Becoming a Millionaire - Get a Low Paying Job

(I thought it would probably be best to shorten Michelle's Key Strategies for Becoming a Millionaire by Age 30 to just "Becoming a Millionaire." At least for title purposes.)

There's no better way to introduce Michelle's Key Strategies for Becoming a Millionaire by Age 30 than with one of the most important key strategies...getting a low paying job. This may seem contradictory to the long term goal, but it's not. Here's why.

Low paying jobs teach you a lot. When you are making hardly any money and are forced to live on your own, pay your own rent and bills, buy your own food and clothing, and attempt to put away something for the future, you learn a LOT about money.

The best time to get a low paying job is right out of college. That's because:
A) Your parents have been paying for everything for like 22/23 years, so you will be grateful for any salary that allows you financial freedom and a sense of pride.
B) You've never had a real job before so you have no idea about how much money you should be making and you will be content to live happily in ignorant bliss.
C) You will learn how to live inexpensively and spend the rest of your life living as if you're making hardly any money.

Sure that's the time that you want to go out, show off your brand new education and make a big splash in the working world, but you need to put that on hold. You can make a splash anytime. Out of college, you want to accept a job making peanuts.

In my first job out of college, I made $24,000 a year. Yup! And I'm not ashamed to admit it! (well, maybe a little) I was the morning news producer for a TV station in Fresno working 11:00 pm to 7:00 am. In fact, I was offered another job at the same time at another TV station and I would have made $23,000, produced the 6pm show (very prestigious) and lived only about an hour from home. But when I did the math and compared the cost of living, I chose the crappy overnight job in nowhere-Fresno because, due to the dirt-cheap cost of living, I would actually be making $8,000 a year more than the other job. Now who's the chump?!

Working at that job I learned how to balance a budget, find happiness buying my food at Grocery Outlet, wear clothes until they either didn't fit or were horrifically out of style, and eat at only cheap hole-in-the-wall restaurants (which were usually the best anyway). I managed to save enough money to buy a car, move to a nicer apartment ($650 a month rent was considered moving up!) and, most importantly, spent the next several years living as if I still made $24,000 a year. Not that I made THAT much more money at my next job, but I had learned to love a hermit and Scrooge-like existence that allowed me to save nearly every penny I earned. And those pennies come in handy!

So forget about applying for jobs where you'll make a comfortable living. Those jobs are highly overrated, at least until you're in your late 20s. Take a job that allows you to enjoy many years of a Scrooge-like existence, counting your stacks of pennies by candlelight and waiting for the day for it to all add up to a million dollars.