People who identify themselves as middle class have what they believe are viable asset strategies. Their traditional approach to investing involves all the investing approaches we've come to know and love over the years: buy a house; invest in the stock market; buy a few mutual funds; and shove a bunch of money into a Roth IRA "for retirement."

Unfortunately, this type of strategy isn't as safe, and certainly isn't as lucrative as the typical middle class person is led to believe. With the housing boom of the past 10-15 years, many of these people have become poor millionaires, and most of these don't even know that they're millionaires.

They have what I call "lazy assets." That is, the assets they own aren't doing anything in particular for them. The IRA or 401(k) rises or falls with the whims of the market, although over the long haul the funds might have a net gain of 8-10%. They have several hundred thousand dollars net value in their homes, but wouldn't know what to do with the cash if they had it in hand. And, mutual funds are... well, mutual funds. You're lucky to get a few percentage point increase on any mutual fund these days.

Middle-class investment strategies won't build you a multi-million dollar portfolio. They're simply not designed to create wealth, but are instead designed to create security, or what I would call a false sense of security. As we've seen with the crash of certain tech stocks, or even companies like Enron, you can't rely on your tried and true stocks to pull you through.

The concern as I see it is that this type of investing can keep people from living the kinds of lives they want until "retirement." What a shame. Why not live the kind of life you want today, instead of saving it all for a time when you're less able to use the money in a more satisfying way?

These cash-poor millionaires live month-to-month in the same endless cycle of make-spend-make-spend as someone working at a fast food restaurant (although they may have nicer toys). When they do cash out some of the equity in their homes, they generally use the money to upgrade the house, buy a new car, send the kids to college, or go on a long, expensive vacation. They end up in the same make-spend-make-spend cycle.

Does this cycle sound familiar to you?

Your thinking will have to change if you want to increase your overall worth in the short term. Creating a multi-million dollar portfolio in the short term (typically 3-5 years for people I work with) involves working with coaches, having clear wealth-building rules, and great partners in the field. It also involves changing your psychology (thinking). Increasing your flow of money involves more than simply making more money.

You need to stop investing in under performing, non-producing assets and start creating more millionaire-making assets. Millionaire-making assets are those that:

- Provide investors with higher-than-market returns
- Allow investors to hedge their risk
- Optimize investors' energy, efforts, and money

These kinds of assets allow you to generate cash and grow your overall worth simultaneously, instead of one or the other, as with traditional middle class investment strategies. For example, by pursuing assets that provide a higher-than-market return, you'll increase your net worth while infusing your account with more cash to purchase additional assets.

This cycle of creating cash to buy assets to create more cash to buy more assets is part of the Cycle of the Wealthy I describe in my first book, The Millionaire Maker. You can't do this by putting your money into pensions, IRA's, mutual funds, or your primary residence.

What keeps many people from investing in millionaire-making assets is what they claim as the high risk of such investments. They wonder, "What if I lose everything?" What I tell my clients and what I emphasize in my books is that risk is only your failure to educate yourself about an opportunity.

In other words, by taking the time to educate yourself about an opportunity, even if you're told it's a high-risk chance, such as oil and gas, you are actually reducing your risk to less than that of typical passive stock market investing. With a little education and the right information, you'll know how to invest in millionaire-making assets and make your money work for you. These are your real asset strategies.