All you have to do is be a doctor, right? Dave Ramsey recently conducted a survey of 10,000 millionaires in the US to find out what they did for work and how they became affluent. The list is below. Prepare to be shocked.
- Engineer
- Accountant
- Teacher
- Manager
- Attorney
This list underscores something I’ve been saying for a long time. It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. Engineers, accountants and teachers are among the most practical, pragmatic folks you’re likely to meet. Apparently, they’re frugal too. Few people go into teaching with the expectation of becoming wealthy. Yet look what happened.
Folks engaged in these occupations are rule followers. Saving and investing is just another process governed by rules that these analytical minds have no problem embracing.
The Ramsey survey went on to observe that most millionaires are first generation – meaning they earned it themselves. Inheritance is nice, but unless Bill Gates is leaving you the money, you need to learn something about how to handle finances or the money may just slip through your fingers.
It takes one set of skills to accumulate wealth and another set to keep it. Now we’re talking about estate planning, which we’ll get into in the next post. But I’ll leave you with this thought for estate planning: Own nothing, control everything.