The follow is an easy eight step strategy to growing a fortune. If you are looking to 'get rich quick', then perhaps you'd like to look elsewhere: You won't find any information like that here. These 8 steps will only touch the basics of what you need to know, but will start you on your path to building wealth.

But enough chit-chat, let's get to the details:

#1) Educate yourself about money, investing and financial planning.

Financial website The Motley Fool, has a great quote that sums this step up:

Learning this stuff is easy, but you do have to learn it.

Wall Street is chock full of financial professionals who would love to manage your money for you -- perhaps through a mutual fund, for example. But a smart fellow named Fred Schwed asked an important question many years ago: "Where are the customers' yachts?" Think about this. You and your friends fork over your life savings into the hands of money managers, who -- after substantial fees -- end up living in ritzy houses and snoozing days away on their yachts. That's not you on the high seas - it's the managers. Something went wrong there. Something really went wrong, especially considering that according to Lipper Analytical Services more than 91% of all mutual funds lost to the market's average return over the past five years! Indeed, where are the customers' yachts?

The point is this: Learn about money and investing as soon as possible, and educate yourself regularly. If you have kids, educate them. It is not complicated to manage your own money, as long as you are educated in the subject and understand the risks involved.

Here is an great video that will educate you on how the current money system (the fiat system) came into existence. WARNING: This video has a little bit of a conspiracy theory at about 42:20 into the video. Feel free to skip this section, although watching is entertaining :)

Check out the "Educate" section of Slow Fortune for regular articles, links to free e books, and other resources on the web.

#2) Spend less than you earn.

Sounds simple doesn't it? Watch this Saturday Night Live sketch, that we think really sums things up:

Do not try to appear more wealthy than you are, and do not fool yourself into thinking that you are (Take a look in the mirror and trim the fat). Spend less than you earn. Spend less than you earn. Repeat that over and over to yourself as a mantra.

Need help tracking your expenses? Check out BudgetPulse, expensr.com, wesabe.com. They are all free :)

#3) Credit card debt is bad debt. Pay it off at the end of each month.

Credit card interest rates usually sit around 18%. That means for every $100 you owe on your credit card, some fat banker get $18 dollars on top of the original $100 you have to pay back. Credit card companies want you to keep a balance (and to keep paying the minimum payment) so they keep raking in the cash from your excessive lifestyle.

Credit card companies classify card owners in two categories: Transactors and Revolvers. "Transactors" pay off their balances each month, and usually never see an interest payment. However, the vast majority are called "revolvers".These people carry some kind of balance from month to month, and the credit card companies rake in their 18%. Banks want you to be a revolver. Be a transactor: Pay off your balance every month.

If you carry a credit card balance, get rid of it. If you are having trouble getting rid of it, see Step #2: "Spend less than you earn."

#4) Save at least 10% of your income each month.

Don't be like the majority of people who live paycheck to paycheck. In Financial expert David Bach's Automatic Millionaire<, he instructs people to "Pay Yourself First".

By paying yourself first, Bach is referring to contributing to an Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP), or for our American friends, an IRA, or 401k.

Right now, when you earn a dollar, before it even makes it to your paycheck, you pay the federal government income taxes. You also may be paying [state/provincial] income tax. And on top of that, there are taxes for other government programs.

Don't pay [the government] before you pay yourself, David says. Start paying yourself first—take at the very least the first hour of income that you earn during the day for yourself. You can legally pay yourself first—before the government—by putting that money into a pre-tax retirement account.

10% is a good starting point, and the higher you can contribute, the more momentum you can build for your retirement account. Bach further suggests making the contributions automatic, on a monthly basis.

A special note for the young thinking "I am young, it's to early to think about retirement." Retirement does not mean that you won't see the money again until your 65. It means you pay taxes on the money when you withdraw them from your RRSP, and up to that point in time, you will have a tax-free environment to grow and compound your investment. In addition, seeing your assets grow at a young age can lay down the tracks for a financial success.

