Best Ways to Drive Traffic

Hi Fellow Warriors!

We did a LOT of testing in 2013 to find out which traffic sources
converted best into subscribers and sales.

Some of them were complete failures. Some of them did far better
than I would have guessed.

We've taken all of the data from 2013 - and created a list of
our top performers...

1. Recruiting Affiliates.
2. Facebook Ads.
3. Solo Ads (Extremely Selective)
4. Content Syndication
5. Blogger Outreach
6. Forum Marketing


We ranked these based on how effective they were AND how much
time they took to implement. Building and nurturing our subscriber
list is the #1 activity in our business. But I only want to spend
2-3 hours per day on traffic. So I zone in on the highest leverage
activities.

Cheers,

Im doing this every day consistently and definitely WORKS! Please IF YOU DONT HAVE money you NEED WORK HARD to get quality traffic.

1. choose your niche in which you wish to start earn money.
2. Create account on Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Google+, Tumblr add targeted followers, post every day, talk with others.
3. go to forums and post there your valuable answers (insert your link into signature)
4. do video marketing on youtube
5. slideshare

READ articles on StumbleUpon about marketing you will learn more and more, make notes, like me. Work Hard every day, while others have fun! be king, force yourself to be your own boss, keep going! AND NEVER GIVE UP!!!!!

I launched approximately 5 websites all were unsuccessful I tried about 100 methods how to earn money on internet, but I never enjoyed that.

Now Im doing InternetMarketing and I LOVE it, i have my own clients and profits.

NEVER GIVE UP.

What 1200+ of the World’s Best Marketers Think About the Future of Social Media

Posted in: Analytics / Social — 4 Days ago from Alfred Lua  4729 views  Flag

How do other social media teams spend their time? What are THE networks to be on? Where are the opportunities? We know these questions can be quite useful as you reflect on 2016 and look ahead to 2017. And we’d love to shed some light!

At Buffer, we love to learn about how social media marketing is changing and what other social media marketers are doing. And with your help, we gathered responses from over 1,200 marketers to create the State of Social Media 2016 report.

I’d love to share my take on the results of the survey and discuss them with you all here. It’d be great to hear your thoughts about the report. If you prefer to dive straight into the report, feel free to check it out here.

We hope that this information can help you as you plan your social strategies for 2017 and beyond!

5 Key Takeaways Social Media Marketers Need to Know

1. Video is about to hit the peak! Now’s the time to get on

A key theme of the results is video marketing. It feels like video marketing it about to hit the peak and now is the time to get on.

When asked which type of content they would like to create more of if there were no obstacles like time, resources, and budget, 83 percent of the marketers surveyed said video content.

This also matches the channels most marketers are looking to add to their marketing stack in the next 12 months. The top four channels are Facebook video (30%), YouTube (28%), Instagram (26%), and Snapchat (22%) - all of which are heavily reliant on video content.

However, marketers are held back by several factors. Mainly, they felt that they lack the time to create videos (72%) and a belief that videos are expensive to produce (41%). So if you are able to figure a quick and affordable way of creating great videos, you will be able to stand out from the rest.

What you could do:

The best thing to do here could be, simply, to get started with videos and be creative. Videos don’t always have to be full production-grade. A recording of yourself, shot using a smartphone, sharing tips and tricks can be both valuable and personal. Slideshows videos are even easier to create and still work great. Live video is also an interesting option to experiment with as it has yet to hit mass adoption (in fact 71% of marketers in our survey said they were yet to create any live video).

2. Facebook Is Still The Dominating Social Media Marketing Channel

If you are not sure which social media channel to focus on in 2017, consider Facebook.

Even with the decline in organic reach on Facebook, it is the top channel that marketers surveyed (93%) are currently using. About three-quarters of the marketers surveyed posted as much or more content in the past 12 months as they did during the 12 months prior. Almost every marketer surveyed (91%) invested in Facebook ads, too.

Also, as mentioned above, Facebook video is the top priority for marketers in 2017. When looking at live videos specifically, marketers surveyed prefer Facebook Live (73%) over other channels such as Periscope (44%) and YouTube (20%).

What you could do:

If you have the budget for social media ads, Facebook ads might be the most worthwhile investment at the moment. Otherwise, with Facebook seemingly prioritizing videos on the newsfeed, it could be great to experiment with videos and Facebook Live.

3. Most Marketers Are Still Unsure How to Create Business Value Through Social Media

The top three challenges marketers face with social media are: driving traffic to their website (58%), generate leads (49%), and defining ROI and measurement (42%).

These are activities related to creating and tracking business value of social media. Social media marketing is seen as a priority for most marketers, with only 7% of the companies decreasing their budget in this area. It becomes even more important to be able to drive and measure social media’s value to business.

If you are able to do that, you will stand out from other marketers.

What you could do:

Spreadsheets can be a great place to start. By manually tracking the stats that matter, you can get a deeper understanding of your social media performance. If you can afford, tools with inbuilt analytics and reporting system such as SumAll can make things much easier.

4. Know Why You Are On Social Media

Before you dive into creating content and tracking numbers, it might be great to take a step back and consider your goals for social media.

There are numerous reasons for being on social media, and it feels great to know why you want your business to be on social media before planning your social media marketing plan. From our survey, the top reason is brand awareness, followed by community engagement and content distribution.

With changes to social media such as the timeline algorithms, we have to adapt the way we view and use social media. It’s interesting to note that community engagement is ranked higher than content distribution. Social media isn’t only about promoting our own content anymore. It is about engaging and interacting with our followers.

We also have to adapt to the way people are using social media. More and more customers are bringing their issues to brands through social media instead of emailing or submitting a support ticket on the brands’ website.

Yet interestingly, only 21% of businesses are using social media for customer support. There feels like a great opportunity for businesses to stand out and support customers on social media to help reinforce the brand loyalty.

What you can do:

Start by thinking about your social media goals before creating your social media marketing plan. Instead of “seeing what sticks”, be driven by your goals and implement tactics accordingly.

5. Generalists Are Valued

But it isn’t only about understanding social media.

From our survey, only 15% of the respondents focus solely on social media management. Most of them are also working on other areas such as content marketing, email marketing, community, and more.

As the majority of the respondents are from small-medium businesses, this might be hinting to the value of being a generalist (or T-shaped marketer) over being a specialist in small-medium businesses. This is understandable as most employees in small-medium businesses tend to wear multiple hats in their role.

My hunch is this extends to bigger companies too. Jay Baer, the president of Convince and Convert, once wrote,

"What does a social media manager do now? Not long ago, he or she was primarily a writer, using sentence fragments to stoke the passions of customers. Now, that same position may require robust photography, video editing, paid advertising, and analytics capabilities.

And how does that social media manager differ from or intersect with a content marketing manager? Is a video social or content? Is YouTube a social network or a content platform?

And what about customer service? Is Twitter a marketing channel or a customer service channel? Does the social media manager using Twitter to delight potential customers also handle inquiries from current customers needing support? Is Facebook a marketing channel or a support channel? The same question applies to Facebook Messenger, perhaps even more so."

What you could do:

If you are not sure which path — generalist or specialist — would suit you or is better for you, check out this great Inbound.org discussion thread on whether marketers should be generalists or specialists.

Other Key Insights

Here are other key insights from the report that might interest or surprise you:

• Google+ is the top channel marketers feel they will invest less time in over the next 12 months.
• Twitter is ranked second with 23% of the respondents saying they’ll use Twitter less in 2017.
• Marketers are also struggling with finding time to dedicate to social media (41%) and planning and scheduling content (37%).
• Few marketers are using Medium (10%) and Quora (5%) as marketing channels.
• Only 5% of the respondents are using Snapchat On Demand Filters.
• Only 7% of companies have decreased their social media marketing budgets.

For the full report, feel free to check it out here.

Over To You

And that’s my take on the current state and future of social media. Thanks so much for reading it!

If you had the chance to check out the full report, I’d love to hear your thoughts about it. I’m sure there are many ways to interpret the results, and it’d be great to hear your take on this. I’ll be excited to chat with you in the comments section below.

If you have thoughts on how we could improve the survey, feel free to let us know too. We’re keen to make our future surveys and reports as useful as possible for marketers.

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How to Boost Traffic in a Few days

Can anyone help me out here? I want to know how to boost up huge traffic to website from other sources apart from Facebook, Twitter and other social media...

Do some strategic Blog Commenting on quality/ high volume Websites and Blogs

I want to know this trick as i have seen so many websites having very less backlinks but huge traffic and their alexa rank too boost up within a few days.. what do they actually do.. Please help me

Blog commenting is a very powerful strategy but you do have to put the work in for this to work well. You have to target the right audience in your specific niche and make sure there is traffic to this blog or site.

To get there I going to give you and all others a Ninja trick I learn, use it and find the best blogs and sites in Google first three pages. 

Without further a do...Drum roll please.....site: inurl:blog "post a comment"-"comments closed"-"you must be logged in" "ADD YOUR KEYWORD" 

I use this all the time and you should too. Let me know how it goes! :-) 

-Timothy B. Miller

Squeeze page alert: Stop giving FREE ebooks. Here is an alternative that converts way better..

