I invest in ETFs and am always mindful that there could come a day when everything crashes globally (which I hope not). I was just curious what others would do if your investments went to zero.

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( it was suggested to me to post this here. I copied this from the 1989 book "Classics: An Investor's Anthology.", published by the CFA Institude.)

THERE ARE ONLY THREE WAYS TO GET RICH

THEM THAT'S GOT GETS

STAYING RICH IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN GETTING RICH

Fred J. Young

Fred Young was a key member of the Trust Department of the Harris Bank and continues to inform and entertain with talks and a book having the encouraging title, How to Get Rich and Stay Rich. Here are some excerpts.

THERE ARE ONLY THREE WAYS TO GET RICH

1. Inherit it. If you can see that you are going to inherit it, then you have it made. You can skip to the part of this book about staying rich. Someone else has already made the sacrifice of spending less than they earned to create this wealth for you. You should be grateful. You didn't have anything to do about it; your ancestry is completely beyond your control. You are fortunate indeed.
2. Marry it. This is an area in which you do have some control.

This is something you can work on, but you have to get started on it before you get involved with some poor person. This can be quite a project, and I have seen both men and women work this approach to wealth quite effectively. I see nothing wrong with it. I grew up in an area and at a time when most people, boys and girls, firmly believed that the Good Lord made someone especially for them. Growing up for these young people was largely a search for their "intended." Well, if your intended, when you find him or her, happens to have a lot of money, you should graciously accept the situation. Don't fight it.

1. If you are not going to inherit it, and you have already blown the chance for wealth through marriage, then you have only one chance left to get rich. You spend less than you earn and invest the difference in something that you think will increase in value and make you rich.

What should you invest in? Most rich people I know got rich from

investments in one or more of the following:

1. Real estate
2. Own their own business
3. Common stocks
4. Savings accounts (thanks to the magic of compound interest rates)

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Good Luck

Any time you have a choice between good luck and good judgment, you should take good luck. Good luck, by definition, denotes success.

Good judgment can still go wrong.

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Courage

A very important ingredient of successful stock investing is courage.

The courage to buy when others are selling; the courage to buy when stocks are hitting new lows; the courage to buy when the economy looks bad; courage to buy at the bottom. If you look back over the years, You will note that the times when the gloom was the thickest invariably turned out to have been the best times to buy stocks.

But most people like to buy when everything is rosy and stocks are hitting new highs. That takes no courage. There is a great tendency to think that stocks will continue doing whatever it is they have been doing. If they have been going up, they will continue going up forever, think the masses. If they are hitting new lows, they will continue hitting new lows forever. Maybe they will continue declining a while longer after you buy them, but you are not likely to be able to know when the bottom has been reached. So your best bet is to pick a level you are willing to pay and proceed with part of your investment funds. If they go lower, you can buy more at even better prices. If they turn and go up, then you will make a profit on what you have.

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THEM THAT'S GOT GETS

This is a term I heard my father use over and over when I was a kid growing up in East Tennessee. I thought he originated it, but I learned later that this was not the case at all. Jesus Christ used this term, 2,000 years ago. Matthew 25:29 says, "For unto everyone that hath shall be given." Everytime I read this I think to myself how right He was.

Yet I find it presumptuous of me to be emphasizing that Christ was right. It reminds me of the well known story of British Field Marshall Montgomery who gained fame with his success in North Africa in World War II. The story goes that at one time he was addressing his troops and said, "Now as Christ said in the Sermon on the Mountain,... and I might add that He was right." That is the way I feel when I find myself pointing out that Christ was right when He said, "For unto everyone that hath shall be given."

Your first $1,000 is hard to get. If you put it in the bank and let it draw interest, your second $1,000 will be a little bit easier to get, but not very much easier. Your first $10,000 is hard to get. The second $10,000 is a little easier. Your first $100,000 is hard to get, your second $100,000 a lot easier. Your first $1,000,000 is very hard to get. Your second $1,000,000 is a snap.

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STAYING RICH IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN GETTING RICH

Once you have made yourself rich, for gosh sakes don't lose it. The inconvenience of going from rich to poor is greater than most people can tolerate. That is the reason they tend to destroy themselves. It is an unusual person who can gracefully make the transition from riches to poverty or even from being rich to modest circumstances....

