We're doing well. Here's the beautiful thing. At my age, I've had a chance. To see a few things over the last three and a half decades. I have worked with entrepreneurs and individuals to help them build their businesses and build their wealth, to find their path. To financial freedom and to live a. Life that's full of richness. So what does that mean for you? It means that I've seen some things. I've seen the signs. I've seen the patterns. And in this video,
I'm going to. Walk you through, in this episode, I'm going to walk you through some of. Those signs so you can figure out, are you on the right path? All right, so let's get started. So here's the first thing that I think that that happens is that when we really start to understand how this. Starts to play out, it they play, they're playing their own game. And here's what I mean by this, and I'll put this down here, is. That they are playing an internal game versus an external game.
Okay? And this is a tough one in today's world, in today's economy, because here's what we see. You've got, you're getting barraged every single day with marketing messages. You see the nice cars, you see the attractive men, the attractive women. You see the riches, the luxuries. You see them parading and saying, if you just do this, if you buy just this, if you wear this, if you take this cologne or this perfume or these shoes, all of a sudden. Life is
going to be amazing. And so what ends up happening is we start to buy things because of external stimulus versus internal kind of desires. Internal values, if you will. And why this is important is because. The tendency, or the risk, I should say, is playing the game of comparison. Okay? You cannot get on social media these. Days without someone parading their lifestyle in front of you. But that's one iota of the, of the truth. You don't know how they've built that lifestyle. You don't
know if they're, you know. Buried in debt and they're just parading something out there. And most, most of these folks, they're. Not living that lavish lifestyle. They may be living the lavish lifestyle, but let me rephrase it. They're not paying for the lavish lifestyle. They're renting. They're renting the boats. They're renting the planes. They're renting the cars. They are in debt to their ears, stressed out to no end. All right? The real question is, are you gonna. Fall prey to
that. Hopefully not because you're listening to me. You'Re watching me and you're following me because I wanna keep you away from that. Play the right game. Play your own game. This isn't about allowing the external stimulus to define what your life should be. Allowing the external stimulus to allow you to define what your purchasing decisions should. Be, to allow the external stimulus to allow. To tell you what and how you. Finance or buy things, that it's okay. To go into debt. I got news for
you, it's not okay to go into debt. Now there are two kinds of debt. I truly believe, productive and destructive debt. But destructive debt is the debt that. You are using if you are to. Buy and finance consumables, the stuff for your lifestyle. If you are having to finance clothes, luxury trips, luxury items that you can't. Afford, then you can't afford it because they're consumables. They're not something that's going to increase your
net worth. They're not something that's going to increase your cash flow. They're not something that's going to build your, your wealth over time. They might build a momentary joy, but that's fleeting. That's that retail therapy that we need to avoid. So number one sign is that you are not allowing the external stimulus to define your financial future, your financial decisions. Okay, so this is the first piece. The second. The second is, are you playing an. Accumulation.
Game or a consumption game? And when we talk about this, it's. Really about what I would say is quiet accumulation. The people that I've watched truly build. Riches, a rich life, something that they. Feel wonderful about them, something that really drives them. And it's not just driven by a. Bank account or a brokerage account or. The number of commas, they're in a. Quiet asset accumulation phase. That what they're doing is they're slowly and quietly building their wealth.
They're not parading it. It's not loud wealth. It's not loud millionaires. It is quiet millionaires. They are sitting back and saying, I'm. Going to accumulate this. Think about someone like Warren Buffett, who. Effectively hasn't changed a lot of his. Lifestyle from the good old days. Okay, I can say good old days because he's up there in age. But then there's those others that are overt consumers, overt consumerism. It is blatant. It is out there. It is
loud, it is, you know, but I can tell you that the. Ones that I have watched truly, truly. Building the richness in their life, not just the wealth in the bank account, they live through quiet asset accumulation. So if you're one of those that's sitting back saying, first off, I'm playing the internal game. Second, I'm quietly accumulating assets, maybe. Maybe you're on the right path. Right. Let's look at number three. You actually have. They actually have a process that they follow. They
have process and they have principles. Okay? And what I mean by this is. That they're really looking at it from. The perspective of knowing that they're making. Decisions based upon a system. Not a get rich quick system, but. A process of money management. For instance, with us, I teach something. Called the wealth priority ladder. It literally defines what every dollar bill. Should be doing before you ever get it. Before you ever get it.
