How to Get Rich With a Normal Job – Introducing the 15/1000 Rule

And today, I will talk about how to get rich with a normal job. 

Do you want to be rich? There’s a saying that if a person tells you he doesn’t want to be rich, well find out what else he’s lying about. Of course, I wouldn’t go that far. To me, there are a lot more things that are more important than money. My faith, family, friends, my health, my sports team. Yay! That’s it.

Having money helps a lot. Here’s a difference between being poor and rich. When you’re poor, you hear a knock on the door, you hide because you think it’s the landlord who was threatening to kick you out because of non-payment. And when you’re rich, you hear a knock on the door, you also hide because you think it’s a salesperson trying to sell you solar panels or timeshare. And when you’re really rich, you don’t hide anymore because they can’t get through your gate. 

No matter what you think about money, having some is better than not having any. And today I will talk about how to get rich with a normal job. If you enjoy this video, hit the like button and subscribe to my channel. 

Before we start, let’s define being rich. Just how much are we talking about? Well, this term is very relative. There are some people who have $100,000, they think they’ve made it in life. And there are some people who have $100 million, but they feel very poor because they can’t get into the billionaire club.

Now for the purpose of this discussion, let’s use $15 million at retirement as the number. According to Federal Reserve’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, a net worth of $15 million is in the 99th percentile of the US household wealth. I think for a normal person, being the 1% of the wealthiest of Americans should satisfy you. And if it doesn’t, I suggest getting a drug addiction. It helps with any sort of unrealistic expectations in life, including greed. 

Now, for a normal person, I hope this number works for you. Now, just imagine, you don’t need a crazy job. You work hard while you’re enjoying life. And when you retire, there’ll be $15 million waiting for you. How does it feel? Is your stress level going down? Do you feel like taking more chances in your career and entrepreneurship? Do you feel more generous in giving to others? Do feel lean and have a six-pack? Sorry, I can’t help you with the last one. You still got to exercise, and I hope with everything else, you feel good, just like in this scene in the show, Breaking Bad.

Now, just how do you get rich with a normal job? 

First of all, I will start by saying two things that I’m not advocating: 

1. I’m not advocating extreme frugality.

You can’t get rich by saving alone. According to research, the annual median United States household income is $67,521. Assume you have a normal job and make this average income. If you become an extreme saver and don’t spend a dollar for the rest of your lives, it’s going to take 222 years to get to $15 million. I’m telling you, you aren’t living to 222. Even if you were, it’s going to be the most miserable 222 years possible. 

I believe in an afterlife. I hope I end up somewhere better after I die. But if I were an extreme saver and don’t get to enjoy the money I make, I’m going to be like, you know what, this sucks! I don’t even want to get to 40, let alone 222. Get me to the next level now. I want you to enjoy the money you make at the same time as getting rich. Buy a house, take a chance on entrepreneurship, give. It’s better than trying to save everything just to make a number. 

2. I’m also not advocating taking on some extreme level of risks.

This is not a get-rich-quick scheme. I don’t want to talk about Wall Street best, meme stocks, or option trading. In fact, I don’t want to take on any unnecessary risks. Theoretically speaking, if you go to a casino and put everything you have plus a second mortgage on red, you might hit and become rich. But if you lose, you can lose everything. What I’m talking about is long-term saving as an investment strategy, but also lets you have fun and fulfillment at the same time. You only need to save a portion hopefully a small portion of your income. As you raise your income level, you can spend the rest however you want. 

Let me introduce to you the 15/1000 Rule. What is the 15/1000 Rule? It means if you invest $1,000 per month in an account with an annual return of 15% or more, you accumulate $15 million in 35 years. This means if you’re 30 today, and you do this exercise consistently, when you retire at 65, there’ll be $15 million in retirement account waiting for you. By the way, if 35 seems too long to you, keep watching. We’ll dramatically cut the number by the end. 

Now, how is $15 million even possible? If I were to ask you who’s the smartest person in human history, the image of this guy might come to your mind.

Yes, Albert Einstein. But do you know what he describes as the eighth wonder of the world? Is it the theory of relativity? Is it quantum mechanics? Or is it a black hole? Well, none of that.

The answer? Compound interest.

Compound interest? Isn’t that the term some sort of a finance guy or banker would use? Why does Albert Einstein, the father of modern science, sound like an insurance salesperson? Well, maybe we can also discover what shocked him. A 15% compound on annual return will double your money every five years. 

