Everyone wants to make his or her first $1 million by 30, or so it seems. These days, making $1 million on your own accord, that is, without an inheritance or winning lottery ticket, can seem like a dream too good to be true.

However, this goal is certainly not impossible. With a combination of careful saving, audacious investing, and a large dose of patience, many have succeeded in making their first $1 million and a couple million after that too. Here we meet five people and hear their advice on how you can do the same.

The boring way

Jason, aged 45, explains that he made his first million ‘by saving and investing, then waiting a few decades’, or, as he rationalises, ‘the boring way’. Steadily working for various companies since the age of 22, Jason started earning 20K a year and today earns somewhere in the vicinity of 100K. Jason saved the majority of this, only splurging on a car and Mac laptop. Couple that with some smart investments in early purchases of Microsoft and Starbucks stocks, and you can see that earning $1 million is a task of much patience and sacrifice.

Enjoying the game

Terry, aged 30, recently hit $3 million in liquid net worth and explains that making money is like a game. ‘[I]f you enjoy playing it, then it becomes easier and easier with time’. Terry became saving as a high school graduate and college student, investing graduation monies into selling and reselling items online. After graduation, Terry started an eCommerce website alongside a job that paid 100K a year. His advice: ‘verse yourself on lots of different businesses [and p]lay for the long-term’.

Read up on it

Nathaniel, aged 32, hit the $1 million mark at aged 30, a big achievement coming from a farming family that struggled with their finances. As a teenager, Nathaniel saved money during the holidays by working for local businesses. He also started reading books on investing and money management, for example, by Robert Kiyosak. Buying his first home at 25, Nathaniel rented out two rooms, making a healthy profit and using the equity to invest in additional properties. As he notes sagely, ‘everything that I am doing is very long term’.

Buy and sell smart

Jodie, aged 38, has $3 million in net worth and exclaims that ‘it can be done’. Beginning at the age of 19, her simple philosophy is to buy and smell smart. At 19, she bought and sold clothes and cologne, making 3K. At 24, she did the same with Domain names, creating 100K. In recent times, she has invested in property and financial/auto stocks during the collapse, making upwards of $2 million. Her advice: ‘[y]ou just have to believe and keep parlaying to the next thing’.

Matching expenses with income

Elaine, aged 35, accumulated $1 million in net worth at the age of 30. She began saving as an investment bank analyst in a foreign country, working long hours and capitalising on a low local tax rate. Back in the US, she joined a private equity firm and began investing her liquid assets carefully in stocks. With a first child on the way, Elaine began to adjust her spending in line with increases in her wage income. She attributes her financial success to this mixture of careful spending and personal investment.

Note: some names have been changed.

Amy Hopkins is a university student and freelance writer who is interested in business. She has recently been reading up on managed funds.

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Looks like everything is going to be fine, after nine awkward months of unemployment, you finally land a job. It is more than twenty miles away but it’s a job, and it pays a living wage. After more than a year you feel that both you and your partner can breathe, start to live, and start to pay back the loans that helped to start your new found family life, but before the future beckons  let’s look back.

Before It Came Crashing Down

It may not have been a whirlwind romance, but more of a steady, progressive and eventual marriage, where you both wanted it, and it just happened.  The wedding might have took place in 2006 just one year before the financial crash, where mortgage loans were cheap and plentiful and taking out a 130% mortgage (full cost of the flat, plus 30% for the wedding and holiday), was all the rage.

Both you and your partner may have decided on a brand spanking new flat and furniture. Those two months of choosing and buying might well have been some of the most blissful times you ever had. Not fully understanding the intricate and confusing world of loans it would have been easy to buy and buy more. You were both working you and could afford it. What first started out as an anxious application for a loan application, with the fear of rejection, soon becomes your right to have more credit and loans.

Creditors make this first and most dangerous mistake. When any loan becomes a right, the granting of finance becomes more important than the object you need and your long-term financial situation. Here is how the banks (used to and now) decide to grant you an application.

Banks, Finance Companies and Your Loans

Some members of society still hold a very old fashion view of banks, finance companies and loans in general. Many people have a picture in their mind of the loans clerk reading and sorting out loan applications that come in by post, the clerk deciding the simple ones and passing the more difficult to senior staff. Well a long time ago this is what happened, but not now. In the computer age, when you or your partner applies for loans, it is very rare for any human interaction to occur in the bank’s decision to grant one.

