Get to the moon. That's going to take your financial foundation to a whole new level. Here's the deal. I've been asked this all the time about what's the best practical advice that I need to know to make a difference in my finances and in my wealth, to create wealth. Here's what you might not want to hear. It's not the fast, sexy stuff, but. It'S the sustainable stuff that actually builds wealth that I think really matters. And there's some things that I want you to start to look at.
And I'm going to walk you through a couple things in this video that'll make a difference. And if you listen and you take. It as a checklist, you're going to. See that your financial destiny, your financial. Future will change forever. Here's the thing that I know. If you're trying to build wealth and. It is an adrenaline rush, you are. Doing the wrong thing. Your wealth building journey shouldn't be an adrenaline rush. It shouldn't be feeling like you're
on a roller coaster, a topsy turvy or anything like that. It should be this slow, slow growth. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't get there fast. That doesn't mean that you don't make moves. That doesn't mean any of that. It just means that we do sustainable, specific things that have been proven, time tested over time, no matter whether the economy's booming or the economy's breaking or anything else that's going on. And when we apply those principles,
we. Can transcend all of the economic data. We can transcend all of the stuff that's going on around us, and we can build wealth in that process. Listen, I've been going to be 63 this year. I've seen a few things. I've been through a few recessions. I've been through a few downturns. I've been through a few breaks in the market. I've been through interest rate hikes and inflation. I've been through all of it. These are the things that matter.
And when you do the things that matter, no matter what is going on. Around you, you're destined to win. All right, so here's the thing. Let's just talk about wealth in general. Wealth creation in general. Here's what we know. The fact is that wealth creation is. Less about the money, it's less about. Your income, and it's much more about. Your behaviors, your habits, your choices, your discipline. Okay? This is why I say this. There's a study out there that shows that 79%. 79%. Eight out of ten
millionaires are first generation. First generation. That means that they didn't win it. They didn't get it gifted to them. They didn't inherit it. They created it. Eight out of ten, that's good data for your side. Now, here's the other thing that's really cool of that. Eight out of ten, over 30%. Over one third of them never made. More than six figures, $100,000 during their career each year. What does that mean? So the millionaires that were made weren't these Internet millionaires.
They weren't the ones that sold their company for hundreds of millions of dollars. They did it steadily over time on a salary that really wasn't huge. That should excite you, because what that means is that you don't need to hit it out of the park every time. We just got to do the right things. But if it's not the income that makes a difference, then what is it? The behaviors. It's the choices, the decisions. It's the habits that you have in your life.
Because when it comes down to creating. Wealth, look, it's not that complicated. As much as people will think that. It'S complicated, there's just a couple things. Make more money, get a bigger shovel. Okay. I want to increase my income. We'll do another video on what are the ways that you can get paid more for the things you do. So you have a bigger shovel of income to move yourself towards financial freedom. Because if we have a bigger shovel. Of income, it doesn't solve the
problem, but it certainly helps it. And why do I say it doesn't solve the problem? Because we can look at a lot. Of people that make a lot of money. Take Mike Tyson, for instance. But they end up broke. You can look at Nicolas Cage, Burt Reynolds. God, there's so many that we can. Name off that, you know, that ended. Up building a ton of income but going broke. So it's not the income that matters. It's how we use the income to. Build what I call a money machine to build
the wealth. So the income makes more income for you. So that's what happened with these folks that were making $100,000 or so a year. They just deliberately, intentionally use the income. Properly to create millions in their life. So instead of sitting back and saying. I got it, the only way to solve this is more income. Maybe, maybe not, then we ought to look at it and say, yes, I want more income, but I need the. Right behaviors, the right decisions, the right.
Choices to make sure that I use. The income in a way that starts to build wealth, because if we don't do that, the income isn't really going to matter. Okay, so make more money. The formula for wealth is make more money, spend less money, invest as much as possible. That's it. It's the three step formula. Make more money, spend less, and invest as much as possible, and then stay the course. All right. Hopefully that makes sense to you. All right, so here's the thing.
