You found my website, which means you are probably interested in money and having more of it. Welcome! I’m happy you’re here.
I’ll cut right to the chase. Here’s how to get rich: find a way to make money, keep as much of it as you can, and invest, invest, invest.
It’s literally that simple.
There’s no such thing as a hot stock tip or get rich quick scheme – emphasis on scheme. Unless you’re a secret princess (Mom? Am I?!), there’s no quick path to wealth, but it absolutely can be simple and easy if you take the time to learn some of the basics.
Yes, there’s lots of ways to make money, and lots of ways to go about saving that money, and lots of ways to invest that money. Everyone will have their own money journey and will find the path to wealth that will work for them. But none of those strategies will be successful without doing all three of these things.
Here’s how I did it.
Make Money
Get a job, negotiate for a raise, buy an investment property, start a side hustle. I did (and still do) all that stuff, because I’m always looking for ways to increase my income.
I used to be so idealistic about my professional career, wanting to work for a good company with a mission that mattered, and to feel like I was really part of something. And then I realized there is nothing in this world I am so passionate about that I want to spend 40+ hours every week for the next 40 years of my life doing it. So, for me, it became about the money. And because a job is literally trading your time for money, I decided to find a career that would help me maximize the money part so I could minimize the time part. And that strategy has paid off in the form of larger and larger salaries and bonuses.
But that’s just me, and I understand that many of you are probably far better humans than I am, and have dedicated yourselves to careers and professions you really love. And many of you are probably out in the world making a difference every day and getting paid far too little to do it.
A woman with a college degree will earn approximately $2.4M in her lifetime (compared to $3.3M for a dude, but we’ll save that rage post for later), which is a nice stack of cash for most of us. So while it helps to constantly keep an eye out for opportunities to make more money, whether through negotiating a raise or creating multiple income streams, what you do with the money you’re making is important.
Keep Money
Look, I get it, saving is not sexy. It’s boring.
So I like to think of it a little differently. Instead of saving money, like a good girl, I keep my money, like a goddamn boss. Because it’s mine. I earned it.
And because I’m a boss, I pay myself first. When I was younger and just starting out on my journey to becoming a millionaire, I was short on cash with a lot of bills to pay. So I started small by keeping 10% of my paycheck every month and diverting it directly to a savings account until I built up three months worth of expenses in my emergency fund.
I also set myself up with a budget to figure out where I was spending all of my money every month so I could determine if those expenses were worth it. I used to be a stickler about budgets; tracking every dollar and sticking to my spending limits for every category each month. And if you can get that intense about a budget, more power to you! While I’ve relaxed a bit in my own approach to budgeting, I still do it, because it ensures the single most important thing about keeping my money: that I live below my means. The one line item in my budget that I never compromise on? Paying myself. I think of it as just another bill that has to be paid every single month.
After getting my financial foundation in place, I got serious about wiping out my student loans. Here’s the thing with debt, particularly high-interest debt from credit cards, personal loans, and many student loans: its designed to stick around. The companies lending you that money want you to take a long time to pay it off because that’s how they make the most money off of you, the borrower. If you only pay the minimum payment every month, its going to stick with you longer than a sweaty sports bra on a humid day. You know what I’m talking about, and its terrible. You have to be proactive to pay it off as fast as possible, so the lenders make as little money off of you as possible, and you get to keep more of your hard earned and well deserved money in the long run.
I paid off my highest interest loans as fast as I could while juggling regular living expenses, which took me about 4 years. I had a couple of lower-interest government loans that I paid off more slowly over the next 3 years after that, while I simultaneously saved for a down payment for my first property.
As I got older and started making more money, I did my best to fight lifestyle creep, and I upped my savings percentage every chance I got. Now, I’m keeping somewhere around 40% of my net income and investing it.
Invest, Invest, Invest
Investing is the single most important thing you can do to build long term wealth. And it isn’t nearly as complicated as people (I’m looking at you, finance bros) make it seem.
Investing simply means buying an asset, like a property, or pieces of a company in the form of shares, and holding on to it for a long time. Investing is also how we make our money work for us so we don’t have to work as hard (or as long) for it.
As Abigail Disney said,
“Money just makes money. Its like you put it in a room and you close the door and it has sex and then more money babies grow. That’s kind of how it works.”
One of the easiest ways to get started investing (and making those money babies) is by participating in an employer sponsored retirement plan, like a 401(k). And by doing it as early in your career as you can. Its likely that your company also offers some form of a 401(k) match, where they will match you dollar for dollar with what you contribute to the plan, usually up to a certain percentage. That’s free money! So at a minimum, you’ll want to contribute enough to get the company match, which is what I did until I had purchased my first property. Once you’ve increased your income enough, start maxing out your annual contributions until you hit the federal limit ($20,500 for 2022 for anyone under 50).
Investing is a long term game, so once I set myself up with my 401(k) plan through my employer, I directed all my contributions to low-cost index funds, which consistently have resulted in approximately a 10% average annual return, based on the last 40 years of market performance. Target retirement date funds are a good example of this, as are index funds that track the entire stock market, like the Vanguard Total Market Index Fund, which trades under VTI as an ETF, or VTSAX as a mutual fund. Don’t worry, VTI is going to get a lot of air time on this website.
Buying a property, like a condo or a single family home, is another form of investing. I am a big fan of using real estate as a way to build long term wealth, especially here in the US where homeownership is heavily incentivized by the government. But I also understand something like homeownership is not necessarily for everyone and every situation. I personally bought a home as soon as I could get the down payment together, because I live in an expensive city and didn’t want to keep throwing away $25,000 a year on rent. Instead, I diverted that expense into my own pocket by paying a mortgage and building equity in my first home. That equity, combined with property appreciation, and the value I added by making a few renovations resulted in a 42% return on my initial investment in just about 2 years, all while paying a mortgage that was lower than my monthly rent payment. I turned that profit into the down payment on my next home and repeated the process all over again.
The MM will dedicate a ton of space on this blog to talk about investing, because its impossible to become financially independent without it.
It may take time, and that time horizon will be different for everyone, but consistently committing to these three things over time will put you in a much stronger place financially, and you’ll be well on your way to being rich.