Quote:
Originally Posted by conoutoftrol
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I mainly disagree here. I guess it depends on your definition of rich but in our current system the most likely way to amass a decent amount of wealth is to be a jobber. Following common investing/retirement advice. 65% of new businesses fail within 10 years of opening. Investing that much time/capital into something with a high likelihood of failure will set you back tremendously. And if you are following the well trodden path of the jobber starting early and being consistent is key.
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It all absolutely depends on your definition of 'wealthy' or 'rich', but most people will say that what you are describing is living 'comfortably' and 'the safe path'. I don't think the comment I was addressing was describing the same thing that you are if for no other reason he mentioned winning the lottery. Pay off your house, have a little savings, and maybe a million in your retirement if you're lucky and don't run into trouble? That's pretty nice, but that's not wealthy/rich in the context of the numbers being talked about in this thread. You're not buying a million dollar luxury yacht (Holgresh beads) with that path. I'm willing to wager that 98% or better of people that play on this server never get anywhere near 500k in liquid platinum as referenced in the topic. So let's consider 'wealthy' and 'rich' within that regard. To be in the top 2% in America you need a household pre-tax income of about $500,000-600,000. There are very few specific cases where even two people together are pulling down that kind of money where at least one of them doesn't head/own a company or multiple companies or investment groups. You don't get there pushing paper for someone or working for McD's for 35 years.
Absolutely, businesses fail. There's always risk. I can use my own experience as an example. I learned about that risk pretty hard at about 20 when I had a landscaping/snow removal company and my (older) business partner ran off with the equipment leaving me to foot the bills because I naively put it all in my name. But, I've come back from that (with the
luxury of time) and started over and now have reached a level of success that 20 year old me could have never imagined. If you're afraid to fail, can't take criticism, or don't have a high drive ambition to have real control of your time, what you describe is a
great way to build wealth over a lifetime. But slow and steady doesn't always win you the race. True wealth, in my opinion, is health and control of your time. Money is just the means. Having the means to retire and only pay property taxes and maintenance on your home/homes before 40 while being in control of what you
choose to do most days is wealthy/rich to me. Retiring with ~1 million or so in your 401k and retirement account at 65 after working for 35+ years for someone else that dictates my schedule is not. At that point they've taken more from you than you received and that seems like a terrible deal to me. We also don't live in an economy anymore where people really stay at jobs for 5+ years let alone 30+ as was more common in the boomer generation. Either by their choice or their employers, it's just the reality of it.