Why Revised Plan

The concept of doubling a penny to over a million dollars is not new. The original idea came from Stuart Goldsmith, who wrote a short report titled "How to Double a Penny to a Million Dollars" (or a Million Pounds, I'm not sure which was the original). A few years ago I wrote my own version of the plan, an article titled "Penny Millions" which was first published by "Millionaire Gift". It contained a few variances from the original plan, which from my experiences I considered to be improvements. Now, with this website and this new project, I have refined it even further, and though it still bears some distant resemblances to the original by Mr. Goldsmith, I believe that this revised plan is far more pragmatic for the average person attempting to implement it.

Allow me to quote a paragraph I've found written about the original plan, and then I'll elaborate upon why I've decided to modify it.

"The first steps are dead easy - a child could do them. Then it gets harder because by the time you get to (say) $50,000 you will be tempted to spend the money! Only the strong survive - the weak cash in early and spend the money on various goodies!"

I don't consider myself to be "weak", as the above quote alludes to those who touch the money before it crosses the million dollar threshold. Rather I considered myself to be pragmatic. As a result I failed following the exact rules of the original plan, but I would consider my personal accomplishments with the spirit of the plan not as a failure but a success.

I believe that it is important to FEEL like a success, and if embarking upon a predetermined path to not set oneself up for failure, but rather to craft the chosen plan in such a way as to assure likely success. Though I consider the original plan by Mr. Goldsmith to be genius I think that there is some room for improvements that would likely work better for the average person.

The main objection that I have with his original plan, that I had begun to fix with my first revision in my original "Penny Millions" article, is that you can't touch any of the money until you have made over a million dollars. In theory this does sound nice, but from my experience and what I would expect in practice for most people (like YOU), I consider this to be too rigid. Truly "only the strong survive", as mentioned in the above quote, but I say why bother when you can metaphorically have your cake and eat it too. I believe that if properly structured you can still achieve the apex of your goal (say of getting to a million dollars) while enjoying the fruits of your labor along the way.

Here are a few reasons I consider the original plan to not be pragmatic for most people, and why the revised plan I am offering is significantly better.

1) Changing the initial target from a Million to a Hundred-Thousand:

I've change the plan here to initially focus on attaining a small fortune of $100,000 rather than a $Million more for psychological reasons than anything else. After attaining the goal of getting to $100K THEN one can change one's focus to going for a $Million. I'm not taking away the possibility of getting to a $Million by following this plan, in fact I believe that I'm making it easier to do so!

Though you might be an exception to this statement, most people have a subconscious limitation that would initially prevent them from getting to a million dollars. I won't elaborate upon them here, but in short most people have various subconscious beliefs that would sabotage them from attaining the $Million because they perhaps don't believe that they are worthy/smart enough/ambitious enough/or whatever to have/achieve a million dollars, and/or they don't BELIEVE that it is even possible for themselves to do so, and/or there can literally be a ton of other similar unconscious beliefs that ultimately yield the same result of preventing one from even getting there.

A Million Dollars also mentally seems like a far distance off, whereas a smaller sum of $100,000, though still considered "large" by most people, does seem a lot closer to the realm of possibility. Unless you are already a multi-millionaire, in which case you probably aren't that interested in the Penny Millions plan anyhow, a $100,000 is still a desirable fortune to attain... and once you attain this smaller amount something will magically click in the depths of your mind such that then a Million Dollars will seem much more realistic for you.

In summary, the smaller initial fortune of $100,000 is a lot more believable for most people, thus more likely for them to attain the goal. The "magical click" will then happen naturally at which time you then raise your sights upon the higher goal of getting to a $Million dollars that, by the way, is now just a single step away! The bottom line is that ultimately you can still go for the $Million, but doing it this way makes it mentally a whole lot easier.

2) Having an income along the way:

The original plan forbids you form touching any of the money until after you have reached the final goal of getting to step #28 where you have over a Million Dollars. This sounds nice in theory, but in practice really is quite hard for several reasons. However just taking money from your game in an undisciplined way will also lead to having your project crumble apart. I've created a way to have structure in how you draw out money from your project in such a way that it will ensure the continuance of your Penny Millions game while allowing you to have access to the money for practical, and even pleasurable purposes. There are several reasons why I consider this modification to be important, but I'll focus on just a couple.

You are probably attracted to the Penny Millions concept because ultimately in some way you desire to have more money. Regardless of what your specific reason is you likely feel the need to have more money, an income, and have it NOW rather than waiting an undetermined amount of time to have it. In general most people have a certain impatience. You have debts and bills to pay.. By getting an income you will feel some relief from those financial pressures, and this brings me to the next point.

Psychologically, if you get a reward you are more likely to continue doing whatever it was that got you that reward. Think of a dog or a child. Give it a treat for a certain behavior and it will naturally continue doing that. By having a monthly income from the Penny Millions plan I believe that you will enjoy the reward, but the important point is that it will encourage you to continue growing your money in the game so that next month you get another "reward", and you'll desire that your "reward" become even bigger. Without the monthly income you won't FEEL the benefit of following the strategy, and thus you'll likely give up sooner or later while you divert your attention to other things, such as making more money elsewhere. Thus generating an income will likely reinforce your personal DESIRE to continue working on the plan, making it far more likely that you will succeed.

