I WOULD LOVE to give you obscure tricky little hacks that will make you rich. It would make for incredible content. What’s more compelling than a secret the elites are keeping from you that will unlock the easy path to riches?!

But here’s the problem: It’s not true. Those tricky little hacks are nonsense. There ISN’T a secret shortcut. All the tricky get rich quick stuff will leave you broke chasing your next scheme decades later. Don’t go down that path.

The other day on the /r/wallstreetbets subreddit, there was some guy who lost all his money, then took out personal loans to cover, then lost all that too. He’s now broke and $80K in debt and was asking what to do.

Strangely, the top advice was really good (wallstreetbets is known for bad advice). It said to start paying off your debts using the snowball method (smallest debt first, then work your way up). Then when your debt is paid off, start putting those payments into low cost ETFs like VTI and VXUS.

That advice is REALLY BORING. I can only imagine coming off the highs and lows of gambling yourself into $80K of debt how UNSEXY and DEFEATING it must sound to hear you should slowly chip away at your debt, then start down the long path of compound growth. But guess what. This advice is CORRECT. That is how Mr. $80K in debt still has a chance at real wealth. That is how rich people get rich. Doing boring stuff, slowly, a little bit at a time, for a long time. If he tries to gamble his way back to his way out of debt, he’ll likely end up even worse.

You’re not gonna hear get rich quick schemes from me. But you WILL hear best practices. Things like how to prioritize debts, which accounts to use, how to choose your index funds, how to handle dividend reinvestment, why you should be reallocating your portfolio as you age, etc.

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