Deciding to Grant You a Loan

The financial companies have all developed computer models. The computer models, not people decide who is approved and for how much. One of their most important tools are the credit reference agencies, they keep a record of all the loans and utilities that the public apply for and how they use those loans, they then share this information with the lender. Since the credit crisis, their searches (as referred to) can have frightening outcomes. If information is wrong, it can say you have defaulted on a loan, when you have not, then it becomes very difficult to obtain credit. To understand how this can affect people, check out the book by Frank Kafka “The Trial” (when the authorities hold all the power). However, the opposite happens when the computers say yes to your loan application, you suddenly have a good credit standing and everyone wants to give you loans. For most of us, as long as we keep in employment and our circumstances do not radically change, it can be fine to take out a loan, as you will more likely be able to pay it back. However, if you have the bad luck to lose your job, the time until a new one arrives can be very harsh. In this case, loans can help dramatically in the short term, though like anything they are best to adopt with moderation.

Wendy Derbyshire is freelance finance writer and guru. She has a deep understanding of the credit market and believes when used sparingly, loans can help propel people to financial stability.

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During an economic recession, everyone realizes the importance of cutting back on expenses. However, many people think that cutting expenses is a lot easier said than done. Cutting back your expenses is never easy, but it is not an impossible task either. Here are 5 amazingly helpful and practical tips on how to reduce personal expenses.

Carpool to work

What is the one thing whose price just keeps going further up and will continue to do so beyond the foreseeable future? That would be gas prices. Simply by cutting down on how much gas you pump in your car you can end up saving a huge chuck of your monthly expense. The best way to do so is to start carpooling. In tough economic times, there will be others in your workplace looking to carpool and save gas money.

Don’t eat out as much

It is amazing how much money we end up spending while eating out. It may not seem like much, especially at the fast food joints. But it all adds up at the end of the month. Try to cut back on dining out. Packing a lunch for office everyday can save a lot of money in itself. Cook more frequently and stop depending on the take-out menus. Besides saving money, knowing how to cook is an essential skill that everyone must know. Save the dining out for special occasions only.

Create a budget and stick to it

We have all tried to do a bit of financial planning in our heads when stuck in traffic. However, once the vehicle starts moving, all our bright financial plans get blow out the window. Sit down and make a proper budget for your household expenses. List all you monthly and annual expenses, including financial obligations. Create a budget so that you can meet the essential expenses without having to stretch your budget. Of course, there is no point creating a budget if you don’t stick to it. Use cash for all your expenses instead of using credit cards; it’ll help you stay on budget.

Reduce household energy consumption

One of the biggest expenses for everyone is the monthly energy bills. Reducing the amount of energy used in a household can have a massive effect on how much the homeowner can save. Ideally, you would want you entire house to be powered by solar or wind energy, but that is not a financially feasible option for most of us. Simple practical solutions, such as using energy-efficient light bulbs and ensuring the house is properly insulated, can help you save bundles of cash every month.

Get your insurance premiums lowered

Along with energy bills, another major monthly expense is the premiums for car, home, and medical insurance. You jolly well cannot stop making monthly payments and let your insurance lapse. What you can do, is shop around for insurance quotes. When your coverage period comes to an end, look for insurance quotes that offer you the same level of coverage, but for lower premiums. There are websites that allow you to compare and shop for home and auto insurance online, so being lazy is not an excuse.

The 5 helpful tips mentioned here are very practical, even in times of recession, and nobody should have any trouble following them.

This post is contributed by Andrew Hopes. He helps provide useful financial tips and strategies and has found great use of payday loans for a quick relief from all the financial problems.

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No matter the reason that a person obtains a payday loan, it is always important to make sure that any borrowed funds can be paid back by their due date. This helps to ensure that a person does not become trapped in the unfortunate payday cycle that many consumers find their selves stuck in.

Overview of Payday Loans
Everyone knows that life is unpredictable. From unforeseen medical bills to unexpected automobile expenses, it never fails that something always happens; this is what makes payday loans so advantageous. When it comes to payday loans and cash advances, there is no denying that they have their advantages and drawbacks. By knowing the ins-and-outs of payday loans, consumers can become better aware of their cash options which proves beneficial when hard times strike.

What is a Payday Loan?
When a person obtains a cash loan from a business instead of a bank, this is known as a payday loan. This type of loan is generally referred to as a payday loan because the borrower is usually required to pay back the borrowed funds from the next paycheck that he or she receives. People who provide payday loans will many times take postdated checks as a form of collateral. One of the most negative aspects of these types of loans is that they come accompanied with large fees. In fact, some of the loans have interest rates as high as 400%.

