Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few weeks, you’ve probably seen a few names hit the headlines: GameStop and Bitcoin.

Gamestop’s stock recently made financial waves when a hoard of Reddit (a massive online discussion forum) users collaboratively boosted GameStop’s share price to astronomical, unjustified levels. On the other side of this gamble were several Wall Street hedge funds who ended up losing big. It was a shocking, David vs. Goliath-type spectacle.

Over roughly the same time period bitcoin has surged in value, partially due to purchase announcements from prominent business people including entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Bitcoin is regularly reaching all-time highs, with loads of investors pouring into bitcoin with a deep Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO).

Stories abound of some who put lots of money into Gamestop or Bitcoin early on and are now multi-millionaires.

Good for them. In my view they chose to play a high-stakes lottery and it worked out. Others have lost millions along the way.

I use the lottery comparison on purpose. Short-term bets on any asset, which can certainly be a thrill ride, is gambling. Wise, prudent investing over long periods of time is where most wealth growth happens. The problem to some is it takes a long time to get there. It’s boring.

Consider this customary, yet wise guidance generally accepted when saving for retirement:

Contribute a fixed dollar amount each pay period to a retirement plan
Invest the funds in a low-cost mix of mutual funds or ETFs
Repeat this process for your entire working career (30-40 years)

zzzzzzz….

Boring enough for ya? Yet this simple guidance has helped millions of American savers amass retirement wealth. There is nothing glamorous about it. I could add one or two more points to the list to add a tad more sizzle, but that’s all. And it wouldn’t move the needle much.

When others ask how I invest, the guidance above is exactly what I tell them. Sometimes I get an odd look, like I should have some sort of secret investing formula since I’m a financial advisor; a guy on the “inside.” The secret formula is that there is no secret. At least not for me.

I can move through the rest of my life with a certain degree of confidence that I’m slowly building wealth over time. More importantly, as financial blogger Ben Carlson points out, I can leave time and mental energy for the other things in my life that really matter.

There are some upsides to being comfortable in your own skin as an investor.

I’ll never found a company that makes me fabulously wealthy but I’ve also never worked 80 hour weeks in a stressful job that causes other areas of my life to suffer.

In fact, I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve gotten home from the office past 5:30 in the evening in my entire career.

So while I’ll never understand what it’s like to be the founder of a hot tech start-up, I will always know what it’s like to have dinner with my kids every night of the week or have my weekends free from the stress of my job.

And while I’ll never know what it’s like to receive life-altering stock options, having enough flexibility to regularly workout, read, watch TV and work only on the projects I truly care about is a decent consolation prize.