How many of you have downloaded Free ebooks only to read the first few pages - never to re-open it again? 

This happens to all of us. We never read the FREE ebooks unless they are REALLY REALLY good or are only 5-page long..

Moreover, offering free ebooks is the most common thing you will find on squeeze pages. So, does it stand out from the rest? Not really..Infact, it makes you similar to thousand other product creators. 

So what's the best alternative - something that converts even better than ebooks?

I am not going to ask you to create another FREE product. In fact, I just want you to package your ebook differently. You see, old wine in a new bottle.. 

Here's an alternative that converts way better than ebooks:

Instead of giving away a free ebook, convert your ebook content into a 7-day course that will be emailed to your subscribers throughout the week. Here is why I think it's a better opt-in bribe than anything else:


1. Courses are perceived as high-value products. What would you opt-in for - a FREE 7-day course on mastering your Facebook ads or a FREE ebook on 'mastering your Facebook ads? I leave that to you.

2. When most of the internet gurus are offering free ebooks - a free course stands out and steals more eyeballs.

3. Creating a course is similar to crafting an ebook. The only difference is the way it is packaged. You send 7 emails in 7 days that not only makes your name familiar with your subscribers but also develop interactive relation. 

4. A course is more easily followed than an ebook. Why? Because subscribers perceive information in small bits - easy to absorb and be acted upon. ..And when they read your FULL course, they are more likely to consider you as an authority.

5. A 7-day email means 7 great chances to pitch your subscribers with a tripwire. You see, the power of "P.S" comes here.

These are 5 advantages I can think of at the moment. I bet there are several others. Bottom line: Stop giving FREE ebooks. Instead, package them as 7(or 5)-day course, set an autoresponder, and Bingo! 

Junaid

How to write a #1 ranking post for any niche.

I see a lot of questions asked by people recently about how users can get to the front page of Google. Most people are focusing so much on the off-page factors: backlinks, social shares, and PBNs, that they overlook the most important factor in success with affiliate marketing: content.

People understand that content is king, but not everyone has a solid idea of how to strategize their content for maximum returns and rankings.

There isn't a magic formula that is guaranteed to work, but from working with large scale PBN owners for several years I have noticed some principles of success that can be applied to any niche.

Success Factor #1: 1,000 Words is the Minimum.

Anything less than 1,000 words per post is simply not going to have the meat behind it to ensure high rankings. If you don't have a 1,000-word post on the topic you want to rank for, then someone else will. 

What piece of content do you think will be easier to rank? What post will offer more value to the visitor? There simply isn't words to make a 300, or even 500 words post authoritative.

Success Factor #2: Heading tags are critical.

Every post needs to have all of the correct headings of H1, H2, H3 in the right syntax and in descending quantities. Your H1 tag should be in the template of your site as the title. If your post is about 'The Benefits of Probiotics', then the H1 tag should be applied to this text.

The H1 tag is the most important attribute in on-page SEO. Some Wordpress templates do not specify this title tag, so it's important to check to see if it's being used or not. To see if your site is using the H1 tag. you can view the source code of your site and use Search and Replace function to search for '<h1>'.

If this tag is not being used, you can either add it into your Wordpress template via editing the template, or you can change to a theme that supports this. I cannot stress how important having an H1 tag is!

The other tags are H2 and H3. The H2 tag should be used once for the second most important heading in your content.

If you are writing a post about 'The Benefits of Probiotics' using the H1 tag, the second heading could be 'What are Probiotics?', or 'Why should I use Probiotics?'

The H2 tag is added in the Style section of most Wordpress editors. You should not use the H1 or H2 tag more than once.

From there you should be using the H3 and H4 tags for your other sections.

Your keyword needs to appear in at least one heading per post.

Success Factor 3: Keyword Density is not as important as LSI! LSI is King!

There's a lot of contention about what's the right keyword density. The truth is that as long it's around 3~5% you will be good. There is no sense in optimizing this metric as it actually has very little to do with your success or failure in the search engines.

The third most critical success factor is using LSI or https://www.searchenginejournal.com/what-is-latent-semantic-indexing-seo-defined/21642/ as a guideline for writing your posts. In general, you should write content from the perspective of your visitor. How are they going to find your content? What terms are they going to search for?

Instead of having The Benefits of Probiotics as every title, what other terms are they going to search for? What are the synonyms are they going to use?

Probiotic pills

Probiotic supplements

Pills containing probiotics
etc

These synonyms and variations should be used liberally throughout the article, ensuring that you are covering the main keywords and each possible variation.

An article that has one keyword throughout the post is not going to rank well. Why? Because it is unnatural. A real post such as this one is not repeating the same keyword over and over; the article has a natural flow to it and provides real value.

You do need to strategize for the different synonyms and variations for LSI as a method for optimization, but if you do it for the sake of rankings then you are doomed to failure in the long-term.

On the other hand, if you focus on delivering unique value to your visitors, then you will have a much easier time, and you will build a real business.

Anyone who is struggling with ranking their sites will have much more success with following the above principles.

Providing 1,000 words of well-written content, using the right headers and optimizing for LSI will go a long way to securing victory on the search engines.

What does it feel like to become a millionaire?

I grew up in a middle class family in North Florida, worked my way through college, had jobs in public broadcasting and at a newspaper and after ten years paid off my student loans and starting paying on a 30 year mortgage. In 1999, I joined a startup to learn more about the Internet. I retired 5 years later and wrote a book about the experience called, "I'm Feeling Lucky-Confessions of Google Employee Number 59." Here's an excerpt that addresses your question...

A cold fog wafted out of the open freezer in front of me. It was a week after my last day at Google, and Kristen had sent me on a night run to Safeway to pick up some milk for the next day's breakfast. As always, I was going off-list; picking up a few items with more sugar and fat than nutrition. 

I squinted at the tags on the shelf below the different brands of ice cream. What I really wanted was Starbucks Java Chip, but I only bought that when it was on sale. I reached for the Safeway store brand. My hand froze, but not from the cold. 

"I want Java Chip," a voice said inside my head. 

"It's not on sale," another voice answered automatically, in a monotone.

 "It's. Not. On. Sale," the first voice replied with mimicking sarcasm. "So ...," it went on, spacing the words for emphasis, "what?" 

I picked up a carton of Java Chip and put it in my cart. For the very first time, I was doing something differently because of Google's success. 

Hitting the startup jackpot was like leaving Flatland, the world hypothesized in a geometry-based novel I had read as a kid.* In Flatland, the characters moved along a single, two-dimensional plane and only perceived objects as points or lines. That had been my life, and I had never realized it. Go to work, make money, come home, sleep. Repeat. Now, though, I had the ability to move in all dimensions. The tethering constraints of grocery bills and mortgage payments had been severed and I was floating free. Some Googlers used their new freedom to change their lifestyles, their cars, their homes, their careers, their spouses. For me, all that open sky was disconcerting. I clung to the familiar to anchor myself. It was surprisingly hard to do that without a job.

Edwards, Douglas (2011-07-12). I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 (pp. 388-389). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Kindle Edition.

Thanks for the A2A, I'm sorry about my poor english, but I hope you get the meaning of this sentence:

"It doesn't matter what you find at the end of your journey. It's what you feel during the journey that matters." in italian it's "L'importante non è quello che trovi alla fine di una corsa. L'importante è quello che provi mentre corri."

While I'm not a millionaire, not there - yet -, I know what it feels like to reach 100k in the bank account, or even other milestone in beetween the 1M, and I can tell you, it doesn't feel nothing special.

You have to put hard work each days, you have to grind your way to the top, you don't become a millionaire overnight, you can just take small steps each day, and one day it will be your moment, you'll look back, and you'll see that you suceeded.

"Maybe I made you think my highlights started at the free throw line, and not at the gym" - Michael Jordan

Hi. 1%’er here. Private jet rich , not a petty propeller plane. London to Singapore type (with a stopover in Dubai ). Dassault Falcon 2000 to be honest. She costed us $8 million, but it’s a must when you do what we do and meet the kind of people we do (you’ll understand why we have one later in this answer because I describe our family business there).

A few notes. We have the same problems everyone does, money being the exception.

My experiences.

Not all are impressed with your money. Problems mortals face apply .

I am an average to chubby fairly not so attractive guy who was rejected by a girl I liked in high school. I was so hurt I starved myself for almost a year flat during lunch to lose weight and “shape up”. My grandfather (former billionaire) is the left hand man of the Prime Minister (of my country), and with all the lineage and whatnot, the girl didn’t give an F.

There were other guys in school who got girls way easier, simply due to their genetics.

This was the worst part of my life and I still have scars on my heart due to that girl. In fact I’ve had to block her Facebook profile with a browser add-on to forget her and to stop stalking her via her page. I had suicidal thoughts during this part of my life - I feel ashamed to say.

Money does talk - it opens doors - always but only if the opposite party is a private organization with a remotely commercial motive. You’re fool to think it doesn’t. Of course not in places like the USA where the Justice Department will come after you and they couldn’t give a damn about who you are in your country if you try to do something stupid in their eyes.

