How to to make a million?

[INeedChocolateToday]

I'm sick of working non stop, extra hours, long hours , never seeing my husband who works super hard too.

I want to spend more time with my children, get off the treadmill of modern life.

Any ideas? Lottery winnings have still yet to roll in .....

It’s not in me, despite the best start and education. DH has done it though, growing up on a sink council estate in a notoriously poor city and leaving his shit school at 16. None of his many siblings have achieved, only one has had regular, permanent work. How has he done it? I think the key factors with him are:

• he found direction early, worked at an accountancy firm as an office junior, studied at night at an FE college for years to get qualified (not Chartered), knew he wanted his own business. He is interested and passionate in his area.
• hard work and drive; his mates who went on the building sites or got council jobs were earning shedloads more than him for years but he kept at it, gaining experience and qualifications. He probably works every day barring foreign holidays (not 9-5 at weekends though)
• risk taker; I’m risk averse, DH has taken on scary debt and risked his house at times to fund his businesses, such is his belief in them.
• intelligence; in his case. Although he left school at 16 with just enough O-levels above D to get his first job, he’s got an IQ of 156. He grasps financials and complex structures incredibly quickly. He wasn’t very interested academically and his secondary teachers were particularly crap because his family was “known” so they decided he was thick scum. His form teacher told him his card was marked on his first day, as soon as he gave his surname and confirmed that yes, he was x’s brother.
• lack of complacency; he doesn’t rest on his laurels, he’s always looking for the best way to do what he does and makes time for research, networking and CPD.
• he’s good at developing other people, which means he is surrounded by other really competent, motivated staff working towards the same goal.

It took many years but his business is now worth about 7 million and comfortably yields him dividends of over £400,000 a year. This has increased exponentially in recent years though. Most of his life he’s been well-off but not properly wealthy by most people’s reckoning.

I think finding direction and it being in a potentially lucrative field is an oft neglected factor. Many teachers are incredibly motivated, gifted and hardworking but they are unlikely to ever earn much in excess of £60,000 (I know some heads earn more). If your passion is medicine, science, engineering, business or finance, you are much more likely to become a millionaire.

I really want to know What this craft ítems are. Very intriguing.

I’m an NHS consultant and definitely not on £170k! Even if I was I wouldn’t recommend it as a get rich quick scheme, and certainly not as a way of getting off the treadmill/spending more time with family!! (Have spent best part of today in bed having worked a 24 hr shift yesterday, being up all night and finishing late - though I guess if I’d chosen a different speciality I would have nicer on calls and the option of private work to make more cash, so I can’t really complain!)

Agree completely about tattoo removal.

There are billions to be made in that business, for someone who can come up with an effective, low-pain method.

Live in India. A million rupee’s is about a fiver....

Be born a few decades earlier? Parents house worth approx 2m now.

Take in ironing and become a child minder.

We both worked in the oil and gas industry and although I gave up work about 15 years ago DH is still in the industry.
DH is uni educated, quite specialised and excellent at what he does. The sacrifice is that he spends a huge amount of time overseas.

We also managed a lot of years living in a tax free environment with DH earning a high salary, which helped.

We are also careful with money ( but live well).

Own your own business. That starts by building a career. Building a career starts by having the qualifications. Having qualifications starts by having an education.

I work about 50 hours a week now and a year ago I worked 120 hours this same week. I am on track to earn about double this year than last year. Long hours doesn't automatically mean high income.

Work for yourself. In my line (IT) I never got paid what I was worth until I went contracting. Put the extra money away for the first couple of years and then you have enough to fall back on and can pick and choose jobs.

Move to the US and become a ‘interventional’ radiologist. Starting salary 300k.

I was agog I tell you. A fellow patient telling me about her nephew who became one as he didn’t want the stress of the doctoring his father did. No call outs, office hours. First house $1m. Of course there is all the years of study and student debt. If I were younger and smarter ... but it’s a lesson for my Dc to think outside the box a bit career wise and look at what kind of lifestyle they can gain from a career as well.

I HATE this “I’m well off because I work hard” attitude. Plenty of people work fucking hard in minimum wage jobs and still struggle to make ends meet.

People are well off because they’re lucky - either lucky to have a skill/talent that, when they harness it, can make them lots of money or lucky because of circumstances.

