Formula For Millionaires Blog

This week saw the largest financial crisis since the stock market crash of the great depression. The economic downturn leading us into a recession is not only a national economic crisis, but now has become a global economic crisis. If you’re worried about your financial future you probably should be.

Not only have we seen stock market dives for six days straight, but during the last few months we have seen the largest bank failures in history, massive government intervention trying to save banks like Wachovia and Merrill Lynch which sales were orchestrated by the Feds. We saw Indymac commercial bank get seized and taken over by the Feds in order to save it from collapsing. We’ve seen many commercial banks and a giant investment bank, Lehman Brothers, file bankruptcy, while almost all other banks have frozen lending.

Real estate values have been dropping for 18 months straight with no end in sight, and this week saw a financial meltdown in the stock market wiping out peoples stock portfolios, mutual funds, and retirement plans. This week also marked the economic collapse of economic markets in France, Japan, China, Korea, Britan, Canada, Germany and Italy. The US has taken massive measures to infuse hundreds of Billions of dollars into the banking system in an attempt to save it, along with other desperate measures to insure bank deposits, guarantee loans, and more.

Yesterday congress came to an agreement that they would approve the 1.1 trillion dollar stimulus package put in front of them by Obama.  According to a speech Senator McCain provided on the senate floor, there are 78 Republican senators and all 78 do not approve the bill, and 11 democratic senators do not approve the bill.  Yet the majority of congress has enough democratic support to pass the bill.

Another congressman suggested that history should act as a guide to help us make such gigantic decisions in short time frames. He cited the conclusive evidence that Roosevelt’s New Deal stimulus package did not do anything to fix the depression of the 1930’s and it was actually the war that ended the economic downturn.

He also cited the recession in Japan of the 1990’ in which the government attempted to fix it by the infusion of dollars but they had no success.  By the end of the 1990’s Japan had been unable to affect the recession but had become significantly in debt trying to stimulate their economy.  The point in the congressman’s speech was that infusion of money does not alter the course of the economy and only causes us to become more in debt.

As of yesterday, polls indicate that 45% of the general public is opposed to the stimulus bill.  Much of this skepticism is based on the lack of transparency between the Feds and the general public.  “The Feds”, referring to the Federal Reserve, do not even tell congress or Obama what they do with the money.  The Feds are ruling the economy right now, and it makes Congress angry and it makes the general public angry.

Surprisingly, Because They Decided to Become One

Everyone starts out in life not knowing what is possible, until you are shown some options.Growing up we learn what is possible, we accept it and soon it becomes normal as part of our life. As a teenager soon having to face the decisions about what to do after high school, my Dad shared with me all he knew about the options the world had to offer me.

When I was 17 years old my Dad told me I had two choices.After high school I could get a job doing manual labor and if I was lucky I could work for a union for good wages. The second option I had was to get a desk job working in an office, but, if I wanted a desk job then I should go to college to get a degree.

My Dad had no preferences for me and left the decision completely up to me. He had started college in the late 1950’s but dropped out soon because he was not the student type. By chance when my Dad was 20 years old his uncle got him a job with the power company for his small rural town, where my Dad worked for the next 42 years until he retired. He worked primarily inside at a desk job but he saw that some of the union workers who worked outside on the power lines got higher wages than he. He shared with me these options pointing that both jobs had good benefits and both could offer similar wages. But, one would require more schooling.

That was the extent of the conversation my Dad had with me when I was 17 years old; except he added that if I chose to go to college I would have to figure out how to pay my way because he and my Mom did not have the money to help out with college.

What do you do when you feel that the world is closing in upon you when you are running out of money? What can you do when you have no way to pay the bills, you’ve tried all you can do to earn money and there is nothing more to try?  I know exactly how that feels, because I’ve been in that position and you’d be surprised to know that me and many others who are millionaires have been in that position, and for some of us not long ago, for some even now.

Millionaires are no more immune to stress and going broke than anyone else. People think that once you are a millionaire you never need to worry about money again. Millionaires become millionaires for many reasons, but one of the reasons is because they are not afraid to take risks. And once they take risks that pay off in a way to make them into a millionaire, they don’t simply stop taking risks; they keep doing it. And sometimes they get into financial trouble and when they do, they get into deep trouble fast.