Let’s take a look at how $1,000 can grow over the years.

What? $1,000 can become $133,176 in 35 years? Is your mind blown yet? But hold on. We just got started. But imagine this. You’re not saving money. You’re launching money missiles. One money missile is $1,000 and you’re launching into a time machine into another dimension. You launch a $1,000 money missile today. In 35 years, it’s going to land into a $133,176 mushroom cloud.

But we’re not just launching one missile. We’re launching missile after missile, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, and 35 years later, you are going to launch 420 missiles into your bank account. Of course, the most potent one will be the one you launch today. And as you launch later and later because you have a shorter amount of time to compound the explosion will be smaller and smaller. But all in all, you’re going to have 420 missiles exploding into a glorious $15 million pile. 

This is what consistently investing $1,000 per month will look like over the years. Can you see how amazing epic and insane a 15% compound return can get you if given enough time? To me, this is the most amazing picture in the world. It’s better than Mona Lisa, The Scream, and The Son of Man. And don’t believe me? Just look at Albert Einstein. You’ve seen a twinkle in his eyes. I’m sure he saw this picture and started crying. That’s the essence of the 15/1000 Rule.

Now the rules and numbers are nice, but you might be wondering, how can I achieve this in real life? We’re talking about $15 million here. Well to understand how to do this, let’s dig a little bit deeper. The three key numbers are 15% annual return, $1,000 per month, and 35 years. 

1. 15% annual return.

This is a magic number that makes everything possible. Having this number means you double your money every five years. 4.8 to be precise. If you compare that to a 10%, 5%, and 2% annual return, just look at the huge difference if you invest $1,000 -what these types of returns will yield.

I love these. Let’s visualize the difference with a graph.

Masterpiece, isn’t it? Had Vincent van Gogh painted this picture instead of The Starry Night, he would’ve died rich. Now, just how do you get to the 15% magic number? Well, let’s look at the stock market. The stock market is inherently risky. It might go up 40% or down 40% any given year, however, over the long term, I’m talking about decades, it’s actually the safest and best investment vehicle in modern history.

The S&P 500 was first introduced in March 1957. Through September 2021, it has an annualized return of 10.6%. That means had you invested in the index fund and tracked the market over the past six years, your results would more or less mirror the 10% column. $3.8 million in 35 years. It’s not bad. So, if you don’t hear anything else from this video and just invest in index funds for the next 35 years, you’ll do really well. But if you get 15% per year, that’s $15 million. That’s generational wealth we’re talking about. Keep watching. 

The premise of love investing is you only buy stocks of companies that you can’t live without and hold them for as long as you love them. The theory is, awesome companies usually mean awesome business, and awesome business usually means awesome long-term stock returns. Usually, and that’s why you buy 10 to 30 of them. So, in theory, love companies should outperform the S&P 500 over the long term. Especially if you’re not a weirdo that got really weird taste. Hey, if you still like Kmart, or you’re addicted to America Online nowadays, I can’t help you. 

Now if you have normal tastes, can you outperform the S&P 500 by 5% per year over the long term? If I knew, I’d be a prophet, and I don’t want to be a prophet, they smell bad and usually die in a violent death. I’m not in the prediction business. That said, I do performance tracking. Over the past 10 years, the S&P 500 has averaged 16.21% every year, which is already more than 5% over the historical average. We’ve got a good decade. But over the same period, my investment portfolio based on love investing has averaged about 25% per year. That’s over 8% per year better than the S&P 500 for over a decade. I’ve got a good decade too, not going to lie. And going into the future, I’m tracking a hypothetical portfolio based on the 10 most popular companies from my readers and comparing that against the S&P 500 every month. 

If you go to the Love versus Market section, you can find out how well the theory of love investing does in real life. Now, I’m not a financial advisor and can’t tell you to invest this way. All I’m saying is, I’m investing this way. However you invest it’s up to you. But if you get over a 15% per year over the long term, you can consider yourself a great investor. But if you’re going to do love investing and make a lot of money, and want to thank me, you can name your future kid Jia.

2. $1,000 per month.

The 15% per year is the fuel that can turn your $1,000 money missile into $133,176 in 35 years. But to make this happen, you need to build this missile and each one costs $1,000. So, each month you have to save and invest at least $1,000 into your portfolio and when you’re done, yell launch.

