The Billionaire

Dear Mr Pape,

My name is Lachlan, I am 16 years old, and I live on the Gold Coast.I have a keen interest in finance and economics, and through my part-time job I have been able to build a share portfolio worth $3,000, on top of $2,000 in savings. I would like some help on how to best manage my funds as I look to achieve my one life goal: to reach a net worth of $1 billion.I have thought about joining a super fund, but that idea has continuously fizzled out because I am sure I will never need it. If you could provide me with some information about how best I should go organising my finances, it would be greatly appreciated.

Lachlan

Hi Lachlan

Look, I like ambition as much as Malcolm Turnbull ... but your one life goal is to become a billionaire?

Just 0.00002% of the global population are billionaires. I fear you’re painting yourself into a corner, cobber!

Anyway, let’s hear from one of them, Bill Gates: “I can understand wanting to have millions of dollars, there’s a certain freedom, meaningful freedom, that comes with that. But once you get much beyond that, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger.”

He’s right.

Being a billionaire won’t make you a thousand times happier than being a millionaire. As Bill says, you can achieve the lifestyle and the freedom you want with a few million bucks ‒ which is still ambitious but, with enough time and the right plan, is achievable.

So your first goal ‒ your only goal ‒ is not to strive for some pie-in-the-sky figure you think will make you happy.

Rather, it’s to focus on finding something that is guaranteed to make you happy.

How do you do that?

My friend Arun Abey, a wealthy man himself, has a strategy he calls ‘the three circles’.

It involves asking yourself three questions:

What am I deeply passionate about?

How can I work, over many years, to become truly great at it?

And, finally, how can I make enough money from doing it?

Fulfilment is found at the intersection of these three circles.

One last thing: you should keep this article and re-read it in 40 years’ time.

Scott