In the case of true wealth, its the result of great investments, patience, discipline, fearlessness, and my favorite, Compound Interest. Below is a briefing of what a typical investor would look like.

The typical investor usually has a job. its usually a pretty decent paying job but that term fluctuates depending on the cost of living in your state. the average invester puts back 10% while the smart investor costs as little as possible and invests the rest.

A.J. put his 10% in a 401k where the company matches 3% and spends the rest of his income on his quality of life over the next 40 years. earning an average return of 4% + company match + annual contribution. resulting in a safe middle class life that allows the client to retire after 40 years, after working 40 hours a week, to live off of 40% of income earned.

The Smart Investor, maxed out his 401k, at the 3% company match, but took his additional income and started looking at rental property, storage units, land, small automated business that he could give to family members to run passively helping family members out while also growing a small business and not having to sacrifice all of his own personal time. He purchased guns, mutual funds, individual stocks, even filled a bedroom with nonperishable and medicine in case of a true national crisis. Even flipped 6 used cars a year and drove a new car every 2 months. the smart investor kept his cost at or below 50% of total income, and was never afraid to not only invest when an oppertunity like netflix or google presents themselves, but also made sacrifices such as not going out and taking shorter vacations to be sure everything was going according to plan. which A.J. never had. with a plan in place, several revenue streams, dicipline and sacrafice, the Smart investor can leave the workforce as early as 5 years depending on how smart he was with his investments, how much he invested, and how expensive his quality of life will be during retirement. and if the smart investor was smart enough to day trade or swing trade, he probably worked religiously for 2-5 years and was able to leave the labor force for good.

so a few things happened, the smart investor saved more from the beginning, contributed more year over year, got much larger returns on his investments, and kept his costs extremely low. without seeing the actual numbers of compound interest you can see how those things all compound to grow wealth much quicker then A.J. the jaw dropping fact still remains though that if a person can get 10% on there money year over year without losing money and they get this on top of the money they made the years before, plus the money they contribute year over year, very soon, money won't be a problem.

Wealth distribution is the next Phase. Lets say A.J. saved 700k over 40 years in his 401k. lets also say he is 65 and is now collecting social security. lets also say they A.J. Purchased a home, paid it off and purchased a new car 5 years before retirement so he would have a reliable means of transportation already paid for during retirement. in order for A.J. to live comfortable, he would be smart to put his 700k into an annuity that can garuntee a return. lets say it matches his 401k annual return of 4% in addition he sold his family home to downsize adding another 100k to his savings and he's recieving 1200/month in social security. with all the math being generic, A.J. will retire on an income of about 45k annually and when he dies he will leave 800k for his family, or he can choose to spend his retirement in addition to the interest he gets annually ultimatly leaving very little as a legacy for family and friends, either way this is typical america and not only is it safe, but reliably will offer people what i call the weekend life. where you live for a 2 day break, and will spend your seniors years budgeting for about 15k on leasure spending annually after Cost of living is accounted for.

the smart investors ending was drastically different. the smart investor reached out to his advisor annually and after 5 years learned that his cashflow had exceeded his annual income and that he was currently making enough to retire, but his quality of life was still pretty limited. if he continued to work for a few more years, he would be able to live off of the interest of his money alone and bring home over 6 figures a year. after 10 years total, the smart investor did the same thing as A.j. rolled all of his income into an annuity that totaled 3M in assets and garunteed 4% annually and he lived off of 120k/year till his death, at which point, he left his family and friends with a legacy of 3M offering them the advise to leave the 3M in the annuity and live off of the garenteed 4% which now allows for his children to retire and the whole family is now working out of love and passion and not due to financial strain.

Its not, you just need to be disciplined, stick to a budget, get a financial advisor, and start investing. make a few sacrifices in life so that you can have the things you want sooner. the average joe is actually a shrinking middle class and truly is a great choice and an only option for many many people at this point in time, and rest assured most people aren't even doing this much. the majority of the country is running a hedonistic rat race where every dollar that comes in goes out until its gone, and the person is down to $3 till the next pay check at which point they will spend everything they get again and will always have to sell there time just to stay afloat. this is not a great way to live life. its not healthy or safe and your whole world can fall apart with 1 slip up. Cen$e really shines here. The automation process eliminates worry by insuring your budget remains balanced through trickle down formula's and the ideal leveraging of economic resources around us. The goal is to reduce cost of living so when cashflow is low, our reserves can suffice long enough to keep everything moving forward but we may have to make some sacrifices in a scripted order relative to QOL