How to Become a Millionaire

“If you choose money over love, you will always be poor.”

― Matshona Dhliwayo

As I write this, I’m sitting at the kitchen island my husband built for me, placed between the kitchen and living room of our 890 square foot, two bedroom, one bath apartment. I am taking a break from writing blogs for an orthopedic practice, an attorney, and a plastic surgeon. Each of these blogs pays a whopping $19.50 each.

I am currently unemployed, having walked out of an extremely toxic work environment a couple of weeks ago. My husband, a paramedic, is picking up extra shifts at the hospital to make ends meet until I can generate some income myself.

I love being home. I mean, LOVE it. My tiny apartment stays impeccably clean, I get to write on my own schedule, and I get to spend more time with the family. My mental health is soaring, my family is happy, and life is good.

From the outside looking in, we would be considered lower-middle class. We keep to a strict grocery budget, we save eating out for special occasions, and limit vacations to long weekends. We don’t buy designer clothes, we don’t have expensive hobbies, and we shop at Walmart on the regular.

I have no doubt people look down on us, simply because we don’t put much stock in material possessions. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to have more money, simply for the fact that my husband wouldn’t have to work so much. But I don’t want money for status, or for buying stupid things we don’t need. I simply want enough to pay the bills, put some in savings, and enjoy a glass of wine with dinner.

But more than more money, I want more freedom. Freedom to pick up my kids from school without worrying about missing a meeting. Freedom to go get groceries in the middle of the morning. Freedom to go for a walk and not miss a business call. Freedom to take a couple of days off in the middle of the week to visit my mom.

Writing offers that freedom, but it comes at a cost. It’s hard work building a writing portfolio that is marketable. Sure, I have tons of content, but mostly I write about personal issues, like making a blended family work, or how we can learn valuable lessons from our children. These topics are important, but not necessarily profitable.

So, as Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “Ay, there’s the rub”. How do I make money doing the thing I’m good at? How do I turn a profit on words I type out on my laptop?

How, indeed.

On the flip side, I have an MBA, and I love to write about business. More specifically, how the business practices of America are stuck in the assembly line mentality of the last century. Most businesses still require you to clock in, sit at a desk from 8–5, and carefully document every lunch hour and break time. Most business can be done from anywhere, thanks to technology. Think about how this would cut down on expenses for the average worker. If one partner is able to work from home, the family could use one car instead of two, cutting down on fuel costs, household debt, and would reduce their carbon footprint. Clothing costs and food expenses would be reduced, as well, adding more money to the family budget. Workers in fields such as data entry, bookkeepers, software developers, and a ton of others can get their work done at any time, eliminating the need for timeclocks. It would save companies money, as well, since more remote workers translates into less needed office space. It also opens up more opportunities for stay at home customer service agents who could work odd hours, giving customers the chance to get their issues resolved outside of traditional office hours.

You may be wondering how all of this ties into the title of this article. Well, this is how. There is no such thing, barring winning the lottery or inheriting a fortune from a long lost uncle, to get rich quick. It doesn’t happen. Open your Facebook or Instagram app and count how many ads you see for money making courses. There are ghostwriting courses, drop shipping courses, blogging courses, medical transcription courses, life insurance courses…the list goes on and on. And do you want to know who makes money from these courses? That’s right! You guessed it!

The person selling the courses.

Sure, they have testimonials, blurbs of praise from stay at home moms and retired grandmas who made $10,000 their first month by following one program or another. Course creators are expert marketers, and know that people buy based on emotion, so they make sure their testimonials tug at your heartstrings. They all star people who were at risk of losing everything, but they scraped together $49 for this miracle course and BAM! they were able to pay off their home in three months.

The ugly truth is that most of these work from home “opportunities” are nothing more than multi-level marketing ploys packaged as legitimate careers. They prey on people who want to stay home with their kids and break free of the corporate nightmare. What they don’t tell you is that in order to make any money, you will have to create your own teams, sell to your family and friends, and put in your own money as startup costs. There is no such thing as something for nothing in these companies.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t legitimate courses out there that can set you on a path to success, but I can promise you that they are few and far between.

The answer to this is simple, but it will take business owners to be open to some major mindset shifts and process changes. The solution is to offer more work from home opportunities. Allow workers to create their own schedules, trust them to get the work done, whether it’s done during regular business hours, or at night when the kids are in bed. Businesses should encourage their employees to enjoy life, to take walks in the middle of the day, to have lunch with their friends. They should consider flexible and hybrid schedules for those who still enjoy coming into the office. Happy workers are productive and loyal workers, and will go the extra mile for a company who does the same for them.

I want to work from home and make a full time income, and what I am discovering is that I may have to develop several income streams. I am making around 500 bucks a month writing blogs, I have an Upwork profile where I offer virtual assisting and bookkeeping services, and I am actively trying to gain more followers on Medium in hopes that those connections can lead to more paid writing opportunities. What I know for certain is that none of these options are get rich quick schemes, and they all take time and effort. But all of the extra effort is worth it to live life on my terms.