And so what's happening is that they're just following the recipe. They're following the process to make it happen. So they're not spontaneous. They're not arbitrary, they're not haphazard. They're very systematic. They're very disciplined, and they're very dedicated to a process. Okay, think about this. I was on a live. I do a live q and a show pretty regularly, and I had someone come on who I just envy this kid. And I'm going to call him a. Kid because he
just literally just turned 18. Just turned 18. And he says to me, hey, I'm. Not sure where to invest my Roth Ira. Now, I told him in a prior. Call that he should be investing in a Roth Ira, which is a special type of retirement account. I've done some content on it, but here he is at 18. At the time we talked, he was 17. And I said, great. I said, let me ask you, how. Much have you put into the roth? And I'm thinking. I'm thinking he's going to tell me it's like
$2,000. He's 18 years old. How much can he put in? He turns around, he says, well, I. Fully funded this year's Roth and last year's Roth. I said, hold on a second. 18 years old, you put $6,500 in for last year and $7,000 in for this year already. He says, yep. I said, at 18 years old, you put $13,500 away. He said, yep, in a Roth. He says, yep. This kid is sitting on a gold mine. And he goes, what? I said, think about this. When you invest money, on average returns. At 20 years old, it's
going to convert by 90 times 90. By the time you're age 65. I said, you put $13,500 in, that's. Going to go 90 times. If you never put another dime in. It'S going to turn into $1.2 million at age 65. You could stop today and know you'd be a millionaire. I'm not going to tell you to do that. I want you to keep going. But imagine what happens when you do this. Okay. He has a process that he's following. Do you have a process that you're following? Okay, number four, they know their current. And
they're willing to face it. Their current reality. It's real easy to stick your head in the sand. It's really easy to sit back and say, I don't want to face it. I don't want to face it. So they stick their head in the sand about recurring. It doesn't matter whether you're in debt, not out of it. You have no debt. You're making a lot of money. You're not making a lot of money. That's not the question. The question is, are you aware of it? Are you in the
game? So you have your fingers on the pulse, because until you do, you can't change it. The fact of the matter is putting. Your head in the sand as if it's not happening. I got to tell you, even though. Your head's in the sand, you may. Not see the train coming, but it's still going to hurt when it hits you. So we don't put our heads in the sand. So if you're sitting back and saying. Hey, I'm focusing on the internal game. I'm
focusing on quiet accumulation. I have a process to follow it. If you don't follow me, we'll get you the process. I'm really real about my current reality, about my income, about my expenses, about my debt, you know, all those things I'm being really clear. And of my current reality, you just. Might be on the path. All right, let's look at number five. All right, number five, is that, is that you're really clear. On your destination. Where you want to go. Here's the thing.
To simply say, I want to be. Rich isn't enough, or to simply say. I want to be richer. And you go, okay, if I gave. You a dollar, then you're richer, we've accomplished it. The question really is, where are you going? What specifically are you trying to get to? This is something that I think a. Lot of advisors get wrong, and that. Is because they focus on your current levels of income. What I want you to focus in on is the lifestyle, destination you want.
So when I sit down with my wife or I sit down with a client, we spent the time. And we call this an affluence vision. And we craft out what we want that life to look like. We craft out what that lifestyle should look like. Where do we want to live? Specifically, how do we want to live? Do we want to work? Do we not want to work? Do we want to travel? How much do we want to travel? How do we want to travel? Do we want to be camping? Do we want to
be road tripping? Do we want travel, luxury, all the things. What does life look like? And then we take that life and. We say, okay, what's the price tag of that life? It's an estimate, but it's giving us a trajectory. It's giving us a place to go. And now our job is to manage towards that destination. And those that actually are living that rich life, those that are actually doing well financially, they have a clear idea of where they want to
go. Do you have a clear idea of. Where you want to go? You do. It might be right now that leads. To this next piece, which is number. Six, in that they have. They build a plan. Based on where they want to go. Based on where they want to go. They create a plan to get them to that. Now, in our world, that plan is. Built around the process that we call the wealth priority ladder. It's using the system to achieve the destination through a plan to make it happen. In other words,
they know specifically what. They'Re doing, how they're doing it, how. The dollars are being invested, how much they're putting in, why they're doing it. They know all that, and they're keeping their fingers on the pulse. They're constantly checking it. Not constantly in the sense of every day. You'd be a freaking frenetic mess if you checked it every day. Okay, but they're checking it at least quarterly. Sometimes I check my monthly. I mean, I'm looking at
the market every day. I got it up here on another screen. I'm always looking at it because of. The work I do. But my own portfolio, I look at. It at a minimum of monthly. But we do a big look at. Least four times a year with me. And my team and all that stuff. Okay? So they build a plan. They use the system to build the plan. They walk through the system and. And exercise the plan, and then they measure to the plan. Question
is, you have a plan. If you have a plan and you're walking the process of the plan, then you just might be doing better than you think. All right, that leads me to number seven. Number seven. They know that the most important part is to get in the game. They're not sitting back saying, when I make more money, I'll get in the game. When I achieve this, then I'll do that. And because here's what we know, the.
