Are you trying to ‘get rich quick’? Read this.

The prospect of accumulating substantial wealth quickly can be quite appealing.Indeed there are legitimate ways to accumulate substantial amounts of money in a relatively short period of time, but these usually come with substantial risks and a lotof luck. Every day there are people who suddenly get rich by winning the lottery, hitting the jackpot on a gambling machine, or betting on a particular stock that skyrocketed. They were lucky.

Greed can be defined as “an excessive desire to acquire or possess more,” especially more material wealth; greed is about excessive want.When it comes to investing, far too many people tend to follow the crowd and invest in the latest fad; this can prove to be disastrous, as such investments usually carry an extremely high degree of risk and are unsuitable for most of us.Adverts and rhetoric will show people making huge amounts of money to entice the “greedy” onlooker who then jumps on the band wagon and loses his or her shirt.

Greedy and uninformed investors tend to be impatient and unrealistic. They throw caution to the wind and ”invest” based on vague, subjective information, tips, hype, and rumor with the hope of a quick windfall rather than with informed due diligence in pursuing a carefully crafted plan. This usually means the investor often doesn’t understand the nature of his or her investments and tends to assume only the best for that investment, often failing to spot any sign of trouble.The investor has usually spent the paper profit before it becomes real.

Seek professional advice, particularly where you don’t have the time or expertise to manage your own investments and an appropriate investment plan can be structured for you.If your goals are long term and you can accommodate a degree of risk in your investing, the stock market would be an appropriate option. However, if you need your money fairly soon, you should limit the risk you take and increase your exposure to cash and other fixed income securities.

Get-rich-quick schemes tend to be suspect investment methods in which you can “supposedly” make a lot of money in a relatively short amount of time with very little knowledge. Many anxious investors seek opportunities to recover quickly from the catastrophic losses in their portfolios. This makes them particularly vulnerable to get-rich-quick schemes. In many of these schemes, only a few people make money, and everyone else loses their entire investment. Sadly those who fall for scams such as pyramid and other schemes or scams can hardly afford to. In most cases it is greed that is taken advantage of and this rarely brings long-term success.Most schemes promise that participants can obtain a very high rate of return with very little risk, very little skill, and with minimal effort or time.

Be careful. There is no magic formula for investing. Successful investing requires a well-thought-out-plan, focus, patience, and discipline. Successful investors aren’t looking for a miracle; they are more realistic and seek steady ways to improve their performance over time in a rational manner rather than latching onto a get-rich-quick opportunity. It is almost impossible to guarantee a consistently high rate of return. Markets are unpredictable and so are returns.

Understanding the relationship between risk and reward is an important part of investing. Generally, “the higher the risk, the higher the potential return.” If you are unwilling to take at least some investment risk, then you must be prepared to accept low returns. Your goal should be to maximise returns without taking on more risk than you can bear.