his knowledge and skills with people of all ages from 8 to 80.

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Wealth is a mindset. It is not about money or material things although it can manifest through having abundance of money and material things. You can have a lot of money and not be wealthy. Wealth flows from abundance, from giving. The most sustainable way to receive is by giving.

Achieving a wealth mindset involves primarily shifting from the paradigm of “What is in it for me?” to “What can I give?”, from a lack mindset to an abundance mindset. With a lack mindset, the perception is that there is not enough to go round. If you get more, I end up with less. For me to get more, I need to get in before you do and grab as much as I can. With an abundance mindset, you see more than enough. There is enough to go round. There is no need to scheme, cheat or compete. If we cooperate, we create even more than our individual efforts would have yielded. Your getting more does not mean I will end up with less. I receive by giving. The more I give, the more I receive. If I can figure out a way of giving more and more, my receiving more and ultimately more than enough is guaranteed. Hence giving does not diminish me, rather it enlarges me.

Hence to develop a wealth mindset, you need to change your focus from what you can get to what you can give. What you believe is real ultimately becomes your reality. This means that after all said and done, we create our individual realities. Arguments arise when two people argue from different realities and perspectives. What is real to me may not make any sense to you. Your beliefs and reality however does not change principles that govern life. You cannot violate principles and get away with it indefinitely. Like gravity, everything that goes up must come down ultimately.

With a wealth mindset, you are always thinking about what you have to give to make the situation better. You think solutions, not who is to blame. Nobody ever got rich through playing the blame game. Goodwill is not earned by always taking but by giving. Businesses that give back to the community consistently perform better than those that don’t. A generous giver does not lack friends or goodwill. Goodwill may not be quantifiable but can make the difference between success and failure.

What do you have to offer? How can you start giving and become very good at giving what you have to give? Everyone has something unique to offer. If you focus on giving, getting will take care of itself. When you focus on serving others, you perform at your best. When your focus is making money, your performance and quality of service drops as you give the barest minimum to get by. There is a world of difference in performance between an employee who is working for money and one who is working for love. When you have a sense of contribution, you are willing to go the extra mile irrespective of who is watching. If you are working for pay, you put in the barest minimum to avoid getting fired. The huge gap in performance has an equally huge impact in pay.

The biblical injunction of seek ye first the kingdom and all other things shall be added unto you holds true in attaining wealth and riches. When you focus on giving, you set yourself up for getting. If you focus on getting, you send out the wrong vibes and repel potential givers, so you end up getting less and less if at all. The way you feel when you perceive someone is out to only get from you is the same way others feel when you try the same stunt. Rather than loosening their purse strings, they tighten it further. That is the same way nature responds to getters. They create scarcity everywhere they go. They believe there is not enough to go round, so they grab and grab, ending up with less and less. Ultimately, their beliefs become a self fulfilling prophecy. Having a wealth mindset is a choice which involves a paradigm shift. If you have tried really hard to get and it does not seem to work, it jolly well might be time to try giving.

Usiere Uko is a writer, investor, entrepreneur and editor of http://www.financialfreedominspiration.com, an inspirational blog on investing, financial education, discovering your passion and fulfilling your God given dreams. Subscribe to Financial Freedom Inspiration Newsletter and get inspired to start your journey to financial freedom today.

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Would you like to know the four favorite words of wealthy people? Here they are:

Multiple. Streams. Of. Income.

We all have multiple streams of expenses… mortgage or rent, phone bill, groceries, travel, and on and on. So why do most people have only ONE stream of income, usually in the form of a job?

Some folks attempt to gain multiple streams of income by acquiring multiple jobs. I hope this isn’t you, because that strategy will drive you into the ground fast. You will work way too hard, and it is truly impossible to achieve wealth when you are trading your hours for dollars.

Wealthy people do things differently. They focus, not only on multiple streams of income, but on two highly leveraged types of income — passive income and residual income.

Passive Income means the money comes in without you directly trading your time for it. You could be sleeping, cooking dinner, hiking in the mountains, swimming with dolphins, you name it… the money is coming in.

Residual Income means you build the source of income once, and the money comes in over and over and over again, long after the work is done.

When you have a job, you earn what’s called active income. This means you are paid on work you actively do, most often measured in time. Even business owners often structure their businesses to only pay them in active income, by charging per hour or per project. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, there is a ceiling to this type of income. If you want financial freedom and wealth, you must shift your focus and your efforts to generate sources of passive income and residual income.

One business that is an excellent source of both passive income as well as residual income is network marketing. Wealthy people recognize the leverage in this business model, because it is something that you build once and it pays you continually. You earn residual income every single week from all of the autoship orders that are placed in your business. Moreover, as people in your business also enroll new folks, the growth of your business compounds and you are earning large amounts of – you guessed it – passive income! It is for these reasons world-renowned economist Paul Zane Pilzer estimates that between the years 2006-2016, the network marketing industry will have yielded 10 Million new millionaires.

