Mom to Millionaire. Finding the Path to Financial Peace

By Margaret Curlew

Many of us live paycheck-to-paycheck. We dream of a better and brighter life; but never achieve it. We hope and pray for a better job or pay; but never reach our goals. We never seem to feel financially independent or free. Living the American dream is a myth for most of us.
Mom to Millionaire explains how an individual, who had all the odds stacked against her, became successful in life. It was not an easy journey, but she did it, and so can you and everyone else.

In this book, you will learn:
•The paths to financial freedom
•How to increase your net worth
•How to create generational wealth
•How to gain control of your life and thoughts
•How a regular job cannot guarantee financial peace

• Language: English
• Publisher: Margaret Curlew
• Release date: Feb 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463419175

Margaret Curlew

Dr. Margaret Curlew is a professional, mompreneur and a real estate investor. She is a firm believer in the principle that we can all influence our destiny through vision, execution and hard work.Margaret has invested in rental properties. She is a specialist in income generation and wealth-building. She is great at recognizing opportunities and making the most of it.Margaret has travelled extensively. She enjoys working with people from around the world. She has mentored and contributed to the success of individuals over the years.Margaret studied in Lille, France. She has a Master’s Degree in International Commerce. She also holds a PhD in Business. Giving back to society and assisting those in need has always been her passion.

Book preview

MOM TO MILLIONAIRE

Finding the Path to Financial Peace

Dr Margaret Curlew

MOM TO MILLIONAIRE

Dr Margaret Curlew

Copyright 2019 by Margaret Curlew

Contents

Where is My Life going?

Track your Net Worth

Take ownership of your situation

Change your Financial situation

Create a Plan and Follow it

Be Adventurous & Try Different Paths

Do not quit your job just yet

CREATE WEALTH

How it All Started

The Power of Leverage

CONCLUSION

About the Author

1

Where is My Life Going?

Have you ever contemplated the above question? Have you wondered why you felt miserable, stuck and depressed? Do you sometimes ask yourself if you are doing the right thing or if you were in the right job or have the right friends? Do you have anxiety about your life going nowhere? Do you feel like you are settling for whatever comes your way? Are you ever dissatisfied with your job? Are you bothered by financial stagnation? Do you ever think about how you could make more money, buy a bigger house or a luxury car, like a Mercedes Benz or a Porsche? Do you ever worry about where your next paycheck will come from and when it will happen? Are you concerned about it not being enough to cover your bills? Do you sometimes ask yourself how long you would be at your dead-end job or when you would have enough of the B.S. and quit?

Do you sometimes sit and think that life does not make sense? Or that you will never become rich? Do you fear that you will forever stay in the social and economic class into which you were born? Are you in your late twenties, thirties, forties or fifties? Do you think that you will never reach your dream salary? How often do you wonder if your dream life is a myth for an average person like yourself? Moreover, have you ever dared to dream of financial independence or a life outside of your regular 9 to 5? Do you ever wonder whether you would need to work until nature calls you? Do you ever consider getting out of the rat race and live your desired life?

If any among these questions ever went through your mind, you are not alone. You have a partner here. Those were all questions I bothered about for years. I just never seemed to get ahead in life or where I wanted to be. Not that I was financially broke, but I did not have enough money either. Not that I was a big spender—on the contrary, I was a big saver. However, I did not have a big bank account. I worked hard, played less, deprived myself of my indulgences, but I still had a small bank account. I just thought my life was not going where I wanted it to go. I was working hard and for long hours; however, I was not getting the kind of compensation or rewards that I thought came along with the type of effort and time I input.

I had a good university education. I earned degrees. I got jobs I thought were well-paying back then. Also, I worked nonstop around the clock. In spite of this, I never experienced any financial satisfaction nor bliss. Is there something missing? I was very productive at my jobs though and did not expect any terminations. However, I didn’t reach the fulfillment I expected. Plus, I sometimes had doubts about where and how the paycheck would come. I changed jobs several times. Nevertheless, it did nothing in helping me realize my goal. If anything, I seemed to be getting farther away from it. Moreover, with each regress, retiring at 60 or 65 was obscure. This go-back brought nothing but the dread of being at the same job for an unending 30 to 35 years. How frightening!

I finally made up my mind to take a hard look at myself—every little detail about my life, my childhood dreams, my surroundings—everything. Is there a missing part of the puzzle—what was it? I asked myself why a select few had been successful and not me, or others. How did they become wealthy while the rest of us lived in poverty? What had enabled them to achieve retirement at 40, 45 or 50, while a good number have to wait till age 65 or 70? That childhood dream of mine was to become successful and wealthy. I was nowhere close. So I decided to take a candid and critical introspection. So what did I find?

2

Track your Net Worth

Throughout my self-analysis, I perused every financial advice I had read and heard about—save, be frugal, invest in a secured savings account, clip coupons, collect air miles points, and the rest. I am sure you heard same too, only you don’t ever hear of someone becoming well-to-do by clipping coupons or any of the above. Oh, what about someone who achieved financial independence by collecting air miles points or being frugal? Look out for three wealthy people you know. Ask them how they built their wealth. No one made their precious wealth by being frugal or clipping coupons or collecting air miles points on their credit cards.

The bulk of the wealthy people I know of usually reveal how they had a big business or investment opportunity that made them heap up money; or even better, how they inherited their wealth. The regular 9 to 5 job never gave anyone financial peace or made them see the light of prosperity. More like a false sense of security, it keeps you stuck down in the muds, while you try to keep up with the jones by racking up massive credit card debt.

Whether you are motivated, full of energy and want to succeed in life, like me, the assets won’t come just by being that. However, this I found: to have a better sense of where we are going, we need to assess where we currently are. The wealthy refer more to their net worth and not so much so to the amount of money in their bank account. My journey to financial bliss precisely began with my decision to track my net worth to understand where I financially was at the time:

Asset - Liability = Net-worth

$50 000 - $80 000 = - $30 000 - No ideal

$50 000 - $10 000 = $40 000 - Great

:. Asset > Liability = positive net worth

As illustrated above, if your liabilities are higher than your assets, there’s a problem. Your assets have to be higher. When I did the math on my finances, my assets were more significant than my liabilities, but not by much. Still, within those few years, I listened to financial experts. I practiced some of the tips and suggestions they gave. All of those tips are quite useful, but only for someone who wants to have and maintain the regular middle-class life. But not for individuals like me who wanted to achieve financial success with the bonus of retiring early.

Have you ever heard of someone who became a millionaire by cutting coupons? Alternatively, by not buying coffee or not going to restaurants? These are minor adjustments that one can make to their daily habits if they wish to save a certain amount for a small project. However, if you want financial success, you need to generate more revenue. I mean big revenue. Saving is good. It is great. So are all the other tips like it. Then again, how can you save when there is not much coming in in the first place?

One unique concept I grasped from my research on wealth creation was that one needs to make a whole lot more money than their regular earnings in the workplace. That is the path to financial freedom. Cutting on smaller items, saving a dollar here and a dollar there, a