How to INVEST your way to a Million Dollars

Here’s how you can go about investing to a million dollars and some of the methods I’m using for you to begin to replicate. I’ll start with some specific investments, move on to where I get the most value, and then discuss how you can accelerate that growth - enjoy! Snapchat/Instagram: GPStephan

For me, my biggest investment has been in real estate. Here’s exactly what my strategy is: I buy an undervalued property that needs to be fixed up, I fix it up - increasing the value of the home - and I rent it out. I make my biggest profits my doing this. The monthly cashflow of rental property is also fantastic for hitting a fairly substantial rate of return.

I then invest in Index Funds, specifically Vanguard VFIAX. It’s an SP500 index fund that’s fairly passive. I invest in this fund through a Roth IRA and SEP 401K. There are a ton of different fund out there for you to look into with fairly decent historic returns.

Investing in individual stocks could also be an option. I don’t do this because the stock market isn’t really my specialty, I don’t want to spend my time following companies and trading, but many people make a decent return if you put in the research. This is another risk vs reward scenario - the risk is higher, but the returns can be higher if you pick the right stock at the right time.

If you have any other discretionary income you want to invest with, you could always look into peer-to-peer lending like LendingClub or Prosper. I’m not sure I’d call this a long term strategy, but it could be profitable in the short term.

You could also look into cryptocurrencies - again, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a long term investment strategy - but hey, if you have money you can afford to risk and you really believe in it, I’m not going to stop you. I definitely wouldn’t replace a proven long term investment strategy with crypto, but if you want to play around with it, sure - maybe Bitcoin hits 100k. Who knows.

From here, we can speed up the investment process dramatically by investing in a tax advantaged account. The two big ones to check out are a Roth IRA and 401k. These are just accounts you can set up where you can buy investments within them. So you can still own all of your stocks you want, but you can do it within Roth IRA or 401k account for better tax treatment, which will help sped up the process to a million.

Lastly, accelerate your growth by living under your means and saving / investing as much as you can. I say this all too frequently but that’s because it’s the truth. The more you invest, the quicker this will all pay off.

I’d also make sure to pay off any debt, if you have any - especially if it’s something with a stupid high interest rate. If you have a large credit card bill, make sure to pay that off. If you have stupid high student loans at a crazy high interest rate, make sure you pay those off as well. Debt is great if you leverage it to make more money, but debt is awful if it’s holding you down and costing you money. So make sure to pay off debts - sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised.

This video might seem a little repetitive and that’s because it is. The basics to this don’t really change, and neither do the specifics - it’s fairly boring. The difference here is consistency and discipline to invest over a long period of time. Otherwise the math behind it is surprisingly simple. Thanks for watching!

For business or one-on-one real estate investing/real estate agent consulting inquiries, you can reach me at GrahamStephanBusiness@gmail.com

Suggested reading:

The Millionaire Real Estate Agent

Your money or your life

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Think and grow rich

Awaken the giant within

The Book on Rental Property Investing

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Chase Sapphire Reserve

American Express Platinum