Everyone’s definition of rich is different. What does being rich mean to you? I want to achieve financial independence. Financial independence is akin to having “fuck you” money - that is to say, I would like to have enough money so that if my fiance or my son became seriously ill, I would never have to work again and hospital bills would be covered. This does not mean that I would want to buy a mansion or buy an exotic car. I estimate that I’ll need to have a net worth of at least 3-5 million dollars.

I believe that a lot of entrepreneurs feel this way. I think that most entrepreneurs want enough money to live a lifestyle working on projects that they are most passionate about.

I have included some of my favorite articles by successful entrepreneurs:

Mark Cuban - How to Get Rich: Mark writes that there isn’t a template to get there, but that change and uncertainty are good times to start your journey. His first point is that you need to save as much money as you can. Stop buying stupid shit. The idea being that you need to save for when you need the cash. His second point is that you should invest in knowledge. Read everything you can about the business that interests you. He states that the journey will take years. This is one of my favorite articles.

Jason Baptiste - How to Become a Millionaire in Three Years: Jason gives little nuggets of advice in this article. Some of my favorite: Be an unrelenting machine, focus on the first $10k, be a master of information, and don’t get comfortable.

Paul Graham - Wealth: If you’re not familiar with Paul’s essays, you need to go back and read them all. They truly are invaluable. Paul’s main premise is that you can become wealthy by creating a startup. If you compress most of what a normal person works in their life into a few years, you might be able to achieve success. One could say Paul is biased since he runs Ycombinator, a startup incubator, but I believe that Paul is writing sincerely from his experience. His other point is that you want wealth, not money. Money is just a medium of exchange to achieve wealth. Entrepreneurs create wealth. You need both measurement and leverage to be successful. This essay might be the most valuable one listed.

Ken Rockwell - How to Afford Anything: I really enjoyed this article. However, this article is more in line with Mark Cuban’s line of reasoning, in that you need to start out frugal. Some of my favorite points: don’t worry about what you own, avoid addiction (TV), and the poor man pays twice.

Ryan Waggoner - How to Retire at 30 on $1 Million Dollars: Ryan wrote this article to refute Tony Wright’s article: You Can’t Retire Rich at 30 if You Sell Your Startup. Ryan’s whole point is that commercial real estate can be a lucrative money maker. You just have to know what you’re doing.

Paul Buchheit - What to Do With Your Millions: Paul created Gmail. This is a bonus link. Just in case you’ve followed all of this other great advice and have hit this point.

Any articles related to wealth or money that I haven’t listed that you like?

If you enjoyed this, you may enjoy:

1) How Gurbaksh Chahal Made Over $100 Million Dollars

2) The Sport of Business

3) Admirable Simplicity

Follow me on Twitter: @jprichardson

-JP