Tomb of the Unknown Soldier









1.How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?

21steps: It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.








2.How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return
walk and why?

21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1






3.Why are his gloves wet?

His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.






4. Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and, if not, why not?

He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to
the outside shoulder.






5.How often are the guards changed?

Guards are changed every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.






6.What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?

For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between
5' 10' and 6' 2' tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30.


They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform or the tomb in any way.


After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their
lives or give up the wreath pin.


The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet..There are metal heel plates that extend to the top
of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt.

There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform.. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.

The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone nor watch TV.
All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in
Arlington National Cemetery . A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred.

Among the notables are:
President Taft,

Joe Lewis {the boxer}

Medal of Honor winner Audie L. Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WWII and of Hollywood fame.

Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for
guard duty..





ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD AND LET YOUR PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approach ing Washington, DC , our
US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the
hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment.. They respectfully declined the offer, "No way, Sir!" Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a serviceperson. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.






God
Bless and keep them.



We can be very proud of our young men and women in the service no matter where they serve.

The science of getting rich

A Book review, from Keith Layton

Every once in a while a good book comes along that should be read, and shared with others,

The Science of getting Rich “Network Marketing Edition”,

by Wallace D Wattles.

Is one such book. I bought from Amazon.com for about 4-5 bucks, and I was surprised at how much good information was in this little 97 page book.

First of all the name was a little misleading as it has nothing to do with network marketing directly , but the principals in this book could easily be applied to network marketing, or any other business you may be in as far as that goes. It took me about a week or so to read it, and I feel it would be great if every one could take the time to read it and absorb the material inside the book.

The main theme of the book is that if we do things in a certain way then it will be easier than ever to get rich, because in truth the only difference between you, and the person who you call “Rich” is the approach taken to get there. Lets assume that there are some fundamental truths in the world, some things that destined to happen no matter what you and I do. No matter how you slice it there is still 24 hrs in a day, the spring will always follow winter, night follows the day, and if you break the law you pay the price, weather or you pay it now or later, you will pay the price.

Here is some of the truths in this book,

“Success in life is becoming what you want to be; you can become what you want to be only by making use of the things, and you can have the free use of things only as you become rich enough to buy them. To understand the science of getting rich it is therefore the most essential of all knowledge.”

“There is nothing wrong with wanting to become rich, the desire to for riches is really the desire for a richer, fuller, and the more abundant life; and that desire is praise worthy.”

All this is to say that getting rich is normal and even healthy for our lives, and our soul. If we the hands, and eyes of God, then it would stand to reason - just as we would want all the good things in life for our children that God would want us too -enjoy the good things in life. To be able to enjoy the goodness of life, and see all the wonders of God’s handy work, all over the world we have to be able to pay the price for travel or whatever the other costs would be. Also consider this, in order for us to be able to help others we have to have the resources avail. Looking back in the bible you can find many stories of men that God had made wealthy. The more you have, the more you can give.

There has been times in my life where I have seen something really grand, but I was all alone, no one to share it with. So having a chance to see something through the eyes of another, be it your child, or through your lovers eye, somehow the magic, and grandeur is restored, all because you were able to see it again through the eyes of another. God wants to see life, and live life, through our eyes. In order to enjoy the fullness of life , we need the resources to do so. So being rich is good, it is God’s will for us to be rich. The only caution here is don’t let the pursuit of money become your God.

First step of getting rich is having a clear picture of what you want, how much money do you desire, what will you wear, where will you go when you achieve your wealth. God says in his word without vision the people perish. So what is your vision? Everyday spend time thinking about what you want, and everyday add more details to your mental picture, and everyday stay focused on your dream, and take the actions that will bring you closer to that which you desire. In studies of the mind the subconscious sees in color, movement, and in sound. So when you are thinking about your dream, add as much color, movement, and even the sounds that would be present when you reach your dreams. Doing this will bring you closer to your dreams, and remember “What you think about, is what you bring about“.

