The Butler Project

I recently interviewed Dan, the 30-year-old owner of a multi million dollar home services company. After listening to my interview with him several times, what I come away with is awe for his belief in himself and his ability to power through and get the job done.

Home services you wonder? What the heck are home services? Well, in the interest of protecting Dan’s privacy (and, no, that’s not his real name), I’ve elected to refer to his company as a “home service company.” You could put his service in the same category as carpet cleaning, lawn care, window washing, you know, the things we hire people to come to our homes and take care of on a regular basis.

Dan got started in college, selling home service accounts door to door during the summers. In one summer he sold 530 accounts, top in the company at that point and made “something like 150 thousand.” Yes, that’s 150 THOUSAND DOLLARS, in one summer, while in college.

Dan: I wanted to make over 200 thousand the next year, and I wanted to do something different, something where I could say, “You know what, I gave my heart and soul to this and that’s what made it fun for me.” I was so bored with it; I’d done it for so long. I was naturally good at [sales], but I’d never really put in all the hours; I’d never worked that hard. I was always good enough or better than everybody else but, for my own self, for Dan . . . I’d never really tried to push myself to the limit . . . I wanted to do something ridiculous.

So, the next year Dan set a goal to sell 1000 accounts in one summer.

Mark: I have a good friend, he’s actually one of the owners of the company I work for; he sold [home services]. He had one month where he sold 200 accounts, and that was this astonishing event, I mean, nobody does that. You did 903 in a summer?

Dan:You know it’s really hard; I did a little bit over 200 [a month] for four months.

Mark: If I can ask, what are the commissions on 900 accounts?

Dan: (Laughing) You know, back then it wasn’t as much as it is now. But it was enough. 15% of the contract, so it was ah . . now it would roughly be . . . 200 bucks a sale.

Mark: (doing some quick calculations) umm . . . that’s $180,000.

Dan: And I also was a team leader, and my team put on over 4000 accounts and I think I made a 5 percent override off of that.

Mark: 5% override off how many accounts?

Dan: 4150

Mark: With a 400 dollar contract value?

Dan: Right

Mark: (a lot more mental calculations . . . .carry the one . . . .stall a minute) So that’s 1.6 million? Wait, what’s 4000 times 400? I think it’s 1.6 million. You’re 5% on that would be, umm. . . would be about 80 grand.

So, apparently he made his goal of 200 thousand that summer. And, apparently he was hooked on home services, because after college he started his own company, and today it’s worth millions of dollars.

I asked Dan if he ever specifically decided to achieve financial success or if it was just something that sort of happened.

Dan: I think I knew for a long time . . .I tried to study why I am the way I am. [Just previous to starting my business] I told people “I can be a millionaire if I want within this next year or several years.” Most people told me, “Yeah that’s the plan.” or “I hope that goes well for you.” And I remember just thinking man, you guys just don’t know me that well, and I thought that was sad that people don’t know what my abilities are.

When I was young, my dad was a CEO, so I was lucky to have a guy that set a role model, you know, a really good role model. My dad was probably in the top 1% of income in the nation, but he had some rocky times. It was feast or famine . . . we had a huge ridiculous house, it’s probably worth 4-5 million dollars now . . . tennis court, just huge massive property . . we had a lot of nice cars but my parents were a little more economical when it came to cars. But he was the president of [a company] and he basically fixed it up, and then they sold it out from underneath him . . .it was during the recession, (I think back in ‘91) and it was just really tough. We were in a smaller town . . . there was just nowhere to work there. He had to go to [bigger cities] and he would literally travel back and forth every week. Five days out of the week he would spend his time in an apartment.

I think that’s where I got a lot of my work ethic. I saw what my dad was willing to do in order to support us. I said, “Yeah, I can do that if worse comes to worse; there’s always a way. At the same time, it scared me to death because I had my mom telling us you know, “We might lose the house this next month, and we just don’t have the money for that right now.” And I just hated that. I thought, you know, “This sucks.”

I don’t want to put my kids through that. And . . . I was probably a horrible kid. I was cruel to my parents and made some pretty horrible comments to them at the time, saying, “I’m not going to put my kids through this.” But, you never know. That’s why I pushed as hard as I did. My number one goal when I got out of college was to become a millionaire as fast as I could, so I didn’t have to work. If I sold my company today. . . for [millions of dollars] and put it in the bank, I could live off interest for the rest of my life if I choose to.