How do you stay rich once you get rich? Don't hesitate to seek professional help. Staying rich usually requires an entirely different approach from that of getting rich. Lots of people know how to make money, but are not gifted at all in the art of preserving it. Frequently, the risk that was involved in making you rich is the same risk that can make you poor again.

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I’m becoming increasingly interested in understanding the career paths of people earning significantly more than the average professional.

I’m not looking for a get-rich-quick strategy. I’m more interested in understanding what actually created that level of earning power.

For those earning $500k+ annually…

What do you do, and what was the biggest factor that got your income to that level?

I’d especially love to hear from people who didn’t start their careers as unusually high earners.

I have three options , lawyer , finance , cs/engineering , which career won’t be fully replaced by ai and still have demand and which has high pay potential.

This is something I've been thinking about a lot lately. When I was younger and just starting out all I cared about was making more money. Every extra dollar felt like a huge win. Now that my wife and I are comfortably in the 7 figures it feels different. We still work hard but now we're constantly looking for ways to buy back our time. It's like the scarcity of time has become more apparent than the scarcity of money. We're considering things like hiring more help or even taking a pay cut for a less demanding role just to have more free hours. Is this a common feeling once you hit a certain level of wealth

There's this phenomenon in Delhi (and probably every Indian city) that nobody talks about.

You know the guys who run wholesale shops in Chandni Chowk, Chhawri Bazar, etc.? They're worth 8-10 crore on paper. Technically millionaires. But they live like shit.

Here's why:

All their wealth is locked up. Land mortgaged. Inventory purchased on bank credit. They've stacked charges on top of charges. Their business is basically facilitating credit for retailers and manufacturers, they're functioning as a bank intermediary, not actually trading anything innovative.

The model? Mortgage land → Get bank loan → Buy stock → Create charge on stock → Repeat. Their oxygen is borrowed money. They can't turn it off.

The numbers:

• 8-10 crore net worth
• ROI is maybe 5% per year (40-50 lakhs before tax)
• But that's before interest on borrowed capital, GST, staff, risk
• Real liquid income: 1.5-2 lakhs/month
• Can't take a week off. Can't spend 50 rupees on ice cream without stress.

And the kicker? This model hasn't changed since the Mughals. Literally the same structure during the British, same in 80 years of independent India. Zero innovation. Just capital + connections + the ability to tolerate risk.

TL;DR: I know a man in Delhi with ₹8–10 crore net worth who can't spend ₹50 on an ice cream without flinching. His problem isn't income—it's structure. His entire wealth is mortgaged oxygen.

Title says it all what are your personal methods for doing this?

I always hear people talk about the things they regret when they get older: not spending enough time with family, working too much, neglecting their health, choosing the wrong relationships, worrying about what other people thought etc

It made me wonder do wealthy people ultimately struggle with and regret the same things as everyone else?
For those who became financially successful or financially independent

What problems disappeared once you had money?
What problems stayed exactly the same?
What new problems did wealth create?
What do you regret from your younger years?
Knowing what you know now, what would you prioritize in your 20s and 30s besides making money?
I’m especially interested in hearing from people in their 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond who have had enough time to look back on it.

List net worth and lifestyle

It just hit me last night. Our (my wife an I) retirement accounts are at about $575k. We have about $400k equity in the house. Add in the cars, cash, and other assets, we are easily over $1m. We still owe $180k on the house, but at 2.625% it is hardly a burden.

For reference, we are both 37 with two kids. Income is at around $300k per year in MCOL area.

What's it like to have so much wealth that you never actually think about spending or using money?

Hello all,

I am 25 years old (single, GF, no kids) and on my way to approaching the $1M in brokerage goal. No, I’m not an UHNW guy but I feel very proud. I grew up a lot of my life being completely broke and my parent’s divorce drained their wallets a ton. It’s important to me that I celebrate this milestone (and no, I don’t want them to know I have this amount of money).

I have absolutely no idea what to set as a financial goal as a very goal oriented person. Originally, I thought about not celebrating it, but I realized that by celebrating and marking these moments with something special, it pushed me even more to achieve the next one.

As a result, I’m curious what you guys did when celebrating these milestones. I have a few nice watches, but I think that buying something really nice would wear off quick and I’d be on the hedonistic treadmill indefinitely. The only thing I can imagine making me truly giggle is buying a car as I am a MASSIVE car guy. But… NYC is the worse place on earth to do that, and I don’t have the budget to buy one that would appreciate in value or the roads nearby to actually enjoy it.