Another way to think about it is to look at how we typically treat any income. Most people who have a job get a pay check on a regular basis. Generally the crappier the job the more frequent the pay checks (weekly) to keep you encouraged to do the job. Those with better jobs tend to get paid every two weeks or even monthly as they are probably happier with their jobs (and I guess less likely to quit). Let's say that you had a job that would only pay you once a year. Aside from the fact that you'd probably not be able to pay all your monthly bills on time, you'd also lose focus of why you are doing the job, thus likely to become less productive at work, and perhaps even quit. It is the pay check that is the proverbial carrot that leads people to wake up early every day to go to a job they don't really like. By structuring an income into the Penny Millions strategy we now have that psychological carrot directing us towards success.

This final reason is really only for when you get into the higher steps, the larger amounts between $100,000 to over a $Million. You are encouraged to treat your Penny Millions Game as a part-time sideline to your main source of income (presumably your job), and while you are in the stages of dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars it is still possible to keep your Penny Millions activities to a "part-time" level, however when you reach this stage of your game you might begin to find it taking more of your time, perhaps even being a full-time business for you. If you were to have started a full-time business you probably would have to quit your old job to dedicate your attention to managing your business, and not being paid during this time would be ridiculous, especially if you have debts, bills to pay, kids to feed, and want to take in some relaxing entertainment (like going to the movies or a much needed vacation). Paying yourself, as any responsible business owner would do, is important, otherwise you'd have to abandon your Penny Millions project while supporting yourself at a lower paying J.O.B.

3) Blending the plan to personal situation:

I've created the "Universal Success Plan", my version of the Penny Millions plan, with the expectation that it will work for the broadest amount of people. Generally I don't believe in the "one-size-fits-all" philosophy, and though overall I think the main plan I've presented will be pragmatic for most people, I have also drafted a few other specialized plans which you might choose to follow instead, along with giving some guidelines on developing your own custom strategy if you prefer.

The most significant element is the concept to use your Penny Millions income (as discussed in point 2 above) to first straighten out your current financial situation. Most people have debts, some larger than others, but while swimming in a pool of consumer debts it is difficult to break free from the rat race, being financially free. That is why I also provide a simple yet effective strategy for paying off all debts, and encourage you to use the initial Penny Millions income to take care of them first. Depending upon your personal debt load, and the speed which you grow through your game, it can take a shorter or longer time to accomplish than others following the Penny Millions plan, but remember you aren't competing against others working on their own projects, you are just doing this for yourself, and however long it takes it is a worthwhile endeavor.

As mentioned above, I also drafted variations to the Penny Millions strategies to accommodate your own personal goals and aspirations. If you're primary objective is to be debt free, or financially free (which is different than being debt free), buy a house, buy a car or some other desired object, or whether you have some other objective in mind, you can customize the Penny Millions strategy to achieve those ambitions. This plan is not rigid, and you can accomplish whatever you wish as your predetermined goal when you start your personal Penny Millions game.

4) Abandoned "Doubling" Model:

The original plan focuses on doubling, going from one cent to 2 cents to 4 cents to 8 cents so on and so forth. After much internal debating I have decided to abandon the "doubling" concept in exchange for another model, although they do still have similarities. In short, rather than placing your focus on achieving doubles the new method focus on increases by factors of 10. Thus step one is still 1 cent, but now step 2 is 10 cents, step 3 is a dollar, step 4 is $10, step 5 is $100, and so on. The concept of doubling is certainly useful, and you may still choose to follow that idea, though I found it better to follow this new method for a number of reasons.

The advantage of the original method is that there are more smaller steps, and by focusing your mind on attaining the next step you are easily able to attain it, and thus have more frequent celebrations of your successes. In the new plan you have less frequent milestones, but their achievement is much more significant.

Two of the problems with the original is that you focus your mind on too small of a goal, at least initially, and it is rare that you will actually land on the exact numbers of those steps. Business transactions tend to be more fluid, it will often take you a few deals to get to the next steps, and usually when you get to the next step you haven't landed precisely on it, but overshot it a bit. For example, you'll rarely go directly from say $10 to $20. You'll probably start at $10.27, go to $12.52, then $17.18, then $22.94, or something similar. Though the steps can still be considered as milestones, as they are perceived in the new plan, I found that they still limited my growth more for mental reasons.

In the new plan the steps are larger, and they are milestones to be striving towards. By allowing for larger leaps your mind will tend to think in different ways. What you focus your mind on will direct the results, and I find that by looking at a larger goal your mind will come up with different ideas to attain that bigger objective, thus helping you to grow faster. If for no other reason I think this revised system of steps should be beneficial because you are going after a mentally bigger goal.