5 Money Advice Millennials Can Learn From The World’s Richest Man

One of the most striking characteristics of the world’s richest man is that he is able to retain the top spot across different generations of spending habits. While he himself is not a millennial, he has kept the top spot at a time where more and more Americans are in debt. Here are some things that you can learn from him:

Invest in Your Education

With a net worth of over $79 billion, Gates is the world’s wealthiest man

Bill Gates might be remembered as that kid who dropped out of Harvard to start his own company and would later on rise to be the richest man in the world at an early age. However, when he was asked as to what his best personal financial advice for most people would be, his answer was “invest in your education.”

More and more millennials are opting to go for student loans to fund their education and while this might cost you a lot, do not get intimidated. If the richest man himself thinks that this is the best investment that one could make then you could never go wrong.

“Success is a Lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they cannot lose”

While being worth over $79 billion, it looks like the world’s richest man is not a big fan of success when it comes to bringing out the best in an individual. Gates once said that success does not happen overnight and that nobody in the world can win millions in an instant. Regardless of what financial problem you might be dealing with, it is always important to keep persevering.

Seeing rants about students loans, mortgage loans, housing loans and the likes are not new at all. While it looks like people are deep in debt, they should see this as an opportunity to learn. Meeting financial and personal goals despite seemingly impossible circumstances has been done over and over again and you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

Do Not Be Intimidated by Criticisms

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You know how it is nowadays. Get into a transaction with someone, get a bad day at work or just be yourself, and the criticisms will be all over. If you get lucky enough, you might even go viral for something which was not outright rude. Criticisms are in every nook and cranny nowadays but taking the advice of Bill Gates, he says that you should embrace these.

In his 1999 book entitled “Business @ the Speed of Thought,” he wrote about how you should even value negative feedback. He says that this can be your tool not only to learn, but also to find solutions for emerging problems.

Follow Your Passion

The path towards doing what you really want to do might be rough. With society’s needs evolving and with more challenges than ever, it has become harder and harder for this generation to follow what they love. There might not always be opportunities for you to pursue your dreams, but Gates says that you should keep pushing.

Gates says that your passion is the most likely thing that would lead you to success. While doing something you love might mean that you will not be rich right away, your passion will give you a sense of purpose which can inspire you to keep pushing until you get successful.

Keep Track of Your Progress

Founder and Chairman of Microsoft Bill Gates holding a copy of Business Adventures by John Brooks.

Gates earlier wrote something about a book he was reading entitled “The Most Powerful Idea in the World.” This was the invention of the steam engine, which Gates drew an important lesson from.  There, he talked about how struck he was about how important progress measurement is for improving the human condition. He says that you can achieve amazing progress if you set a clear goal and if you can find a measure that will drive progress towards reaching that goal.

This may look like basic advice, but Gates said that he was amazed at how seldom it was followed and how even harder it was to get it right. There are a lot of ways to keep track of your progress nowadays and just a simple list on pen and paper can already take you places.

These words of advice might look pretty ordinary. You might even think that you already knew all these, but these would not make Bill Gates who he is for no reason. What do you think of these words of advice? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.