Looking to put your money to good use and grow wealth towards securing your financial future?
That’s the right thing to do.
It’s often said that cash is the fastest depreciating asset you could hold. The more you hold cash, the more it becomes worthless.
Hence, the best way to hold cash is to put it to use. Pay for expenses, invest some, and hold a few for basic needs.
In this post, we’ll look at some of the fastest ways you can grow wealth from scratch by starting with whatever earnings you have right now.
Building wealth might be a slow process, but it is definitely a revolutionary act.
Everyone should desire to do it.
Now, shall we begin?
Start With The 50/30/20 Rule
This is usually the most basic rule for budgeting, but who can build wealth without first having a reasonable budget?
This rule works both for earned income and recurring cashflow.
The basic rule is to divide any income into three parts: Needs, wants, savings/investment.
So, 50% goes into necessary personal or business expenses that you can’t do without.
30% goes into wants that help you thrive from day to day. You could also set this aside as an emergency fund or a treat fund for occasionally rewarding yourself.
Finally, 20% of your earnings can go into savings or investments.
This rule is not set in stone, so you can always adjust the percentages to fit your lifestyle or needs.
While some can work with a 20% savings budget, others might find a 15% or even 10% savings budget more realistic.
Invest in Fixed Income
Now that you have a savings/investment budget, you want to put it to work and get your money yielding interest for you.
A fixed income savings or investment product is perfect at this stage, as you don’t want to be exposed to too much risk.
It is advised to play it safe with your first-level investment. Most people would tend towards a savings investment product with a guaranteed return.
I’ll prefer a low-risk savings product that comes with a guaranteed return and high liquidity.
Apply The 15% Dividend Rule
This rule is for aggressive investors looking to build their portfolio in a consistent way.
It mandates that you don’t spend more than 15% of the return or dividend from your portfolio.
Simply put, you must reinvest a minimum of 85% of your dividend return back into your portfolio.
While some investors reward themselves with that 15% cut, other more aggressive investors would throw it back in.
Invest in Paper Assets
I would suggest that you invest that 85% into paper assets.
Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, etc.
They are mostly not liquid and do not guarantee any return.
So, access to your cash might require some hassle and there is a chance you could lose your money.
Well, you have to shop around for some good paper assets or you could go all in with some index funds with proven performance.
Invest In Real Estate
The final step is to turn all your investments into real estate.
You could either invest dividends or returns from your paper assets, or implement a snowball approach where you shave off any extra income from your other investments into real estate.
That’s assuming if your investments have grown enough to start bringing significant returns.
So, why real estate?
Real Estate is usually the last piece of the puzzle for building wealth because it is easier to claim and transfer.
No matter what happens.
Death, war, recession, bankruptcy, etc.
Your landed property would still be yours and could be claimed and transferred to the next generation.
It is sort of a legacy investment.
Even the richest people in the world with stocks in billion dollar companies liquidate their paper assets to invest in real estate.
For example, in recent times, Bill Gates has been liquidating his stocks in a few companies to invest in real estate.
As of 2022, he has purchased over 200,000 acres of land in 18 states in the US.
That should tell you something.
He knows what he’s doing. He’s simply putting finishing touches to his wealth building cycle.
While stocks can be stolen even when verifiable, real estate can’t.
This gives credence to the narrative that no true wealthy person has ever built wealth without amassing a great deal of real estate.
That’s how to build wealth.