I didn’t but my cousin got into Stanford because they paid $2 million USD to a consultancy agency. Of course your academics still matter so in this case it was an enabler and not the sole reason the acceptance letter came.

Money = happiness when it comes to experiences and things. It’s incredible how everyone is interested in you when you drive a Lamborghini. And it also creates a lot of jealous people.

I got a Lamborghini Huracan after graduating from a top uni in the USA.

I remember my friend telling me how he told another dude about my Lambo, and my friend told me the other guy’s immediate reaction was to exclaim “F*** him” (referring to me). But oh well, haters = sign of progression.

Wealth is a massive responsibility. Any fool can make money, but it takes a man with an intellect to keep it. It takes a highly disciplined person with a real conscience to not crumble underneath its awesome power.

A distant family relative went to jail for embezzlement and his family was left in absolute disgrace. They lost their image and status after that episode.

It all came to a screeching halt and a father and son business went into oblivion, people were laid off, and your name is etched in the annals of history thanks to journalists for being a swindler, fraud, and a cheat. It’s a ruthless system.

I’m fortunate I have paternal figures in my family who understand success is a movie, not a picture. We’ve done naughty things in our line of work but we’re not rascals. Our intentions are good though we might use a few shortcuts here and there - nothing Bernie Madoff level though. We’re industrialists, not get rich quick schemers.

Most of all. If you want the shine, you better be willing to survive the grind.

My grandfather was once on the Forbes List of Billionaires (no more, his company is going through tough times). He has a business with operations that span six countries. It isn’t some sexy Silicon Valley software business, it involves old industry brick and mortar plant machine factory type operations. Geopolitics get involved, so do private detectives, small time extortionists and third world thugs , along with sleazy third world politicians . These guys are simply gatekeepers - they love it when you go to them with your business problems because that’s when they want to start billing you ( totally illegal in places like USA ).

Ask yourself this, most people think a desk job causes pressure. What kind of person do you think it takes to face the ups and downs of being an operator of a big business ?

One day you’re flying to your coal mine in country X and are being told the local tribals are blocking construction and one of your men is kidnapped. My father personally was threatened with knives because he drove through a tribal area in an Audi SUV - the Audi was bought to impress wine and dine local politicians - but the AUDI also signifies the ideal target for tribals in the mining area who want to milk you. Audis aren’t a big deal in the West but in that country an Audi Q7 is equivalent to a moving mansion. The tribals see you in this nice big fancy SUV and think you’re a moving ATM.

The next week, you’re told by your CFO the government which agreed to privatize a previously national company to your group is now rescinding the agreement because a new government, possibly sponsored by vested interests such as CHINA (freaking Chinese man - no offense to any Chinese individual reading this but your government is a big bully internationally) are jeopardizing the $500 million investment you made by bribing and funding the opposition (the political enemies of the guys your people befriended). Meanwhile, you’re getting screwed by the interest on the loan because you have to pay for the $500 million principal and interest, your project didn’t go into operation, there’s 0 income to service the interest and principal, and the government official who acted like he could sell your dream to his colleagues actually has 0 power in the system, and you lost money on him, and now are left to realize you sit on a dud .

We go through so much NONSENSE on a weekly basis, employees steal from us, idiots who don’t understand what a legally binding contract is don’t hold their end, so on so forth.

And AND AND AaaaaanD - DURING ALL THIS you come back home and are told you have to show up for a relative’s wedding and they’d become upset if your presence is not felt. AS IF THE WEDDING IS A FREAKING ISSUE (relatively ).

WE just lost out on a $500 million project because China was playing a proxy war game in a foreign country to screw with the nation we’re from. Now we have to wait for a court in Singapore to arbitrate and have only organizations like the World Bank to complain to. So you just want us to walk to the wedding with a bouquet and a gift and act all normal ?

BUT NO, nobody wants to rub you on the back and ask you how you feel. You have money that means you’re immune to the vicissitudes of life.

But we’re not. The below is an example.

I remember one instance from my childhood clearly, this was when my father was spending more than half his year not at home. I saw him 1 week every month, and my mother was crying when he said he had breathing problems when he sleeps (chest heaving issues) and she asked him to cash out quit it all, and he said he couldn’t and he was eternally stuck in this kind of life.

The list can keep going on and on.

Personally I think it’s highly overrated. I can understand if you’re below poverty line and are trying to get the basics but like Bill Gates said, it’s the same hamburger . I can always tell when other guys are better looking than me (I do get jealous), and that’s simply something I can never have but deeply desire. So in that sense, I’m anything but wealthy. Am I comfortable ? Hell yes. Happy ? No not really.

Well this is my first answer to a question on Quora, I normally read only but I felt like I had to contribute. 

- I am 21 years old, I am not personally wealthy or anything but my family was well off. Keyword "was"
It all started in 2001 when my mother became an upper executive in a big corporation and we lived in Haiti. That's where I originate from and there is certainly a huge gap in society with a less than 30% of the population in "middle class". It's either you're living in poverty, trying to get out of it, faking it or making it.

Her base salary was 100k yearly plus commission. I know, not much but bare with me.
I as a kid noticed a few gradual changes in our lifestyle, we started building a house, buying land, new cars, yearly travels or sometimes twice a year. We were doing okay within our society.

Fast forward to 2007, she opened a catering business which withing a few months was generating about 32.5k monthly which is about 390k yearly and doing that she did not quit her job, keeping her now 120k ( after a raise) totaling at 510k yearly. My father earned a lot less so I'm not counting that in.That's when everything really changed!
We did work on the house which was now classified as a "mansion" on listings. The most beautiful in an already well off neighborhood, went to top schools, had a staff of 4 people to maintain the house, but I never felt anything special because that's what I lived around most of my life. My friends were in similar situations and my parents kept me in some sort of a "bubble". I would find it weird when a classmate or some other kid said he/she could not get this or that toy.
I noticed a serious change after the 2010 earthquake. Of course the country was a disaster and the business instantly closed. Overnight her income went from 600k+ back to 140k just from her job. (ouch!) That's when I really really felt the difference and how privileged my brothers and I were.
We instantly moved to Dominican Republic next door since we contacted an emergency service that got us out of there, private plane and everything. We didn't know anybody here so we just lived in 2 rooms of a 5 star hotel for a while then got an apartment.
Our demise came when my mom wanted to keep the same lifestyle in this foreign country as when we were home, nope. Didn't happen. We were doing ok but the cash balance we had available quickly depleted and then she got fired in 2013 (oops).
My parents separated and we still go to top schools here where we are but live in a rented apartment and things are much tighter than before.
Even though in theory we still have a net worth of a little over 1MM we have very,very little cash flow.

There have been a lot of ups and downs in the pas years but I am committed to walk my own path to success!

I consider myself wealthy (for my age) but not rich, however my experience seems relevant to this question. I posted in the parent question as well.

I went from making essentially minimum wage with no savings to a 7-digit net worth. I knew it was likely going to happen for several weeks beforehand but seeing the numbers in the bank account was still a little surreal.

The first feeling was of excitement and relief. I no longer had to worry about certain things, namely an income.

After that came the "holy shit, I'm rich" feeling. During the following weeks I felt incredibly rich (even though I really wasn't) and spent accordingly. I was spending around $10,000 per week while I was on vacation (about what I made in 3 months previously).

I quickly realized I wasn't actually as rich as I was acting, and if I wanted to maintain my wealth I would need to stop spending so much.

The next feeling was fear. I was afraid my money would disappear for one reason or another. I would spend everything. Someone would steal it all. The stock market would crash.

I checked my balance several times a day. Now I'm down to once a week or so.

After a month or so I felt back to normal. I'm not sure if that's because it is normal or I've adjusted, but I have the same friends, we do mostly the same things. I buy a few more gadgets, eat at nicer restaurants, etc.

I do occasionally wonder if people are treating me differently, but I'm not so wealthy that it's a big problem.

When I think about this question I remember that Sophie Tucker said, “I’ve been rich and miserable and I’ve been poor and miserable. Rich is slightly better.”

First of all every rich person (“high net worth” or “HNW” as the bankers label them) does not usually feel rich. Why? Because there is always someone a lot richer than they are. They usually feel (and they are!) poor by comparison. Making matters “worse” is their ever present fear that they will someday, somehow lose their money!

The newly rich tend to be the ones who buy flashy cars, airplanes, penthouses, and so on. They are the ones who typically overspend and end up bankrupt. Maybe they want to advertise their wealth. I feel this is a big mistake. I once hit it very lucky in a business deal 50 years ago. I bought a Rolls Royce Drophead (Convertible). It might have been the ‘pussy magnet” we saw in the movie Borat, but for me it only brought a high maintenance, costly-to-dump, sexy wife. I will discuss that divorce below.

Most of us HNW individuals would say we are “middle class” and “comfortable.” We have all the usual problems of life—love, crooks, government bureaucrats messing with us. But a while back I had this epiphany: If I have enough spare money to make an annoying problem go away permanently with money, I will pay to make it go away. Or, I can move away physically to where the problem doesn't exist.

