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What would you do if you had a million dollars? Would you keep working as much as you do? Would you pay off some debt, maybe buy a new car? There are all sorts of great things we could do if we just had the money to do it. Unfortunately most of us have mediocre financial plans that aren't really going to get us anywhere. There are about 8.9 million households in North America today that have a net worth of over one million dollars. Don't worry, you can be one of those households. It's not easy, but it can be done.

Here's what you need to do to become a millionaire:

Live on dramatically less than you make In order to make progress, you need a lot of money to work with. This means you have to live on dramatically less than the amount of money you make, probably close to half of what you actually take home each year. Remember, actually having money is much more important than buying a bunch of status symbols that you can't afford to make people think you're wealthy. Just because you can afford a nicer home, or a nicer car, or some other "stuff", doesn't mean it's wise to get it. Live on much less than you earn so that you have a lot of money for investing and a business.

Continually Re-Evaluate Career Oddly enough, there are people in their forties, fifties, and sixties that still make $20,000 a year. If you never went to college and are just starting out, it's understandable. Getting a mediocre job with mediocre wages and merely accepting that you have a crappy job and it's not going to change is not a winning plan. You need to constantly keep learning new job skills, looking for better jobs, and finding ways to make yourself more valuable so that you can get a better income.

Eliminate Your Debt There was recently a survey of the 400 wealthiest people in America, and 75% of them said the best way to build wealth is to become and stay debt free. You can't build any sort of serious wealth with car payments, credit cards, house payments, second mortgages, business debt, and other liabilities pulling you down. With debt, compound interest is working against you, rather than for you. Every month that you have to make a bunch of payments, you are taking money away from yourself that could be used to invest.

Invest Often & Wisely If you want to become a millionaire in any decent amount of time, you're going to need a lot of money to invest which we've discussed, and you're going to need a wise investment to put the money in. Don't put your money in some wild speculative

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