“Compound Interest Is An Amazing Thing”: 55 People Share Their Best ‘Rich People Tips’
It’s well known that there’s no quick or easy way to get rich, regardless of what influencers and people deep in pyramid schemes try to tell you. In reality, most wealthy people inherited their funds, became extremely lucky or worked exceptionally hard. Perhaps, all of the above! But there are still certain things the rest of us can do to accumulate more wealth than we currently have.
Redditors have been discussing the best financial advice they’ve ever received, tips they wish they had learned sooner and advice that can help you stash some cash, so we’ve gathered some of their wisdom down below. Enjoy scrolling through, and be sure to upvote the tips you’re eager to try!
A lot of “luxury” brands are things the poor buy to look wealthy.
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Find a good partner, divorces are expensive. Brush your teeth really good two times per day, dentists are expensive. Take care of your health, clean food, exercise and sleep, doctors are expensive. Look after your mental health as best as you can…you guessed it, depression is really expensive, in all aspects of life, once it sets in.
*Also, time is NOT money, you can always get some more money, but you won’t get your time back.
To appreciate how priceless your health is, would you trade your eyesight for 1 billion dollars? Do think about this question profoundly because if you wouldn’t trade it, that means you have an “asset” that’s not measurable in financial terms, you’re infinitely rich from this perspective. Try to stay blindfolded for a few hours and do things around your house like that, to experience how it would be like to be blind. Have gratitude and remind yourself, if you have health, you have wealth!
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Spending money on cars for status is stupid.
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Never buy a depreciating asset with credit. If you buy a car buy a good used one that has taken the majority of its depreciation.
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Spend on what you truly value, ruthlessly cut what you don’t.
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Be born to rich parents.
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Wealth whispers and does not need external validation.
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Buy really good items that last.
Somehow my parents never enforced that with me, but I started buying good things in 2006 and it made a difference.
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A much older coworker when I was working as a receptionist at a tax resolution company was next to me when I got offered my 1st geologist job. When my excitement died down, she asked me what the benefits were. When I got to the 401k match, she told me that I needed to max out the match right away. She said “you’re offered more money than you’ve ever made before so just put in the full 6%. You’ll never miss it.” I did exactly that and she was right.
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As a woman — learn your worth in the job market and don’t settle for less.
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Think differently. It is not about saving. It is about not spending. Do you really need it? Do you have room for it? Can it wait? Ask tons of question before buying.
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The only one I can think of right now concerns eating healthy, which can be super hard to do on a budget when fresh veggies cost an arm and a leg. My tip: frozen veggies. Not only can they be stored long-term, but they’re frozen really soon after being harvested, which means that they’re oftentimes fresher than the veggies in the produce section.
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YouTube is your friend, learn how to cut your own hair, fix appliances, change your oil, cook at home, look up workouts, look up audiobooks on there, do your own nails, pedicures, facials, etc, natural remedies, games with stuff around the house for game night, wash your dishes by hand, don’t use the dryer or dish washer, get lower wattage lightbulbs, use fans instead of AC, drink tap water and nothing else, start intermittent fasting and simply eat less, walk places or bike, don’t use fabric softener or dryer sheets, use reusable rags, make your own soap/detergent/all purpose cleaner, work overtime or find a side gig, contribute more to 401k to save in taxes, sugaring instead of buying wax or razors, maximize credit card cash back rewards, cancel streaming services and go to the library and get movies there, don’t leave water running while doing dishes or brushing your teeth, get a bidet and never buy toilet paper again, use reusable water bottles, make your own coffee, drive slower worn AC off and roll the windows down, quit smoking or drinking alcohol, I could go on and on
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The biggest unavoidable expenses in your life will be housing, transportation, and food. Minimize these expenses. I live in NYC, which is a notoriously expensive city. But by taking care of ‘the big three,’ the lifestyle here becomes surprisingly affordable. I live in an unfashionable neighborhood, use my monthly Metrocard to get everywhere I need to go on public transport, and cook for myself 95% of the time (rather than eating out). This saves a huge amount of money! (which I then blow on expensive tickets to Broadway shows, but that’s beside the point).
