what is the surest way to get rich and happy

Get educated in a valuable skill

Work hard for most of your life while living below your means

Invest the difference in low-cost index funds or real estate

Around age 80 you will be rich

For you? G4P

Work a high paying full time job / career. You'll probably have non-compete clauses, so would suggest a "fun" unrelated part time job that pays well which you don't half-arse, IE bartender on the weekends, maybe something online like an article writer or a Twitch/YouTube content creator. Basically work 60+ hours a week, striving to make like $150k-200k/yr, maybe more if you're in a high CoL area.

Live below your means, save back like $50k/yr, invest into a tech related mutual fund or S&P 500. Safer funds make like 10-12%/yr on average. In 10 years it'll be $900k-1.1m. If you can strugglebus for 15 years it'll be $2m. $2m is pretty much enough to retire early if you keep it in safe investments and live somewhere low cost of living like parts of Texas/Florida.

Great answer.. any high paying job/career you'd recommend?

on r/c

STEM that isn't terribly impacted by AI, outsourcing, layoffs. Maybe something involving handling data that, due to regulations, only American soil (Domestic) employees are authorized to handle. Could be something in databases, cyber security, programming.

If something different, then possibly oil rig (especially if Trump turns the oil back on) or air traffic controller as the misc used to love to make threads about. ATCs made a median annual wage of $137k in 2023 - some more or less. ATCs are age restricted though, you can't "enter the field" unless you're below age 31.

Based