This book also speaks to this “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for the day, but if you teach him how to fish, you can feed him for life” Hands-out sometimes helpful but they are only temporary, if you really want to help out your fellow man then the best thing we can do is get rich ourselves, in doing so we are showing them that if we can do it, then so can they. “What one man can do , so can another.” By getting rich ourselves we become a inspiration to others. We have lit the path of which other can follow if they only look at the clues we have left behind. Like the clues left behind by others for us to follow. There is always room at the top, and the view is the best in the world.

Another secret, to getting rich form the this wonderful book is this, when you deal with others always give more value than you take. For example you will pay certain price for a book that you want, The author wanted to make some extra money. So you buying the book has allowed the author to make the money he wanted, but what you learn from a book is far more valuable than the price you paid for the book. Therefore the author gave you more value than he took, everybody wins. Likewise when you are doing your business what are you doing to add more value than the price you take? When you operate on these principals you draw more business to you, hence you earn more money down the road, everybody wins. Zig Ziglar says it like this, “You can have all that you want in life, when help enough other people get what they want in life.”

In the closing words of the book he talks about having a clear mental picture of what you want, what you desire, and above all else, ”The riches they receive will be in direct proportion to the definiteness of their vision, the fixity of their purpose, the steadiness of their faith, and the depth of their gratitude”.

This book covers more but you will have a good idea of the purpose of the book from this review., I highly recommend this book. Remember you desire to be rich, and God wants us to be rich. Enjoy life, and be a blessing to somebody else.

Today I hope I have added value to your life, lastly please go to my website and see the health and wellness products avail, and look at the opportunity to earn money, all the money you are willing to work for. It isn’t a get rich scheme, but it is a vehicle that if you work at it can make you fart more money than you will earn t a regular 9-5 job

www.keithlayton.freelife.com

Billionaire habits to make you rich

Billionaire Habits That Can Make You Richer

by Tara Struyk
Wednesday, August 11, 2010

As of March 2010, the world had 937 billionaires to its credit, according to Forbes. That's a pretty small club, and you have to imagine that these 937 people would have a few things in common -- besides their wealth, that is. In fact, they do. There's a lot of "new money" among billionaires, and many of them have similar habits that helped them amass their fortunes. Even if your personal fortune is miles away from the billion (or even million) dollar mark, trying these habits on for size could provide a boost to your bottom line.

More from Investopedia: • How to Make Your First $1 Million • 5 Billionaires Who Live Below Their Means • 7 Millionaires By Marriage

1. Entrepreneurism
Seven of the top 10 billionaires from Forbes' 2010 list are self-made. This club of clever elites, includes Bill Gates (net worth, $53 billion), who started the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - News) company in 1975 while still in his junior year in college at Harvard University.

Gates may have been in the right place at the right time in terms of developing computer software, but he also made the decision to strike right away, rather waiting even to graduate. His timing and hard-driving pursuit of success in his business helped plant the seed for what would become one of the world's largest and most successful companies.

2. Frugality
You might assume that a billionaire's drive stems from the for a luxurious lifestyle. However, some of the world's richest people ascended to their positions thanks to their ability to watch the bottom line.

Take Warren Buffett, for example. His $47 billion fortune put him at No. 3 on Forbes' 2010 list of billionaires, but this ultra-rich investor investor's success can be partly credited to his frugal lifestyle. From a very young age, Buffett was making and investing his money. By the time he was 26 years old, he had already made and saved the modern-day equivalent of more than $1 million. This allowed him to start his own investment partnership, which eventually allowed him to invest in and take control of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A - News). And the rest, as they say, is history!

3. Vision
Most billionaires have a vision of what they think the world will be like in the future -- and how they can capitalize on it. Take Sergey Brin and Larry Page, cofounders of Google (NASDAQ: GOOG - News). They (fittingly) tied for 24th place on the Forbes' 2010 billionaire list, with $17.5 billion each to their names. This pair saw the possibilities for the internet as a tool for opening up the world of information to people, so they started a company, Google, based on a superior search engine that would help this vision become a reality.

Launched in 1998, the company has since become the world's most popular search engine and has radically expanded the internet's scope; the cofounders' wealth has expanded right along with it.

[How Much Money Do You Need to Be Rich?]

