Paths to Wealth

I am not wealthy, by any means, so this thesis I have here is not one backed by experience, anecdotal evidence, data, or anything that could give me an ounce of credibility. I am naive, and this is my gullible thinking coming to fruition.

I have this thought that it is impossible to become wealthy – like fuck you rich – without gaining equity in some asset. I am not saying everyone should try to acquire this level of money, nor is it better, nor am I even trying to do so, but I am saying that doing so requires one to hold equity in some asset.

Put another way, you cannot become incredibly rich on a salary. To scale your wealth, you need access to equity that compounds over time as you sleep. Trading your time for money, on a leash, only goes so far. Doctors are probably the best counter-example argument, but for them to really scale they need to own a practice.

Which begs the question, how do you access equity?

There are lots of ways and I think there will only be more in the future.

The first is obvious – start a company/entity and you get equity. You could also invest in companies and you get equity. You could also buy real estate or alternative assets.

There are lots of emerging means and nuances wrapped up in this thesis. What is perhaps important to internalize is that wealth comes via owning things.

I am not suggesting you optimize for wealth nor that any of this matters. I am suggesting that if you do care about compounding wealth, then you probably want equity, not salary.