The guide to accumulating wealth is mundane in its simplicity: acquire index funds, leave them untouched for 10 years, and avoid interference. While this sounds straightforward, it is far from easy.

If it were effortless, riches would be common. The truth is that the majority of financial gain is not generated through the acts of buying or selling, but rather through the act of waiting.

This period of inactivity can be agonizing when markets fluctuate and your mind urges you to intervene, yet the individuals who prosper are those who suppress that reaction.

We often incorrectly assume that patience is a fixed personality trait, present at birth or absent forever. In reality, maintaining a long-term investment strategy is like exercising a muscle that must be developed over time.

You would not expect to bench press 300 lbs on your first trip to the fitness center, nor would you run a marathon the same day you bought your sneakers. Similarly, your willpower may fracture during the early years of investing, and regression can happen.

I also encounter these difficulties. I divested from Robinhood at approximately $10 to streamline my assets, only to witness the value rise to the $90s.

Although the regret was visceral, it did not divert me from my overall strategy.

If you sell out of fear or miss a market surge, you are not a bad investor, merely an untrained one. The objective is not to function like a machine incapable of error, but to examine those lapses, understand the root cause, and implement better boundaries for the future.

Wealth does not require you to be perfect; it simply requires you to be consistent.