The first question is, of course, what do you mean by “wealthy”?

I like my definition of being “reasonably wealthy” as “having enough passive income to be able to retire”.

For us average people, there is, in my view, only one way to achieve this other than by gambling successfully and that is by investing in property. Why property? Because you can buy a R900 000 property with R90 000.

You can’t buy R900 000 worth of listed shares except with R900 000.

You will need about R12m to 14m invested in rental earning property to be able to retire, provided you bought well. And by “well”, I mean “well below market price”.

All your wealth should be built within a trust structure because when you die you are deemed to have sold your assets to your deceased estate at the moment of death. If those assets are fixed property, that results in Capital Gains Tax of 18% followed by Estate Duty of 20% (I ignore the allowances, because they are not relevant to estate planning). That’s about 1/3rd of your wealth going in tax just because you died!

If the wealth is in a trust structure, however, there’s zero tax on your death, because when you die your trust does not die.

That’s just a quick thumbnail sketch. Best is to read my book “16 Steps to Wealth” for the full story. You find it here.