Art of Bargaining

Today I’d like to talk to you about the most important skill you can use to live a richer life.

Most people think they’re good at this skill, but in reality they make one simple mistake that ruins them.

What skill am I talking about?

Negotiating.

Most people botch major negotiations for one major reason.

John D. Rockefeller had a difficult childhood. His family bounced between poverty and comfort because his father was a con-artist. The elder Rockefeller traveled the countryside of upstate New York selling patent medicine which was often simply “snake-oil.” The Rockefellers didn’t exactly fit in where they lived in the small New York village.

Just like most small towns, everybody knew each other. Gossip and rumor spread like wildfire. And the village scorned Rockefeller’s father who they correctly thought was a snake-oil salesman. Whispers followed the family, they were excluded from social life and young John could not help but hear the vicious things the villagers said about his family.

Because they were ostracized, Rockefeller quickly developed a thick skin and a calm demeanor that helped him ignore the verbal barbs from the villagers who thought the sins of the father should blemish his son.

People commented on the boy’s almost Buddhist detachment from events that kept him from getting angry or flustered, even when his father committed the ultimate sin and abandoned their family.

Throughout his childhood, Rockefeller built a fortress of calm.

And this fortress served him on his journey to remarkable success. You see, when Rockefeller sat down to negotiate, it was impossible for people to emotionally manipulate him. Even when he sat in front of a hostile Congress who wanted to destroy the company he built, Rockefeller remained calm and composed during the crisis.
Nothing could faze him.

Now I’m going to show you how you can get calm like Rockefeller before you enter into any negotiation during your life. This could be buying a new car, trying to close on a house, or simply convincing your spouse to do something for you.

Most people, when faced with any negotiation, let their emotions rule. That’s the major mistake. If you let your emotions reign during a negotiation, I promise you will be crushed.

But it’s hard to remain calm especially when you’re trying to get something that you really want.

Think back to the last time you had a major negotiation. You probably felt nervous and anxious. You may have struggled to say the right thing without stammering. You may have felt clammy or even a little nauseous.

That’s okay. It’s normal to feel like that when the stakes are high. But you can work around those feelings using this simple Rockefeller trick.

When you enter a negotiation of any kind, before you start talking, take a moment of quiet to compose yourself. Be silent for a second. Don’t rush into things or tip your hand. Take a deep breath and enjoy the silence for a moment.

Rockefeller would enter a negotiation softly. He waited a moment before he said anything. If you follow his example, you will immediately feel calmer.

The worst thing you can do when negotiating is try to rush things.
Don’t forget that during your brief silence, the other person will feel just as uncomfortable as you.

After you collect your thoughts, compose your first sentence and speak it calmly and confidently. Don’t worry about moving fast. If you do rush, it immediately sends the signal that you’re nervous, scared and overwhelmed. That’s not the impression you want to make.

A calm tone and a slow pace is your friend here.

Later in his career, Rockefeller surprised people he met because he was so calm and genial, even during hostile negotiations. They expected that the king of the Robber Barons would bluster and rage. But he didn’t.

He simply stayed still.

And he spoke calmly, quietly and never rushed.

It’s a rule in negotiations that if you lose your cool then you won’t get the deal you want.

Stay calm and you’ll be just fine.

Beyond learning to stay calm, Rockefeller learned another valuable lesson early in his career: threats don’t work. Businessman lost their cool during a negotiation and made threats when things weren’t working in their favor. This destructive behavior almost always damaged the budding relationship and cost the bully dearly.

Threats ruin relationships. And a rich life and career is built on great relationships.

Machiavelli got it wrong when he said, “It’s better to be feared than loved.”

Rockefeller never made threats, even when he was the richest and most powerful business owner in the world. In fact, Rockefeller was happy to slightly overpay for things in order to maintain and build relationships.

Take these two valuable lessons from Rockefeller:

1. Take a moment before you start any negotiation to clear your mind and remain calm.

2. Don’t ever make threats. They don’t work long-term.

If you work on remaining calm during the negotiation, you’ll notice that you become more persuasive, more rational and more likely to get what you want. It’s one of the most valuable skills for living a rich life.

So keep calm and negotiate it.

Start today.

Do Billionaires Work Hard

The success of billionaires may be down to more than just hard work and good luck - they may also be smarter than most, according to a study.

About 45 per cent of billionaires are in the top one per cent for brainpower, says Jonathan Wai of Duke University.

He says that the top one per cent of wealthy people and the top one per cent for brainpower strongly overlap, reports CNBC.

That ranks them as smarter than US senators and federal judges, of whom 41 per cent are in the top one per cent for cognitive ability, and Fortune 500 CEOS at 38.6 per cent.

Only 21 per cent of the US House of Representatives were considered to be that smart.

However, the study only judges brainpower by whether someone attended one of 29 elite - and often expensive - American colleges, using the colleges' admissions criteria of high academic grades to decide if someone is intelligent.

The study found that 88 per cent of billionaires graduated from college, though a lack of degree did not get in the way of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg making his billions after dropping out of Harvard.

Among members of the Forbes 400 list of America's wealthiest people, Charles and David Koch, co-owners of Koch industries, took degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while investor Warren Buffett graduated from UPenn and Columbia.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard while Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page met as PhD students at Stanford.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer went to Harvard while his boss Bill Gates dropped out of the same university, and Amazon found Jeff Bezo attended Princeton.

Those who made their fortunes through investments or technology were more likely to be in the top one per cent for brainpower than those who did from fashion and retail or food and drink.

Some 69 per cent of investment billionaires and 63 per cent of technology magnates are represented in the top one per cent, while only a quarter of fashion earners and 23 per cent of food and drink billionaires make the grade.

Billionaires Economic needs as a Family Man

A LESSON FROM A BILLIONAIRE PERSON WHO CREATED AN INNOVATION IN EUROPE  

One in 10 Europeans now living was supposedly conceived on an Ikea bed. The resulting babies are likely to sleep in an Ikea cot while their parents sit on Ikea sofas and eat off Ikea crockery which they store in Ikea cupboards. A third of all kitchens sold in France and Sweden are from Ikea. In Norway it’s half. Here in Britain we lag behind a bit but not much.

Last year with much of the world stuck in recession the Swedish furniture and homewares retailer delivered record annual net profits of £3.2billion. Sales in the 44 countries with Ikea stores grew by almost 10 per cent to a staggering £27.6billion.

All of which should add a satisfying element to the 87th birthday tomorrow of Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad. But Mr Kamprad, a widower, does not go in for extravagances such as birthday parties. For despite featuring regularly in lists of the world’s richest billionaires, the man who persuaded the British to “chuck out the chintz” is notoriously careful with money.

