How To Get Rich ?

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Before going any further, I would like to disclose that I am not rich, or to be more accurate - not rich yet. I am a richer person than I used to be, but I am definitely not rich or financially independent yet. It is a work in progress, and I certainly and sincerely feel that sharing this information to everyone will help others better their lives. If information you read here energizes you, questions your understanding, and challenges your thought process, then by all means please consume this information. Otherwise you can ignore this article. Either way, I would like to thank you for your time and effort.

Most people wanted to get rich, but don’t know how to get rich. There are many ways to get rich. Each and every way requires lot of hardwork, passion, technical expertise and dedication.  Starting a business is the fastest way to get rich in a short period of time. Investment is another way to get rich, but takes time and money. Having a good paying job is another way to get rich, it just happens to be the hardest and most expensive way to get rich. Getting lucky by winning a lottery, or by inheriting wealth is another way to get rich, but it is also the most common way to lose lot of money in a short duration. 

Here are the few steps to get you rich:

Increase Your Income:

Wealth creation should be easy, but it requires patience, time and the right mindset or knowledge. Some say money is the root of all evils, others say poverty is the root of all evils. Do not get  into who said what, and who is right. When you get to experience life with and without money, you will know for sure that life with money is lot better than life without money. Life needs money, and the need starts with your food, cloths, shelter, education, and the list goes on. If you do not have enough money, you will face hardship in life. It is even harder when someone have to go through this hardship with their family. If you are suffering, it means you are doing something wrong. Remember hardship is not a bad thing, as long as you can find your way out. It is a human condition, it is  the reason we change and adapt to new things. It is key to our evolution. It is life’s way of saying to change your course. 

Time is more expensive than money. You can earn money, spend it and you can earn more money, but it is not the case with your time. Time is precious, you can start from there. The more time you got, the more money you can make. If you can bring in more people to work for your cause, then you accumulate more money in a short duration. There are other ways to build bigger wealth, and one other way is by attracting financial Investment. Investment is a way to attract other people money to work for your cause in building your wealth. Generating new income sources requires time, money and knowledge. What do you like to have the most? If you can have all three of them, then you are on your way to accumulate unlimited amount of wealth. If you have time and knowledge, but not enough money then you can become an investor.  With time on your side, you can convert the investment into unimaginable source of income.  If you have time and money, and do not have knowledge then you will end up losing both. So be careful what you wish for, because it can happen.

Save, Save and Save money:

Saving money is one of the hardest thing to do if it is not part of your habit. It requires lot of self discipline in order to save money. It does not matter how old are you, it is always a good thing to start saving money. If you are not a saver, then start with saving 10% of your income. You can increase the percentage when you are able to save more money, but start with 10%. If you are not able to save at least 10% of your income, then find ways to increase your income. If you are a working person, try to switch jobs or get a promotion to increase your income. I will never suggest anyone to take up a second job to increase their income. Money is important, but health is more important than money. There are many ways to save money. Just being cautious in spending your money, you can save lot of money. If you are renting, find ways to reduce the rent. If you have a mortgage, try ways to reduce the monthly payment. If you eat out a lot, then try to reduce it, this will improve your health and your account balance. Avoid expensive addiction such as smoke and drinks. Never ever have a credit card loans, and try to avoid car loan. If possible, consider buying preowned car instead of brand new car. Do not compromise your life style, try to get the same comfort at a reduced price. For example, you can get the same service but for a reduced price if you can talk to your cable company, mobile company, internet service provider, your phone company, home security service and the list goes on. Pay all your bills on time, and be a responsible citizen. If the service is good, continue your service with the same company. Most good business knows how to treat their loyal customers. You will feel good, you will get better service everywhere and it will improve your credit rating as well. Consider your saving as your first expense, and make it a habit.

Reinvest Your Savings:

Reinvesting your savings is a big step in creating more wealth. There are many ways to reinvest the savings to grow your asset. You can start building wealth by opening  high yield saving account, investing in real estate, investing in real estate investment trust(REIT) security, investing in bonds, gold assets,  stock investment etc.,. In the case of stock investment, this is a classic case of money making more money. There are pros and cons in all the investment strategies. If you know what you are doing, then it will get lot easier. Understand and educate yourself on how it works, then the world of investment opportunity opens up for you. Flipping real estate properties looks good from the outside, but taking into the consideration the  taxes and risk involved, it is better to stay away from it. Similarly in stock investment, you can either be a trader buying and selling stocks for a short duration, or be an investor and invest your money in the long term. Similar to flipping real estate, shot term trading activity results in higher risks and higher taxes. Considering the reward you get after taxes, it is not worth the effort. If you are interested in real estate properties, but do not have enough money to buy real estate property, then you can consider REIT. It is a type of business that sells stocks on a public stock market exchanges that invest in real estate either through owning the real estate properties, or mortgage loans. They make money from the interest earned from the loans, and by rents generated by the underlying asset. These are stocks you can buy and sell directly in the stock market.  Moreover by law, these firms are required to distribute 90% of their income to their shareholders in the form of dividend.  You get the benefit of owning the real estate properties without the overhead of property tax, and that’s big deal.