How can you earn more passive income and residual income in your own life? Try this approach: Next time you are faced with a business opportunity or professional project, do what wealthy people do. Ask yourself, “Will this generate passive income? Will this generate residual income?” If the answer is no, think twice about taking on the obligation. If the answer is yes, you are on the right track!

When I made the shift from working income to passive income and residual income, my life changed dramatically. Since I was no longer trading hours for dollars, I finally had the freedom that comes from getting my time back. Moreover, in less than two years, I had leveraged my efforts to build a multi-million dollar business. The best part is, I have never had so much fun and called it work. You can learn how I did it in my free mini eBook, The Art of Success: http://GiftFromKathleen.com

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What if you had a choice; that choice being getting fired at your job, or firing your boss? What would you choose? I know what my answer would be but honestly, what would you do? If you have never thought about this question, maybe it’s time that you should!

I do not want anyone misunderstanding what I am saying here; getting a good education, and then finding a good job, in your field, something that you are passionate about, and then living the good life, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. For as long as I can remember and I believe for most of you as well, a major part of attaining the American Dream, centers on this very principle. But I submit to you, let us be very real, right here, right now. Some parts of the American Dream have become a part of a nightmare.

Over the past twenty or more years, a number of references, associated with having a job have become way too inclusive in the normal discussions carried on in the work-place. Whether its “last hired, first fired,” “outsourcing,” “downsizing,” “cut-backs,” “lay-offs,” whatever the terminology, all of them have the same meaning; when you, the employee, the person with a job are connected to any of these terms, you now no longer have that job.

Is this scary or what? Yes that could be one way to look at it. But I don’t believe that it has to be. I think that by understanding these economic times and what the possibilities may be, good or bad, that we have some options. I still believe that having a good educational foundation is crucial to our success. That foundation can help to prepare us for whatever the world and the economy might have in store for us.

So I say go out there and learn all that you can about whatever it is that you feel real passion. Being passionate about what you do in life, can take you to some amazing places. So when you get into the workforce, learn as much as you can, be the best that you can in your area of expertise, but don’t be complacent. Understand that in our world today, all of those terminologies, used earlier here, are very much a part of what we all face in the workforce, every day.

Now let’s talk about one other real fact in the lives of many of us who are fortunate to have that good job. I personally spent thirty years working in law enforcement, a good job, especially with a little bit of rank. Having said that, even with the “good” job, I also spent most of those thirty years working extra details, overtime, and whatever else I could, to truly realize that American Dream. Just drive home the point, and to set the record straight, better than 80%, of all the 1400 plus officers, on the department also worked all those extra details and then some. Why? It’s simple, a job, especially a good job, can afford you the opportunity to be comfortable, not wealthy. If the job all by itself could do it, police officers, my well-known experience wouldn’t work all the extra details and hours that they do. We are in the business of “exchanging hours for dollars!” Bottom line there are only so many hours in a day. When you have a family, relationships, other things that interest you in your life who’s cheating who, when you live like this? Something to think about, at least maybe it is.

We have looked at a lot of information here; so what do I recommend that we do to better prepare ourselves for that day when we might be impacted by one of those dreaded terms? Or for those of us, who are working that good job, why not do something different than adding to the number of hours we go out and work for someone else?

I say go back to that which you are passionate. Learn all that you can about that subject and turn that passion, that fire into something that can earn you residual income, and make you your own boss. Now once again, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with having a job. But to that I have to add, if you just have a job, instead of doing what most police officers and lots of others do; getting a second or third job, expand your horizons. Find something that moves you, and then learn how, by becoming your own boss, if the need ever arises, or you just feeling it, you will be in a position to “fire your boss,” instead of the other way around!

Did you ever hear the one about the woman who went to her boss first thing in the morning and told him, “you know what, I think I have something in my eye.” When her boss inquired what she thought it was, she simply stated, “I’m not sure what it is, but I do know that because of whatever it is, I cannot see myself working here anymore!” She fired her boss.

Kirk Dunham is a Global Expansion Leader and is currently working as an Independent Marketing Representative for an Inc. 500 company. He is convinced that much like himself, many of us are looking for a strong “Plan B,” to help ensure our financial security, because quite simply, our “Plan A,” just has not worked. For more free information about how you can take charge of your financial future, simply text “W-D Enterprise” to short code 55469. Thanks for your time, follow-up on your part will make your time spent worthwhile. See you at the top!

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Step 1: Start Contributing to a Self Directed IRA or 401(k)

If you have a 401(k) with your employer that’s good, but not as good as if you had a self-directed IRA or solo 401(k) that you can control. With a true self-directed retirement account you have control and can invest in almost anything you want to, including real estate. I am not a retirement account expert, but I have interviewed a view retirement account specialists over the last few years. And I’ve learned enough to have open a SEP IRA for myself and for my husband.

