How did you do it?

You are asking a pool of successful people "how".

My answer for you is to keep doing that. Coupled with this,

Take the "opportunities" for gain that surround you. If you find that your taking them all and it is not enough, then relocate.

 

Good point my dad told me "If you want to be rich, do what rich people do". I'm not rich but am better off than I ever thought I would be. There is a book called "The Millionaire Next Door". Buy it, read it and learn from it.

 

Don't get married or have kids unless your future wife has a great career that she enjoys, she is frugal, and doesn't have expensive taste. If you must get married don't do it before the age of 27. Between 18 and 27 you can find what you are passionate about and master it to become successful. Ferrari will come with hard work and time.

 

step 1. work really hard at whatever you do *
step 2. do that for many years. Stick with it *
step 3. save save save

*the trick is enjoy your career. Otherwise, step 1 and 2 becomes very difficult and you will be a miserable person.

 

Thanks for blowing my cover to the noobs. By the way, here's my latest painting. Ignore the riffraff around me trying to copy my great work.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I am so sorry... I did not mean to do so.

Please don't have me killed?

 

+1 ...

 

I don't do that stuff. I'm just a simple businessman, peddling his wares like every other businessman. In the other hand, what people do with those wares after they acquire them sometimes cannot be helped.

To the OP, you will figure it out. All of it. If you have the innate skills to be good in business, they will help get you where you need to go. Beyond that, remember that you don't get everything in life so choose what you want. I, like lots of others here, drive an old car everyday, don't have a spendy country club membership, don't do exotic vacations , etc. so that I can have the Ferraris I want. I save money and pay cash for all my cars. When you pay cash, I've found it helps to prioritize your spending. It hurts to watch money flow out of the account on big purchases so really go without the unimportant stuff and only get the things that you really use and like. There are all kinds of things that I've never considered buying because I know that I can't stand to write the check. I have several Ferraris and buying each of them was a great decision. They all marked milestones in my life. Also, as someone else said, always have a side business or a hobby business in addition to your day job. That's also gotten me way ahead in life. Anyways, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

 

Keep saving.

That's where I'm at on my journey to owning my first Ferrari.

Financial success is different for everyone.

 

Also, in order to have a happy LIFE, do what the forum member Napolis does: he works hard, he enjoys his cars, he LOVES his wife and family, and he GIVES to us.

For example, he recently posted a photo of one of his cars and his wife. He entitled the photo, "and one of my beautiful Meg".

It's amazing how much Napolis gives to us, the world. He lets us in on his car collection, the building of his P 4/5, the building and running of his P 4/5 C M, and his newest, the SCG003. Even better, he occasionally lets out hints of the real loves of his life: his wife and family.

Don't make a Ferrari into a god: it's only a car. A collection of metal, plastics and rubber. It could be gone in a fraction of a second: all it takes is meeting the right concrete wall, or a semi that leaves its lane. God is god, not a car!

Jacob

 

My honest advice;
Buy your future first then THE CAR.
If you don't know business get an inexpensive Franchise.
Crawl, walk, run.

 

Your priorities are backwards.

 

Remember: you can live in a Ferrari, you cannot drive a house!

Words to live by.

 

But how long can u live in a Ferrari??

 

I was also a c student, but I always knew I wanted to have some of the nicer things in life, so, what I did, to be able to drive nice cars was to marry someone who does all the things the people have said before on this thread. She is a beautiful woman, who got great grades, and works her a** off and makes a good living. She felt sorry for me in college, and now I drive a Ferrari! But seriously, marry well, like me, or, work very hard and save a lot, before you know it, you will own your own Ferrari, or whatever else you set your mind to.

 

Funny. You sound like my ex-wife.

 

It's a nice idea (to have a bigger cash account), so you're on the right track. However, you also need to think about secondary effects. First, any time you trade, there are transaction costs and commissions/profit to pay (usually to someone else). So you will not net the difference in value, it will generally be something less, sometimes a lot less. Second, it you have a reliable, steady car; you could be trading it for a new set of problems going to an unknown cheaper car. Often, better the devil you know, than the one you don't. Third, don't incur costs if you have no idea what you're going to do to make a profit. It's great to have ways to extract sunk capital, but only if you have better ways to deploy the recovered capital. If not, you're incurring costs, without a clear path to gain. Finally, develop habits so the small stuff takes care of itself, before you realize you may have to redo choices you've already made. It's always more expensive to extricate yourself from a sub-optimal situation, than to never have gotten into it in the first place.

