 Good day fellow investors. The focus of this channel is on long-term wealth creation and too often people get distracted by short-term stock moves, by small dividend changes, free 4% and lose the focus on the big picture and on where you want to be in 10-15 years. So today I want to discuss my view on the best way I think how to create long-term wealth by discussing a very interesting topic and that's how to become a millionaire. I want to share with you 4 steps and then also my personal story on my path to becoming a millionaire. Let's start immediately with step number one which is focus and habits. Becoming a millionaire takes time of course, it can take a few years, it can take a few decades. Nevertheless if you have the focus then everything is easier because when you have a goal and you go towards that goal the universe will work with you to get their goal. If you say I want to become a millionaire but you don't commit, you don't focus, you don't set goals, you don't take action towards becoming that millionaire, you can never become that millionaire and that part taking action and focus leads also to habits. You need to have the habits of becoming a millionaire. This means creating the capital, investing the capital, focusing on the goal of long-term wealth creation because to amass a million you need to focus over the long-term does create certain habits and just to tell you immediately the habits I'm talking about don't involve saving, frugality and all the other boring things that you will see a lot of videos on YouTube. I see becoming a millionaire as a positive way, as a growth way where you live your life to the max and not save and limit yourself by not spending on anything and not having fun in life. Alright, step number two creating the initial capital that can multiply to get you to a million. There is no secret formula there. You have to find something you love, do something extra, get a job, find something that can create that extra capital that you can later invest into something that can grow towards a million. I would say that in order to get to a million you need a starting capital of at least 50,000. I believe that anybody who speaks English, thus anybody that watches this video can easily get to 50,000 in extra capital that can later be invested into becoming a million. Be it an additional job, business, showing your passion on YouTube, having a blog, whatever, today I think everybody can get to extra 50,000. Of course you have to put the extra work. There is always the boring way saving 500 bucks a month over a long period of time and over 10 years you get to the 50,000 to invest that with a 2% interest rate blah blah blah and then inflation usually eats everything up and then when you save enough to get to a million you're already 60-70. That I find a little bit boring so let's stick to finding something extra to do that can also be with your job, getting a special bonus for something extra from an idea that you get that really propelled your company into more growth. So start focusing. We go back to the focus on how can I get that initial capital and I bet you that in the next few years I'm not talking here about tomorrow. Nobody can become a millionaire in just a few days. I'm talking about the mindset that over the next 5, 10, 15 years will make you a millionaire. So first mindset is look for capital creation and that is something you have to see with your own personal feelings how to get there. Now when you get to the 50,000 you need to invest in investments that can go up four, five times and for that you again need to focus on such investments. Such investments are usually growth investments that are exposed to what is going on in the world and what will be going on in the world. We have the benefit that Wall Street is focused on the next quarter or on the next two quarters and not on the long term. The best example for that is Amazon. I here have some indications of Amazon and what the analysts were saying about Amazon in 2009. They were saying will it ever be profitable? Will it go bankrupt? What will happen with the competition? And so on and so on. And even Goldman Sachs had a target which was super positive for Amazon that it will hit 100 in 2009. Fast forward eight years we are now past 1100. This shows you how short term minded is Wall Street and how if you focus on the long term you can really get to great investments. However there is also some risk. If you would have invested in Amazon in 2007 when the price was 90 you would see a decline to 42 in 2008. Thus more than 50% in less than a year. Nevertheless if you look at the 90 and if you look at the current stock price that's more than a tenfold increase over the last eight years. 50 000 capital in such a stock is already half a million. So if you really want to become a millionaire you have to look at the long term. If you're distracted by dividends 2-3-4% here and there interest rates or short term stock moves that make you 10% one month but then next month you lose 10% you are hardly going to accumulate enough to become a millionaire because you are going to spend a lot of time on the stock market and not by doing other things that can accumulate the capital to get you faster to that million. So if you look at the long term you have an advantage in comparison to Wall Street because Wall Street looks in the short term and I think it's not that difficult to find investments that have the possibility to become 10 beggars over 10 years. You just have to be focused on that and look towards that. Now you could say okay but if I invest only in one stock it's risking could go bankrupt. Yes that's why you don't invest in one you invest in three four and even if only one becomes a 10 beggar the other let's say doubles and the other does nothing you're still very very well ahead and if you repeat that every seven years you'll be very very well ahead over 15 years and from 50 to a million in 15 years is a very good result. Secondly if you find such stocks and you let them do the work you have time to accumulate more capital focus on creating more capital and focus on finding other opportunities and the second opportunity I want to discuss is real estate. Real estate is different from stocks because you can use leverage other