Create Wealth:  

By being a creator, each and everyone of us are creating wealth. Whether we know it or not , we are creating stuff all the time, some are tangible and others are intangible assets. Just providing some kind of service to others alone is a multi trillion dollar industry. In most cases we are working for others in creating wealth. This is part of the reason we do not see the impact of our work. Opening a business and convincing others to work for you is the fastest way to accumulate wealth. A team of people working on a common goal can produce something that no single person would be possible to create even in the wildest dream. Most people work for a business to make the business create more wealth, but the ownership of the business is owned by entrepreneurs and investors. Investors use their money to work for them, and Entrepreneurs convince other people to work for them to accomplish their vision and goal. It is two different strategy to amass more wealth.

Business has a lot of tax advantages when compared to common people. One of the most obvious one is, business pays taxes on the money left over after it has paid all its expenses, where as working people pay taxes first, and then spend it for their expenses on the remaining left over money.  You can get rich by working in your day job as well. There are lot of pretty high paying jobs out there which can make you feel rich, but to stay rich is all together a different game. Getting rich through your day job is one of the expensive way to become rich, considering the taxes you have to pay on your income. It is not recommended mainly because of high taxes, and less incentives to keep your hard earned money.  Most of the top level management in multi national companies are paid pretty well by calling themselves visionaries and leaders, but in-fact they are just highly paid employees. 

Learn to Take Decision:

Learning to take a decision is key to get you rich. It is a three step process, and they are as follows:

Step 1: Take a decision.

             First and the most tough part is to take a decision. To begin with, next time when you are looking at the restaurant menu, make a decision and select your menu item without getting help. It can be easy for some, can be tough for others, and be downright terrifying to few. I am not kidding and I have been in all the situation before, and yes we are still talking about selecting a menu item. So next time when you are looking at a restaurant menu, try to evaluate the situation, the pros and cons of your selection, and go with it, understand it is one of the toughest step in the whole process. Most people avoid taking a decision, or postpone decision making process as much as possible to the extend where the decision is either taken by the circumstance they are in or by someone else on behalf of them. What they don’t understand is, they are missing an opportunity to grow, and also missed an opportunity to understand the impact of their decision. Not taking a decision is a decision by itself. By not taking a decision, you are allowing someone else or the circumstance to take the decision for you. It may or may not be favorable to you, but it was your decision to take that step. 

Step 2: Take the right decision.

Taking the right decision is as important as learning to take decision in the first place. Sure, everyone will have their share of bad decision in the beginning, thats not important. What is important is, learning from your mistakes and also from other people mistakes in order to get better at taking the right decision. It is not easy to begin with, but it gets better and better every time you practice taking the right decision. In some cases, there are no right and wrong decision, and when it boils down to selecting your choices, your selection will come to you naturally.

Step 3: Take the right decision at the right time.

Every decision is bounded by time. You can stretch out only to some extent, after sometime the circumstance changes. Consider every situation that demands a decision comes with an expiry time. If you don’t make it, then the situation will force a decision that may or may not be favorable to you.  I am not saying it is easy in any way, it requires lot of logical and emotional thinking, evaluate a list of available options,  understand the data in hand and process it into useful information that you can use, weigh the possible outcome - risk vs reward of your decision, and also come up with a back up plan when something goes wrong. I know it is hard, I never said it was easy. Nevertheless you should know to take a decision on time.

Think Like a Rich Person:

To think like a rich person is not about how much money you can spend, it is about how much you can earn it. Most people knows too many ways to spend their money, but cannot find more than one or two ways to earn it.  What ever you do, think big. There are many ways to get rich - Starting a business, writing a book, investing in stock market, investing in real estate etc., Take risk and find new opportunity, if you don’t see an opportunity, then create it. Don’t look into your past success or failures, always look in the future. Keep learning in specific areas and be an expert, focus on earning instead of spending. Last but not the least, instead of thinking about life after death, think about your life when you are still alive.