Money expert reveals three simple lifestyle changes that will help ANYONE amass a $1 million fortune – no matter how low their salary

A financial advice expert has shared his advice on how someone can amass enough money to become a millionaire in retirement, regardless of how much they currently earn.

Ramit Sethi, 41, gives financial advice on his YouTube channel, where he has almost 500,000 subscribers.

In a new post, he shared three strategies that can help someone “become a millionaire” on a “low salary,” describing three “levers” you can “pull and push toward wealth”: including time (or “how long you invests for’), ‘how much you invest’ and ‘investment returns’.

The core of the first three recommendations was the use of ‘time’, given the principle of compound interest on investment accounts.

For example, on a $50,000 salary, if you set aside 15 percent for 30 years, which equates to $7,500 per year, that would amount to $743,849, assuming a seven percent return and a low 0.1% fee.

If we did that for another four years, for a total of 34 years, the total would be $1,006,939.

“The real gain comes at the end, not at the beginning,” Ramit emphasized.

‘The lesson here: don’t postpone investing.

“In fact, every day you don’t invest aggressively, you lose a huge amount of money because time and returns are on your side.”

As for the second lever, it’s about ‘how much you invest’ at regular intervals, the more often the better.

“If you invest $425 a month from age 25, or basically $14 a day, you could easily be a millionaire by the time you’re 65,” he said.

He also proposed increasing the investment rate by one percent every year; So the next year five percent of his income would be invested, the year after that six percent, and so on.

He also emphasized that “because it is a percentage,” as you make more money, you will invest more money.

“It’s a great rule to have in your financial life.”

He also advised keeping housing and car costs low, ‘so that you can invest more.’

A second income stream from a spouse could also boost this “leverage” even further, just as most of the pay increase from a raise could be invested rather than spending the extra money, he added.

In addition, based on the assumption that salaries will increase between the ages of 30 and 40, people should get into the ‘habit’ of putting their money in investment accounts in their twenties.

For the third and final lever, Ramit emphasized “investment returns.”

He further explained that the “real rate of return” on market investments since the introduction of the Standard & Poor’s index in 1957 has averaged about eight percent, taking inflation into account.

“There is one thing that will change your situation and that is paying fees,” he continued, such as when you pay a financial advisor one percent of your returns annually.

Ramit instead recommended paying a fixed amount or an hourly rate to a financial advisor, but “never a percentage.”

When you manage your own investments, “look for low management fees or expense ratios and you’ll be in a pretty good place,” Ramit says.

Numerically, a ‘good management fee’ is 0.2% or lower.

After discussing the “three levers,” Ramit went on to illustrate a point that will “make or break your financial journey.”

That factor is essentially what the math doesn’t show.

“Money is very emotional,” he admitted.

‘We learn about domesticity from our parents. We hear sentences in our heads that they said thirty years ago: “We can’t afford it.”

‘Even when people start earning more money, they often still play small.

“Now it’s okay for money to be emotional. But I want you to understand your attitude and behavior towards money.

“People are often frustrated because they’re not making a lot of money – or they’re making a lot of money, they don’t know where it’s going,” he continued.

Ramit admitted that there are “many reasons” why people still fall short when it comes to finding money to invest in the future of the future.

‘We’re often taught that to get rich we have to have thirty screens with all these ratios on the screen and we have to pick stocks.

‘That’s just not real investing. That’s day trading, that’s gambling.

‘Investing is boring. It’s not entertainment. Do you want to be entertained? Get a dog,” he emphasized.

‘Real investing is like watching paint dry. That’s why I didn’t feel it here, when I realized I had a million dollars, or even more than that…’ he said, touching his heart.

‘But I felt it here when I could be super generous. When I could buy something I really love. When I could travel with my loved ones and experience a moment of awe.

“Then a million dollars has meaning.”