people's money to buy in you can put other people into the real estate to pay your rent to pay your mortgage and then you can enjoy the real estate appreciation the cash flows from the mortgage that is another example of how to get to a million. As with stocks you have to invest time to find the best piece of real estate the one that will appreciate a lot as always location location location and that will lead to higher and higher cash flows. For example if you want to buy a 300 000 real estate property you need a down payment of 60 000 you get the mortgage you get the tenants to pay back the mortgage if you have some extra cash flow even better if you bought an interesting piece of real estate perhaps you refurbished perhaps you improved it who knows you can immediately add some value to that further if it's in a good location with the inflation with the money printing real estate prices could continue to grow over the next 10 years and you can find yourself after 10 years with a real estate that's worth double what you paid for but remember you didn't pay for it the mortgage pay for it so if you made a 20 down payment on a 300 000 property you invested 60 000 if you fast forward 10 years and that property is now 600 000 you made five times your initial down payment so that's another way of thinking long term if you think short term what can happen to the real estate market that's always a risk but if you think long term the trends are pretty clear more money more inflation higher real estate prices so think about the fourth step and I think one of the most important steps is have fun and keep the focus on growth there are always two ways to becoming a millionaire am I going to be frugal and not spend anything and then 20 years pass and you understand that you have spent 20 years of your life but not spending by not growing and on the other side I think wish if we grow if we invest in ourselves anyway if we invest in businesses if we learn learn learn learn learn then creating the capital finding investments becomes easier easier and easier because you're a smarter person and the smarter you are the easier is to find better investments so my message is don't be frugal don't limit yourself in life grow go for it go for the highest possible potential that you can achieve in the long term the difference will be millions your lifestyle will be 10 times better you will enjoy it you will grow and you will feel the best what you can feel plus you will have millions on the other side limiting yourself not spending not investing is very risky because anything can happen especially if you're saving inflation will eat up your money so think about growth rather than limiting yourself as promised I want to share my personal story so I always wanted to become financially independent rich and free so when I was 15 and I had luck I didn't look for a job I didn't want to work for somebody else and I started my own business it started out of fun from my passion which was diving and I started diving and I started catching something very interesting which are worms that are used from fishermen to fish for the fish bait and when I was in high school I would over the summer I would catch those and sell them to fishermen slowly slowly as I was growing into that from selling it to my neighbors that went fishing that became a real export business where I was exporting every week those worms to Italy the funny thing is so I went to high school ran back home dressed up went diving and caught these things nevertheless I was doing that through my whole high school and when I was 19 I had a capital of 50 000 which I was saving from what I did I was a frugal boy because I didn't spend it now when I look back when I think at what was I doing I regret that I was frugal if I would have bought a camera if I would have filmed what I was doing if I would have started the youtube diving channel my earnings would have been much much bigger so the frugal really brought me to 50 000 but I think limited me on a lot of other opportunity nevertheless second step I took those 50 000 and invested in free companies I invested in a bottling company that had a price earnings ratio of 7 I invested in a Ericsson subsidiary that had a price earnings ratio of 3 and a dividend yield of 30 percent yes 30 percent and then I invested in a third normal company the two stocks that I bought at the price earnings ratio of 7 and 3 were extremely illiquid one was also delisted and then relisted but I didn't know much about stocks and I didn't see anything disturbing in that illiquidity so I put my money there few years later the bottling company become a five-bagger the delisted stock be relisted and apart from great dividends became a 10-bagger so my 550 000 the first stock didn't do anything became around 350 000 which was a lot of money for a boy of 23 years old of that money I spent something to buy a boat have fun in life go diving travel around the Mediterranean and things like that but there was some capital left so in 2009-10 I had about 200 000 and that 200 000 I again invested in a very illiquid stock but that was paying an 8% dividend and was growing very well it was a camping site that stock again quadrupled and I was close to a million I spent some money invested did a PhD and so I didn't really reach a million the second step I did that really helped me propel to a million was buying a piece of real estate with as I live in the Netherlands I don't need a down payment so I managed to pick the bottom in prices and after that we have seen a boom in prices especially in luxurious areas where I bought my home because I think the real estate prices here boomed 50% since I bought it so no down payment on my mortgage and 50% when you sum everything up 15 years have passed and I can say that I am a millionaire the previous stocks I bought were not in dollars or euros but the point of the story is how to get to a million not the currency involved depends on where you live and where you were born so that's my story I hope you like it looking forward to your comments I hope I have motivated someone to become a millionaire by growing not become a millionaire by being frugal keep watching the channel as we constantly discuss investments that can lead to long-term wealth creation