After our last few posts on building a personalized portfolio, the need for a wealth plan and the importance of making your money work for you, some of the feedback we got was all this is lovely, but it is too slow. It helps build wealth but it is not about getting rich like ‘Richie Rich’ rich. While disciplined investing, with a measure of risk and reward, can’t take one to being rich overnight, it is a sure way to build wealth.
To state the obvious, becoming rich allows you to fearlessly quit your perennially dull job, pay all your pending dues, and party everyday for the rest of your life. And you want to achieve that fairly quickly so that you get to spend the prime years of your life fulfilling your interests and passions, rather than wasting your time slogging away at work.
So without any ado, here are some ways that can make you rich
- Launch a startup with an outrageously audacious idea:Colonize Mars, mine Asteroids, invent a pocket-able Sun, or build a time machine. It isn’t hard to let your fantasies and dreams run wild. And it isn’t hard to put it all together on a sleek presentation, with some help from your ace consultant ’Google’. The bigger the dream, the more likely are you to raise funds from VCs, hedge funds or even Governments. If you think we are not in our right minds, you must read about a startup in Seattle which has been funded by the government of Luxembourg for developing technology to mine Asteroids! And even if you fail, you will be termed as a visionary who dared to tread the impossible path.
- Make Las Vegas or Macau your home:The ever-resourceful Google shall come to your help yet again. All you have to do is learn techniques to outsmart your peers and the dealer in a casino (in Las Vegas). There are enough hacks and solutions available online on improving your chances of winning in various card games. In-fact, you can also give it a shot sitting at home, practice playing online card games. There is also the year-end Asia tournament in Macau to aim for.
- Migrate to Britain:Sports betting is legal in Britain, and in many other regions around the world. And it is a huge business! Betting operators in Britain earn in millions. Such is the interest and level of participation. What’s more you can bet on almost any sport, including- Cricket. This significantly increases your chances of winning a bet since you may know so much about the game - including strengths and weaknesses of players in a team. So do not underestimate yourself, go ahead and give it a real shot. You might be basking in the glory of having millions in your bank account in just about a year.
- Sell your house and bet on Crypto currencies:Believe it or not, the value of Ethereum (one of the very popular crypto currencies other than Bitcoin) has grown a phenomenal 25 times in 2017 alone. And this is just the start of the cryptocurrency revolution. This is the most plausible gateway for you to make it big very soon; even though the long term future of bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) may still be hotly debated. You must get in and get out in a short span of time (i.e. within 1-2 years) and you may make it big.
I know what you are thinking- “C’mon, be real!”, “All of these are incredibly risky bets to take”, and “these get rich quick solutions look like a sham!” Well, these solutions may certainly look outrageous but they certainly are not a sham, and not impossible. (We never said they will be easy!). They all have a tiny but positive probability of success but they all involve huge risks. You need a real stomach to ride the ups and downs of these journeys.
And if these ideas look too outrageous then so are ambitions or expectations of becoming rich very soon in life. It is not going to happen unless one takes serious risks. ‘No pain, no gain!’ Its that simple. If you are not prepared to do so, then simply go back to working hard. Focus on completing your pending office tasks before deadlines loom large on your head.
But all is not lost. A realistic goal of getting financially independent is a very achievable target with the right planning. Earn and start investing wisely to begin with. Start small but start as early as you can. Take small risks in life by investing in stocks or equity mutual funds. Keep the rest in safer instruments like debt funds. But always invest to a plan and stick with it. Get off the blocks and begin.
And as you grow your wealth there will come a day when you are better prepared to take a decision to allocate some of your capital for riskier bets. That’s when you can give something wild a shot – perhaps not the above seemingly ‘insane’ alternatives, but the ones which are more grounded in reality like betting on a good small cap stock. Till then, the only path most of us have of becoming wealthier (not rich) is by being smart about investing.
Now that we have swung the pendulum and put down a few very risk ideas for you to think or laugh at, depending on your appetite for such stuff, we promise to get the pendulum back to the other side in our next post.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)
