We read fables like The Tortoise and The Hare to children to teach important life lessons. Impatient and erratic behavior is a recipe for failure. Slow and steady wins the race!

Yet as adults, we constantly forget this lesson ourselves. The allure of the fast and exciting can be too much. The hot tech stock tip you heard at a party. The crypto that some dude on TikTok swears will go up 100X. The doomsday article about the future of the market you see on your news feed. These things are screaming for action! Jumping on these exciting opportunities could be the shortcut to riches! But they’re not. They’re mirages that will have you chasing your tail instead of making long term progress.

Many times I encounter someone who tells me I’m wrong about my “buy and hold” strategy. The conversation usually goes like this:

Friend: “My uncle says you’re crazy for buying index funds right now because the market is doomed. He says gold is the safe bet.”
Me: “Ok! Is he a millionaire?”
Friend: “No… he’s in his 60s and made $20K on some stock tips back in the day, but lost it on some sketchy business ventures, so he’s trying to make it back.”
Me: “Yeah… if he had been investing a few hundred bucks a month and buying and holding this whole time he’d be well into the millions.”

As an uncle, I hate to knock my fellow uncles, but the above is typical. Those later in life who have spent their years chasing the “hare” strategy seem to be about where they started decades later.

But the recipe for getting rich is simple. Buy things that pay dividends and are likely to go up in value. Use those dividends and your income to buy more. Never sell. That’s it. Do that and you’re rich.

Warren Buffet uses this strategy and was once asked “Your investment thesis is so simple. You’re the second richest guy in the world. Why doesn’t everyone just copy you?” Buffett replied, “Because nobody wants to get rich slow.”

As always, reminding you to build wealth by following the two PFC rules: 1.) Live below your means and 2.) Invest early and often.

-Jeremy