Want to become really rich? (While there are many ways to feel “rich,” in this case we’re talking about monetary wealth.)
Then check out this little gem of an investment opportunity. It’s a simple deal. You only have to invest almost all of your time and money.
On the upside, after a year you might earn 3% more.
The downside? Any day you could lose it all, for reasons usually outside your control and that you will almost never see coming.
Would you make that investment? Of course you wouldn’t.
Yet millions of people do. Every day they go to work for someone else.
Of course the analogy (and the math) isn’t perfect. Until you’re laid off or fired you do earn a salary. But when you work for someone else, your upside is always capped. Sure, you might occasionally get a raise, but in most cases 3 to 4% is the most you can expect.
Yet your downside is always unlimited, because getting fired or laid off can make your income disappear overnight (as has happened to me)… and with it the considerable investments you’ve made in time, effort, dedication, and sacrifice.
Extremely limited upside. Unlimited downside.
That’s a terrible investment.
Rich in Wealth
So if you hope to get really rich, working for someone else will never get you there. But don’t just take my word for it. The government agrees.
The IRS Statistics of Income Division, a place where fun surely must go to die, published “400 Individual Tax Returns Reporting the Largest Adjusted Gross Incomes Each Year, 1992-2009,” or in non government-speak, “400 People Who Earned a Freaking Boatload of Money.”
In 2009 it took $77.4 million in adjusted gross income to crack the top 400. (That just barely got you in, though. The average income of the people on the list was $202.4 million.)
Where it gets interesting is how the top 400 made their money:
Wages and salaries: 8.6%
Interest: 6.6%
Dividends: 13%
Partnerships and corporations: 19.9%
Capital gains: 45.8%
Read the full, original article on LinkedIn. Follow LinkedIn on Twitter.
Jeff Haden, LinkedIn Influencer
Labels
how to gain riches, be really rich, monetary wealth