Are you making financial plans to reach millionaire status sometime in the future? Or are you worrying about making just enough money to support your family? I believe there were times while you were planning and pondering on your future, you feel like you needed some inspirations to continue forward. This is especially so if you are facing or making difficult financial decisions for yourself or your family.
The fact that many people are also facing similar situations, making tough decisions and trying to make a difference does offer some hope. Hence, once in awhile it helps to strengthen our own resolve and confidence by reading about real-life stories of people making the effort to better their lives.
To read about real life people stories, I came across CNNMoney.com, “Millionaires in the Making“, recently. To be featured here, the couples or families must show that they have fulfilled the following criteria:
- Know how to invest their money
- Know how to save money
- Know that they should not spend unnecessarily but yet at the same time, they know how to enjoy their lives
- Have an emergency fund
- Have a retirement and education fund
- Have minimal debts
Professional financial planners were on-hand to evaluate their financial situations, give advice and predict whether these people can achieve their financial goals or not. For example, a couple by the name of Tracy and David Seims have their goals set at amassing a seven-figure net worth, having a college fund ready for their two daughters and retiring in their early sixties. They own a small company and have money in retirement accounts, home equity, business equity and savings account.
The financial planner has specific advice for the Seims such as investing in funds that have lower costs and that hold foreign stocks in order to improve and secure their financial future. He predicts that the Seims’s net worth can hit the $1 million point within a decade if they carry out his recommended actions.
You can also watch real life people taking actions to improve their financial situation from the TV show, “Til Debt Do Us Partâ€. In this show, you will be surprised to see that most of the couples do not realize that they were over-spending. They tend to over-use their credit cards accumulating more and more debts. You can read a more detailed article about it at http://wparent.com/debt/ and you can watch the show on ASTRO, channel 733, The Discovery Home & Health Channel.
You will notice that having financial problems through bad management or through ignorance is really a universal problem. However, only those who help themselves or seek professional help can hope to improve their situations. In Malaysia, we are lucky as professional help from professional financial planners can easily be sought. We also have the agency set up by Bank Negara Malaysia called Credit Counseling and Debt Management or AKPK (Agensi Kaunseling Dan Pengurusan Kredit), that offers free advice and counseling if you have a debt handling problem.
For those who have aspirations to become a millionaire, get motivated and inspired and learn from other people’s experience. Who knows, you may be able to reach your goal faster by copying their methods and by avoiding their mistakes.
Do you have a “millionaire†story or advice to share? If you do, please post it here to share with the other readers.
This post is contributed by Jacquelyn Sarah Wong from Wise Parenting Guide (WParent.com). Visit her blog for more parenting tips.
