Category: FI Lifestyle

Stop Rushing towards FIRE!

And why should we perhaps stop rushing towards FIRE? Because you will get burnt silly! Bad jokes aside, my FI journey has taken its second major course correction recently after completing my Project 2235 goal and this got me thinking of tying this change in with a wider blog post. I will start with detailing the previous FI course direction change I had made including the initial direction when I left port and set sail nine years ago (I can’t believe it’s been nine years!). I will then talk about why I think rushing towards FIRE could indeed be a mistake.

The Original Plan


Roll back the clock nine years ago to 2014 when I was 27 and discovered Financial Independence for the first time. I was smitten, I could not get enough of it! I read books, read countless blogs, posted on forums most days and would check compound interest calculators almost daily. 

I was at the time very much into Buddhism, simple living and the early retirement extreme approach appealed to me although I still thought that was perhaps a bit too extreme. I liked the idea of moderately extreme early retirement. I set myself a juicy target of £250,000 at the 4% rule giving me £833 a month. I didn’t have any housing cost payments so this was a huge bonus that made me think that it was achievable and enough. It even included some limited disposable income thrown in that could spent on a few activities and the occasional game or book to suit my simple lifestyle. 

At the time, I didn’t really do too much in terms of holidays and I didn’t go out all that much. I also didn’t have a partner or kids at this point. I had a job that I very much disliked with an awful manager and I often day dreamed about not having to do it any more. I planned to FIRE all being well by around the age of 35 years old as long as I encountered a fair wind with the markets. 

During this time, I really didn’t spend much money at all on myself or doing many things. I was quite averse to spending and really had the future FIRE goal at the forefront of my mind when it came to any additional outgoings. 

The First Adjustment – it’s just not enough!


Fast forward to around 4 years later in 2018 at the age of 31. Over the previous year or so, I had started to think that I would need more money than £833 per month. I now had a partner and we were doing things together which included going on holidays. I was starting to loosen up on spending money. I came to the conclusion that my journey to FIRE was going to be a much longer one and that £250,000 / £833 a month would just not cut it for me.  Over the next few years, there was a gradual increase in my spending especially when it came to gifts, going out and going on holidays (staycations and abroad). My switch to a longer journey was also no doubt heavily influenced by changing to a new job in the same time period that was the complete polar opposite of my previous job. It turned into a job that I did not dislike. In fact, I actually enjoyed it and I also had the fortune of now having a great boss. This resulted in the urgency to get to FI being drastically lowered.

This course direction was also influenced by not wanting to deprive myself along the journey. I wanted to enjoy life now as well as plan for later enjoyment. I also wanted to create an FI pot that was safer and that’s why working until around late 40s was loosely a new goal of mine. I wanted to build up a large safety net of my public pension and state pension and instead use my FI pot as a bridge until normal retirement age which would then lessen the fear of my money running out and allow me to feel like I’m still contributing to society and working for long enough for it not to appear odd to retire so early. I know this isn’t a concern for many, but it started to be for me now in my new mindset. It bears repeating that it’s now clear to me that having a job I really liked was a big reason for this change.

In summary, I increased my FI pot goal to £600,000 / £2000 a month with the safety net of public and state pensions being secured during the extra years it would take to reach the target. This would give me a new FIRE age of around around 47-48 years old. The safety net would provide around £1800 per month at state pension age alleviating the money running out fears or concerns over the 4% rule in general. 

The Latest Course Correction – Post Project 2235


In 2019, I set up a challenge called Project 2235. I set myself the goal of reaching £250,000 by the time I was still just about 35 years old but close to being 36. This was my original FIRE target figure and target age I set in the original plan back in 2014 so this was fairly symbolic to me. I knew with aggressive savings following a recent promotion, I could perhaps achieve this. I at least wanted to invest £1500 a month for three years without having to sell any investments and this was used as the true success criteria.

After this, I planned to loosen my foot off the pedal and lower my investing to instead invest in my journey experience, doing up my home, buying a new car and being more free to spend extra money on things that provided big value to me and my partner. It almost felt as though I had used a booster rocket for so long to escape the earths atmosphere and after reaching orbit, I could now jettison the booster rockets and slow down in essence. I had already done the hard work of getting into space (£250,000 – Base FI). I no longer needed to invest such huge amounts. I hadn’t settled yet on how much I would lower my investing but just that I certainly would do – whether it be 30% or 50% less, I didn’t yet know. This would only result in me delaying FIRE by 2-3 years but would drastically give me more cash to spend. 

