Building prosperity takes time, effort, and discipline. The good news is that there are strategies that can help anyone develop and preserve wealth over the long term. The earliest you start putting these into practice, the greater your chances of success.
Below, we have enumerated several key principles for building wealth, including setting objectives, managing debt, saving and investing, understanding the impact of taxes, and developing a strong credit history. Let's take a detailed look at each of these principles and how they can help you achieve your financial objectives.
1. Earn Money
The first thing you need to do is start making money. This step might seem apparent, but it's essential—you can't save what you don't have. You've undoubtedly seen charts demonstrating that a small quantity of money routinely saved and allowed to compound over time eventually can grow into a substantial sum. But those models never address this fundamental question: How do you get money to save in the first place?
There are two fundamental methods of earning money: through earned income or passive income. Earned income comes from what you do for a livelihood, while passive income comes from investments. You probably won't have any passive income until you've earned enough money to begin investing.
If you are either about to start a career or contemplating a career change, these queries may help you decide on what you want to do—and where your earned income is going to come from:
What do you enjoy? You will perform better, create a longer-lasting career, and be more likely to prosper financially by doing something that you appreciate and find meaningful. In fact, one study found that more than nine out of 10 workers said they would trade a percentage of their lifetime earnings for greater meaning at work.
2. Set Goals and Develop a Plan
What will you use your wealth for? Do you want to sustain your retirement—maybe even an early retirement? Pay for your offspring to go to college? Buy a second home? Donate your fortune to charity? Setting objectives is an essential step in developing prosperity. When you have a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, you can construct a plan to help you get there.
Start by defining your financial objectives, such as investing for retirement, purchasing a property, or paying off debt. Be specific about how much money you need to attain each objective and the time frame you expect to achieve it.
Once you have set your objectives, you should devise a plan for attaining them. This may entail creating a budget to help you save more money, increasing your income through education or career advancement, or investing in assets that will appreciate in value over time. Your plan should be pragmatic, flexible, and focused on the long term. Regularly evaluate your progress and adjust as required to keep yourself on track.
3. Save Money
Simply earning money won't help you build wealth if you end up spending it all. Moreover, if you don't have enough money for your expenses or an emergency, you should prioritize preserving enough above all else. Many experts recommend having three to six months' worth of income saved up for such situations.
To set more money aside for accumulating wealth, consider these moves:
-
Track your expenditures for at least a month. You can use a budgeting app or spreadsheet to help you do this, but a compact, pocket-size notebook could also work. Record what you spend, even modest quantities; many people are astonished to see where all their money goes.
-
Find the fat and trim it. Break down your expenditures into necessities and desires. Food, shelter, and clothing are evident necessities. Add health insurance premiums to that list, auto insurance if you own a car, and life insurance if other people depend on your income. Many other expenditures will merely be desires.
-
Set a savings target. Once you have a reasonable notion of how much money you can set aside each month, attempt to adhere to it. This doesn't mean that you have to live like a miser or be parsimonious all the time. If you're meeting your savings objectives, feel free to reward yourself once in a while. You'll feel healthier and be motivated to continue on course.
-
Put saving on automatic. One simple method to save is to set up automatic transfers through your employer or bank. Pick a set amount of your paycheck each month and have it transferred to your savings or investment account. Similarly, you can save for retirement by having money automatically withdrawn from your pay and placed into your employer's 401(k). Financial planners usually advise contributing at least enough to get your employer's full matching contribution.
-
Find high-yield investments. Maximize the payout of your savings by searching for savings accounts with the highest interest rates and lowest fees. High-yield savings accounts (HYSAs) offer 10 to 12 times the interest rate of a standard savings account.
Certificates of deposit (CDs) can be a decent savings option if you can afford to tie up that money for several months or years.
4. Invest
Once you’ve managed to set aside some money, the next stage is investing it so that it will expand. Remember that interest rates on typical savings accounts tend to be very low, and your cash risks losing purchasing power over time to inflation.
Perhaps the most essential investing concept for novices (or any investor, for that matter) is diversification. Simply stated, your aim should be to distribute your money among different categories of investments. That’s because investments perform differently at various periods. For example, bonds may provide excellent returns if the stock market is on a losing streak. Or if Stock A is in a decline, Stock B may be on a rampage.
Mutual funds provide some built-in diversification because they invest in many different securities. And you’ll attain greater diversification if you invest in both a stock fund and a bond fund (or several stock funds and several bond funds), for example, rather than just one or the other.
