Making a Million Bucks is So Simple – But Why Can Most Only Dream About It?

The following is a guest post from Sunil at the Extra Money Blog.

Other than FMF’s famous equation, there are no two other simpler ones that you will find to make a million bucks than these.

The first one is to find a billion dollars and start an airline company.  The only problem is that you need to find a billion dollars first. I trust that you too have a resource like the rest of us?

The second one is even simpler.  Find a way to make a buck, then repeat it a million times over. Simple enough? You bet.  And if you want to make a Billion bucks, start selling a burger for a buck, and then sell over a billion of them like McDonalds publicly claims it has under the big golden M sign on their restaurants.

I understand you may not have the $750,000 cash on hand that McDonalds corporation wants you to have in your bank account to own a franchise. So let’s have a look at a few more reasonable ways of getting there shall we?

Opportunities:

• Complete a paid survey online and make $10.  Do it just 99,999 more times and you will have a million bucks.
• Write an E-book and sell it on your website for $24.99.  Sell 40,000 copies and you are a millionaire.
• Complete a chore for a neighbor, such as baby sitting or mowing the lawn.  Say you make $45 per task.  Simply do it 22,222 times and you have your million.
• Freelance on the side and sell your spare time at $50 bucks an hour.  Put in 20,000 hours of work, or the equivalent of 2,500 - 8 hour work days and there you have a million dollars. That’s less than 7 years!
• Before wandering off on creative tangents, the entire foundation of the retail business revolved around the simple concept of buying widgets for $1 and selling them for $2.  Buy some product in bulk and sell it at a margin. Do it over and over and you will sure make your million.

As you can imagine, there are countless roads to get to a million dollars, some better than others, some a quicker path than others.  But the point is that there are roads!

Why Do Most People Never Get Anywhere Near $1M?

Hours long of discussions can take place to address this question.  But let me outline just a handful of reasons that come to mind immediately.

• Conflicting Priorities – What I mean is scarcity of time.  We all have the same amount of time, and we are all continuously challenged to fit all of our priorities in the limited time that we have.

Although many use the lack of time as an excuse to not embark on the million dollar journey, I find that this is a very genuine reason for many and one that I can totally respect.

Who says money is everything in life?  Who says only a million bucks or more can be construed as “enough” or “a lot of” money? For many, less is more.

• Lack of Desire – Some simply don’t want a million bucks.  But what I find is that many really do want it if someone was to hand it over to them. In other words, they don’t want to mow their neighbor’s lawn 22,000 times. That’s why the lack of desire translates into laziness for me many times.
• Limiting (Self Imposing) Beliefs – I see this one a lot.  As a result of mental conditioning due to one’s upbringing, society or general environment, many have come to believe that earning one million dollars is beyond their reach, and that it is only meant for those who are either truly gifted or lucky in life.
• Education & The Know How – The lack of education or “know-how” can preclude one from the apparently elusive million bucks even if they have a strong desire, the mindset to succeed, and no conflicting priorities.  The good news is that the desire, capacity (availability of time due to low or no conflicting priorities) and right mindset compels one to acquire the education or “know-how” to achieve their dream.

Note:  When I speak of education, I don’t necessarily mean formal Harvard university training.  Education (or learning) can be accomplished in a variety of forms.  If you want to succeed as an internet marketer, an MBA from a top 10 school might help, but will likely not get you there by itself.  An investment in an internet marketing training course may better serve.  Similarly, learning from an expert mentor for free who has been there and done that will also likely get you there.  Education doesn’t have to cost money, but it will cost you time and effort.

The good news is that most of the barriers that come to mind can be overcome.  The bad news is that there are several other external factors beyond one’s control that can severely impact the road to a million bucks.  I never said the journey was going to be easy.  Very few things worthwhile having in life are easy to come-by, and a million bucks is one of ‘em.

And as if there aren’t enough potential complications already, to keep things simple, I have conveniently skipped the discussion over taxes, potential risks such as litigation, or one of several other externalities that can impact the equation under discussion.

The point I am conveying is that making a million bucks is not that complicated of a task. And the bottom line is that your piece of the pie is out there if you want to go grab it.  But can you?  Do you want to? What is preventing you?

Comments

[Sarah]

LOL. yeah - i think its the Conflicting Priorities/scarcity of time for most people. When you deduct time spent on work, household chores, and (hopefully) spending time with family, there isn't much (if any) time left over. Personally, I don't even find the time to do the stuff I need to do while still getting a necessary amount of sleep.

[Everyday Tips]

I think there are a lot of other factors too. The economy can greatly affect your ability to obtain revenue. You might have to step outside the box and get creative. However, some years will definitely be better than others.

Some of it could be lack of good examples and lack of connections. I think it is a lot easier to make a lot of money when you already know kind of what to do and you have resources available.

However, that is just part of the equation. Everyone knows people that came to this country as immigrants that were able to make a lot of money through hard work. It can obviously be done, but I do think you need a little luck along the way!

