How to Invest if You Want To Make Millions | Chris Bell

The best way to think about investing no matter your income level, is to add a zero. Focus intently on turning $100 into $1,000, then you can focus on turning $1,000 into $10,000. You may think of Mark Zuckerberg as an overnight success, but it took years of hard work, previous years of education, over $1,000 of investment capital, and finally, partners willing to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars once the idea was almost a success. Even with 1 million users and almost $1 million in capital it was difficult for him to turn a profit as the CEO.

Remember that making money is difficult, it's only the elite that figure out a way to get their hands on large amounts of it.

Stocks

Stocks are a great long term investment strategy that will gain 10% annually if you buy and hold solid companies. However, it can also drain your entire savings if you try to turn $10,000 into $1,000,000 overnight. Play the lottery if you want to "hope" for a payout. Educate yourself if you want to "work" for a payout. It may seem endless and tiring, but working hard every day will allow you to look back on your last 5 years with a grin of success, and know that you did it without a lottery payout.

The less you know about investing in stocks (companies) the more you should invest your money like a retirement fund, through index funds or mutual funds. The next level of stock investor would probably invest money into Coca Cola, McDonalds and Disney. If you don't like those companies then you can pick a few technology companies that you think will continue to grow for 10 or 20 more years, but I believe a solid strategy is to dollar-cost-average (monthly increments) into a 100+ year old company whenever the entire stock market seems to be correcting downward for political problems or world events. It's an exciting time to jump into companies like Citigroup or General Electric. Walgreens, Exxon Mobil and Kellogg are also more than 100 years old. Chances are good that you'll keep those names longer than random names or younger companies that are growing fast, and chances are they pay a comfortable dividend while comfortably appreciating over the next 20 years.

Real Estate

Real estate is amazing but it's also a long term success story that yields about 10%. Most success stories are just that, stories, not sentences. "I bought a lottery ticket" isn't much of a story. I want to hear about the long hours of studying at a community college, mentoring from a real estate professional, buying your first home, selling it and buying two more. I want to hear about the struggle of your first contract and how you turned two properties into ten. I want to hear about the Master's degree you're working towards and the past experience that lead you to your success. In other words, it takes hard work for a payout. (Chris Bell Real Estate)

Don't continue to search for articles and videos that tell you how to buy real estate with no money down, you need to save some money to invest money. When you've saved $5,000 to $10,000 into a savings account it feels good and this person's job must be going just as well. A nice side job would be to buy a rental property with it and collect rent in excess of expenses by 10% of the total money spent on the project. If you spend $10,000 of your own money to buy a home and repair it enough to rent it then you would only need to profit $100 per month from the rental. Then you could say, "I've just invested $10,000 into real estate to profit 10%, much better than 0% from the bank!"

Making more than 10% is the magic number in the financial world, it's bonus. For instance, the first home you buy allows you to put 3.5% down payment, and while your monthly payment would be higher, you can easily make 20-30% or more if you bought that and rented it out, but that won't last. By the second or third home you'll need 20% down and making 15% on $40,000 to buy a $200,000 home, might be tough. Think of it this way, it's easy to accept a $20,000 loan at 2.5% because you can use that money to make 10%, but borrowing money at 5-6-7% gets much riskier if you want to turn a profit. Therefore, making 10% by investing your money in stocks or real estate is doing very well for yourself, and you can expect to double your money every 7.2 years, based on the power of 72 (Albert Einstein).

Now you're creating cash flow that extrapolates your savings over the next 5 years. You already saved $10,000 once, maybe over 5 years, but this time, over the next 5 years, you'll save that money again, and your rental income will be about another $5,000 allowing you to buy something much bigger. 10% becomes $1,600 per year or $133 per month. Remember, the appreciation of the estate hasn't even been mentioned. The stock market is only worried about appreciation and growth. People naturally don't think about selling real estate as often as stocks. Rental income is the side gig while holding real estate over stocks.

Websites

You can buy and sell popular domain names, blog endlessly for advertising revenue, or create a website that sells a product or service. My advice is to commit to your passion because it's the amount of passion you exert that will drive you to your millions. I encourage you to watch Shark Tank to see what it's like to be passionate about your business, NOT passionate about making money. You'll see people tearing-up as they discuss their product, not because they're making millions, but because they love what they do. (Chris Bell Websites)

Companies

You can buy 10% of your local hardware store and help them grow. Do you have a unique talent such as building a website, search engine optimization or marketing? You could discuss how you would help their growth and join the team. You could be a silent partner or a full-time working partner with a salary. Decide what you want for terms before you approach the owner.

Invent and Manufacture

Arguably, the most difficult way to millions is to invent a product, manufacture it, market it, sell it and distribute it around the world. Again, don't think about making money first, that comes second. Think about a product that helps people, or fixes a current problem, and get passionate about designing it.

Do you really think there's an easy way to make millions? Trust me, I've searched Google for ways and the common denominator is always long term. Focus on your passion and do it for a long time, even if it's as simple as working overtime. "Mark Zuckerberg was a millionaire before he was 30." Indeed, but he also got into Harvard University before the age of 20; did you? Work at your own pace.

If you improve your financial situation every day, you'll be in a better position than you were yesterday.

Written by: Chris Bell
Chris Bell Real Estate