by MJ DeMarco
If you’re looking to buy me a gift, good luck. I have everything I want so finding me a gift “I need or want” is akin to solving the Drake equation. Because prices for most things are inconsequential, I buy when the urge hits.
I made my first million when I was 31. Five years earlier, I was living with my mother and struggling. I retired when I was 37. Every month I earn thousands of dollars in income, interest and appreciation on investments working around the globe. No matter what I do on any day, one thing is sure: I get paid and I do not have to work. I have financial freedom because I cracked wealth’s code and escaped financial mediocrity. I’m a normal guy living an abnormal life. It’s a fantasy land but my reality, my normal, my deviation from ordinary where I can pursue my most implausible dreams in a life free of financial encumbrances. Had I chosen the preordained road, “Get Rich Slow,” my dreams would be on life-support, likely replaced with a mortgage, a heavy morning commute, and a 50 mg prescription of Prozac.
How about your dreams? Do they need resuscitation? Is your life on a road that converges with a dream, or is one? If your dreams have lost probability it’s possible “Get Rich Slow” has killed them. “Get Rich Slow” criminally asks you to barter your freedom for freedom. It’s an insane trade which suffocates dreams.
Alternatively, if you travel the right roads and leverage the right roadmap, you can resurrect your dreams to realistic probabilities. Yes, as a Fastlane traveler you can create wealth fast, screw “Get Rich Slow,” and win a lifetime of prosperity, freedom, and dream fulfillment . . . just as I did.
If this book hasn’t found you early in life, don’t worry. The Fastlane doesn’t care about your age, your job experience, your race, or your gender. It doesn’t care about your “F” in eighth grade gym class or your beer-drinking reputation in college. The Fastlane doesn’t care about your Big-Ten college degree or your Harvard MBA. It doesn’t ask you to be a famous athlete, actor, or a finalist on American Idol. The Fastlane is merciful on your past if you just unlock the gateway into its universe.
Finally, at the risk of sounding like a wannabe guru who proliferates your Facebook feed, let me clarify: I’m not a guru and don’t want to be one. This is the book I wish I had when I was twenty—and it doesn’t include a “free training” that funnels into $10,000 seminar.
Likewise, “guruness” implies “know-it-all” and that’s not me. Twenty-plus years into this and I humbly admit, I have more to learn. If a label is sought, call me the “anti-guru” of “Get Rich Slow.”
Sorry, No Four-Hour Work Week Here
First, let’s get something clear: This isn’t a “how-to” book. I’m not going to tell you every nuance about “how I did it” because how I did it isn’t relevant. This book doesn’t contain a list of websites that outline ways to “outsource” your life. Success is a journey, and it can’t be outsourced to the Philippines in a four-hour workweek. The Millionaire Fastlane is like a yellow brick road paved in psychology and mathematics that put the odds of massive wealth in your favor.
During my Fastlane journey of discovery, I always sought the absolute, infallible formula that would lead to wealth. What I found was ambiguity and subjective imperatives like “be determined” or “persistence pays” or “it’s not what you know, but who.” While these tidbits were pieces of the puzzle, they didn’t guarantee wealth. A workable formula uses mathematical constructs, not ambiguous statements. Does wealth have a mathematical formula, a code that you could exploit to tilt the odds in your favor? Yes, and the Fastlane quantifies it.
Now for the bad news. Many wealth seekers have false expectations about “money” books and think that some fairy-guru will do the work. The road to wealth has no escort and is always under construction. No one drops millions on your lap; the road is yours to travel and yours alone. I can open the door but I can’t make you walk through it.
I don’t claim the Fastlane is easy; it’s hard work. If you expect a four-hour work week here, you will be disappointed. All I can be is that creepy munchkin pointing off in the distance with a stern directive, “Follow the yellow brick road.”
The Fastlane is that road.
