Let’s get straight to the point.
You want to become rich and you want to become rich FAST!
That’s what we all want right?
Thankfully, most of us understand that it’s easier said than done. But unfortunately, far too many don’t get it and end up losing tons of money instead of making it.
And the internet does what it does best – adds to the noise – and is overcrowded with a lot of misleading information on how to become wealthy. To be fair, it’s quite possible to get rich quickly, more often than you’d think.
However, it comes with a high probability of losing whatever you put into such get-rich-quick ventures. And it involves taking high-risks, putting in hard work and ofcourse a lot of luck – or let’s say a ‘lucky’ combination of all the three.
Stock market investors who get greedy after noticing a good run in certain stocks for a couple of years start believing the stock market is a sneaky way to get rich very fast.
Sometimes this is true for the short run. But mostly it’s not. After a good run, mean reversions reframe the game and markets go down. And people aren’t ready for it.
As a result, people end up losing whole life investments or at best end up with a very bad experience with equities – and that can haunt them for years, make them stay away from equities (and it just translates into a big loss of wealth creation opportunities).
Another example can be the almost vertical rise in value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the very recent past.
Again what happened there was that people believed that this is a way to get rich overnight and so hoards of investors started joining the party. But the crash that happened after the all-time highs has left most people with a bad taste for currency investments. To be honest, cryptocurrency isn’t my field of expertise, but I have close friends in Silicon Valley who have actually got rich taking a cut of this modern-day currency market.
And I mean they became filthy rich way too fast. Some were lucky to cash out before the big fall and have literally achieved financial independence. Others weren’t so lucky. I would say that in the case of crypto-riches, luck played a really big part for many people’s good fortune – there can be no denying that.
Also, there is the foreign exchange or currency market also known as forex – which I’m not sure most people know is the biggest market in the world!
If you surf around enough online financial and trading sites, chances are that soon enough, our Lord Google will contextually throw in alluring Forex Trading advertisements which highlight the magical capabilities of currency trading offers.
I personally know someone abroad who does quite well dealing in forex trading. And he has been doing it for years so he knows his trade. If you were to ask him whether it’s possible to get rich in forex trading he’d say ‘Hell yes!’. But if you were to ask him whether it’s easy to get rich trading in the forex market, he would say right off the bat ‘No way!’.
In fact, he very clearly told me that Forex Trading is not a get-rich-quick method as many online advertisements make it out to be. That doesn’t happen. It’s a skill and takes time to learn and profit from. Being properly equipped with certain tools to trade in forex and having timely funds along with proper non-impulsive risk management skills are valuable assets when going the forex way.
I, being a participant in Indian stock markets for several years, could clearly see the similarities with it.
The insights about what works and what doesn’t work in stock markets come after years of trying out various strategies, taking hits on your portfolio and your ego and what not.
It might seem that it’s easy but I can vouch that there is no easy money-making here. It is simple but not easy.
Another close acquaintance of mine got really lucky sometime back. He piggybacked another friend’s VC and Angel around bets without any clue about what the startups were exactly doing. Lady luck shined and he made a killing with a couple of super bets.
You see the pattern?
Some people ‘get rich quick’ here and there. But they are the exception to the rule, not the norm.
You need to realize that for most people, the way to wealth is typically on the slow lane. It’s good to take your chance, but more often than not, what happens is that your capital gets lost and you need to start fresh. Which is hard stuff. After a while it adds up, less money is available for compounding and naturally, the amount of money you end up making is much lesser than what would have been possible if you’d have not run greedily towards a quick highly risky scheme.
Believe me, you can wait for years to accept the perennial truth that slow and steady wins the race and compounding is indeed the 8th wonder of the world. Or you can start with time-tested wealth creation strategies and begin your journey of being really wealthy.
It might not seem as glamorous as the get-rich-quick schemes but it works.
By starting early, you can be rich enough much before you retire – something that is desirable as you don’t want to be the richest man in the graveyard! Right?
Frequently, getting rich quickly is either due to pure coincidence or extreme risk. But even hard work and willingness to take tons of risks cannot guarantee overnight riches.
So do yourself and your family a favor and assume calculated risk, invest in testing out the best strategies and work only with the best ones. Don’t ever take luck or hope into account! Both hope and luck are not strategies. 🙂
May the odds be in your favor!