Lazy ways to acquire wealth

[samsbolton]

Most people aren't terribly interested in working 80 hours a week from an early age, and that certainly includes me. Thread title is deliberate, 8 or 9 figures of net worth isn't realistic for most people however talented or hard working you are.

I do think you should have a marketable skill, I can't pretend otherwise. You do need liquidity to acquire some degree of wealth and working minimum wage is going to make that harder than necessary.

Liquidity is critical actually. I don't care how good the rate is, if you have to finance a car, you cant afford it. Yeah yeah build a credit score yadda yadda..for most people, even your average insanely successful miscer, this is just a recipe for disaster. Before you know it, you are financing washing machines and toasters.

(I've never done anything to boost my credit score and have had no trouble getting two mortgages btw)

This ties in to self discipline with money. Live within your means from the very earliest opportunity. No point saying to yourself 'I'll clean my act up when I get to 25 or 30' it doesn't work like that. It wont happen.

Right, obvious bit over, I've done a few things in my life that have worked out well for me, some luck some judgement. Two examples though that are worth considering

1: don't get married. its an incredibly risky proposition however you look at it. So is cohabiting for that matter. Almost all of you will ignore this so more realistically, I would say you want to have 'made it' (ie be reasonably comfortable) before you think about settling down. All women want kids, it's a fact. Especially the ones that tell you otherwise. Often the motive is because most women fundamentally don't want to go to work at all, and this is the get out of jail free card.
You will not 'make it' AFTER you get married. You will have no time or money, and less motivation. I come in contact with a lot of reasonably well off families in my job, and almost all are fat and miserable. They eat and drink their troubles away. Of five local families I know well socially, 3 are flat broke and older than me. Outwardly they are successful, reality is they are constantly drawing down equity from their property either to keep their heads above water or to keep up with their neighbours cars and holidays. They have long since passed the point of caring, one more remortgage, bankruptcy, involuntary credit agreement, so what..

2: a more positive example, company share save. Being encouraged by the uk government, more companies are now offering them. These are one of the only truly one way bets you are ever going to be offered in your life.
Whilst they vary, each scheme runs for a set number of years(mine is three). You deduct x amount from your salary which is put in a savings account. After the set number of years is up, you have the OPTION (not compulsory) to buy company shares at the price they were at the start of the scheme. If it has gone up, you can sell for an immediate profit.
If it doesn't go up, you can withdraw the cash you have put in and invest in the next scheme. The more volatile your stock/sector, the better.
The first plan I got involved with at work more than doubled HOWEVER I could not afford to take up my full tax allowance because I was tied up elsewhere. Doubling your money in 3 years is an incredible return by any standards.
Back to start of essay.. you need LIQUIDITY to take advantage of this. If you are living pay cheque to pay cheque, forget it.


CLIFFS
Marketable skill
Liquidity
Stay single
Company share save

*obviously I have a few more, time for others contributions..*

[120908]

I wouldn't mind working 80 hrs a week for good money since I already do that for 2 euros an hour.

[butwhowasgains]

i have a better way

-already be rich and own things
-do ????????? and have capital gains
=profit

[CrimsonSteel]

Design a stupid, addictive app. Release it for free, but have increasingly intrusive advertisements and give people a vague addiction giving them incentive to use in-game currency (earned VERY slowly through gameplay or bought for huge advantages at small amounts). Go viral like Angry Birds (or Pokemon Go, but that was an already established franchise). Get offered movie deals for a ridiculously stupid premise that doesn't lend itself to narrative. Wait for the all-female reboot in 5 years.

[open_society]