With wealth comes many more options.Years ago my biggest expense was a divorce. No arguments, I just paid what she wanted—lump sum, no alimony, bye-bye. After that I never heard from her, nor did I ever marry again. Marriage is generally a very stupid move for a rich guy. The “State” shares your bed.

After a marriage ceremony the state and your ex can take your house, kids—everything.Too much unanswered mail? I hire a temporary personal assistant to answer stuff.

Overweight? I join a gym and sign up with a personal trainer. I don’t have to go to work every day at a job I don’t enjoy.

Nor spend any time with people I don’t like.

To keep busy, I became a consultant and guru to other rich folks.

This keeps me sharp and in touch. I take on only people who share my moral views and general outlook on life. Needless to say, I have no debts. As Ben Franklin said, “I would rather wake up hungry than be in debt for last night’s dinner.”

I want to be low profile to avoid the attention of thieves, schemers, etc. Thus, I dress in stuff I get at flea markets or on sale. I wear a plastic watch. I travel tourist class. When friends ask me why I am not “flaunting it,” I answer simply that I am happy to stay in my comfort zone. It’s great not to have to worry about rent, groceries, or medical bills.

The P.T. or “permanent tourist” lifestyle is what I have embraced and even written several books about. It’s published by EDEN PRESS of California, USA. It’s nice to retire early with the time to write books. No worries about whether my books sell

or not. My book, PT, didn’t make enough to pay for new tires on the Rolls, but it brought me many new reader friends and their admiration. That always feels good.

When you get to be an octogenarian like me, you realize that all the money in the world won’t keep you from going to the same cemetery that everyone else goes. Maybe we can live a little longer by avoiding stress, eating healthy, getting prompt medical and dental attention. The reality for me, however, is that striving for and achieving financial independence when you are young is a good idea.

Financial Independence, not great wealth. There is no advantage to being named on the FORTUNE 400 list of the world’s richest people ~~ only disadvantages. Hope you, dear reader, get to where you want to be. See my other writings on Quora for specific advice on how to get rich or stay rich.PeterTaradash.com

I've been rich and I've been poor and first I have to say that Rich does not necessarily better for you... it's not the secret to happiness.
In fact, I have a lot more "happy days" memories from my poor days than my rich days.

Having said that - being rich means worrying about different things... you're not worried about spending money and buying this or that... you're not worried about how much things cost... when you go to a restaurant you don't check prices anymore... you just order without thinking about it ... and you buy whatever you want , in a reasonable manner of course.
But you still have other worries as you still have a business to worry about ... and a lot more expenses to cover.
I actually worry now that I have money more than ever... because I'm worried things might change... things might go worse. But when I had nothing - I didn't have such worries...  when you have nothing - you have nothing to lose.

But when you have a life style of $30,000-$40,000 a month - you have to maintain things running... and the money coming in every month... and the thing is that it doesn't really feel like you're spending that much money.
It's because you GET USED TO THINGS very fast...

When I first came to the US - our monthly budget was $1500 a month... that is ALL !
Now it's like our daily budget... and yet , we don't feel that much different.
Why ? because you get used to a higher life style very easily and very quickly... and you just forgot how you lived before... and it becomes a standard to you.

For example - I have like 10 people that I pay money to every month... when before I did not. We have the maid , the nanny , the gardener , the pool guy , the maintenance guy , the piano teacher , the tennis teacher etc etc... suddenly we are spending thousands of dollars every month that we did not spend before - but we don't SEE IT - it's invisible to us... because we're used to all those people working for us.
My wife could not be without a nanny & a maid now... she is used to them. But 10 years ago - she was just fine without them...

So that's how it's like to be RICH ; you have all those things you buy and all those people making your life easier - but you don't really SEE it ... you're USED TO IT.
So it doesn't really make you happy. I don't think it does.

For example - 10 years ago when we went to a nice restaurant and spent $100 on a good dinner , it made us very happy... it made us appreciate it and savor it... we did it once a month.
Now days - we spend $200 and we do it almost every day... and it doesn't make us happy at all... it's just normal; my wife doesn't see it as something "Special" anymore... it's just LIFE.

And before you know it - your cost of life is $40,000 a month and you need a lot of money to cover it - and thought you have the money now... it can go away very quickly ... you could spend half a million in a year and then 2-3 years and it's all gone... then what ? it makes me worry... 
Money comes and money goes and things are changing all the time - so I have to keep generating as much money just to keep living like we do.
But could I do this forever ?

Now you think that if I had a lot more money - if I was a lot more wealthy - this would not be a concern... but that is not true.
When you are making a million dollar a year - you spend $50K a month... but when you're making 10 million a year - you're just spending MORE.... the more you make - the more you spend and your cost of life getting higher.

It's costly to keep a 2 million dollar home - but imagine if I had 10 times more money , I would have 20 million dollar home and my expenses would be a lot higher...

So the more money you have - the more you spend , because you're used to a higher life style... but you still need to generate a lot of money to keep that , as it cannot last you forever.
Not for most rich people... I'm guessing when you're really wealthy - you can spend half a mil a year for the rest of your life and still not run out of money... but most rich people are not in that situation.

I've met a guy who sold his business for 9.8 millions and he wasted it all in 3.5 years... he lost it all because he had no idea how much he's spending a month... he just thought he has  "lotsa money" that will last him a life time... but he was wrong.

I grew up poor. At least that's the conventional American definition of poor. In other countries, we would have no doubt been rich.

I've worked and saved money since I was 8.

Fast forward to about a year ago after lots of saving, I considered myself comfortable. Had about $250K free and clear after obligations. I was liquid. By this time my behavior had changed a bit. I wasn't as worried about a <$100 bar tab being common. Could buy simple stuff like clothes without feeling guilty, etc. At this point I probably caught up to consuming something similar to any other average American.

Then in the last year some work bets did well and I made ~$1,000,000. So now I have a little over a million bucks. I'm a millionaire! Nothing's changed. I still look at prices on a menu. I still try and buy clothes on sale. I still worry about things going badly and about where the money for food and shelter comes from. But it has been joined by the new thought every now and then that I don't have to worry. That I'm pretty rich actually. That even if I just stopped working alltogether, I'd probably be able to get by going forward. Nothing extravagant, but I could do it.

Conclusion: nothing changed for me. But maybe it would have if I was filthy rich. Maybe $5 million. Or $10. Or $20. Or...

There are obviously a lot of good things about becoming a millionaire. However, I’ll talk about some of the negatives that aren’t widely discussed.

Humans are victims of a strong cognitive bias called loss aversion. Loss aversion is the tendency to feel more pain for each unit lost than pleasure for each unit gained. For example, the loss of $1 million is twice as psychologically powerful as the gain of $1 million.

Because of the powerful psychology behind losing money, I tend to stress quite a bit about losing my wealth, primarily through the avenue of lawsuits. Juries scare me. Their multi million dollar verdicts could wipe me out 10 fold. This makes me uncomfortable and I’ve gone to great lengths to find ways to protect my assets.

I’ve become slightly paranoid about people blaming me for doing things I didn’t do in order to get money out of me. For example, I avoid alone time with children. All it would take is a child to falsely allege molestation to wipe me out financially and send me to prison. I used to lie all the time as a kid.

I’m way more cautious now on the road too. I avoid two lane roads with traffic going opposite directions. I was recently invited to ride jet skis out on the river here in Georgia. I refused because of the miniscule chance of contracting the brain eating amoeba, Naegleria fowleri.

It’s an odd feeling to strongly avoid death because you have “more to lose.” I’ve started to become healthier by exercising more and eating more nutritious food. It would be a shame to acquire this wealth and then not be able to enjoy it after contracting heart disease. It’s almost like a higher sense of self-worth.

Am I happier now that I have the wealth? I would say that people have a baseline of happiness. I’m still very close to my historical happiness baseline. However, I have to admit that I am happier now, albeit a small amount happier.

I think most of my increased happiness comes from my freedom of time. I don’t spend a lot of money. I enjoy staying up late and sleeping in. I’ve always hated waking up early. I enjoy the freedom to stuff my brain with useless facts and browse YouTube for hours on end. I’ve recently discovered my love for writing. Freedom of time is really a nice thing to have, especially if you’re intellectually curious.

Growing up poor and tremendously insecure has lasting effects on my brain in some ways though. My insecurities and fear of imminent homeless still linger, but to a lesser degree today. Part of this fear comes from my lack of family. I’m also constantly looking for ways to be productive. I quit my day job nearly a year ago and I still feel guilty for not being particularly useful to others. I no longer feel like I contribute. Now I feel like most people contribute to my well-being, but I don’t reciprocate. It’s a one way street. I eat out almost every day and I think to myself, “all these people had to prepare my food and serve me, but what have I done for others today?” It’s really heavy on your conscience. I feel a sense of guilt for consuming more than I produce.

Ultimately though, I’m glad I have the wealth. My spending habits haven’t changed very much, but a big change is how I spend my time. An unexpected side effect though is my increased sense of paranoia about losing the wealth accumulated as a result of the great fortune I’ve had over the past 8 years.