Fast forward to Post Project 2235 land… In the end, I didn’t reach the £250,000 exact number target due to market conditions but I was only around £15k off and I had achieved the main goal of investing £1500 a month without selling a penny of my Fund over the 3 years.  I now am in the position where I have currently cut my investing by half,  plan to by a new car next May that hopefully will last me to my updated FI target age of 50 years ish. My focus is now very much laser focussed on the next 14 years of my life with pleasant thoughts thrown in of a future too no doubt and hence this is the reason for this post.

Why stop Rushing towards FIRE?


In short – Because Life now matters, it matters a great deal! I would class rushing towards FIRE specifically as being very much focussed on the future at the expense of now both in terms of wanting to get there and be in that situation way more than you want to be where you are now and also in terms of depriving yourself along the way as a result of trying to get there that much faster. This especially applies the more younger you are and the longer the timeframe is. Here are some reasons I think it can be a bad idea.

As a means to escape a bad job

I think rushing towards FIRE for many people stems from really disliking their job rather than the whole concept of having a job itself and in turn this creates a large motivation for wanting to secure FU Money and to then be in that wonderful position to not need to work again. I know that this was certainly the case for me. I had a job that I really hated a lot of the time. The thought of working towards FIRE really did feel like gradually building the escape route out of the prison in the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’.  The difference in my personal remake of the film though was that, in the end I couldn’t suffer a bad job for so long and I ended up getting out by instead choosing to simply walk out the main gate while my tunnel out was only 20% complete – In other words, I moved to a better Job!

It’s rarely if ever possible to have the perfect job for most of us. A lot of people truth be told will find it hard to find a high paying job doing something they love, with enough variety to keep them interested, great work colleagues and just the right amount of challenge but not too much to become stressful. Despite this though, there are better jobs out there and there are jobs that you could be doing that won’t fill most of us with depression at the thought that another day at work is soon approaching. It completely changed the game for me going from a bad job to a relatively good one. I think suffering a really bad job for decades is very unwise personally as this will no doubt make you want to rush towards FIRE!

Living life on fast forward

One of the phrases I like to remind myself of in general when I spend a lot of time living far too much in the future and I catch myself almost wanting to skip hours or days or weeks to get to some certain event or milestone is that this results in me in effect living life pressing the fast forward button. Whilst there is great pleasure and utility in looking forward to and planning things and events in the future. I feel we must do this with the majority of our attention on the present. By the present, I don’t just mean just right this moment, I am talking more about today, this week or month. When it comes to our FIRE pursuit, it is common to spend lots of time day dreaming about decades in the future. I have seen many posts on Reddit by people about ‘the boring middle’ and that ‘it’s taking so long to get to my FI target, it’s depressing’.

I think it’s such a shame to want to fast forward so many years of your life away. Whilst it’s still nice to think about my future FIRE life, my focus is far more on my life now along the journey. For myself, it’s 14 years until I should be able to reach FIRE. I however want to live and enjoy these 14 years just as much as I do the years that come after. I want to enjoy still being relatively young whilst I still can. I want to enjoy my body and mind being probably the sharpest and strongest it will be. I cannot allow myself to live life on fast forward as we all know what ultimately awaits at the end of the tape…(beliefs in the after life set aside haha)

Your future days are not guaranteed

Extending on the living life on fast forward thoughts previously made. Imagine that this fast forward is being done on a video of your life when you don’t actually know when the tape will suddenly come to a stop and eject. This is a huge danger of mostly living for tomorrow at the expense of today. Whilst the odds are more in your favour of living to a decent age with no terrible life limiting ailments. This is not guaranteed at all. The fact is you may never get to see your future life that you are racing towards. You may be unfortunate to be the victim of some life limiting illness along the way. The act of putting all your eggs in the basket of the future may be unwise.