4. Risk-Taking
One thing virtually all billionaires have in common is that they are willing to take a leap of faith in their pursuit of success. For some billionaires such as Bill Gates or Lawrence Ellison [software giant Oracle founder (NASDAQ: ORCL - News)], this might be dropping out of college to pursue a business opportunity. But some billionaires have been known to push the stakes even higher -- like George Soros (net worth $14 billion).

This renowned investor and hedge fund manager is known as the man who "broke" the Bank of England by making a multibillion-dollar bet that the British pound would decline in value. It did, earning Soros more than $1 billion in a single day.

5. Patience
Not only do billionaires tend to be able to pounce when the moment's right, they also make patience a habit. After all, sometimes it takes a while for a good idea to pay off.

Ever heard of Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN - News)? It was founded by former Wall Street executive Jeff Bezos in 1994. The now-major company started in Bezos' garage, with only a few employees. Bezos is now the CEO of the largest online retailer in the U.S., with a net worth of $12.3 billion in 2010. However, it took seven years before the company turned a profit, which it eventually did in fourth quarter of 2001. It was a major coup after the dotcom crash, which left many wondering whether an online business model was viable at all. Bezos believed it to be so, and persevered until the world was ready to embrace online shopping.

The Bottom Line
No one said that creating a billion-dollar fortune was easy. In fact, many of the world's billionaires share key qualities such as vision, patience and an incredible fortitude in the face of risk. Luckily, these billionaire habits are tools that are available to everyone, free of charge, and could help you move take a few more steps up your own wealth ladder

http://www.keithlayton.freelife.com/

A post from Brain Tracy,

July 18, 2010

Accepting Yourself Unconditionally
By: Brian Tracy

How Are You Treated By Others?
Self-acceptance begins in infancy, with the influence of your parents and siblings and other important people.

Your own level of self-acceptance is determined largely by how well you feel you are accepted by the important people in your life.

Your attitude toward yourself is determined largely by the attitudes that you think other people have toward you. When you believe that other people think highly of you, your level of self-acceptance and self-esteem goes straight up.

The best way to build a healthy personality involves understanding yourself and your feelings.

Let the Light Shine In
This is achieved through the simple exercise of self-disclosure. For you to truly understand yourself, or to stop being troubled by things that may have happened in your past, you must be able to disclose yourself to at least one person. You have to be able to get those things off your chest. You must rid yourself of those thoughts and feelings by revealing them to someone who won't make you feel guilty or ashamed for what has happened.

"How to Build Rock Solid Self-Confidence and Achieve All of Your Goals" When you develop unshakable self-confidence your whole world will change for the better. I have combined all of the information you'll need to accomplish anything you set your mind to. In my exclusive training kit, you'll learn a number of practical action steps you can take to build immediate feelings of self-confidence. Click for more >>

Understand What Makes You Tick
The second part of personality development follows from self-disclosure, and it's called self-awareness. Only when you can disclose what you're truly thinking and feeling to someone else can you become aware of those thoughts and emotions If the other person simply listens to you without commenting or criticizing, you have the opportunity to become more aware of the person you are and why you do the things you do. You begin to develop perspective, or what the Buddhists call "detachment."

Be Honest With Yourself
Now we come to the good part. After you've gone through self-disclosure to self-awareness, you arrive at self-acceptance. You accept yourself for the person you are, with good points and bad points, with strengths and weaknesses, and with the normal frailties of a human being. When you develop the ability to stand back and look at yourself honestly, and to candidly admit to others that you may not be perfect but you're all you've got, you start to enjoy a heightened sense of self-acceptance.

Do An Inventory of Your Accomplishments
A valuable exercise for developing higher levels of self-acceptance involves doing an inventory of yourself. In doing this inventory, your job is to accentuate the positive and minimize the negative.

Think of your unique talents and abilities. Think of your core skills, the things that you do exceptionally well that account for your success in your profession and in your personal life right now.

Think About Your Future
Think about your future possibilities and the fact that your potential is virtually unlimited. You can do what you want to do and go where you want to go. You can be the person you want to be. You can set large and small goals and make plans and move step-by-step, progressively toward their realization. There are no obstacles to what you can accomplish except the obstacles that you create in your mind.