Coffee with a Multimillionaire
I’ve approached this book conversationally, as if you’re my new friend and we’re having coffee in a quaint neighborhood café. My sole intent is education—not to upsell you into some expensive seminar, membership website, or some backend marketing funnel. That’s right—I’m SELLING NOTHING—but the wisdom I wished I had when I was struggling. While I will talk with you like a friend, let’s face it: I don’t have a clue who you are. I don’t know about your past, your age, your biases, your spouse, or your education. Thus, I need to make some general assumptions to ensure that our conversation seems personal to you. My assumptions:
✓You look around your life and think, “there’s got to be more.”
✓You have big dreams, yet you’re concerned that the road you’re traveling will never converge with those dreams.
✓You’re college-bound, college-enrolled, or college-educated.
✓You have a job you don’t enjoy or isn’t going to make you rich.
✓You have little savings and carry a load of debt.
✓You contribute regularly to a 401(k) or a low cost indexed mutual fund.
✓You realize that at the rate your invested savings are growing, you’ll be able to retire far beyond your life expectancy.
✓You see rich people and wonder, “how did they do it?”
✓You have bought a few “get rich quick” books and/or programs.
✓You live in a free, democratic society where education and free choice are standards.
✓Your parents subscribe to the old school: “Go to college and get a good job.”
✓You don’t have any physical talent; your chances of becoming a professional athlete, singer, entertainer, or actor are zero.
✓You are young and full of enthusiasm about the future, but unsure where to direct it.
✓You are older and have been in the workforce for some time. After all these years, you don’t have a lot to show for it and are tired of “starting over.”
✓You’ve put your heart and soul into a job only to be laid off due to a bad economy, corporate BS, or cutbacks.
✓Your children are parented by an electronic device because you’re too busy, too overworked, and too underpaid.
✓You’ve lost money in the stock market or traditional investments championed by mainstream financial gurus.
If some of these assumptions reflect your situation, this book will have an impact.
How This Book Is Organized
At the conclusion of each chapter, there is a subsection titled “Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions” which chronicles the critical distinctions to Fastlane strategy. Don’t ignore these! They’re the building blocks to engineering your Fastlane. Additionally, the stories and examples in this book come from the Fastlane Forum (TheFastlaneForum.com) and other personal finance forums. While the stories are real and come from real people with real problems, I’ve changed the names and edited the dialogue for clarity. And finally, feel free to discuss Fastlane strategy with thousands of others at the Fastlane Forum. When the Fastlane changes your life, stop by and tell us how!
It took me years to uncover and assemble the Fastlane strategies, learn them, use them, and ultimately make millions. Bored, retired, and yes, still young with hair, I give you The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for A Lifetime! Fasten your seat belts, grab a ten-buck latte, and let’s go on a road trip!
PART 1
WEALTH IN A WHEELCHAIR:
GET RICH SLOW IS
GET RICH OLD

PART 1- WEALTH IN A WHEELCHAIR: “GET RICH SLOW” IS GET RICH OLD.
[1] - The Great Deception
Normal is not something to aspire to, it’s something to get away from.
~ Jodie Foster
The “MTV Cr
ibs” Episode that Never Happened
Host: “Today we visit 22-year-old Big Daddyhoo and his 8,000-square-foot crib here on the beautiful Atlantic coastline live from sunny Palm Beach Florida . . . so, Big Daddyhoo, tell us about your rides!”
Big Daddyhoo: “Yo dawg, we gotz the Ferrari 488GTB over there with the 22-inch rims, the sick Lamborghini Huracan over there with the custom 12-speaker stereo, and for those nights when I just wanna chillax with the ladies, the Rolls Royce Arnage does my do.”
Host: “So, Big Daddyhoo, how can you afford all these gorgeous rides? And this mansion on the beach? It must have cost more than $20 million!”
Big Daddyhoo: “Yo let me tell you dawg, Big Daddyhoo got rich chilling in low cost index-funds and popping phat money in my 401(k)s down at my Win-Go Wireless job.”
Suddenly, you hear a record screech off the turntable.
