If your plan to get rich involves dating eligible millionaires or regularly buying lottery tickets, you could be employing more effective wealth-building strategies. Though hanging out at polo matches and loitering in lucky convenience stores might be fun, there are better sure-fire ways to get rich.Anyone can take steps to make themselves wealthier, no matter their income. In fact, working hard to build wealth and financial freedom is much more likely to pay off in the long run than trying to marry rich.

But first you have to define financial freedom. Are you likely to join the ranks of the superrich with a fleet of European sports cars at your disposal and a haute couture designer on speed dial? Probably not. Keep buying the lottery tickets for a chance to realize that dream.

But, can you achieve financial freedom and never need to worry about money? That dream is likely within the grasp of your hard-working mitts. You could try to improve your financial literacye and read this book. Then,take charge of your destiny by following these five simple steps.

1. Commit to your financial goals. Financial goals can't be an afterthought, or your efforts are likely to fail. To succeed at anything, you have to make it a priority in your life. If you're not clear on your commitment, other things will always get in the way. Making the commitment is crucial -- and you'll know when you've cemented it into your brain. A commitment is easy to judge. You know what you're committed to financially. Simply look at your results. Those who commit to being comfortable financially will have greater freedom in their later life. Those who commit to always looking great now will have a wardrobe full of fabulous clothes. As with everything, it's all about the choices you make.

2. Make a budget or spending plan. Get a handle on your cash outflow by tracking expenses. That means writing down every single thing you spend money on for about three months. Call it a spending plan initially. After that you can frame it as traditional budgeting, in which you allow a certain amount of money for each of your spending categories, including long-term savings and emergency savings for example. Or you can think of it as a reflection of your values. You ask yourself two questions: 'Is this congruent with what I really want in life? Is it taking me to my highest and most important goals?' And the second question is, 'Am I getting the best value for this expense?'".

3. Tackle credit card debt. It is among the most expensive kind to carry from month to month, second to pay day loans.To dig yourself out of debt, investigate options for getting your interest rates reduced, whether through negotiation with your current company or with a new card and an inexpensive balance transfer.Though consumers aren't bombarded by balance transfer offers as often as they once were, they haven't ceased to exist. Do the math to see if paying a 3 percent balance transfer fee -- likely with no cap -- will save you money in the long run. Once you get rates negotiated as low as you can, really concentrate your payments on the highest interest debt you have first. Pay minimums on everything else and pay every last cent on the biggest one or the highest interest rate one first.

4. Save your money. You will never be rich if you spend all your money. Even if you don't spend more than you make, if you don't save a penny you'll always be treading water.To have money to save means living beneath your means or increasing your income. You can find innumerable ways to shave a few dollars off of expenses, such as buying generic, going with conventionally grown produce rather than organic or even eating a few vegetarian meals every week to save the extra dollars.

5. Know when to cut your losses. Once savings turn into investments, people become subject to all kinds of irrational investing psychology. One of those is throwing good money after bad.Outside the realm of investing in the market, it's possible to make mistakes just by following the crowd. For instance, tapping equity from your home became the thing to do during the refinancing boom of a few years ago. It's a mistake that's better recognized sooner than later.Try to avoid mistakes in the first place by thoroughly investigating any investments, big financial transactions or advisers before jumping in.Stick to your financial plan and you'll achieve your goals in the long run.

Lucky number 7: there's something about that number! But, if you follow the seven guidelines below on executing external marketing strategies, your success will have nothing to do with luck and everything to do with excellent planning and execution.

1. Know your target audience. If you are promoting family dentistry, target women. Your piece should have images of women, families, and children. Whoever your target audience is, make sure your piece reflects that.

2. Repeat your message five times. It takes a person 5-7 times of seeing and/or hearing a message to act on it. In advertising, this means your advertisement needs to be seen 5 - 7 times before someone will act. If you are sending out a direct mail piece, the exact same piece needs to be mailed to your target audience at least 5 times. If you are in a monthly magazine, make sure the ad runs long enough so that the average reader will see it 5 to 7 times.

3. Content should be "you" focused. You have six seconds to capture someone's attention.   To capture someone's attention you need to focus the content on them. So gear the content towards the potential patient. Instead of writing, "We will try to make your visit as comfortable as possible," try saying, "Your visit will be made as comfortable as possible." The content is now talking about the patient's experience as opposed to what the team is going to "try" to do.

4. Include an action statement. People need to be told to contact you or they won't. Statements such as "Call Today" or "Visit our Website" tell people what they need to do next. They are common statements and that's because they work!

5. Include a limited time only offer. An offer on your services entices someone to make a decision today as opposed to putting it off to another day.

6. Consistency. Make sure your advertising pieces are consistent with your overall brand and image. When a potential patient receives your direct mail piece or sees your advertisement in a magazine the first place they typically go is to your website. If the look and feel of the site is in stark contrast to your marketing piece, they may feel confused and unsure if they are even in the right place.

7. Tracking. Make sure you track your marketing efforts. You should be tracking by looking at your website analytics and through tracking all inbound phone calls through a tracking log (contact Jameson for your copy). The website will tell you if the marketing efforts are driving traffic to your site. The tracking of phone calls will tell you the referral source, if they scheduled an appointment, if they showed up to the appointment, how much treatment was diagnosed, and how much was accepted. This information will highlight potential changes you need to make in your marketing systems and efforts.