There are more than seven million millionaires in the USA. What do they have that you do not? They have a plan. They know exactly how much they have today and they have a plan for how much they will have tomorrow, next year, and the next ten years.

Your plan needs to include the following:

Get out of debt. Start by making a commitment to yourself not to take on any new debt. Make a list of your debts. In one column show the total amount owed. In the next column show the monthly payment. Order the list by the lowest debt first. Take every extra penny every month and pay it to the first debt while making the minimum payments to the rest. When the first debt is paid off take all the money you were paying the first debt add it to the minimum payment for the second debt and send it in until the second debt is paid off. Keep going until you are out of debt. This snowball effect will get you out a lot faster than you think.

Get a higher paying job or take a second job. (I did not say that this would be easy.)

Cut out unnecessary expenses like premium channels, fastest broadband, expensive trips, eating out all the time, etc.

Once you are out of debt set up an automatic deposit for the amount you were paying to creditors to go directly into an investment account. Invest in solid, large, no load mutual funds. The growth rate of making a large deposit every month into an account that will average 12% over the long run will amaze you.

Now that your nest egg is growing, and growing fast, decide how much you need to live on. Do not guess. Do not even use fancy calculators. Look at what you have to pay each month. Include an amount for health insurance, (and do not guess at this either, do the research), include an amount for entertainment. Try living on this amount, minus the insurance payment, for six months and see what adjustments you may need.

Once you have a good number, determine the size of the nest egg you will need to generate that much money each month at a low return. Use the Prime interest rate here. This is incredibly low true, but you want to start to shift your money into guaranteed return accounts as you get closer to leaving the rat race. You should also consider the advantage of going over your goal by 10% so that you can continue to grow your nest egg.

Hard work? Yes. Takes a long time? Not as long as you think. Worth it? Only you can answer that.