He could easily afford a private jet but would rather fly economy class and preferably on a budget airline. Arriving at a gala to receive a Businessman Of The Year Award he was at first refused entry because he had come on the bus. At home he drove an ancient Volvo for years until he was persuaded that it was too dangerous.

Rather than dining in Michelin starred restaurants he likes to drop in to one of his stores for a cheap meal of his favourite Swedish meatballs. In cafeterias he swipes the little packets of salt and pepper to take home.

Admittedly he has lived in Switzerland as a tax exile since 1976. But his home is a modest bungalow and he assembled every stick of Ikea flatpack furniture in it himself.

He regards luxury not merely as an indulgence but almost as a sin. In his memoir Testament Of A Furniture Dealer he wrote: “We don’t need flashy cars, impressive titles, uniforms or other status symbols. We rely on our strength and our will!”

Employees – although he prefers to call them “co-workers” – at Ikea HQ are told to use both sides of a sheet of paper and get a telling-off if they leave the lights on when leaving a room. Certainly anyone encountering him doing his shopping in the local market (always near closing time when vendors are more likely to drop their prices) dressed in his scruffy coat would assume he was just another elderly gent living on a tight budget rather than the fifth wealthiest entrepreneur in the world.

And that is just how Ingvar Kamprad likes it. Ever since he started his business in 1943 when he was just 17, he has controlled his own and his company’s public image with consummate skill.

He tells people he has many shortcomings, that he is slightly stupid. Yet he remains incredibly sharp and knowledgeable down to the smallest detail

This is not to say that he does not genuinely believe in frugal living. But it does mean that there is another side to the Ikea empire and its emperor.

In the Sixties he used to drive a Porsche and wore bespoke suits. The shabby jackets and snus – a Swedish chewing tobacco – came a decade later. In his book The Truth About Ikea published in 2010, Kamprad’s former executive assistant Johan Stenebo wrote: “He wanted to appear a man of the people, one of us.”

Thus we know about the modest Swiss bungalow but hear less about the large country estate in Sweden or the Provence vineyard which Kamprad also owns.

He has endeared himself with a self-deprecating, confessional style in the few interviews he has given, admitting his battle with alcohol which he says is unresolved but which he keeps “under control” by drying out three times a year. But Stenebo says that is only half the picture.

“Ingvar casts himself as the underdog, presenting himself to the world as a somewhat dim, alcoholic dyslexic. He tells people he has many shortcomings, that he is slightly stupid. Yet he remains incredibly sharp and knowledgeable down to the smallest detail. He will tell you in seconds how much Russian pine sawn on the spot, glued and then refined in Poland would cost in a Swedish store.”

Kamprad claims he became an alcoholic when he worked in Poland. But in 20 years of working with him Stenebo saw him drunk only once, at a party in 1995, and only later heard him mention alcoholism to journalists. “This soul-baring is disarming and ensures easy interviews.”

But Kamprad’s finest piece of image handling came in 1994 when it emerged he had joined the profascist New Sweden Movement in 1942 and remained a friend of its leader Per Engdahl into the Fifties.

In a letter to every Ikea employee Kamprad – whose grandparents were Germans from the Sudetenland – asked them to forgive what he termed “the greatest mistake of my life”. Hundreds of employees signed a letter which read: “We are here whenever you need us. The Ikea Family.” Though he was moved to tears Kamprad knew he had killed the damning story stone dead. Since then the company he named after his own initials plus those of the family farm (Elmtaryd) and his native village (Almhut) has grown into a giant with more than 80,000 co-workers. From modest beginnings with local mail order Ikea now serves 350 million customers a year. As with all good ideas the Ikea concept is simple: pass the job of putting furniture together on to the customer. It came to Kamprad when he took the legs off a table to make it fi t into a car.

It has made him rich beyond the dreams of avarice but as he himself might say: “Nobody ever got rich by wasting money.”

Start to save at an Earlier Age itself

Disciplined saving early in life will reap millions … literally!

As you approach adulthood and start to think about your future, are you really ready to be financially responsible for yourself? If you answered no, you’re not alone. The Jump$tart Coalition administered a basic financial literacy test to high school seniors, and less than half of the students correctly answered the questions. Another study found that over 75% of college students believe they are not ready to make smart financial decisions for themselves.

Pretty scary, isn’t it? If you think about it, most of your friends probably don’t know how to balance a checkbook. In fact, very few teens actually have a savings account or know what long-term investing means. Do you?

A 2009 Capital One survey discovered that 50% of teens wished they knew more about personal finances. Whether you have never stepped foot in a bank or you are actively saving and investing for your future, all it takes is a little effort and a lot of patience to become confident in your financial decisions.

Wish you were as wealthy as this guy? He's Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook, and his super-geek-to-billionaire story is the basis of the hit movie The Social Network.

"Young people are just smarter," he told a Stanford University audience in 2007. He started Facebook from his Harvard dorm in 2004 as a sophomore. Now he's a 26-year-old philanthropist, recently donating $100 million to the Newark, N.J., school district.

Zuckerberg's youthful fame and fortune makes for a riveting tale. But across America every year, plenty of entrepreneurs make their first million under the age of 25, some in high school. It takes vision, smarts, determination and a little luck.

A Millionaire’s Best Friend

One awesome thing that you can take advantage of is compound interest. It may sound like an intimidating term, but it really isn’t once you know what it means. Here’s a little secret: compound interest is a millionaire’s best friend. It's really free money. Seriously. But don’t take our word for it. Just check out this story of Ben and Arthur to understand the power of compound interest.

Ben and Arthur were friends who grew up together. They both knew that they needed to start thinking about the future. At age 19, Ben decided to invest $2,000 every year for eight years. He picked investment funds that averaged a 12% interest rate. Then, at age 26, Ben stopped putting money into his investments. So he put a total of $16,000 into his investment funds.

Now Arthur didn’t start investing until age 27. Just like Ben, he put $2,000 into his investment funds every year until he turned 65. He got the same 12% interest rate as Ben, but he invested 23 more years than Ben did. So Arthur invested a total of $78,000 over 39 years.

When both Ben and Arthur turned 65, they decided to compare their investment accounts. Who do you think had more? Ben, with his total of $16,000 invested over eight years, or Arthur, who invested $78,000 over 39 years?

Believe it or not, Ben came out ahead … $700,000 ahead! Arthur had a total of $1,532,166, while Ben had a total of $2,288,996. How did he do it? Starting early is the key. He put in less money but started eight years earlier. That’s compound interest for you! It turns $16,000 into almost $2.3 million! Since Ben invested earlier, the interest kicked in sooner.

