If High Net Worth Shouldn’t Be the Goal, What Should?

Everyone wants to have a high net worth, which is understandable because the chances are quite high that if you were to search “top 10 wealthiest people in the world”, the search results would give you a list based on net worth. 

Fair, right?

Honestly, I think it is too.

Here’s the thing though: high net worth is not a guarantee that you’re “set” for life. It’s a good indication that you’re definitely doing some things right, but it’s not cast in stone that you’re financially safe just yet.

Look at it this way: if you put in those search terms 10 years ago, the list would have had different names – or a different arrangement at best.

Why?

Because in the world of money, nothing is static. A number of things like inflation, economic growth/decline, etc can affect the value of money to either be in your favour or not.

Hence, number one on the wealthy list today could fall back a few steps tomorrow. And there goes your net-worth bragging right

So what should you focus on?

Steady in-flow.

Not just in-flow. A steady one – from evergreen products, investment returns, any safe legal means, as long as it’s steadily raising the numbers in your account.

Many times, people take aggressive risks beyond their capacity for the promise of a huge fortune. If you carefully examine their reason, you’d soon realize that they’re prioritizing the possible pleasure of a temporary high net worth over everything else. 

It makes them blind to everything else. At this point, they’re not even thinking of the possibility of grave loss. 

This is what I’m sure even the hosts of heaven and the Oxford Dictionary would agree with me on that it is greed. It’s this greed that makes people fall for Ponzi schemes.

Oh yes, I went there.

Correct me if you think I’m wrong, but there’s no other explanation.

Prioritizing steady in-flow would not only give you an opportunity to earn till you die, it would also allow you to earn money in a way that does not constantly involve unbearable risk and panic attacks every time you check your portfolio.

Don’t get me wrong, the risk is part of the game. However, it’s important for you to know your boundaries – your risk appetite – and not overstep.  

Here are two steps you can take if you’re prioritizing inflow:

Be intentional about improving your skills

This might sound like it’s unrelated, but it isn’t. Adding more skills to your knees opens you up to more passive income opportunities. And I don’t know about you, but I’d sleep better knowing that I make a solid 10,000 naira daily for the next year from different sources than giving my hard-earned 100,000 NGN to @bitcoin_mobi_1387 on Instagram to give me 500,000 NGN in 2 weeks.

Diversify your portfolio

Spice up your portfolio with different safe instruments that are a mix of high and low-risk. It helps to cushion the effect on your returns when the high-risk ones are bleeding red. Safe instruments do not offer double your money in 24 hours like these get-rich-quick schemes, but if they did, that wouldn’t be “steady”, now would it?

These two steps are important because one opens new doors for increased income, and the other multiplies the income as it comes in. Show me a more perfect plan!

In Conclusion…

Shift your focus from landing massive hits in your account every now and then, to creating channels for steady inflow. Especially in cases where these “massive hits” come with risky conditions, I’d highly recommend you stay in the lane I’d always bet on…

which is that sustainable wealth-building is slow and steady.

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