Has anyone attempted to become rich?

jsmoke · 2 Jun 2019 at 13:18

Have you purposefully gone out and tried to become rich?

Whether by inventing something, starting a business, getting into trading/stocks/markets or something on the Internet like youtube, your website, maybe creating video games etc.

So what's your story if you tried?

Devrij · 2 Jun 2019 at 13:22

Well, I mined LTC during the original pump. I foolishly sold my 2BTC for £400 a few months later, but in theory I could have been sorta rich comparatively.

chaparral · 2 Jun 2019 at 13:28

No I seem to go the other way and try to get poorer all the time by buying loads of stuff that I don't really need..

Randomface74 · 2 Jun 2019 at 13:29

I looked into trading, but decided it was basically just gambling, causes me quite a lot of stress, I learnt I'm risk-averse. Ended up investing for the long term instead, which is good but won't make me rich any time soon. Worth the effort to learn though, beats having all your cash sat in a bank account doing nothing for you. In the end I've done a lot better from my work's RSUs than anything I chose myself.

The internet is my profession, so I know the chance of success from a website, youtube, twitch, etc. is super low. It's something I could start on the side if I had a worthy idea, but I wouldn't quit my job until it was proven successful.

I did consider remaking a really old video game, but I got stuck pretty quick, it just isn't my area.

toshj · 2 Jun 2019 at 14:09

My first boss out of university was unashamed in his pursuit of wealth. His last firm had sold up with the senior staff getting filthy rich, but he'd missed the cut.

I was the 7th person he hired when building the company out, and they were around 600 globally when he sold it. He walked away with £50m.

I hadn't seen him in years but we met up for a coffee a few months ago, mainly for me to get some business advice. I found out a few interesting things: he cleaned the company bank accounts out every year, left nothing in there, and he never forgot who had failed him/let him down in the past and overlooked them for the top jobs even if they'd turned themselves around. He also hated every minute of it, despite being incredible at the job and genuinely inspiring.

Interesting guy. Now he spends all day baking and taking his kids to classes. Bought a load of properties and conservatively invests in other stuff which brings in £1m a year. Seems genuinely happy for the first time since I known him

ubersonic · 2 Jun 2019 at 14:51

jsmoke said:
Has anyone attempted to become rich?

I think the Hatton Garden gang gave it a shot...

Hades · 2 Jun 2019 at 14:55

No. But I genuinely wish I had tried when I was much younger.

I have done very well as an employee. But I realise I could have achieved so much more if I had designed my life the right way.

peterwalkley · 2 Jun 2019 at 15:41

Does buying a lottery ticket count ?

tom_nieto · 2 Jun 2019 at 15:43

I have these magic beans that you could buy...

NVP · 2 Jun 2019 at 15:49

FortuitousFluke · 2 Jun 2019 at 22:30

chaparral said:
No I seem to go the other way and try to get poorer all the time by buying loads of stuff that I don't really need..

You're not poor, you are suffering a momentary downturn in liquidity due to an increase in stock holdings.

Raymond Lin · 3 Jun 2019 at 01:01

FortuitousFluke said:
You're not poor, you are suffering a momentary downturn in liquidity due to an increase in stock holdings.

Is that what that is...lol

I guess since the pound dropped 20% compared to 5 years ago against the dollar my guitars are worth 20% more.

mattyg · 3 Jun 2019 at 01:10

Sat here looking at charts. Buying the dips..

Took my eye off the ball and stopped trading to concentrate on my restaurants last year and my trading wingman has increased his holdings by 14.5 BTC And I've spent about the same in buying and rejigging the restaurants......DANG

timmeh · 3 Jun 2019 at 04:31

I’m trying to turn it around as I’ve been pretty terrible with money my whole life. I’m wanting to start buying more houses in the next few years. All of my friends around here have rental properties (one just turned 30 and has 14 :| ) and make a decent side income on that.

My kids preschools are doing a good job of draining any money I could put towards that though so I’ll have to wait until they’re in the public school system before I can look at doing it.

martin363 · 3 Jun 2019 at 05:34

Depends what you define as rich I suppose? 1 mill? 10 mill? etc. For me rich is enough to retire early, not so I can buy a Ferrari or big house but be confident in maintaining our living standard after we stop. By early I mean 20 years early, which I and my wife will do in 2 years - this was always our goal from our early 20's we are now both 46. We got here by planning, not being greedy and taking calculated risks with our jobs, but not risks like the stock market etc. We moved overseas, to Asia 15 years ago China, and then in 2012 Vietnam, where our skills were worth more, and costs of living and taxes lower. For us financially 1 year in Asia is worth approximately 3 in the UK. Therefore with sensible spending, and more than decade out here, we can retire 20 years early, especially as we are not going back to live in the UK when we do return to the EU.

h4rm0ny · 3 Jun 2019 at 06:37

Not rich, per se. But I don't come from an especially well-off background and I became self-employed and worked like crazy and now am comfortably Middle Class with a mortgage. So not rich, not some big grand house, but certainly I changed my financial status in life. It was exhausting at times and isn't an interesting story, but there it is.

regulus · 3 Jun 2019 at 07:11

Nah, not interested.

I can already do all the things I currently want to do. More money would be of no utility to me whatsoever. I am quite lucky as I know some wealthy people and have had a good insight into their lifestyles. It's not THAT interesting at all. I've found that; a Tesla is just a car, a boat is something that floats on water, business class is just a seat with a cheap single mattress where you can stretch your legs, expensive whiskey gives me the same hangovers and I have the same electronic toys they have.

NVP · 3 Jun 2019 at 07:40

But can you influence the political landscape of a nation?

moon man · 3 Jun 2019 at 07:53

ive bought domain names in the past but not had too much luck ,my last wild card in recent years was 100.000 1p shares in a gold exploration company so only 1k but prepared to lose ,i dont do the lottery so figured if it makes a lot i will reinvest ect patagonia gold btw (mentioned before in trading thread)

Participant · 3 Jun 2019 at 07:55

regulus said:
Nah, not interested.

I can already do all the things I currently want to do. More money would be of no utility to me whatsoever. I am quite lucky as I know some wealthy people and have had a good insight into their lifestyles. It's not THAT interesting at all. I've found that; a Tesla is just a car, a boat is something that floats on water, business class is just a seat with a cheap single mattress where you can stretch your legs, expensive whiskey gives me the same hangovers and I have the same electronic toys they have.

For me it's less about toys and more about financial freedom allowing you to do what you want with your limited time on this planet.

I wouldn't have chosen to spend 10 hours a day in meetings and spreadsheets, but that's my life and it's not bad as far as jobs go.

I'd far rather be doing other stuff though, which is what being rich gets you.

Also it would be nice to leave my kids lots of money. Problem is when you have a family you generally become more risk averse.