Habits we develop at an early age of our earnings are the habits that will envelop us in the latter stages of our wealth. The habits that we develop in the. Early stages of our earnings are the. Habits that will envelop us in the. Later stages of our wealth. What do I mean by that? If we don't get used to making investments on a regular basis, when we can make a dollar five investment, we. Will not make the dollar 500 investment. That we say we're going to do when we get
there. They know that it's time to get to work. They know that they got to get in the game to stay in the game. They know that the only way to win the game is to be on the field, not the sidelines and not, not the stands. And so what we're gonna do is you're gonna get in the game. So let me ask you this. Are you in the game? Are you on the field? This whole, this whole episode, this whole video, this whole episode is
a checklist for you. And if you are in the game. If you are investing regularly now, as part of our process, we wanna push you to a point where you're investing 20% to 25% of your income and on a regular basis. Now, I get it. You may not be able to do. That upfront, but we're gonna build you there, and we can build you there. 1% at a time, 1% at a time, and we keep building it. But you're in the game, automated and making the investments on a regular basis. Okay, that leads me to number eight.
Focus on you. On you. They don't focus on everyone else, focus on themselves. They look at it and they say, this is the life we want. So we're going to define it, we're going to refine it, and we're going to develop it our way. Just because our parents, just because of our siblings, just because others don't want. The same life we want, that doesn't matter. So they're always defining the process, the. Journey, the destination and their lifestyle
based. Upon their wants, their values, their needs, and not others. So, once again, if you are defining. Your life, defining the destination, defining lives. Of defining your goals, defining everything, based on your true, real values, in alignment. With your vision, you just might be on the path. Right? That leads me to the last one. And last one's a big one, okay? And I got this wrong. They know what enough is. Okay? And. And I'm not saying to. Stop
because. I never, ever want you to get complacent about your wealth. I never, ever want you to get complacent about your money. I never, ever want you to get complacent about the relationship between your lifestyle, your wealth, and your riches. And because complacency is the first step to crisis, okay? When we get complacent, we start to lose. But what I do want you to. Do is to have the gratitude for what you have, the appreciation of what is, and to know where your finish line is. I made this
mistake. I didn't know where my finish line was. I didn't define it. It's kind of like the destination, but knowing that number. And the problem is that if you. Don'T know what enough is. You will. Keep running as if you're miles and. Miles and miles away from it. You will run fanatically. You will run stressed. You will run angry. You will continue to do that. I was doing that. It caused me to get into a bike accident. It caused me to have a grade
four concussion. It caused me to have no feeling. On the right side of my body. And as I was recovering, I literally. Had a friend of mine who retired. At the age of 30 of six look at me. And as I sat there, neck brace. It was three days out of the hospital. He looks at me, and he says. How much is enough? I couldn't answer. He says, what if the finish line is behind you? But you keep running this race. Now, I haven't stopped running the race. The difference is
me knowing how much is enough. Me knowing where the finish line is. Has allowed me to have a peace about where I am, where I'm going. And where I've been. So the question is, do you know. What your enough number is? Because what that does is it gets you to relax. It gives you the ability and the permission to not run so hard, to. Not be so stressed, to not have the anxiety, to not feel like it's not enough, to not feel like more, more, more, more.
To find the appreciation, the gratitude for. What is what you got. Right. So let's go back through that real quickly again. These are. These are the things that might give. You an indication that you're on the right path. One, you are focused on internal versus external stimulus. Okay. Two, you are not playing the comparison elevate game, but you're also focused on quiet asset accumulation. Three, you have a process you're following. Four, you are really real about
your current reality. Five, you've got a clear mind of. What your destination is, a vivid picture of that destination. And six, you have a plan to. Get to that destination that is based upon a process that you know works. Seven, you're in the game, you're on the field, you're getting the work done. You'Re staying in the game. Hey, you're always focused on you. Nine, you know what, you're enough. Now I hope that this helps. Listen,
here's the deal. You have the opportunity, the ability to navigate this. You don't have to do it solid, you don't have to do it isolated, you don't have to do it alone. That's why we're here. That's what this channel is for. That's what this show is for. So let's make sure that we keep. You on that road to financial freedom. Let's give you the right tools that. Work that have been proven over time. And time again, no matter whether we're in boom economies or bust economies,
no matter what is going on. All right? So I hope you found this a value. I hope that you take it and you use it as the checklist for your life to make sure that you're. On that path to doing well and. Living that rich life until I get. A chance to see you in another episode, another video, or on the road. As I always, always say, always strive. To live a life that I'll live. Cheers.