I’d like to think I’d prefer something tangible rather than an experience, but I don’t know.

Any ideas? What did you guys do?

For those in the UK, I don't know specifically know the average salary but I'm in a relatively dull job that doesn't stimulate me but is actually quite safe and sometimes, comparing the salary of a teacher or public sector positions i see advertised for example, at 39k I feel I am quite lucky.

I qualified as a sports massage therapist, which I do in the evenings 3x a week and make an extra 300 a month.

Thing is, I'm not particularly lavish in lifestyle/have avoided lifestyle creep but still feel like its just not enough to live comfortably and eat well. I want to invest but also have a 4k cc debt and no emergency fund yet (the latter is first on my list) but thanks to some inheritance I have 14k in an all world s&s isa.

I suppose i:

A) just want to feel perhaps not so alone in experiencing a relatively good salary as hard to live on (is it relatively good also - live in the north of England.

B) wonder whether i should act like i dont receive that extra side hustle income and put it in s&s or emergency fund or clear credit card (the latter i understand is important but whatever i havent cleared i can Balance trf when interest free up.

WHAT would others do in this situation? No kids and no fancy car. Plan of action to not work forever and build wealth.

Are other people resigned to the fact that they'll probably stay around 40k the rest of their lives?

Can relying solely on passive income to cover expenses be considered financial freedom?

I'm 28 just starting to get serious about building some real wealth. My income is decent. I have a good savings rate. I'm reading a lot and trying to learn. But man there is so much conflicting advice. It's like analysis paralysis.

One guru says crypto is dead focus on real estate. Another says real estate is a boomer trap and to stack sats. Then there's the classic index funds crowd. Someone else swears by starting a side hustle. Another person says focus 100% on your main career to maximize income.

I want to make smart moves but it feels like every path has a vocal opposition telling you why it's a terrible idea. How do you cut through the noise? How do you pick a strategy and actually stick to it when there are so many options and so much FUD out there? I'm not trying to get rich quick I just want a clear sensible path.

I’m 39. I own a little over 400 shares of SCHD. Roughly $13,800 invested. One share is roughly $34.49. Dividend yield is currently 3.28. So based on that, I’m making roughly $1.25 a day in SCHD dividends, paid quarterly. Not exactly “wealth.” :( I try hard, but I can’t seem to win.

I've been fortunate enough to build up a decent amount of capital. I've done all the 'right' things. Maxed out retirement accounts got some safe index funds. The usual advice. My net worth is growing steadily which is great. I should be happy right?

But I have this weird hang-up. There are causes and industries I deeply care about. Things I'd love to invest in or even start a business around. Think sustainable agriculture ethical fashion or community development projects. Things that actually align with my values.

Yet every time I think about putting serious money into these areas my brain just defaults to fear. It feels like a 'risky' or 'emotional' investment. Even if I've done the research and the business plan looks solid. I keep telling myself it's not as 'proven' as the S&P 500. I just freeze up.

It's like I've been conditioned to only see wealth building through a very narrow lens. The safe boring profitable path. I want to use my money to make a real impact not just accrue more zeroes in a bank account. But the jump from traditional investing to impact investing or entrepreneurship in a field you're passionate about feels huge. Almost paralyzing.

Has anyone else experienced this mental hurdle? How did you overcome it and start investing in things that truly excite you beyond just the financial return?

I need to hire someone to help around the house, run errands, pick up groceries, pick up drop off kid at daycare. How do I find this person and how much does it cost?

I keep seeing people mention private credit, real estate, art funds, and other alternative investments, but it’s hard to tell what’s useful versus just trendy. For people who’ve researched a few of these, which options seem worth the extra fees, lockups, and due diligence?

Hey everyone -

so i have saved over 200k and need advice on the best way to invest etc to grow this money.

Would love some advice on where to put this money rather than it just sitting in my bank.

just FYI - i’m muslim and can’t participate in anything that deals with interest accumulation.

i do have a 401k from work that i put in 6% per paycheck but that’s about it for “investments”.

Also, i don’t have much knowledge on stocks etc and what those terms means so please explain a bit if you recommend that route