What You Can Do Now

The trick is to start as soon as possible. A survey by Charles Schwab found that 24% of teens believe that since they are young, saving money isn’t important. Looks like we just blew that theory out of the water! That same survey also discovered that only 22% of teens say they know how to invest money to make it grow. Why not change that stat and learn how to become a smart investor with your money? Talk to your parents or teachers about how to open up a long-term investment account so you can become a millionaire, too. And remember, waiting just means you make less money in the end. So get moving!

Want to learn more about how you and your friends can become millionaires? Check out Dave's tools just for teens!

What is the Billionaire Age ?

The concept of a billion dollars is pretty hard to fathom, which is okay because about 99.999% of us will never really have to deal with it. According to Forbes, the world has 1,011 billionaires out of nearly seven billion people, so it's not exactly an everyday occurrence. Those that do become billionaires seem to do it through a mixture of ingenuity, intelligence and timing, or they just inherit it. For the rest of us - those working average jobs, investing normally and living an average lifestyle - how long would it take to become a billionaire? Is it even possible?

World's Greatest Investors

If you're making around $50,000 per year, it won't take forever to amass a million dollars, and indeed, many people will be able to achieve that in their lifetime. But a billion dollars? That'd be 1,000 lifetimes, kind of. We'll check out a range of jobs in the U.S. and some typical investments to see how long it would take someone to become a billionaire. We'll be using the saving rate of 10% of someone's income for the year, which may be a little bit optimistic, but it gives a good picture of how long it takes to become a billionaire on an average joe's salary. (Are savings accounts your best bet when it comes to returns? Learn more in The 7 Best Places To Put Your Savings.)

Teaching Your Way To a Fortune

There are more than one million teachers in the U.S. according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the mean salary for elementary and secondary school teachers is $55,210. If you're a teacher and are able to put aside 10% of your salary every year ($5,521) then it will take around 186 years for you to become a billionaire if you have your money in a long-term savings account paying 5% interest compounded annually. This means, if you start saving when you're fresh out of college and never touch the money, you could be a billionaire when you're 208!

If you invested in a more lucrative vehicle, like the stock market, you can become a billionaire much quicker. Looking at the returns of the Dow Jones over the past 40 years, there is an average return (CAGR) of 6.68% per year. If these returns are similar for the coming years, then the teacher who puts away 10% of his or her salary per month could become a billionaire in just 145 years. If you only wanted to become a millionaire, it would take you between 46 and 47 years in a 5% savings account and around 39 years if you followed the 6.68% returns of the Dow. (To learn more, see Index Investing: The Dow Jones Industrial Average.)

High Earners

It seems nearly impossible to become a billionaire making the salary of the average American teacher, but that's not really a surprise. How about if you're in a higher salary range, like a surgeon or another specialized doctor? An average anesthesiologist in the U.S. makes $211,750, according to the BLS, and if that anesthesiologist was able to put away 10% of his or her earnings every year into our savings account it would take around 160 years to become a billionaire.

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And if that anesthesiologist put their savings into an index that tracked the Dow, it would still take more than a lifetime at 124 years. With that kind of salary it seems like you just can't get there on hard work alone.

To give you more perspective, it would take a postal worker (mean salary $48,940) around 188-189 years to become a billionaire using a savings account, and 146-147 years investing in the market. It would take a lawyer (mean salary $129,020) 131-132 years to make a billion in the markets, and 168-169 to make a billion in a savings account. So, when you think of it, whether you're a lawyer, a teacher, a postal worker or a surgeon, the great equalizer is that you'll never be a billionaire.

Out of Reach?

So, who can become a billionaire? How much would you have to have on hand every year to invest and be a billionaire at a time where you could still spend it? If you could put away $1 million a year, you're still looking at about 80 years of saving or 64-65 years of investing before the big payoff. Even actors and athletes who can make millions a year, rarely have the staying power to make it every year for 80 years. (How much are the top sports pros making? Find out in Top 7 Pro Athlete Contracts.)

So, sorry to come to such a heartbreaking conclusion, but it's hard for anyone to become a billionaire using traditional methods. To see a billion dollars during your lifetime (40 years of saving), you would need to put nearly $5.5 million into a fund that mirrors the Dow's average growth of 6.68%.

Here’s How Long It Will Take For You to Hit the Forbes Billionaire List

The Forbes Rich List is out, and as we slice and dice the billionaires around the world, a few trends have emerged: the number of Chinese billionaires has doubled since last year; Moscow has more billionaires per capita than any other city; and 2010 was good to most really rich people! 648 billionaires saw an increase in wealth while only 160 saw decreases. { LA Times } Guess those gains had to come from somewhere.

What we really wanted to know though, is what gives you the best chance at making a future Forbes billionaire list, how long will it take to get there, and how stiff is the competition? Here are the number of billionaires in each industry tracked by Forbes, and the average age of the billionaires.

Industry	Number of Billionaires	Total Net Worth	Average Age
Automotive	18	$63.7 billion	64
Construction & Engineering	31	$76.6 billion	58
Diversified	83	$253.1 billion	60
Energy	91	$398.2 billion	59
Fashion and Retail	129	$628 billion	65
Finance	80	$215.8 billion	62
Food and Beverage	66	$210.5 billion	65
Gaming	14	$57.2 billion	67
Health care	57	$105.7 billion	61
Investments	139	$525.7 billion	62
Logistics	30	$94.4 billion	63
Manufacturing	87	$251.3 billion	61
Media	66	$244.2 billion	67
Metals & Mining	48	$335 billion	52
Real Estate	96	$305.1 billion	65
Service	49	$110.7 billion	67
Sports	17	$26.9 billion	66
Technology	89	$405.4 billion	52
Telecom	20	$137 billion	59

It’s worth noting that there is some overlap in categories, and some people who we might place in one category appear in another or more than one. For example, Peter Thiel is listed under investments, though we’d probably put him in the technology category. There’s also not a clean way to account for wealth inherited from family members, or divided among them. There are multiple Benettons who appear in the Fashion and Retail category individually, for example, but Gucci owner Francois Pinault’s family is grouped together even though multiple members of the family are billionaires.

That said, for the non-exact nature of figuring this out, if you don’t want to wait for your fortune it probably comes as no surprise that technology is your best bet and is tied for the lowest average billionaire age (thanks, Facebook billionaires) with metal and mining. So if it’s young money you’re after, pick up a mine or two while you wait for your social network or search engine to catch on. You’ll be making the other billionaires feel like slackers in no time.

That’s not where the biggest money is though. Perhaps surprising to some is that fashion and retail (which includes grocery stores), is the category that accounts for the most cumulative wealth. More than investments, more than finance and more than technology. Selling actual, physical stuff to consumers is still your best bet of making big money. Oh, and for those who noticed Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficking leader Joaquin Guzman Loera on the list? {Forbes} Stick to the legal, actual, physical stuff like fashion or food. Not only is the life expectancy better, in the long run so are the profits. You never know thought, maybe Loera’s diversified byblinging out weapons.