Action Exercises
Here are three steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action:

First, sit down with your spouse, or a good friend, and tell him or her about something that is troubling you and is still causing you unhappiness.

Second, develop perspective on your problem by standing back from it and imagining that it was happening to someone else. What advice would you give to that person?

Third, think continually about the good experiences and accomplishments you have enjoyed in the past. Remind yourself regularly that you are a pretty good person and you've done a lot of good things in your life.

Retirement problems

This is an article i saw that I feel would be helpful to repost, though it isnt my writting I do have some thoughts on it. Retirement is something we all will face someday, some sooner than others, but in any case it is harder than ever to rely on just a SS income, or a 401K. I know of a woman 70 yrs old who has found the same deal as I am doing and she made $1,200.00 in just 2 wks, There are countless other who have made money even after they have retired. and you dont have to wait to retire to make money I am working with a company that has a some many different ways to help you make the money you need to survive. go to www.keithlayton.freelife.com look up the comp plan, look at the products avail. this could be the most important thing you do. The products are backed by science, clinical studies, so you can be sure you get something that really works.

The money is real, the products work, and this could be the hedge against a dewindlling down of the retire future you thought you had.

The Number One Obstacle to Retirement

DR, On Friday June 18, 2010, 3:16 pm EDT

At first it would seem that the biggest obstacle to retirement is not having enough money. Most people simply don't have enough in the bank to retire comfortably. While that is certainly a big part of the equation, it's just the tip of the iceberg. Why don't many people have enough money to retire? They didn't save enough, of course. But why didn't they save enough? And that brings us to what is, for many, the biggest obstacle to retirement--debt. And the problem isn't just any debt. The problem is non-mortgage debt.

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Non-mortgage debt creates a triple-whammy when it comes to retirement. First, during your working years you have less to save toward retirement because you must make payments on your debt. Second, unlike a mortgage payment that goes toward a home that over the long term goes up in value, consumer debt usually goes to pay for things that have no lasting monetary value. And third, in retirement you need more income because, in addition to your regular monthly expenses, you must keep making payments on the non-mortgage debt you've racked up. As a result, many save less during their working years and need more during retirement.

In a recent study commissioned by Scottrade, for 63 percent of Americans, debt was an impediment to retirement savings in 2009. And 61 percent of Americans expect debt to limit retirement savings in 2010. While there are no easy answers to the problem of debt and retirement, here are some basic strategies that may help you save more and climb out of debt as you work toward your golden years.

1. Stop borrowing. No matter how much consumer debt you have, the absolute most important step is to stop going into more debt. You cannot climb out of the hole until you stop digging.

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2. Save first. While some advocate ridding yourself of all non-mortgage debt before saving for retirement, this strategy can backfire. Not unlike dieting, you may find the discipline to stay out of debt elusive. So like eating your vegetables first, make saving for retirement a priority today. Even if you save just a few dollars a month, the money will grow and you'll begin developing good investing habits. Saving first is particularly important if your employer offers a company match for 401(k) contributions.

3. Scale down your budget. To borrow from dieting again, one of the biggest mistakes we make when trying to lose weight is to go extreme. We count every calorie and significantly restrict the foods we eat. Such extreme strategies rarely work in dieting or money. So rather than counting every penny you spend and denying yourself every indulgence, pick the one or two categories of spending that really cause you to overspend. This may include eating out, buying clothes, or, if you're like me, spending on gadgets. For just these categories, set a reasonable budget and stick to it. You'll find the approach much easier to follow than budgeting every dime you spend, and you'll be more likely to stick with it.

4. Plan for the unexpected. We often go into debt to handle emergency expenses. While we can't guarantee we'll have enough money to handle every situation, saving up an emergency fund in a high interest online savings account reduces the likelihood that an unexpected expense will send us into more debt.

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5. Plan for the expected. As important as planning for an emergency is, we also should be planning for large, anticipated purchases. Whether it's buying your next car, taking a yearly vacation, or paying for a wedding, these big expenses can sink you deep into debt if you are not careful. So rather than letting these big expenses creep up on you, start saving long before you'll need the money.