As another general rule, the younger you are, the more risk you can afford to take because you’ll have more years to make up for any losses.
Types of Investments
Investments vary in terms of risk and prospective return. Generally, the safer they are, the lower their potential return, and vice versa.
If you aren’t already familiar with the various categories of investments, it’s worth spending a little time reading up on them. While there are all types of exotic investments, most people will want to start with the basics: equities, bonds, and mutual funds.
-
Stocks are portions of ownership in a corporation. When you acquire stock, you own a small portion of that company and will benefit from any rise in its share price and any dividends it pays out. Stocks are generally considered riskier than bonds, but stocks can also differ considerably in risk from one corporation to another.
-
Bonds are like IOUs from a company or government. When you purchase a bond, the issuer promises to pay your money back, with interest, after a certain period. Bonds are considered less hazardous than equities but with less potential upside. At the same time, some bonds are riskier than others; bond-rating agencies designate them letter ratings to reflect that.
-
Mutual funds are collections of securities—often equities, bonds, or a combination of the two. When you buy mutual fund shares, you get a slice of the entire total. Mutual funds also differ in risk, depending on what they invest in.
-
Also, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are like mutual funds in that each share contains an entire portfolio of securities, but ETFs are listed on exchanges and trade like equities. Some ETFs monitor key stock indexes like the S&P 500, particular industry sectors, or asset classes like bonds and real estate.
5. Protect Your Assets
You’ve worked diligently to earn your money and expand your wealth. The worst situation could be to loose it all due to an unexpected calamity or unanticipated event. Insurance is crucial to developing your wealth because it protects you from hazards. residence insurance will replace your residence and possessions in case of a fire, auto insurance will make you whole after a car accident, and life insurance will pay your beneficiaries a death benefit in the case of an untimely death.
Long-term disability insurance is another form of policy that will replace your income if you become injured, sickly, or otherwise incapacitated and unable to continue working. Even youthful, healthy individuals should contemplate insurance products since they tend to become more expensive as you grow older. That means even if you are 25 years old and single, purchasing life insurance could be much more cost-effective than when you are 10 years older with a partner, children, and mortgage.
6. Minimize the Impact of Taxes
Taxes are an often-overlooked burden on your wealth-building efforts. Of course, we are all subject to income tax and sales tax as we earn and spend money, but our investments and assets can also be taxed. That’s why it is essential to understand your tax exposures and devise strategies to minimize their impact.
Investing in tax-advantaged accounts is one simple method to minimize your tax burden. These accounts, such as 529 college savings plans, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), and 401(k) plans, offer tax benefits that can help you save more money and reduce your tax burden. For example, contributions to a traditional IRA or 401(k) are tax-deductible, meaning you can reduce your taxable income and save money on taxes in the year when you make the contribution. Also, they grow tax-deferred, indicating that the impact will be reduced when you retire and are more likely to be in a lower tax bracket. Investment gains in a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) are tax-exempt, meaning that you can develop and withdraw money in a Roth account without paying taxes on any of the income or gains.
Another strategy for minimizing taxes is to be mindful of the timing and location of your investments. By holding investments for more than a year, you can take advantage of the reduced long-term capital gains tax rate, which is generally lower than the short-term capital gains tax and income tax rates.
Also, bear in mind where certain assets are held. Given a choice, an income-producing asset like a dividend-paying stock or corporate bond should be deposited in a tax-advantaged account like a Roth IRA, where these payments will not initiate taxable events. A growth stock that will only generate capital gains (rather than income) might be best located in a taxable account.
7. Manage Debt and Build Your Credit
As you develop wealth, you’ll start to find it beneficial to take on debt to finance various purchases or investments. You may pay for items with a credit card to earn points or rewards. You might apply for a mortgage for a home or second home, a home equity loan for home enhancements, or an auto loan to purchase a car. Maybe you’ll want to take out a personal loan to help establish a business or invest in someone else’s.
However, it’s crucial to manage your debt carefully—taking on too much debt could impede your progress toward your wealth-building objectives. To manage debt, be mindful of your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio and make sure that your debt payments are manageable within your budget. You should also strive to pay off high-interest debt, such as credit card debt, as soon as possible to avoid paying excessive interest charges. Be wary of variable or adjustable interest rate products like adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) or those with balloon payments, as changes to the economy or your personal circumstances can rapidly cause those debts to become unmanageable.
