How to INVEST your way to a Million Dollars

Here’s how you can go about investing to a million dollars and some of the methods I’m using for you to begin to replicate. I’ll start with some specific investments, move on to where I get the most value, and then discuss how you can accelerate that growth - enjoy! Snapchat/Instagram: GPStephan

For me, my biggest investment has been in real estate. Here’s exactly what my strategy is: I buy an undervalued property that needs to be fixed up, I fix it up - increasing the value of the home - and I rent it out. I make my biggest profits my doing this. The monthly cashflow of rental property is also fantastic for hitting a fairly substantial rate of return.

I then invest in Index Funds, specifically Vanguard VFIAX. It’s an SP500 index fund that’s fairly passive. I invest in this fund through a Roth IRA and SEP 401K. There are a ton of different fund out there for you to look into with fairly decent historic returns.

Investing in individual stocks could also be an option. I don’t do this because the stock market isn’t really my specialty, I don’t want to spend my time following companies and trading, but many people make a decent return if you put in the research. This is another risk vs reward scenario - the risk is higher, but the returns can be higher if you pick the right stock at the right time.

If you have any other discretionary income you want to invest with, you could always look into peer-to-peer lending like LendingClub or Prosper. I’m not sure I’d call this a long term strategy, but it could be profitable in the short term.

You could also look into cryptocurrencies - again, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a long term investment strategy - but hey, if you have money you can afford to risk and you really believe in it, I’m not going to stop you. I definitely wouldn’t replace a proven long term investment strategy with crypto, but if you want to play around with it, sure - maybe Bitcoin hits 100k. Who knows.

From here, we can speed up the investment process dramatically by investing in a tax advantaged account. The two big ones to check out are a Roth IRA and 401k. These are just accounts you can set up where you can buy investments within them. So you can still own all of your stocks you want, but you can do it within Roth IRA or 401k account for better tax treatment, which will help sped up the process to a million.

Lastly, accelerate your growth by living under your means and saving / investing as much as you can. I say this all too frequently but that’s because it’s the truth. The more you invest, the quicker this will all pay off.

I’d also make sure to pay off any debt, if you have any - especially if it’s something with a stupid high interest rate. If you have a large credit card bill, make sure to pay that off. If you have stupid high student loans at a crazy high interest rate, make sure you pay those off as well. Debt is great if you leverage it to make more money, but debt is awful if it’s holding you down and costing you money. So make sure to pay off debts - sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised.

This video might seem a little repetitive and that’s because it is. The basics to this don’t really change, and neither do the specifics - it’s fairly boring. The difference here is consistency and discipline to invest over a long period of time. Otherwise the math behind it is surprisingly simple. Thanks for watching!

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[sebb]

Been here since 14k subs love to see your channel grow man!

[thelifeofmebronsongomez]

One of the only real financial youtubers that is straight to the point, has great advice, and isn't trying to sale something. Thanks for the vid Graham

[austinmiranda]

Don't be foolish Graham. I just invested my life savings in Pokemon cards. We'll see who's laughing in 40 years!

[gm]

I wish more young people would think the way you do... and follow your steps! Your advice is awesome!!!

[bradjenkins]

Grahams the type of person you want to hang out with, proven winner. Another awesome video, Graham

[KellanJames]

Always loving Graham's realistic and actionable advice.

[notfred]

Been here for the last 20, 000 subs, but I'd seen several videos before that. I was incredibly impressed that you stuck to your promise of responding to comments when you responded to a comment of mine - 20 minutes after I posted it, on a video that had thousands of comments. You appear to be a remarkable businessman, and a good, honest guy. You're right when you say your video seems repetitive! Because you don't flip-flop on what you say. You believe what you preach. By far my favorite channel on YouTube, and I love getting my notifications. Snapchat and Instagram are my other daily doses that I need. Ever since I subbed, I find myself filling my time with your videos. It doesn't matter if it's in the background while I play a game, or I sit down and have a Graham marathon! You encouraged me to stop sitting around and start investing again. Instead of my money just sitting in an account, it's in stocks making me money again. Now that I'm 18, I'm beginning to work towards my real estate license here in Florida, in-between classes, that is, haha. All in all, I want to say a big 'Thank you!' for all of your videos. Here's to a prosperous 2018 for myself, you, and all of your viewers! Cheers!

