How to Get Rich Quick

Here's a comment left recently on my post titled Turn $1 a Day into $67,815:

I don't have that time to wait. I need to know the fastest and simplest way to turn 1dollar into a million dollars in a year.

Ha! Isn't this exactly the way many American's are thinking? They want to be rich NOW! They want to be extremely wealthy with little investment and minimal time. This person was brave (or stupid) enough to say it, but many others are thinking the same thing.

So, want me to tell you how to get rich quick? Here's the answer:

Get extremely lucky.

Yep, that's the only way I know to get rich quick with very little investment. Win the lottery. Discover oil on your property. Inherit the money from your long-lost rich uncle. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. There's no easy, simple, guaranteed way to get rich quickly with little investment other than extreme luck.

Even people who may seem to get rich quick usually only get rich after a lot of time and effort. A man who comes up with a product that becomes an "overnight sensation" probably worked years and had several failures to come up with the one winner that made him rich. A first-time professional athlete who signs a multi-million dollar contract has worked for years to develop his skills and abilities. Same goes for a singer who has a hit record.

So how can the average person like you and me get rich quick? We can't, not without extreme luck. But we can get rich over time. How? All it takes are three simple steps.

Comments

[plonkee]

If there was an easy, simple and guaranteed way of getting rich everyone would be rich already.

I know its harder to be lucky that rich, so I'll be sticking to the lame tortoise route to wealth - so slow you can't even see it moving.

[OneWayorAnotherWay]

Let's just say YOU were 40 years old and this is YOUR first time investing/saving. YOU're a ONE income household (husband works, mom stays home) --YOU have $8000/ month ($1000 a month for 8 months) to ONLY INVEST or SAVE it.
How would YOU INVEST or SAVE it? The trick is, you're NOT allowed to spend this money. You have to come up with a plan that will convince your spouse that this money will NOT dwindle down to zero but, will in fact GROW. and GROW into a really nice amount. Is this a dream or is this really possible? And how would you go about doing it or explaining it to your "deathly afraid of ending up homeless and on the streets" spouse?
Thanks for your comments and responses :)

[Kaiser]

Where do you buy lucky? how much does it cost?

[Minimum Wage]

Last year I read about a guy who took his life savings to a casino and bet it all on black. He won and doubled his money.

One question: if a college athlete signs with a professional team in the off-season and gets a fat signing bonus, and then he smashes up his car and his body, thereby ending his sports playing career before his forst game starts, did he "earn" his signing bonus?

[Adam]

I think it is a cop out to not take this question seriously and try to stretch a bit to answer it. metafilter had an intelligent discussion about this before

http://ask.metafilter.com/15413/How-to-get-rich-quick

I have worked in the brokerage industry for ten years and I can tell you that a bull market + call options will get you rich quickly but you must have nerves of steel.

[FMF]

Adam --

The chances of you hitting a bull market and a stock/call option strategy just right are about even with those of the lottery -- especially for untrained individuals. On the other hand, almost anyone can get rich slowly if they apply good, solid financial principles over a long period of time.

[Adam]

I don't disagree that the use of leverage is an advanced strategy and it may be well beyond the scope of this site. However leverage is used everyday by companies and individuals to enhance their returns. Even a classic value investor such as Warren Buffet is leveraged through his insurance holdings within Berkshire Hathaway and I guarantee he thinks his odds of good returns are much better than winning a lottery. The message of your website is very important and is the best course of action for the vast majority of investors, but alternatives exist and leverage can be used intelligently to enhance returns either in real estate or the stock market.

[FMF]

Adam --

I didn't say that there aren't other ways to enhance returns, but these aren't get-rich-quick schemes. And as for Warren Buffet, I'm sure he'd say there's no way that's certain people can get rich quick (in fact, he recommends index funds for the vast amount of investors.)