The seeds for Millionaire Down the Road were planted when my father, Rankin Hodgins, decided to write down some of his life and investment lessons learned in a short, self-published booklet titled: My Way. More about that in a second. First, Id like to tell you a story.

My father Rankin is an ordinary guy from the Prairies who did extraordinarily well in the stock market. His investment track record is surprisingly strong, and its better than many professional mutual fund managers. To achieve his success he used a few simple strategies that anyone can use to build wealth over the long term by investing in stocks.

Dads success hasnt gone unnoticed. His life story and track record as an investor  somehow caught the interest of the national press, and a journalist from the National Post newspaper came to his hometown of Lethbridge, Alberta Canada to interview him for a featured article a few years ago.

The article went into great depth about his tax-optimized investment strategies that focused on investing in high quality companies with growing dividend yields, holding them for the long term, leveraging the returns by taking out an investment loan (optional), and using the dividend to pay off the interest on the investment loan.

Dads numbers in terms of compound annual gains, dividend income, and taxes deferred and saved are through the roof. He has kept meticulous investment and net worth records on paper since the 1940s, and thanks to this painstaking record keeping on ordinary green accounting paper we have rich records weve used to analyze his performance over time. The track record really is extraordinary, and through the Millionaire Down the Road free newsletter I share the simple investment strategies Dad has used to build his portfolio slowly but surely over time.

Until the market meltdown in 2008, Dads compound annual gain over 30 years of investing was a staggering 16%. After the 2008 market crash he was forced to pull in his horns a bit and reduce the size of his investment loan to decrease his overall portfolio risk. Thanks to the lessons learned from the market meltdown we have now arrived at an optimum tax-optimized investment program that better reflects peoples emotional tolerance for the downside. I go into much more detail about Dads investment strategies in my free newsletter, Millionaire Down the Road. More about that later, but first, a story about Dad. Lets go back a ways to understand how my Dad came to be the person he is today.

Dad grew up on a farm in rural Saskatchewan, Canada a province with deep prairie pride and roots. He grew up during the Great Depression, and during that time his family was barely able to make ends meet. There were some very tough years where they werent sure they were going to make it. But they persevered, and after a few focused years they were finally able to get back on their feet and pay off their massive equipment loans to get back into the black. From there on, he vowed never to waste another nickel again, and that frugality and resourcefulness has stayed with him to this day.

Dad never forget those early years spent growing up on the farm. The tough lessons he learned there of being frugal, being resourceful, staying the course, having a sense of humor, being close to the rhythms of nature as well as the natural sowing, growing and reaping cycles involved with life on the farm taught him some valuable lessons he later applied to his investment program. A few years ago, Dad decided to write a delightful mini-booklet to educate his grandchildren about a few simple money and investment concepts. The booklet is titled: My Way, and its a great little read.

The booklet itself is simple- just a few dozen pieces of 8.5 X 11 pieces of paper folded over sideways and stapled together. Theres still a few copies kicking around to this day, even though it was published a decade ago. Dad had each page of his booklet photocopied on the cheapest paper he could find, at the cheapest printer in town in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada a small city with a reputation for wicked, unrelenting winds, dozens of rural religious settlements on the outskirts of town, and tantalizingly beautiful views of the Rocky Mountains.

Dads choice of paper and printing for his booklet is much like him simple, thrifty, and straight to the point without a lot of nonsense or fanfare. Despite the seeming simplicity of his booklet, it contains some significant life and investment insights. The method of printing and binding might have been simple, ordinary, and even rudimentary, but the ideas, concepts and lessons learned he shares in the booklet are extraordinary in the their simplicity and power.

I created the Millionaire Down the Road free newsletter to share some of his life and investment lessons learned with you through stories, analogies, and metaphors from the farm, from rural life, and from growing up during the great Depression. In the newsletter I take a down-to-earth approach, and I share with you folksy money and investment tips anyone can use to grow a thriving investment portfolio over time using every possible tax advantage along the way to free up additional investment capital to compound on your behalf.

In the MDTR newsletter youll get great stories as well as down-to-earth money and investment tips delivered in a low-key, folksy way. I think youll really enjoy getting these emails and forwarding them to people who would get a kick out of them.

To sign up for Millionaire Down the Road and receive one bite-sized life and investment idea each day, click here to sign up right now. I wont flood your inbox or spam you youll just get great emails youll enjoy reading and forwarding.