Your future imagined Post FI life being different 

In the early days of my FIRE journey, I would often day dream about what my future FI life would look like. There is nothing wrong with this and it’s one of the best motivators we can have for sure. The problem comes when we make the future life seem far more idyllic and perfect than it really will be. There will be elements of life often decades away that are completely unknown to us and that we will not consider or know through the eyes of our current selves. We may be going through a divorce, we may have health problems. We might have so much time we are now free to focus on things that actually start to slightly depress us. There have been many people who have written about once being retired, having then realised it was not what they thought it would be. They really put far too much hope of this imagined future fixing everything and it can be really disappointing when it turns out that our vision was really a rose tinted glasses version of the future reality.

Depriving yourself along the journey

I have written a few blog posts on depriving yourself along the journey before. This has been a large focus for me on my FIRE journey. I certainly did deprive myself during the early years but the whole concept of what depriving means to one person and to another means of course that only you can know if you are actually being deprived. I would just like to remind people that it is certainly something that we can do in the rush towards FIRE. This whole notion of depriving yourself probably summarises many of the early topics I have written about. Your life now matters, just as much if not more than your future life that may not even come. It is perhaps then wise to not deprive yourself along the way too much.

Life happens

The final point to discuss is that life does not always go to plan. Even if we are to live until we are 90 with no real disabilities along the way only to die peacefully in our sleep. Things can still happen along the journey that partially or completely derail it. There is the chance that many don’t want to even entertain that maybe our FI Funds will diminish when we need them the most or the next 20 years are going to be a period of stagnation and change where stock markets are fundamentally not what they used to be. We might need to get access to our bridging ISA money for urgent family needs or medical procedures that we can’t wait years for on the NHS. The list of things that could happen to direct our attentions and money elsewhere could be many. We could of course end up with a life limiting illness or disease that limits our accumulation ability, we may get divorced along the way and lose half our FI pots. There are no guarantees in life other than death and taxes after all!

Happy Being the Tortoise…


Working towards FIRE still brings me immense joy and value in the here and now and remains one of my main goals in life despite of everything I have written here, I just don’t want to miss out on so much of my life along the way and I realise that of course, I may never get there in the end.

I think I will personally settle for being more like the tortoise when it comes to the speed of experiencing life. I want to take as much in as I can along the journey and will try to avoid any urge to rush through life to the get to the destination. I look forward to the next 14 years just as much as the years there after. 

It’s the old chestnut of balancing wanting what you have now and wanting something better for the future. This imagined future being something you want to get to, something to look forward to, is of course a great motivator when it comes to any goals we have. Delayed gratification is a wonderful thing without a doubt but if it’s spread over decades with no guarantee the gratification will come or be as you desire at the expense of now, maybe it’s then not always such a wise path to follow.

I would love to hear your thoughts as always 😀

TFJ

What Financial Independence really means to me…

I have done a post previously on what financial independence means to me but I wanted to now write it from a slightly different and more interesting angle fitting more of where I am now along the journey. I thought it would a good idea to construct a few different scenarios and paths towards FI. This is also good timing for me as I will be coming towards the end of Project 2235 next year and will likely commit towards one of these such paths. An important reason for this possible change is due to the income from my second side hustle coming to an end after three years (£500 less per month). Also, as a reminder, Project 2235 is essentially a big target of mine to reach a portfolio of £250,000 (Base bare bones FI) at the end of 2022 when I will just about by a whisker still be 35 years old. 

After detailing these different paths, I will then focus on some different attributes and circumstances where financial independence and finances influence in ways that matter to me, specifically when it comes to that all important lifelong happiness. I will then score and rate how my different paths help in achieving these whilst also adding in a few others that might not matter so much to me personally but might to others just to make it more interesting and fun. From these scorings, I should then be able to choose the path with the most points overall. I will weight the attributes in scores according to their importance to me.

Once I have done this, I will then look at reviewing which path I would choose if I were to start again from scratch with different circumstances. I will update the paths timeframe to FI and the scores accordingly.

General Paths to take

Below shows different paths I could take towards FI given my current circumstances. I chose the amusing two opposite ends of the spectrum of being a Monk where almost no money is spent other than bare bones outgoings and that of a gangster where nothing was saved/invested and everything was spent, I then included some more middle ground strategies. I know though that there are many variations of these one could take and I could also look to improve salary, get another job etc to change this even more but these are the base level paths for myself as it stands with my projected portfolio as of next December (End of Project 2235).

