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Here's another sign that it's only getting harder to get to the Millionaire Zone, especially if you're trying to do it on salary alone: The inflation-adjusted income of the median household in 2004 was 3.8% lower than in 1999, according to the Economic Policy Institute's analysis of census data.

The reality of our wages situation, combined with disappearing pensions, higher college costs, and rising health-care costs, is hitting our savings rate hard: Personal savings has been running negative for 16 straight months. How do you get a negative savings rate? By borrowing money or selling assets to support your spending habits.

Now take a look at the returns on your own money. How have you done? Have you handled your savings like millions of others, leaving it in a checking or savings account at, maybe, 3%? Are you among those who, even if you've stashed money aside through your 401(k), didn't carefully choose which funds you're invested in? Is what you're stashing in your retirement account going to get you through retirement? Get your kid to college? Enable you to start that nonprofit you always dreamed of?

Obviously it's important to keep some money invested in low-risk, low-return investments. You want a balanced portfolio and you want to invest according to your risk tolerance. But you also need to consider your future, and decide whether moving yourself closer to the Millionaire Zone requires taking some steps toward higher returns.

% FAST FACTS: Will Your Money Make You Rich? What $10,000 invested 30 years ago would be worth today

Sources: Ibbotson Associates, based on U.S. 30-Day T Bill Index, U.S. Long-Term Government Bond Index, the S&P 500 Index, and the FTSE-NAREIT Equity Index, 1975-2005. REITs, which stands for real-estate investment trusts, invest in income-generating commercial real estate.

A Wake-Up Call Yes, these statistics are depressing. But rather than letting these numbers beat you into submission, consider them a wake-up call. The American dream is still very much attainable. The impact of the economic dislocation our society has undergone in the last twenty years just means we need to change the rules of the game, so that the dream remains ours.

What about turning $5,000 into $1 million? Many have done it, and you'll hear some of their stories in this book.

My experience is that average working Americans are severely disadvantaged. Even if they've dedicated 20 or 30 years of their life to one company, it's unlikely they'll ever create a seven-figure fortune. And many of them seem to know it: 50% of employed Americans surveyed for this book said they are "very" or "somewhat" pessimistic that they will make a lot of money in their lifetime. For most of us, to achieve real financial independence, the only way up is out! The New Millionaires The first key to becoming a millionaire is to believe it's possible for you. Guess what -- it is! Despite all the hurdles we've just discussed that society and corporate America have thrown in front of us in the last few decades, there is plenty of good news out there. In fact, it's probably easier than ever to create your own venture and reach a seven-figure fortune. Just consider how many people do it today.

Why is it that so many more people are millionaires today? Well, thanks to inflation, a million dollars is worth less in relative terms than it was 50 or 100 years ago. But more people are millionaires because the way we make money these days is fundamentally different than it was when Henry Ford started making the cars that fueled his fortune.

For Ford, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and other millionaires of the early part of the twentieth century, creating wealth was all about controlling resources, such as oil, railroads, or manufacturing. Such individuals tended to be older, experienced men of business.

These days, people become millionaires thanks to three important trends. First, the vast advancements in technology mean that today the world truly is flat. Technology allows us to operate globally. Thanks to the Internet, a person in the U.S. can do business in China, right from his garage in Hoboken. Plus, the Internet is teaching people skills they would never have gotten to learn just a few decades ago. Heck, you can do everything from taking a real-estate investment class in the comfort of your home to creating an ad for a product at 10 a.m. and knowing by noon if it's working. And those technological changes also mean the costs of entry are lower, giving the average person a greater chance of starting a business. You can hire someone overseas to build a Web site. You can find someone instantly on the Internet to help you design a brochure -- at a cost you negotiate, based on your online research.