Get Rich Quick versus Get Rich Slowly…

What with the recent GameStop events and Bitcoin reaching almost $60,000 per coin. I thought a good subject to discuss would be my own thoughts on getting rich quick, sometimes very quick. I also wanted to make the post a bit broader to include other methods that are perhaps not exactly get rich quick approaches but could no doubt result in getting to FI quicker than my current get rich slow approach.

I am writing this post as much as anything to also help get down my own thoughts on paper so to speak, in a structured way to help myself work through my own recent FOMO feelings and to as always get much valued opinions from my friends in the FI community. 

My current position & plan (Get Rich Slowly)

First to lay down the foundation here. I myself am in a very fortunate position to have a good opportunity to end up becoming financially independent in my life. I have a shot at reaching close to 1 million in liquid portfolio terms perhaps by my mid 50s and to achieve Base Bare Bones FI at 35.  It will take me another 20 years or so to get to this Full Fat FIRE stage and I am already several years into my FI journey thus far. I feel immense gratitude for even having a shot at this to begin with which I have discussed here before.

To recap, I am taking the following broad approach to achieving FI:

  • Have a decent good professional main income
  • Have a side hustle earning a little extra income per month
  • Own a mortgage free home
  • Have £10,000 in a Cash is King Fund at all times 
  • High savings rate (50%+ Plus)
  • Invest monthly into Vanguard funds with a mixture of stocks/bonds (LifeStrategy)
  • Essentially my strategy is Investing into the continued growth of humanity through being invested in all major companies and governments (Their failure would likely be bad for all of us irrespective of whether you are invested or not)  
  • Using the 4% SWR with plenty of buffer available monthly so I can take less money when large bears appear
  • The insurance policy if the above didn’t work will be having State and Public pensions that would kick in at 68+
  • The additional insurance policy would also be of a likely inheritance at some point

Two friends seeking Get Rich Quick plans

The reason for this post as mentioned has in large part been from the recent huge gains in cryptocurrency and the increased awareness by many of communities online like wallstreetbets. These events in particular have rubbed off on people I know personally. I have two good friends who have been discussing at length with me of their journey towards riches – one of which is a very good friend of mine who has been studying get rich quick schemes in general and who really really wants to become a multi-millionaire at some point in his life. 

The other friend is an ex boss who is obsessed with all things crypto and who is, it seems currently strapped on top of a rocket heading for the moon no less. (Why you would want to go to a cold and desolate land devoid of life is odd to me but still…)

Crypto moon landing ex boss

This ex boss of mine who I consider a good friend has been chronicling the journey of crypto for me for a few years now. I first got to know him just before the crypto bull-run in late 2017. He had always been bullish on crypto before this but during this rise, he insisted that I get into it and ride the money train as he called it then. From memory he tried to encourage me daily to invest when it was around $10,000 and with it going to $20,000 before a collapse I would of indeed made some money if I had sold at the right time however I had a feeling that it would certainly crash and I simply didn’t want to join in on something that firstly, I didn’t really understand, and secondly what appeared to me something that was only rising due to people wanting to make money. I didn’t want to follow the crowd at the time.

Fast forward to when Bitcoin was at $5,000 just over a year ago. My boss almost begged me to invest my money as he assured me Bitcoin would be at $100,000 within a year or 2. He said it was pretty much a guarantee but then occasionally would advise not to go all in but you should put lots on the table he said. I set up an eToro account and created a virtual fund comprised of Bitcoin and Etherium to the value of over half of my money at the time which was £100,000. I did this to show him what might have happened if I listened to him and held (diamond hands 💎💎). I checked this account at various times and saw that it had doubled and then went up to £400,000 sometime last year. I recently checked and saw that the value was now stood at £1.1million.

EToro Virtual Wallet


Original Investment£100,000.00
Increase %1018.6%
Holdings£1,108,012.98

I’ll be honest, I was a little bit annoyed at this no doubt but I found it amusing to be fair. I was expecting to prove to him that it was a bad idea to listen to him at that time but the reality is that its still hindsight to me as at the time when he told me it would go up and I’d make loads of money, just in the same way as if someone would right now say it will go to $500,000 a coin I’m a year from now. It would not be a rational move with my current goals or mindset to invest £100,000 of my hard earned money into something so speculative and volatile as this. That was the case then and is still the case now. It’s the same reason I wouldn’t be frustrated if I didn’t invest £100,000 on Liverpool beating Man City 2-0 when I now know that was the actual result later on.