Now what if it’s easy (relatively speaking) wealth you’re after? Gaming has relatively few billionaires, and on average they’re kind of old. The amount of competition is relatively small, most will be retiring in general or retiring to that great casino in the sky, so this is a prime market to go after.

How to go after it? Well, that’s up to you and probably a bit of genetic fortune. If you missed out on being born into a dynasty, your next best bet is to marry into one. If that still doesn’t work, there’s always the do-it-yourself model. We’ll give you a few pointers on that once we appear on the list rather than doing the grunt work of analyzing it. Off to the single billionaires list it is then.

The Bottom Line

Though there are over 1,000 billionaires in the world, it's still an exceptional occurrence, and is owing to momentous business dealings, kick-starting an industry, inventing a much-desired service or concept, and other extraordinary events. For the rest of us, maybe we'll just have to make due with a million. (Depressed? Don't be. Check out our Millionaire Calculator to see how much you need to save to become a millionaire.)

Whom do Billionaires trust for Business

SIR ELTON John, Sting and Caroline Quentin are just a few celebrities who have lost substantial sums of money because of alleged failings by their financial advisers. So it should come as no surprise to learn that millionaires do not trust financial professionals and prefer to rely on the investment advice given in newspapers like this one.

In a survey of people worth more than £1 million, published last week by Tulip Financial Research, more than half of those questioned relied on their own judgment when making investment decisions, while only a tiny proportion - one in 10 - consulted a financial adviser.

And the most popular points of reference when making decisions were the weekend personal finance sections of the quality press, which were cited by 42 percent of respondents.

This will come as particularly depressing news for advisers, given the seemingly inexorable rise in the numbers of seriously rich. According to Merrill Lynch's latest World Wealth Report, volatile markets kept the number of new dollar-millionaires down to a relatively modest 180,000 last year. In the previous year, more than one million people had joined this no-longer-quite-so-exclusive club.

Wealthy people fall into five main categories. The most sophisticated are company executives who, with substantial tranches of share options, are well informed, highly connected and tend to rely heavily on their own judgment.

Similarly, entrepreneurs tend to be dynamic individuals who have clear ideas about how to manage their wealth. Having worked hard to create their millions, they are unwilling to risk a penny. Like the executives, they are also wary of traditional advisers.

Those with "old money" are the most likely to seek advice from financial professionals, sometimes using the same firms as their grandparents and great-grandparents.

The two categories most at risk of losing large sums because of substandard advice are the celebrity superstars, such as rock heroes, footballers and lottery winners.

According to David Poole of Singer & Friedlander, which specialises in advising wealthy people: "A small minority of crooked financial advisers have made many investors wary. There are some very good firms out there, but they tend to go quietly about their business and no one ever hears of them."

Private banks such as Coutts & Co, which looks after the finances of 40 per cent of the England football squad, have departments that specialise in different categories of wealth management for the super-rich. Similarly, the major accountancy firms and big high street banks offer top-of-the-range wealth management services.

As so much financial planning for millionaires revolves around trusts and other forms of tax planning, lawyers tend to work hand in hand with accountants to identify the best solutions. Farrers, which acts for the Queen, and Boodle Hatfield are considered the creme de la creme when it comes to managing "old" money. Withers and McFarlanes are the bees' knees for entrepreneurs. And Deloitte & Touche and Ernst & Young have made a name advising media and sports celebrities.

At the end of the day, the best advice for most multi-millionaires is to live abroad - something that most could probably work out for themselves.

10 Money Lessons from Billionaires

Billionaires have changed the way our world works. They’ve altered the way we communicate, travel, and live. And along the way, they have made incredible amounts of money for their efforts.

Learning from the 10 billionaires below is not only a good idea if you want to boost your bank account, but also if you want your work to make a difference.

With that in mind, here are 10 lessons from billionaires on earning money, succeeding in business, and finding happiness in life.

1. “You become what you believe. You are where you are today in your life based on everything you have believed.” —Oprah Winfrey, net worth of $2.7 billion

First and foremost, you have to believe that greatness is possible. Many of the world’s billionaires have shifted the way our world works, because they believed that they were capable of doing something that was previously impossible.

Change is possible. Greatness is possible. But you can’t do anything unless you first believe in yourself.

2. “What we say here every day is that our success is really based on our members' success, our community's success.” —Pierre Omidyar, net worth of $6.7 billion

Your success is directly tied to how much you do for others. It’s not what you know. It’s not who you know. It’s what you do for who you know. Success follows generosity.

3. “The typical human life seems to be quite unplanned, undirected, unlived, and unsavored. Only those who consciously think about the adventure of living as a matter of making choices among options, which they have found for themselves, ever establish real self-control and live their lives fully.” —Karl Albrecht, net worth of $25.4 billion

Everything you do (or choose not to do) is a choice. Most of us think that life happens to us, but in reality life is something that we choose either by actively pursuing options and creating our own circumstances, or by blocking opportunities and limiting our beliefs of what is possible.

You can choose the type of life you want to live.

4. “I think that our fundamental belief is that for us growth is a way of life and we have to grow at all times.” —Mukesh Ambani, net worth of $22.3 billion

Success is not an event—it’s a process. Billionaires embody that process better than most of us. They are on a constant quest to improve, enhance, and outperform themselves. It’s a constant, internal drive to become a better person.

5. “Getting the job done has been the basis for the success my company has achieved.” —Michael Bloomberg, net worth of $22 billion

Billionaires have grit and perseverance. Top performers work hard at hard things. And that means that successful people do the things that most people don’t want to do, and that’s why they get the job done.

6. “If I'm going to do something, I do it spectacularly or I don't do it at all.” —Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, net worth of $18 billion

Developing a world-class skill means that you have the capability to ignore everything else. You have to be able to focus on doing an incredible job or on ignoring it completely. Greatness doesn’t come from simply “putting the time in” … you have to put the time in with effort, energy, and resolve.

7. “It's through curiosity and looking at opportunities in new ways that we've always mapped our path at Dell. There's always an opportunity to make a difference.” —Michael Dell, net worth of $15.9 billion

Take a look at any market-leading company. Are they compromising on their product in one way or another? That’s an opportunity for disruption, growth, and change. Any unmet need, any annoying problem, any half-baked solution offers a chance to change things.

8. “The role of business is to produce goods and services that make people's lives better.” —Charles Koch, net worth of $25 billion

If your only goal is to become rich, then you’re going to have trouble meeting your goal. However, if your focus is on making people’s lives better, then you’ll find that success comes much more quickly.

9. “No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit.” —Andrew Carnegie, net worth of $298.3 billion (in 2007 dollars)

Success unshared is failure. Our connections with other people are what give our work meaning. The things we do will only matter if they are shared with others.

