Simple Game Plan To Get Rich

The younger you are, the easier it is for you to get ahead in life. 

Not only will you have more time on your side, and high levels of energy and health to feel (almost) invincible, but your expectations and needs are the lowest they’ll ever be for the rest of your life. 

Trust me when I say your expectations will never be as low as they are when you are first starting out. 

Back in high school, I was excited to see my $140 paycheck at the end of every week for working 20 hours at a minimum-wage fast food job. If I saw that today I’d be pissed!   

If you’re a young HENRY, you are likely ambitious, hardworking, and highly motivated. For you, getting rich is a simple process: earn more than you spend, invest your cash flows (while building more income streams), and avoid unaffordable risks. However, it will take grit, persistence, and a bit of luck.

I believe all Rich Henry readers can become millionaires during their lifetimes and achieve some level of financial freedom. The earlier you come up with a game plan, the easier it will be.

Here is a simple game plan to follow during the 3 phases of your working life for the best shot at getting rich.

Let’s get started.

Early Game: Front-Load To Set Yourself Up For Life 

High earners don’t have an income problem, they have a saving problem. It’s highly possible to live paycheck to paycheck even when you’re making a six or seven-figure income!

The simplest way to get ahead when you’re young and earning a lot of money is to live a low-cost lifestyle for as long as possible while getting ahead in your professional life.

In the early game, the simple solution is front-loading all your efforts. 

The easiest time to give it your all and get ahead in your professional life is when you’re first starting out, loaded with energy and determined to get a piece of the pie. 

Spend your time and effort building your income while keeping your investing on autopilot through low-cost, diversified index funds so you can let the stock market build your wealth.

This is also the easiest time to live like a broke student and build a massive financial advantage because you were just recently one!

Whether you are graduating from college, residency, law school, or a MBA program, you are used to living like a student. Your expectations and needs are still low while your income just skyrocketed overnight.  

Take advantage of this time. Do not blow this opportunity. 

Front-load your lower spending years. Just a few years in your 20s (or 30s) of keeping your expenses as low as possible and aggressively hitting a 50%+ saving rate will set you up for the rest of your life.

This is the easiest time in your life to keep expenses as low as possible because you have no responsibilities other than yourself and everyone’s expectations of you (including your own) will be at their lowest.

You don’t have to live like a monk, but keep your eye on the prize. Your future rich self will thank you for whatever sacrifices you make early on (which shouldn’t feel like much given you’re used to living like a broke student). Don’t try to do this years down the road when you’re living large… it’ll hurt.

Take a hard look at your biggest fixed expenses: taxes, housing, transportation/travel, and food/entertainment. These are the areas where you should focus your attention to maximize your cost-cutting efforts.

Since you have your entire working life ahead of you, keeping your expenses low will give you a massive head start on building your financial freedom and will allow you to sustainably improve your lifestyle as you become wealthier. 

Get it right once, and you’ll enjoy the benefits of front-loading your efforts for the rest of your life. 

Mid-Game: Optimize For Longevity And Shoot For Sustainable Lifestyle Inflation

During the mid-game, you have professional experience under your belt, and your income has probably risen a lot from when you first started working.

Uncontrolled lifestyle inflation is the biggest killer here. Most people spend too much, too quickly without considering the consequences. This is how people get trapped by golden handcuffs.  

Lifestyle inflation is a one-way street. It’s very easy to inflate your lifestyle, but painful to go back down. Thus, make sure you’re financially stable enough to ramp up your spending and never have to decrease your standard of living no matter what happens.

Most people will not voluntarily go from living alone in a high-rise apartment or big house to living in a walk-up with roommates or a small townhouse unless they are forced to. 

In the mid-game, the key is to optimize your longevity and shoot for sustainable lifestyle inflation.  

At this stage, burnout is prevalent. High incomes come with high stress and responsibility.

Prioritize your physical and mental health and aggressively set boundaries so you can continue making a high income while never sacrificing your priorities in life. Protect your downside against unpredictable events that could leave you unable to make a lot of money or go bankrupt.

While you should absolutely cut your expenses down when you’re first starting out, don’t suffer from lifestyle deflation after you’ve built up some F You money and can comfortably hit your optimal saving rate. At a certain point in life, spending too little can actually make you poorer. Maybe not financially, but definitely in time and quality of life. 

Spend money on upgrades to your life that will save time, reduce stress, improve health, create life experiences, and raise your satisfaction. This will give you the mental boost and momentum to keep working hard and investing smart because your life will always feel like it’s improving.

Nobody enjoys budgeting every month. Avoid the hassle and mental energy drain from having to make decisions with your cash flow and set up a money system that will take care of your savings and investing automatically. 

Remember, you can make Parkinson’s law work in your favor. Pay yourself first then live it up on the rest!

It’s entirely possible for a couple making $200,000 each in one of the most expensive cities around the country to live a comfortable life and aggressively build their financial futures together. 

End-Game: Live It Up Or Shoot For The Big Bucks?

In the end-game, you’re feeling rich! At this point, the years of effort and disciplined investing have built you a substantial amount of wealth.

Now you have a choice: live it up or shoot for the big bucks.

On one hand, if you have enough passive income to live your desired FIRE lifestyle (while paying favorable tax rates on investment income), there’s no need for you to actively work anymore. You can live it up and pursue your wildest dreams!  

On the other hand, if you’ve made it this far in your professional and financial life, you are likely in your peak income years due to all the experience, network, and political capital you’ve built up over your working lifetime. You have to opportunity to shoot for the big bucks and maximize these final years before you pull the plug. 

If you’re still fairly young, healthy, and not thinking of stepping off the gas pedal, then go for it! Use this as an opportunity to build even more wealth to live an even fatter retirement lifestyle down the line. 

If you’re on the older side, have a family and/or aging parents to care for, or maybe have personal health issues, then you might reconsider the extra stress and effort that goes into paying so much taxes to Uncle Sam (including the marriage penalty).

At the end of the day, only you can decide if it’s worth making maximum money based on your own needs and desires in life.

There’s nothing wrong with either choice, but at some point, you have to start thinking about how to spend all the money you’ve built up.

The most valuable use of money is to provide a better life, not take it to the grave!

People can argue all day if money can buy happiness, but there’s no denying that money can buy freedom and it can buy time.

Once you become rich, the focus shifts to staying rich. Never work for the same money twice.

If you have one life to live, get rich so you can live your best life possible based on your personal values.

If you’re HENRY, follow this simple game plan to get rich then decide how you want to end your story.