Age 35 (Mortgage free, £250,000 Portfolio – Main job with a side hustle)


It’s worth clarifying that I am currently more or less in the same position as Gangster monk when it comes to weekly disposable albeit slightly less and have about three quarters of the yearly big expenses fund due to my 2nd side hustle which as previously mentioned is unfortunately coming to an end after 3 years and I will then be £500 a month down on my current income.  This is a big reason for looking at a possible strategy change as I am currently happy with things as they are at my current income and I don’t wish to get another side hustle unless it involves almost zero effort to replace the £500!

What do I actually want out of life? Why Pursue FI?

I could probably write a ten part series on this topic but I certainly won’t be doing that right now :). So… If I was to focus in on just a few key areas of importance to me in the grand living of life that would cross over with financial circumstances then I would highlight the following.

Increased Peace of Mind & Freedom (Remove negatives)

When it comes to finances impacting your life, it is often due to the lack thereof no doubt. As much as there can be different  unique problems with being a multi-millionaire, it’s pretty much the not having of money available that cause many of life’s worries and problems. One of the biggest benefits for me out of working towards Financial Independence has been the bonuses picked up a long the way, some of which are unlocked fairly early on.

Being able to lower or completely eliminate having bad debt and having a financial buffer are two hugely impacting benefits that can be obtained well in advance of even getting a third of the way toward achieving FI. The removing of a lot of the worries and others negative emotions that can exist when having debts hanging over you, and in not having money available for unexpected outgoings is awesome.

The next level of increased peace of mind comes from having such a big financial buffer that this buffer turns into FU Money. This helps in giving you the warm fuzzy feeling of not having to stand an awful job for the fear of not being able to cope financially in the interim, it allows you to speak your mind a little more freely as living month to month is now so far back in your rear view window. It allows you take take more risk, possibly to even start your own business or perhaps to consider a different career. Doing these such things from the position of FU is far easier and options available become far greater. The possessions of a large financial buffer also means there is much less immediate impact from a job loss triggered from redundancy or ill health.

Scoring attributes
Financial Buffer, Low or no debt, Less Job-loss impact, FU Money

Increased Abundance

When it comes to the impact of healthy finances and in particular a good flow of money being available to spend – The increased level of abundance that can be obtained is a huge benefit. Life can already provide much abundance of course and often times much of this can be free and relatively cheap no doubt. It however is also true that there is increased options and choice available when there is more money at hand. This can help add more food and drink to the buffet table of life so to speak. This can be in the form of increased travel and holidays, expensive purchases that can then provide on-going experiential happiness going forward such as buying an iPad, ps5, new guitar etc. There can be more disposable income which can allow you not to sweat over frequently gifting things to people, eating out, going on weekends away etc. This all helps to lubricate life in a positive way.

Scoring attributes
Holidays abroad, Multiple weekends away, Good disposable income (multiple activities), Everything designer Label, Big ad-hoc expensive purchases, Frequent Gifting, Frequent big expensive purchases, Amsterdam every month

Early retirement possibility

Now we get to discuss one of the major elements and goals of Financial Independence for most people involved in the pursuit – the ability of course to retire early. As readers will be aware, there are many different attitudes and goals within the FI scene and some people will simply aim to retire as early as possible whilst others may be pursuing just the ability to retire if so desired. I certainly now fall into the latter camp although originally I was firmly entrenched in the first.

For me, the huge benefit when it comes to early retirement goals is the ability to be in a sense early retirement ready. Work in older age can become completely voluntary and along the journey, there can be a sense of progressing along a scale of working also becoming more voluntary the closer and closer you get to being able to retire early. This feeling and situation certainly makes work stress feel less of an issue in my experience. The other main benefit of course relating to pulling the trigger on early retirement is the increased freedom of time. You can then choose to free up time by stopping working early but still have the option to carry on if you feel the time spent at work is still valuable and enjoyed.

Scoring attributes
Voluntary work in old age, Early retirement, More freedom of time

Risks

When it comes to working towards financial independence. There can sometimes be risks of having the pursuit rise above all else. It can be possible to pursue it from the perspective of fully admitting that you are delaying happiness now and depriving yourself to an extent for future predicted happiness. This can be done by investing every last penny and forgoing things in the here and now. The risks with doing this could be that you will never actually see your idilic version of early retirement or that when you get there, your health may not allow you to enjoy it as fully as you had hoped. There is also of course the opposite risk of not being able to retire early and due to this, you may need to work in a job you dislike for a long time and perhaps even during some period of chronic Ill health where working could make your illness even worse – work becomes pretty much forced.

