För en tid sedan läste jag en intervju på Get Rich Slowly, en av mina favoritbloggar. Bloggaren J.D. har intervjuat sin granne som är dollarmiljonär om hur han bar sig åt för att bli rik och även om det inte är mycket nytt är det väldigt intressant. Intervjun i sin helhet finns här. Den är dock väldigt lång, därför har jag valt ut några delar av den som jag publicerar här:
“The real secret is to spend less than you earn. I don’t care how much you earn, you spend less than you earn.”
I laughed. “My readers aren’t going to like that,” I said. “There’s a vocal group that complains that personal finance writers are always preaching ’spend less than you earn’.”
“It’s not funny,” John said. “Because that’s the secret. They don’t have to like it, they just have to do it.”
*
“What advice do you have for people who want to spend less?” I asked.
“Learn to figure your own power bill and know why it is what it is. People should learn about electrical use. That’s a drain on your monthly budget. Every penny saved on electricity is a penny you can use for something else.”
“No smoking or alcohol consumption,” he continued. “This has nothing to do with morals and health — okay, maybe health — it’s all about the money. I see people with a cigarette in their mouth, and I think, ‘That’s 25 cents!’”
*
“Let’s talk about your approach to investing.”
“If you’re going to do stocks, diversify your stock holdings,” John said. “But for me, no-load mutual funds are the only way to go. To give anybody 3-4% of your money off the top is insane. It used to be I wasn’t aware how much I was paying. Once I figured it out, I thought, ‘Shit, I can make these mistakes myself. Why should I pay anybody to do it for me?’”
*
“What are your financial goals?” I asked.
“I used to say that when I reached $100,000 I would have arrived. But I got there so fast, I just kept going. Some people plan for retirement, but I didn’t plan. I did go to investment workshops — free workshops — that were put on for the teachers, and I learned from them. You’d be surprised at how few people showed up to them. Nobody cared.”
*
We’d come to the end of John’s list, but we weren’t finished yet. “I told some of my readers that I was going to interview you,” I said. “They sent in some questions. /…/ Annie Blue wants to know how money affects your daily happiness.”
“Well,” he said. “I can buy whatever I want. Not need, but want. I just don’t want very much. I always have $100 in my pocket, but I don’t piss it away. I don’t stop for coffee. I seldom eat out.”
“I understand why people buy things,” he said, “I like to buy things, too. There’s a certain satisfaction in looking at the things you’ve accumulated. It’s like an affirmation that you’re doing things right. So you surround yourself with things that make you think you’re doing well — but they’re not necessary. That’s one of the advantages of being older. People just leave you alone to do what you want.”
“I learned long ago that it was okay to spend less than I earned. It wasn’t going to kill me. And I learned that by doing so, I felt really good about myself. I still do. I’m happy. I feel really comfortable.”
Och avslutningsvis:
“Wealth is created by investing money, not by working longer and harder.”
“A dollar spent will never produce dividends. Money spent is gone and will never earn you anything.”