April 22, 2013, 7:59 a.m. EDT
10 secrets: Retire a spiritually happy millionaire
Commentary: Even if you’re broke you can feel richer as you age
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By Paul B. Farrell,
MarketWatch
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — My wife handed me the
new Consumer Reports OnHealth newsletter at breakfast. The lead: Good news to
cheer up everybody, young and old, but especially AARP members, folks over 50:
“5 Good Things about Aging.”
Yes, folks, things will get better in retirement. Five good cheers!
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I loved the news, surprised to learn that anger, stress and worry actually
decline as you grow older, according to studies at Stanford and other research
centers (and my wife who is a marriage and family therapist). People grow wiser
as they age (more willing to see a new point of view, change, learn, compromise,
etc.) Marriages get healthier as love grows. Aging brings deeper satisfaction
with social relationships. 
And your happiness increases, even adding years to your life. Yes, good news about aging.
In fact, that’s fabulous news, driving me back to an earlier book of mine on how anyone can retire as a spiritual, happy millionaire. Seriously, you can easily become one of these new kind of millionaires, I called them the “Zen Millionaires.”
Here’s their secret: It’s really all in your head, your attitude, your state of mind, whether in fact, in spirit or just to feel like you’re one, money or not, even if you’re broke. You just do it.
Wealth, riches, happiness are all in your head
You control your mind. A few decades in business convinced me of this one simple truth: Becoming a millionaire is all in your head. It has little to do with wealth-building techniques, tools and rules we wrote about in “The Lazy Person’s Guide to Investing” and “The Winning Portfolio.” I’ve read the best books: “The Millionaire Mind, “”Instant Millionaire,” “Automatic Millionaire,” “Millionaire Next Door,” “One Minute Millionaire,” the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” series, and lots more. Even wrote one, “The Millionaire Code,” and worked on Wall Street with Morgan Stanley.Still, you can forget all the usual stuff: personality tests, asset allocation, stock picking, savings plans, budgeting, and so on. Yes, all that’s what advisers, pundits, brokers and other experts want you to focus on. But even if you do, if you’re not in the right state of mind, none of it will matter anyway.
But I keep coming back to this one simple fact: It’s all in your head! Period. No excuses.
Here are the 10 best tips I picked up over the decades, not-so-secret tips that’ll help you become one of America’s next happy and spiritual millionaires:
1. Retiring rich isn’t about money
Fidelity’s iconic Peter Lynch says if you spend 15 minutes a year studying the economy, that’s 10 minutes too much. And when money guru Ric Edelman researched 5,000 millionaires for his best-seller, “Ordinary People, Extraordinary Wealth,” he discovered that millionaires spend an average of just six minutes a day on personal finance. They have better things to do. Get a life!2. Accentuate the positive
Most of us have read books like Napoleon Hill’s “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude.” That message was captured in Fast Company by a Special Forces instructor, a veteran of 26 years: “If you have a guy with all the survival training in the world who has a negative attitude and a guy who doesn’t have a clue but has a positive attitude, I guarantee you that the guy with a positive attitude is coming out of the woods alive. Simple as that.”3. Think different
Go inside “The Millionaire Mind” with author George Stanley: “They think differently from the crowd … It pays to be different.” Being different builds wealth. That’s “the central theme” of his work: Don’t fit in, go your way. Let the spirit guide you.4. Quit doing what you hate
Most people do live in quiet desperation, waiting for retirement, doing something they hate. Marcus Buckingham put it very simply in his best-seller, “The One Thing You Need to Know”: “Figure out what you don’t like doing, then stop doing it.”5. Do what you love
The flip side of that coin. Yes, you’ve heard all the pep talks: Follow your bliss, go for your dreams, do what you love, money will follow, don’t give up five minutes before the miracle. Never forget Stanley’s bottom line: “If you are creative enough to select the ideal vocation, you can win, win big-time. The really brilliant millionaires are those who selected a vocation that they love.” Do what you love.6. Find ‘the real you!’
Working in a career that doesn’t fit right is exhausting and stressful. You’re less efficient, less productive and underperform. Get in sync with the real you. Get help from a career counselor. Read books on personality types. In “The Millionaire Code” we identify 16 basic types to help people focus on their dreams. Buckingham’s “Now Discover Your Strengths” is another example. Find the real you, go for it, and never turn back!7. Invest in ‘You, Inc.’
Tired of working for Corporate America? Become an entrepreneur. Create your own business. Read Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad” series. Open a candy shop. Consult. Browse through “eBay for Dummies.” Sell stuff on a web site. Most millionaires work for themselves, pay less taxes, can live below their means and build retirement equity in themselves.8. Live with passion
Believe in something. Listen to the still small voice in you. What is it: Love, family, jazz, art, golf, writing, fishing, inventing? Whatever it is, that’s you. And it’s priceless. My mentor Joseph Campbell put it this way: “If you follow your bliss, you will always have your bliss, money or not. If you follow money, you may lose it, and you will have nothing.”9. Live in the moment, today
A good friend had cancer, yet lived every minute to the fullest. When I mention retirement planning, he laughed. He’d talk about his next vacation. His new jet-skis. He survived divorce, bankruptcy, foreclosure, health problems. He had a successful business, nice house, lots of debt. Yes, he was at risk. I couldn’t do it, but he was happy. We all have friends like him. You can push them only so far. Then you let go, love them, cherish your friendship. We all live in the moment, he had his, the now, live yours.10. Make a difference!
Most of us focus on our little world and our future. Many millionaires I know dream of making the world a better place, with visions of a better tomorrow, for everyone. They love helping people. I’ll bet you have such a dream. Discover the real meaning of life by going beyond yourself, and make a difference! That’s the secret of wealth and happiness.Remember, being a millionaire is all in your head. If you have the right attitude, if you feel it, if you believe you’re rich, you’re already one, a happy, Zen Millionaire. The money will follow, or not. But you can align with that spirit inner spirit no matter how much money you have. Today. Now.
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