The Millionaire Fastlane

I have recently finished the book The Millionaire Fastlane by MJ Demarco. It was a phenomenal read despite the gimmicky title. There was a lot of credible information in the book and it was truly eye opening to say the least. The book is a top ten and I recommend if you have not read it to do so. There were 3 things that stuck to me in the book that the author pounds on time and time again. You see in life you have three choices on how to create wealth. They are 3 different choices or options. So here we go, the three wealth personalities they are: 

1.     Side walker

2.     Slow laner

3.     Fast laner

Now every one of us falls into one of these categories. So the big question is which one are you and which one can you be. So without further ado, here are 7 differences between the 3 wealth personalities.

1.)  INCOME GENERATION

The Side walker earns income by an hourly rate, the Slow laner earns income by a salary and the Fast laner earns income by net profits through business ownership. For the Side walker, wealth is not created at all but it is envied and wished for. The Slow laner uses time and stock market risks to gain wealth. That means they are fully committed to investing their entire life savings into the stock market on the premise that if they just patiently wait for 50 years they will get rich.

The Fast laner, however ,uses units sold to make wealth meaning they have unlimited scale and how much profit their business makes for instance if you create and invent a new machine you have the possibility to sell not only a hundred but a million. This is how a Fast laner gets rich which brings us to the next point.

2.)  RICH BY WHAT AGE

A Fast laner gets rich in ten years or less, the Slow laner gets rich in 40 years or more and that's the sad reality because compound interest is not very effective when you're dealing with small numbers and a small savings rate. And of course, the Side walker  get rich with luck in other words, they play the lottery.

3.)  PERCEPTION OF TIME

So when it comes to time, for the Side walker it is absolutely wasted. It is squandered and is not looked at as an asset or a limited commodity. For the Slow laner, time is a liability because a slow laner is always trading their time for money. To top it off, their wealth is predicated on the stock market as they are trading time for investments in the market over decades and decades which means time becomes a liability and not an asset. For the Fast laner, time becomes an asset which means they are constantly making money 24 hours a day ,7days a week.

  

4.)  OFFENSE OR DEFENSE

The Fast laner focuses on income generation meaning they have an offensive approach to winning the game. They know the more points you score, the easier it is for you to win. Conversely, the Slow laner is the opposite. They focus on expenses or defense in other words,  the old dance of frugality where you want to live and skimp and save every coin you make, stop eating out at restaurants, stop doing this, stop doing that in other words settle for less because you're going to be rich when you're 65 years old this is a defensive approach. The Side walker focus on consumption; on what's going to make them feel good now. 

5.)  SAVINGS

The Fast laner saves and reinvests 90% of their net profit. Now if that seems ridiculous, it's because a Fast laner actually makes 5 to 6 figures monthly so saving it at a rate of 90 % isn't that impractical in fact it is quite reasonable. The Slow laner save 10 % of their paycheck and they repeat for 50 years. The Side walker saves nothing.

6.)  LEARNING

So when it comes to learning, the Fast laner is constantly learning new things to facilitate their business system. They never stop learning and they understand that education didn't end at graduation. The Slow laner also educates himself but he only does it periodically and it is done to enhance his salary. Then we get to Side walker, who learns nothing but pop culture and various trivial matters that mean absolutely nothing.

7.)  FINANCIAL FUTURE

The Side walker does not control his financial future. The government and the politicians he votes for do. The Slow laner’s financial future is controlled by the job market, the stock market and in some respects the housing market, those are three things he cannot control. Finally, the Fast laner controls his financial future because he has created massive wealth so he doesn't care if the stock market crashes because he's amassed a fortune that can manage those humps. Inflation becomes negligible because if you have millions of shillings, you're suddenly not going to care that bread went up from Ksh 100 to Ksh 150.

So which one are you Fast laner, Slow laner or a Side walker?

Personally, I was a side walker in my high school and university days but I am a slow laner at the moment but heading towards becoming a fast laner. Each one of these wealth personalities lead to a predisposed destination. The destination predisposed for a Side walker is poverty, the predisposed destination for a Slow laner is mediocrity and the predisposed disposition for the Fast laner is wealth. The good news is that there is room for improvement and that you can always do better. However, the bitter truth is that it is going to take a lot of work, sacrifices, failures to achieve success and not everyone is cut out for it.

You can grab a copy of the book using the link below.

Millionaire Fastlane