Have you ever thought about becoming a billionaire? It’s an astronomical number that most of us can’t even wrap our heads around, but according toFortune Magazine, it’s list of billionaires totaled 793 wealthy souls this past year. That’s a pretty elite group so your odds aren’t great.
In fact, your odds of being a billionaire are over one in 8.4 million. I’m not a gambling man, but if I was, I wouldn’t even consider betting on that.
So how do you increase your odds?
The easiest possible way to become a billionaire is to invest your funds in the market as a passive investor. The historical rate of return on the S & P 500 is approximately 9.4% annually. We’ll use that in our example. If you didn’t want to work hard and simply wanted to invest your way to a billion dollars here is how much you’d have to start with at certain ages, to make it happen by the time you reach 80.
25 – $7,145,740
35 – $17,547,710
45 – $43,091,710
55 – $105,819,800
Don’t have that kind of money to invest? Your best bet would be to increase your income… Go make more money! This means either getting a raise at work (maybe you could get a big enough raise at Goldman Sachs) or more likely starting a business.
There are limitless ways to make money since it’s simply the process of creating value for other people. Therefore, don’t focus on the money as much (sounds odd I know), but in order to be a billionaire, you have to think like a billionaire. If I wanted to truly become a billionaire with every ounce of existence this is the advice I would follow:
-Seek Out Billionaires and Billionaires in the Making – Reach out to current billionaires and offer to work for free or write them asking for advice. Hang out with people who support your goal and are on a similar path. There are wealth creation clubs in most large cities that you could easily join to network with like minded individuals. If you can’t find one in your city there are plenty of people who are trying to better their financial situation with the help of online groups. Spend your time talking to these types of people rather than those who aren’t supportive of your goal.
-Be accountable – Publicly post your desire to make a billion dollars so that you have accountability and a way to track your progress along the way. Tell everyone you know that you’re going to make a billion dollars! Write down your goal and remind yourself of it every single day until you’ve got a billion dollars in the bank.
-Learn From Those Who Have Done it Before – There are hundreds of billionaires in the world. Many of them are busy people so it’s hard to ask for advice directly, but many have also written books. Start reading this books to gain their insight and learn how they think. History has a ton of valuable lessons so you can begin reading about previous billionaires such as Rockefeller or Carnegie for free at your local library.
-Believe that it’s Possible – This seems simple enough, but you have to truly without a doubt realize that you have the ability to make a billion dollars. Realize that you’re in control of this destiny and you have the power to do it. If you don’t think it’s possible, it’s not.
-Try Every Idea and Spend a Good Portion of Your Life Failing and Taking Risks – Half of success is showing up. So if you have a business idea or way to make a product better, try it. Through doing so you’ll learn and gain additional ideas. You’ll also build contacts along the way, develop new skills, and have invaluable experience which will come in handy down the road.
-Realize that to be Different, You Have to Act Different – Apple says it best with “think different” If you’re like everyone else you’ve average. Average people are not billionaires, you’re going to have to be extremely different. Do you remember your odds I posted above? 1 in 8.4 million! Billionaires do not go to the bars every Friday and Saturday night, they work on building their business.
-Follow Your Passion – If you’re serious about making a billion dollars, you will spend the majority of your life working on your business. If you aren’t passionate about your business, you’re not going to enjoy the majority of your life, so choose something that you enjoy. Bill Gates enjoyed computers and Warren Buffet enjoyed analyzing businesses, follow their suite and follow your heart.
-Build Business Skills, Not Specialized Skills – If you want to make a billion dollars it’s going to be through company ownership, which means you need to be the CEO. The CEO hires the best talent and leads the direction of the company. Therefore, learn skills that will help you lead a company rather than do tasks. You only need to know how you can use something in your business, not how it actually works. You’re reading this article on a computer, but do you know how every part of the computer works?
-Think Real Estate – More than any other industry, real estate investors make up the largest percentage of the world’s billionaires. Take a page out of their book and begin investing your additional cash flows into real estate deals.
So there you have it, take these helpful pieces of advice on your way to becoming a billionaire, but before you start your journey to make a billion dollars, ask yourself why you want it in the first place. It’s a long and hard road to come to the end and realize it was all for naught.
Would you ever consider trying to become a billionaire?
Do you have any additional advice for those who would like to become a billionaire?
What would you do once you were worth $1,000,000,000?
Thanks for another great post, I like coming back to read your blog and latest updates.Keep up the good work, you are a great blogger and you should continue to develop your blogging skillsLearning through Books has got to be continued to be encouraged through the agesBy the way, how about responding on people comments, is it really important? I mean, for posts like this, with many comments come, is it necessary to reply to them? Maybe responding your visitor’s comments will increase more people to commenting?
I never put a dollar figure on how much I’d like to make. I just want to make enough to live the life I want to live while providing for my family. Maybe setting a goal will help those goals materialize though! Hey Ryan, wanna lend me $7 mil? I can come up with the $145000!
@ Tooth White – Thank you for your kind words. I noticed your site is an SBI site, that’s how I started in web development as well. How do you like the SBI program so far?
@ Thriftygal – Haha, nice try! Is there any way I can get a guaranteed future rate of return? If you want 7 million you might want to ask 7 million in 7 years cause I’m guessing he’s probably got it, while I still have student loans!
I think the first tip is really the best tip. Your network truly defines your ultimate NETWORTH. I would like to be a billionaire (I mean, who doesn’t), but I don’t honestly believe it is possible, mainly because I balk at thinking that I could have that much money. If I did have $1B, I’d probably open an account with Goldman Sachs (minimum $10 M), live on the interest and donate the rest.
@ Newbie – It is a ton of money, agreed. I used to have this as a potential goal, but then realized is was absolutely pointless to shoot for. If it happens as you grow a company that’s great, but it’s only a yardstick of how big and successful the company gets. I think by the time you reach $1 billion you’re probably already accustom to being uber wealthy so there wouldn’t be much of a lifestyle shift.
$990 million donation! You’re quite generous!
A clear billion… maybe just maybe I’d finally break down and buy my Bugatti!
Let’s be honest, most of us would take the billion and try to make it two!
Coach – You’re right… it’s just never enough is it? It’s too much fun to watch money grow! I always thought being a billionaire would be fun because you could buy more exciting assets like skyscrapers, resorts, and casinos rather than Index funds and single family homes.
Billionaire, zillionaire, gajillionaire, it’s all that same after a certain point isn’t it. The biggest obstacle is deciding you are worthy of whatever it is you want. Just remember that the ultimate currency isn’t money, it’s happiness, and although there are significant differences in the level of happiness measured for people in extreme poverty who are starving, the happiness levels between the really really rich and the comfortably self sustaining are not really that different according to the folks who study such things and the quest for the billion dollars over more statistically fulfilling activities could actually diminish the quality… Read more »
@ Tracy – Good advice. “The biggest obstacle is deciding you are worthy of whatever it is you want” – I like that line. I once read that the hardest distance any person has to travel is between their ears!
Being a billionaire is not my motivation and the post may or may not 😉 have been inspired by SEO… It was still interesting to write though.
I think a billion dollars would be more of a burden than a blessing. Most billionaires and millionaires are driven more by a desire to make money than to use it effectively. It’s more of an obsession or addiction than a professional endeavor. If I ended up with that much cash I’d probably keep a couple of million and Getty the rest on projects to make the world a better place. I can’t think of a single use for that much money that doesn’t involve giving most of it away.