All,
In an effort to be of use to DINKs readers, I wanted to share a few things that I’ve done to consistently build wealth.
This article is purely from my own personal experiences. I don’t know if all of these will work for everyone – they’re just what’s worked for me. The article is sorted into high impact wealth building activities and low impact wealth building activities.
High Impact Wealth Building Activities
- Investing in Stocks: I’ve been investing in stocks on and off for couple of decades. Of all asset classes, stocks in the US have generally had the highest returns. This has been a major driver of the wealth I’ve been able to get so far. The Federal government lets you make contributions to tax advantaged accounts like IRAs – and I’ve historically been able to max these out, which has provided tax advantages and a de facto boost to my wealth building.
- Investing in Real Estate: For the last 20 years I’ve also consistently owned real estate. This has been great as real estate in the US has traditionally received favored tax treatment, along with advantages like leverage and passive income flows from owning rentals. Its been a great asset class. I’ve also got some shares of a handful of smaller real estate investment trusts (REITS) – specifically Fundrise, HappyNest, and StReitWise.
- Marrying Well: Marrying well has helped me. Most of the data shows that a healthy happy marriage with an economically productive spouse helps build wealth. Marriage has a number of beneficial effects – including economies of scale, specialization, emotional support, etc. Getting and staying married is an excellent wealth accelerator.
- Starting a side business/having a profitable side hustle: Depending on their profitability this can really be a great way to accelerate your wealth building.
- Budgeting/Cutting Spending: Budgeting isn’t sexy, but its necessary. The simplest way to gain wealth is spend less than you earn. If you run a surplus consistently you should be able to gain wealth more quickly than if you’re just breaking even.
These are all high impact activities.
Low Impact Wealth Building Activities
Here are some of the lower impact, but still useful methods I’ve used:
First, I’m using use rebate sites. Rebate sites are an old, but tried and true method than can give you 1 to 17% back. These are the ones I’m using:
Second I’m scanning my receipts. These are the apps I’m using. I’ve sorted them in order of hassles & payout, from best to worst.
These are all low payout, low impact plays. But they do work to reduce the practical costs of your purchases by about 1%.
Third, I’m also shopping way more with coupons, negotiating, and comparison shopping to look for cheaper alternatives.
Fourth, I’ve gone hard on selling my personal data and unused internet bandwidth. I’m using the following software:
The whole data sales sector has been in a bit of downturn – several of the projects that were in this sector have stopped operations, such as Upvoice, or cut their payments – such as Reklaim. There is still money to be made but regulation and the low profitability of the model appear to be driving the weaker players out.
Selling my spare internet bandwidth, using:
At this point I’m plowing all my extra money into my emergency fund. I’m also focusing on saving enough money to stake a crypto node or two.
For More On The Mechanics Of Wealth Building, Consider These:
Building Wealth on $600 Per Month
What To Do With Your Money In Case Of War
How To Make Money Off Your Old Laptop
List Of Months With Three Paychecks – And What To Do With The Money
James Hendrickson
James Hendrickson is an internet entrepreneur, blogging junky, hunter and personal finance geek. When he’s not lurking in coffee shops in Portland, Oregon, you’ll find him in the Pacific Northwest’s great outdoors. James has a masters degree in Sociology from the University of Maryland at College Park and a Bachelors degree on Sociology from Earlham College. He loves individual stocks, bonds and precious metals.
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