Note: Not all Figures and/or Tables mentioned in this sample chapter appear on the Web.

--ALBERT EINSTEIN

It all starts with a single unit of money.

In the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, and New Zealand, it's the dollar. In Great Britain, it's the pound. In France and Switzerland, it's the franc. In Germany, it's the mark. In Japan, the yen. Wherever you are, reach into your wallet or purse and dig out some of your own paper currency and examine it. Rub it between your fingers. Feel the texture. Bring it to your nose. Does money smell? Examine the images. Notice the serial numbers. Turn it over. Notice the strange symbols. What do they mean? Imagine that you're looking at it through a microscope. Read every single word. This simple piece of paper doesn't appear to be worth much. Inflation erodes its value daily. So what if you waste it or lose it or throw it away.

But wait a minute. Can this ordinary piece of paper money be worth more than meets the eye? Could it be a magic ticket to a more abundant life of anywhere/ anytime/ anything you want? One thing's sure: How people feel about these silly pieces of paper makes a huge difference in how they enjoy life's great banquet of prosperity.

When you've finished reading this chapter, I promise that you'll never think of money in the same way again. Ever. You see, prosperous people don't think of money as just colored pieces of paper adorned with pictures of famous dead people. They imagine it as seeds--money seeds--with the power to grow into money trees, bearing fruit to fulfill every one of their dreams. And they are absolutely right. Every dollar bill is a money seed. Just as a tiny acorn contains the power to grow into a mighty oak tree, each dollar bill has the power to grow into a mighty money tree. You can grow one of these money trees . . . on as little as a dollar a day.

Could you afford that?

If you follow the advice in this book, you will soon have your own majestic money tree, growing right in the center of your future dream home. Imagine that! Branches of your money tree are growing along the ceiling and spreading into every room of the house. Every few feet along each branch are ripening money fruits that pop open once or twice a day releasing crisp $100 bills. As the $100 bills fall from the tree, they float into money baskets throughout the house. All night long you hear the pop, pop, pop of the ripening money fruits. You might think the sound would keep you awake, but it's a very soothing sound. Your money tree produces fruit 24 hours a day. While you sleep. While you work. While you play. While you eat. It never stops. An endless stream of cash flow. Whenever you need money, you just take whatever you want from one of the baskets. Get the picture?

If you destroy an acorn, the potential oak tree inside also dies. Every time you waste one of those silly pieces of paper money, it's just like destroying a potential money tree. That's why it is so important to preserve and protect each of these money seeds. See Figure 1.1.

So how much is one of those seeds really worth? That depends on how long you let it grow and at what rate of growth. Let's suppose you take a single dollar and put it into a special bank account that will let the dollar grow, untouched by taxes and fees. How long will it take for this single dollar bill to grow into $1 million?

That depends on the interest rate that the bank account pays. If it's like ordinary bank accounts, then it's going to take a long, long time. Table 1.1 shows you how long it takes for a single dollar bill to grow into $1 million at various interest rates.

As you can see, at bank rates of 3 percent it will take 468 years for a single dollar bill to grow into $1 million. What? Not planning on living 468 years? Relax. We're not done with that dollar bill yet. We've got to supercharge it. How can we do this? Rather than just planting one money seed, could you plant them more often? Could you afford to put away a dollar a day? Thirty bucks a month! You can do that.

Table 1.2 shows the number of years it takes for a dollar a day to grow into $1 million at various interest rates. Wow! A dollar a day becomes $1 million in the span of a normal lifetime.

Suppose you'd invested a dollar a day starting on the day you were born. Table 1.3 shows what you'd have at age 66. A dollar a day grows into $1 billion by the normal retirement age! That's a whole forest of money trees. You're Ross Perot in embryo! And what makes this happen? The power of compound interest makes a few dollars a day grow into enormous sums of money. Einstein himself said, "The most powerful invention of man is compound interest."

But suppose you don't want to wait for 66 years. Okay, there's another way to speed up the process. Could you plant two or three seeds a day? Or five? Or ten? What does that do? Well, let's cut right to the chase. If you put away 10 lousy bucks a day and put it in the right mutual funds or stocks or real estate and let the clock tick at 20 percent, you're a millionaire in just 20 years! Pop, pop, pop, pop. Excited yet?