In 7th grade, I took an SAT test without preparing for it at all, it was spur-of-the-moment, I knew about it about an hour ahead of time and didn't do any research or anything. I scored higher on it than the average person using it to apply for college in my area.
An IQ test has shown me to be in the 99.9th percentile for IQ. This is the highest result the test I was given reaches; anything further and they'd consider it to be within the margin of error for that test.
My mother's boyfriend of 8 years is an aerospace engineer who graduated Virginia Tech. At the age of 15, I understand physics better than him, and I owe very little of it to him, as he would rarely give me a decent explanation of anything, just tell me that my ideas were wrong and become aggravated with me for not quite understanding thermodynamics. He's not particularly successful as an engineer, but I've met lots of other engineers who aren't as good as me at physics, so I'm guessing that's not just a result of him being bad at it.
I'm also pretty good at engineering. I don't have a degree, and other than physics I don't have a better understanding of any aspect of engineering than any actual engineer, but I have lots of ingenuity for inventing new things. For example, I independently invented regenerative brakes before finding out what they were, and I was only seven or eight years old when I started inventing wireless electricity solutions (my first idea being to use a powerful infrared laser to transmit energy; admittedly not the best plan).
I have independently thought of basically every branch of philosophy I've come across. Every question of existentialism which I've seen discussed in SMBC or xkcd or Reddit or anywhere else, the thoughts haven't been new to me. Philosophy has pretty much gotten trivial for me; I've considered taking a philosophy course just to see how easy it is.
Psychology, I actually understand better than people with degrees. Unlike engineering, there's no aspect of psychology which I don't have a very good understanding of. I can debunk many of even Sigmund Freud's theories.
I'm a good enough writer that I'm writing a book and so far everybody who's read any of it has said it was really good and plausible to expect to have published. And that's not just, like, me and family members, that counts strangers on the Internet. I've heard zero negative appraisal of it so far; people have critiqued it, but not insulted it.
I don't know if that will suffice as evidence that I'm intelligent. I'm done with it, though, because I'd rather defend my maturity, since it's what you've spent the most time attacking. The following are some examples of my morals and ethical code.
I believe firmly that everybody deserves a future. If we were to capture Hitler at the end of WWII, I would be against executing him. In fact, if we had any way of rehabilitating him and knowing that he wasn't just faking it, I'd even support the concept of letting him go free. This is essentially because I think that whoever you are in the present is a separate entity from who you were in the past and who you are in the future, and while your present self should take responsibility for your past self's actions, it shouldn't be punished for them simply for the sake of punishment, especially if the present self regrets the actions of the past self and feels genuine guilt about them.
I don't believe in judgement of people based on their personal choices as long as those personal choices aren't harming others. I don't have any issue with any type of sexuality whatsoever (short of physically acting out necrophilia, ****philia, or other acts which have a harmful affect on others - but I don't care what a person's fantasies consist of, as long as they recognize the difference between reality and fiction and can separate them). I don't have any issue with anybody over what type of music they listen to, or clothes they wear, etc. I know that's not really an impressive moral, but it's unfortunately rare; a great many people, especially those my age, are judgmental about these things.
I love everyone, even people I hate. I wish my worst enemies good fortune and happiness. Rick Perry is a vile, piece of **** human being, deserving of zero respect, but I wish for him to change for the better and live the best life possible. I wish this for everyone.
I'm pretty much a pacifist. I've taken a broken nose without fighting back or seeking retribution, because the guy stopped punching after that. The only time I'll fight back is if 1) the person attacking me shows no signs of stopping and 2) if I don't attack, I'll come out worse than the other person will if I do. In other words, if fighting someone is going to end up being more harmful to them than just letting them go will be to me, I don't fight back. I've therefore never had a reason to fight back against anyone in anything serious, because my ability to take pain has so far made it so that I'm never in a situation where I'll be worse off after a fight. If I'm not going to get any hospitalizing injuries, I really don't care.
The only exception is if someone is going after my life. Even then, I'll do the minimum amount of harm to them that I possibly can in protecting myself. If someone points a gun at me and I can get out of it without harming them, I'd prefer to do that over killing them.
I consider myself a feminist. I don't believe in enforced or uniform gender roles; they may happen naturally, but they should never be coerced into happening unnaturally. As in, the societal pressure for gender roles should really go, even if it'll turn out that the majority of relationships continue operating the same way of their own accord. I treat women with the same outlook I treat men, and never participate in the old Reddit "women are crazy" circlejerk, because there are multiple women out there and each have different personalities just like there are multiple men out there and each with different personalities. I don't think you do much of anything except scare off the awesome women out there by going on and on about the ones who aren't awesome.
That doesn't mean I look for places to victimize women, I just don't believe it's fair to make generalizations such as the one about women acting like everything's OK when it's really not (and that's a particularly harsh example, because all humans do that).
I'm kind of tired of citing these examples and I'm guessing you're getting tired of reading them, if you've even made it this far. In closing, the people who know me in real life all respect me, as do a great many people in the Reddit brony community, where I spend most of my time and where I'm pretty known for being helpful around the community. A lot of people in my segment of the community are depressed or going through hard times, and I spend a lot of time giving advice and support to people there. Yesterday someone quoted a case of me doing this in a post asking everyone what their favorite motivational/inspirational quote was, and that comment was second to the top, so I guess other people agreed (though, granted, it was a pretty low-traffic post, only about a dozen competing comments).
And, uh, I'm a pretty good moderator.
All that, and I think your behavior in this thread was totally assholish. So what do you think, now that you at least slightly know me?
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[–]sto- 4 points 2 years ago
Why the **** did I continue on...
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[–]Herbstrabe 1 point 2 years ago
Was about to do that myself. The first version was very agonizing to read.
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[–]MrBison123 3 points 2 years ago
Here's the sauce.
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[–]CurlyJeff 2 points 2 years ago
does anyone remember what the parent comment was? what would make some retard write that whole thing?
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[–][deleted] 2 points 2 years ago
I'd venture a guess that you don't go around telling people to **** their mothers when you don't have a screen to hide behind, or that if you do the majority of people let it go because you're fifteen years old. If everything you've said is true, you might be an intelligent individual. If you think that grants you worth, or makes your opinion valuable to anybody but you, you're wrong.
Being fifteen means you've never had to take care of yourself. You've presumably never known the fear, loneliness, and pain of addiction. I sincerely hope that you never do. Everything in your life right now, you can afford to take for granted, because you don't actually have to work for anything. It's handed to you. So here you go, attempting to prove how smart you are, to a stranger on the internet, because suddenly just being you isn't enough to impress.
While I could do a point-by-point analysis of why your self-aggrandizing diatribe is meaningless to everyone but you, it would essentially feed your ego further to dissect your message, which was the whole purpose of writing it out in the first place. Your IQ proves nothing. Your bronyism proves less than that. Your self-reported physics knowledge is likely bull****, but also useless in forming human relationships.
Being a dick on the internet is easy. Actually being thoughtful, considering other people before you say things, and being willing to admit wrongdoing or at least try to examine a perspective besides your own, that's a task. But you can get away with just being a dick, and it feeds your sense of superiority (which clearly you possess, by the nature of your defense), because you can't defeat irrational insults with rational responses. So what do I think of you? Again, if what you said is true, you're an intelligent person, sure. But I think your casual willingness to be mean-spirited to people you don't know, who are gathering in a virtual space to discuss things that are important to them, outweighs whatever intelligence you have and makes you an unpleasant person to interact with. It would do you well to consider others, and also entertain the notion that you are not better than other people.
Complaining that you are downvoted when your "advice" (the pedestal you built for yourself) is irrelevant to the thread you comment in, then being an outright ******* when someone explains that downvote -which didn't need to be explained at all- is confrontational at best, but in reality it's just dickishness. Which no one can prevent. But it's not something people have to put up with either.
I feel like I've just wasted my time, because I think you are more interested in defending yourself than examining and discussing.