Paying Back a Payday Loan
Many times, people go about getting payday loans with good intentions; however, when it comes to paying them back, along with paying their monthly bills, the payback becomes too financially burdensome. This often causes borrowers to become dependant on payday businesses; so dependant that borrowers often take out loans from several payday lenders so that they can pay off ones they have already borrowed from. Needless to say, borrowing from payday lenders often becomes a vicious cycle that borrowers find their selves stuck in.

Alternatives to Payday Loans
For most consumers, it is best to avoid payday loans unless they become an absolute necessity. There are other ways to go about obtaining cash advances including borrowing money from a bank, and banks tend to accompany their loans with lower interest rates than payday lenders. If a person has already found him or herself trapped in the vicious cycle of taking out payday loans, it is best to stop immediately, and try to pay back the borrowed funds as quickly as possible.

Benefits of Payday Loans
On the other hand, for people who know that they have the ability to pay back the funds borrowed from a payday loan, this type of cash advance is one with many benefits. For starters, it provides a great way to access cash in a small amount of time. In fact, many payday lenders can provide cash to a borrower within 24 hours of the borrower’s payday application being approved. By being able to access cash in such a short amount of time, borrowers do not have to fret about their bills being overdue. This also helps borrowers from enduring late fees on their bills.

Acacia Black knows how sometimes life gets in the way, and you dont have enough money to get you till the next paycheque. She had a family to take care of, and that is why she trusted Zaplo for her payday advance. They offer a variety of affordable, and reasonable payday loans. Visit their website to learn more.

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Some of us work hard, pay our dues, but are still flat broke at the end of the month. Then there are those who seem to cruise through life and they are always doing the things we cannot afford to, despite the fact that they have a worse job and yet still drive a more expensive car than that which we drive. It is okay to feel aggrieved, but when you realise those people are bouncing from one loan to another and are rapidly reducing their spending power, it is also okay to feel a little happier. The problem is that those kinds of people always seem to manage to scrape their way out of a financial mess right at the last minute, but is that any way to live your life.

What is a Good Reason?

We all know the answer, nobody wants to dread letters coming through the door because they don’t know if they are going to be able to pay them or not, that’s why it’s important to make sure we use loans responsibly. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t get ridiculously in debt for a family holiday to Cancun, it just means we shouldn’t do it twice in a year, although many people do just that. On a less serious note, some people have come up with some crazy reasons for loans that are definitely worth sharing.

Top Five Mad Loan Reasons

1. I want to buy a pet snake, Spider, Monkey or other exotic animal

Fair enough, exotic animals need the correct environment and a great deal of care. Bills at the vets are liable to run into thousands if animals lack proper care, but borrowing a few thousand pounds to kit out a spare room like a Brazilian rainforest is a little eccentric. It’s a little more worrying when there is not spare room and the person states that they live in a one-bedroom flat.

2. A loan for a Friend

One sure way to lose friends is to lend them money. Well, that’s not strictly true. Lending the money is fine; it’s asking them to make repayments that often cause the arguments. If someone cannot get a loan, it’s usually for a reason so you are well advised to leave them to deal with their own problems. Things come to a head when repayments are late and the friend is out on the town every weekend.

3. Borrowing to Invest

In all fairness, most businesses borrow to invest, but that is a lot different from someone taking out a personal loan to invest in a business venture or worse, the stock market. There is no safe investment out there that provides a better income than the cost of a loan; otherwise, the loan companies would put their money into those investments instead of risking it with customers.

4. A loan to pay off  a loan

This is not to be confused with a debt consolidation loan, which in certain circumstances is very useful. The type of loan that is not useful is the kind that people use to cover missed payments, late payments or any other short-term problem. People are far better off when they speak to the company they have a loan with and explain the situation.

5. A loan for Cosmetic Surgery

This is a new one, but both men and women are becoming so conscious of their appearance, they are prepared to take out huge loans to achieve a certain look. The problem is they are rarely satisfied even after spending thousands and of course, the cost rises even higher when interest is on top. Most plastic surgeons offer finance solutions to customers and this is nice little side earner for the practice who already rakes it in with the surgery costs.

Most people are not silly enough to get themselves in a great deal of debt because of something as stupid as the five reasons here, but we are all guilty of putting the odd thing on a credit card when we know it’s not a necessary purchase. The important thing to do is make sure you stay within your means. In other words, live the life you can afford to live and avoid plastic surgery, exotic pets and high maintenance friends if you want to protect your credit record.

William Bancs is a writer who enjoys blogging about his financial experiences and often writes interesting articles to offer advice to help loan companies communicate better with customers.

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