How I will make a million dollars

Here is my game plan. This is how I will make a million dollars.

I put 15% of my salary into my 401K, I currently make about 65,000-75,000 a year
I currently have about $27,000 saved in my 401K and put in roughly $8,000-$10,000 a year.

1. I will finish graduate school and become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner 2-3 years. Working as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner my salary will be $75,000-$90,000 a year. I will continue to contribute 15% to my 401K and max out my Roth IRA each year.
   
2. I will work at an inpatient psychiatric hospital for 2-5 years.
3. I will work as a adjunct professor of psychiatric nursing while working 2-5 years. Working as an adjunct professor I will make $2,000 - $5,000 a course.
   
4. I will create an educational company and sell educational programs to magazines. The money making potential here is unlimited based on royalties etc.
   
5. I will do speaking engagements, and talks on topics concerning Dementia. Will probably start at a lower pay scale and work my way up.
   
6. I will return to school to get my Doctrate and become a Doctor of Nursing Practice.
   
7. I will open my own private practice in collaboration with a psychiatrist. By this time I expect to be making roughly $100,000-$250,000 a year depending on how successful the practice is.
8. I will work as a Professor of Psychiatric/Geriatric Nursing at a University, and do research in my field, continue talks, educational programs, and private practice on the side. As a tenured university professor I will make between $55,000-$97,000 a year.

Again my goal is to save one million dollars by the time I am 50 years of age. I am currently 29 going on 30 and have 20 years to accomplish this task. If I continue saving in my 401K and Roth IRA I will be well on my way to that goal. My most lucrative years will come when in my 40s-60s.

My million dollar year will occur in 2030. I will be working in my private practice, which will be doing very well, and I will make $250,000. I will have 12 speaking engagements to go to and will make $60,000. My educational company will be taking off and will bring in $500,000 from programs, certification review courses, book sales. I will also teach 4 courses as an adjunct professor and make $20,000. This is a total of $830,000 the remaining $170,000 will come from invests in the stock market, municipal bonds, and real estate. Bringing the grand total to 1 million dollars in 2030, it will be a good year.

Locked in a low mortgage rate

Locked into a 30 year fixed mortgage the other day with Wachovia for 4.375%. How 'bout them apples?

Previously we had a 30 yr fixed at 6%. Now we will be saving $3oo+ dollars a month. Not too shabby.

Consider refinancing if you want an extra $100 or $200 a month

Now that the Fed is buying up all the mortgage backed sercurities form Fannie and Freddie, mortgage rates are dropping. You might have missed the headlines in the paper "Mortgage rates at 30 year lows!" The idea behind this, is to encourage people to buy homes to help the suffering housing market, and get people to refinance to get more money into the banks. It benefits you to refinance when you can get an interest rate at least 1% lower than your current rate. This move will usually pay for itself in 2 to 3 years time, and continue to save you money for the life of the loan. I am seriously considering refinancing and will pounce on a nice 4.5% rate.

New Mascot!

How to Make a Million Dollars has an official mascot. The readers picked a lion to represent the how to make a million dollars mission.

Happy New Year!

Any resolutions?

Earn More Money or Save More Money?

If you had the choice of increasing your salary or being able to save a larger percentage of your salary; what would you choose. Which would you rather do? I bet most of you would chose to give yourself a big raise. Everyone wants to make more money, right?
I would choose the opposite. I would like to be able to save more to retire earlier and reach my goal of making one million dollars sooner. I would rather focus and concentrate on the important things in my life than be distracted and obsessed by the latest gadget on the market.
One of the biggest problems people confront is advertising that creates a perfect fictional reality. A reality that can not exist without Hollywood magic, one that causes us to constantly want more, bigger, better, newer things. We are always trying to out do the Joneses (our neighbors and friends) prove to them we are better off, more hip, trendier, whatever you want to call it. We end up buying things that we really don't need in the first place, but we are convinced by advertising that we do.
These things these prized possesions can take up space in our lives and hearts and may crowd out the people and relationships that really matter. Do you really need a cell phone that can - play music, give directions, surf the internet, check email, take pictures, text etc. How did junkies get their fix before the Crackberry? Do you even really need a cell phone (probably, your saying I just need it for emergencies right). How did we survive before the invention. Are the trivial 2 minute conversations even necessary? Are we dumbing down our speech to some sort of diluted short-hand, brb, lol. I digress. Sometimes I wonder if some of the things that we use everyday improve the quality of our lives? Or did we get duped into thinking this new technology improves our life, when it really isolates us or consumes us.

What do you think?

Is Facebook really worth $100 Billion dollars?

How much are you willing to pay for information? Advertisers are willing to pay for access to potential consumers. I don't think Facebook is worth more than Google or any other company that makes tangible products like Microsoft. I realize that internet applications and social networks are a big hit with younger kids and can be very addicting, but I think it is strange that people are investing so much time and energy into something that exists only on their computers and in their minds. I guess I'm a hypocrite because I invest my own time and energy into writing this blog how to make a million dollars, but that's alright. I can rationalize the time invested with the amount of knowledge attained and the actions I take to right my finances. Do you think web applications are more valuable than things you can touch and feel and work with?