Once you get that safety and security, you realize too, it’s not the money. The money is not the thing that you like, it’s the chase. It’s the chase of the money. It’s building something and providing jobs and changing peoples’ lives, that’s the fun thing. And you eventually get over the money thing.

So, that’s the Reader’s Digest version of Dan’s story. You can see he was motivated and he got the job done, but it wasn’t always easy for him. In my next post, I’ll show you some of the obstacles Dan ran up against, some of the obstacles he purposely avoided, and the attribute he claims is the most important in his rise to financial success.

Part II of Our Interview with a Millionaire - G

Yesterday, we introduced you to “G”, a Real Estate Broker, Investor, and Entrepreneur. After reading the interview, you’re probably not surprised that he describes himself as a “Type-A guy”.

What is not as obvious from yesterday’s post is his investment strategy: for G, peace of mind is much more valuable than bigger pieces of the pie. Part II of the interview will shed some light on how he has achieved financial freedom while minimizing his risk and stress levels.

Mark: How do you approach your real estate investing?

G: [There are] two mindsets: one is the mindset of “I’m going to establish good credit, and then I am going to leverage myself to create avenues to purchase or invest via financing.”

My philosophy has been completely the opposite of that. A lot of [my success] has just been timing and luck of the market. When I went in 12 years ago, things were really inexpensive relatively speaking, so I was able to capture a lot of appreciation in real estate, and create wealth that way and then reinvest. I have bought [property] as I can afford [it].

I don’t leverage anything. I don’t leverage my house; I don’t leverage my properties. Occasionally I’ll pull a loan, and I try to pay it off, but I’ve kind of bought as I could; if I couldn’t, I didn’t.

And so, I’ve bought…less attractive [real estate] deals that maybe had less attractive returns, but nonetheless had a high return. [T]hat’s been my philosophy that has worked.

I’ve tried to never be in a position where I was leveraged, where if the market did turn, as it has in Colorado, and in Utah, and everywhere else in the nation, I wouldn’t find myself upside down.

All the rental properties that I own, I own without having an obligation to answer to if… renters move out or whatever. So, that’s been my approach, and will probably continue to be my approach going forward.

I’m not a big stock market guy. I don’t like throwing darts and trusting somebody else that I have absolutely no idea of what capabilities they have.

Mark: I’ve talked to other people who say, “Leverage everything you possibly can.”

G: Right. Both theories theoretically could create wealth. One’s just a much more stressful way to do it, and it just hasn’t worked for me. I’m just not that type. Even though I am a Type A guy, it just is too stressful for me, it affects my mood and my personality, and it just doesn’t work.

What personal finance advice would you give me?

G: I’ve never paid interest on a credit card, I’ve never allowed myself to get beyond my means, and that has been a great source of peace for me and my family…if I can’t do it, I just don’t. It’s not worth the risk to me.

[I]t is a high-debt society, and it’s everybody keeping up with everybody, and it becomes kind of a competitive deal out there, especially with younger couples. But I would… tell [you] to stockpile cash as much as [you] can possibly save, and then to eliminate debt.

Contrast G’s philosophy and peace of mind with what is going on right now with our economy. America is fighting off a recession, and is doing it in the face of a virtual meltdown in the housing and mortgage market. If you have turned on the news or picked up a newspaper in the last 12-18 months, you have surely seen headlines similar to these:

“The housing market is crashing”
“Foreclosures are at a three-year high”
“Sub-Prime woes drag down Dow Jones”

And chances are that you, or someone you know, is hurting financially because of the economy. Good people are losing their homes to foreclosure; others are declaring bankruptcy because they have run up credit card debts of $25,000… $50,000… even $100,000. And who is the biggest debtor of all? That’s right, the US Government, with debt now in the TRILLIONS.

It is probably not realistic for most of us to pay cash for our homes; a mortgage may be the only way that you can afford a house. But there are practical ways that you can apply these principles in your life? A good place to start is by reading (or re-reading) our post on budgeting.

Interview with G, a Real Estate Broker, Investor, and Entrepreneur

About a month ago I had the chance to talk with G, owner of a successful real estate brokerage and also a respectable portfolio of rental properties. He started in the mid-nineties “really from zero, from Pell grants”, and in the last ten years or so has built his businesses to the point that he has total financial independence.

G went into real estate straight from college, helping “hundreds and hundreds of families” get into their own home. But it hasn’t been easy; he has built his success on “hard knocks and just having to scrape my face a little bit and learn the hard way…”

A self-professed “hands-on” businessman who still makes the big decisions for his companies, he has first-hand experience on what it takes to be successful, both in his business and personal life.

