21 Ways on How to Become Rich from Nothing

Not every person is born with silver’s spoon or every person is not blessed enough to born into a wealth family. However, you do not have to be a celebrity or trust fund baby to get rich. Opinions vary when it   comes down to what it really means to be considered rich. However, the thing to remember is that being rich is not just about the amount of money you accumulate but also your net worth.

Net worth is the value of all of your assets a person or corporation owns, minus the liabilities they owe. It is an importance metric to gauge a company’s health, providing a useful snapshot of its current financial position. No matter what your present condition or net worth is, do not be disheartened because you can start working towards getting rich from nothing by following our 21 ways on how to become rich from nothing.  

1. Get your money mindset ready

2. Control of your expenditures

3. Create a financial plan

4. Get on a budget

5. Find your path to riches

6. Own equity

7. Live below your means

8. Boost your current income

9. Commit for the long haul

10. Invest your money

11. Create multiple streams of income

12. Pay off debt

13. Set clear, actionable goals

14. Keep learning

15. Automate your finances

16. Stay the course

17. Efficiently use your time energy and money to build your wealth

18. Do not financially depend on your parents or other family members 

19. Raise kids who are self-sufficient

20. Choose the right job for you

21. Be good at pursuing market opportunities

1. GET YOUR MONEY MINDSET READY: The mindset you have is a powerful thing, especially when it comes to money mindset. If you have a poor mentality you will continue making poor financial decisions keeping you living paycheck to paycheck. You can change from a poor mentality to a rich mindset by developing the right habits.  A popular way to get motivated and create a rich mentality is to create a financial vision board.  Another way to improve your money mentality is to read motivational books that will spur you to financial greatness. When you see other succeed, it can help motivate you to achieve financial success.

2. CONTROL OF YOUR EXPENDITURES: we said it before but it’s worth saying again; you are never going to get rich from nothing if you are spending more than you earn. This is why controlling your spending is so important, no matter where in your financial journey you are. A good way to do this is to track your spending for a mount. By doing that you will be able to see exactly where your money is going, including any area where you may inadvertently be spending more than you realized.

3. CREATE A FINANCIAL PLAN: The principal procedure on how to get rich from nothing is by creating a financial plan. There is a popular saying that state “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” proves trues, especially when it comes to finances. To get started on creating your financial plan, you will want to set up your financial goals.  It is best to set short term and long term goals. By breaking down your long term goals into smaller steps, it makes it easier to attain. Also, writing down your goals makes you more likely to achieve them. It makes it easier to figure out how to become wealthy by setting financial goals. These will help you get rich from nothing.

4. GET ON A BUDGET: Getting on a budget is essential when it comes to getting rich. Budgeting holds you accountable for all of the money you spend. When making a budget, you want to find a budgeting method that works best for you in order for you to stick to it. You may be surprised that many wealthy people stick with a budget to stay financially successful.

5. FIND YOUR PATH TO RICHES: Your goal is to find something that you like to do, that you are naturally good at, that you can make money from it doing. It is hard to find something you love to do but easy to know what you hate. That is why Galloway illustrates that “thing that does not suck” instead of “things you love”.  Start here, try a lot of stuff, keep a list of things you have to do, and ten steer clear of any job or education path that involves those things.

6. OWN EQUITY: If you going to get rich, you need to own equity. Equity is just a fancy word for owning a piece of a business.  There are a few different kinds of equity. You could own a business, like a stock, that you buy on the open market. You could also own a piece of a start-up company that you invest in privately in exchange for shares. May be you own a piece of a product or piece of intellectual property (IP) like a book, script, or other artwork. No matter what kind of equity it is, remember this that equity is everything. Try to get as much of it as you can.

7. LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS: The secret of how to get rich from nothing is to live below your means. By living below your means, you will spend less money and built your savings account. Just like with budgeting, living below you means will be a financial lifestyle you will apply to build and attain wealth. To live below your means, keep the following things in mind, curb your spending, live frugally, become a savvy shopper etc.

