One of my favorite shows, in the worst way possible, was that Ancient Aliens show on the History Channel. Not because it’s a good show, but because it’s so laughably bad that it makes for some of the best mindless entertainment on TV.
(To be clear: TV is all mindless entertainment. So if you’re going to veg out, you might as well go big.)
For those more sophisticated readers who may have never been exposed to such trash TV, the show features conspiracy theory nutjobs who dabble as pseudo-scientists. They deploy all sorts of questionable logic, and the show tends to follow a predictable pattern:
A talking head presents an innocent and thought provoking question about the limitations of a previous civilization, then highlights an impressive accomplishment about said civilization. When an explanation for their accomplishment isn’t immediately available, the presenter’s inevitably conclusions?
Aliens did it.
The show’s favorite example is the Egyptian pyramids. The construction of the pyramids have perplexed experts for years, so the Ancient Aliens show concludes that the pyramids were obviously built by aliens.
It’s all silly good fun, if we all didn’t do the exact same thing every day.
The final product is a lot more confusing than the steps to get there
Now imagine the year is 3500, and the Millennial American is ancient history. In fact, our very own society is featured prominently on the History Channel’s 1,483rd season of Ancient Aliens.
“How did they ever build 1,000 foot tall skyscraper? Their cranes were only 100 feet tall!”
See the issue with this logic?
- Fame isn’t found from one lucky break. It’s found from having talent (unless you’re the Kardashians…) and gutting through rejection after rejection until somebody finally takes notice.
- Good careers aren’t made with one big promotion. They’re made by showing up on time, day in and day out, and turning out quality work again and again.
- Successful businesses aren’t made with one brilliant idea. They’re made from slowly grinding away at the details, and executing the small stuff over and over.
The big results always come from the baby steps. That “overnight sensation” is the result of years and years of hard work.
The skyscraper isn’t erected overnight, and the pyramids weren’t built by the magic touch of an alien. First you build a foundation, then you slowly add one floor at a time.
After years of hard work, day in and day out, you’re left with an awe-inspiring accomplishment.
The 30 for 30 Rule: How to Become a Millionaire with $30 a Day
So, if pyramids and skyscrapers start with small steps, what’s the foundation to a lifetime of wealth? What’s the “unattainable” goal that we’re incorrectly placing on a pedestal?
Millionaires aren’t made with one lucky investment or lottery winnings. They’re made with a little bit of savings, again and again.
Here’s the truth, and the boring secret nobody wants to talk about:
To become a millionaire, you only have to invest $30 a day for 30 years.
For some reason, nobody wants to hear this. But they should!
Because I don’t know about you, but when success is broken down into such an attainable baby step, I find it pretty freaking inspiring.
I’d be intimidated if the only path to wealth was to trade stocks like a brilliant trader, start a company like a daring entrepenuer, or battle my way through a hard MBA program to an even harder corporate ladder.
But $30 a day? Anyone can find $30 a day!
That’s cutting back on a few brews, investing a little side hustle money, or even just working a couple of hours at a minimum wage job.
If that’s all it takes to get rich, count me in!
The Shocking Attainability of Becoming Elite
And here lies the secret to becoming elite: a little tiny bit of effort, again and again.
Ramit Sethi calls it the craigslist penis effect. He brilliantly explains that in the early days of online dating, the only thing a guy had to do to rise above the crowd was simply not send a girl a picture of his dick.
Paul from Asset Based Life explains that apparently these days, all you need to do to become an amazing parent is just teach your kids to say please and thank you.
It’s the small actions that separate mediocrity from greatness. And surprisingly, it doesn’t take a ton of effort to be great.
Simply watching what you eat will leapfrog your diet ahead of the millions of Americans sustaining themselves on fast food every day. If you’re really ambitious and make it to the gym three times a week? Congrats! You’re a health one percenter.
And if you save $30 a day again and again? You’re sure to end up one of the wealthiest 1% of Americans in the country.
“Yeah, but uhh… 30 years is a long time man…”
That’s the best part! It doesn’t have to take you 30 years, because this stuff builds on itself.