My interview with G will probably cover a couple of posts; this one will focus more on attributes and attitude.

Mark: As you look back over your career, do you ever remember a…particularly tough setback or obstacle that you had to overcome, and what you learned from the experience?

G: In real estate, you don’t make any money when you help buyers unless you can get them financed. So the lending side of real estate…was a struggle because my initial few years were 80 [to] 90% dealing with the Hispanic community, and there weren’t very many avenues to facilitate their loans. So I was doing so much work and not being compensated because there just weren’t traditional loan brokers that served the Hispanic community.

I had to get through that, and end[ed] up actually creating my own mortgage company that’s been a good source to help them.

Mark: [W]hat do you think has been the attribute that has contributed most to your success?

G: Just a high level of determination. I’m very much involved in the day-to-day, and very active in the decision-making. I haven’t been one that has been able to explode this into a franchise formula or anything like that because I’m still very hands-on and kind of a control guy. I want control and if I mess up, I want to be able to look in the mirror and say “I messed up”, versus somebody else that I entrusted.

I’m always working, if that makes sense, whether it’s on the phone, [or] I’m in the car.

[Note: He was in his car on his cell phone for this interview.]

I don’t really listen to the radio; there’s not really a lot of downtime in my day, so I try to be productive in the amount of work hours I give myself.

I don’t go out to lunch; I eat lunch in my office. I just really try to focus and get things done while I am available…because there [are] other church callings and things like that that I have to give time to, and I’ve got 5 girls and so I’ve got to try to achieve balance there.

That’s been probably my greatest attribute, just to be able to balance and be highly effective during the time that I have.

[G went on to describe his philosophy on working...]

I just feel that a lot of people, especially that are in an hourly or W-2 environment don’t give everything they [can] give. When you’re self-employed, if you don’t produce, you don’t make any money that month. So the time that I do have is time that I really focus on creating income versus just messing around on the computer, wasting time doing whatever, you know, I just use the time to create income.

[Later in the interview, we talked about how to be successful in a commission-based environment (my day job). GJ had some great advice that he shared on being successful; I think it applies in any professional situation, not just sales.]

Mark: I manage a group of about 18 [people]. What would you tell [them] as far as how to become successful?

G: I guess what I would tell them is sort of what I told you. I would counsel and suggest that they do everything in their power to eliminate debt in their lives … cutting up credit cards, [etc.]

I would do everything I could do to better their social skills, you know, better their ability to get along with all kinds of people, because you are going to face all kinds of personalities, whether it’s a person or on the phone…

[Get to] where you can adapt and immediately recognize, “hey, in a few minutes in this conversation, I can see where this guy’s buttons are based on the dialogue that we are having.” That’s a real thing out there - you can kind of ride that [social skill] and make yourself less threatening to [people] if you can understand what kind of personality you are dealing with…

[His comments were actually directed toward my sales reps, but do you see how the advice has universal application? He followed with more on maximizing your time.]

G: And to give…as much as they can of an honest day, a lot of times people will try to kind of pick out the best hours, [and say,] “you know, 6:00-9:00 is my most productive time, so I am going to slack from 2:00-4:00”, or whatever. But the most successful guys I have seen have not ever really had a slacking moment because they will pick up the one or two [sales] that were in that 2:00-4:00 segment that the other guys missed out on, just because they worked harder.

For example, I have partial ownership in a pest control company, and that type of mentality where you are running door-to-door, as opposed to just walking and taking a long lunch. Over time, when you add [it] up, 6 months of doing that, you missed 20 or 30 sales.

[If] I am going to go work out, I’m not going to go just to spend an hour and do some light reps. I’m going to bust my brains out until I’m sweating and I’m feeling an impact and a change in my body. The same thing applies with my work style; if I’m going to work and spend the time to do that, I’m really going to go after it… sometimes you just gotta take a break, but…treat it as precious time, because [you’re] not going to get it back.

Think about your own life—are you getting the most out of every moment, or do you have your own “2:00-4:00” slacking time? Are you letting the other guy get those extra sales (or whatever applies to your profession), letting them get the advantage, or are you “busting your brains out”?

Tomorrow we’ll look more at G’s financial and investing philosophy. You’ll be interested to see how a real estate professional doesn’t seem too worried about what’s going on in the market today.

