John Ray, famous 17th century author, was known to have written aphorism, "Money begets money." In business world, I'm sure you've also heard saying, "You've got to have money to make money."

There are countless sources of cash, but by far, best one to utilize for your business is ... other people's money.

Perhaps one of greatest "secrets" of richest people in world is summed up in those 3 words: Other People's Money - OPM for short. If you took a cross-section of most affluent business people, you'll find that majority of them launched their fortunes using OPM. In next few minutes, I will show you how you can obtain other people's money for your business. What you do with money, however, is up to you - but if I were you, I'd take P.T. Barnum's advice, and make money your servant so that you, too, you can make your own fortune.

The use of other people's money has become such an ethical and acceptable mainstay in business because one can leverage other people's money to your benefit.

For example, you can leverage borrowed money into high-yield investment programs that could generate a return that would then pay back your lender and line your pockets as well. Or you can leverage borrowed money into asset-producing or income-generating real property. Or you can simply borrow money to start or grow your business.

The benefits to using OPM are obvious: 1) When you use other people's money, especially within parameters of a corporation, your debt is assigned to your business, and your debtors can make no claims against your personal finances; and 2) infusion of cash allows you to have money to make money for your business.

Of course, even with proliferation of lending institutions and venture capitalists, it is often difficult to obtain other people's money.

Well, since Wall Street Journal has kindly called me a man who "finds answers in unlikely places," I'm going to reveal an unlikely place where you can obtain other people's money. This one is available to all, and yet very few ever take advantage of it. It's federal government.

An employee contributes to a 401K plan with pretax salary. This means that this account appreciates without taxation until you retire or leave company. So, 401K contributions are not included in your reported income.

In essence, you receive an immediate tax deduction for your contribution.

Many employees offer an automatic payroll deduction, so there isn't any extra effort involved for you. Matching contributions or partial matching contributions are other incentives offered by employers. For instance, my employer matches every one of my dollars with a quarter. Sounds like small potatoes, but remember beauty of compound interest.