8. BOOST YOUR CURRENT INCOME: You can boost your current income to help in your new financial journey of getting rich. One way to do this is by asking for a raise at your current job. Be sure you have been performing well and have worked for the company for a while if you go this route. If you are a good employee, they may be willing to increase your income to keep you from looking for another job. If you been with your current employer for a significant time period and perform your job well, and they refuse to give you the pay increase you desire, it may be time to seek out other opportunities. Spruce up your resume and seek out an opportunity that will give you the pay bump you need in order to start getting rich.

9. COMMIT FOR THE LONG HAUL: The “how to get rich fast” crowd has always had an audience on the internet. The problem is that their message simply does not work. Instead, it’s important to acknowledge that you’re going to be in this for the long haul. I’ll discuss below how amazing compound interest is but, essentially, it does take a number of years for your money to work its magic and grow to seven figures. This can be tough when you’re at the start of your money making journey, as looking down a path that’s potentially decades long is, frankly, daunting. But when you think about the alternative of, say, not being able to retire, committing for the long haul is definitely the right to go.

10. INVEST YOUR MONEY: A huge factor in how to get rich from nothing is investing your money. Even if you don’t have much money, you can still get started investing to start building your wealth.  Similar to creating multiple income streams, you will want to eventually diversify your investments too. This way, you are bringing in income from a variety of sources. Some investment types include: Stocks, Bonds, Real Estate, and Businesses etc. The sooner you invest, the quicker you will build your wealth.

11. CREATE MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME: Do you remember the saying, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket? The same goes when it comes to your income. The average millionaire has seven streams of income seven streams of income. By diversifying your income, you grow wealth faster and create financial security. For instance, if you have a side hustle in addition to your job, you have two streams of income rather than depending on one or the other. This is a smart money move because if you were to lose your job for some reason, you would still have some income coming in from your side hustle.

12. PAY OFF DEBT: Let us be honest: you are never going to be able to get rich from nothing if you carry debt. This is particularly the case for high-interest debt, like on your credit card. What this means is that if you have any debt, it is imperative that you focus all your efforts on paying this off. Otherwise, your money will continue to go straight to the bank’s pockets as interest rather than being used to grow your own wealth. So for those with high-interest debt, it’s going to be even more important than usual that you limit your spending. Starting a budget is a great way to help you with this and I particularly recommend the 50/20/30 budgeting method. This involves spending 50% of your income on your needs, 30% on your wants and 20% on your financial goals. Why this works for a lot of people is it makes sure you have some money for fun things, so you’re not completely depriving yourself. The other reason this budgeting method is so good is it ensures that some of your money each month is allocated towards your financial goals. In this case, that’s going to go towards getting you out of debt. By budgeting in this way, it means that you won’t find yourself in a situation where you get to the end of the month and don’t have enough money left over for this goal. Instead, the money to make this month’s repayment is already there and part of your budget. Our free budget template below can help you get started with this. It will show you exactly how to divide your spending up into these three categories and make sure you’re able to stick to the recommended percentages every single month.

13. SET CLEAR, ACTIONABLE GOALS: Having clear, actionable goals is important for achieving any objective in your life, and the goal of getting rich is no exception. Otherwise, your efforts are going to be a bit aimless and it’s going to be less likely that you’re able to hit the money marks you’re looking for. A good idea can be to set goals. That are SMART – that is, they are: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time bound. 

14. KEEP LEARNING: We will get to it shortly, but spoiler alert: one of the key factors from the millionaire next door  on how to be a millionaire is being good at pursuing market opportunities. And one of the best ways to identify areas in your life where you could make more money is to always make sure you’re continuing to learn.  This could be as simple as making sure you listens to a personal finance podcast or an audiobook on your way to work rather than the radio. Another option is to track down people in your network who have already achieved your financial or career goals. Offer to buy them a coffee to pick their brains – the things you could learn from them would be more than worth the cost of a latte. However you do it, learning about and applying strategies of those who have come before you can help you to achieve your goals even faster. In particular, it will help you to avoid their mistakes and apply the lessons learned to your own life.

