•Money buys security, not happiness. Zac says most of us think we’ll be happier if we have more money. That’s true – up to a point, but Princeton University research found that the ability for money to bring us joy tops out at $60,000 a year. So if you’re making $60,000 a year, you’re as happy as someone making a million dollars a year. How can that be? It’s a case of “never-enough” syndrome. The more people make, the more they spend, the more they want. It’s a vicious cycle. So don’t equate being rich with being happy.
•The sooner you start saving for retirement, the wealthier you’ll be. Most people delay saving for retirement because they’d rather have something to show for the money they’re earning, but if you saved $500 a month from age 25 to 35, and invested it, you’d have over a million dollars by retirement. That’s only saving money for 10 years! If you wait until you’re 50 to start saving – you’d have to save nearly $3,000 a month to get to a million bucks in time for retirement. If all those number are confusing, just remember this: Save a little bit now, so you don’t have to save a heck of a lot later.
•You’ll never get rich if you always have a car payment. The average monthly new car payment is around $450. If you invested that same amount from age 20 to retirement age 65, you’d have a $4 million nest egg. As Andrew Tobias said, the author of The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need, that new car smell is the most expensive fragrance in the world.
•The people you think are rich, probably aren’t. Case in point - what’s the most popular new car brand among millionaires? Toyota. So the next time you see everyone zipping around in a Mercedes, don’t be envious. They’re probably living on credit, like Teresa from the TV show the Real Housewives of New Jersey. She filed for bankruptcy with close to 11 million dollars in debt – and an income of just $80,000 a year.
