Most people weren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouths, and most will likely never get to Easy Street working 9-to-5 jobs and saving their ways to retirement. That doesn’t stop them, however, from trying to get rich.
One approach is to try their luck through the lottery, gambling, or other schemes. And it’s stories like these that fuel people’s hopes about striking it rich through sheer luck:
Walks are Good for You.
In 2014, a California couple, identified only as John and Mary, encountered a rusty metal can sticking out of the ground while walking their dog on their property. After digging up eight cans, the two found a collection of 1,427 uncirculated gold coins — dating from 1847 to 1894 — in mint condition. While carrying a face value of $28,000, the find is worth more than $10 million. “California couple strikes gold with $10 million coin find,” pbs.org (Feb 26, 2014).
Not all Attics are Creepy.
In 2017, a man from Tennessee went into his aunt’s attic and discovered baseball cards from the 50s and 60s. In one box, he found a 1948 Bowman set, which was worth $500,000. But all the cards in total were worth over $1 million. Eric Chesterton, “Thanks to a trip to his aunt’s attic, a man found a stash of baseball cards worth $1 million,”mlb.com (Jun 5, 2017).
Another Garage Sale Success Story.
In 1989, an unidentified man in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, bought a painting for $4 but got the surprise of a lifetime. He bought the painting – an old, torn depiction of a country scene – at a flea market because he liked the wooden frame. When he removed the painting, the frame fell apart, and he found a folded document between the canvas and wood backing that appeared to be an old copy of the Declaration of Independence. The man showed the document to an auction house expert, who verified its authenticity. Printed on July 4, 1776, by John Dunlap, this document was one of the 24 original copies intended to go out to each colony. The document was sold to the President of a Fine Arts investment firm for a whopping $2,420,000. latimes.com
Lucky Catch.
In 1998, Phil Ozersky, a fan making $30K a year, caught Mark McGwire’s 70th HR ball (a single-season record then). The St. Louis Cardinals organization offered Ozersky a bat, ball & jersey signed by McGwire in exchange for the ball. Ozersky countered with one simple request – to meet McGwire. McGwire refused. Ozersky sold the ball three months later for $3.05M.
Some people spend their lives chasing rainbows and unicorns, looking to hit it big with the lottery in Vegas. Now, you can press your luck and spend your days at garage sales, digging under trees in your backyard, going to baseball games, or engaging in modern-day equivalents like buying the next big cryptocurrency, NFT, or stock, OR you can build your wealth.
Instead of hoping for wealth, you can take deliberate steps to control your financial future and create your wealth without relying on fate.
Most people will be surprised to learn that most of the ultra-wealthy didn’t come into their wealth through luck on inheritance. Once they discover how these individuals created their wealth, they might yawn because of its simplicity and lack of excitement.
Here are the simple, boring objectives the ultra-wealthy live by to build and maintain wealth:
Passive Income, Passive Income, Passive Income.
Investing in CRE or private companies passively is ideal for generating passive income that can be reinvested to magnify current streams of passive income or create additional streams – all towards compounding wealth exponentially.
Seek Growth from Tangible Assets.
Hard assets like CRE appreciate over time and build wealth organically. CRE is an ideal inflation buffer because the appreciation of certain segments has consistently outpaced inflation over time. That’s due to its intrinsic value – value derived from its productivity and not merely what the investing public is willing to pay for it. Assets with established histories of income command a premium when it’s time to sell. CRE appreciates independently of inflation because of this intrinsic value.
They Have a Long Investment Window.
The wealthy prefer assets with long lockup periods because this accomplishes several objectives:
- Time allows the asset or business to mature and achieve economies of scale to maximize returns on investment.
- Illiquidity insulates the asset from market runs and volatility.
- Time allows the investor to profit from the compounding effects of appreciation and reinvest income from the asset.
Tax Benefits.
Passive CRE and private equity investments structured as partnerships offer multiple tax benefits, including deductions, depreciation, long-term capital gains treatment, and avoidance of self-employment taxes.
Leverage.
Leveraging human and financial capital allows investors to invest in asset segments and sizes and in diverse geographic locales that are not possible on their own.
The road to wealth is not actually paved with luck. It’s paved with intentions.
If you have a plan with clear objectives and carry out your intentions, it’s possible to create and maintain wealth without relying on the fates.