More from my interview with a millionaire, MR.

On Tuesday we posted an excerpts from my interview with MR, a furniture store owner in Salt Lake City. As I re-read the transcript of my conversation with him yesterday, I realized MR had a lot more to say about wealth creation. Here is the second installment; it focuses almost entirely on MR’s investing philosophy.

I’ll say at the outset that his specific approach may not work for everyone, but everyone would be better off if we applied the underlying principles. Look for ways you could apply his approach to your particular situation as you read.

During the conversation risk and investing came up several times. Although MR doesn’t seek out risk, he was still willing to take calculated risks under the right conditions:

MR: I take risks, and they’re all very calculated…I’ve [even] developed real estate along the way.

Mark: What kind of real estate have you done?

MR: I’ve done some retail subdivisions. We bought…600 acres…and did a development up there when everyone said we couldn’t. We put one together and sold it out in a couple weeks, and made a couple million dollars on that deal.

And that was scary, actually, because it was out of my control. You’re at the whim of city councils and county councils. And that was a closed county. They didn’t like development. But I was just very tenacious and stayed after it - took me two years of meetings to get it done, but once we got it done and built we sold it out quickly. There was a huge demand.

[I found this story about real estate investing especially interesting because MR always talks about maintaining control of your money and your investments, so I'm sure it was nerve-wracking for him to have to rely on these elected officials in a small county.

The interesting part is that since he felt that he couldn't completely control the outcome of the investment, he did everything in his power to influence the outcome by going to "two years of meetings to get it done." What a great lesson in investing.]

Mark: You’ve told me that all the wealthy people you know did it “a brick at a time”. How has that been true in your life?

MR: [We got completely out of debt] and then we saved like bandits, and invested in businesses. I didn’t make any…I’ve never made a dime in the stock market. I don’t do equities because I can’t control them. To me, it’s gambling; I’m lousy at it. I do what I can control. I do a deal every day at the store, we do deals every day and we make money on every deal, and it compounds. It’s not rocket science. It’s really not.

I don’t let anybody handle my money. No brokers, no advisers. For me, that’s all a shot in the dark, and I don’t understand it. And I’m horrible at trying to guess where to put my dough.

Mark: What is the one piece of financial advice you’d give? [Yes, I know I published part of the answer to this question on Tuesday. Here's the rest of it.]

MR: Don’t do anything that you don’t understand, that keeps you up at night. And personally, don’t give your money to other people to handle. Do it yourself.

I personally don’t go after equities. I don’t do anything like that, but I do go after solid things I can control, solid investments. I buy land free and clear. I know it’s pretty much a done deal when I develop it. I sell it or I know the market’s there.

[Think back to the real estate development he did. Interesting that he paid cash for the land? It was just one more way he minimized his risk.]

MR: Take every dime you have and get out of debt, and then go look at what’s out there. Because there’s a ton of opportunity anywhere you look; there are ways to make money.

Mark: So you sleep pretty well at night.

MR: Yeah, you’re exactly right. I know exactly what my return is on money that’s not in the business, because it’s all in fixed instruments, and you know when you’re getting a small return on a whole lot of money, at least you know what that return is and it’s okay. You know, you can live.

So I’m not trying to make millions in the market. I’m just trying to preserve, at my stage (I’m 55), just preserve what I have and enjoy life. But yeah, we don’t borrow money. Not business, not anything. In retail if the market turns, generally, and people stop buying, if you’re [buying] your goods with a bank, you’ve got more problems than just your mortgage or just the lease on the buildings.

Mark: You obviously have no interest in the market.

MR: Yeah, it’s scary for me. And I’ve got some great friends that are brokers that are multi-millionaires that seem to understand it, but I sleep better at night. I really do.

You know for me to fail now my bank would have to collapse and take my money with it. Other than that, there’s no exposure anywhere. Which is a great feeling, when you’ve still got two kids at home. You’re not trying to build a kingdom anymore; you’re just trying to enjoy your life.

What are the lessons learned from MR’s experience? Many of you will say “I can’t pay cash for land,” or “I can’t afford to keep all my money out of the stock market. It’s the only vehicle available to me.”

All of that may be true. And I’m not a stock-market hater. Neither is MR. His only point is that he’s not going to put his money into the market when he doesn’t have the skill or experience to make his money work for him there.

The principles that stick with me from this conversation are:

1. Accountability: YOU are responsible for your wealth. Don’t blame the market or your broker, or the administrator of your 401k if your nest egg isn’t growing as fast as you think it should be. Take ownership of your financial future.