Also, If you are wondering if he became a millionaire out of this? Well no he didn’t as he was trying to make money from other alt coins instead and was trading Bitcoin rather than buying and holding, he should have listened to his own original advice perhaps 🤔. The fact is, if I had done this. I would have been taking a ridiculously huge risk that goes against my nature and goals and even if I had done it, I would have probably sold when it doubled and not held all the way to the current heights. I can only laugh at this now though, it’s the only way to make the pain more bearable 😄.

Any Get Rich Quick scheme will do friend

The next friend of mine to talk about seems to be obsessed with wealth creation strategies. He has researched heavily into get Rich quick schemes during the last year via YouTube and online via various websites and by reading countless books. He has been very tempted to dabble with cryptocurrency but hasn’t as of yet. He doesn’t really have that much money available or a clear easy route to FI as it currently stands and I think he is representative of many people who are pursuing Get Rich Quick ideas.

He is by no means fully gullible and naive don’t get me wrong, he does indeed question schemes claims but believes he only needs to find one small nugget in an otherwise sea bed full of sand and rocks. He often talks to me about the latest method he is looking at and is even now tempted to try and stock pick the next Amazon or invest in the next meme stock. This stems from him following the GameStop story very closely and wanting to benefit from momentum investing. He certainly has a large dose of FOMO running through his veins at all times lately.

Methods of getting Rich


Whilst being a close witness to my two friends who are seeking getting rich quick and sometimes very quickly. I have also done some of my own thinking on this subject and have detailed some of the ways I or others could look at getting rich quick or quicker and what I personally think of them. For obvious reasons, I have excluded any illegal methods :D.

Get Rich Quick

  • Receive a large inheritance 
  • Play the lottery or similar big win competitions
  • Gamble on betting sites and/or casinos
  • Gamble on speculative investing (Including day trading/options – YOLO – Diamond hands baby! 💎💎)
  • Find an unknown or rare strategy that reliably earns large sums of money

When it comes to the ways above for getting rich quick. I think the speculative risky investments or actions such as sports betting and casinos are simply pretty much all essentially gambling where you are very unlikely to succeed especially in the long term. Also when it comes to stock picking the next Amazon or day trading, I think I know myself very well and that risking my own money and possibly chasing losses might be the undoing of me similar to my very close to dangerous experience with matched betting was that I have talked about before.

As for playing the lottery or entering competitions for me are just so unlikely to result in a big win, I personally wouldn’t waste time with them and as for getting a large and perhaps unexpected inheritance, well there’s not too much you can do to invoke that.

I think the final method about finding some unknown or rare method to making lots of money is certainly possible and no doubt is being done by people out there. I just feel that being able to find these methods and to engage in ones that are not illegal is such a hard thing to do and that along the way you are likely to end up burning through so much cash for little if any reward. If you find any methods though, be sure to hit me up yeh? Oh wait you mean, you want to keep it to yourself so as to not undermine the method? That’s mean, share the wealth man!

Get Rich Quicker

  • Pursue career advancements whether through management or specialisation/contracting
  • Get a side hustle or two
  • Create and run a successful business that can grow
  • Find an unknown or lesser known strategy and or skill that reliably earns modest sums of money
  • Become a highly skilled stock picker like Warren Buffet

I think get rich quicker strategies are when compared with get rich quick methods far more likely to pay off and are more achievable in a probability sense. I think the best way to get rich quicker will be to either further your career as far as you can go or become very specialised in your role that can then earn you far more money than you may currently earn. If you can work on a side hustle to earn extra money then this is also no doubt a more realistic way of earning extra money. These methods will of course require hard work and effort and will not result in overnight riches but can certainly help fast track the journey to FI if you are committed and retool/learn as required.

The other option of running a very successful business is also certainly a credible way of getting rich quicker but this will require substantial effort and a good dose of luck along the way to become a success. This luck of course many people will deny is needed. After all you cannot mention luck in the presence of a self made man!

Similar to the getting rich quick method of finding an unknown or rare strategy to make lots of money, there can be ways to make extra money that are not as well known or understood. These ways certainly exist however and one clear example of matched betting comes to mind. This method albeit time limited for most seemed too good to be true for me and yet turned out to be a good side hustle for a number of years. I think being able to find methods that are not time limited or limited to a finite amount of profit are also very hard to find and require some luck to achieve. People will often get scammed out of their money or simply lose money when carrying out speculative investments and/or methods. Also, If you find that you can reliably make decent money from stock picking like Warren buffet then huge respect to you.

