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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (111471)	3/21/2012 6:29:35 PM
From: mel221	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 149317

My experience is more like MM's. I probably know of 2 dozen self made millionaires and a few uber millionaires (not me!). None from wealthy families. Working middle class. From a population of smart and smart enough people, those who both worked hard and took risk did well. Those who were very smart, but lazy, did OK. Those who were very smart (smarter than me) and worked hard did very, very well. Those who were not particularly smart, but worked extremely hard did very well. What's the theme? For me, the theme is working hard and taking modest risks (betting on your self). One other theme is living below your means... for decades. PS... I don't know of anyone in my circle who "cheated".

To: tejek who wrote (111471)	3/21/2012 8:42:15 PM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Well, I did it and I did it the hard way. My parents had nothing and in fact they still have nothing to retire on. They spent every dime to get us a decent education, then we borrowed and worked our way through college. Then both my brother and I worked a bit more after college and went back for post-graduate degrees. Both my brother and I are plenty well off. We've been taking care of our parents ourselves. How I made my first million was by starting off saving 25% of my income. Now, 30 years later, I'm saving about 40% of my income and I'm well on my way to an early retirement. The earnings off my investments exceed my income from my job now. It's all on autopilot now and my biggest concern is making sure I don't lose it. And let me be clear, the job I have now is a job anyone of slightly above average intellect and an MBA could have achieved. I am not special. If I was slightly more outgoing and personable, I probably could have risen the corporate ladder much further, but my only real skill is I'm damned good at what I do, because I love what I do. So I've been stuck in senior management for a long while. My point is that what I've achieved is eminently achievable by most people I come across. The only reason why I'm different and have a lot of money is that I save money religiously and I never ever touched the money I saved. It went into retirement and kids college funds and I NEVER touched it, no matter the twists and turns in my career. Interestingly enough, my Aunt and Uncle were from a Communist country and were immigrants and then citizens. They did the same thing I did, but worked 2-3 blue collar jobs all their lives and they ended up with close to a million at the end of a long 50 year work life. They never wanted for anything in retirement. They were my inspiration. Truly, for a long while, anything really was possible in this country. I'm not so sure now. Bernanke and others are devaluing the currency and racking up debt faster than the rest of us can earn enough to save enough to retire from the income from our portfolios. My generation very well may be the last generation in the US where the Horatio Alger story or the American Dream really was possible. From now on, becoming rich will have to be from an inheritance or from winning the lottery. That is what Bernanke's policies and Congress' negligence in managing our budget are doing to us.