Nick’s Note: At the Palm Beach Research Group, we believe in comprehensive wealth-building. That means a blend of conservative, income-based investments, asset protection, and smart speculation.

But what if you don’t have enough money to start building wealth? Longtime PBRG friend Bill Bonner says the answer is simple—but it does require patience…

By Bill Bonner, chairman, Bonner & Partners

Today, three basic skills for building long-term wealth… prompted by some recent reader feedback.

We receive emails from readers every day. We can’t respond to all of them, of course… but we think about them a lot.

Recently, we got two particularly interesting emails. One was from a woman who felt she had been badly handled in a divorce and now struggles to stay afloat financially.

Another came from a man on the opposite side of a divorce transaction. He struggled for years with alimony, child support, and living expenses. He eventually gave up the struggle, declared bankruptcy, and sank beneath the water.

Family issues are usually far more important to your well-being, your happiness—and even your financial security—than money.

Recommended Link

Kansas farm boy generates millions from his California “bunker”

He’s just an ordinary guy born on a farm in Kansas. He didn’t graduate from a fancy college. He doesn’t have an MBA. Yet he stumbled upon a “secret key” technique that allowed him to retire at 42… and still make more money in 8 hours… than most people make in a month. He calls it his retirement hobby.

But Monday through Friday you’ll find him up by 4 am, in front of his computer… using his "secret key" to generate thousands of dollars per week… without touching stocks or bonds. He calls it his retirement hobby.

Click here to see his “secret key” in action
—

But they share several similarities. In both cases, success depends on habits, personalities, and luck. Virtue pays off—not always, but often. Fidelity. Humility. Generosity. Steadfastness. Hard work. These all tend to pay off in the end, too.

Even if it doesn’t work this way, you are probably better off believing it does. At least then, when things don’t work out, it’s not your fault.

When we read letters from someone with little money, we want to help. Here’s one we received lately:

OK. Here I am, relatively new to your company. Currently, I live on Social Security and a monthly retirement income. This basically amounts to a little over $2,000 a month. When I got married, we started a retirement plan, which we added to every month. Then, 21 years later, divorce happened, and he got our retirement fund. Plus, he also has a retirement fund from his career.

I had graduated from high school and worked to put him through college culminating in his master’s degree. I had a high school degree, working at various clerical jobs until the children arrived, and I quit my job to become a full-time mother.

I have no savings, investments, etc. I am 70 years old and would like you to address how I can deal with the “gloom and doom” I read about in your reports.

We can’t give personalized financial advice. But we have some general thoughts about people in a similar situation.

We sell investment research, analysis, and advice. And our marketers work hard to make them sound as attractive as possible. But when you don’t have much money to invest, an expensive trading service will probably not help you.

For anyone beginning to build wealth, we have some million-dollar advice that we will give to you for nothing: Keep it simple. Keep it cheap. And keep at it.

Yes, we hope that our modest insights and humble thoughts in The Bill Bonner Letter are worth the money.

But please don’t spend any more… unless you have the money to make more expensive advice worthwhile.

And no, we are not saying that sophisticated, alpha-hunting systems won’t work. In the right hands, at the right time, they can work spectacularly well.

But finding them takes time and knowledge. The amateur will almost certainly run out of money before he runs into an expensive trading program that makes him rich.

The basic skills for building wealth are so simple, they barely deserve mention. And like building a family, they take time… often a whole lifetime.

  1. Spend less than you earn.

  2. Invest carefully in the surest, safest things you can find. Look for things close

  3. As you earn more money, then… and only then… can you afford to splash out on lifestyle enhancements and more sophisticated investment tools.

Do this for 20… 30… 40 years… Then let us know how it works out.

Regards,

Bill Bonner,
Chairman, Bonner & Partners

Nick’s Note: The typical U.S. family cannot raise even $400 for an emergency…and the last census recorded 110 million Americans receiving more or less permanent “welfare” assistance from the government. 

Bill says the cause of the decline in the middle class is not the free market, race, the 1%, or President Trump. It is not even due to a lack of money or some rich guy having too much money. Here’s the real truth about America no one wants to tell you…

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…

If you have the money to make more expensive advice worthwhile, you may want to consider a subscription to Exponential Tech Investor.

In that research service, Bill’s chief technology analyst, Jeff Brown, finds early-stage technology opportunities.

Right now, Jeff says he’s found an FDA anomaly that can rocket one industry 35,111%. He’s calling this find the “God key.” You can learn more right here.