2. Control: If you can’t directly control the outcome of your investments, do everything you can to influence the result by educating yourself and making decisions that absolutely minimize your exposure, while still positioning you for a reasonable return on your money.

What did you get from these interviews? We’d love to hear your comments on the insights from MR!

As an interesting follow-up to the questions I asked you yesterday, I wanted to post some excerpts from my interview with MR, a furniture store owner in Salt Lake City. He was good enough to spend about half an hour on the phone with me, and gave me great insight into what it takes to be a successful person, and his thoughts on becoming financially independent.

First a little background on him. As a young man, MR spent two years in North Carolina, and during some of his spare time he toured the furniture factories and other industries in the area.

He says he was “fascinated by the furniture thing”, so when he moved back to Utah in his early 20s he went to work in a furniture store, and became one of their most “prolific salesmen.”

The store he was selling for was struggling though, and he saw that they would soon be closing their doors. Around that time a major furniture manufacturer approached him about the opportunity to become one of their first franchisees.

The thought of striking out on his own was scary, and he had to borrow $50,000 to get the business off the ground. For him, borrowing that money and facing the task of opening a successful store and paying off that debt was, as he put it, “gut wrenching.”

But he did do it, and in his words “We really haven’t had, other than the initial fear, [any] setbacks. It’s been solid since the year we opened. It’s just grown every year since then.”

MR is a great example of someone whose primary goal has been to limit risk by avoiding debt and making only sure money investments. That strategy has paid off in a big way for him. He’s now a multi-millionaire, with not a penny of debt to anyone, and no exposure to the risks of the markets.

Our conversation started with a look at what it takes to be successful:

Mark: The word tenacious keeps coming up in my millionaire interviews. What single attribute of yours would you say has contributed most to the success you’ve had?

MR: [T]hat word, tenacious. It’s a sticktoitiveness.

I’ve never met anyone who it was a flash in the pan that made him a ton of dough instantly and life was good. The guys that I run with have been tenacious, have done it a brick at a time, till they built the wall over a long period of time.

The get rich quick thing you always hear about usually doesn’t happen. It’s always hard work, and almost exclusively, all entrepreneurs. They did their own thing; they weren’t working for anyone, or [at least] for very long. They did their own business, their own thing.

I don’t know anybody who inherited wealth, personally. I don’t know anybody who got rich quick. I know a lot of millionaires in my circle of friends, and all of them have done it, you know, a year at a time, a month at a time over their careers.

Building wealth is not a big deal once you get a little bit of dough under your belt, and you’re smart about it, and you clear all debt – and that was crucial.

My wife and I, we worked two jobs when we were first married, each, so that we could pay off our huge mortgage of thirty thousand bucks. And we did that in a couple years and then we saved like bandits, and invested in businesses.

Mark: What is the one piece of financial advice you’d give?

MR: First, clear all debt, at any sacrifice. Clear your mortgage. Don’t borrow money for cars. If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it. And that takes discipline, and that takes tenacity, and that takes guts. And once you’ve cleared debt, then you’ve got a little money that you can invest in a business without putting your family at risk, without putting your own financial well-being at risk.

Mark: You know, there are a lot of people out there who say, “Don’t pay off your house. Leverage your house.”

MR: Nonsense.

MB: So, why is it so important to clear ALL the debt before anything else?

MR: Because it’s a personal triumph. You’re not in bondage to anybody. You’ve cleared every debt you owe. Nobody’s coming after you; nobody’s looking at you for money, and you control what you do with your money. The leveraging your house thing is the biggest bunch of nonsense in the history of the planet, and you’re seeing the results of that right now in the collapse of the market, the real estate market.

[I]f you mortgage a solid asset like that, and if you take the money and you gamble with the money, odds are you’re going to lose. So that’s an asset you don’t fool with. You just don’t. You clear it out so your family’s secure, you’re secure. And then you go after businesses.

Clear all your dough – any debt you have and you’ll be surprised what an inner strength that gives you if you’ve had the discipline to do that. Don’t drive a Lexus; don’t drive a BMW, don’t do any of that until all of those debts are gone, then you can start doing some of that other stuff.

So what do you think? How can you implement some of these philosophies into your own personal financial plan? My conversation with MR made a big impact on me. The day after he and I spoke I paid off a car and 3 credit cards.

