The Five Steps To Wealth

In Australia there are just five ways to become truly wealthy - assuming that your idea of wealth is having heaps and heaps of money to do whatever you like, whenever you like and with whoever you like. That's not my idea of true wealth but it does seem to be for most people. So assuming that it is yours, let me tell you how to get there:

Method One: Inherit it. This is by far the easiest way to become traditionally wealthy but you have little choice or say in the matter. It's estimated between 8 and 10 percent of wealthy Australians got there through the genetic lottery and that figure gets less and less as time goes by (according to those that do these type of surveys). The trouble with inheriting wealth, in my never humble opinion and based on my limited observation of the few I know that have inherited it, is that they tend to trust nobody and are always trying to prove to themselves (and others) that if they hadn't inherited the dollars they have the natural ability to get it anyway. They tend to be not generally happy people and quite obsessive and over achievers to the point of being boring - again, just my opinion and based on limited observation.

Method Two: Start Your Own Business. If you have the ability to do something really well and you don't start your own business based on those talents you are absolutely crazy. Selling your talents piece-meal to an employer week by week means they are making the big bucks out of whatever talent you have and, in return, doling out as few dollars as they have to to keep you doing it on their behalf. Being entrepreneurial on your own behalf and for your own personal rewards (whatever they may be) opens up doors and possibilities you can't believe. Yes, you may fail to begin with. So what? What are they going to do? Line you up against the nearest KMart wall and shoot you? If the first idea doesn't work go with idea two. How do you identify these skills? Well if you can't identify your own skills, give yourself an upper cut and wake up. If you have a set of skills from which you can make a comfortable living and you don't, you are a fool to yourself. Read that again because it is important. If you have a set of skills from which you can make a comfortable living and you don't, you are a fool to yourself.

Method Three: Become a professional. Requirement one: a very good and time consuming education and the mental capacity to absorb lots of detail and written material. If you are an accountant or architect or lawyer or doctor and good at what you do you will make a motza. If I had my time all over again (the eternal dream) I would be an accountant. My life experience has showed me that "book keepers" are, and will probably always be, in demand regardless of how many computer software programmes they write and develop. There ALWAYS has to be someone to input the information that the computers need to compute. It certainly seems less demanding than being a doctor and more interesting than being a lawyer!

Method Four: Become a senior executive at a large company - make sure you pick a really large one because nothing is certain these days with medium sized companies. You then get to play the corporate games like making sure you stay on the right side and under notice of the high level corporate executives, work incredibly long hours to demonstrate to them that you "live for the company" and think the sun shines out of their rotund rectums, become a senior executive yourself and get all the share market options and large company contributed superannuation so the last few years of your time on this planet are lived out in comfort at Noosa. Ycchh!

Method Five: Win it. About 4% of Australians generate their living expenses (note I didn't say wealth) from gambling. A quarter of that 4% generate real wealth. Half of those hang on to it through judicious process and extreme caution....the others lose it back again. Successful gambling though is not a one off event like winning Lotto - that really is a million to one chance (more actually but let's not get bogged down in the semantics of chance). Successful gambling is a lot of hard work, research and application. There are no short cuts. If you don't really and genuinely love it - whether that's gallops or trots or dogs or poker - you won't succeed because if you don't love it you won't put in the hours needed to make it work.

Now if you can combine methods two and five...........