Here's How to Strive to Become a Millionaire

You weren't born with a silver spoon. In fact, not only did you not come from a moneyed family, but all you have is debt. You'd settle for just being solvent, but the truth is that you can be well on your way to becoming a millionaire and then some with the steps below.

Understand the mindset

Like many other types of success, becoming a millionaire is more about persistence and consistency than it is about being lucky or brilliant. Of course, luck and brilliance help, too, but you should primarily focus on being careful and frugal. Patience is also important. You can get rich overnight--some people do, whether they win the lottery, come up with an amazing idea that makes them a huge amount of money, or make a smart investment--but you shouldn't count on this happening, and you don't need it to happen. Allowing your money to grow steadily across a variety of investments without panicking about financial fluctuations will be the key to your eventual success.

Have a financial plan

Your first step needs to be creating a financial plan that examines how much money you are bringing in, how much money you owe and what you are spending. You should look at ways to reduce your spending. Even small changes can add up. Rolling your credit card debt onto another card with a lower interest rate can reduce what you are paying each month. Similarly, with a NaviRefi student loan refinance, both your monthly payments and the overall total that you owe might be lower.

Debt, emergencies, and investing

You need to aggressively pay down your debt and build up an emergency fund that has several months’ worth of expenses in it to cover any emergencies that arise. Next, you need to follow tips for investing your money strategically. Putting just a few hundred dollars a month away starting in your 20s can make you a millionaire within three decades, but you can start at any age. Ideally, you should diversify your investments. You should have both a retirement account and an account with a brokerage firm, which you can open online. Read up on investing strategies, decide how conservative or risky you want to be, and get started. Automating withdrawals from each paycheck can help ensure you are consistently adding to these funds.

Increase your income

Investing is a great way to make more money, but you should be looking at multiple ways to increase your income. You might ask for a raise at work or look for a better paying job. You could also pick up a side gig or rent out a room in your house on a home sharing site. You could start investing in real estate and become a landlord. Create multiple streams of income, and keep saving as much as you can.

Talk to professionals

A financial advisor can help you reach your goals. Do some reading on your own as well, or if reading isn't your thing, look for podcasts about building wealth and investing. There is a steady, tried-and-true method for building wealth, and the experts can help you follow that path.