I was first introduced to this “baby steps” concepts through David Bach’s Latte Factor. He famously explained how something as simple as cutting back on a $5 daily latte could leave you hundreds of thousands of dollars richer.
So I went for it. I started cutting costs wherever I could, looking to trim fat in my budget wherever it was.
Before I knew it, my $5 of daily savings grew to $10, then $20. At some point, I hit $30 of daily savings, which seems to be enough to make me a millionaire.
And last year? I saved around $35,000; that’s nearly $100 a day!
Keep that up for a while? That’s enough to fast track your freedom by decades. And enough to allow you to retire in your 30s.
Before you know it, Ancient Aliens will be wondering how the extraterrestrials gifted you so many millions of dollars.
Great post,
The easy big wins are the ones to go for. I think a lot of the time the Personal finance community focuses in to much on the minutia of being thrifty or investing, Granted those do make a difference but they are a lot of effort! Some find pleasure in looking for deals on small purchases, starting minimum wage side hustles and saving 0.01% on a ETF MER. I don’t.
Max your retirement account from day one, don’t touch your bonuses and save more of every raise than you spend and grow your career.
It took me 3.5 years of work to get my first 100k and 1.5 years to get the next 100k, you can only benefit from compounding if you are partient.
True, but being thrift CAN actually make you a millionaire. Anyone can save $30 a day… Packing your lunch and cooking dinner will pretty much have you there already. The “big wins” definitely make hitting that saving easier though, and I agree completely that most of the PF community stresses too much over minutia.
Bravo Mr. P, I myself like doing both small and large, but never considered investing the bonuses from my work. On a side note I would like to add what a former colleague of mine did when he was working. Everytime he received a pay raise (we all started at $22.00/hour) he had that exact amount of said raise go into his 401K so before he left (he was still at $22.00/hour on his paycheck) he had amassed around $400,000-450,000 in his 401K. All this in less than 8 year’s time!!! This guy was my hero and inspiration.
Pocketing the raises! That’s awesome.
Question
If i invest 30 a day into my brokerage account how are you getting around the $6 per trade?
If you invest directly into a mutual fund, like anything Vanguard offers, you don’t have to pay the expense per trade. I wrote about this when I compared the pros and cons of ETFs vs. Mutual Funds.
Damn right — it was the aliens that gave me millions!
Haha! I like this post a lot MoneyWiz because this is one of the *real* secrets of building wealth — doing something small and money positive and then repeating it every day for *years*.
Most people get bored long before the 30 years is up though. That’s a very different problem.
I knew it!
Staying consistent is the key. The problem is it’s so easy to get distracted and get away from your goals. $300k+ in 40 years for just giving up 1 starbucks latte is a lot of coin to retire with and enjoy because you stuck to your plan. I used to think the Latte Factor was stupid but there is power in small actions performed every day.
Definitely. I like to look at the latte factor from a bigger scale though. If 1 latte a day can leave you hundreds of thousands of dollars richer, imagine how much of an impact a cheaper car or smaller mortgage could have?
Enjoyed the post! I am going to have my 15 year old son read this to hopefully inspire him to start working on savings/investing his $30 a day.
Awesome!!! Tell him I say to keep at it. Or better yet… have him stop in the comments so we can cheer him on ourselves!
Excellent post and many thanks for the mention!
Consistency is the key – we’re attuned to instant gratification and little baby steps of progress are hard for our brains to grasp & measure, but they’re the key to success in all things.
So true about our brains struggling to grasp the baby steps. It all seems to get lost in the details until you zoom out a bit.
I love this, I try to tell this to my friends all the time but they don’t believe me. Imagine if you even doubled that. Right off the bat personally, I save $5.50 a day by walking instead of taking the subway 10 blocks. And on top of that, I save $10 by not buying lunch every day and another $5 or so by drinking coffee at work in the morning and afternoon. I’m with you, it’s a lot easier than people think.
Could you plz let me know where do you invest to get 7%? I want to start soon.
Thanks in advance,