You can be a millionaire.

Steve Martin once did the following bit on SNL:

You can be a millionaire and never pay taxes!
You say, “Steve! How can I be a millionaire and never pay taxes?”
First, get a million dollars.
Now, you say, “Steve, what do I say to the tax man when he comes to my door and says, ‘You have never paid taxes’?”
Two simple words. Two simple words in the English language: “I forgot!”

Funny guy, that Steve Martin but funny don't get you money. Well, actually, in his case, it got him a lot of money but that's not important.

What is important is that you need to spend money to make money. Whether it's starting your own business or investing in someone else's, it's going to cost you money. But that's okay because you spend money all the time on crap you don't need or no longer have.

Let's take the iPhone for example:

The original Apple iPhone debuted on June 29, 2007 for a retail price of $499.
On that date, Apple stock was selling for $4.50 per share.
In 2014, Apple issued a 7-1 stock split and in 2020, Apple issued a 4-1 stock split.

A $500 purchase of Apple stock on June 29, 2007 would purchase 111 shares of stock.
The 7-1 split resulted in those 111 shares becoming 777 shares.
The 4-1 split resulted in those 777 shares becoming 3,108 shares.

Today, Apple stock is selling for $113 per share.

If on June 29, 2007 you bought an original iPhone for $500, you would no longer have either the iPhone or the $500.

If on June 29, 2007 you bought $500 worth of Apple stock instead of the iPhone, you would now have $351,000 worth of Apple stock and a brand new iPhoneWhatever that you paid for using the dividends issued by Apple over the years.

I don't know about you, but I would rather have $350,000 and a brand new iPhone than the memories of being the fanciest guy on the block back in 2007.

You don't get rich by buying gadgets, you get rich by investing in the companies that sell the gadgets.

Oh, and for the record, you can get really poor by investing in stocks. In 1999, Viacom took Blockbuster public at $18 per share. If you had invested $100,000 in Blockbuster back then, it would work nothing right now. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis.

The problem is all of the so-called "investment wizards" said Blockbuster was a hell of a good investment and there was no downside to the business of renting DVDs and video tapes.

I guess Netflix proved those experts wrong...

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I'm going to put some DVRs on and fall asleep now.

You can do whatever you want.

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• This just keeps getting better and better.