Silence.
As you can imagine, this scenario would never happen. Big Daddy’s answer is preposterous and laughable. We’re smart enough to know that wealthy 22-year-olds aren’t rich because they diligently saved their paycheck from a job and stashed it away in an index-fund. We know that people who get rich young fall into a unique subset of society: pro athletes, rappers, actors, entertainers, and famous people. Those of us outside this demography are stuck with the traditional advice showered upon us by financial experts.
It’s called “Get Rich Slow” and sounds something like this: Go to school, get good grades, graduate, get a good job, invest in the stock market, max-out your 401(k), cut up your credit cards, and clip coupons . . . then someday, when you are, oh, 65 years old, you will be rich.
“Get Rich Slow” Is a Losing Game
If you want to get rich and “Get Rich Slow” is your strategy, I have bad news. It’s a losing game, with your time wagered as the gamble. Is the guy with the palatial beach estate and the $500,000 supercar on the driveway rich because he invested in mutual funds? Or clipped coupons from the local Super-Saver? Of course not. So why do we give credence to this advice as a legitimate road that leads to wealth and financial freedom? Because the government, a radio personality, and Goldman Sachs says so?
Show me a 22-year-old who got rich investing in indexed-funds. Show me the man who earned millions in three years by maximizing his 401(k). Show me the young twenty-something who got rich clipping coupons. Where are these people?
They don’t exist. They’re impossible fairy tales.
Yet, we continue to trust the same tired gang of financial sycophants who preach these doctrines of wealth. Yes sir, get a job, work 50 years, save, live mindlessly frugal, invest in the stock market, and soon, your day of freedom will arrive at age 70 . . . and if the stock market is kind and you’re lucky, 60! Gee, doesn’t this “wealth in a wheelchair” financial plan sound exciting?
In today’s reckless financial climate of monetary debt and inflation, I am shocked people still believe these strategies even work. Wasn’t it the 2008 recession that exposed “Get Rich Slow” for the fraud it is? Oh I get it, if you’re employed for 40 years and avoid 40% market downturns, “Get Rich Slow” works; just sit back, work, and hope death don’t meet you first because, golly-gee, you’re going to be the richest guy in the retirement home!
The message of “Get Rich Slow” is clear: Sacrifice your today, your dreams, and your life for a plan that pays dividends after most of your life has evaporated.
Let me be blunt: If your road to wealth devours most of your active adult life and is not guaranteed, that road sucks. A “road to wealth” codependent on Wall Street and anchored by time with your life wagered as the gamble is a rotten alley.
Nonetheless, the preordained plan continues to wield power, lickspittled and enforced by a legion of hypocritical “financial experts” who aren’t rich by their own advice, but by their own Millionaire Fastlane. The Slowlane prognosticators—people who make a fortune on investment management fees, seven-figure book deals, and ancillary financial programs and subscriptions— know something that they aren’t telling you: What they teach doesn’t work, but selling it does.
Wealth Young: Is It Bullshit?
The Millionaire Fastlane isn’t about being retired old with millions, but about redefining wealth to include youth, fun, freedom, and prosperity. Take this comment posted on the Fastlane Forum:
“Is it bullshit? You know, the dream to be young and live the life—to own the exotic cars, to own the dream house, to have free time to travel and pursue your dreams. Can you really get free of the rat race young? I’m a 23-year-old investment banker in Chicago, Illinois. I make a modest salary with modest commissions. By most people’s standards, I have a good job. I hate it. I cruise Chicago’s downtown and I see some guys living the life. Guys driving expensive exotic cars and I think to myself . . . They’re all 50 or older with silver hair! One of them once told me, ‘You know kid, when you finally can afford a toy like this, you’re almost too old to enjoy it!’ The guy was a 52-year-old real estate investor. I remember looking at him and thinking ‘God . . . that can’t be true! It’s gotta be bullshit! It’s gotta be!’”