When I first started my financial journey. I got into some really esoteric kinds of investments. It was kind of. They were fun, they were sexy, they were challenging. There were all of those things. Then this leads me to the very. First rule and one of the very first pieces of advice I can give. You, and that is this. Never, ever, ever invest in something you don't understand. Keep it
simple. Listen, I couldn't follow some of these. Investments back in the day, but I. Didn'T have the rules that I have today. So I found these esoteric investors. I thought they were really cool. They had some nuances to it, and they told me that they were going. To go through the roof, and I believed it and I got invested in it. Some of them did, some of them didn't. All right? But the difference is that if someone. Said, hey, explain that investment to me. I couldn't do it
back then, I could now. And so the very first thing is. To make sure that you are not investing in something you don't understand. If you choose to sit back and say, I want to invest in real. Estate, we can talk about that. But the question is, do you understand real estate? Truly understand real estate? Is it a flip? Is it short term rentals? Is it long term rentals? Is it commercial property? Is it multifamily housing? Do you understand it? Do you understand the market
around it? Do you understand the sector, the community, all of that stuff? If not, you have no business investing. What you have business do is investing. In your knowledge, growth first, so you. Understand it, and then you can make an informed decision. Doesn't mean all your decisions are going to be right. Mine clearly are not. But they're informed. So I want you to understand it. If you want the stock market, you're going to learn about the stock market. It doesn't mean you become an
expert, but you have an understanding. I was having a conversation with someone recently, and here's the difference. Too often we are sitting in the. Passenger seat and allowing other people to. Drive our investment bus. I don't want you. I want you to move from the passenger seat to the driver's seat. The people that are on your bus are going to be the advisors, the people that are promoting the investments. But you will make the decision the only way you can make the decisions that you
understand what you're investing in. So first things first, you don't invest. In something that you don't understand. Second, you want to make sure that what you're investing in has a long term record. Okay, let me say that again. A long term record. Too often, especially now, we are investing in memes, trends, fads. We hear it on TikTok. Lord knows. Don't get your advice from TikTok, okay? Or at least look at where the person
has got their advice from and how well they're doing. And is it the reality or is it a facade? That's an aside. But the bottom line is this, is. That it is important to look at. It and say, has this done well during good times, during bad times? Has this done well for a long term? Because now you have some proof. Now, history isn't an indication and a guarantee of future, but it certainly
might. Give you an idea of what could happen. If you know what happens with an investment during rising interest rates, if you know what happens with an investment because of recessions, because it's been through it. Before, or a market downturn, it gives. You an idea to be able to predict. So I want to invest in something I understand. I want to invest in something that. Has a long term record. And then number three is really to understand this. Small things matter,
but big things matter more. I get it. My dear friend coined the whole thing of the latte factor. And I know that he gets. David Bach has put this out there. And he gets kind of ridiculed about the latte factor. The reason I'm not wealthy is because I drink a coffee. That's not the point of what he was making. The point of what he was making. Is being deliberate and intentional with how. You use your money and that little things can make a difference, but
big things can make a bigger difference. Your choice of a car, for instance, a depreciating asset. I watched someone on TikTok telling people that they were better off buying a $200,000 car than a $25,000 car and that it was a wealth transfer, y'all. It is a wealth transfer to the dealership. What kind of crazy advice is that? You are buying a depreciating asset. Big buying decisions will have a material impact on your wealth creation. So what we need to do is. Be careful about the big
stuff. Doesn't mean you don't do it. You do it fully informed, fully intentional. With the understanding of it. So things like car, housing, student loans. Oh, don't get me started on student loans now. I get it. We want to get a college education, but you say I can't afford the education, so I'm going to go get a student loan. A student loan. Your tuition for education is no different than any other investment. There must be an Roi on it. If I am going to get an. Education that is going to
get me. A salary of $200,000 a year, it's. Different than if I'm going to get an education that's going to get me a salary of $25,000 a year. If I go spend $150,000 in student loans to get a $25,000 salarY, that's pure silliness. It's ludicrous. If I'm spending $150,000 to get a $200,000 salary, maybe I can make the case for it. I prefer you don't do it that way. There's a lot of ways to pay for stuff. But understand that these big things can actually bury your financial
future if we're. Not careful, because they stick with us. For a long time. Housing decisions, car decisions. I was looking at something the other day, watching people financing cars for six. And seven years, yet they only keep. The car for two or three, which. Means that when they get out from under the car, they are completely upside down. And what do they do? They're in a negative. So in other words, the car is worth less than what they owe. When they
get out of the car. They either have to pay the difference. Or what do they do? They roll it into the next car. That means that they're buried deeper in. A hole on a depreciating asset. It's a mistake. Now, I get it. You want to drive a nice car. But what's the real reason for the car? A safe mode of transportation from a to b. Now, I drive a nice car. Pay for it. Cash. Okay, so you want to. If you really want to do that, figure out a way
so you don't bury yourself in a depreciating asset, and. Do it from that perspective. Credit card balances, these are some of. The big things that will harm you carrying a credit card balance, especially in today's times where the interest rates are 24 to 28 or 30%, you can't. Get ahead of that. Even with high yield cash gaps at 5%, you can't get ahead of that. The market grows at 8910, even 15%, but you're paying 25%. You can't get ahead of that.
