Forget social media influencers and their dubious ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes – there are no shortcuts, or secrets, to building wealth.
Instead, the path to getting rich involves sticking to the simple rule of spending less than you earn if possible, while saving and investing as much money as you can.
It might sound easy enough. But in a world of double-digit inflation and an ongoing cost-of-living crisis – not to mention the occasional financial emergency – people tend not to harbour especially high hopes of being able to carry out this plan successfully.
But if your goal is to get rich, it’s worth persevering. To help, consider the following tips on how to swerve life’s financial obstacles while keeping a focus on the end target. They should throw some light on what it takes to build wealth along with the best ways to achieve financial security.
1) Establish financial goals
To get rich it’s important, first of all, to define what ‘rich’ actually means to you. Is your plan to become a billionaire business titan? Perhaps contentment lies in being able to build up a six-figure sum in a pension ahead of retirement.
There are as many definitions of the word ‘rich’ as there are people. So, it’s important that individuals set out their own financial goals before drawing up a plan to go about reaching them.
Doing this allows financial targets to take shape, even at an early stage. Here are some questions worth asking:
- Are you planning to start a family?
- Will you need to meet school/further education fees?
- What major purchases are you fantasising about? Second home? Classic car? Art collection?
- When do you want to retire?
- What does retirement look like? Travelling? Downsizing plans?
- What are your arrangements for passing on your wealth?
Answering these and similar questions will help you to map out financial goals and decide how much money you need to save to meet your earlier definition of ‘rich’.
The next step is to draw up a budget – a detailed plan for spending, saving and repaying debt – that lets you get to work. If you think of your finances as a house, then your budget can be regarded as its foundation.
Creating a realistic budget involves a careful review of your finances, while also taking account of financial habits and goals.
2) Deal with debt
Managed correctly, not all debt is bad. But if you’re planning to get rich, it’s worth bearing in mind that high-interest debt – for example, that generated when credit and store cards are only partially paid off each month – presents a barrier to achieving this dream.
When drawing up a budget, one of the most important considerations is to dispense with bad debt as soon as possible. That means identifying the debts that’s costing you the most and trying to eliminate it first.
At the same time, consider whether you’re managing other forms of what might be described as ‘good debt’ – the mortgage, for example – as effectively as possible. Are you on the most competitive rate, for example?
Once debts with the highest repayments rates are paid off in full, the idea is to roll over subsequent payments to tackle the next most financially damaging loans and pay them off.
Although it can be tempting to speed up paying off lower interest debt such as a personal loan or the mortgage, think again. Focusing on paying-off higher interest debts first means you’ll likely save more in the long run. Only once that’s achieved is it time to turn to items such as the mortgage.
3) Create a cushion
Establishing a rainy-day fund is an essential component of any strategy for boosting your wealth.
This emergency fund should contain readily-available cash held in low-risk savings, with enough tucked away to shield you from having to take on high-interest credit card debt in times of financial need. This might be paying for major car repairs or funding essential spending such as fixing a boiler breakdown, for example.
4) Start investing now
If we’re talking about growing wealth, it’s not usually enough just to save money in an account. To get rich, you need to make your money work harder. For most people, the way to do this is by investing in the stock market.
Investing – using money to generate a profitable return – is not for everyone, however. This is because it carries with it the risk of partial or total loss of capital (except, usually, where holdings are kept as cash).
Historically, the return on stocks and shares – going back more than a century – has outstripped that of other asset classes such as the interest payable on cash on deposit.
Before channelling cash into the stock market, however, would-be investors should weigh-up whether investing in shares is definitely for them – and to ensure they do it in a sensible and secure way.
One of the most popular ways to start investing is by opening an account with an online trading platform. DIY investing is booming. But remember that making your own investment decisions requires you to research the options and monitor your performance.
Learning how to invest is not a simple task, but the time to get started is as soon as possible. This provides your contributions with the longest possible timeframe in which to grow.
Holding your investments in an individual savings account or ISA means that your money is ring-fenced from tax – an extra way of providing a boost to your wealth.
If you don’t feel comfortable making your own decisions, a suitably-qualified financial advisor or wealth manager can help with recommendations. But this will cost more than going it alone via an online investment platform.
A middle option could be to consider using a so-called robo-advisor. This is a halfway house between DIY investing and seeking out full-blown financial advice.
Before taking the plunge with any form of stock market-related investment, ask these five questions:
- Should I seek financial advice?
- Am I comfortable with the level of risk involved and can I afford to lose money?
- Do I understand the investment in question and, if necessary, could I get my money out easily?
- Are my investments regulated?
- Am I protected if my investment provider or adviser goes out of business?
5) Diversify your portfolio
There’s no such thing as risk-free investing. But with the help of tactics such as diversification – where investors spread their holdings across a range of asset types including shares, bonds, and cash – many of the risk factors can be mitigated, hopefully smoothing a path towards financial success.
When you’re younger and have more time to build wealth, you can take on riskier investments because there is time to recover from the inevitable market declines that take place from time to time.
The older you get – and the closer you are to your definition of ‘rich’ – is when you should be shifting to less risky assets to preserve the wealth you’ve already built up.
Rob Morgan, chief investment analyst at wealth manager Charles Stanley, time is an investor’s best friend: “Never underestimate the power of even modest investments early on in life.
“There is no need to shoot for the moon. In fact, a more measured and disciplined approach is likely to be more sustainable and reliable over the longer term, than chasing the latest investment fad or fashion.”
6) Boost your income
The more money you earn, the faster you’ll be able to achieve your goal of getting rich. Boosting your earnings potential today helps to build a virtuous circle of earning more, investing more and getting closer to your goals.
One way to boost your income is by looking to progress from your current position, or even to consider a career change which better values your skills and competencies. Ways to up your earnings include:
- Document your achievements, then use them to strengthen a request for a pay rise
- Seek out mentors to help you build the skills you’ll need for higher-paying positions
- Improve your skills through classes or additional education
- If the above steps aren’t realistic, consider a career-change and a job with better prospects.
Beyond one’s primary career path, consider increasing earnings by starting a small business or temporary side hustle. Perhaps as a way to pay down debt or increase your investing budget.
7) Consider FIRE tactics
The ‘financial independence, retire early’ movement – FIRE – could be something worth learning about if the aim is to get rich quicker sooner rather than later.
Supporters of the FIRE approach to investing aim to cut all expenses by as much as possible to maximise the amount of money available to invest. Instead of spending money on, say, car loans and insurance, for example, a FIRE follower would forgo owning a vehicle and channel the savings into his or her investment portfolio.
This is an extreme example, but some of the movement’s rules of thumb – such as the ‘rule of 25’ – can be a useful financial guide. This rule suggests that individuals save 25 times their annual expenses before retiring early. For example, if you spend £30,000 a year, you’d need to build up a savings chest worth £750,000.
8) Avoid ‘schemes’
There’s a reason why the phrase “get rich quick” is usually followed by the word ‘scheme’. That’s because there are vanishingly few ways to get rich quickly, and anyone telling you otherwise is probably trying to defraud you in a scheme.
As we’ve outlined above, getting rich means knowing what you want and having the discipline to do what it takes. It may take time, but it’s both doable and worth it in the end. Make a plan, stick to it, and you’ll spot the progress when you take the right steps to build wealth.
By the same token, if someone whispers that they are on to a financial “sure thing” that “cannot lose”, walk off in the opposite direction without delay.
Remember that nothing’s for certain, few things happen as quickly as you’d like, and getting rich is the reward for a plan that’s been well executed and with patience.
