How to Be Rich

Method 1 of 4: Getting Rich Through Saving Money

Pay yourself first. This means before you go and blow your pay check on a new pair of shoes or a golf club you don't need, put money aside in to an account that you don't touch. Do this every time you get paid and watch your account grow.

Make a budget. Create a monthly budget that covers all of your basic expenses and leaves a little bit of "fun" money aside. Do not go over this. Sticking by your budget and saving at least some money each month is the surest way of getting rich.

Downgrade on your car and house. Could you make do with an apartment instead of a house, or have roommates instead of your own place? Could you buy a used car instead of a new one and use it more sparingly? These are all ways to save a ton of money every month.

Cut expenses. Look at the ways you frivolously spend money and remove everything. For example, avoid going to Starbucks every morning. That $4 you spend on designer coffee every morning comes out to $20 per week, or $1,040 over the course of a year!

Spend your tax refund wisely. In 2007, the average American tax refund was $2,733.^[1] That's a lot of money! Can you use that money to pay off debts or create an emergency fund instead of blowing it on something that will lose half its value the second you buy it? If you invest nearly $3,000 wisely, it could be ten times that much in as many years.

Break up with your credit card. Did you know that people who use credit cards for purchases end up spending more money than people who use cash, on average?^[2] That's because parting with cash is painful. Using a credit card doesn't create that much of a sting. If you can, divorce your credit card and see how it feels to pay with cash. You'll probably end up saving a boatload of money.

Method 2 of 4: Getting Rich by Reducing Living Expenses

Try extreme couponing. It's one of the best feelings in the world when you can get paid to take home stuff you regularly use. Yes, you heard right. Done right, you can actually get paid to coupon. At worst, you'll save a few extra bucks that you can tuck away for a rainy day. At best, you'll get tons of free stuff and will be richer in the process.

Buy in bulk. It's not always the best way to shop, but it's usually the most efficient. If you can borrow or buy into a membership to a bulk retailer like Costco, it can make real financial sense. In some cases, you can find brand-name products for sale at pennies to the dollar.

• If you're hungry and you like chicken, buy 4 pre-cooked Chickens at Costco at the end of the day, when they go on sale. Sometimes, they'll drop from $5 each to $2.50 each, meaning that you get at least ten hearty meals for about $1 each! Freeze any chickens that you don't eat immediately.

Learn to can foods. Up to 40% of food in America goes to waste before it is ever eaten. Succulent peaches, blueberries, and even meats can be canned and stored for consumption later on. Be smart about the food that you buy and actually eat it. Food wasted is money wasted.

Reduce your utility bills. Electricity, gas, and air conditioning can rack up a sizable portion of money in your monthly budget if you let them. But you wont, will you? You're about to get smart about ways to keep your home cool during the summer and warm during winter. You may even consider investing in or building solar panels to channel the sun's natural energy into electricity. Keep your utilities low and watch the money that you can save start to ease upward, helping you on your way to becoming rich.

Get a home energy audit. A home energy audit will allow you to find out how many dollars are seeping out of your home in the form of lost energy. Whether it's cool air in the summer or hot air in the winter, it's generally a bad thing.

• You can perform your own energy audit if your the industrious type, but the rubber really hits the road when you hire a professional to complete the audit for you. It should cost anywhere from $300 to $500, which isn't cheap.^[3] At the same time, if that means that you decide to re-insulate your home and save $750 every year, it's probably a worthwhile investment.

Go hunting or foraging for food. You may need to invest in gear and permits, but if you already have this, this is an easy way to get your own food. If you're ethically against the killing of animals, it's pretty easy to forage for food, depending on where you live. Just make sure to forage only for food whose origin and properties you are sure of. Getting sick or poisoned is never any fun.

• Go deer hunting, duck hunting, or turkey hunting
• Go fishing or fly fishing
• Choose edible flowers, pick wild mushrooms, or forage for food in the Fall
• Start guerrilla gardening or build your own greenhouse

Method 3 of 4: Getting Rich Through Investing

Put money in the stock market. Invest money in stocks, bonds, or other vehicles of investment that will give you an annual return on investment (ROI) great enough to sustain you in your retirement. For instance, if you have one million dollars invested and you get a reliable 7% ROI, that's $70,000 per year, less inflation.

• Don't get enticed by day traders who tell you it's easy to make a quick buck. Buying and selling dozens or stocks every day is essentially gambling. If you're caught with your pants down — which is unbelievably easy to do — you can lose a lot of money. It's not a good way to get rich.
• Instead, learn to invest for the long run. Choose good stocks with solid fundamentals and excellent leadership, in industries that are primed for future growth. And then let your stock sit. Don't do anything with it. Let it weather the ups and downs. If you invest wisely, you should come away with a boatload of money.

