Getting Rich Through a Career

1. 1
   Excel academically. Whether it's a four year college or vocational training, most successful people pursue further education beyond high school. In the early stages of a career, your employers have little to go off besides your educational background. Pursue an appropriate degree.
2. 2
   Choose the right profession. Look at research survey salaries which indicate average annual incomes for specific professions. Your odds of getting rich are way less if your pursue a career in teaching than a career in finance.
3. 3
   Choose the right location. Go where the good jobs are. If you want to pursue finance, for example, there are far greater opportunities in big cities than in rural, low-populated areas.
4. 4
   Get an entry-level job and work your way up. Play the numbers game. Apply to many places and conduct many interviews. When you get your job, stick with it to get the experience you need to advance.
5. 5
   Change jobs and employer. By changing your environment, you can increase your pay, experience different corporate cultures and reduce risk. Don't be afraid to do this many times. If you're a valued employee, it's also likely your current company may offer you a raise or other benefits if they know you're looking at leaving.

Getting Rich Through Investing

1. Invest your money in education. Go to universities and obtain degrees that are considered in your chosen profession. You sometimes have to spend money to make money. For example, if you're interested in business and obtain an MBA, the money you spent on that will likely earn itself back in a few years.
2. Put money in the stock market. Invest money in stocks, bonds, or other vehicles of investment that will give you an annual return on investment (ROI) that's enough to maintain you in your retirement. For instance, if you have one million dollars invested and you get a reliable 7% ROI, that's $70,000 per year!
3. Invest in real estate. Relatively stable assets like rental properties or potential development land in steadily growing areas is a good example. These are purchases whose value will likely increase over time. Your odds of that happening are better in some spots than other. For example, an apartment in Manhattan is guaranteed to increase over a five-year period.
4. Invest your time. For example, you might like having free time, so you give yourself a few hours a day to do nothing. But if you were to invest those few hours into getting rich, you could work towards having 20 years of free time (24 hours a day!) with early retirement. What can you give up now in exchange for being rich later?
   
   
5. Avoid purchases whose value is guaranteed to decline. Spending $50,000 on a car is usually considered a waste because it's a guarantee that it won't be worth that much in 5 years, regardless of how much work you put into it.
6. Stay rich. It's hard to get rich, but it's even harder to stay rich. Your wealth is always going to be affected by the market, and the market has its ups and downs. If you get too comfortable when times are good, you'll quickly drop back to square one when the market hits a slump. If you get a promotion or a raise, or if your ROI goes up a percentage point, don't spend the extra. Save it for when business is slow and your ROI goes down two percentage points.