Lot of young adults ask me “How to get Rich?” – and like I have always said..under their breath they utter “quickly”.

Like one of the persons said ‘Sir when I say rich or wealthy..I see myself roaming the world in J class and skiing in the Alps, not sipping coffee in Switzerland when I am 70 years of age” – What use is money at an old age…I want it NOW.

Sadly I do not have such get rich quick schemes – and i do not know of anybody who has such schemes. Here is what Ken Fisher has to say are the 10 steps..see what works for you..

Ken Fisher says there are Just Ten Roads to great wealth.

So, What are the Ten Roads? More importantly, what will work for you?

1. Start a successful business—the richest road! Sure you can become a Bill Gates or a Azim Premji. However even if you do not become so successful you may still be able to make a couple of crores – not bad. This route is not for all – there are many people who do not consider giving up their jobs will not find this appealing.

2. Become the CEO of an existing firm and juice it—a very mechanical function. Jack Welch did it. In the Indian context the name that comes to mind is Naik at L&T. There are many others who are in this boat, see whether you are academically inclined to do this is what you have to see. May not be easy for every one.

3. Hitch to a successful visionary’s wagon and ride along—it’s high value-added. If you partner a great idea – the entrepreneur needs support, operations, HR, etc. and all the support at the start up stage. You need not be the visionary, you need to ride along.

4. Turn celebrity into wealth—or wealth into celebrity and then more wealth! Again you need to get parents who push you hard enough to become a celebrity and you should have enough motivation to become a celebrity. Sachin Tendulkar, Anand Viswanathan are names which come to mind. However, not really easy.

5. Marry well—really, really well. Well for those of you who are not married this is a good option. Though of course with divorce available, re-consider your options. However, not an easy option. This is an option available to both men and women – but it may be easier for very beautiful women than for ordinary looking men. Make sure you stay long enough in the relationship, if you get used to the wealth EVEN IF THE SPOUSE is an idiot!

6. Steal it, legally—no guns necessary! One qualification that helps in this is the law degree in the USA. However, we all know of another professional who tried doing it, unsuccessfully. He died before he could use the money! Not getting into names and profession, but most of us know about it, do we not?

7. Capitalize on other people’s money (O P M)—where most of the mega-rich are. There are more money managers in the Forbes list than the people whose money they manage. The kind of money people throw at fund managers chasing a rainbow of “index beating” returns is not funny.

8. Invent an endless future revenue stream—even if you’re not an inventor! Well Bill Gates did it, maybe you can do it.

9. Trump the land barons by monetizing unrealized real estate wealth! A very good idea if your surname is Hiranandani, Raheja, Parekh, etc. however if your surname is Athalye, Subramaniam, Ramakrishnan, do not try this. It may not work.

10. Go down the Road More Traveled—save hard, invest well—forever! To me this seems to be the only option available to you and me. Just go through the grind. Work hard, invest well – choose a large (say 100+ scrips) index and do a SIP – assuming the amc charges are 0.5% p.a. Over a 20 year period treat it like a savings bank account. When you have money, you should invest. When you need money you should sell, simple.

To me only step 10 seems to be sensible…God bless you if you can do any of the others. If you do not do step 10, even the earlier steps may not help!!

  1. I have tracked enough wealth. If wealth does not create happiness, to me it is not wealth. Have followed some of the biggest names, and can assure you that wealth not got by effort creates more ruin for the family. To me wealth is well gotten wealth ONLY. The only cheating that i have seen is cheating the government. Somewhere it seems to have social sanction INTERNATIONALLY – see Greece and Ireland.

  2. OR you can work in goldman sachs or jp morgan.surely wall st gravy train is the one most IIM guys aspire to get on to

  3. Assuming ill-gotten wealth does not make one happy is just your “cognitive bias” not a “fact”. You are putting yourself in their position & assuming they would also not feel happy cheating people just as you Subra wouldn’t. Fancy thought.

    But I believe in our lives we humans try and “maximize” our happiness by our actions. That leads me to believe “constant cheaters” get tremendous pleasure out of just cheating others or the “outcomes” of their cheating they get to enjoy.

  4. Over a 20 year period treat it like a savings bank account. When you have money, you should invest. When you need money you should sell, simple.
    Is it advisable – given the volatility of stock market?

  5. Subbu Sir,

    The present generation is in fast forward mode. And surprisingly there are plenty of opportunities and people are exploring. For example I know one guy who just published books on demand for couple of years on self publishing. He now earned more than what he would have got if he were an employee in the same company (note that it is world class company, and the pay is so). There are many more examples, and failures too. What we should appreciate is the later have tried, which many of us won’t dare, we just think in the air.

    Even in the stock market, the definition of long term changed. I know many how benefited due to volatility in the past five years. But those look for long term are at same level as it were five years ago.

    PS: In your generation 20 years time is good time to be rich, but the would come down to 12 or 13 years to present generation. Agreed?

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