Saving money is about having the right process to reach your goal.

Save moneyImage by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay

Some people believe saving a million dollars is impossible when you earn a low income. I’m going to show you it is possible.

To reach a million dollars is not easy but you need to make decisions today to reach that goal. Playing the lottery has a low chance of you winning the jackpot. You would likely do better if you invested the money.

The odds of winning the recent Tennessee Powerball lottery was one person out of 292.2 million people.

When you look at the odds of investing, the numbers look a lot better.

The odds of becoming a millionaire in America are between 6.4% to 22.3%.

Some people say the American Dream is dead. Well, it all depends on who you ask.

There are some people who believe the glass is half full. Then there is another group of people who believe the glass is half empty. It really all depends on who you listen to.

I tend to look at life that the glass is half full. You have the opportunity laying right in front of you. In order to take advantage of that, you have to believe it.

If your goal is to make a million dollars, let me tell you that it will not happen overnight. There is a process to achieve a million dollars. You just have to believe you can attain it.

Following through on this requires a little bit of discipline, a little bit of sacrifice, and a little bit of consistency. When you have all three together, you can make it happen.

This means, if you want to max out your credit cards every month, it is not likely you’ll reach a million unless you make a lot of money. The information is aimed toward the average person who barely gets by on their paycheck.

To accomplish this, there are five steps you need to follow:

1. Create a budget

2. Invest like clockwork

3. Don’t skip steps 1 and 2

4. Ignore the noise on the roller coaster ride

5. You reached the finish line

The first step is the most important step.

1. Create a budget

Businesses always have a budget to make sure they can run their services. The same holds true for people. There really is no difference.

If a business needs a budget, then why don’t some people use a budget?

Two out of five people use a budget. You need to set up a simple budget to track where you spend your money every month. If you don’t use a budget, you’ll overdraft your bank account, max out your credit cards, and always live paycheck to paycheck.

When you create a budget, you put a little more effort into changing your life. This is the most important step to allow you to move on to the second step.

2. Invest like clockwork

When you start investing, you need to invest like clockwork. This means you need to have a consistent routine to invest.

Just as you have a routine to pay your bills, you need to set up a routine to invest. Once you have your budget set up, you need to set aside money for your investment.

You can either pay your bills first or you can pay yourself first. I choose to pay myself first. You are an important person and more important than any bill. So pay yourself first.

I am not saying to ignore your bills. You still have to pay your bills to keep your home, car, phone, and lights on.

What you need to incorporate into your schedule is you need to invest in yourself first. Before you pay your bills, invest in yourself.

This will not go into any specific investments, but you need to pick a category and invest in it. This may be mutual funds, stocks, cryptocurrencies, real estate, gold, silver, or another type of investment. The ones I mentioned are the more popular ones.

Once you have this figured out, invest on the first of the month or whatever day works best for you. After that, then you can pay your bills.

Retirement calculatorNerd Wallet

You can adjust the numbers to see where you stand.

3. Don’t skip steps 1 and 2

This one isn’t a rule, but you need to make sure you did not skip steps 1 and 2. The first two steps are essential to get you on the right track to reach your millions.

No one jumps from $0 to millions overnight. There is a process to reaching your millions. Even if this is a slow way, this is also considered a safer way when following these steps.

There will be distractions as you go on your way. Try to avoid these as best as you can.

People will show screenshots of them winning $900 in the stock market but they probably won’t tell you how much they lost. For every win, there are many people who lose as well.

4. Ignore the noise on the roller coaster ride

As your investment goes up, it will also most likely go down as well. I see investments like a roller coaster. When you’re on a roller coaster, you’ll go up. Then before you know it, the roller coaster is going down.

Investments will do the same.

This could be stocks, mutual funds, cryptocurrencies, real estate, gold, and silver. Each of these investments goes through their own little cycle and have good days as well as bad days.

When you invest in these, you need to be sure to ignore the noise. Investing is usually a long-term outlook and not a get-rich-quick scam.

On some days, you need a lot of patience. Maybe you may have to avoid watching how much money you lost. Technically, you have not lost any money until you sell your investment.

There will be some weeks and months when you shouldn’t watch the market. This will only upset you.

Try to avoid the market news as much as you can. The media likes to exaggerate and raise your blood pressure.

For the most part, you are investing for the long term. The dips, crashes, and corrections don’t last forever.

5. You reached the finish line

Once you have followed these steps, you should reach a million or come very close. The stock market image I used is only an example. The market could do better or worse than I predicted. I just used an average rate of return for the investment.

After you have followed these steps, you will be much further ahead than if you were investing whenever you felt like it or not at all.

Final thoughts

To reach a million dollars, you have to follow a plan to get there. This may be a dry and boring plan but it tends to work out in most cases. Getting started is the hardest part.

The more aggressive you invest, the higher returns. Aggressive investing could lead to many days of low returns. You just have to find the right balance when investing.

This article is for informational purposes only. It should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Not all information will be accurate. Consult a financial professional before making any significant financial decisions.

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