Wealth Help Me Become Rich

[Marcellus]

Guys,

I'm young, I'm hungry and I'm ready to strive for greatness.
I'm not talking about rich in the sense where I'm famous and have 10 cars and a big fucking Mansion, I mean rich as in where in I can live comfortably and have freedom from everything and probably retire early as well.

Right now I've finished my first year of University and I've got 3 months off, whilst nearly all of my friends have devoted their time to netflix and drinking every weekend I've been hitting the books. I've started a course on NLP, speed reading and boosting my memory, copywriting and I'm also learning Coding as well. I'm trying to learn a new language and trying to study Affiliate marketing which has been very difficult so far( I can't seem to find much material on learning it). In the meantime I'm pretty much improving myself daily and trying to reach my pickup goals as well.

So for the older guys on the boards, What would you have done differently/studied in the past that would allow you to live the kind of life that you've always wanted? How should I go about making money in the future?
And for everyone else, What should I be doing/studying/learning to help my future self benefit the most? And hopefully live a comfortable life with all the freedom and wealth I desire.

I'd appreciate all help

Marcellus

 

[Parkour]

I'm going to give some serious advice here.
You can make money and a career in millions of ways

First, what do you like/love? Pick companies whose products or services you believe in or find interesting. It can either be important or fun but there has to be an opportunity to care and believe in it. If you're not really into it, you won't be able to motivate yourself. Get yourself closer and closer to industries and/or roles you would enjoy talking about when you're not at work.

In any organization, you have three responsibilities. If you can grasp these and balance them well, you will always advance anywhere.
1.) Does the company benefit from the work I''m doing with a positive return on investment. You should have a general idea of the company's total investment in you including extra taxes, insurance, equipment, benefits, etc... take your salary and add in a buffer. If you can't demonstrate that the work you are doing in the role that you're in is in the best interest of the company than you need to correct this.

2.) Are you giving your team members time back? Are you providing them with value? If you do 4 hours of work but someone had to take 3 hours of time to explain it to you or to correct or review your mistakes then there was really only a net benefit of 1 hour. You have to do things competently enough that other people don't have to micro manage you. Don't wait until someone gives you something to do. Offer things you can do to help them proactively and you'll be in a much better position to fill your day with tasks that you can be successful with.

3.) Does the company's end customer benefit from the work you're doing? You want to know how what you're doing benefits end customers because ultimately they will make or break the whole organization. It is the ultimate defense to being challenged in organization politics. Your work leads to repeat business and happy referrals.

All of this means that you are operating more like a contractor selling in your value. Let that reframe sink in. The job is a gig. The company is your client. You will see opportunities in these three areas to make yourself more valuable and so you will always have reasons to charge more (ask for raises or promotions or better opportunities)

Now for the how part.. network with different people in a hiring or referral capacity.. discuss business with them to help uncover answers for the questions above.. when you know you can provide value on all three of those levels.. you will know how to pitch yourself into the position, how much you can reasonably ask for in salary and it still be a win-win, and how you will make everyone involved in hiring or referring you be grateful they did.
You can literally pitch your way into a job that isn't offered or explain how you can perform parts of two roles if you aren't fully qualified to take on either one fully, and how that might still be a better deal for the group. I always find it facinating to find out how different organizations operate and get things done.



This won't work for cog-in-a-machine roles or people operating like short-order cooks waiting for a request but those jobs are commodities anyway and are always a race to the bottom in terms of income or automating those jobs away. Stay away from those jobs. Also avoid roles where it's normal to complain or situations where people are always trying to extract value from the organization against the organization's interests.

 

[Seppuku]

Hey Marcellus,

I can't advise you what is the field you should be going, for one reason - the fields of business which are successful today might not be the same in the future. It's always changing! And changing at an increasingly faster pace. In the 1960s it was chemistry. In the 1970s and 1980s it was electronics. Then internet boom. Then telecoms. Then mobile computing and social medias. What's next? Cloud computing? For how long? Very hard to predict today which field is going to be the field of the future.