10. “The ultimate definition of success is: you could lose everything that you have and truly be okay with it. Your happiness isn't based on external factors.” —Tony Hsieh, net worth of $840 million

So often, we push happiness out on the horizon of life. “Once I get this job, I’ll be happy.” Or, “If only I landed that promotion, then everything would be good.”

Of course, life doesn’t work that way, and there is always another goal once we reach our previous idea of happiness. Money is important, but your life should never be built around it.

Happiness comes before success, not after it.

Risk Taking Tendency of Billionaires

The Habits of Self Made Millionaires

If there is any one common denominator among self made millionaires and billionaires, it’s that they were all willing to take risks. In fact, they may not have been so willing to in the beginning, but then they realized if they didn’t, nothing in their lives would change. Success isn’t about being careful, and it’s not about dipping your toe in the water. You should do at least that much, but what happens after is most important. It’s the ability to take action that separates you from everyone else.

What have you NOT done, that you need to do right now? You could be one decision away from another way of life.

While many people inherit their fortune, most do not. They work for it. They have to take strides to go from nothing to something, and they weren’t all from wealthy families. In fact, you should also know that several millionaires have not graduated from college. If you can take just a few minutes of your time to finish reading this article, and then connect with me to learn more, you can at least make a decision later as to whether or not you believe you have what it takes to create a new life.

It’s all in the mind, but the habits of self made millionaires show us that we are all capable of doing more, having more, and of course being more.

Vision

Most billionaires have a vision of what they think the world will be like in the future - and how they can capitalize on it. Take Sergey Brin and Larry Page, cofounders of Google (NYSE:GOOG). They (fittingly) tied for 24th place on the Forbes' 2010 billionaire list, with $17.5 billion each to their names. This pair saw the possibilities for the internet as a tool for opening up the world of information to people, so they started a company, Google, based on a superior search engine that would help this vision become a reality. Launched in 1998, the company has since become the world's most popular search engine and has radically expanded the internet's scope; the cofounders' wealth has expanded right along with it. (Find out where Google's been headed lately, in Google Takes Aim At Microsoft

Forward Thinking

Bill Gates didn’t become a billionaire simply by selling the most computer systems. He anticipated that people and businesses would need a personal integrated suite of office software in a multi-tasking operating system and then he created the product to fill that need. He was forward thinking enough understand what people would want before it existed to be wanted. This kind of self-fulfilling prophecy, the ability to create public expectation and then meet it, is how billionaires get ahead of the pack and establish themselves before competitors can get a foothold on new technology.

Have incredible curiosity.

“They are incredibly curious; what the rest of the world thinks is a problem and complains about — that’s what these people go and work on” says Robert Jordan.

One mogul, James Dolan, once bought a hundred-year-old legal newspaper publisher. After surveying the subscribers, he found the biggest reason read the paper was for the foreclosure notices they ran.

So James Dolan started a real-time national foreclosures reporting service.

Perseverance

Billionaires tend to have fantastic ideas about the future. But unlike typical visionaries, billionaires have gone beyond just planning and talking about their ideas. They have long term goals and work steadily and consistently until their goals are achieved. They break down large problems into a smaller set of obstacles that can be eliminated one by one until the goal is reached.

Going Against the Grain

When the crowd starts following a new trend, billionaires are shrewd enough to take advantage of the financial opportunities that are being ignored by everyone else. Warren Buffet made his fortune by buying investments when everyone else was selling. Tech gurus like Zuckerberg and Gates could have taken conventional jobs and lived quite comfortably but chose to start their own businesses. Billionaire status is achieved by people who are willing to ignore the advice from those around them and pursue their goals.

Frugality

Millionaires are often infamous for their big purchases and lavish lifestyles. Breaking from millionaire to billionaire status means holding onto money and cultivating it through wise investments. A frugal attitude towards money doesn’t disappear once wealth is achieved. Billionaires Warren Buffet and Carlos Slim are known for their frugal lifestyles, maintaining modest homes and doing without private yachts or planes. Ikea founder, Ingvar Kamprad actually made his fortune by developing a marketing plan for furniture based on his own frugal ideals. Despite his success, he continues to make economy class travel arrangements and drive an older model Volvo.

You might assume that a billionaire's drive stems from the for a luxurious lifestyle. However, some of the world's richest people ascended to their positions thanks to their ability to watch the bottom line. Take Warren Buffett, for example. His $47 billion fortune put him at No.3 on Forbes' 2010 list of billionaires, but this ultra-rich investor investor's success can be partly credited to his frugal lifestyle. From a very young age, Buffett was making and investing his money. By the time he was 26 years old, he had already made and saved the modern-day equivalent of more than $1 million. This allowed him to start his own investment partnership, which eventually allowed him to invest in and take control of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A). And the rest, as they say, is history! (For related reading, see 5 Billionaires Who Live Below Their Means.)

Healthy Lifestyles
Billionaires tend to be goal oriented and clear headed. This attitude extends beyond their business and into all aspects of their lives. Healthy eating and regular exercise keep billionaires in top shape so that they can run their empires with focus and endurance.

Rely on Others

Far from being the independent mavericks that we see in the movies, billionaires know that they can’t do it alone. They surround themselves with smart, reliable and honest people and value their skills and feedback.

Idealists

Lastly, billionaires bring a positive attitude to everything they do. They believe in themselves and in their ideas and that obstacles can be overcome. Failure is accepted as a natural part of business and an opportunity to learn and improve.

They crash through obstacles

“It just happens as a matter of fact that everybody who hits the billion-dollar level hits massive challenges, without exception.” says Jordan. “Some of this stuff is so massive it makes you think, I don’t know how they got passed it.”

Take Joe Piscopo of Pansophic. “An employee got pissed off, took an electromagnet, and walked through their data center. He destroyed every last byte of data sitting on their computers,” says Jordan. “If that isn’t a company destroyer, I don’t know what is! And they actually survived.”

Self-Made Billionaires are excellent problem solvers
At the point most people think “game over”, Billionaires find ways to fix impossible problems.

Billionaires have great attitudes

Attitude trumps skill set.

“This is a group that is far less cynical than the rest of the world,” says Jordan “That’s just not the way they look at the world. They have a passionate desire.”

Dane Miller ,who went from slang slings to a biomed fortune actually had a surgeon implant a piece of titanium in his own arm to prove to people titanium was safe for human implants and better than steel.

They make money from their mistakes
Billionaires turn lemons into lemonade.

According to Jordan, a major difference between billionaires and regular people is how they handle their mistakes.

Software entrepreneur Bill Merchantz created Lakeview Technology. His company created a software product that blew up so bad he had to create new software to fix it. He made his fortune off the fix.