Why I Choose Get Rich Slowly Over Get Rich Quick

I used the words VERSUS instead of OR in this post as of course, I would love to get rich quick or quicker instead of slowly if it was otherwise a like for like comparison. Its very similar to would I like to earn more, such as perhaps an extra £500 at work per month. Well of course I would take that money if there was no negative change to my work life or circumstances as a result. It’s all about the consequences and likelihood of success almost in a cost / benefit analysis sense.

When it comes to the getting Rich quick methods I detailed. I think that almost everyone will need an enormous amount of luck to achieve getting rich quick via those. I feel it’s going to be very hard or unlikely for any reliable quick legal get rich quick method to work. I don’t want to waste my time looking for a needle in a very large haystack where I may well get burnt along the way.

I have however employed some of the get richer quicker strategies as I outlined. I have had a 3 year stint at a matched betting side hustle and have another side hustle I have been doing for nearly 16 years that brings some extra money in monthly. I also am in a decent professional position at work that I am happy with. I know there would be room for making more money where I work through promotions but I just don’t think the extra work pressure/stress and management meeting involvement would be worth the extra few hundred a month I’d get. I also certainly wouldn’t want another side hustle taking more of my time as I value having the free time more. I also don’t think contracting suits me currently either but I will never say never.

I admire those that start a business and I have friends that have done this successfully. I think though that the method is just not a fit for my personality. I don’t want to run or own my own business. Maybe it’s just being lazy but I just don’t want to go through all the hard work and long hours for something that may not actually pan out. That’s just me though, I have nothing against it and for those that want to give it a try, best of luck!

When it comes to ways similar to matched betting for making extra money to help get rich that bit quicker, I will always be interested in finding these. I just don’t spend loads of time hunting for them as I am in no desperate need for extra income if I am honest. I think I am at a happy place income wise. If it’s low effort and low risk though, sign me up! 

Finally, with regard to just general stock picking and speculative investments in start ups or penny stocks or the next GameStop YOLO craze. Do I still get FOMO? Yes there is a twinge for sure. I know other people in the FI crowd have put aside some of their portfolio, perhaps 5 or 10% for fun investments etc that they are then happy (to an extent) to lose. I feel though that for now at least, I will just carry on sticking to my get rich slowly approach along with some get rich quicker enhancements and if It means I miss out on what I consider low chance big gains then so be it, I am also missing out on more likely what would be losses! My previous experience with matched betting also makes me wary of my own vices.

I think to summarise:

  • Getting rich quick for almost everyone will require enormous luck and isn’t usually achievable
  • Getting rich quicker requires hard work and some amount of luck along the way for almost all and is usually achievable 

I would love to know your thoughts on this topic, have any of you managed to strike it rich following any methods listed or not listed here?

TFJ

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weenie
3 years ago

Nice write up, Chris – who wouldn’t want to get rich quick but like you, I choose not to throw my energies into aiming for that. I’ve run virtual portfolios with eToro before but when I’ve got no skin in the game, I lose interest really quickly and my actions do not reflect the actions (or the risk) I would take had real money been invested. I’m happy for other people to win (or lose) on cryptocurrency, I don’t think FOMO will push me into parting with any cash there. I do think cryptocurrency will feature heavily in the future… Read more »

Tom
Tom
3 years ago

Hey Chris, good article and very timely indeed! It has been a mad 2021 for FOMO so far. I avoided the GME frenzy and saw some friends get burnt. I succumbed for a day to the silver fever and bought a x3 leverage long product… quickly came to my senses and sold though (£5 profit!). I think BTC is the main driver for FOMO at the moment, whilst I have a lot of reservations as to its longevity it can be hard to see those gains from the sidelines. The fact that so many are now pushing the narrative online… Read more »

Dividend Power
3 years ago

Rich quick is possible. There are many people including me who looked at bitcoin or some high flying stocks that passed on them. But rich slow and steady is possible too and the is what I believe in.

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Jase
2 years ago

I’m too risk adverse to consider the crypto side of things in my ‘getting rich’ method. I can see some absolutely crazy daily gains but also at the same time some crazy losses!

Unfortunately the boring slow method of index fund remains my go to!

TheFireStarter
2 years ago

Solid post! Not much anyone rational could disagree with here. I’m pretty risk tolerant so have punted a percentage of my NW on crypto, start up/crowd funding investing, and a few other things I probably forgot about as they lost me money haha. None have born fruit (yet) so it does go to show is not only getting involved but you have to be very lucky with timing and/or other factors as well. There is nothing worse than listening to someone gloat over something like making money on crypto without them acknowledging the fact they got very lucky they didn’t… Read more »

Mat
Mat
2 years ago

Nice article. Will link in our next FI Europe newsletter 🙂

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