#5) When investing, be a emotionless lazy investor

Investing allows you to turn money into (hopefully) more money (aka "Getting a return on your investment"). The best strategy involves buying investments that you never intend to sell, and holding them over time (aka "long term investing"). If your investment time horizon is not that long, then just stick it in a high yield savings account or GIC instead. Stocks can be depressed for long periods of time, during what is known as a bear market, which is a prolonged period in which investment prices fall, and usually accompanied by widespread pessimism.

There are a plethora of investment options for your money. The list is intimidating: GICs, Stocks, Government Bonds, Corporate Bonds, Mutual Funds, Index funds, ETFs, Hedge Funds, and so forth. Visit our Introduction to Investing article to get more information on these different types of investment vehicles.

We believe in lazy investing: self management of a portfolio with a low level of maintenance (so you can focus on the things that are important to you in your life) but while still achieving excellent returns. Simply put, a lazy portfolio is a collection of low-fee no-load mutual funds or index exchange traded funds (ETFs) that allow you to own a balanced portfolio with minimal maintenance.

Using one of these Lazy Portfolio's will allow you to beat the majority of mutual fund managers and even beat the market.

Visit our Lazy Investing Section to learn more about Lazy Investing, and our collection of lazy portfolios for Canadians.

Some people have a hard time being Lazy investors. They love the thrill of clicking the Buy button and watching stocks tick up and down all day. It is human nature to crave excitement. In "The little book of Common Sense Investing", the author introduces the concept of "Funny Money":

There are no surefire solutions for investment success Wealth without risk is not a realistic expectation. Nonetheless, building an investment portfolio can be exciting, and trying out modern remedies for age-old problems lets you exercise your animal spirits. If you crave excitement, enjoy the fun! But not with one penny more than 5 percent of your investment assets. This can be your Funny Money account. Test two or three aggressive investment strategies. You’re likely to learn some valuable lessons, and it probably won’t hurt you too much in the short term.

Be sure to regularly measure your returns and compare them with the returns you’ve earned in your Serious Money Account.

Source: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing

#6) Own your home, as soon as there are appropriate conditions to do so.

Owning your home is a great investment because you can build your wealth using other people’s money. A mortgage provided by a bank allows you to purchase the house with the bank’s money (providing you have good enough credit to get a mortgage).

However, make sure the conditions are appropriate. If you can't stay put, and always feel the need to switch your residence, then owning is likely not appropriate (there are transaction costs of buying and selling a home).

If you do not have at least 20% for a down payment, then it is not appropriate. Many people will argue against this, but getting the 20% took discipline and a habit of consistent saving. A transition into a monthly mortgage payment will be easy.

#7) Enjoy life, your family and your friends

SlowFortune investors do not check our portfolios everyday. We see no point in watching the inevitable non-stop fluctuation of stock prices, analyst recommendations, and investment related news. The news we do stay on top of, is any information relating to a potential modification of percentages in our lazy portfolio's, macroeconomic issues for whole markets and so forth.

We take comfort in knowing that our lazy investment strategy is balanced, and will indeed perform in the long term, despite short term fluctuations. When the world is panicking about the investment markets, we stick to our investment strategy and keep on buying when we are able to do so. Warren Buffet teaches us to be scared when other people are greedy, and greedy when other people are scared.

So we enjoy our lives. We spend time with our families. We dine with our friends. We focus and devote our time to what really matters to us.

#8) Build an emergency fund

Bad and unexpected things will happen in life -- it is inevitable. You could be out of a job, you may require some medical procedure, or you could have to fix a leaky condo. Having an emergency fund will allow you to transition through these tough times with less stress.

An emergency fund is essentially an easily accessible pool of money which maintains enough cash reserve for living expenses in the event of a genuine emergency. Financial advisor's typically suggest that an emergency fund covers three to six month's of living expenses (Those that have dependents, must factor them into these costs as well).

Do not deplete it for a down payment. Do not take money out for a new car. Don't take cash out for a renovation. The fund is for emergencies only.

Emergency funds are hard to build, and arguably might be less important in your younger years. However, from an investment standpoint: Having an emergency fund allows you to pull from it, instead of selling off your investments and possibly taking a hit.

Read more about emergency funds