This Is How to Get Rich

Nearly everybody dreams of becoming wealthy from time to time. For most people, those dreams of getting rich never materialize. But there are always people who manage to reach the top. Here, moneyland.ch lists a number of classic examples of how fantasies of wealth can become reality.

• Entrepreneurship

Many of the best-known millionaires and billionaires earned their fortunes in the traditional way by founding and working for their own companies. In this case, it is normally the value of the company which makes the founder rich – not the salary which they pay themself. Frequently, entrepreneurs keep all or many of the shares in the companies they found. In this way, they profit when the companies they found gain value. As the boss of their own company, an entrepreneur can make decisions which could boost the company’s value.

For example, back in the 1990s, the two student programmers Larry Page and Sergey Brin worked on creating an Internet search engine which is now world famous: Google. The two were able to attract investors, and within 20 years their company, which has since been renamed to Alphabet, had become one of the biggest tech companies in the world. Both of these entrepreneurs are now billionaires, and are among the richest people in the world.

• Investment

If you do not have your own company, you can tap into the success of other companies by investing. The general rule is: The earlier on you invest after a company’s founding, the more you profit – if you invest in the right companies. But in order to be able to invest, you first have to have some money. Many of the wealthiest people in the world grew their existing wealth by profitably investing it. Thanks to affordable online stock brokers, the financial entry barriers for investors are no longer as high as they were in pre-Internet times.

Warren Buffet is arguably the world’s most famous investor. He founded an asset management service in the 1950s with 100,000 dollars in capital (this amount would be worth around 1 million dollars today, accounting for inflation). Today, Buffet’s assets around worth around 100 billion dollars.

Once again taking Google as an example, early investors were greatly rewarded for their faith in the company. For example, Jeff Bezos, who is best-known for founding retail giant Amazon, invested in Google shortly after it was first founded as a start-up. By the time Google held its initial public offering six years later, the value of Bezos investment had multiplied by a thousand times.

• Fame

Fame is marketable – whether on social media, television, or an adult video. One influencer for whom all three of these factors contributed to wealth is Kim Kardashian. She launched her Keeping Up with the Kardashians reality TV show in 2007, shortly after being launched into the limelight because of an adult video. Since 2021, when the last episode of her show aired, she is considered a billionaire. Her Instagram page is one of the most followed accounts there is.

Even some people who gained infamy through dubious activities have been able to convert their notoriety into money. One-time mafia boss Michael Franzese, for example, writes books, gives lectures, and has nearly one million Youtube subscribers and his own wine label.

Of course, fame does not automatically result in an influx of money. In many cases, being famous is just another kind of job – in that respect this means of earning money can be compared to starting and working for your own company. Many influencers do end up founding their own media companies. But in many cases, being a successful influencer involves making the job seem easy – and thus appeal to an audience of people who also wish they could become rich as effortlessly as you appear to have.

• Sports

In addition to health benefits, doing sports can – in exceptional cases – also make you very wealthy. The most successful athletes rake in millions of francs per year. One example is Portuguese football player Christiano Ronaldo, who earned more than 200 million francs in 2023.

The income earned by athletes can come from several different sources. On the one hand, professional athletes receive a salary, with top talents like Ronaldo, Messi, Haaland, and others earning salaries worth millions of francs. On top of salaries, athletes may receive bonuses and financial incentives. For example, sportspeople may receive additional financial compensation when they win championships or change clubs. And finally, many athletes also earn money through advertising. In some cases, the money earned through advertising can exceed the income generated by their actual sports career. For example, tennis legend Roger Federer continues to advertise for Sunrise, Jura, and Credit Suisse, even though he no longer actively participates in professional tennis tournaments.

Unfortunately, the chance of your becoming a millionaire simply by joining a sports club is very small. Only a minuscule fraction of athletes earn huge amounts of income with their sporting skills. While hard work and talent are obvious requirements, luck also plays a significant role. For most aspiring athletes, a professional sporting career does not get past the dream stage.

• Inheritances

From the family business to assets which have been passed from generation to generation: Some lucky people are born into money – or at least get to enjoy it once they get their inheritances. Often, it makes little difference if the heir has actually participated in building the family’s business.

One example is the Mars family, which owns the Mars food processing company known for its Mars bars, M&Ms, and other confectionary products. The company was founded by Frank Mars more than a century ago. He and his son Forrest, in particular, steadily expanded the company. Today, the company is owned by the descendants of Forrest Mars. Seven members of the Mars family were on the Bloomberg list of the world’s 500 richest people in 2023.

But not as many people gain their wealth through inheritances as many may think. Only 20 percent of US millionaires included in a survey by Ramsey Solutions said that they inherited money. Only 3 percent had inherited more than one million dollars.

• Marriage

Marrying a wealthy partner is a bit like inheriting money. The only difference is that you pick who you want to be related to. A marriage can give you access to the wealth and lifestyle of the other person in the relationship. Depending on your own economic situation, marriage can propel you into an entirely new financial sphere.

But marriages between people with very little wealth and extremely rich people are not entirely common. One reason for this is that wealthy people tend to socialize with other people from similar economic circles. If you want to fall in love with a millionaire, you first have to get to know one. And, of course, the chemistry will have to be right before you will both be ready to say I do.

But when that happens, the less-wealthy person typically profits from a major boost in their personal finances, even if the marriage does not last for long. Unless both partners have agreed to keep their assets separate in a marital agreement, the couple’s joint wealth plus any wealth accumulated during the marriage will be divided between both spouses. In the case of big earners, annual income can easily run into hundreds of thousands of francs.

• Lotteries

Lotteries and other games of luck attract customers with the hope of easy money. Even in Switzerland, half of the population regularly bets money in games of luck. And every so often, someone gets lucky. According to Swisslos, more than 1000 people have already become millionaires through lottery winnings. The biggest win to date took place in 2014, when a player won a jackpot worth 48 million francs.

While there are no regulations on dreaming, playing games of luck is hardly a sensible strategy for increasing your wealth. The chances of winning the Swiss lotto jackpot are 1 out of 31 million. What that means: Even if every person in Switzerland (babies included) would play that lottery and each would pick a different number combination, it would still be unlikely that anyone would win.

More on this topic:
How to invest in the stock market
What Swiss billionaires have in common
How Would Swiss Use a Million-Franc Windfall?