I know a lot of people who are very well off. Meaning they have no worries about money, they can do what they want when they want, and buy what they want when they want. Some of them may only have a couple Million, some may have a LOT more than that. Most of them made their money the hard way, they earned it, and were disciplined about their finances. I also know a couple people who have old money, millions that have been passed down through generations. They are also disciplined with their money. They are also very generous when they see a need and are emotionally invested in an organization that does good and that they trust.

Money gets away really easy and really fast, just ask professional athletes and lottery winners. Discipline lasts a lifetime.

I'll never have the kind of money these people have, I have chosen to accumulate experiences rather than money and things. I doubt if I will regret that, but maybe I will when I am 80 years old. I won't know until I get there.

Why cant you accumulate both? I think that may be the biggest misconception , that if you accumulated wealth you must have 'missed' out on lifes good experiences. I think its entirely possible to have both if you are wise from the beginning.

Why cant you accumulate both? I think that may be the biggest misconception , that if you accumulated wealth you must have 'missed' out on lifes good experiences. I think its entirely possible to have both if you are wise from the beginning.

Oh yeah, don't get divorced and stay out of casinos.

Good advice. I'll add , have good health insurance. A significant health event can clean you out of everything you were trying to accomplish.

I'm not rich tho I am very comfortable financially. I managed to retire at 50. I owned a small business that I bought and ran for approx 15 years then sold it. I increased the sales thru the years, built a new shop and about tripled the work force from 4 to a dozen.
I worked lots of hours to achieve this, there were times when jobs needed to get done the next day and I stayed till 2am to do the work after all my employees went home. I took less time off than any of my employees. I worked more hrs than any of my employees. Pretty normal was a 70-80 hr work week for me. For the first 10 years or so I paid myself less than most of my employees. While I had some very good and dedicated employees I also had some less than ideal ones and some along the way that I had to get rid of.

In the last couple of years I had the business I had gotten some work from one customer that was very profitable. I got the work because of my personal experience with a specific type of work that I had done before owning the business. It was a unique set of little known skills/knowledge that it gave me that my customer had no idea on how to do and were apprehensive on trying to figure out. This allowed my business to be sold relatively easily as it was very profitable. Was it luck or hard work and experience that allowed me to sell so easily and for a good amount? I can't say. On a side note I offered to sell my business to 2 of the employees but neither wanted to take the risk of borrowing the money. They wanted the potential income/perks it offered but were not willing to change their lifestyle that it would require to be successful or take the risk using their homes as collateral for a loan. No risk no reward.

All this is said to give my perspective on getting rich although I don't consider myself rich. We have no debt and can afford pretty much anything we want within reason. Another side of being rich is not spending foolishly or excessively. My wife and I both drive 18 year old vehicles, I wear my clothes till they are falling apart. we avoid trendy stuff. Neither of uses a cell phone tho my wife does own one but rarely uses it. We both are pretty financially conservative. We don't buy on impulse. We do buy nicer stuff when we do buy tho and tho some may say this is not wise I would say it is as we don't have the need to buy again to replace cheaper poorer quality stuff that doesn't last. We keep our stuff till it dies then we replace it, we don't replace stuff cause there is newer and better stuff available.

there is no way to get rich quick other than inheritance or lottery, one requires a rich relative and the other is almost impossible if you look at the odds.