I don't want a big house or an expensive car or "bling". I just wish I had the money to buy time.
Maybe in the beginning, but after having developed calluses you can basically practice for an undefinite period of time.
It was much easier to make progress when I was a feckless teenager.
Benny the Irish Polyglot didn't. ( http://fluentinthreemonths.com )
Through a combination of formal schooling (besides English etc. in school, I did graduate studies in linguistics that required doing coursework in nearly all the languages in a particular language family, and immersed fieldwork in some of them) and over a hundred thousand kilometers of hitchhiking where I could just practice with drivers all day every day, I have learned most of the languages of Europe to a degree where I can comfortably converse with local people when traveling or in international meetups. However, I am very aware that my skills are deficient in many respects, such as reading classic literature with its immense amount of vocabulary or idioms that native speakers will understand passively, but it doesn't come up in conversation frequently enough for most foreigners to easily pick it up. Learning a foreign language to that degree, which I would consider real fluency, takes an incredible amount of time, time usually spent totally immersed in that country.
To give an example from Romania: Benny might come over and be very conversational in 3 months. Loads of foreigners like Erasmus students manage that if they already speak Spanish or Italian and they are motivated and spend a lot of time in cafes and clubs among local people. But if I then handed Benny a simple work of literature that any local child would read in school like Marin Preda’s Morometii or a Caragiale play, he would probably have to reach for a dictionary a dozen times on just the first page.
(Benny has stated "When I learn a new language, I aim to reach a level where I speak confidently and comfortably in the language. I call this “social equivalency”. For me, that’s fluency. [..] not an academic pursuit; it’s a practical one. I aim to be able to use the language effectively in everyday conversation [..] I generally don't place much importance on my writing skills or ability to analyse and discuss printed text in a foreign language")
So it is completely fair to say he's not fluent to any near-native level - particularly after three months - but it's not entirely fair to say he has no third-party verification - from what I can tell on his rather hyped blog, he has passed CEFR C2 level Spanish, C1 level French and narrowly missed passing C2 level German exams.
It's a matter of where to draw a line, but in a comment "win the lottery and learn multiple foreign languages", I'd expect someone saying that to consider "passing advanced formal exams in French, German and Spanish" to count, rather than meaning "can read classic plays without reaching for a dictionary".
But maybe not.
It's hard enough to get people to agree on whether a good programmer can work in 'any language quickly', or whether it requires spending a good chunk of time to become familiar with idioms, warts, surrounding ecosystem and famous works and references.
TBF, as a native English speaker, you could hand me classic Shakespeare or works of poetry I actually did read in school, and there's a good chance I'd still be reaching for a dictionary on page 1.
I have learned most of the languages of Europe to a degree where I can comfortably converse with local people when traveling or in international meetups.
How do you even keep that much in your head?
My todo list will take me to my 3000 birthday.