How Hard is it to Become a Millionaire in Today's Recessive Economy?

It has always been a challenge to become a millionaire in the United States or abroad. But with the economic downturn, is it still possible?

First of all, by millionaire I mean someone with assets in excess of $1 million. This means that you would need to draw a salary of $2739.72 every day for the next year-and not spend a dime of it-to become a millionaire within one year.

Of course, this is a pretty substantial challenge. Most of us don't earn that much per day. If you are nice to yourself, however, and give yourself two years to meet your goal of millionaire status, watch what happens: you now only need to bring in and save $1370 each day for the next two years.

Still a daunting task for many of us. This is why passive income, such as interest, investment dividends, and web site revenues is an important part of reaching the millionaire's club.

You are simply limited by the amount of time you have to work - you can only put in so many hours per day and so many days per year. Your wealth is tied to your salary and your frequency of work.

Now consider, however, that you own a cleaning business (this is just an example). You would need to clean $1370 worth of carpets or rooms each day to become a millionaire in two years. You simply cannot do that much work per day, though. So you hire four employees and grow your cleaning company-let them do the work for you.

After their salaries and benefits, each employee only needs to bring you $342.46 of profits per day for you to become a millionaire in two years. Branch out and hire four more employees and that number comes out to just $171 in profit per day for each employee you have.

What once seemed "impossible" now seems entirely possible, if not outright mundane! I hope this example gives you some ideas of how millionaires are truly made. You cannot usually become a millionaire through your own effort, unless your salary is extraordinarily high (such as NBA players, A-list actors, sought-after doctors and lawyers, etc.)

Unless you are already drawing a huge professional salary, it makes far more sense to be entrepreneurial-to get others to work for you. Create a company that does a needed service and provide service to an area that is actively looking for it. Treat your employees right, but keep costs and overhead as low as humanly possible so you can become a millionaire in around two years.

You may reach it a little sooner than two years because interest will begin to kick in, helping you along. Once you have made $500,000, for example, you could easily make around $15,000 per year in interest from your bank alone! (This example assumes you use an online savings account with an annual percentage yield, or APY, of approximately 3.00%)

As you become wealthier, it becomes easier to accrue even more wealth! Not fair, perhaps, but just the way it is. So get excited about your new goal because $171 per day per employee is an entirely reasonable benchmark to meet.