Money.

[Stridder44]

Feeling incredibly underwhelmed with my current job serving tables, I have to sit and evaluate my financial life.


Money.


I study these people who have huge amounts of wealth and I can't help but try to understand how. And I understand money is not everything in life, and that at the end of the day friends & family are of far greater value. But it still makes me wonder how the rich become rich. How did they come into so much wealth?

Did they inherit it? Did they know someone who was a big game player and got a big break into the industry (whichever that may be)? Did they go from the bottom of the barrel and work their way to the top of the latter? Surely you would think good old "hard work" is a reason behind why they are where they are, but is it? So many of them seem to have such an easy time, doing very little and gaining so much. I analyze so many friends who work hard at dead end jobs, where they will, at best if they continued working there, go into General Management. It might be OK for them, but I could never be satisfied with myself with something like that. So perhaps it's education? What with their Ph.D's and years of experience? But then there are countless amounts who are very financially successful and are educationally on par with a spoon.

It seems like there is just so many different ways of acquiring it, but is there one type of thinking behind it? Is it an idea? A method? A theory?

 

[Surely]

First you get the sugar.
Then you get the money.
Then you get the power.
Then you get the women.



It's all about the sugar.

 

[LumbermanSVO]

Get and read "The Millionaire Next Door"

After that, get and read "The Millionaire Mind"

These books wont answer all your questions but they do give you an idea of who the real millionaires are and how they did it.

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

Connections.

 

[sikkinixx]

Caring about yourself, screwing over those you leapfrog over, hard line pesonality and being cheap... sorry "frugal", is how the half dozen or so rich people I have met/known did it. It must suck to have money as your sole vice in life but it must be nice to have a Porsche in the driveway

 

[Abstract]

A stupidly simple idea (e.g. Facebook), and a lot of luck so that your idea does better than all other services.

People don't become stinkin' rich by earning a salary.


You need ideas to be rich, and you need to implement it, even if the idea has been done to death by others (albeit in a slightly different way from yours). Look at how many dumbasses made millions by selling slightly healthier juice in small bottles. Amazing, isn't it? It's not difficult, it doesn't take a brain to physically do it, and it's not an original idea. However, not many people were doing it.....not with any form of marketing power behind it.

I've thought of a few ideas that I think would probably do well if I were try start a business around it, but most people like myself never take the chance by investing time and money into it.

 

[dmr727]

My Dad used to say, "No balls, no blue chips."

You need to be able to risk it all on a venture that you believe in.

 

[PowerFullMac]

First you get the sugar.
Then you get the money.
Then you get the power.
Then you get the women.



It's all about the sugar.

Simpsons!

Like Abstract said, if you have a idea, and it gets big, you will be rich. I have one and will be making a patent and sending it in soon, then if I am able to sell it I shall become very very rich!

 

[benmrii]

Some ideas are better than others.

 

[mpw]

I know a few people who I could honestly say are 'rich'.

One guy studied hard, became a lawyer and was a multi-millionaire by his late 30's. Still works long hours, earns a fortune and has Ferraris, Maseratis, houses, horses and parties.

One guy sat across from another guy in a pub one night, listened to the guy set out a business plan that was simple and fool proof, but that he was not in a position to implement; he took the idea(with the other guys blessing) and from an outlay of a couple of hundred pound, made £30,000 in his first 3months. He carried on for less than a year and retired(again as he was already retired from his previous job, but now with a nice cushion)

Another guy inherited his wealth, lives a life he's happy with. He doesn't spend huge amounts, but worries nothing about money, if he wanted the champagne and Rolls Royce lifestyle he could easily, but chooses to live within his means (actually within the means of the interest on his checking account, but still beyond my annual salary!)

Of course I also know people who have worked their behinds off their entire lives, had good jobs or bad luck who are still 'poor'.

There's no one way to get or stay rich, but luck is the most important factor.