I can verify—it isn’t bullshit. You can live “the life” and still be young. Old age is not a prerequisite to wealth or retirement. However, the real BS is thinking you can do it by the default “Get Rich Slow” construct, at least by the time you hit your 30th birthday. Believing that old age is a precondition to retirement is the real BS. The real BS is allowing “Get Rich Slow” to steal your dreams.
Reinvent Retirement to Include Youth
Say “retirement” and what do you see? I see a crotchety old man on a porch in a creaky rocking chair. I see pharmacies, doctor’s offices, walkers, and unsightly urinary undergarments. I see nursing homes and overburdened loved ones. I see old and immobile. Heck, I even smell something musty circa 1971. People retire in their 60s or 70s. Even at that age, they struggle to make ends meet and have to rely on bankrupted government programs just to survive. Others work well into their “golden years” just to maintain their lifestyle. Some never make it and work until death.
How does this happen? Simple. “Get Rich Slow” takes a lifetime and its success is nefariously dependent on too many factors you cannot control. Invest 50 years into a job and miserly living, then, one day, you can retire rich alongside your wheelchair and prescription pillbox. How uninspiring.
Yet, millions undertake the 50-year gamble. Those who win the Wall Street lottery receive their reward of financial freedom with a stinking lump of turd: old age.
Gee thanks.
But don’t worry; patronization rains from the heavens: “These are the golden years!” Who they kidding? Golden to whom?
If the road to wealth and freedom devours 50 years of your life, is it worth it? A 50-year journey isn’t compelling, and because of it, few succeed and those who do settle for financial freedom in life’s twilight.
The problem with accepted norms of retirement is what you do not see.
You don’t see youth, you don’t see fun, and you don’t see the realization of dreams. The golden years aren’t golden at all but a waiting room for death. If you want financial freedom before the Grim Reaper hits the on-deck circle, “Get Rich Slow” isn’t the answer.
If you want to retire young with health, vibrancy, and luxurious hair, the kind fit for a shampoo commercial, you need to ignore society’s default “Get Rich Slow” roadmap and the mainstream gurus spoon-feeding you the slop in the trough. There is another way.
Chapter Summary: Fastlane Distinctions
➡“Get Rich Slow” demands a long life of gainful employment.
➡“Get Rich Slow” is a losing game because it is codependent on Wall Street and anchored by your time.
➡The real golden years of life are when you’re young, sentient, and vibrant.
[2] - How I Screwed “Get Rich Slow”
The object of life is not to be on the side of the masses, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Exposing the “Get Rich Slow” Dreamkiller
As a teenager, I never considered the idea of getting rich young. “Wealth + youth” was an equation that didn’t compute simply because I didn’t possess talent or physical capabilities. Common roads to wealth for the young are competitive and need talent; actor, musician, an entertainer or a pro athlete—all roads that had a big “ROAD CLOSED” sign that sneered, “Not a chance, MJ!”
So, early in life, I conceded. I gave up on my dreams. “Get Rich Slow” made it abundantly clear: Go to school, get a job, settle for less, sacrifice, be miserly and quit dreaming about financial freedom, mountainside homes, and exotic cars. But I still dreamed. It’s what teenage boys do. For me, it was all about the cars—specifically, the Lamborghini Countach.
The 90 Seconds that Changed My Life
I grew up in Chicago as a porky kid with few friends. I wasn’t interested in teenage girls or sports, but lying around in a beanbag stuffing my face with doughnuts while watching Tom-n-Jerry reruns. Parental supervision was absent; Mom divorced Dad years earlier, which left my mother to raise my older siblings and I alone. Mom didn’t have a college education or a career, unless a deep-frying job at Kentucky Fried Chicken qualified. That left me to my own indulgences, usually sweet-toothing and the latest episode of the A-Team. My exertions were characterized by a long broken broomstick: I used it as the TV’s remote control since the real one was broken and I was too lazy to move. When I did move, the local ice cream shop was often my target; a sugary delight was a motive I could count on.