Billionaires make use of boredom

“The problem is boredom. If I’m bored, I may break something just for the fun of fixing it. That’s kind of rough on the people who actually work in the company, you know?” – Billionaire Jim Dolan.

Billionaires don’t go it alone

The world likes to cast the Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerbergs as solo, lone-wolf founders.
But usually their success is the product of a team.
Key employees, lesser known co-founders, even family all contribute to the final success.

“Bill Gates is the known quantity as the founder of Microsoft, but he wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without Steve Ballmer and everyone else around him. I think they just figured, ‘He’s rich, let him just be the lightning rod of the company.’ But none of it was a solo act.” says Jordan

Billionaires take risks

Most people are afraid of failure.
They seem to almost seek failure by taking big risks.

The world is full of risk takers. Every day on the news we hear about people who face the consequences of reckless behaviour, often measured by the losses of life or property. But unlike the typical risk taker, successful billionaires weigh their decisions carefully and take the risks that are worth taking. They may start out by investing in an unproven market or gamble their funds on a failing business, but in the end, they make measured choices and never take a risk they can’t recover from.

“Many people go about business in a very cautious way, through networking and things like that. That’s not what these people did. They actually had a moment where they had to take a risk, and they did it,” says Jordan.

Vince Pettinelli, of PeopleServe, was 35 and the head of Ohio’s mental health program when he went in to business for himself.

“When Pettinelli told his wife he was quitting his job, she practically gnashed her teeth,” says Jordan. “She said, You’re going to do WHAT?! ”

Still, Pettinelli started simply by opening up a home for severely retarded people.

That may not sound like “a recipe for getting rich”, but Pettinelli ended up with 7,800 residents and sold his business ResCare for $200 million.

One thing virtually all billionaires have in common is that they are willing to take a leap of faith in their pursuit of success. For some billionaires such as Bill Gates or Lawrence Ellison (software giant Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) founder), this might be dropping out of college to pursue a business opportunity. But some billionaires have been known to push the stakes even higher - like George Soros (net worth $14 billion). This renowned investor and hedge fund manager is known as the man who "broke" the Bank of England by making a multibillion-dollar bet that the British pound would decline in value. It did, earning Soros more than $1 billion in a single day. (To read more about Soros, see George Soros: The Philosophy Of An Elite Investor and Stocks Soros Is Holding.)

The Habits of Self Made Millionaires Include Taking Risks

If you were dig deeper into the stories of the habits of self made millionaires, I can assure you’ll see another common thread. Going back to taking risks; it’s important. Many of these self made millionaires took risks by:

Buying companies that were ruined
Investing when times were hard
Willing to try new trends that others were critical of
They were willing to fail as often as it took to get it right

Don’t look at failure as glorious, but just see it as a stepping stone to get to a higher place. Failure isn’t FINAL, but victory isn’t that far either. Communicate openly with team members, and don’t be afraid to spend time with them. Don’t have the, “I’m the owner mentality, and everyone else is beneath me.”

Billionaires have patience.

Not only do billionaires tend to be able to pounce when the moment's right, they also make patience a habit. After all, sometimes it takes a while for a good idea to pay off.
They realize nothing happens overnight.

Most billionaires take years to become successful.
Even if success seems to happen overnight it didn’t.

Take Groupon. Success for co-founder Eric Lefkofsky was a long and painful process. Groupon was a left over project from another company that failed.

Even though Groupon seems like an “overnight success”, it’s fortune was years in the making.

Ever heard of Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN)? It was founded by former Wall Street executive Jeff Bezos in 1994. The now-major company started in Bezos' garage, with only a few employees. Bezos is now the CEO of the largest online retailer in the U.S., with a net worth of $12.3 billion in 2010. However, it took seven years before the company turned a profit, which it eventually did in fourth quarter of 2001. It was a major coup after the dotcom crash, which left many wondering whether an online business model was viable at all. Bezos believed it to be so, and persevered until the world was ready to embrace online shopping.

Beer and the Habits of Self Made Millionaires!

What in the world does beer have to do with the habits of self made millionaires?

James Koch, the gentleman that started Sam Adams, knew a lot about beer. He became the master of his craft. He mastered beer, then he set out to master how to run a business. It’s about knowing your market, what they are looking for, and being willing to taste the product for yourself. Would you buy it? Would you enjoy it? If you don’t see how someone would need it, your answer is probably NO.

Koch didn’t have it easy either, banks turned him down just as fast as he walked into them. When the Boston Beer Company started offering microloans to like-minded individuals that wanted to be in the food or beverage industry, he finally got a hold of enough money to get going. Koch not only became a huge success, but he decided to help others do what he was doing.

This is where it’s at. You master the thing you want to leverage your business with, then you learn how, then you teach. Does it get any better than that? As a result, Koch’s business is growing, and had been short with his time and money, his life may not have been so wealthy as it is today.

The Bottom Line

No one said that creating a billion-dollar fortune was easy. In fact, many of the world's billionaires share key qualities such as vision, patience and an incredible fortitude in the face of risk. Luckily, these billionaire habits are tools that are available to everyone, free of charge, and could help you move take a few more steps up your own wealth ladder.

It could be that you just weren’t ready, so you need to make some life changes. You’ll grow as you go.

If you would like to learn more about the “habits of self made millionaires” that I am working with, and how it has changed my life and worldview, CLICK the banner below to learn more.

Concentrate how to earn money to become as a Billionaire

How to Become a Self Made Billionaire

1. Start with a dream

“I intend to be, the richest man in the world.” – Howard Hughes

“It does not take money to make money.” – Robert Kiyosaki

Becoming a billionaire begins with a dream. One of the free gifts given to us by our creator is the gift of imagination. It costs nothing to dream but most people don’t dare to dream and those who do, dream small.

“People who dream small dreams continue to live as small people.” – Rich Dad

“Aim for the highest.” – Andrew Carnegie

On several occasions, I have shared my dream with friends and all I got were fingers pointing at me saying; “you must be a joker.” Do statements like that deter me? My answer is no. I still continue to dream big and pursue that dream vigorously. If becoming a billionaire is your lifetime goal; then allow your mind to wander; dream big and shut your ears to critics.

“I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.” – Warren

“You are nuts and you should be proud of it. Stick with what you believe in.” – Trip Hawkins

“All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day and find out that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible.” – T. E. Lawrence

2. Develop the billionaire’s mindset
“If I lose a billion dollars, I will have it back in less than five years.” – Henry Ford

The second step to becoming a billionaire is to develop the mindset of billionaires. Do you know that the thinking capacity of millionaires differ from that of billionaires? To become a billionaire, you must develop your mindset to accommodate that status. You must think big and you must also increase your capacity to handle the corresponding risk.