You might be asking why does it have to be $1,000 per month. Can it be $100 per month or $10,000 per month? What’s so special about $1,000? Because saving $1,000 per month is a goal that a person with a normal job should be able to achieve, and resulting $15 million happens to be in the 1% wealth cut-off line. 

Most people can’t even imagine this type of money. But with love investing, money missile, and the 15/1,000 Rule, you can actually do it. How easily you can save $1,000 per month depends on your income level, debt levels, and spending habits. But if it’s hard for you right now, your goal should be to make more money or save more so you can feel at least one money missile per month. Once you’ve done it, you can do whatever you want with the rest of your income. And you can do it without any guilt or fear. Because you already built that money missile. Enjoy life. Personally, I spend a lot on travel, food, and my kids, and I donate to my church and other charities every month. For a period, I was also saving to buy a house but, in the end, I’m a saving investing nut, and nowadays I build about 10 money missiles every month because I love investing so much. I love it. I love it. I love it!

The more money missiles you build, the more you will end up with. Below is the difference between what 1, 2, 3, and 10 money missiles per month will do to your wealth long term.

3. 35 years and 20 years.

35 years is the amount of time it takes for your $1,000 per month to get to $15 million. It’s also the amount of time that a 30-year-old will start investing and retire at 65. Okay, okay, I get it. It sounds like a lot and maybe you don’t want to look like this when you’re staring into our money pile.

Maybe you’re into FIRE and want to retire early. And maybe you don’t even have 35 years left to contribute. That’s why 35 years is not an official part of the 15/1,000 Rule. It’s there to demonstrate the magic of love investing, compound interest, and money missiles. And in reality, it’s only an arbitrary number. If your goal is to simply retire, you don’t need to invest $1,000 for 35 years. Let’s look at this table a little bit deeper.

You’re going to find something really interesting. It will take you 20 years to get to 1.5 million, yet 15 years after that the 1.5 million would turn into $15 million. That’s the beauty of 15% annual compound growth. You double your money every five years regardless of the amount. It takes the same amount of time for you to grow from $10,000 to $20,000, from 1.5 million to $3 million, and from $100 million to $200 million. So, the more money you have, the more powerful the company will be. 

That also means the more money you have, the less impactful the $1,000 per month will have. In the latter years, your money growth will be based primarily on your compound growth rather than your monthly contribution. So, in year 10, that $1,000 per month will mean everything but in year 20, when you’re at 1.5 million, that one $1,000 per month will become meaningless compared to the massive snowball they will have racing down the mountain. 

So, what if you only contribute $1,000 per month for 20 years and then stop after that? Here is what will happen.

You see, after year 20, the 1.5 million will just compound on its own and will grow to 12 million by year 35. Not too far off from the 15 million, is it? And in today’s standard, it’s still above the 1% wealth cut-off line in the United States. In the end, 15 million, 12 million, what’s the difference? Just another mansion in Madrid! Who cares? But quitting after 20 years is a lot better than after 35 years, right? 

If you’re 22 or look like this today, you look like this at 45. You’re going to have $1.5 million and then you stop contributing and at 67 you look like this with $12 million:

Okay, I don’t care what you look like in real life. You’ve got $12 million in your bank account. It looks pretty good. Get a personal trainer, some plastic surgery, or maybe a botox. And better yet, say if you’re a parent, like if you have a son like I do, starting at birth if you contribute on his behalf for $1,000 per month, when he’s 20 in college, he’ll have $1.5 million in his bank account, and he won’t even have to earn any money in his life. By 35 he’ll become 1% wealthiest in America. Now if you don’t raise him right, he’ll become a useless piece of garbage. But he’ll be rich garbage nevertheless. Nah, we don’t need more rich garbages.

So how do you become rich with a normal job? I hope by now you will know the answer. And you will fully embrace the idea of love messaging and the 15/1,000 Rule. 

I’m embarrassed to say I only started investing when I turned 30. I wish my parents taught me this when I was 10. Or maybe I realized after graduating from college. That 10, 20 extra years of compounding would have done wonders for me. That said, now at age 40, this is not too bad at all. And it’s not too late even if you are 50 or 60.

Love investing is a philosophy you can embrace for yourself and for your future generations. It will allow you to live with an abundance mindset. Face financial uncertainties with confidence and have fun and feel the love every time you look at your portfolio. People ask what’s the best time to start investing. The correct answer? 20 years ago. The second-best time is now.

If you enjoyed this video, hit the like button and subscribe to my channel. I will see you next time.