Millionaire Mommy's 'recipe' is worth $1 million

Millionaire Mommy Next Door offers a suggestion for making $1 million for retirement, and it all begins with lunch. You don't spend $9.50 for lunch every workday, and instead eat a $3 lunch from home. You invest the difference in a Roth IRA, and "let the account simmer for 41 years," she says. (We can only imagine how much more money you would have if lunch were a simple tuna fish sandwich and an apple, instead of, say, Lean Cuisine.)

This wonderful post illustrates the beauty and power of compound interest in a way everyone can understand. Her point is that you can make even small amounts of money work for you in a meaningful way.

You can do better than a cool million, Mommy says. Save money in the numerous ways she suggests -- these are doable, not draconian -- and put that extra money into your Roth account.
If you deposit $5,000 a year for 41 years, with a decent rate of return you'll have more than $3 million, she says.

Source: MSN

12 steps to become a millionaire

You don't have to own the company or be a CEO. Here's how to build a rich nest egg one paycheck at a time.

By Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine

A number of the people profiled in "Millionaires tell how they did it" made their millions as entrepreneurs. But working for the Man doesn't mean you have to be a wage slave or resort to buying lottery tickets to strike it rich. The trick is to maximize your income on the job (and know when to move on), make the most of your employee benefits and tax breaks and use that extra money to start investing.

1. Keep your eyes peeled for better ways to do your job. Streamline a procedure, shave costs, create a new profit center, become an expert on a specific topic, volunteer for a company committee -- anything that will make you stand out as a prime candidate for a promotion or a pay boost.

2. Don't be afraid to negotiate. In a study of master's degree graduates from her university, Carnegie Mellon economics professor Linda Babcock found that those who negotiated their first salary boosted their pay by 7.4% compared with those who didn't bargain.

3. Get your ducks in a row and your numbers on paper. If possible, quantify how much your efforts add to the company's bottom line. If that's not feasible, spotlight your value with comparable salaries for workers in your position from a Web site, such as Salary.com, or from a professional association.

4. Plot your strategy when it's time to move on. Create a professional-looking page on MySpace that tells prospective employers why you're an exceptional candidate, recommends John Challenger of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. And don't neglect more conventional networking: Join a professional association or show up at school reunions toting business cards.

Milk your benefits

5. Contribute as much as you can to your 401(k) and other tax-deferred retirement plans. You'll not only build a bigger nest egg, but you'll also cut your tax bill. In the 25% federal tax bracket, every $1,000 you contribute to a 401(k) trims your taxes by $250. And you'll save on state income taxes, too.

6. Flex your tax-saving muscle. Contribute pretax dollars to a flexible spending account to pay for dependent care or out-of-pocket medical expenses. If you set aside $1,500 per year and you're in the 25% bracket, avoiding federal income and Social Security taxes means Uncle Sam will subsidize almost $500 of your expenses.

7. Review your tax withholding. If you're expecting a refund this spring, you're having too much tax withheld from your paycheck -- and making an interest-free loan to Uncle Sam. That's no way to become a millionaire. Put more money in your pocket by using Kiplinger's withholding calculator and then filling out a new Form W-4.

8. Stash savings in a Roth IRA if you're eligible. Withdrawals in retirement, including decades of compounded earnings, will be tax-free. This year, income-eligibility limits for a Roth increase to $114,000 for individuals and $166,000 for married couples.

Invest like crazy

9. Don't delay. The quicker you get a jump on putting money aside, the easier it will be to stuff a seven-figure cushion. If you start at age 25, for example, investing $286 per month will get you $1 million by age 65, assuming you earn 8% annually.

10. Invest automatically, either through your employer's retirement plan or by setting up a regular deposit to a mutual fund or broker. You'll never miss the money, and you'll avoid two big mistakes: buying too much when stock prices are high and not buying at all when prices fall.

11. Watch for fund fees. The more you pay, the tougher it is to earn an above-average return. The typical hedge fund, for example, takes 20% of any gains, a huge hurdle to overcome. A better bet: no-load mutual funds with expense ratios of 1% or less. If you trade individual stocks, watch those commissions.

12. Keep it simple. Be wary of get-rich-quick schemes or sales pitches for complex investments, such as oil-and-gas partnerships, that trade on the millionaire cachet to lure investors into buying high-fee products they don't understand. Most millionaire households accumulate their wealth over the long term by sticking to a regular investing plan in a balanced portfolio.

Millionaire Mind - Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - Reason(s) for failure

By Leo Foster

In this article we will discuss the Millionaire Mind, the Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and reason(s) for financial failure.

There is ONLY ONE REASON for financial failure: an inadequate financial Self-Image (what some refer to as Money Blueprint)

There is ONLY ONE REASON for financial success: a positive, winning Self -Image with the Millionaire Mind beliefs, values and rules of the millionaires.