[Navs]

Never sell out Graham! You're the best!

[triplea]

What I like most about your videos is the order and honesty of them. Sure, you're a great communicator and all, but what really does it is that your titles are never clickbait, you quickly summarise the video at the start, and then give the hard cold numbers and do say exactly what you're doing. Delivering 100% on your promise. Thanks for the time and effort.

[wyecroft]

I spend my lunch breaks at work watching your videos (and some others). Such a simple video filled with amazing content...again!

[ibbyultrainstnct]

Graham, man you always come through. I wish you all the best in your youtube brand building. I can always say at least one view is ALWAYS gonna be mine. And i share this video to all my buddies and they too love your vids. It's amazing

[LTRentals]

Graham, I’ve listened to a ton of your videos, I have heard you tell me to comment below countless times, so here is my first comment. You finally broke me down, and I press “like” for your videos, I had previously never pressed the like button for anyone.

You say in the video that you need a lot of capital to start investing in real estate. I disagree. My rental portfolio started with a 3, 000 dollar down payment on my personal residence that was significantly undervalued and purchased with an FHA loan and I was able to retire from my public school teaching job with rentals at age 31. I think it depends on the market and the deal, but know it can be done with as little as 3k. And as I learn more, I think it could be done with even less than that.

By the way, your channel is awesome, my favorite YouTube channel I have found so far. Keep sharing great content!

[BrandonRohe]

Can you make a video elaborating on the specific tax advantages of investing in real estate? I'm about to make my first investment, and I'm interested in what your experiences are with the tax savings side of investing.

[JaredOtjensrealestate]

The two dislikes are Grant Cardon and his team member because you didn’t mention 10x, 16+ units or didn’t pull out your money and throw it on the table

[zbass]

I love these videos. Thank you Graham.

I agree with everything you said, and do actually all of these items (except Real Estate investing... hence why I know follow you!) One thing that is worth noting on this topic is that $1MM simply does not get you very far anymore. Sure, some will say that sounds like an pretentious mindset, and maybe it is... but if you want to be "rich" you're going to need a lot more than one million dollars. When I showed my father-in-law my spreadsheet for how I estimate to get to $10MM he just looked dumbfounded and said "well ten million dollars isn't going to do much for you in 2048 (my early retirement year)".

[LeeRalph]

I know this is an old video...but lots of good info. On the Index Investing...details are the key. VFIAX...Min Investment..$10, 000...here is the point that many throw up there hands and say "I am For beginners that want to follow this road..they need a map leading to that 10K.. THEN they could invest. This is the point that keep most from following this path.. They are not at the starting point (10k)..They do not even know HOW to get to the starting point...This is were you could be the most beneficial and influential in helping direct people to that starting point. Thanks for all the knowledge that you share with us!!

[manzo]

For those looking at individual stocks, I'd highly recommend doing technical analysis (reading candlestick charts) when considering which stocks to buy. Fundamental analysis can only give you so much information, knowing whats happening to a stock on a technical basis is, in my opinion, is far more important than knowing, for example, what a companies EPS is or what the company does lol. I've seen huge success trading stocks solely based on technicals, its not that hard once you learn what to look for.

[rudyruiz]

Can you do a video explaining the tax advantages of investing in real estate

[chrisrefaei]

Kinda like a Young Dave Ramsey. I know you may not like hearing that and you may or may not of heard this before. But i know you are truly just your own guy. Congrats on your success. I'm on my way as well. Thank you for the info!

[brandongrennan]

Another one! That comment about how a 3-4% interest loan is like free money given inflation was great. I never thought of it like that. Thanks Graham. Great video