I’m not saying rich people don’t work hard, but working hard will not, by itself, make you rich.

That said, I know of three millionaires within my kind of outer circle. One has no GCSEs but writes children’s books for a living (therefore exploiting a talent).

One sold a house in London at the right time, downsized to the seaside, had loads left over so bought property, which has now grown to a portfolio (she rents out a couple of shops, houses and holiday lets). But she bought the first two outright so anything made on those is profit.
She thinks she’s poor though because they don’t have much “disposable income” (this is a mum on the PTA at DSs school). TBH, she comes across as miserable as sin most of the time.

The third (a former work colleague of DH) won £3m on the lottery about 6 years ago, bought a really nice house, nice cars etc. Still see him about, he’s a nice guy, very deserving of happiness for a number of reasons.

So of the three, your best bet is to try and tap into a talent you have, and maximise your potential that way.

Or, try lots of different things to make money - matched betting, buying and selling for profit, there’s plenty of blogs etc out there.

Alternatively - accentuate the positive, because you don’t know another person’s story. They may be rich on the surface but lonely as hell, or under constant pressure to keep up the facade.

My OH used to covet a certain luxury car until he got talking to an owner in a pub car park once. He said he had worked and played ridiculous hours for years, his wife had left him, he’d lost the kids and house in the divorce and bought the car as essentially a mid life crisis symbol.
So now I tell DH, you may have a Renault instead of a Ferrari but at least you also have me and the DC......it kind of helps, a bit;)

Borrow the money to buy a small business.
Work really hard to make it successful.
Sell it and retire !

Re, the work hard, work for yourself in a small business suggestions. For every person who succeeds and ends up being able to retire on their millions, there will be many more who end up losing thousands or generating nothing but a huge debt and being ruined financially, or at best working long hours to try and make it work for little reward.

The odds are not good and many would earn more with less stress taking low paid work for someone else. I'm not saying low paid work is not stressful but you are guaranteed NMW, don't usually work more than 40-50 hours a week absolute maximum and can usually leave work behind at the end of the day, none of which apply to those who work for themselves.

Previously lucrative other routes may not be the case in the current climate either, eg property development or the oil and gas industry.

A million wouldn't even buy a decent house in the city I live in. :(

I want to sack it all off and go and live somewhere else.

Be prepared to move. Whenever I got back to my home town, I meet people I've known for 40 years who are still struggling by in low-wage jobs, there simply aren't the opportunities to progress no matter how hard they work. They won't move - they have never been able to take the risk or move out of their comfort zone so they are trapped.

I moved around the country in my 20s, chasing better pay and opportunities to progress, when I met my DP, they had done the same, had changed career twice and had worked abroad in some dodgy places, they were prepared to take some risks, including not being paid and left in the lurch.

Neither of us came from wealthy families, quite the opposite, DP lived with their mum and dad in a car for a month at one time.

DP died nearly 3 years ago, and on paper I was a millionaire. I would have given it all away to get them back. Money isn't everything.

I HATE this “I’m well off because I work hard” attitude. Plenty of people work fucking hard in minimum wage jobs and still struggle to make ends meet.

I hope that isn't aimed at me. I acknowledged that a lot people worked harder than us for fewer rewards but my point is don't expect to become rich sitting on your arse bemoaning your lack of money.

The very wealthy I know are smart (not necessarily academically intelligent), work incredibly hard and saw opportunities miles in advance. They took risks and it paid off.

Sadly, it’s not me!

So I know a guy that runs a restaurant /hotel complex in a very touristy part of Scotland, another guy who got v rich doing venture capital stuff in the 90s, an accountant who got into property at the right time.

It’s very hard though and needs luck too

I don't live in the uk but my business plan can only work from the uk.

As a result I've told my family about it and two of them have been able to leave their jobs and now work from home making as much or as little money as they want depending on how much time they want to put in.

I'm hoping to do the same myself when I move back but until then I'm happy to see them making money. There are ways to make money still (the I urial investment was £400.

*initial investment

Rob a bank?

findingmyfeet oooh do share!!

I'd love to but I'd have to kill you

My family's business isn't a get rich quick scheme. It does take graft and knowledge / continuous learning. It is enjoyable though and you can work from home.

I don't know but if you find out please let me know. I don't need a million just enough that I have something left to save each month.

I live in Surrey though so part of the way there but in a council flat.