Saturday, June 5, 2010

Get Rich off 5 Extra Dollars Per Day

Most people in the world dream of getting rich and retiring to a life of luxury. However, nearly all of them fail to do so. However, even as little as 5 dollars per day, wisely invested, can yield millions of dollars for retirement.

How to get 5 extra dollars each day: Five dollars is a small enough amount of money that almost everyone living right now in an industrialized nation should have no problem setting aside at least that amount from their daily budget. Skipping one latte at Starbucks, renting from Redbox instead of instead of Blockbuster, or eating out one night per week instead of two can do the trick, usually with money to spare.

If your budget really is so tight that you’re on the brink of imminent disaster, you can always pick up a little extra work to make up the difference. Even as little as one extra shift every two weeks or an hour or so writing articles in your underwear for www.associatedcontent.com www.ehow.com or www.helium.com are probably sufficient.

What to do with the money: Take the money that you saved and add it up at the end of the month. Then, use a cheap online stock broker like www.sharebuilder.com or www.zeeco.com to buy some stocks. I specifically recommend these brokers because their fees for buying stocks tend to be much more reasonable than other brokers on the internet, with ShareBuilder often waiving the fee entirely during frequently run promotions.

Why Stocks: Historically, the return on investment for stocks bought from the S&P 500 stock index (basically a list of 500 good quality stocks) is about 11% annually. By comparison, most savings accounts are currently returning about 1% or lower. Also, for money invested over a span of about 20 years or so, stocks have a similar level of safety for savings accounts in a bank, all with an enormous level of return.

How much can I make: Assuming that you invest 5 dollars per day (150 dollars per month) with an 11% return every month for 40 years and fall into the 25% tax bracket. Using one of the many available online debt calculators, after this small effort on your part, you will have a net worth of well over 500,000 dollars from this investment alone!

What about 10 dollars per day: An identical investment scheme using 10 dollars per day invested over 40 years at 11% interest would yield you a net worth well in excess of 1,100,000 dollars!

Bottom Line: Start to invest now for your retirement. For only a little sacrifice every day, you can enjoy amazing prosperity in your golden years.