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This might be a wacky response but I’ll throw out there anyway. I had to stop with the handouts. I was being “too nice” and got taken advantage of (several times) by ungrateful people. My intent was to help but I ended up feeling like an idiot when these people that I “helped” came back and started complaining because would not continue to help them.
I don’t use the word “flabbergasted” very often but yeah I was flabbergasted at their sheer gall! I digress.
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Don’t show off. It’s boring.
Personal finance is personal. Meaning, stop comparing yourself to others. Consider whether their decisions would also be good for you, but realize that it’s ok and normal for your decisions to be one of a kind. It’s ok for you to be ahead or behind your peers, because you are not your peers. Etc.
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The faster you realize that you were programmed at birth to buy buy buy. The faster you can break the cycle, and start saving with high interest rates that will compound you into wealth over 30 or 40 years.
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One monthly bill we have control over is food. I throw NOTHING away. If bananas are going bad, I make banana bread, then wrap and freeze it in small batches. With eggs going bad, scramble and freeze. I once had a package of bread rolls that were going to go bad. Before they did, I broke them into chunks, let them sit out for a few days, and then made bread crumbs. Possibilities are ENDLESS. Buy food on sale that week and meal plan from that.
If you go out to dinner, see who is having specials. Look for coupons. Download apps where you might get a discount.
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You can be very generous without spending a lot of money. The additional cost of feeding another person at home is tiny. For less than the cost of one ice cream cone at the ice cream store, you can buy a whole tub of ice cream. This is even more true with soft drinks and alcohol.
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Cutting up old shirts into cleaning rags.
Compound interest is an amazing thing.
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Get a prenup.
Privacy. Truly rich people are anonymous. You’ll never know who they are and if you saw them out in public they look like everyone else. They look at people who wear luxury fashions with logos all over them as sad pretenders. They don’t have social media, they don’t do anything public at all, and they keep their lives so private that outside of their immediate family few people know what they’re actually like.
Not me personally, but regrets I often see pop up.
Not taking advantage of compounding interest during the best decades of compounding growth in one’s lifetime.
Being a sucker for conspicuous consumption.
Debt outside of a mortgage when unnecessary (wants vs needs).
Living above one’s means, keeping up with the Joneses.
Marrying the wrong person.
Trying to time the market vs time in the market (see missing 50 best days in the market).
Some things people never think about relating to your vehicle: Clean the junk out of your vehicle. The more weight, the more fuel you burn, the more money you waste. And don’t drive so fast. For most trips, you don’t save that much time really. Fuel usage in your vehicle is a bell curve, and most cars are geared to have their best mileage at around 55 mph. Driving 90 everywhere is throwing away money.
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Don’t travel in peak season or on peak days of the week.
Never rely on one source of income and invest often.
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Stop spending money on stupid s**t like new cars, designer clothes/handbags, jewelry, alcohol, etc.
Buy things you need that are competitively priced.
If I had known that 30 years ago, I would’ve been able to stop working a lot earlier.
Don’t buy a house. Buy a duplex, triplex, or quad. The income will pay for itself.
Money is a TOOL. Use it! Spend it!!
Spend money to get time back.
You can always make more money, but time runs out, and you need to spend time on your business/career to make money, not be wasting time working on your car or mowing your lawn.
Invest in a diversified global market tracking fund. It’ll go up and down but in the long term will be a great bet
Start a pension as soon as you start earning. Compound interest works over time and the more time you have the exponentially bigger is the end result.
I lost faith in pensions because of the spectacularly huge drop in annuity rates many years back which seemed to make them terrible compared to what they used to provide. And while the heady days of big annuities is all but gone, pensions now are more like bank accounts that you can’t access until (in the UK) 55, but which the Government pays into when you do and which has a partial tax relief when you come to withdraw.
Use those little dryer ball things. They cut down on the time you have to use the dryer since your clothes dry faster, so less power is needed. You can also try hanging stuff on a clothesline to dry your clothes if you want to go to extremes and forgo the dryer altogether.
