If you want to get rich and “Get Rich Slow” is your strategy, I have bad news. It’s a
losing game, with your time wagered as the gamble. Do you seriously think that
the guy who lives in that palatial beach estate with the $500,000 supercar in the
driveway got rich because he invested in mutual funds? Or clipped coupons from
the local Super-Saver? Of course, we don’t. So why do we give credence to this
advice as a legitimate road that leads to wealth and financial freedom?
Show me a 22-year-old who got rich investing in mutual funds. Show me the
man who earned millions in three years by maximizing his 401K. Show me the
young twenty-something who got rich clipping coupons. Where are these people?
They don’t exist. They’re fairy tales of impossibility.
Yet, we continue to trust the same old tired gang of financial media darlings
who espouse these doctrines of wealth. Yes, sir, get a job, work 50 years, save, live
mindlessly frugal, invest in the stock market, and soon, your day of freedom will
arrive at age 70 . . . and if the stock market is kind and you’re lucky, 60! Gee, doesn’t
this “wealth in a wheelchair” financial plan sounds exciting?
In today’s tumultuous financial climate, I am shocked people still believe
these strategies even work. Wasn’t it the recession that exposed “Get Rich Slow”
for the fraud it is? Oh I get it, if you’re employed for 40 years and avoid 40% market downturns, “Get Rich Slow” works; just sit back, work, and hope death doesn’t
meet you first because, golly-gee, you’re going to be the richest guy in the retirement home!
The message of “Get Rich Slow” is clear: Sacrifice your today, your dreams,
and your life for a plan that pays dividends after most of your life has evaporated.
Let me be blunt: If your road to wealth devours your active adult life and it’s not
guaranteed, that road sucks. A “road to wealth” codependent on Wall Street and
anchored by time with your life wagered as the gamble is a dirty, rotten alley.
Nonetheless, the preordained plan continues to wield power, recommended
and enforced by a legion of hypocritical “financial experts” who aren’t rich in their
own advice, but by their own Millionaire Fastlane. The Slowlane prognosticators
know something that they aren’t telling you: What they teach doesn’t work, but
selling it does.