What is sure is you need to remain *flexible* and versatile enough to adapt to changing environments. You must have core skills that are *transferable* from one field to another. You must keep your ability to learn the specifics of new fields as they come along.

About growing your wealth, you need to know clearly what is your target, in dollar terms, and in which horizon. Say you want a home paid for, plus a million USD in some investments generating cash, in 30 years for now. Then you have two ways, the investor way, and the entrepreneur way.

The investor way: You find some investment vehicle to which you have access, generating returns. Then determine how much you need to save each month, at this investment rate, to reach your target in the given horizon. For instance, stock market (the field I know well), but it could be something else, e.g. real estate rents and capital appreciation. Stocks have generated 6.5% return in excess of inflation over the last two centuries. At 6.5% per year, you will need to save 1000 USD per month, each month for 30 years, to reach 1 million USD. Then you will need a job that pays your living expenses plus home mortgage, then allows you to save 1000 USD each month. It gives you an idea of what you are aiming for. It may be less savings at the beginning, and more later, as you progress in salary.

The entrepreneur way: You first take a salary job for ten years in an industry that you like. Learn all you can about this industry. Who are the actors? Suppliers? Customers? Service Providers? Can you identify a niche in this Industry, with a need, and insufficient supply? When you know everything inside out, you start a business. You may want to save as much capital as possible to help you startup your business, say 100000 USD in ten years horizon. Again that will tell you how much you need to save each month to achieve the goal.

The idea here is to help you identify early what your targets and goals are, in terms of saving and learning needs. Then you keep track of your objectives. Quantify them year by year, write them down and track your progress. Once in a while you need to assess whether your current route is taking you closer to where you want to be. If not, make the required changes in your direction. Never get yourself stuck in a job that prevent you from progressing. Remember that when you're on a paid job, you are using your time to make someone else's objectives progress. This only works if your own objectives are satisfied.

That's my best advice!

Cheers,
Seppuku
PS. And avoid marriage as long as you can, a wife is a very expensive asset. Or was it liability? LOL

 

[Marcellus]

Thanks you two!

I just don't wanna have to join the corporate world and live a 9-5 lifestyle, I'd rather kill myself. You two have given me some good starting points, it's much better to start out early now so I can hopefully build the lifestyle I want in the future.

Marcellus

 

[PrettyDecent]

Marcellus,

Copywriting and coding are both difficult skills, individually. You're better off choosing one and learning it, then learning the other.

If you read/do everything on here, you'll start off as a hell of a copywriter:
https://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/ne ... rience.htm

After that, get on Elance.com or other freelancing websites and start bidding low (read: $20 per hour) on jobs for experience.

Make sure to write a couple example pieces of copy (or coding, if you go that route) for potential clients to see.

Nick

 

[skin_man]

It's a daily grind Marcellus.

For instance, i think one should have multiple streams of income and several skills. Then daily do more than the last time as a commitment to give higher quality to your fans, supporters and customers.

But to be fair i can tag you along : here's a link to a teeming business you can begin with -- http://www.joinmysfiteam.com/17368231

My mission is to earn enough to supersede all bills and all debts.

 

[readjusting]

Okay, I'm not exactly rich but I'm quite well-to-do for a university student.
My advice: Get a part-time job. $10 an hour is better than nothing.
I started with a $10/hr part-time job, then it became $17/hr, and now it's about to become a $48/hr internship.
Basically, when you make money, even small, you'll get a kick out of it, then you'll try to figure out how to make even more money.

Here's a good read:
https://markmanson.net/do-something

Get a part time job:
If you're in university, you can get a part-time job on campus. For example, my first part time job was collecting tickets for parking. If they're hiring, they'll post ad on the school's website.

 

[Average]

I don't really have much to add to the current advice given. All I can say is to keep a close eye on your expenses. The less expenses you have, the more money you'll have for investing or saving. So try to cut down on useless stuff like junk food and wasting electricity, et cetera. (Although, you should allow yourself to enjoy yourself occasionally)

I've also noticed that in times of stress, people tend to blow off money more frequently as a way to make themselves feel better. So be weary of that.

Budgeting is pretty much a must.