Examing Life’s Lessons

Live on less than what you earn. Save the money left over. Invest what you save.
 
There it is. Have a great day!
 
Oh, are you still reading? I do not mean to insult your intelligence with a long wordy article when the above 3 sentences is what it will sum it all up. However, as some of you may know, this has been done recently.
 
My understanding is a person by the name of Paul Navone, according to various reports back in February of 2008, has given away some money. He spent less than he took in. He acquired rental properties that paid his living expenses. He made no more than $11/hr. According to an interview I saw of him, if he wanted something he bought it. He invested what he did not spend. He never took money out of his investments. At the end of 60 years, he gives away a million to a community college and is purportedly going to give away another million dollars.
 
I am assuming that he still has plenty to live on.
 
There you go, a real world example of how to do it.
 
What was that? You don’t sound very excited about that way to become a millionaire. When I read about Mr. Navone’s method of becoming a millionaire, I did not exactly jump up and down in excitement. He does not have children, nor even a wife. He last watched TV when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. He does not bother with owning a phone let alone a cell phone. These are not techniques that I will ever use in my life. I have 3 teenagers, a lovely wife/partner, 2 dogs and 2 cats, more computers than I personally need, and a cell phone.
 
Yet, if I look closely at what Mr. Navone has done, I bet I can find something, some lesson I can apply to my life. I need to find something that works better than what I am doing. I am nowhere close to being able to match what he has done. This is even with the fact that I am making and have made more that what he has made per hour.
 
The first key thing I see in his life is his residual income from the rental properties. Now as I look at this first key, these properties are making him a profit. I also see that he is living off this residual profit. He does not have to punch a clock (factory or office clock) in order to pay his living expenses. Obviously, there is work and effort involved in owning rental properties, but the key is that it does not take him 40 hours a week to do it.
 
The second key thing I see is that he does not rely on the rentals as his only source of income.
 
The third key I see is that he uses this extra income and primarily invests it. Not only invests it, but continues to put money in and not take it out. I bet, but do not know, that at times he has used the extra income to cover something unforeseen in the rentals or a splurge. However, from the small amount of information I have read, I can only deduce that it has not been very frequent.
 
 There is one thing that is the keystone to all this, one thing that holds it together. Mr. Navone showed contentment with his lifestyle. The life he is living is one where he is not striving for things, for the latest and greatest things, which allowed him to not have a high incoming cash flow. Yet, he is happy in his lifestyle and he worked to support it.

I applaud him.