You have to have your own business to have a SEP IRA, and you cannot contribute to a SEP if you are contributing to a 401(k). But a SEP IRA allows you to contribute a lot more per year than an individual IRA. I recommend that you talk to a representative from an IRA custodian about opening a true self-directed IRA that gives you control over your investments, so that you can open an account and start funding it. If you need help finding a self-directed IRA company, there are 3 that I have worked with that you can check out: IRA Services Trust, Equity Trust Company, and CAMA Plan.

Step 2: Focus on Your Goals

What are your goals for investing? It’s important that you know what your main goal is before you decide what you will invest in. It’s important to know your timeline. If you’re investing for immediate income, than tax liens would not be a good investment vehicle for you. Some investments are short term and some take longer to produce the desired result. How much profit do you want and how much risk are you willing to take? Higher profit usually comes with a higher risk. What I love about tax lien investing is that you can get higher profit without extremely high risk. Do you need to keep your investments liquid, which might be the case if you are retiring soon, or have some short terms goals that you need to meet? Get clear on what your goal is for investing and then you can choose an investment vehicle that fits your goal.

Step 3: Map out Your Investment Strategy

Once you know what your goal is and you’ve decided on your investment vehicle, then it’s helpful to map out a strategy. What exactly will you invest in? Where will you invest? How often will you need to add to your investment?

With tax lien investing for example you may want to pick a state to invest in. Most states will have tax sales at one time of the year, so you can plan how much money you will invest and when you will be investing. Then, depending on which state you invest in, you may also need to plan on when you will be paying the subsequent taxes which will be added to your lien(s). You’ll also know when the redemption period will end and when you’re likely to paid on your liens and can reinvest your profits, which brings us to steps 4 and 5…

Step 4: Stick With One Strategy Until You See Results

Ok, so you’ve started investing, and you may even have spent some money getting educated as to how to make money using a certain investment strategy. But now you’ve just heard about another investment that sounds even better than the one that you’re doing, so you drop everything mid-stream and buy another program to learn another investment strategy that supposed to make you rich. Wrong move!
If you keep jumping ship to try the next newest get rich quick scheme, you’ll never finish anything that you start, in which case you’ll never make any money. Stick with one thing until you see results, then if the results aren’t what you expected, then you can look elsewhere. But don’t expect miracles, remember, if something sounds too good to be true it probably is. Look for investments with realistic – not pie in the sky results. If you’re satisfied with the profit from your investment, then you’ll want to go on to step 5…

Step 5: Reinvest Your Profits

When I had tax liens redeem there was always something to spend the money on, bills, college tuition for one of my kids, or taxes to pay on real estate. But for your money to grow, you need to re-invest your profit. Spend the capital investment if you need to, but take your profit and reinvest it as soon as you have the opportunity. One way that I finally started doing this was to invest through a self directed IRA instead of with after tax money. I still do some investing outside of my self-directed IRA but at least half of my investing is through my retirement account. That way I know that when tax liens redeem all the money will be re-invested and I won’t be tempted to use it. So how do you know whether you should invest with IRA money or after tax money? That’s where step 6 comes in…

Step 6: Strategize With Your Accountant to Maximize Your Tax Situation

Don’t wait until tax time to sit down with your accountant or CPA. I usually like to talk to my accountant before the end of each year and have a strategy session to see where I’ll stand come tax time. There are things that you can still do even after the year is over to minimize your taxes or maximize your tax return – like contributing to your self-directed IRA. You can contribute to your retirement account through the date you file your tax return and have it apply to the previous year to lower your income and the amount of taxes you have to pay.

But some things have to be done by the end of the year. For instance if you know that you’re going to owe a lot of taxes, you might want to pay outstanding bills and make tax deductible purchases before the end of the year rather than wait until the new year. Or, if you know you are going to have a bigger tax dept next year you might want to wait and spend the money after the first of the year. Find a good accountant that can help you make the most of all the legal ways to minimize your tax dept.

Step 7: Protect Your Assets with a Trust

For this step you will need to talk to a good asset protection lawyer and it will cost you some money to open a trust account and have your assets transferred to a trust that will protect you from a law suit or judgment. You never know what can happen in the future and it’s better to be protected than to be open to have everything that you have worked for taken away from you.

Also if anything happens to you, you won’t have to worry about your loved ones. Your trust will live on and your assets will be transferred to your beneficiaries without having to pay inheritance taxes. There is a reason why the wealthy have trusts. I am not an expert in this at all, but I can recommend an attorney who is. Tim Berry is an attorney who specializes in asset protection.

