A friend of mine came up to me the other day, after seeing one of my “Get Rich Slowly” billboards and asked, “ Why would you market to get rich slowly, I want to get rich fast”. To which I replied, “then you shouldn’t be one of my clients, should you?” He was a little shocked that I rejected his business that way but I explained to him that getting rich fast is possible, it’s just not probable. Getting rich slowly on the other hand was not only possible but, done correctly, probable.
There are lots of examples of people getting rich fast but unfortunately, investing isn’t one of them. Sure, there are people who have bought a penny stock and ended up owning Amazon or American Barrick. But buying a penny stock should in no way be confused with investing. And for every penny stock success story there are thousands of people, if not millions, who thought they were buying a future Gold giant and ended up with a small share in a moose pasture.
On the flip side of the coin are the people who have actually created real wealth through investing. Sure, on average they may have a few more grey hairs, but when it comes time for them to actually live off of their investments, there is a larger pot at the end of their rainbow.
And the downside to a strategy of getting rich fast is not getting rich at all.