Now, I can hear the skeptics saying, "No one can sustain a 20 percent rate of growth for 20 consecutive years. It's not possible!" Well, Warren Buffett, the stock market genius, was able to do it for over 40 consecutive years. When you've finished reading this book, you'll know that it's not only possible for you, but entirely within the reach of anyone with discipline and a few financial skills. You don't have to be a financial genius. You don't have to own a big company. You can do it from your kitchen table using the money that you're now foolishly throwing away. If you just divert a few of your ill-spent dollars and funnel them into some well-timed investments, you can achieve financial success.

I'll bet you'll think twice before you throw away one of those silly green pieces of paper. It's like throwing away the seed to a $1 million money tree.

Every time you save one of those money seeds, you start sowing your way to wealth. The most important lesson of this chapter is to change your attitude about money, especially those $1 bills. I have no doubt you can save $30 per month . . . even on the most meager budget. Over time, you will want to increase this to $100, $200, or $300 a month or more. The more the better. The more the faster. How many seeds do you think you could save and invest every day? Table 1.4 and Figure 1.2 show you how a few dollars a day can grow into $1 million.

HOW TO EARN AN EXTRA MILLION IN YOUR LIFETIME

The real key is to keep socking away the money. Let the numbers whisper their silent but relentless message. Consistency. Day in, day out. Save. Invest. Save. Invest. It might be boring. It might be dull. It might be hard to do. No matter. Just do it.

I met a young man in Chicago who had made the decision to make his future bright by dimming his desires today. He worked full time, as did his spouse. If they had been like normal broke young married couples, they would have pooled their two paychecks and bought a new car with a fat monthly payment, stretched themselves into "too much house," and stressed out for the next 30 years. Instead, this young couple made a very smart choice. They lived on her paycheck and saved his entire monthly $2,000 paycheck. They put the money into well-selected mutual funds and watched the cash begin to pile up. This is true prosperity.

Our parents were right. We cringed when they told us, "Live on less than you earn. Invest the surplus. Avoid debt. Build long-term security." This may not be the exciting get-rich-quick rabbit, but the tortoise laughs slowly all the way to the bank. So, with that tortoise mentality firmly in place, let's start building some specific plans for the future.

Setting Some Specific and Realistic Financial Goals

First of all, you have five decisions to make about your money seeds:

Target: How much total money would you like to accumulate?
Amount: How many dollars a day can you squeeze out of your life?
Rate: What interest rate can you earn on your invested dollars?
Time: When would you like to reach your goal?
Purpose: What is your financial purpose?

For example, suppose you decide you want a $1 million nest egg in 20 years. Your ultimate purpose is to quit your job and spend your life working with the youth in your church. According to Table 1.5, one scenario would be to invest $10 per day at 20 percent per year to reach your goal:

Target: $1 million
Amount: $10 per day
Rate: 20 percent
Time: 20 years
Purpose: Church youth

Using the charts in Table 1.5, I'd like you to come up with a reasonable scenario for your wealth-building plan. To do so, use the worksheet that follows and fill in the blanks for your target financial goals. Make sure you spend some quality time asking yourself the question, "Why do I really want this money? What is my ultimate purpose?" Your moneymaking will be much more successful and meaningful if you have a clear purpose. If it's just "to make a lot of money," you may find yourself one day with a lot of money, wondering, "Is this all there is?"

Financial Target Worksheet
What is my target investment goal? $ __________________
How much can I invest per day? $___________ per day
How long am I willing to invest? ____________ years
What is my target interest rate? ____________ %
Why is it important to me to achieve this goal?
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The sooner you start, the richer you are immediately! Hey, wait a minute! This sounds too good to be true! A few dollars a day and you can become a millionaire? If this is so easy, why aren't all of us millionaires? Well, the truth is, we all could be millionaires, but most of us lack the simple discipline to make small daily deposits over long periods of time. And then, of course, we procrastinate getting started.

Let me show you the terrible cost of procrastination. Suppose you had the discipline to sock away $200 a month about $7 a day over a 20-year period of time with a target interest rate of 20 percent. How much could you accumulate? According to my calculator, $200 per month at 20 percent for 20 years grows into $632,000. Not bad!