You have an inadequate, defective financial Self-Image (Money Blueprint) because

1. You definitely have conflicting, limiting Beliefs, Values and/or Rules.

And you also have ANY or ALL all of the following:


2. Lack of knowledge and techniques to identify and eliminate conflicting, limiting beliefs, values and rules from your Subconscious mind.

3. Lack of knowledge and techniques to program into Subconscious new useful beliefs, values and rules that will support your financial goals, NOT oppose them.

4. Inability to use Subconscious mind to GUIDE to take the proper steps and to the right type business

5. Inability to use Subconscious mind to help create the best possible plan of action;

6. Lack of self-belief, self-confidence and FEAR (beliefs of failure, rejection, humiliation, etc.)

7. Inability to program mind to take ACTION

8. Lack of knowledge that the VERY FIRST thing that MUST be done when setting a NEW goal (financial or otherwise) is to analyze your financial Self-Image (beliefs, values and rules) that will undertake the new goal and CHANGE it if inadequate.

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Let's add some items cited by many, and which exist in your world because of your DEFECTIVE, INADEQUATE Self-Image (Money Blueprint) . Even though they may be contributing to your failure, they are not the PRIMARY cause of it.

Everything always begins in your mind. The Law of Belief (= Law of Attraction) will "materialize" in your reality the EXACT match to your deeply held beliefs, values and rules.

"What you deeply believe at the Subconscious level will materialize in your life", "It is done unto you as you believe", "You get exactly what you deeply believe".

Even Napoleon Hill, in his best-selling book "Think and Grow Rich" invokes the Law of Attraction by stating "Whatever the mind of man can conceive and BELIEVE, it can achieve".
Notice very carefully that Napoleon Hill's statement would be incomplete without the verb BELIEVE included.

The PRIMARY, ORIGINAL, father/mother CAUSE of your financial failure is -- ONE MORE TIME -- a defective financial Self-Image (Money Blueprint). The
REST is consequence of such limited Self-Image.

The CAUSE of your financial failure is ALWAYS a defective Self-Image (limiting, conflicting Beliefs, Values and Rules) which activate the Law of Attraction (=Law of Belief) to bring you limited, undesirable financial results which are in perfect harmony with the conflicting, limited beliefs, values and rules you hold.

So, here we may cite some CONTRIBUTING factors -- keeping in mind that they are consequence of a defective financial Self-Image, and NOT the CAUSE of it. Most people believe the EXACT opposite and have NO CLUE about their own limited, defective, inadequate financial Self-Images (Money Blueprint).

1. You do not know how to handle money. You have limited knowledge of to how handle, manage, save and invest your money.

2. You do not have specific, clearly defined WRITTEN goals and WRITTEN plans for their achievement.

3. You are too lazy or afraid to take the time and educate yourself regarding financial matters.
4. You always jump into action (try to invest in real estate, stock market and commodities, work from home, open a new business, sell on ebay, just to mention a few possibilities) without EVER looking at the financial Self-Image (Money Blueprint) of the fellow who is going to achieve all that -- YOU!.

5. You are always into those "get rich quick" schemes without the proper financial Self-Image and without the proper knowledge of the business you are getting into.

6. You let others manage and invest your money instead of learning the most you can about the process.

7. You avoid making investments because of your lack of knowledge and expertise. And you compound the problem by refusing to educate yourself about financial matters.

8. When you decide to make some investments, you do it in things and areas about which you do not have any knowledge or understanding -- or only limited and erroneous knowledge. It almost looks as if you are setting yourself up for failure. (Let me tell you the real SECRET: You ARE because unknown to you, your Subconscious is already set up for failure due to so many limiting beliefs, values and rules)..

9. You do not even make any efforts to handle the limited amount of money you may have right now.

Now, add other contributing factors that come to your mind and/or applies specifically to your situation..

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But . . . unless you understand that everything BEGINS AND ENDS with your financial Self-image (Money Blueprint), you will NEVER have any great and/or lasting financial success.

Billionaires Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Bill Bartmann and multimillionaire Harv Eker, author of "The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" will tell you that you may know everything a human can possibly know about how to handle and manage money, how to invest in real estate, stock and commodities, you can be a financial genius. . And still, unless you have that Millionaire Mind (= winning financial Self-Image, winning Money Blueprint made up of the right beliefs, values and rules) you will still FAIL miserably the moment you go into business -- no matter what type of business, no matter how smart you think you are , no matter how hard and how long you work..

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Leo Foster believes being a Millionaire should be EASY and FUN Contact him at -- Millionaire Mind Secrets - Be a Millionaire - Money Magnet - Make Money Fast -- where he is designing the "Millionaire Mind Reprogramming" Courses with the fastest techniques to download directly into your brain cells the Millionaire Mind and make you automatically think and achieve like the super rich.