Bonus Step 8: Take Care of Your Body and Spirit

“What good will it for a man if he gains the whole world but forfeits his sole? Or what can a man give in exchange for his sole” – Matt 16:26

Sometimes we are so busy trying to make ends meet or trying to get ahead and be successful that we forget why we are doing it. All the money in the world did not help Steve Jobs when he died of cancer. Fortunately for Mr. Jobs, he enjoyed an accomplished life in which he contributed much to society and was able to enrich is own life and that of his family. But what about you, will you work hard to amass enough money to retire comfortably only to find out that you will not be around to enjoy it? What are you doing for your health?

And what about your spiritual welfare? What will become of your soul when you leave this world and go to the next? Have you spent any time thinking about why you are here, what your true purpose is in this life and what awaits you in the next? What a shame it would be to have all the wealth you want now and then leave it all behind with nothing to show for it. To have done nothing to lift your fellow man, or to have made this world a better place.

Joanne Musa works with investors who want to reap the rewards of investing in profitable tax lien certificates and tax deeds. Her tax lien investing articles appear all over the Internet. Tax Lien Lady’s Member’s Area is designed to help you navigate though the steps to building a profitable portfolio of tax liens or tax deeds. With 3 full courses, dozens of videos, and monthly webinar training, you’ll quickly move forward on your journey to tax lien investing success! Join us at www.TaxLienLady.com/Membership.htm

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We would all love to be able to make more money. More importantly, we would all like to be able to make passive income which is money we receive no matter what we are doing. With passive income, you can make money even while you are asleep.

Here are some passive income strategies to consider.

1. Selling Information on popular topics

The internet is now the number 1 place to find information on a subject. People turn to the internet whenever they have a question related to cars, making money fast, building wealth over time, real estate, stocks, medical issues, etc. You no longer need to be an author to make money from writing.

Write a book, or helpful article and turn it into an online (e-book) or offline (CD) product. If your information is really helpful people will pay for this information.

Publish this information online and sit back and earn passive income.

2. Create a product (software application)

With this strategy you create a product or application that people might find helpful. An example of this would be the angry birds app that everyone is so excited about. another example might be an add-on app for your internet browser.

This goes beyond just writing an article and you will need some technical skills or access to someone with the technical skills to make a software application for you.

Once this is done you can market the product online or offline.

3. Become a webmaster

Offline businesses realize the power of the internet and what it can do for their business. You can offer to make websites for these offline companies.

Once you have the websites set up, you can earn a passive income by charging a monthly fee to “maintain” the website. This would be something as simple as changing some content, or something as advanced as changing the site design

You would charge a monthly webmaster fee to be available to your clients on as needed basis. In the event that your services are not needed, you would still collect your monthly fee.

4. Sell Memberships

This can be done via affiliate marketing or network marketing. Here you will find a product or service that you really like and think would be helpful to many people. Sell memberships and receive a one time commission in addition to a passive income every time that person renews their membership every month.

Dale Poyser has been investing for over a decade and has done meticulous research on how to build wealth. His primary focus is on strategies that can create low risk residual streams of income.

Not only does Dale personally practice the methods he writes about, he has also coached many others in these methods to show how easy it is to make money with passive residual streams of income. You can read more about Dale’s strategies at http://bestresidualincomestrategies.com/

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Part of the joy that comes with working most of your adult life is retirement. While retirement can be a true joy if planned for in the proper manner it can also be a nightmare if you are not as prepared as you need to be and you suddenly find yourself outliving your assets.

Face it, Social Security will only get you so far. If you are not properly managing what you have on an ongoing basis then you might find that you simply won’t have enough.

Outliving Assets Might Mean Back to Work

Once you retire you should stay retired for the rest of your life. Of course this is different if you wish to volunteer or perhaps get a part time business going doing something you love, but all too often retirement is nothing like this.

Many people who thought they had enough to retire on actually outlive their assets in an awful hurry. The end result is a trip back to the workforce only not out of desire, but rather necessity. This can mean working whatever job you can get and that means many times working at a job that is less than desirable just so you can make it by.

Outliving Assets Might Mean Leaning on Family

Another thing that often comes with outliving your assets is having to lean on family to make it by. This might mean depending on your children which is something no parent ever wants to do. However, there are only so many jobs to go around and often the older you are the harder it is to find work.

How Safe Are You?

You might think that you are more than covered when it comes to retirement, but what you may not know is that there are a lot of factors that need to be looked at before you can make such as claim. With the help of a professional, you have the chance to let someone in the know take a long hard look at what you’ve been able to accumulate and give you an honest wake up call about your true standing.

If you haven’t honestly asked yourself how you are doing in the retirement planning department lately, perhaps you should. Only by being prepared will you be able to be safe rather than be sorry. Today is the day to get started, to take your retirement seriously, and to be brave enough to face the reality of your situation.

Suzanne Glasser is a freelance finance writer specializing in retirement topics. Click for more information on Pathfinder America Reviews.

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