Saving for retirement isn't easy. If it were, we'd all have enough to retire comfortably. But we can greatly improve our chances of having enough money in retirement if we keep our debt under control.

A Simple Way to Become Wealthy

A Simply Way To Become Wealthy

Ryan Guina, On Tuesday June 15, 2010, 4:23 pm EDT

My first real job was as a junior enlisted member of the United States Air Force. I had great benefits, but as a low ranking enlisted member my take home pay wasn't worth bragging about. I was earning a comfortable living for a 19-year-old, but I didn't think I had enough money to invest. It turns out I was wrong.

A talk with one of my mentors, a senior enlisted member in my squadron, made me rethink the way I viewed investing. During one of our conversations I brought up the topic of investing and mentioned I would like to start in a couple years when I had more money. He listened to me give several excuses why I couldn't invest and then he said something that changed the way I think and act about investing.

He told me saving and investing wasn't hard, you just have to treat it like a bill. He said, "When your paycheck comes in each month, you pay your bills, right?" I nodded. "So treat investing like a bill. If you want to max out your Roth IRA, divide the maximum contribution by 12 and send that amount to your investment account each month. If you want to make it easier, then go to the finance office and set up an automatic allotment from your paycheck and you'll never think about it again."

It turns out he was right. It's not that I didn't have enough money to invest. I just wasn't prioritizing how I used my money. Treating investing like a bill forced me to make investing part of my budget. I followed his advice and set up an automatic withdrawal from my paycheck and I began investing in a Roth IRA. I maxed out my IRA contributions in each of the eleven years following our conversation. That 15 minute conversation literally changed my life and might just make me a millionaire by the time it's all said and done.

This concept of paying yourself first applies to different types of investments as well. Perhaps the most common way to take advantage of automatic investing is through an employer sponsored retirement plans such as a 401(k) plan, 403(b), 457(b), or the Thrift Savings Plan. You can also apply this to savings goals, Roth or Traditional IRAs, or taxable investments. In fact, many brokerage firms will waive account minimums if you agree to fund your account with a minimum contribution each month. Some brokerage firms even offer lower transaction costs with automatic investments.

Here are three reasons you should consider automatic investing.

It's easy. You don't have to remember to do it. Just set it up once and you know it will get done.

There is no emotional barrier. It can be difficult to write a check each month for a future goal when you have current wants you could easily fulfill with those funds. Automatic investing makes it easier to stick to your long term plans.

You don't try to time the market. Market timing is almost always a losing battle. For the average investor, dollar cost averaging can be a great way to avoid market timing and ensure you get your money in the market for a longer period of time. Automatic investing gives you the greatest opportunity to realize the growth of compound interest.

Ryan Guina is a U.S. military veteran, writer, and professional in the corporate world. He blogs at Cash Money Life and Military Finance Network.

My own two sense has to do with following the Dave Ramsey formula, and another very good book to read is "The Richest Man in Babylon"

John Paul Getty Has Said the best way to get rich is to become your OWN BOSS, own your own business. If Direct sales/Network Marketing was avail to him in his time I am sure he would have been involved in some Network marketing Business. Now Even Donald Trump has joined the ranks of us networkers. My Business is FreeLife, I love it, and I think you will too, check it out at www.keithlayton.freelife.com

Taking care of you

Make Small Commitments. Get Big Changes.

By Michael Dalton Johnson

Real and permanent change doesn’t happen by simply resolving to do something. That’s not enough. True change is a slower process. It takes time and self-reflection.

This simple, yet profoundly powerful, advice can gently help you change your life and accelerate your personal growth.

What’s this got to do with sales? Nothing and everything.

Taking Care of You
Drink plenty of water.
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper.
Eat more fruits and vegetables and eat less that is manufactured in processing plants.
Avoid eating food that is handed to you through a window.
Live the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
Play more games.
Read more books than you did in 2009.
Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
Sleep for 7 hours.
Take a 10-30 minute walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

Your Outlook
Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
Don’t have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
Don’t overdo. Keep your limits.
Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
Dream more while you are awake.
Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind others of their past mistakes.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
Learn a new word every day.
Smile and laugh more.
You don’t have to win every argument.