[JC]

Ok, so the concept is simple, but it's not that easy. Someone else has to have that million bucks first for you to acquire it.

# Complete a paid survey online and make $10. Do it just 99,999 more times and you will have a million bucks.

---Yeah, if only the paid surveys I've taken would let you take it 10 times a day every day...

# Write an E-book and sell it on your website for $24.99. Sell 40,000 copies and you are a millionaire.

---First of all, can you get that much traffic to your website? Second, is your e-book good enough to be worth $24.99?

# Complete a chore for a neighbor, such as baby sitting or mowing the lawn. Say you make $45 per task. Simply do it 22,222 times and you have your million.

---If my neighbor were a millionaire and I wanted to babysit their kid well into his sixties, then sure. Someone might send me to the funny farm if I thought a lawn needed to be mowed 365 days a year for 61 years.

# Freelance on the side and sell your spare time at $50 bucks an hour. Put in 20,000 hours of work, or the equivalent of 2,500 - 8 hour work days and there you have a million dollars. That’s less than 7 years!

---This is by far the most practical idea in the article, but the author leaves out the fact that you have to live, you know - eat and such.

# Before wandering off on creative tangents, the entire foundation of the retail business revolved around the simple concept of buying widgets for $1 and selling them for $2. Buy some product in bulk and sell it at a margin. Do it over and over and you will sure make your million.

---What sort of product can the average person actually buy at wholesale and sell at retail?

I think the author has good intentions and explains the barriers for most people of getting to $1 million, but better thought out opportunities would give the article more credibility. The old adage "it takes money to make money" still applies to many of these things and is probably the #1 barrier for most people. The article does a good job of illustrating that there is no magic formula for getting there, though it comes across as rather flippant as if it's easy and why isn't everyone doing it.

[Old Limey]

The easiest path in my opinion starts very early in life.
The first three goals should be:
1) Get your education on the right path the first time and stick with it. Make it an education that has definite career paths.
2) Get your career right the first time. You don't have to stay with one company but you need to stay in the same field and work your way up.
3) Get your life partner right the first time. Everyone needs a soulmate to share life's journey, and switching partners mid stream can shatter your financial plans.

Then when you are in a great career and have a great relationship make saving a #1 Priority right from the getgo. Contribute the maximum possible into 401K plans. Live within your means and don't make stupid financial decisions - just keep saving steadily.

The final thing is to become a wise investor - easier said than done, and not everyone has what it takes.
The two rules of investing are "Don't Lose Money", and "Understand the Power of Compounding".
It can be catastrophic if your investments make good gains and compound nicely for many years and then when you hit a year like 2008 (and there have been many others like it), you don't take appropriate action and allow your investment portfolio to quickly get cut in half. Then you are faced with the very difficult task of having to double your money just to get back to where you were.

Lastly don't discount "Luck". There are great times to be born and there are miserable times to be born, and you have no control whatsoever over it. You have to play the cards you are dealt.

[Robert Muir]

It's even easier than you stated. If you invest the money as you make it, then you'll reach a million MUCH faster than merely socking it under your mattress. :)

For example, if you can sock away $5,000 per month, it would take over 16 years to reach a million. But if you invest it at an average 9% return, then it would only take about 10 years. Then you'd have a second million in less than 8 years without adding a penny!

[Chris Parsons @ Small Business Dreams]

I don't think the issue is MAKING a million dollars. It's SAVING a million dollars.

At a salary of $50,000/yr - it will take 20 years to make a million dollars. Most adults work 40 years, so even if you only made $25,000/yr, you would still MAKE a million in your lifetime.

My plan to become a millionaire is quite simple. Increase my professional career income, run successful businesses, and save.

[Sunil from The Extra Money Blog]

@ Chris - great point. making $ is one thing, managing it and keeping it is another ball game all together. case in point = once millionaire athletes who are now filing chap 7. your plan of increasing the top line of your personal income statement sound very good to me.

@ Robert - i agree that consistent investing over time is key to growing the nest egg. let me ask you this - is the standard 7-9% average return that "we" commonly talk about still accurate? is it still reasonable to use that number? what about the tax factor? (assuming you are not talking about stocking away in a retirement vehicle since it can't be accessed till a certain age) ?

@ Old Limey - great fundamental points that people still stumble at despite the wealth of conventional knowledge out there (i.e. your points). we can't change the cards we are dealt with, but we can make the most of what we have you are absolutely right.

@ JC - agree, some more concrete examples could have reinforced the underlying point better. do you really think however that money truly is the barrier preventing most? agreed that money can make money faster, but with the technological advancements and "ease" of doing business today (i.e. online), don't you think $ is less of a barrier today?

@ Everyday Tips - great point indeed. clarity is critical to be able to focus on the end goal. know the direction you want to head in is half the battle, maybe more?

@ Sarah - i certainly don't envy your schedule. you seem very busy!!!! but make sure to get that beauty sleep in! i love sleeping . . .