I have sought help from a psychiatrist and I’ve tried several antidepressants. They help but aren’t quite the answer. I’m still looking for my next mountain to climb and next adventure to go on. I strongly feel that hardship and resistance in life makes you more of a robust person. I’m looking for my next challenge; I don’t want to be weak as a consequence of detrimental luxury.

First, some background …

I started a business in the telecom sector in 1991, and after 25 year in business I find myself at the helm of a 50 person company with sales in the $12M / year range with an after tax income of approx. $1.3M. Our top and bottom line revenue has increased steadily over the last many years, and since I am the sole shareholder with no corporate debt, or even line of credit for that matter, the firm's profits are essentially mine to use, either maintained in the company, or, taken as dividend income as required.

Over the last 10 years, especially, and ironically, starting in 2008, my net worth has grown exponentially. I decided in 2008 to apply Warren Buffet's famous expression "Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful", and at the time, decided that when everyone was running for the exit sign was the time to start acquiring real estate, and business expansion. It's like the market was on sale. Employee talent was readily available, talent that only two years prior would have been difficult to find and hire. Same with real estate, in particular, apartment buildings, which I began acquiring in 2008, and to date, have 4 buildings. I just sold one a few months ago. I can probably write many paragraphs on business and some of the risks and strategy I've taken over the years, but, I digress.

Back to the question at hand.

After 25 years in business me, and by extension, my wife and two kids, have an estimated net worth of approximately $25 million dollars. I figure it's growing by approximately $2 million per year between the appreciation of the real estate, business profits, and conservative investments. BTW, I am no longer a big risk taker, I don't need to be at this stage.

So what does it feel like to become a millionaire?

One word. Liberating.

When I started my business in 1991 I had very little, and by the summer of 1992 I was down to my last $500 in the bank, so, to fast forward 25 years later and have accumulated so much provides me, and my family, with a sense of security. I know what it's like to live dollar to dollar. Other than my wife, corporate controller, and accountant, no one knows how wealthy we are, and I'm perfectly fine that way. I don't want anyone to know. Sure, they have the sense that we do OK, but, we just don't talk about it. I don't want to be judged any differently because of it.

We now have 3 homes. Our primary home, a year round cottage that we use in the summer and winter, and a large home in Florida, all paid for with cash and no mortgage. We rent the Florida house for about 12 weeks per year which covers all the expenses of the home and provides a small profit of about $10,000 per year.

Minor expenses, things like doing the roof, car expenses, home upgrades, clothes for the family, are just made without an issue. My wife needs a new car this year (she's driving a 9 year old Honda Pilot), and we'll pay for that with cash. I need a new car next year (it's an 8 year old Lexus), and again, I'll buy it with cash and won't even notice the dent in the bank account. The religious organization we belong to needed to redo the parking lot, they did a fund raising campaign and weren't able to raise not even 25% of the required funds to finish the lot, so, I wrote an anonymous check for the difference. All the above was this past year.

We took a family vacation this past spring to Costa Rica for 1 week, went all out, and are taking another one, this time for 2 weeks, to Europe, and again, are paying for that with cash.

My wardrobe is very understated. For example, I wear the same pair of shoes to work every day for at least a year before they need to be replaced. I spend no more than $1,000 per year on my wardrobe, it might even be closer to $500.

My wife works, not because she has to, but, because she wants to. She makes about $25,000 per year as an interior designer, and is happy to be busy with her clients, client projects, and looking after our family for the balance of the time.

My wife and I spend a lot of time making sure our kids are well grounded. They get gifts on their birthday, holidays, new clothes at the beginning of the school year, but otherwise, if they want something they have to buy it themselves with their own money that they make from their own jobs.

My son is headed off to university this September, and again, I'll pay for the school tuition with cash.

We are not frivolous with our money. We live well, but spend time on things that create lasting memories. Family vacations and spending time with the family is extremely important. Making sure that me, and my family are looked after, living within our means, and knowing that we have more money than we can ever spend, is liberating.

It's taken a lot of work, and time to get to this stage of my life. I'm 48 and am hoping to semi retire in 2 years. I work now because I want to, not because I have to.

I am a lucky man.

I have a beautiful wife, both inside and out, wonderful kids that appreciate what my wife and I do for them, we have our health, and know that no money in the world can buy that, happiness, and most of all, peace of mind.

So, how does it feel.

Liberating.

About 3 months after my husband got married, he received a commission on a huge commercial real estate deal and has subsequently made similar deals after that, such that our personal net worth is approximately $12 million. We are in our early 30s.

What does it feel like?

Personal Feelings

-Guilt. Growing up lower middle class and then middle class, I felt very guilty at suddenly having money whereas my family and friends did not and still have to struggle (albeit struggle like any normal person would). For example we bought a $2.5 million house in cash while some friends struggle to even buy a condo.

-Confidence. I feel insecure in social settings like bars at clubs, where people my age tend to peacock to one another about their financial success and appearance. I find that having this money gives me (private) bursts of confidence that no matter how much peacocking someone does, I’m likely much richer than them, which is a metric they care about, and they don’t even know it!

-Fear. I fear that money will change me hence I refused to stop taking public transportation until my job relocated to a place that’s not easily accessible. I refuse to buy designer clothes or change my shopping habits. I drive now, but with my husband’s 12 year old car which I love. He leased a new car, but I forced him not to get a luxury car.

Relationship Changes

-For the most part, my family and friends have not changed but I am now cautious about revealing my wealth to new friends for fear that they will act bitter and end the friendship because of my situation vis a vis theirs (it has happened before).

-Certain people in husband’s family are starting to make financial decisions that they would not otherwise make if we weren’t wealthy. A few examples: my husband and I booked a weekend getaway. My in laws wanted to come so they asked us to book tickets for them, with the assumption that we’d pay for their flight, hotel, meals and activities. Another example: my husband’s sister put an offer on a house and won, and afterwards realized that she didn’t have the full amount for the downpayment. Instead of cancelling the offer or going to a bank she asked my husband for a loan for the entire down payment, payable over 2 years, as opposed to just the portion that she was short. She said that she figured she shouldn’t be out of pocket for a single dollar since my husband could technically afford to lend the entire amount. Last example, my husband surprised his father with a $20,000 watch and bought himself a $30,000 watch afterwards. When his father found out he said “If I had known you could afford that watch I would have asked you to buy me that instead of this one. What’s an extra $10,000?” I personally, still wear my Swatch ;)

Practical Changes

-I was able to quit my dead-end job and pursue my dream career which is the type of career that’s hard to do unless you are independently wealthy, or you are content to be financially strapped while you get yourself established.

-We don’t budget when we go on vacation, and we take 2 vacations a year. We’ll still stay in $250/night hotels and fly coach, but we will shop, eat and do activities without checking our wallets.

-We no longer do groceries and cook. We eat out every day (bad I know!!)

-I now default more to Uber than public transit when I’m not driving.

• When I was in my 20's in NY, I had a job. A salary. And it paid pretty well. Maybe.
• I bough real estate in Manhattan way back when.
• Took a chunk of money that I got from renting it out and bought AOL stock
• Somewhere between $2-3.50, I forget the exact data haha
• Then AOL stock took off, I think it still hit something like $200+ (adjusted for splits)- I forget the exact numbers, I am old, and my memory is failing me...
• H. haha, anyway so on paper with my real estate and stock holding I was a millionaire. On paper.
• That day I celebrated by going to Gray's Papaya, and having 2 hot dogs.
• And when I went to Mc. Donald's I said supersize my fries. Didn't even hesitate haha
• Those were the days of supersize fries. And supersized returns in the private markets. These days public equity markets are for suckers. Private equity is where the action is...anyway I digress.
• But I didn't want to write a short answer and get squashed by THEEVILQUORACOLLAPSEBOT gasp gasp!
• It felt good. But I just went about my day. Went to work. Walked in Central Park. Usual shit....I laughed a lot, but I always laugh a lot. haha
• Written without edits, and with excessive rambling, while eating a 19 cent banana from Trader Joes.

I crossed that threshold as a young single guy many years ago. I'd saved up a good part of the way there by earning and not spending, then bigger money came my way. On my part I handled it as I handled my smaller sums of money: spent a small bit, saved some more for a later day, leveraged it as best I could, and went about my life.

What changed was not me, but other people. A girl I started dating, ostensibly a free spirit,  bragged about how her last boyfriend was a millionaire and would spend money carelessly, treat her to fancy things, impress everybody as a big guy around town. I kinda liked her but I didn't want to be her tool, I never told her that I had any money, let her think I was a poor second best to her last boyfriend.

I made some investments, started some businesses. Some of the customers, employees, vendors, refused to accept that it was squarely my money to spend, not theirs for the taking. They helped themselves, tried to hoodwink and con me, thought they deserved my money more than I did, a few outright stealing. I met a Russian girl around this time who laid this out. She said more or less, you never know how beautiful people are until you meet them when they are rich. You never know how wretched people are until you are rich and they are needy and desperate.

If you come into money randomly, unexpectedly, without preparation or effort, you tend to take it for granted. It can be a curse. If you come to it through long effort after a long period of struggle and poverty, it is like the most delicious ice cream on a hot day. You deserve it, you waited for it, you will treasure it. It validates all the suffering you endured.