“You must take risks, both with your own money or with borrowed money. Risk taking is essential to business growth.” – J. Paul Getty

Becoming a billionaire means being willing to risk failure; you must also bear in mind that achieving any worthwhile goal in life requires sacrifice. You must see possibilities in the actualization of your dreams and ultimately, you must train your eyes to see opportunities disguised as problems; you must see opportunities others don’t see.

“Someone asked me, ‘how can I find a good business opportunity? I replied, ‘go and look for adversity.’ If you can handle adversity, you will find opportunity. Adversity and opportunity are two inseparable twins.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

“A good businessman must have nose for business the same way a journalist has nose for news. Once your eyes, ears, nose, heart and brain are trained on business, you sniff business opportunities everywhere. In places where people see a lot of obstacles, I see a lot of opportunities.” – Orji Uzor Kalu

“If you want to go broke; go it big. I will prefer to lose a billion dollars than to lose a million dollars.” – Ajaero Tony Martins

3. Increase your business skills
“Skills make you rich, not theories.” – Rich Dad

Increasing your business skills is essential to the entrepreneurial process. In fact, becoming a billionaire requires more than just business skills. It require financial intelligence, strong intra personal skills and investing skill. Making money is a skilled act; making money is all about utilizing your acquired entrepreneurial skills.

“The ability to sell is the number one skill in business. If you cannot sell, don’t bother thinking about becoming a business owner.” – Rich Dad

4. Develop a fast business idea
“There are fast ideas and slow ideas, just as there are fast trains and slow trains. When it comes to money, most people are on the slow train looking out the window watching the fast train pass them by. If you want to become rich quickly, your plan must include fast ideas.”           – Rich Dad

From my personal point of view, this is where the work begins in the entrepreneurial process to becoming a billionaire. To achieve your dream of becoming a billionaire, you need a fast business idea; accompanied by a fast plan.

“All achievements, all earned riches have their beginning in an idea.” – Andrew Carnegie

Now what do I mean by a fast business idea and a fast plan? In previous articles, I stressed the point that the world is filled with brilliant ideas but the world lack seasoned entrepreneurs. This is why I emphasized you increase your business skills before ever starting a business; the world is filled with brilliant ideas.

Any idea can take you to the place of your dreams but if becoming a billionaire is your priority, then any idea is not enough. You need a fast business idea. A fast business idea is an idea that’s hot in demand; an idea that’s in line with the growing trend. A fast idea solves a very critical problem and most times; fast ideas are always the pioneer solution to people’s problems or needs.

As an illustration to prove the importance of developing a fast idea, I will share with you the following stories. Early 1900, there was a growing demand for oil throughout the world and entrepreneurs such as John D. Rockefeller and J. Paul Getty took advantage of this growing demand; and they became billionaires. When the demand for affordable means of transportation came up, Henry Ford took advantage of it and became a billionaire; so also did Cornelius Vanderbilt.

“I have no complex about wealth. I have worked very hard for my money; producing things people need.” – J. Paul Getty

Aliko Dangote saw a growing demand for commodities in Nigeria and he positioned himself as a fast solution provider; today, he is not only a billionaire but also the richest black man in the world. Computers came as a trend and Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Ted Waitt and Michael Dell developed fast ideas to take advantage of this trend; and they ended up becoming billionaires.

“I’m the NO 1 developer in New York. I’m the biggest in Atlantic City, and maybe we will keep it that way.” – Donald Trump

The internet came as a trend and Larry Page, Jerry Yang, Steve Case, Jeff Bezos, Pierre Omidyar and Mark Zuckerberg developed fast ideas to take advantage of the trend and they became billionaires. So if you want to join this list of billionaires; you need to develop a fast business idea. Now how do you develop a fast idea? I don’t know, but a great way to start is to ask yourself the question; “What is the next coming trend? Will it be biotechnology, alternative power, genetic engineering or something else? Only time will tell.

How to Become a Billionaire Fast

5. Find a business coach or mentor
Let me divulge a secret to becoming a billionaire to you. If you are mentored by a billionaire; chances are high that you will end up a billionaire. I have seen young entrepreneurs perform excellently simply because they are being mentored by billionaires. So when looking for a business coach or mentor; find one that’s a billionaire already or has direct access to billionaires

“Seek advice on risk from the wealthy who still take risks, not friends who dare nothing more than a football bet.” – J. Paul Getty

A good way to go is to seek business mentors who are Venture Capitalists, investment bankers, Angel investors and deal makers. Getting a business coach from any of these fields will do you good and you will learn tremendously from their wealth of experience. Now how do you break into this circle of great men? My answer is I don’t know. All I can say is to repeat what Winston Churchill said:

“He who must dig will surely find a spade; where there’s a will, there’s a way.” – Winston Churchill.

Appearance is Important like a Rich Person

Becoming a Billionaire

To become a Billionaire, we ask only that you follow the simple instructions below on how to choose a name, dress the part, and adopt a Billionaire persona. Once you have completed these preliminaries, you and other like-minded Billionaires are ready to form your own local chapter of Billionaires for Bush.

Suitable Attire

Appearances are everything. Formal dress is required.

Appearance is an extremely important part of attracting men and the richer they are, the more particular their preferences. Apart from signifying your own desirability, dressing well also makes you immediately identifiable by the wealthy and successful. So even if you are not rich yourself, if you are appropriate to a wealthy guy’s taste, you have the potential to be his partner. Herein lies the importance of dressing the part, especially with the goal of attracting rich men.

In order to be a billionaire, it is not merely important to sport the right attitude, but to sport the right suit as well. We really must insist that you dress the part — we do have an image to uphold. It has occasionally come to our attention that some Billionaires have tried to gather in casual garb, and to those deviant individualists, we have only this to say: Formal is Normal.

We know that there is a great wealth of diversity among the extremely rich — and therefore among our fashion choices as well. Billionaires come in all colours, shapes and sizes. We have old money and oil money and dot-com money and money at work and money on vacation and daytime money and evening money.

But as important as it is to honour the diversity of our ranks, it is even more important to preserve the traditional image of the Billionaire in America.

Visual unity is very important to us. Remember, it takes conformity, not individuality, to become a Billionaire for Bush.

So don your black suits and evening gowns, and hit the streets!

Start with the basics

Before you begin your shopping spree, make sure that the basics of grooming are in place. Have a hairstyle which not only flatters your face but which you can maintain on your own. Sparkling, beautiful teeth can take you a long way in attracting a desirable mate. So have your teeth as white as possible and see a cosmetic dentist for correcting dental defects. Likewise ensure that you have clean breath and for this, take care of your oral hygiene, instead of relying only on mints. Take care of your skin and nails as well. If you cannot afford regular manicures and pedicures at the salon, do them yourself but with care.

