Fubar 6 is rolling deep in cash. How did he do it? He knows the secret to being rich. A secret told to him by Robert Kiyosaki, author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.” And no, Fubar 6 does not actually know Mr. Kiyosaki. But what is cool about reading books is that basically you get someone’s lifetime of knowledge, in a single consolidated and easy to read format for normally less than $20.
So, what is the secret to being rich? Here it is: BUY THINGS THAT MAKE YOU MONEY.
Now you might be sitting there thinking to yourself “That’s it? That’s the secret? Seems kind of obvious to me.” Well, you would be right, it is obvious. But then ask yourself, why are you not rich yet? The answer is because you have not purchased enough things that make you money. Instead, you do what poor and middle-class people do, you buy things that cost you money. You buy sweet new rides like a black Dodge Ram. You buy the latest iPhone or Louis Vuitton bags. You buy (insert anything that doesn’t make you money). And that is why you are not rich yet. There are only three ingredients to wealth building:
- Time
- Money
- Discipline
Time is the important. It is necessary for compound growth to occur. Given enough time, even a tiny bit of money invested can grow to outrageous amounts. The earlier you start investing, the better.
Money is the next ingredient. It truly does take money to make money. The more you have, the quicker you can grow it. The less you have, the longer it takes to grow (which is why time is the more important component).
Discipline is the final piece of the puzzle. You have to be consistent in your investing and you have to give it time to compound. A-B-B, Baby! Always Be Buying. You can’t sell when the market is down or try to time the market. You have to stay the course and be disciplined in your approach knowing that you are investing for the long run.
“What are the things I can buy that can make me money?” Well, I’m glad you asked. Let’s go from easiest to hardest. For starters, I recommend stocks. Specifically broad-based index funds, like an S&P 500 ETF (example: ticker symbol VOO). When you buy stocks, you are buying a partial piece of ownership in that company. More specifically you are purchasing a claim to the earnings and assets of that company. A broad-based index fund like the S&P 500 allows you to buy a small piece of the top 500 companies that make up the U.S. stock market, essentially making you a partial owner and thus entitled to the earnings and assets of companies like Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, Walmart, Microsoft, etc.
What’s even better about owning an S&P 500 fund is that you don’t have to guess which companies will be successful and which ones will not. The fund manager buys the winners for you and ditches the losers. To put this in perspective the top five companies in the S&P 500 in 1973 were IBM, AT&T, Exxon, Kodak, and General Motors. The top 5 companies in 2000 were General Electric, Intel, Cisco, Microsoft, and Pfizer. Today the top 5 companies are Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, and Meta (Facebook). And most likely 20 years from now, they will all be different again.
Other things to buy? Real estate. But I am not talking about a primary residence, I’m talking about real estate that you earn rental income from. A cool concept especially among younger people is called house hacking. Basically, you are going to buy a duplex (triplex, quadplex, or just rent out individual rooms in your house), live in one unit and rent out the others. You do this for year so that you can qualify for a residential loan which has much more favorable interest rates. Then you move out, continue to rent your house, buy another duplex, and do it all over again. Five duplexes later you’re a millionaire with a cash flowing business.
If you have deeper pockets or better connections, you can always look into commercial real estate. The cool part of commercial real estate is that the tenants tend to sign longer term leases and are more stable. Plus you can scale (or get bigger) faster. The tough part of commercial real estate is that it cost more and that you are having to compete with professionals.
Final thing to buy; businesses. It is entirely possible to buy preexisting businesses as an investment or invest in starting your own business. The best thing about buying an existing business is that it already has cashflow, assets, and a customer base (something you would have to start from scratch if you created your own business). But it doesn’t have to be a complex business. Warren Buffett started out buying pinball machines and putting them in Barber shops. You could do the same with ATM machines. Even starting a blog and finding ways to monetize the website (#fort-fubar.com) would count as an investment in a business. Investing in businesses comes with greater risk, but also with greater reward. All of the richest people in the world are business owners and/or entrepreneurs.
Of course, there are other things you can buy that will make you money, however, be sure to differentiate between investing and speculating. Investing is exchanging money for assets that you can reasonably expect to increase in value over time. Speculating is buying assets that you hope will increase often in a short period of time. Hope is not good business strategy (but it was a dope campaign slogan for Obama). As long as you have done your due diligence and have chosen wise investments, with enough time they will pay off and make you rich. It’s not magic, just math. The secret to being rich is buying things that make you money. Now go forth and buy great things!
Love this article? Great! Let me know and I’ll produce more. Hate this article? Well, it’s probably ‘cause you like spending your money on dumb stuff. Why don’t you go ahead, respond, and let me know why I am wrong.
*This article was written by FUBAR 6. All opinions expressed in this article are that of the author. This article is not endorsed by the Department of Defense, the United States Army, or any other state or government agency. This article does not constitute financial advice. Comments to the author can be submitted below.