You swine. You vulgar little maggot. Don't you know that you are pathetic? You worthless bag of filth. As we say in Texas, I'll bet you couldn't pour piss out of a boot with instructions on the heel. You are a canker. A sore that won't go away. I would rather kiss a lawyer than be seen with you.
You are a fiend and a coward, and you have bad breath. You are degenerate, noxious and depraved. I feel debased just for knowing you exist. I despise everything about you. You are a bloody nardless newbie twit protohominid chromo****lly aberrant caricature of a copro****ic cloacal parasitic pond scum and I wish you would go away.
You're a putrescence mass, a walking vomit. You are a spineless little worm deserving nothing but the profoundest contempt. You are a jerk, a cad, a weasel. Your life is a monument to stupidity. You are a stench, a revulsion, a big suck on a sour lemon.
You are a bleating fool, a curdled staggering mutant dwarf smeared richly with the effluvia and offal accompanying your alleged birth into this world. An insensate, blinking calf, meaningful to nobody, abandoned by the puke-drooling, giggling beasts who sired you and then killed themselves in recognition of what they had done.

[samsbolton]

Thread derailing is bannable. Especially when it's not funny anyway^

[andyray]

take out all your savings

go to casino

put it all on your lucky number in roulette


=profit?

[dustiestuniform]

Thanks OP. Packing my bags now and quitting my Job to move to UK to Aqcuire company share save.

[samsbolton]

Thanks OP. Packing my bags now and quitting my Job to move to UK to Aqcuire company share save.

I'm almost certain you have the same thing under a different name. And Fock off we're full.