Adopt a style that suits you

It is extremely important to keep in mind that dressing right has little to do with fashion and everything to do with style. This is because style relates directly to your individual dressing sense which in turn depends on your personal physical features. Hence you may not have a size-zero figure or be able to afford the most expensive labels and yet have an impressive sense of style or dressing sense. Now if you want a style that is all your own, you need to tailor it according to your own physical dimensions and not copy what the models on the ramp are wearing. So go for an honest evaluation of your body type – not only whether you are thin, fat, tall and short but also pay attention to certain aspects of your body, like an ample behind or a short neck. Once you have made a careful mental note of your physical characteristics, it will be easy for you to evolve the right style by highlighting your plus points and minimizing your negative features. For instance if you happen to have a petite figure, go for vertical stripes as they give an impression of length and avoid horizontal stripes which will make you look even shorter. The same holds true for makeup also. Choose makeup that would play up your best features and hide flaws rather than aiming for the looks of models on fashion magazines, most of which are anyway Photo-shopped. If possible, hire a stylist or makeup artist to give you tips on what will look best for you. This might be expensive but consider it an investment if you are serious about attracting a rich partner.

Colors do matter

The right choice of colors can make a big difference between a look that works and one that doesn’t. Firstly make sure that your body structure or skin type can carry off the right colors. Pale complexions for instance might look washed out with neutral-colored apparel like light peach or champagne. On the other hand, black or ruby might bring out the delicacy of your porcelain complexion or bring color to your appearance. Then again also make it a point to use the right colors to highlight your best features. For instance use solid and dark colors if you are on the heavier side, since these absorb light and give the illusion of being slender. Learn more about color charting which lets you wear every single color there is but by making sure that you wear the right shade and tone of every color.

Focus on your wardrobe

As far as your budget would allow, buy new clothing or have your dresses tailored. Include staples in your wardrobe like a black dress for formal occasions, a gorgeous number for cocktail parties, a crisp white shirt, a couple of good coats and jackets, a well-cut formal suit and so on. Good resale shops can help you stock up on designer quality merchandise but the resale items should just be to flesh out a few sparse areas of your wardrobe and not to substitute for the original items. Also stick to pure fabrics as far as possible since they present a more luxurious appearance. These would mostly be Linens, wools, cottons, and silks even though, knits, cashmere, suede's and various leathers can also be rich looking. There are some man-made fabrics like fine quality crepe and chiffon that you can use for certain kinds of dresses even though it is usually better to have the purer fabrics. Check clothing seams for loose threads. Carry an inexpensive clothes brush in the glove compartment of your car to brush off lint or loose threads. You can also keep a hanger in the back seat and hang up your jackets when you drive so you don't look rumpled.

Choose jewellery with care

When dressing to attract rich men, try and have at least one piece of really good, unusual Jewellery is a conversation starter. Other than this, buy some good, reasonably priced costume jewellery which you can use for regular dates. Wear bright gold jewellery near your face and on your wrists so that they lend a rich glow to your appearance. Even if you can afford it, don’t go overboard with jewellery and expensive accessories since far from making your look attractive, these will make you appear overdressed and even desperate.

Keep conventions in mind

Even if you have a killer figure, don’t squeeze yourself into tight dresses and costumes which barely cover your body. This is especially important when dressing to attract a rich mate, since the successful usually prefer to keep to conventions while dressing and some can even be rather conservative. So instead of donning the latest creation from the fashion runway, let your choice of dress and colour be guided by the venue and occasion you are headed to. For a date with the man of your dreams you can depend upon smart casuals or well-tailored dresses with expensive or classy accessories to get the right look. A ball on the other hand would require you to be dressed in a gorgeous evening gown however the final look would again depend upon your physical dimension, skin as well as hair type and so on.

Follow a healthy lifestyle
Finally an attractive personal style doesn’t end with buying the right clothes and expensive accessories. You need glowing skin, healthy hair and a fit body to look great on the whole. So don’t minimize the importance of following a healthy lifestyle which includes a nutritious well-balanced diet, around thirty minutes of exercise every day as well as avoiding harmful habits like smoking. Load up on anti-oxidant rich fresh fruits and vegetables in and between your meals and stay away from fried foods as well as refined, processed products. Regular exercise will not only keep your system healthy but also your tone up your figure which in turn will allow you to dress well and attract the guy you want to.

Your Income and Expenses too must be under control

Getting Spending Under Control

If your income doesn't cover your expenses, you must either cut your expenses or increase your income. It's usually easier to cut spending than to increase income. You don't need to make drastic changes, but you must make some effective cuts that will allow you to pay your bills.

First, cover the bills you must pay (mortgage, utilities, loan payments) and money for necessities (food, clothing, insurance). Then, focus on non-essentials - areas where it will be relatively painless to cut back.

Easy ways to cut expenses

The following are some simple ways to cut expenses. They also work if your bottom line is positive.

If you visit restaurants and order take-out often, consider "brown bagging" lunch and saving restaurants for special occasions.

You can reduce a "fixed" expense such as your electric bill by conserving energy. Make sure all lights are turned off when you leave a room. Switch to small screw-in fluorescent bulbs can also save you money. Their initial cost is higher than regular bulbs, but they last at least five times as long and use only about 40% as much electricity. Each bulb can save you $50 or more over the course of its life. If you add up how many bulbs you have in your home, the savings becomes significant.

A bagel and coffee on the way to work every morning can cost as much as $4 per day. That's more than $1,000 per year. If you're married and your spouse has the same habit, it's more than $2,000 per year. Have breakfast at home.

If you smoke, think about giving up smoking. Besides the health benefits, you could save over $1,200 per year by quitting a pack-a-day habit.

Getting out of debt is tough. It also takes time. Most people need a year or two to escape from debt, but you can do it if you stick with it. Remember, the discipline and techniques you learn by solving your problems will benefit you for the rest of your life. Getting out of debt feels great. Staying out feels even better.

The Smartest Method to Save Money: Have a Spending Plan
The very best method to saving money is to create a Spending Plan or a Budget (learn how to make a budget). With a budget you figure out what your income is and what your expenses are. Once you know these two things, you can look for ways to reduce your expenses or increase your income to allocate an amount of money that you can afford to save. This is how the world’s largest corporations do it and this is how most of the world’s successful business people do it. This method takes a little bit of work at the beginning and a check-up every year or two, but it works.

The secret to this method (if you want to call it that) is to identify what you are spending money on so that you can begin to plan your spending. Once you begin to plan your spending, you will gain control over it and you will be able to plan to spend money on your savings. In other words, you will plan to put money into your savings account. Many people don’t like to plan their spending because it involves a little bit of work (once a year). No one is saying that success will come easily, but this little bit of work will pay off big time in many areas of your finances. We dare you to try it - what have you got to lose?