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If you aren’t budgeting in monthly payments to an emergency savings account, you are setting yourself up for future, sudden debt. Whatever you can, even $10, pay yourself in an emergency account you don’t spend. And remember: your bills, groceries, etc. are not emergencies, so don’t pay those out from the emergency account. Whatever income you make beyond bills and budgeted expenses needs to be earmarked to earn you more income by way of interest on savings or investments.
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Invest while you’re young. Don’t put it off. Keep investing in up and down markets. Increase your investments annually. Never touch it until you are ready to retire.
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Poor people pay interest, rich people collect it.
Learn the difference between assets and liabilities.
Live below your means and save for tomorrow.
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Start investing in Long term index funds like the S&P500 as early as you can, particularly before you have a house or family of your own.
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Start working full time the day you finish school. Go to the bank as soon as you have the 6 weeks of income to prove you have income and see what you can borrow for a house to live in. If it’s not enough then work overtime and do a fe night shifts to bump it up then go back. Continue this process until you have enough to enter the property market. Get a housemate/s to help with the mortgage and learn to fix the property yourself.
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If you want to exceed in something, hire a professional trainer to help you get there.
Normal people send their kids to school and if the kids need help the parents would give them a slither of their time to help them. It’s only when they’re at risk of failing that they may get them tutoring.
Rich people give their kids tutoring from the get go so these kids are already ahead of the class and school is just so easy they look towards wanting to accomplish more.
Finding what you’re passionate for and investing in it early can really help shape your future. Look at every successful person from business to sports, they all had really great mentors that invested in them as a youth. Michael Jordan and Shaq for example, they undoubtedly had talent but they lacked guidance, but they both were able to achieve that with good mentors who kept them on the right path. You read the biographies about businessmen and usually through some hobby they end up meeting someone who will teach them a different way to look at business and provide an opportunity that will shape their future. These don’t always come at a cost.
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Don’t borrow money to buy cars.
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Buy the stock of the maker of the newest trend instead of the product.
Debt is good if you’re using it the right way to make a lot more money and reinvesting it to grow a failing company/business that was acquired. Also the tax benefits you get from holding debt.
Not everyone perceives money the same way as you and a lot of people have “crab mentality” and don’t like seeing other people doing better than them and will convince you that investing in certain things or trading a certain way is gambling or will not work.
Lexus is the consumer reports most reliable vehicle year after year. Real wood furniture lasts forever. Your network is your net worth. Learn to say no. Invest don’t save. Invest in yourself if you’re smart. If you aren’t invest in someone who is. A pound of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Western medicine is a meat grinder. Put a value on your time, and farm out anything not valuable. Worry about love after you get your money right. Get a Japanese bidet, comfy bed and couch, and an ice maker and you’re rich. Keep your house and car clean. I could go on forever.
You’re never gonna save your way out of poverty. Make connections and get your education.
Monthly Cash flow is king.
Never sacrifice your principles. Principles/good deeds compound heavy. Heavier than you can imagine.
You don’t need to know everything. You just need to have lots of skilled people, of various occupations, “on your team”!!
A good accountant.
A good Jeweler.
A good investment Banker.
A good Chemist.
A good engineer.
A good pilot.
A good Ships Captain.
A good lawyer.
Etc.
So when you need information about a subject that you don’t know about you can ask questions of the right people!!
And you need to pay them well for it!!!
Start your own business asap.
Keep jumping on those opportunities. Keep switching jobs. Move for that new job. Keep changing.
Money is cheaper to get when you have more of it. Save in a brokerage account and buy large purchases off of margin then pay yourself back. Also no one gets “rich” via w-2. Wealth comes with risk, so take some risks or stop bitching.
The poor stay poor by acting rich, the rich get rich by acting poor.
Trust professionals, trust professionals regardless how smart you think you are.
Stay away from negativity. Nothing good ever comes of it. Every day I wake up, it’s a great day.