Ten roads to riches…and a better world

There is a very simple solution to today's big bugaboo, wealth inequality. It starts with you! If you simply get rich, you do a small part to narrow the gap - raising your quality of life and improving the world around you in the process.

Not everyone will get rich, but most people can - they just don't know how. Really! Doesn't matter who your parents are, where you grew up, where (or whether) you went to school. I wrote an entire book about this in 2008, The Ten Roads to Riches, newly updated for a second edition, out this month. Times change, but this holds: There are 10 basic ways you or your children can legally, planfully get rich.

The richest road? Starting a successful business. If you aren't entrepreneurial, become CEO of an existing firm and grow it, or "ride along" with a successful visionary - be Charlie Munger to a Warren Buffett. If you're creative, invent something - like James Dyson - or earn endless royalty streams as a songwriter or the next George Lucas. Royalties also made JK Rowling a superrich lady, but be forewarned, licensing film and merchandising rights is really the only way to make serious money through books these days.

Some might frown, but you can marry money. Those even less worried about morality can practice piracy as plaintiffs' lawyers. The Donald Trump route-using leverage to become a land baron-also works. If you're good with markets, join me and the many mega rich who manage other people's money. You can also make it on pure talent-performing, playing sports-but that's for the young.

If none of those grab you, take the road most traveled: save hard and invest well, forever.

Worried you don't have what it takes? Some of America's wealthiest - Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, oil titan Harold Hamm - lack college degrees. You needn't be born rich, either. Of America's 400 richest people (tracked by Forbes), 266 are self-made (including me). Forty are immigrants who arrived with little. Nor is youth required: You can start a business in your 20s, like Gates, or in your 60s, like Workday founder Dave Duffield. And with patience and discipline, anyone can save a nice nest egg and let compound growth do the rest.

While some think planning to get rich is a pox, consider: Society benefits when more people become rich. If you build a business, you employ people and improve their lives. Maybe they can move to a better neighborhood, send their kids to better schools, and those kids do wonderful things in life. Better world! Or maybe you create something that improves the environment, nutrition, health care, education, or or or. If you get rich managing other people's money, you help them reach their financial goals. If you become a land baron, you'll erase blight and give folks better places to live. Plaintiffs' attorneys? Maybe they help someone.

I can't fit the entire how - to guide here - for a deep dive you can get the book. But I dare say if more people knew how to get rich, the world would have more rich people and be a better place. I hope you'll do your part.

Don't underestimate the power of the 10th road - saving and investing. It is easier than you might think to build real wealth this way. Simply maxing out your ISA every year, owning stocks and never touching it does the trick. A 25 year-old who puts £20,000 in an ISA annually and keeps it all in stocks would have nearly £6 million by age 60 if the market simply matches its 10% long-term annualized return. You won't get that 10% every year, but if you stay cool through markets' zigs and zags, you'll have a wonderful retirement savings pot. If you're starting with small amounts of money, an index tracker fund is probably the best way to diversify. For those who've graduated to individual stocks, here are two fresh picks for your collection:

Entertainment is on tap all over the world with Sirius XM satellite channels, and all the toe-tapping gives Sirius serious potential. It's up over 10% year to date yet still unloved. Pundits fret slowing new US car sales while overlooking fast-growing subscriptions from Sirius XM equipped used cars, a 60-million-car market growing daily. With shares trading at 15 times my 2018 earnings estimate, buy it and let the music roll.

Between jetsetting Millennials and newly moneyed Emerging Markets consumers, global travel's strong tailwinds should carry Priceline, the online travel giant. Its stable of strong brands includes KAYAK, Booking.com, priceline.com, Agoda, Rentalcars.com and OpenTable. With over 88% of gross profits sourced outside America - including a big stake in China's leading online travel platform - Priceline is primed to benefit from strengthening global growth. Buy it now at 21 times my 2018 earnings estimate, and fall in love with its 80% gross margins.

This article is for information and discussion purposes only and does not form a recommendation to invest or otherwise. The value of an investment may fall. The investments referred to in this article may not be suitable for all investors, and if in doubt, an investor should seek advice from a qualified investment adviser.

Ken Fisher has been regularly featured in the financial media for over 30 years and was the pioneer of the Price-to-Sales ratio as a tool for investment analysis. Since 1979, Fisher Investments and its subsidiaries have provided customised guidance to institutional and individual investors. For more information on Ken Fisher and Fisher Investments UK please visit www.fisherinvestments.co.uk.