How to get Rich without Working
There aren’t a lot of easy ways to get rich without working – all wealth requires some effort. But putting all inheritances, criminal activities and random luck aside here are seven ways to get rich without doing a lot of work:
Sell things
You’ve probably got a lot of junk lying around that you don’t use – why not sell it on EBay or someplace else? As long as you don’t count cleaning up after yourself as doing work you can probably make some decent cash simply be getting rid of old clothes, books and other paraphernalia you’ve acquired over the years and don’t want any more.
Buy things
More specifically, buy things and hold onto them for a long time. This could mean physical things like antiques or collectibles, but if you’re selling all that sort of stuff in the first place you might be better suited to buying things like mutual funds or real estate investment trusts – stable financial products that don’t require any work beyond the initial purchase (you can even instruct your bank to make regular with-drawls on your behalf to purchase more shares). Over the long term – 40 years or more – these types of investments should do fairly well with little or no intervention on your behalf.
Move
Yes, moving is a lot of work, but if you’re serious about not working and you don’t have a lot to tie you down consider moving somewhere with a much lower cost of living. Even within the continental United States there are vast extremes – compare the cost of a month’s rent in Butte, Montana with the cost of a month’s rent in The Hamptons. If you don’t care about things like crime, racism, political instability or being surrounded by poverty a middle-class American’s annual salary would provide an extremely comfortable standard of living in most nations in the developing world.
Mooch
If you have absolutely no shame you can get rich by marrying into money, or simply making friends with people who are dumb enough to give you money or provide you with things. It’s ethically despicable and unlikely to work for very long, but it’s one of the most common ways to get rich without working.
Save
One of the best (and more sensible) ways to get rich without working is to simply spend the money you have more wisely. Create a budget and stick to it. Don’t eat out. Put all your loose change in a jar every by your bed every night. Switch to low-wattage light bulbs. There are countless little things you can do to save money that will make the money you do have go a lot further.
Do what you love
Everyone has a passion, whether it’s stamp collecting, skate-boarding or cloud-watching. If you can find a way to turn yours into a successful business without taking the fun out of it you’ll be making money doing what you love, and you’ll never feel like you’re working a day in your life.
Work now, get rich later
Finally, you could do what this author is doing and work hard to create something that will keep on making money long after the initial investment of time and effort has been made. True it does require some work, and it may not make you very rich, but of all the ways to get rich outlined above it’s the most honest, the most dependable, and by far the most personally gratifying of them all.