Save money for retirement. Fewer and fewer people are squirreling away money for retirement.^[4] Whether or not retirement is going to be a thing of the past, you should plan on trying to save for your future self. Retirement accounts are sometimes untaxed or are on a tax-deferred basis. If you save up enough money in your various retirement account, chances are they'll maintain wealth for you in your old age so that you can truly enjoy it.

• Don't put all your trust in Social Security. While it's a good bet that Social Security will continue to work for the next 20 or so years, some data suggests that if Congress doesn't radically alter the system — either by raising taxes or reducing benefits — Social Security won't be available in its current form.^[5] Make a contingency plan in case you can't count on Social Security.
• Invest in a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA is a retirement account to which working individuals can contribute an annual sum of $5,500. That money is then invested and gathers interest and compound interest. If you wait until retirement age to take money out of your Roth IRA, the money that you take out isn't taxed.
• Contribute to a 401(k) account. A 401(k) account is an account set up by your employer where pre-taxed contributions go and can be invested. If your employer matches your contributions, meaning that for every dollar you invest out of your own pocket, they invest one from their own pocket, contribute the maximum amount you can afford. This is probably the closest thing you'll get to "free money" in your life! Yes, it can make you rich.

Invest in real estate. Relatively stable assets like rental properties, or potential development land in a steadily growing area, is a good example. These are likely to appreciate in value over time, but not guaranteed. For example, some people think that an apartment in Manhattan is almost guaranteed to increase over a five-year period.

Invest your time. For example, you might like having free time, so you give yourself a few hours a day to do nothing. But if you were to invest those few hours into getting rich, you could work towards having 20 years of free time (24 hours a day!) with early retirement. What can you give up now in exchange for being rich later?

Avoid purchases that are likely to depreciate rapidly. Spending $50,000 on a car is sometimes considered a waste because it's likely that it won't be worth half that much in 5 years, regardless of how much work you put into it. As soon as you drive a new car off the lot, it depreciates about 20%-25% in value each year you own it.^[6] That makes buying a car a very important financial decision.

Don't spend money on stupid stuff. It's hard enough making a living. But it's hard and painful when the things you spend your hard-earned cash on are financial black holes. Reevaluate the things you spend money on. Try to figure out whether they are truly "worth it." Here are some things you probably don't want to spend that much money on if you plan on becoming rich:

• Casinos and lottery tickets. The lucky few make money. The many lose it.
• Vices such as cigarettes.
• Insane markups like candy at the movie theatre or drinks at a club.
• Tanning booths and plastic surgery. You can get skin cancer for free outside if you'd like. And do nose jobs and botox injections ever look as good as promised? Learn how to age gracefully!
• First class plane tickets. What are you paying that extra $1,000 on? A hot towel and 4 inches of extra leg room? Invest that money instead of throwing it away and learn to sit with the rest of us!

Stay rich. It's hard to get rich, but it's even harder to stay rich. Your wealth is always going to be affected by the market, and the market has its ups and downs. If you get too comfortable when times are good, you'll quickly drop back to square one when the market hits a slump. If you get a promotion or a raise, or if your ROI goes up a percentage point, don't spend the extra. Save it for when business is slow and your ROI goes down two percentage points.

Method 4 of 4: Getting Rich Through a Career

Excel academically. Whether it's a four year college or vocational training, some successful people pursue further education beyond high school. In the early stages of a career, your employers have little to go off besides your educational background. Higher grades usually lead to higher salaries, though they don't always.

Choose the right profession. Look at research survey salaries which indicate average annual incomes for specific professions. Your odds of getting rich are diminished if your pursue a career in teaching as opposed to a career in finance. As of the time of writing, here are some of the highest paying jobs in America:

• Doctors and Surgeons. Anesthesiologists make a whopping $200,000+ per year in income.^[7]
• Petroleum engineers. Engineers who work with gas and oil companies can make a very good living. In most cases they make upwards of $135,000 per year.^[8]
• Lawyers. Lawyers top out at just above $130,000 per year, making this a lucrative field if you can put in the time and work your way up.^[9]
• IT managers and software engineers. If you're good at programming and a whiz at computers, consider this very well-compensated field. IT managers regularly make $125,000 per year.^[10]

Choose the right location. Go where the good jobs are. If you want to pursue finance, for example, there are far greater opportunities in big cities than in rural, low-populated areas. If you want to build a start up

, you'll probably want to consider going to Silicon Valley. If you want to make it big in Hollywood, go to LA.

Get an entry-level job and work your way up. Play the numbers game. Apply to many places and conduct many interviews. When you get your job, stick with it to get the experience you need to advance.

Change jobs and employer. By changing your environment, you can increase your pay, experience different corporate cultures and reduce risk. Don't be afraid to do this many times. If you're a valued employee, it's also likely your current company may offer you a raise or other benefits if they know you're looking at leaving.