Net, I would not do it just to have some more funds laying around. Do it only because you have a clear need for funds that will generate a high enough return that makes the effort worthwhile. You can always revisit a sunk asset later and recover the cash when you have a better plan. There is a slightly different story if the Acura is incurring payments that could be reduced or eliminated with a less expensive car. Maintaining a positive cash flow is always an important consideration.

 

It's actually a very simple thing to do, but one which most find difficult to accomplish over the long term. Don't waste your money on passing fads and trivial pleasures. There are so many perceived "necessities" that we spend our money on day in and day out, that if curtailed can help you build that nest egg for what you truly want. A friend of mine who used to be a private broker in fine guitars was always bemused when people would tell him that they couldn't possibly afford a $5k+ guitar. He would tell them that certainly could and then ask how many times they went for coffee at "Fourbucks" each day. It takes vision, work and discipline to accomplish anything without being sidetracked. I was 50 when I bought my first Ferrari -- after driving the same Volvo for 25 years (still have it).

 

I lived with my garndmother rent free. Worked hard, went out not too much. But then I am a car addict. At age 26 I paid for it. Point is I really wnated the car, and figured out how to do it, the process gave me good mehtodologies for sucess anyway.

Rule 1 Never borrow for a toy, unless interest is so low it makes $$$ sense. But make sure you can always cover the cost.

Rule2. Nothing wrong with wanting a ferrari or plane or whatever, these are good motivators to work towards when young, just dont get them untill you can afford to pay cash, and pay to keep them.

Rule 3. Look after your equipment and buy good stuff. I have a ski boat going on 10 years, it still looks more or less new. It gets taken out he water and cleaned at the end of every wekend. I cant think of a reason to get a new one. Other rpeople need new boat/car every 3-4 years. they dont know how to look after things and buy crap that does not last. If you buy nice stuff and keep it then it remains nice. There are plenty of ferraris that will go from nice to classic, a TR or 550 comes to mind.

These things should be thought of as both toys and asetts, take care of then as asetts.

Big Big rule, avoid debt, inetrest will eat you and make you a slave. sometime you need a mortagage, but avoid debt on toys and everywhere if possible, its a trap, you can always get the toy a few years later without debt.

Now a regular daily I like to lease at times, because most cars need soem type of significant $$4 at 50k miles and a lease is a graunteed buyback of aused car thta sometimes makes sense. Debt can be used for ultility puposes, and sometimes inevitably in buisness, but not for toys.

In other words there are not so much hard rules as principles. Avoid debt unless impossible, or unless it makes total sense for a life goal (productive). A ferrari is a life goal only to the extent it motivates you to strive furtehr, its not a porductive asett in and of itself, therefore not worth debt..

Considder 2 secnarios.

A 350K 458, which will depreciate down to 150k over 4-5 years. If you finance it itrs going to be 50K in costs. So you can wipe 200-250 out over say 5 years.

Or say TR of 550. Juts a smuch "fun" 70-80K to buy. Figure realisticaly 5 k per year on average to run over 10 years. Some years less some more but 5k a fair bet. So lets say with cost of money you are in for 150k after 10 years. I will bet you $1000 that a a good running Tr will be worth soemwhere around 150K somewhere in the next 10 years or close.

On that basis if you dotn need to borrow, and take the entertainment value into account, buying and owning a ferrari makes reasoanble financial sense.

Now how many reteraunts clubs etc do you got to, what is the cost of that per week, vs running a ferrari.

Thats how I did it, and you know what, the money came along the way. I dont drive the car when I feel I dont deserve it. If you are going to be sucessful, 100k one way or the otehr wont break you, provided all your expenses are in line and you paid cash.

In fact keeping a feerrari(if you are a acr nut) and keeping it running right becomes a bar below which you dont want to fall, much like keeping your daughter off the pole. Sometimes the stick works with the carrot.

There are lots of great cars out there. To me if you want a ferrari you have to really want a ferrari, then the rest falls into place. Or you can wait till youa r emuch older and have plenty of $$$ anyway, in which case just get wjhat you think you want then.

 

45 responses and only one person even mentioned the role luck plays in this, while no one mentioned good fortune or fortunate (other ways of expressing good luck).

Interesting.

 

That's because it goes without saying. I don't know a single person in my circle who has made a good chunk that doesn't feel like luck played a role or in many cases, God. To think otherwise is pure hubris.

 

All good answers. Delayed gratification on things, work hard, copy successful people, figure out the game and play the game. I'll add one more - important in most things in life, whether making money, succeeding in business, getting the girl or guy, playing a game, or fighting cancer. SHOW UP

 

I stick my finger in people's butts.

I am very good at it.