5 Tips From Self-Made Millionaires
© Eric Rhoads

The only difference between them and you is they have lots of money. The truth is, many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods, work full-time and shop in discount stores just like you and me. What really moves them isn't material possessions but the choices people make with money. It's not really about what you have but rather it's about the freedom to make decisions about what you can have.

There are actually more people living the good life than ever before-the number of millionaires nearly doubled in the last decade. And the rich are getting richer. You can't make it o the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans with just a billion dollars anymore.

Here are five things self-made millionaires have said helped them get there:

1. Be sure you know where you are going

Twenty years ago, Jeff Harris was a college dropout who struggled to support his family of five. He was then working as a grocery store clerk and at a junkyard, melting scrap metal alongside convicts. Today he's a 49-year-old investment advisor and multimillionaire in York, South Carolina.

One big factor that made Jeff really make it: He always knew he'd be rich. Jeff says you really have to want to be wealthy. Don't be afraid to think big, because if you think small, you'll only do small things.

Jeff started by putting $25 a month in a mutual fund. Then he taught a class at a local community college on investing. His students became his first clients, which led to his investment practice. He struggled a lot but Jeff says that believing with all his heart that he'd be rich someday made him get there.

2. Get an education

Steve Maxwell graduated from college with an engineering degree and went on to a high-tech job-but he couldn't balance his checkbook. Eventually he and his wife read books and magazines about money management and investing. They also made it a point to live well below their means. They stopped buying things on impulse, tried to negotiate better deals on their mortgage, and stayed where they lived long after they could afford a better one.

You have to understand what making money is all about. You have to learn how to invest your money in order to make more money for yourself. You don't really have to be a financial whiz but you have to know and understand things if you're going to be better off in the future.

In less than ten years, Steve and his wife became millionaires. Steve then quit his job to become part owner of a company that gives lessons on personal finance seminars for employees of corporations like Wal-Mart. He also went on to learn more about real estate investment and now owns $30 million worth of investment properties, including apartment complexes, a shopping mall and a quarry.
3. Be passionate about your goal

Jill Blashack Strahan and her husband used to barely make ends meet. Jill then went to a life coach and said her goal was to make $30,000 a year. The life coach told Jill she was setting the bar too low. Jill needed to focus on a passion, and not on the paycheck.

Jill then owned a gift basket company but made only $15,000 a year. However, she saw that when she let potential buyers taste the food items, the baskets sold like crazy. So she thought about selling the food directly to customers in a fun setting.

With $6,000 in savings Jill started packaging gourmet foods and sold them at taste-testing parties. It wasn't easy. She struggled with bills and at one time had two employees she couldn't pay. But she stuck with it, even after her husband died three years later.

Her positive energy paid off: Jill's backyard company grew to become a direct-sales business making $120 million in sales last year.

4. Make you money grow

Stop living paycheck to paycheck. Make extra money for the specific purpose of reinvesting in yourself. Try to ind a marketable skill and then work on it. You can start small but just keep doing what you know you do best. If you're a good teacher, try some tutoring before getting to work and just before you go home. If people know you're good at it, word will spread around and you'll soon be having clients left and right. A little moonlighting cash really can grow into a million. Rick Sikorski used to just dream of owning a personal training business. So he rented a tiny studio and charged $15 an hour. When money started trickling in, he put it all back into the business. Rick's 400-square-foot studio has now grown into Fitness Together, headquartered in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with more than 360 locations worldwide. And he's worth over $40 million.

5. No guts, no glory

When Dave Lindahl was 29, he was broke lived in a small Boston apartment and was part of a local rock band that was really going nowhere.

He then started a landscape company, buying his equipment on credit. One time business literally went dead but a banker friend came to Dave and asked him to renovate a foreclosed home. Dave was not a good carpenter, but he was desperate for money. So he listened to some free seminars at Home Depot and figured things out as he went.

Then the thought came to him as he did a few more renovations: Why not buy the homes and sell them for profit? He took a risk and bought his first property. He did this over and over using the proceeds from the previous sales. In twelve years, his overall worth grew to $143 million, and Dave now owns properties in eight states.

But the most important tip of all: stop spending.

Do not spend needlessly. Why buy a BMW when a Ford Explorer will do job just as well? Stop buying bottled water. The water we get from the tap is just as good. If you don't need a big home, then don't buy one!