It feels anticlimactic, at least to me. I didn't prioritize being worth a million dollars, but knew that to have a certain lifestyle after I retire, I needed to pass that mark. When I was worth $1M net and could have assembled that as cash, there was a thrill!

Then a  pause.

Then I realized nothing had changed. I still couldn't buy a Ferrari (or even a Porsche). I couldn't buy a bigger house or quit my job. I wasn't going to start conspicuously consuming and have my net worth DROP. So, nothing changed.

I was disappointed. It should have meant something. Instead, it meant the same thing as $100k, or $750k. An arbitrary number along the path, money I wasn't using but was saving against the future.

Millionaire is an outdated concept because of inflation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, $1M in 1915 buys as much as $23,548,316.83 today. So, you should ask what it feels like to be worth $25M.

I bet that feels *great* ;)

I recently inherited several million dollars worth of farmland.  I'm currently in the process of selling it, and will be closing on a deal on Jan 24th that will bring in $2.5M+.  The way things worked out, I have already received $350k.  

I've worked in corporate IT for many years, so I've made a comfortable $100k / year income.  I'm single, with no kids, so I've gotten use to having a fair amount of discretionary income.  Noting like this though.

The deal to sell the farmland has been in the works for about 9 months though, so I've had some time to get use to the fact I'm about to have a lot of money.  One of the things I've made a point to do was read lots of horror stories of people that won the lottery were broke within a couple years.

As I'm determined to not go broke like the people I've read about, I've spent a lot of time researching good money mangers/financial advisers.  I've played with the numbers over the last 6-7 months and have gotten to the point mentally I understand this is not all the money in the world, and work is in my future.

Now with that in mind... I have done some things with my money so far.  One of the 1st things I did was take about $8,000 and gave it to two different friends to help them out financially.  The other thing I did was buy a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT.  The gift to my friends was a one off and I won;t be helping anyone else out financially.  The Jeep SRT was originally priced at $74k, and I justified this by negotiating the price down to $65k and financing it instead of walking in with cash.

I have purchased some other minor items like a new microwave, and couch, but I've determined to be moderate with my money

I'll answer this as someone who recently reflected on an anniversary of making mid seven figures on an entrepreneurial pursuit. Currently I am in my thirties and "retired". I think it really depends on your background.

We grew up quite poor. Though education, hard work and luck, all of my siblings have made it to the middle class and above. I pursued the same path and did well in school, got good jobs and rose pretty quickly in my previous company but it was a normal 9-5 existence that just happened to pay reasonably well.

Fast forward to a few years ago and I decided to try my hand at entrepreneurship. My field is real estate development and I took the money I made from my real job and took a very calculated but extreme risk on a deal that worked out beyond my wildest dreams. Because I didn't have an extensive track record, getting outside investment was difficult, but it turned out for the best because that means all the profit was mine and I was able to take advantage of a "1031 exchange" which effectively defers taxes forever. I now own a portfolio of income producing real estate that produces more than enough passive income for me to live a very comfortable life.

I won't lie - it felt damn good. Knowing that unless I screwed something up royally, I would never have to work another day in my life gives you a sense of freedom that is indescribable. You feel validated, you feel a bit more intelligent than others. I was aware of that hubris and am aware that luck and intelligence are often confused with one another so I decided to "retire" for a while and have been living abroad ever since, taking far less financial risk than I did before.

As time passes, a few things stand out in my mind:

1) Aside from the freedom of being able to spend your time doing whatever you want, within reason, my happiness is still based off of the same things. Sure I buy nicer clothes and don't think as hard about prices when I go out to eat, but my happiest moments are still related to who I spend my time with.

2) There is a sense of isolation now that I didn't have before. It's quite minor, but certainly something I did not anticipate. When you meet people who are doing the normal 9-5 rat race and hating their jobs, I find that it's better to hide my financial situation because there is very little good that can come of other people knowing your wealth. There are some that will genuinely be happy for you but many will become envious and start to act really weird around you. And then of course some will like you for your wealth but those are not the people you want to be around anyways.

And maybe because I grew up poor and do not use wealth to measure a human's worth, I never really considered "upgrading" my friends to include more wealthy people simply because they were wealthy.

And if you choose to "retire", you spend a lot of daytime hours on your own because most people are at work.

3) I am nagged by the question of "Now what?" To earn a lot of money, you probably had to spend a considerable amount of time thinking about how to earn money. But once you've gotten enough, and I'm aware that number is different for everyone, one of your biggest motivators is now gone. And generally, if you've been financially successful, you're probably quite goal driven so you spend all your time thinking about what metaphorical mountain you're going to climb next.

3) It truly does not buy you happiness. That initial elation went away pretty quickly and I am back to the same person I was before. Sure it allows you to pay to remove some of the things that could cause discomfort, but if you weren't a happy person before the money, the money won't bring you sustainable happiness.

It's a good thing, for sure. But to me, it's just a tool to remove some discomfort from my life. I feel as though I have the freedom to pursue what I really care about rather than having to spend most of my waking hours trading my time for a paycheck. I'm generally quite a happy person and the money hasn't changed that much at all, in either direction.

One day, while trying to figure out what all accounts we had (and which ones we should close), I suddenly realized that between equity in our home and our 401k accounts and other accounts, we were worth about $1.2M.  I was shocked to see that we had that much money (modulo the illiquid equity in our house).  It made me wonder if it would change me - the realization that we had so much money.

It took me a few days to get around to telling my wife and she was shocked.  Growing up, she had never thought that she would ever be a Millionaire.  Neither of us told anyone else though since then we have realized that living where we live and working in the sector that we do, most of our friends are in a similar situation.

Since then, when I see people struggling financially because they have less well-paying jobs, I wonder how they keep everything together.  Thanks to further growth in our investments and more savings and more paying down of our debts, we have become even richer financially and now I worry if my children would simply kick back, relax and wait for us to die so that they can inherit enough money to sit on their asses all day.

Back when I was a fresh college graduate, one of my older colleagues told me that it is natural for people with few assets to be liberal.  Once I have more money, I would become a hardcore conservative like him.  Now that we are worth north of $4M, I am happy to report that I am still repulsed by the fossilized conservative thinking.  My fellow citizens should not suffer with a shorter lifespan simply for the sin of being poor, nor should their children's academic aspirations be stunted due to poverty.

No Exact Moment

There was no exact moment for me when I became a millionaire, I remember when my business was starting my 3rd year I had about $800,000 in the bank (stock and savings) and I knew if we just kept on track I should go over $1,000,000 that year, not counting the value of my business.

A Christmas Prayer

I was in my office alone a few days before Christmas. I had run into the office to get something and the employees were off for Christmas. I was about to go home to the family, a warm house with a fire place, and a beautiful Christmas tree. I even smelled the cinnamon stuff my wife put on the stove to make the house smell good. I remember thinking how extremely grateful I was for everything that I had, my family, my health, and my financial success. I got on my knees in front of my desk and I said a prayer of thanks. I felt blessed. This is kind of the moment that I remember when I felt like I was a millionaire. That was about 20 years ago.

Past the First Million

Life did not change. I am constantly grateful and never take anything for granted. Yes I have a nicer car, a nicer house, but we live well within our means. We did travel once a year on a week long vacation, until my wife got ill. But the biggest benefit is just the peace of mind that you can care for your family.

Michael L. F. Slavin

Author of 5 time award winning One Million in the Bank: How To Make $1,000,000 With Your Own Business, Even If You Have No Money Or Experience 

www.onemillioninthebank.com

I was born into a low income family, not exactly poverty though.  My father was young, 21 when he married my mom at age 18.  My dad lost his job the day I was born because he asked his boss for a raise.  My parents fought over my father buying us a plastic batmobile toy for Christmas when we were little.  He made us a wooden fort for our toys.  When I was 10, I remember my mom saying we could afford pizza, because it was the last day of the month, and she had $24 left. When I was in junior high school, I was teased because I wore a "free" T-Shirt that said "Feelin' 7-Up!" to school.  My mom and dad always seemed to worry about money.  My mom spent everything, and my dad penny pinched like crazy. 

By the time my father retired, I was 29, and I went home to live with him and help manage his investments.  We did well, and I grew his retirement account from $300,000 to $3 million.  Eventually, my net worth topped out at $15 million in 2006.  It's been downhill from there.

It was both easy, and both a struggle, to gain it, and it was a struggle to try to keep it as I lost it all.

To gain it, I worked as hard as I could, with little distractions.

At the peak, it felt weird.  I thought the net worth was just about to double again to $30 million.  I knew it was not all liquid.  I tried to figure out how to manage it all.  There was little help.  Nobody who has that kind of wealth offers consulting fees on how to help.  Professionals who "work for a living" have no idea what that kind of wealth is like, or what it can buy, and neither did I!  I was advised to spread it out among more investments.  I did.  It did not help.  By 2008, I had 45 different investment positions in different stocks worth over $100,000.  Some investments, the top three, were each over $1 million. 