Your Relationships
Call your family often.
Each day give something good to others.
Forgive everyone for everything.
Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
Try to make at least three people smile each day.
What other people think of you is none of your business.
Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Your Life
The worst promise you can break is one made to yourself.
Do the right thing!
Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.
However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
The best is yet to come.
When you awake alive in the morning, thank God for it.
Your Innermost Self is always happy. Follow it.
No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

Keep these rules handy and review them often. Follow them and small, almost imperceptible, changes will accumulate into something big. Your life will change.

5 Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires

Reader's Digest Magazine, on Fri Apr 30, 2010 12:04pm PDT

By Kristyn Kusek Lewis

They’re just like you. But with lots of money.

When you think “millionaire,” what image comes to mind? For many of us, it’s a flashy Wall Street banker type who flies a private jet, collects cars and lives the kind of decadent lifestyle that would make Donald Trump proud.

But many modern millionaires live in middle-class neighborhoods, work full-time and shop in discount stores like the rest of us. What motivates them isn’t material possessions but the choices that money can bring: “For the rich, it’s not about getting more stuff. It’s about having the freedom to make almost any decision you want,” says T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. Wealth means you can send your child to any school or quit a job you don’t like.

According to the Spectrem Wealth Study, an annual survey of America’s wealthy, there are more people living the good life than ever before—the number of millionaires nearly doubled in the last decade. And the rich are getting richer. To make it onto the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, a mere billionaire no longer makes the cut. This year you needed a net worth of at least $1.3 billion.




istockphoto.com

If more people are getting richer than ever, why shouldn’t you be one of them? Here, five people who have at least a million dollars in liquid assets share the secrets that helped them get there.


1. Set your sights on where you’re going
Twenty years ago, Jeff Harris hardly seemed on the road to wealth. He was a college dropout who struggled to support his wife, DeAnn, and three kids, working as a grocery store clerk and at a junkyard where he melted scrap metal alongside convicts. “At times we were so broke that we washed our clothes in the bathtub because we couldn’t afford the Laundromat.” Now he’s a 49-year-old investment advisor and multimillionaire in York, South Carolina.

There was one big reason Jeff pulled ahead of the pack: He always knew he’d be rich. The reality is that 80 percent of Americans worth at least $5 million grew up in middle-class or lesser households, just like Jeff.

Wanting to be wealthy is a crucial first step. Says Eker, “The biggest obstacle to wealth is fear. People are afraid to think big, but if you think small, you’ll only achieve small things.”

It all started for Jeff when he met a stockbroker at a Christmas party. “Talking to him, it felt like discovering fire,” he says. “I started reading books about investing during my breaks at the grocery store, and I began putting $25 a month in a mutual fund.” Next he taught a class at a local community college on investing. His students became his first clients, which led to his investment practice. “There were lots of struggles,” says Jeff, “but what got me through it was believing with all my heart that I would succeed.”

2. Educate yourself
When Steve Maxwell graduated from college, he had an engineering degree and a high-tech job—but he couldn’t balance his checkbook. “I took one finance class in college but dropped it to go on a ski trip,” says the 45-year-old father of three, who lives in Windsor, Colorado. “I actually had to go to my bank and ask them to teach me how to read my statement.”

One of the biggest obstacles to making money is not understanding it: Thousands of us avoid investing because we just don’t get it. But to make money, you must be financially literate. “It bothered me that I didn’t understand this stuff,” says Steve, “so I read books and magazines about money management and investing, and I asked every financial whiz I knew to explain things to me.”

He and his wife started applying the lessons: They made a point to live below their means. They never bought on impulse, always negotiated better deals (on their cars, cable bills, furniture) and stayed in their home long after they could afford a more expensive one. They also put 20 percent of their annual salary into investments.

Within ten years, they were millionaires, and people were coming to Steve for advice. “Someone would say, ‘I need to refinance my house—what should I do?’ A lot of times, I wouldn’t know the answer, but I’d go find it and learn something in the process,” he says.

In 2003, Steve quit his job to become part owner of a company that holds personal finance seminars for employees of corporations like Wal-Mart. He also started going to real estate investment seminars, and it’s paid off: He now owns $30 million worth of investment properties, including apartment complexes, a shopping mall and a quarry.