[samsbolton]

Edit above, in the USA they are known as 'employee stock options' (same principle)

[PastorGaines]

Repped, more advice OP pls.

[samsbolton]

^ okey doke here's another nugget..

MARGINS ERODE

What I mean is, double digit investment returns are exceptional and hard to get especially with today's ultra low interest rates. Property has done this over the last 20 years, for example, BUT it should be pretty obvious this is politically and economically unsustainable.

Be realistic here: we all want to get rich quick, but 10% returns are absolutely fantastic in the real world.

What's the next double digit investment return? There is obviously no sure thing, but I like peer to peer lending. Most sites you set your level of risk. I've done enough ticket scalping to know its high risk/high reward. I've had a great return on Asian stocks and expect that to continue (this is NOT a market to dip in and out of).

Anyway, just a few random ideas, but to go back to my first post this is all irrelevant if you don't have LIQUIDITY. At various times, for various reasons, I've left myself way low on cash/easily liquidated investments, and it's cost me at least a couple of good opportunities. Don't let that be you.

[sickh11]

8 figure net worth is possible to attain for highly ambitious and relatively smart people.

[ChiBearsfan]

Thread derailing is bannable. Especially when it's not funny anyway^

is this true?

[JeenyusJr]

- Aquire a solid education
- Aquire a job with careeer path
- Bust your a$$ and learn everything
- Push for raises, switch companies in the same industry, &/or seek promotions or movements into other functional areas of the company (e.g. start in dupport, get into R&D, go into sales, get a management position, etc.)
- Be willing to move physical locations and take on much more responsibility. Show your value and willingness.
- Meanwhile don't throw away money on chit. Avoid debt.
- Invest in real-estate &/or mutual funds (sure go for ESPP or whatever as well, but not only that). Pay your bills, but also "pay yourself" into your investements EVERY MONTH.

With the above strategy by the time you're 40 you should be making 6 digits salary, have 1 or 2 properties, and improving prospects for the future. It's not the laziest way, but if you enjoy your work it's really not that hard. I think people are just not willing to put in the time and effort to aquire wealth

[samsbolton]

8 figure net worth is possible to attain for highly ambitious and relatively smart people.

Absolute rubbish

[samsbolton]

- Aquire a solid education
- Aquire a job with careeer path
- Bust your a$$ and learn everything
- Push for raises, switch companies in the same industry, &/or seek promotions or movements into other functional areas of the company (e.g. start in dupport, get into R&D, go into sales, get a management position, etc.)
- Be willing to move physical locations and take on much more responsibility. Show your value and willingness.
- Meanwhile don't throw away money on chit. Avoid debt.
- Invest in real-estate &/or mutual funds (sure go for ESPP or whatever as well, but not only that). Pay your bills, but also "pay yourself" into your investements EVERY MONTH.

With the above strategy by the time you're 40 you should be making 6 digits salary, have 1 or 2 properties, and improving prospects for the future. It's not the laziest way, but if you enjoy your work it's really not that hard. I think people are just not willing to put in the time and effort to aquire wealth

Sounds like a lot of hard work.

The average developed world salary is around 30k. Less for those in their twenties. What's more, this hasn't changed in 15 years. More and more people are getting stuck at low to average incomes with little prospect of advancement.

Real world, I don't know anybody approaching a six figure salary without being talented and extremely hard working.

Miscers aren't some special breed. Most of us aren't exceptionally bright or hard working. Most of us will earn average salaries for the rest of our lives.

Point of thread was how to make that average salary work for you and give you a better quality of life.

[samsbolton]

8 figure net worth is possible to attain for highly ambitious and relatively smart people.

I would guess I know about 300 people well enough to talk to socially (includes work, sports/social clubs, friends of friends etc)

Of those, no more than 3 have net worth upwards of 8 figure

Not many more than 15 earn 6 figures or close to. Of those, perhaps 2 are under 50.

BTW I live in wealthy part of the uk. When miscers come on here talking about 8 figure net worth and 6 figure salaries like it's no big deal, I laugh. I don't know if they are trying to kid ourselves or them.

[Beararms]

I would guess I know about 300 people well enough to talk to socially (includes work, sports/social clubs, friends of friends etc)

Of those, no more than 3 have net worth upwards of 8 figure

Not many more than 15 earn 6 figures or close to. Of those, perhaps 2 are under 50.

