Becoming Wealthy Despite a Market Meltdown
In my post titled Slow and Steady Saving Still Pays , one reader left a great comment that I wanted to share with you all. Specifically, he was addressing the “you can’t save/invest and become wealthy like you used to because the market is so bad” crowd. His comment: I started at 22 with investing/saving over 10%+ of my check, increased to 15%+ by age 23 1/2 and 20%~ by age 27. Those today who invest will mimic the investors who continued through (“the death of equities”) times of 70s and early 80s RICH! I retired at 47 with $2.85M. When I started after college [I had] no debt, 2 old (11+ years old) cars and $1.5K saved by graduation with BS in 1982. [I made it through the] crash of ’87, Gulf war market drop, recession of 92-93 and high unemployment (including me!) , the dive of 2000, equities crash of late 2001, crash of 2008. Yep, still here, financially independent and worth every penny! The turtle always beats the rabbit. If you’re not confident PAY a financial planner the commission or fees but, even the “poorest” (there are no “poor” with cellphones, cable TV, cars, etc., in America today) can START with 5% or more (likely 10%) and the middle class should have NO problem saving investing 15-20%. It’s time to do what’s right and what’s REALLY worth it for your future and some small sacrifices — like the cable TV, thermostat at 70′F+, cell phone extended plans, data plans, premium gas, etc.,…. In other words: Save/invest as much as you can for as long as you can . If you do this, you WILL become wealthy . DO NOT take the cop-out that the market/economy/recession is so bad this time that you can’t/shouldn’t/won’t save. Just look at what the reader above went through: crash after crash, major event after major event. Yet he started with nothing, lived a frugal lifestyle, and retired at 47 with almost $3 million. He did it and so can you. The formula is the same. Just apply it for a long period of time and, yes, you can have the same results.
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Becoming Wealthy Despite a Market Meltdown