How do I get rich?
It is the burning question everyone asks, so you aren’t alone. Generally the expectation is there will be a clever trick or a shortcut that you think someone else has mastered and you need to know.
Unfortunately, as in many things in life, there is no shortcut that works reliably. If there was everyone would be doing it. The people getting rich on social media are mostly either selling the idea of getting rich to you, or got lucky once and are now pretending it was a system.
The more reliable system that usually works for nearly everyone who does it is: put aside some money regularly (pay yourself first, or earn a bit more than you spend), start early and do it for a long time, putting the money in a place it can grow. That means investing, and it also means overcoming the natural British aversion to investing rather than saving. It also means learning about how to invest — and we are here to help with that.
Most people who end up wealthy in the UK did not have a get rich story. They had a stay invested story. The difference between those who create wealth and those who don’t is almost always the same three things: they started earlier than felt comfortable, they kept going even when markets wobbled, and they had well diversified investments on a low fee platform.
Time is the ingredient nobody advertises because there is nothing to sell you. Compound growth means the returns you earn start earning returns of their own. Put £100 a month away from age 22 to age 60 at a realistic 6% real return and you land near £200,000. Start the same £100 a month at 32 instead and you land closer to £100,000. Ten years of delay costs you roughly half the pot. That is not a trick. That is arithmetic.
The other thing worth saying plainly: crypto will rarely build you long-term wealth, nor will meme stocks, and anything that promises quick gains almost always ends up with someone else getting rich with your money. A tiny slice of a diversified long-term portfolio in speculative stuff is fine if you can afford to lose it. A big slice is gambling with the rent.
If “rich” to you means living well and not worrying about money, that is achievable for almost anyone who starts early and keeps going. If “rich” means private jet money, that is usually either inheritance, genuinely outlier luck, or founding a company — and only a handful of the people who try ever obtain private jet wealth. Nobody who really builds wealth in those ways will be selling you courses about it.
What you can actually do this week
- Open a Stocks and Shares ISA with a low cost platform and set up a £25 or £50 monthly standing order into a global index fund. The amount matters less than the fact that it is happening on autopilot.
- If your employer offers a pension match, make sure you are getting the full match. That is a 50% or 100% immediate return you are either taking or leaving on the table.
- Unsubscribe from one get rich quick account on your feed. Replace it with one account that talks about long-term investing without screaming.