BTW I live in wealthy part of the uk. When miscers come on here talking about 8 figure net worth and 6 figure salaries like it's no big deal, I laugh. I don't know if they are trying to kid ourselves or them.

This I know aspiring for a big salary is always good and you should strive for it, but you have to be realistic at the same time.

[yungballin14]

G4p

[samsbolton]

G4p

Again?

[ftbwtb]

get a 2 year diploma as a petroleum technologist.

work for a few years. At the same time you are working at boring ass oil field, learn poker.

After you've acquired some capital buy a one way ticket to Las Vegas.

Play poker =?????

=Profit

[samsbolton]

get a 2 year diploma as a petroleum technologist.

work for a few years. At the same time you are working at boring ass oil field, learn poker.

After you've acquired some capital buy a one way ticket to Las Vegas.

Play poker =?????

=Profit

poker is so 2008. So is petroleum

[samsbolton]

Here's another one

Lifestyle expectation:

You've heard that most pro athletes go broke when they retire. A lot of that comes down to getting used to a lifestyle where basically everything can be bought without a second thought, and then failing to adjust spending to match a lower level of income when the big contracts dry up.

Friends have often told me I'm tight with money, but I never wanted to get used to a certain lifestyle and then be under pressure to earn enough to keep that consumption going. Common examples might be getting used to a new car every year, several foreign vacations annually, or eating out more than a couple of days a week.

Subconsciously I guess I knew that I would not be able to let go of that type of lifestyle and indeed I've seen it with plenty of friends who have run up eye watering debts for this very reason.

We are surrounded by talentless twits on the telly who seem to live these outrageous lives, don't get sucked in, they almost certainly can't afford it either.

[jwlee7ucla]

the easiest ways to make money, is to pay someone to do it for you.

[_zman]

1. Don't get married
2. Buy quality items or build them yourself
3. Become handy, learn to do everything yourself, (maintenance) but only if you enjoy it. Or there is an opportunity cost to make more money doing something else.
4. Invest early and only if you understand what you're doing (real-estate, stocks)
5. Buy cars used, at least 5 years old to avoid most depreciation
6. Live below your means

[samsbolton]

1. Don't get married
2. Buy quality items or build them yourself
3. Become handy, learn to do everything yourself, (maintenance) but only if you enjoy it. Or there is an opportunity cost to make more money doing something else.
4. Invest early and only if you understand what you're doing (real-estate, stocks)
5. Buy cars used, at least 5 years old to avoid most depreciation
6. Live below your means

Excellent advice, agreed.

Here's another one I've always done.

Live behind the technology curve. I've done this with everything, video games, computers, cars, and especially phones. I have, just yesterday, bought my first smartphone. And it's on one of the cheapest contracts possible. Don't laugh, it's a 5s. A fraction of the price of whatever the latest phone is, can probably do 90% the same stuff. Of course it's probably only 3 years since that phone was the pinnacle of phone technology anyway.

Being an 'early adopter' will cost you srs $ every time. Is it really worth it? Are you really missing out?

Again, it's not what you earn, it's what you keep..

[wedwabbit]

Excellent advice, agreed.

Here's another one I've always done.

Live behind the technology curve. I've done this with everything, video games, computers, cars, and especially phones. I have, just yesterday, bought my first smartphone. And it's on one of the cheapest contracts possible. Don't laugh, it's a 5s. A fraction of the price of whatever the latest phone is, can probably do 90% the same stuff. Of course it's probably only 3 years since that phone was the pinnacle of phone technology anyway.

Being an 'early adopter' will cost you srs $ every time. Is it really worth it? Are you really missing out?

Again, it's not what you earn, it's what you keep..

word on the tech comment

I'm like the only one in my group of friends that makes his phone last 2 years. small improvements aren't legendary no matter what trend lemming companies like apple tell you

i've always said a saying slightly different, but basically the same - its not what you make its what you save

[Wondergambler]

Being a winning gambler like me
especially sports betting

[WeedWizard420]

Design a stupid, addictive app. Release it for free, but have increasingly intrusive advertisements and give people a vague addiction giving them incentive to use in-game currency (earned VERY slowly through gameplay or bought for huge advantages at small amounts). Go viral like Angry Birds (or Pokemon Go, but that was an already established franchise). Get offered movie deals for a ridiculously stupid premise that doesn't lend itself to narrative. Wait for the all-female reboot in 5 years.

This tbh.