Sure, the car and the credit cards were all at super-low interest rates, and the payments were very manageable for me, but MR inspired me to get out of debt, so I did what I could that day and made a plan to get rid of the rest of my debt as quickly as possible.

You know the best part? By paying off that car and those credit cards I effectively gave myself a five-figure raise in my annual net income! Maybe that would make a good article for this site…

Image Credit: Kenn Chaplin

My job is to talk to broke people on the phone. After talking with a couple thousand people who are cash-poor, frustrated, and embarrassed, I know what they sound like, and I know how they feel.

On the other hand, each week I interview three or four millionaires about their financial situation - the two groups sound nothing alike at all.

Why am I so preoccupied with how people sound? It comes from spending hundreds of hours talking to them on the phone. Let me explain.

The Power of Tone

In any interaction between two people, meaning and feeling are conveyed in three ways: body language, tone of voice, and syntax (the words you use). But the three are not equally important in expressing yourself. Here’s how they break down:

38% of a person’s meaning is conveyed through the tone of their voice.

55% is expressed through body language.

Only 7% of communication takes place through your choice of words (syntax).

Do the math. Body language is eight times more important than syntax, and tone is a little over five times as important. What you say isn’t nearly as important as how you say it. Now what does this all have to do with anything?

The Sound of Broke

When I’m talking to a person on the phone, I can’t read their body language, so I’m left with their tone and words.

How can I explain the tone of ‘broke’? You know how someone looks after a twelve hour road trip where they had a flat tire and got caught in a snowstorm? Or maybe you’ve been in an airport during the holidays and you saw two parents with three little kids, one of them a screaming toddler (as you hear the announcement of the flight being delayed)?

Well, the way those people look is how most of the people I talk to sound. I think that gives you pretty clear picture. These people are just exhausted and ready to have something go right.

So if that’s how broke people sound, what difference do I hear in a millionaire’s tone of voice?

The Voice of Independence

I can sum it up in a single word: Calm. There is a sureness and confidence in the voices of the millionaires I’ve interviewed over the last few weeks. Not many sentences have to leave their mouths before I have the thought “This person sleeps well at night.” And why wouldn’t they? Contrast some of their statements with those from my conversations with the financially frustrated:

• Broke: “I have debt I’ll never pay off.”
• Millionaire: “I paid off my mortgage in two years and I’ve never owed on a home, car, or anything else since then.”

• Broke: “I don’t have any college funds set up for my kids.”
• Millionaire: “When some tough family circumstances came up that required a lot of cash, I had it on hand.”

• Broke: “I can barely keep up with the minimum payments on my credit cards, let alone pay down the balance.”
• Millionaire: “I’ve never paid interest on a credit card.”

• Broke: “My retirement funds aren’t anywhere near where they need to be.”
• Millionaire: “If I sold my business tomorrow I could maintain my lifestyle forever just living off the interest.”

• Broke: “I hate my job.”
• Millionaire: “At a certain point I decided enough was enough when it came to money, and it was time to move on to more important things.”

Not bad huh? And let me point something out - when I was listening to these guys talk there was something I was not hearing; arrogance. They’re almost embarrassed to admit how successful they are.

I interviewed one man who had spent over twenty years as one of the top financial advisers in a major firm. He hesitated to talk about his accomplishments, saying he felt too boastful. Trust me, he wasn’t boastful.

There’s a Big Difference Between High Income and Wealth

Many of my conversations with people I’d call broke are high earners that love to talk a big game - doctors, lawyers, sales professionals. They’ve got six figure incomes and seven figure debt, and the reality is if they missed a few paychecks they’d be facing foreclosure.

What I hear in the high-income Broke is bravado, laced with fear. Nothing like the millionaires. The truly wealthy men I’ve talked to are completely at ease with money.

The world at large is pretty frantic about money right now, with all this talk of mortgage crisis and recession. The millionaires I’ve talked with don’t have much fear about it. One of them, whose job it is to buy public equities (stocks) to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, was actually almost giddy about the current state of affairs.

That’s the reward for a lifetime of good decisions. When the economy turns down, the wealthy don’t panic. They get out their checkbooks. Whether it’s real estate or stocks, everything goes on ’sale’. Smart people increase their wealth much more quickly in down markets.

Million Dollar Decision Making

So what are the decisions my millionaires make? Some you could probably guess; others may surprise you because they go so contrary to what you hear in the media. Stick around and you’ll find out what millionaires really have to say about their success.