“I was an engineer who never thought this life was possible, but all it truly takes is a little self-education,” says Steve. “You can do anything once you understand the basics.”

3. Passion pays off
In 1995, Jill Blashack Strahan and her husband were barely making ends meet. Like so many of us, Jill was eager to discover her purpose, so she splurged on a session with a life coach. “When I told her my goal was to make $30,000 a year, she said I was setting the bar too low. I needed to focus on my passion, not on the paycheck.”

Jill, who lives with her son in Alexandria, Minnesota, owned a gift basket company and earned just $15,000 a year. She noticed when she let potential buyers taste the food items, the baskets sold like crazy. Jill thought, Why not sell the food directly to customers in a fun setting?

With $6,000 in savings, a bank loan and a friend’s investment, Jill started packaging gourmet foods in a backyard shed and selling them at taste-testing parties. It wasn’t easy. “I remember sitting outside one day, thinking we were three months behind on our house payment, I had two employees I couldn’t pay, and I ought to get a real job. But then I thought, No, this is your dream. Recommit and get to work.”

She stuck with it, even after her husband died three years later. “I live by the law of abundance, meaning that even when there are challenges in life, I look for the win-win,” she says.

The positive attitude worked: Jill’s backyard company, Tastefully Simple, is now a direct-sales business, with $120 million in sales last year. And Jill was named one of the top 25 female business owners in North America by Fast Company magazine.

According to research by Thomas J. Stanley, author of The Millionaire Mind, over 80 percent of millionaires say they never would have been successful if their vocation wasn’t something they cared about.

4. Grow your money
Most of us know the never-ending cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. “The fastest way to get out of that pattern is to make extra money for the specific purpose of reinvesting in yourself,” says Loral Langemeier, author of The Millionaire Maker. In other words, earmark some money for the sole purpose of investing it in a place where it will grow dramatically—like a business or real estate.

There are endless ways to make extra money for investing—you just have to be willing to do the work. “Everyone has a marketable skill,” says Langemeier. “When I started out, I had a tutoring business, seeing clients in the morning before work and on my lunch break.”

A little moonlighting cash really can grow into a million. Twenty-five years ago, Rick Sikorski dreamed of owning a personal training business. “I rented a tiny studio where I charged $15 an hour,” he says. When money started trickling in, he squirreled it away instead of spending it, putting it all back into the business. Rick’s 400-square-foot studio is now Fitness Together, a franchise based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, with more than 360 locations worldwide. And he’s worth over $40 million.

When extra money rolls in, it’s easy to think, Now I can buy that new TV. But if you want to get rich, you need to pay yourself first, by putting money where it will work hard for you—whether that’s in your retirement fund, a side business or investments like real estate.

5. No guts, no glory
Last summer, Dave Lindahl footed the bill for 18 relatives at a fancy mansion in the Adirondacks. One night, his dad looked out at the scenery and joked, “I can’t believe we used to call you the black sheep!”

At 29, Dave was broke, living in a small apartment near Boston and wondering what to do after ten years in a local rock band. “I looked around and thought, If I don’t do something, I’ll be stuck here forever.”

He started a landscape company, buying his equipment on credit. When business literally froze over that winter, a banker friend asked if he’d like to renovate a foreclosed home. “I’m a terrible carpenter, but I needed the money, so I went to some free seminars at Home Depot and figured it out as I went,” he says.

After a few more renovations, it occurred to him: Why not buy the homes and sell them for profit? He took a risk and bought his first property. Using the proceeds, he bought another, and another. Twelve years later, he owns apartment buildings, worth $143 million, in eight states.

The Biggest Secret? Stop spending.
Every millionaire we spoke to has one thing in common: Not a single one spends needlessly. Real estate investor Dave Lindahl drives a Ford Explorer and says his middle-class neighbors would be shocked to learn how much he’s worth. Fitness mogul Rick Sikorski can’t fathom why anyone would buy bottled water. Steve Maxwell, the finance teacher, looked at a $1.5 million home but decided to buy one for half the price because “a house with double the cost wouldn’t give me double the enjoyment.”