Smorgasbord Posts from Your Archives 2020 – Live like a #Millionaire by Sharon Marchisello

Welcome to the current series of Posts from Your Archives in 2020 and if you would like to participate with two of your posts from 2019, you will find all the details in this post: New series of Posts from Your Archives 20

This is the second post from author and financial expert Sharon Marchisello, and this week Sharon offers her top tips for building up your assets over time to provide you with the financial security we all wish for in our lives.

Live Like a Millionaire

Most millionaires don’t amass their fortunes overnight. Of course, there are exceptions: lottery winners, beneficiaries of a huge inheritance, business owners whose products rocket to instant stardom.

Adjusting to sudden wealth brings its own set of problems—especially how to keep it—but that’s the subject of another post.

More common are the millionaires who earned their money slowly, by practicing healthy financial habits all their lives. They might live or work alongside you, á la The Millionaire Next Door. They reside in modest houses, drive practical cars, shop at discount stores. By living below their means, spending and investing wisely, they’ve gradually built up their wealth. By continuing to live below their means, spend and invest wisely, they’re able to hang onto their wealth.

Some have-nots believe living like a millionaire means owning the biggest mansion on the block, driving an expensive sports car, wearing designer clothes and flashy jewelry, over-tipping, showering friends and relatives and acquaintances with gifts, never comparing prices or caring how much anything costs. But if you keep spending more than you’re bringing in, you won’t stay a millionaire for long.

Here are some habits that will help you build wealth and keep it:

1. Always pay your bills on time.
2. Keep debt low and use credit to your advantage.
3. Never spend more than you earn.
4. Save a portion of your income each month. Treat saving like another bill, i.e., pay yourself first.
5. Comparison shop. Never pay more for a product or service than you have to.
6. Don’t spend money on junk you don’t really need or want.
7. Don’t be wasteful.
8. Plan for contingencies.
9. Let your money work for you.

Like losing weight, building wealth can be a slow, gradual process. But by following a plan and developing healthy, lifelong habits, you’ll continue to make progress toward your goal.

What are your suggestions for building wealth? I’d love to hear your comments.

For more saving and investment tips read Live Well, Grow Wealth.

©Sharon Marchisello 2019

Sharon Marchisello recently released her new crime mystery novel Secrets of the Galapagos…

About the book

Shattered by a broken engagement and a business venture derailed by Jerome Haddad, her unscrupulous partner, Giovanna Rogers goes on a luxury Galapagos cruise with her grandmother to decompress.

At least that’s what her grandmother thinks. Giovanna is determined to make Jerome pay for what he’s done, and she has a tip he’s headed for the Galapagos.

While snorkeling in Gardner Bay off the coast of Española Island, Giovanna and another cruise passenger, tortoise researcher Laurel Pardo, both become separated from the group and Laurel is left behind. No one on the ship will acknowledge Laurel is missing, and Giovanna suspects a cover-up.

When the police come on board to investigate a death, Giovanna is sure the victim is Laurel. She’s anxious to give her testimony to the attractive local detective assigned to the case. Instead, she learns someone else is dead, and she’s a person of interest.

Resolved to keep searching for Laurel and make sense of her disappearance, Giovanna finds that several people on board the cruise ship have reasons to want Laurel gone. One is a scam involving Tio Armando, the famous Galapagos giant tortoise and a major tourist attraction in the archipelago. And Jerome Haddad has a hand in it. Thinking she’s the cat in this game, Giovanna gets too involved and becomes the mouse, putting her life in jeopardy. But if she doesn’t stop him, Jerome will go on to ruin others.

One of the recent reviews for the book.

Busy Guy in Peachtree City – 5.0 out of 5 stars  Mystery, romance, and blood-stirring adventure  Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2020

In Secrets of the Galapagos, Sharon Marchisello has masterfully blended mystery, romance, and blood-stirring adventure. Her spunky heroine successfully fights off danger and fear to overcome obstacles that fall or are placed in her path –encounter with a shark while snorkeling, the arrival at the islands of someone who destroyed her business, a murder, and a kidnapping. Ms Marchisello’s characters, including the minor players, are fully three-dimensional. The seeming hardness of the heroine is tempered by flirtation with the police officer who investigates a disappearance and then, a murder. Secrets of the Galapagos is a perfect read for both a sunny beach and a cold, rainy winter day.

Buy the book: Amazon US

And: Amazon UK

Other books by Sharon Marchisello

Read the reviews and buy the book: Amazon US – 

and: Amazon UK – 

Read other reviews and follow Sharon: Goodreads

About Sharon Marchisello

Sharon Marchisello is the author of two mysteries published by Sunbury Press, Going Home (2014) and Secrets of the Galapagos (2019). She is an active member of Sisters in Crime.

She contributed short stories to anthologies Shhhh…Murder! (Darkhouse Books, 2018) and Finally Home (Bienvenue Press, 2019). Her personal finance book Live Well, Grow Wealth was originally published as Live Cheaply, Be Happy, Grow Wealthy, an e-book on Smashwords. Sharon has published travel articles, book reviews, and corporate training manuals, and she writes a personal finance blog called Countdown to Financial Fitness.

She grew up in Tyler, Texas, and earned her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Houston in French and English. She studied for a year in Tours, France, on a Rotary scholarship and then moved to Los Angeles to pursue her Masters in Professional Writing at the University of Southern California.

Retired from a 27-year career with Delta Air Lines, she lives in Peachtree City, Georgia, doing volunteer work for the Fayette Humane Society and the Fayette County Master Gardeners UGA Extension.

Connect to Sharon

Blogspot: Sharon Blogspot
Blog WordPress: Sharon Marchisello
Facebook: S.L Marchisello
Facebook: Live Cheaply Be Happy
Twitter: @SLMarchisello

Thank you for dropping in and as always your feedback is very welcome thanks Sally.