I probably lost about $10 million in stocks in the crash of 2008 as JP Morgan fraudulently manipulated the silver price down from $20/oz., down to $9/oz., as that devastated the mining sector in which I was invested.  Many others lost a lot that year, too, of course.

I tried to determine what my time was worth, at the peak.  Some say it's based on what you can make.  Maybe, for me that was $5 million, what the portfolio in the IRA gained in the previous year or so?  / 250 working days is $20,000/day?  Maybe my time was worth about $2000/hour to $5000/hour?  It's insane.  My gains were ten times greater than the salary of the President.

I felt like I could not "afford" time to relax, nor go to the bath room, nor watch a movie.  I felt like I had to be responsible to continue to grow the wealth, because good times do not last.

I could walk into a hardware store, and think, "I can buy anything in here, or even the whole store maybe?   But first, using these tools is not my area of expertise, nor can I afford to waste my time on project like this anyway, right?  I'll just have to hire a handyman for anything I might want done."  And so, we did 

I had anxieties about losing it all.  I had anxieties about people kidnapping my family demanding millions. 

Many friends and family and friends of family came to me with sob stories of desperately needing.  My money seemed to bring out the worst in people.

I was generous.  I was charitable.  It's not my place to say where I gave to.  God rewards if you don't brag about it, says the Bible.  I hope I have a few rewards in heaven over some of my actions. 

One of my first failed investments was a fraudulent start up mining company that I wasted $250,000 into.  I felt like I just bought 5 Ford Excursions for $50,000 each and just drove them off a cliff and into the sea.  I'm like, I don't even have 5 big cars, where's my money?  It made me sick to be taken advantage of that way.  Angry.  Helpless.  Furious.   Foolish.  But that's life.  That happens.  Rich people problems, right?  Count my blessings, nobody cares about the rich guy's problem, everyone else is struggling in comparison, right?  So shut up about it.  Exactly what the thief was counting on.  I reported him to the FBI.  They didn't care.  He took 5 others for their life savings, as least I only invested a tiny little compared to what I had.  But it was one of my biggest lump sum investments yet.

Yes, I had "good" feelings, too.  I had feelings of power.  Safety.  Arrogant.  Invulnerability.  Strength.   Invincibility.  Security.  I felt like I had enough money for 100 lifetimes, and then some, because wow how it will grow even more before I could ever spend it all.  And I had no desire to spend any of it.

But my wife did.  She wanted a bigger house and threatened to leave.  Divorce is unGodly right?  I appeased her.  Big mistake, even though the house was under a million.  The big house has big expenses, and a house that can entertain guests is not a house that is a peaceful place to sleep or work!  It just attracts partying.  Not good.

The net worth started to dip.   It always dips.  I had about 10 dips where I lost 30% to 50% on the way up.  By the time it dipped 60%, it really started crashing fast, and many of my stocks went to zero.

I had diversified into physical silver and gold.  Unfortunately I also started a mint and bought expensive minting machines.  I thought it would cost me $300,000 and two months to start up a mint to make 1000 oz. silver bars into rounds.  It cost a million and a year instead, and the machines never worked right.  I sold all the half working minting machines in 2014 for $100,000, just to save the $5000/month in rent. 

I had two coin shops, and suffered major losses from theft from each.  Then the lawyers got involved, and I knew I was doomed.

I drank for a year to drown my sorrows, and lost even more money.  I went to rehab in  fall 2011- spring 2012.  125 days.  I've been sober since.

Money is funny.  I lost $850,000 in 2009 due to the theft.  The IRS audited that year, and today is fighting me, they claim I earned $4 million.  Nope, that was in the IRA and years earlier.  So, for the last two years I have been under IRS collections, and they put my coin shops out of business, and now I'm nearly broke again.

How does it feel?  If I don't have a suicidal thought, that's a good day.  I know an awful lot about making money in stocks.  I think that's partly why so many people abused me and stole; they thought I could handle it, but I couldn't.  I took the personal betrayals very badly, and the loss of the remaining money very badly too, because I needed it to live!  And what about my kids?  They stole from what would be the inheritance for my kids!  But what's the point if the IRS can simply come in and steal all of your hard work?  I'm battling "learned helplessness" from their abuse, and I should be suing them for millions.  Maybe I will. 

I don't know if I could ever bring the mental focus and energy back to making money like I did in the past.  But what's the alternative?  And this is the battle I'm suffering today.

A2A but honestly I never have been nor in the immediate future will be a millionaire. Although don't think it's not on the list.

However I watched my father become a millionaire and then have it ripped away so I feel like I can speak on this.

There are happy millionaires and sad millionaires and the sad ones normally have a couple things in common.

1. They though money was the end, and not a means to the end.

2. They thought a million was a lot but then learned theyre not that special.

3. They sacrificed family, friends, love and fun in order to 'get it back at a higher rate' by becoming a millionaire.

My father was a happy millionaire because he didn't make the money as a goal but because he sought success and challenged. When he earned his million dollar check, we have a nice big dinner worth a whopping $200 at the nearest Chili's and then went about life like normal. There wasn't an augmentation of our lifestyle, but rather was going to be used as padding for financial security.

So my father was happy he'd achieved success in his business and then was awarded financial independence. So many people chase the dollar signs without any regard to the fact that money isn't the end, it's just a means an by product of hard work, determination and a bit of luck.

Meh…

if you grew poor as I did, it means you can buy all the stuff you wanted and couldn’t have. then you realize you’re hoarding stuff you don’t need and go to a simpler life.

About money, you love with a constant stress of taking the right choices to conserve your wealth.

Taxes get higher, complex and dangerous. you hire somebody to help, but it is a pain in the ass and a constant reason of why and how to run your own affairs. e.g. marriage, citizenship, companies structure.

About the luxuries I personally keep myself distant from them. A USD5,000 Gucci vs my old tailor suits? yeah, THERE ARE differences, but I wouldn’t pay the additional USD4,500 for them. there is a logarithmical difference in price between “good” and “best”.

“Best” is way overrated.

The difference between riding a Lambo, Porsche or Ferrari vs my first Nissan? yes they are faster, but the comfort is not 20x better. maybe 30%. also, you’re racing daily so what the hell… (let’s ignore the depreciation + taxes bleeding for now)

You feel the power to be able to help your loved ones with all kind of problems.

My advice is stay stoic, so power don’t erode your spirit. Live like a guy making maybe 20 minimum salaries in your home country, that should be comfortable enough.

Remember the perils of letting power corrode your principles. the same power you exert daily can elevate or destroy you in a matter of days.

It doesn't feel like anything. You have to realize that on the way there, changes have already taken place in your living situation that make it anti-climactic. Like, no mortgage, no car payments, no credit card or student loan debt. Not being tied and having someone own a piece of you, is the biggest stress reliever ever.

I should say that I'm someone who has always paid cash for everything. Coming from a white trailer trash background and being made fun of by my family for wanting to go to college it's funny in some ways. I recently had to submit credit references to become a dealer of some such and I didn't have anybody to list on the application, except other people I'd also only paid cash to. I don't even know what my credit rating is, probably average.

People would be shocked if they knew our net worth was over a million dollars. I dress like crap, don't wear jewelry, don't get my hair or nails done at a salon and I don't drive a new car. My husband's car is 15 years old. Mine is 5 years old and that is a step up; I bought it used 2 years ago to replace a 19 year old car.

Our only luxury is having a housekeeper come in once a week -and wine, we like to buy wine from vintners. Also indigenous crafts. I don't let anybody know that I have a housekeeper. It's my secret.

I tell my husband that I want to quit my job (self employed, I make more than he does) and have him support me in a style to which I'd like to become accustomed. He knows that would last about 15 minutes. I work a lot, I enjoy it. He makes about 100K per year, I do the rest. I still get up in the morning, make his coffee and sometimes his breakfast, wash his clothes. Today he is over at my business fixing some machines. He is a good man, we're happy together. Both kind of dweeby but we're good together and agree on nearly everything.

We'd help out our families more than we do but they don't really need it. I mean, we have family members living paycheck to paycheck but if they can "afford" to go on 2 week cruises with their kids and such, they really don't need money to buy their kid's clothes. We never did any of that. I still make my own clothes, for my husband too.

We are great tippers tho for anything above fair service. We had a young man the other day, first day on the job (or so), messed up our order and was generally disorganized but we left him $10 on a $19 tab. I very much enjoy giving money to charity. It is a lot of fun. We are not religious but we believe in tithing. We donate 10% of our income to social causes.

Btw, we are 50 years old.

Becoming a millionaire is a rare opportunity, and because it’s rare, it made me feel excited, and at the same time it felt really tempting. With so much money at my bank account, my instinct kept telling me to spend it. Before getting to achieve the goal, I promised myself that when I become a millionaire one day, I’ll put the money on investment rather than spending it on luxuries. In the real world, however, it was much harder than I expected. During the first 3–4 days, I found it hard to sleep because I was too excited. I tried my best not to spend it or brag it to people, but part of me kept telling me to do so. My ego told me to brag as much as possible so that I can proof people that I was once a millionaire. It was at that moment that I started to realize the other side of me. It seems that conditional change can highlight your inner personality. A person can turn from innocent to violent due to the enviromental factors.