[Old Limey]

@Sarah
Even when you are both retired it's quite difficult to get everything done that you need to do.
The problem is that part of the aging process is that your metabolism slows down and that you don't have the strength, energy, and endurance that you had when you were much younger and raising a family.
One option is to start hiring people to do some of the chores but that can start getting quite expensive.
I still do all of my own gardening which is a huge amount of work and I find myself doing more of the household chores since my wife isn't as active as I am. My problem has never been that of accumulating money - I'm very good that. My problem is bringing myself to the point where I'm OK paying others to do things that I am still capable of doing myself.

[Easychange]

@old limey. This last comment is great. If you are busy due to work i wpuld recommend a maid 2x/month. While some would say it is a "waste" , i think it is well worth it when you consider the amount of time you save it is worth it.

[Holly]

Very thought-provoking, and I understand the sentiment of the poster...when the term 'make a million dollars' is used, it simply implies 'earning'. This is not an all-inclusive, in-depth study of the accumulation, just the basic idea.

So, if you are so fixated on the taxes that are due from the million you have earned, then go ahead and earn two million just to be safe! lol

Investing is key, obviously, but I am completely satisfied w/a 5-10% return these days since our accounts have bounced back after the fall of '08 and '09.

[Sunil from The Extra Money Blog]

@ Old Limey - spoken like a true entrepreneur. we know delegation and "outsourcing" is the solution, yet we just cannot get ourselves to do it for many reasons. your comment certainly resonates with me. are you an entrepreneur by chance?

@ Easyexchange - you make a great point about arbitrage. if I am making $150 an hour doing what I do, I have no issues paying someone (i.e. a maid) $40 for what they do

@ Holly - you're right on! that's exactly the intent here. and yes, if 1 is not enough, go for 2. who said we have limitations ?

[Old Limey]

@Easychange
You must have been reading my mind. After noticing a cleaning lady come to my next door neighbor's home I decided to have one come once/month. I discussed it with my wife and she agreed but first offered the job to my daughter. The daughter received a $2M settlement and $20K/month for 9 years from her divorce 3 years ago but was eager to actually earn some money on the side in addition to selling books on Amazon and other items on eBay as well as being my hiking companion once/week.

@Sunil
I was an aerospace engineer throughout my working life and never gave any thought to becoming an entepreneur but after retiring in 1992 at age 58 and needing to manage our money I became enthralled with "The technical analysis of the stockmarket" and kind of fell into becoming an entrepreneur. It started out with giving away to fellow subscribers some financial software I started writing for a proprietary market database I was using. In return the grateful recipients started sending me gifts from all over the country. The software started getting bigger and bigger and was consuming my whole life so one day my wife suggested that I should start selling it, which I did in 1996. Unfortunately the software ran on the old MS-DOS operating system and I took it off the market in 2008 when it started running out of memory, but I did quite well over the intervening 12 years as well as learning to become a very good investor and making lots of good contacts.

[Sunil from The Extra Money Blog]

wow . . . excellent story Old Limey. way to live the afterlife (retirement) after life (career) like a RockStar!

[tmg]

I think the goal of a million dollars is a sort of red herring in life, a rabbit hole, if you will.

A million-dollar net worth is readily attainable by any one in the middle-class as defined by income. An E-1 (with only a high school diploma)entering the military today and achieving the rank of just E-7 will receive a pension worth over $750,000 in only twenty years!

And that pension will include healthcare for life. And you can be as young as 37 when you begin to draw on that pension.

Accumulating a million in cash is another story but not impossible but why would you want to? Define your ideal life and figure out how to finance that -- in most cases it will be a lot less than a million dollars.

[Bill]

Of course you'll have to pay taxes on this self-employment income, so that will cut into the million a bit...

[Marle]

This post doesn't make sense.

All but one of the opportunities lack any kinda time frame or even how to save the money. Ok, so if you mow a lawn every day at $45 you can earn a million dollars in 60-some years. Great.

If you work for 40 years (age 25-65 or whatever) making an average of at least $25k a year, you will have made a million dollars in your life. Does everyone agree that most people will do that, and almost no one is dreaming of makeing $25k a year so they can make a million in their lifetime?

An article that would make more sense is how to save a million dollars. Or how to do something in your free time for extra money (probably not with a goal of a million though - spending 60 years mowing lawns is no inspiration for anyone). Or, how to devote your time to making a million in a short time frame. The freelance job touches on that, but it would have been better if it went into how to get a freelance job that you make $50/hour at *after* taxes and the costs of your business. A lot of things you can bill $50 an hour for you will barely break even on after all the costs are applied.

[Steve]

It's funny how many negative comments have been made on this post, which is all about perceived barriers to success.

[Matthew]

One option I rarely see on Financial Blogs is to work abroad. I have worked in the Persian Gulf for the last 20 years and I am close to hitting my 2 million dollar goal (2012). I have saved all this since 1991 and paid my taxes too. My companies have paid 100% of my living costs and I save at a 70% of my take home salary. Go work overseas is my advice.