 

[Abstract]

Let me put it to you this way: Water that comes in bottled form costs more than petrol. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, we'd be laughing if some fool told us that in 10-15 years time, we'd be paying lots of money for something that comes out of our tap for the low price of $0.001 per litre (arbitrary guesstimate).

Crazy world we live in, but there are idiots everywhere.

 

[ErikCLDR]

Either you work really hard and work your way slowly up the cooperate ladder, work hard and take big chances (investments, business ventures, etc), or you inherit it.

Any way you achieve it I suppose some luck is involved.

 

[cycocelica]

Most of the people I live around (my dad included) worked their way up the corporate ladder. There was some luck (most of my neighbors started to work for Microsoft when it was first starting out and continue to work for them) but it was mostly hard work and dedication.

As far as education, my dad only has is BA but my family is well off. Education matters, but the degree depends on the kind of job you are going for. And hell, sometimes a degree doesnt matter. I know plenty of people who never went to college and worked hard and are living well now. It all depends.

Obviously thinking of something like Facebook, etc. is pure luck. But putting a product behind an idea takes time and effort.

I would suggest though you work hard at something you like.

 

[scotty96LSC]

Work smart not hard. Put money away every paycheck. Dream.

 

[Surely]

First you get the sugar.
Then you get the money.
Then you get the power.
Then you get the women.



It's all about the sugar.

Oh yeah. And real estate.

 

[QCassidy352]

depends on what you mean by "rich." Upper middle class lifestyle with your own house, 2 nice but normal cars, and enough money to pay for your children's educations at private colleges? Earn several million a year but still work? Or the truly, absurdly wealthy, like your own helicopter and island?

There are lots of ways to get to the first. The second requires either a good education and a lot of hard work in a lucrative field, or one good idea. The third requires a brilliant mind (Warren Buffett) and a lot of hard work, one really good idea, a lot of luck and a lot of hard work (Bill Gates), or having an ancestor who had one of the above.

 

[Lyle]

People don't become stinkin' rich by earning a salary.

I came to pretty much the same conclusion some time back. I don't think I personally know any wealthy person who inherited their wealth, but I guess a lot of people still do it that way. Most of the wealthy people that I know started and later sold a business (or were early employees of such a business and cashed in their options). So there was definitely hard work, and a good deal of risk, but they didn't achieve their wealth by earning a salary per se.

 

[Stridder44]

Work smart not hard.

Interesting.

I've become very interested in their method of thinking. How aggressive they are, how personal/friendly they can be. Perhaps it's all about the art of the deal?

 

[Sun Baked]

Connections.

And the ability to put all the money on the table time after time and win, or put enough sweat into a deal to turn the tables into a win.

Average person works hard for wallstreet average these people bet the house on doubling their money, or more. Sometimes while the repo man is threatening to take back the Bentley if they can find it.

 

[ErikCLDR]

Oh yeah. And real estate.

Let me tell you a story.

My great uncle is I believe 82.

He was a firefighter his entire life. Obviously not a very lucrative profession by any means. He was married to a woman but she developed cancer that could not cured. My uncle spent all of his money on treating his wifes cancer. Unfortunately she did not survive. My uncle had invested money in beach property in Rhode Island- $15/acre. After his wife died he built some houses and held onto some of the property. Over the years he's bought and sold houses and property and now he is a millionaire. He never went to college, and I am not sure if he even graduated high school. He owns a house in Rhode Island on 4 acres, including beach property. Its right on the water but also has a freshwater pond. It's valued at over $5m. He also has a house in Florida and one in Connecticut. He also has a couple boats. Not a wealthy man, now a millionaire. An acre of beach property in Rhode Island now I would guess is like $1,000,000.

The people however that buy like 40,000,000 houses... that I cannot understand. Or people that own private islands. How someone acquires that much money just blows my mind.

I think its just working hard, working smart, and being lucky. If you're born into it, then you just have luck.