15. AUTOMATE YOUR FINANCES: Automating your finances is a great trick that not enough people talk about. It means that most of your financial obligations are taken care of as soon as your income hits your account by making sure it’s sent where it’s supposed to go.  This includes things like making sure debt repayments are set to be automatically paid. By making sure this happens a few days after you’re paid each month (just in case your pay check is delayed for some reason), you’ll always know that you have money to pay towards this debt, avoiding any late or non-repayment fees. This should also include making sure that a portion of your income every month is sent to add to your investments. This could include sending a certain amount of money to your 401(k) or other retirement account of choice. By doing this, you’re removing any chance of human error, such as if you forget to make a credit card repayment and then accidentally spend the money that was supposed to go to that. It also makes managing your money as hands off as possible, leaving you more time to do the things you actually enjoy doing – or to, say, work on that side hustle to generate even more income.

16. STAY THE COURSE: This tip is probably the least exciting of all of them, but it’s going to be one of the most important ones during your wealth building journey. As the example of Robin and Ted showed above, getting rich takes time. And history has shown that those “how to get rich quick for free” gurus don’t know what they’re talking about. Instead, as was also clearly established in The Millionaire Next Door (and as we’ll explain further below), the best right way to get rich is to consistently apply solid financial management for years.

17. EFFICIENTLY USE YOUR TIME ENERGY AND MONEY TO BUILD YOUR WEALTH: Wasting time is simply wasting money. This isn’t to say that you should be working 24/7, but one common trait in the millionaires that the book looked into is that they used their spare time effectively for achieving their goal of a seven-figure net worth. This means that you should seriously look at how you use your own time and energy to see if there’s any way you could be using it more effectively. For example, could you do something like starting a side hustle or even learning more about how to manage your money more effectively?  It’s fine to leave some time for Netflix, but if you find yourself spending hours flicking through social media, there’s definitely room there to grow. 

18. DO NOT FINANCIALLY DEPEND ON YOUR PARENTS OR OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS:  Not everyone has the luxury of being able to rely on the bank of mom and dad, but those who do won’t typically be able to get to the point of having their own financial independence, according to the millionaire next door. This means that most millionaires have to rely on their own income, not any help from family members. This includes the finding that most of them didn’t have any significant inheritance to rely on. And the fact that this concept can be reversed is great news for most of us. That is, the fact that you are only able to rely on yourself for your future wealth is a great sign that it’s more than possible for you to get rich from nothing.

19. RAISE KIDS WHO ARE SELF-SUFFICIENT: If you have kids, it’s great to be in the position of feeling like you’re able to help them out financially if they get stuck. But the book actually finds that millionaires generally raise kids who are completely financially self-sufficient. What this broadly indicates is that those people who raise their kids with ability to value money and the benefits of earning it themselves will, in turn, also experience their own financial security. The fact their children are brought up to have this kind of mindset has the added benefit of allowing these millionaires to focus their money on growing, rather than having to spend it on helping their children and losing out on the value of compound interest over time.

20. BE GOOD AT PURSUING MARKET OPPORTUNITIES: THIS refers to the fact that most millionaires are very good at seeing opportunities to earn even more money. This doesn’t mean that, say; they’re great at picking stocks. Instead, it can refer to being good at seeing an opportunity in their own career to increase their income. It could also refer to being able to identify room in your life for something like a side hustle based on some area of expertise you have or some other hole in the market you notice.

21. CHOOSE THE RIGHT JOB FOR YOU: I mentioned earlier that one of the biggest factors to get rich from nothing is spending less than you earn. This can actually be done in two ways: either reduce your spending or increase your income (or both at the same time). This means that picking the right job was crucial for many of these millionaires getting to a seven-figure status.  This doesn’t actually refer to picking a high income job necessarily. In fact, we already mentioned how the book notes that many of those earning a high income weren’t actually the same people with a high net worth, simply because they spend too much of what they earn. Instead, choosing a job you enjoy and you’re good at means that it’s more likely you’ll succeed at it. This will, in turn, lead you to be able to earn even more over time.

By implementing these key steps, you can set yourself up to have a rich, financially successful future!