Now, suppose instead of starting this year, you wait a year to get started. This leaves you only 19 years of growth instead of 20. According to my calculator, you would have only $516,000 in your bank account in 20 years. That's $116,000 less than you could have had if you had started on schedule. In other words, your procrastination cost you $116,000 in future dollars!

Procrastination is expensive! For each of the 365 days that you waited, your future portfolio was shrinking by over $300 116,000 ¸ 365 = $317.81. In other words, every day you procrastinate costs you $300 or $13 an hour, 24 hours a day.

What if you were to invest the same $200 per month over 30 years? The cost of waiting that extra year is now a whopping $842,803. Waiting an extra year costs you almost $1 million in future dollars. That's over $2,000 a day, or almost $100 per hour, 24 hours a day. Every day you wait . . . every hour you delay ... is like burning up future money!

Do it now. Do it regularly.

One final word: consistency. How much you invest is not as important as consistently investing that amount over a long period of time. If you miss a payment or two, no big deal. But let me show you what happens when you mess with the formulas. Suppose you could invest $200 month for 20 years with a target rate of return of 20 percent. You are pretty good at socking the money away for a few months, and then you read an ad in the paper for a great deal on a new car. In order to be able to afford the new car, you decide to lower your savings rate from $200 a month to $100 a month. In 20 years, instead of having $632,000 sitting in the bank, you'll have only $316,000 and a very old car. That's $316,000 less. Is your new car worth that much? If you invest wisely today, you'll be able to pay cash for any car you want 20 years from now. Deferring gratification for a while will allow your money tree to grow. When you prematurely pick the fruit from your money tree, you stunt its growth and dramatically reduce the time it takes for you to enjoy a fully matured, fruit-bearing money tree.

You can do the most good for the greatest number of people, yourself included.

Let's examine the money trees of some of the last century's most famous billionaires. You'll have to admit, they knew how to grow money trees. What did they do with their wealth? Almost every one of them set up a foundation that would outlive them. These foundations are like money tree forests that continue to thrive long after the money tree farmers are gone.

In the World Book Encyclopedia, under "Foundations," you'll discover that there are over 24,000 charitable foundations set up in the United States alone, dispensing yearly charitable grants to needy groups and organizations of almost $5 billion. The top 10 foundations are as follows:

The Ford Foundation was established in 1936, yet decades later is still giving away more than a $100 million a year to needy causes. No matter what your attitude toward the wealth of the Fords, Rockefellers, or Gettys, you've got to admit that hundreds of thousands of people even you are benefiting each day from the legacy of these great money masters. The fruits from their money trees continue to bless the world.

You can have a major, positive impact on future generations.

If you learn the secrets of these successful money masters, eventually you, too, will be able to leave a legacy that will outlive you. Although leaving a $100 million fortune may be the furthest thing from your mind today you'd probably rather make an extra $10,000 this year, I encourage you to imagine what your future foundation might look like. Answer the following question: Once you have achieved your financial goals and lived a long, prosperous, happy, and healthy life, how do you want your money invested so that it can have the greatest positive impact on future generations?

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In the purest sense, money is a spiritual concept. It contains the power to do so much good. Imagine the benefit that you could provide to future groups of worthy people. Imagine your own posterity--your own great-great-grandchildren--a century from now. How could they benefit from your wise financial, spiritual, and intellectual legacy? If you won't do it for yourself, at least do it for them.

Now let's look at that dollar bill one more time. This simple money seed contains the power to bless you and countless future generations. But only if you'll start now. The future is counting on you. A wealthy future is awaiting you. It's worth the sacrifice. Remember, it all starts with a single unit of money.

I wish I had the power to reach more people with the message that you've just read. Why don't they teach these things in school? I feel so strongly that more people should learn these concepts that I've made this entire chapter available free on my web site. If you'd like to share it with someone else--your family, for example--just go to www .multiplestreamsofincome. com and click on the Free chapter link.

Now that you have the right respect for each of those priceless money seeds, let me show you specifically how to turn each of them into $1 million money trees. Join me in the next chapter and let's get started.