Scoring attributes
Depriving yourself, Early death/illness risk, Working mandatory during Ill health/old age, Longterm work stress

Strategy Review Scoring (Age 35 – Mortgage free, £250,000 Portfolio – Main job with a side hustle)

Now that I have detailed some of the most important themes and attributes of why financial circumstances and seeking financial independence matter to me, I will now look at reviewing the strategies against these.

Points awarded are out of 5, with 5 being the best and 0 the worst

(N) This equals the weight of the score so if this is two then the points will be doubled


FI strategy at 35 Post Project 2235 – And the winner is…

Gangster Monk

Using the scoring adjusted for weighting based on importance to me, I can see that the middle path of the gangster monk gives me the biggest bang for buck on life happiness. This strategy would result in me taking around 3 years longer to reach FI however when balancing for risks and considering in turn focussing on happiness both in the now and later, it should result in more happiness when spread over the 12 years it would take to actually achieve financial independence. This really does confirm my gut feeling choice which would have been somewhere between FIRE Monk and Gangster Monk. I already have so many of the benefits at this stage of my journey towards FI that delaying my actual fully FI ready date by just over 4 years would not actually matter to me as I know I’d likely be happier along the way. 

What if I was starting from fresh?

As described in the introduction, I thought it would be interesting to see whether my choice of path was influenced more by my current position of being mortgage free and having a large portfolio to begin with and if I would choose the same path if starting again. I have chosen age 30 as this might be a typical age to start after getting to a decent salary and perhaps paying off some debt etc. I could of easily have been in this situation myself if it wasn’t for fortunate circumstances and the discovery of FI. I have adjusted the investments and weekly disposable figures slightly due to having £700 less income due to now having to pay for a mortgage. These however still reflect the broad ratio of my first scenario figures.

Age 30 (Mortgage monthly £700 payment, £0 Portfolio at start)
Main job with a side hustle (same income as now)


Strategy Review Scoring – Age 30 (Starting from fresh)

Points awarded are out of 5, with 5 being the best and 0 the worst

(N) This equals the weight of the score so if this is two then the points will be doubled


FI strategy at 30 (£0 Portfolio with a Mortgage) – And the winner is…

Gangster Monk

This result is very interesting to me as if I were in this position and I was starting from scratch, I would value more of the benefits along the way it would seem than actually being able to retire very early. All of these options barring the Pro Gangster and Pro Monk approach would likely have to involve a bridging period in order to be able to retire decently early. This would mean my eventual post FI income figure may need to rely and come more from my pension income than is with my current actual position. In that option I am planning to use my state and private pensions more as contingency and safety nets in the worse case scenario where my FI Pot was depleted. These would provide more of a basic income. This has always given extra peace of mind and is done for similar reasons when preferring to own my home outright mortgage free.

I do know that this option will also include the fact that during the latter years of this strategy, I may no longer be paying the mortgage and also that there would of course be room for possible job promotions etc but for simplicity and due to this matching with my current circumstances barring the highlighted differences, I have no intentions right now of working for higher management roles or changing my job for higher pay. I like to imagine that in this imagined scenario, I am also doing the same exact job where I am happy in my role and company.

Conclusion


Well… it really does seem as though I am going to be leaning more towards the gangster monk strategy going forward. This will mean that my investments each month will be close to halved and I will be in effect delaying being Early retirement ready by 3 years. I feel though that this is completely worth it due to the benefits in happiness along the journey itself and also to mitigate some of the risks of depriving yourself and of possibly not being able to see this proposed better future life, especially when you have deprived yourself along the way to reach it.

When looking at the strategy if I were to hypothetically start this again without some good fortune that I had along the way, I am further more made to feel very grateful to my current circumstance. I would though in this imagined scenario still strive fully towards financial independence. I would in turn pick up some of the benefits very quickly towards the start of the journey and would still live life well now, I would live for both now and tomorrow. The longer length to achieve FI might indeed mean I would have to create a bridge between my FI Pot and pension money to retire in my early 50s however the fact early retirement would still be an option would still be incredible. I would still be a gangster monk. 😅

As always, Love to hear your thoughts, TFJ.

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