So you need to look at the. Big things that you're making, the big decisions you're making in your life around the money, and what the long term impact. Okay, so that's the next piece. Remember, this is advice that people don't want to hear, but they're going to make. It's going to make a difference in your life, in your financial journey and your financial destiny. This next one is this. Stop the comparison game. I get it. It's easy to grab that phone and get on
Instagram and go, whoo, look at that. I think I need to buy me one of them. It's how I got a $900 coffee maker in there. But the challenge is comparison does a couple of things. One, it doesn't allow you to be content with where you're at nor to appreciate what you have. And when you're not content or appreciating. Where you're at or what you have. What do you do? You go buy more because you think it's going to satisfy you, because you think it's going to
make a difference, but it doesn't. So what do you think? Oh, I just need more. And you can't get enough of a fix. Comparison, they say, is the thief of joy. Here's what I think we ought to be doing is forgetting what everyone else is doing around us and stay in our lane. To be really clear, one of the. Things that I do with our clients at the very beginning is, let's talk about your life. What do you want your life to look like? What does that look like?
Where do you want to be? Do you want to be in a tent in Montana? Do you want to be in a yacht in Monaco? Do you want to be somewhere in between? It doesn't matter what the answer is. What matters is the answer is your answer. And now you sit back and say, is my buying decision, is my investing decision, are my money decisions moving me closer to the vision for my life? Not the vision you see on social media or the media or the advertisers. Or what your neighbors doing, but your life. So we
stop comparison and we stop. Buying based on comparison. We start buying based on a vision. For our life that's meaningful, that's impactful. That is something that really matters to us. Next, I want you to start pushing. Yourself to putting 20% to 25% of your income away. Now you sit back and go oh. I can barely pay my bills. I get it. But remember, decisions, habits, behaviors will drive your wealth. I want you to build, make a. Decision, build a habit. Have some
behaviors that start to push. You to 20% to 25% of your income. Going to wealth creation. Now, you can, you may not be. Able to do it right away, so you do it in 1% steps, 1% steps. So you get a raise or you get. Or you start putting money away. And maybe you start at 5% the. Next quarter, the next six months, you'll move it up at 1%. So you go to 6%, then 7%. And slowly but slowly, you are building up to the point where you're putting. 20% to 25% away each and every day. Okay? You just keep
doing it. It will help. But the bottom line is that the. Sooner you get yourself to that 2020 5%, the sooner you will build the money machine and the financial wealth. You need to be completely financial free. Here's why this is important. I hope that this starts to drive. Home some of the advice that maybe you didn't want to hear, but it will. I promise you. If you take this on and put it into your life, it will make a difference in your financial future,
your financial destiny. It will change the generations. You will become a financial inflection point for your family. Because the idea here is this. It's not about building a bank account. It's really about living a rich life and stripping away the stress that comes from money that most people are experiencing around money. I want to eliminate the stress, and we can. When you do the right things, when you build the right behaviors, you have. The right habits, you make the
right decisions and choices in your life. So keep it simple, keep it consistent. Win the long term game and not worry about the short term game. In other words, you're going to do. The things that matter in the long term. And in the short term, you might. Say, I'm not going to do that because it affects me getting to the. Long term game or my long term vision. All right, so build your machine. Keep it simple, keep it consistent, get. On the
field, stay in the game long term. Do this, you'll thank me, but more importantly, your financial future will thank you for doing it. All right. I hope this helps. I can't wait to see in another. Video, another episode, or on the road. And until then, always, always strive. Live a life that outlives you. Cheers.