Advice to Get Rich Slowly
Transcript:
Hi, my name is Thomas Talbott and I’m one of the partners at Stewardship Advisors. I’m sure you’ve heard about “Get Rich Quick.” Well, today I want to talk to you about the opposite of that. No, not poverty, but Get Rich Slow.
Centuries ago, wise King Solomon wrote in Proverbs 13:11:
“Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.”
I like the way that the Passion translation puts it
“Wealth quickly gained is quickly wasted. Easy come easy go. But if you gradually gain wealth, you will watch it grow.”
Did you catch that phrase? Wealth quickly gained is quickly wasted.
You know, we live in a culture today that wants things quick and easy. We want it instantaneously; things with little or no work. Well, I’m going to advocate for a different position when it comes to your riches. That is: Get Rich Slowly. I believe you can do that in two ways.
First, consistently save and invest for future needs. Imagine that you have a barrel – a large barrel like a 55-gallon drum. I give you a cup and tell you to go over to the faucet, fill up this cup, bring it back, and fill up the barrel with the water from the cup. It’s going to take you many trips to fill that up, and at first, it’s not even going to seem like the water is accumulating very much. But you consistently dumping water in the barrel will eventually reward you a full barrel of water.
In the same way, when you consistently save money, put money into your 401K, put money back each month – you are going to increase your wealth. Habitual savings will also help you develop the discipline of not just living off of everything that you have, but allowing the barrel of your savings and investment to increase. For you to be able to have money for later use.
You will be employing an age-old principle of Dollar Cost Averaging, when you invest money and buy more shares when the price is low and less shares when the price is high. It’s the number of shares in time that will determine how big your barrel of investment is.
What happens if I told you that there is a dehydrated water potion that will increase the amount of water you are dumping into the barrel? That leads me to the second principle.
Principle number 2 is to Establish appropriate risk levels and timeframe for your investment. Don’t be motivated by greed. Greed is just an arrogant assumption that you know best. That you can outsmart the rest. That things will be different for you. That they will turn the way you want to. That you can and will make a fast buck.
Don’t jeopardize what money that you have by investing it based on the wrong motives and emotions.
Rather, develop a long-term plan. Use a balanced portfolio, not just in a few investments, but diversified across many different ones. Take a disciplined approach, not investing in the latest fad or some hot stock.
Have patience. Have the patience of a farmer who puts his seed in the ground, and patiently waits until his crop to grow to full maturity.
Make time your friend. Time is not your enemy, forcing you into some high-risk venture. No, use the time to steadily grow your assets, like the way time has grown this tree to the size that it is.
Maybe you’ve learned the hard way that get rich quick schemes can help you get poor even faster. Or maybe you’ve seen that in others and want to avoid that trap yourself. You want to be wise and smart.
So remember 1. Consistently put money back, and 2. Wisely invest in appropriate risk levels for future needs. That way, you can watch your wealth grow over time.
At Stewardship Advisors, we are happy to help you develop a plan to do just that.
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