Frankfully, I managed to put some parts of the money on investments and ended up making more money from it. I have also tried my best to hide my millionaire identity from my friends. I recall at one time I had an accident with this guy who drives a BMW. He was making fun of my car because I was driving a Subaru. Little does he know that I also own a Porsche 911, but I tried to remain quiet anyway (Which is quite hard if I can be honest.).

Despite the amount of my wealth, I am the type of guy who people usually call as ‘thrifter’. I only spend my money on things that I really desire rather than because I can. I try to buy things that can last for a long time. Heck, I even bought a lot of second-hand watches (Which I think are great value because you can sell them again at almost similar price). I’m still an investor and I will do my best to maintain a long term wealth. My earlier cars were brand new, but then I started to buy second hand cars.

Being a millionaire is also an opportunity to fullfill my dream, which is to contribute as much as possible before I die. I wanna be a useful person for the society. I don’t want to live just for myself, but to help people, to make the world a better place. Being able to collect a large amount of money and share it to people is like a legal version of Robin Hood.

The question is very general. From consulting many clients worth $1 million plus I would say that there are 2 major distinctions.

First, those individuals worth $1 million plus that have true financial freedom, and second, those worth $1 million plus but having to work to maintain their accumulation of wealth.

The truly successful are millionaires that have financial freedom.

Having the money to do as you please along with the time to do it is the key.

Also of note is if a person only concentrated on high income and net worth and neglected themselves physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually then often becoming a millionaire does little for the person because they're not happy.  So I would say that is the major factor of distinction of different aspects of millionaires.  I developed a consulting program that creates a $1 million plus net worth along with completion of goals on all levels and aspects of life for real well rounded and complete success in life.

Lastly, all of the multiple streams of income are converted to passive streams by program's end for true financial freedom.  I am writing an ebook and creating a corresponding website for the programs after the great success of the clients participating in it over the last 10 years.

Money  may not buy happiness but it makes problems a lot smaller and how many poor people are smiling ear to ear?

In terms of how it actually feels to be a millionaire?  I believe it builds confidence and reduces stress if a person sets up their wealth properly, but when I hit my goal at 29 to have a $1 million net worth I was happy for the accomplishment after a lot of hard work is the only thing I really felt that had changed.

At the end of the day it's awesome. Knowing that you can live with a little less worries.

On a daily basis (as an entrepreneur) I don't pay much attention to this. I care more about my employees then what ends up at my own bottom line. The theory is that if you can make value for others you will succeed in the end. I guess that happens when you reach a certain level of success

What drives me on a daily basis are the achievements and small successes.

Today we made another sale to an aircraft manufacturer worth 99K EUR. Sales Lead who's on vacation texted me a congrats message, sales person in charge updated me on the deal. I honestly didn't even remember we had a deal like this coming up. I am sure it was mentioned on a meeting a few weeks ago along with a hundred other updates.

This just comes in addition to another aircraft success last month worth 343K USD.

Updating my family mom said "it was nice". Wife said "aha" and honestly I spent 3 min during the day thinking about this whole thing.

After a certain while the successes becomes like drug. You feel high for a moment when another big order comes in. Sad truth is that the moments last shorter for each time and you keep on wanting higher goals to satisfy the need for a kick. For me it's mostly a numbers game. 2 years ago 99K EUR was very impressive. Now it's just another "aha" moment. Stupid right? The value of the money was different first time it happened.

I said to my wife the other day: How about we count our accounts at christmas time... just to see how much it's gone up since 6 months. We don't even have the time to do it since we both work 10-14 hours a day.

The nice perks are there though: We ordered a new car worth 80K USD. Downside? You got to wait 7 months for manufacturing. Silly first world problems. It's not an issue though since we already have 2 Mercedes's.

We counted 7 vacations this year. 3 bigger ones and 4 smaller escapes. The last one was crazy though when we went to Las Vegas and with helicopter ride.

Summing up at some stage your boundries of what is real changes over time. A few years ago I wouldn't have imagined any of this being true.

Work hard and play hard.

I became a millionaire and some more when Twitter went IPO in Nov 2013. I was 30 at the time and had been a relatively early employee (# ~250-300). Prior to this, I was worth ~$50-100K so this was a massive jump and had a major impact on how it allowed me to plan my life going forward.

I have always been someone who has had very small needs (i.e. fairly low personal burn rate) but big dreams. Having the cash cushion allowed me freedom of pursuit - I was able to think and plan long-term with far more ease than I had been able to in the past.

More tactically, the day the money hit the bank I went ahead and paid off the remaining debt (<$10K) on my three year old car, and the remaining debt (<$25k) on one of my investment properties. Other than that, I didn't touch the money for six months after which I split it into two parts - 90% in long-term index funds, 10% carved out for angel investments.

I continue to work in the same line of work albeit at a different startup. 

In closing, not much changed from a day-to-day perspective but a lot changed in how I started to run my life.

It's very complicated.  Your concerns that you were accustomed to dealing with are different.  You can't just do things "from memory" anymore because it's not automatic like it was before.  There's a lot more at stake if you mess up and plenty of people just waiting around for the opportunity to take advantage of it.  It's as if having wealth is a license to get ripped off.

I worked with a guy who inherited $7,000,000 overnight.  One night he was working right next to me and 2 hours later he was a multi-millionaire.

He'd been married to a girl 3,000 miles away and she was heir to a real-estate fortune her uncle had.  The uncle died when my friend and she had been married a few years.  You know how you sign each other up as beneficiaries when you're married ?  They'd done that and hadn't changed it when they separated.  They were still the beneficiaries in the event of either one's death.  After she inherited the uncle's money she was killed in a traffic accident and overnight my friend became a multi-millionaire.  Everything went into probate in Florida, of all places.  Florida has the most mercenary laws to make sure that the state of Florida gets it's cut of the pie.  When he heard about it, 2 attorneys had already been sent to prison over the matter.  His life became very complicated because he couldn't get part of the money since it was tied up in court.  Finally he got himself on the payroll of one of his hotels as an employee to get by.  None of this was "business as usual".

I don’t count myself into that top 1% because top 1% might have more hidden wealth then I have on papers. I might be top 2% or top 3% who knows because I don’t count it. But my whole business is very transparent and thus I didn’t had the pleasure of getting any easy tax breaks to start off with.

I was not born into rich family because the day I was born my parents didn’t even had a house of their own and they used to sleep on floor laying down the towels that they used for bathing as we didn’t had any mattresses.

Atmost I do remember that old house where I was eating mud from the garden and I also remember my father taking me out on a ride on his bicycle in evenings when he would come back from his job. This is when I was like 2 or 3 years old I guess.

Well rest is history. I spent almost all my life till 25 years in poverty. After 25 I started my business as I had to do something to support my family. My idea of getting rich was just to get enough to feed my family and live peaceful life.

With gods blessings I was able to finish my task in 8 months and I knew now I will never have to worry about my family. I went on and on and on for next 10 years and here I am. (Yes made many mistakes and learnt many lessons in that 10 years. You can refer to my other answers for those details and how startups works and how startups fail.)

Anyway I don’t feel different becoming a millionaire. I just feel same. Infact I feel lonely too sometimes, because nowadays getting true friends is quite a big task for me.

Nowadays when I walk into office everyone stands up and wishes me “Good morning sir”. Nowadays when I go out or come back to my house my security guards stand up and salute me. Honestly speaking I don’t like this anymore. I went to the guard tower and sat with them. They were standing. So I told them to sit down and said that they should stop saluting me from now.

I also told my staff that they should stop saying Good morning to me because some of the days I am very much preoccupied with my own thoughts and I am not even able to return their greetings.

Yes money is good and great. I eat and do whatever I want. Infact I had to do somethings when I was poor like take a bath, wear ironed clothes and look proper. Nowadays I don’t care. If I wish not to take a bath or wear torn clothes then there is nothing else that can stop me to do it. Yes I feel free.

I made a lot of money easily and recently. I come from a poor background but i always believed i would be rich. Being a christian i always used to pray to be rich but at times you get the sense christians are now being guilt tripped into not desiring to be rich. But according to the bible God desires above all things that we prosper and good health. 
I believed God would give money, a very large amount of money from an unexpected source. I had tried to get into business for myself but nothing seemed to work out. I just decided to let go and let God because it became such a stressful time. I read inspiring books on growing in faith and belief, the law of attraction etc.
I used to be obsessed with reading about rich people all the and collected as many pictures as i could on what i wanted.
And God was faithful. I recieved a large amount from money ( more than i had prayed for).
I get to support my family, eat the food i want, bath with hot water because we now have a geyser, watch dstv, wear beautiful clothes, i now started numerous businesses, i get to give to the poor, return tithes and offering, and i tell you my wealth is ever increasing.
This is a true story. I promise you. God is faithful on His promises. I once went through the bible reading on God's promises to financially bless me and i just grew in faith because i discoverd God wanted me to be rich.
If God could bless so can you. I don't consider myself a perfect person yet but if God gave up His only Son whilst we were still sinners then He will freely give us all things including money.