#208 - 5 Myths About Money Keeping You BROKE

Rich people are selfish and evil. Time is money. It's so wrong. The reality is money doesn't actually grow. In fact, it goes down in value from inflation. It does the opposite of growth. Wealthy people are least selfish because they're giving more value. Money is the root of all evil and money doesn't buy happiness. But I challenge that because if you have the opposite mindset that money doesn't

buy happiness, then it'll never help you. The reason they have so many misconceptions around money is because I'm Lloyd James Ross, seven-figure investor and entrepreneur, and I've helped thousands of business owners and professionals turn financial stress into success. If you're stuck in old money habits, overwhelmed by investing, or unsure where to start, this is for you. I'll give you the mindset and strategies to take control, grow your wealth, and achieve financial freedom. It's time to

make your money work for you. One of the greatest myths is that working harder creates more money. The reality is we've

all heard the saying, work smarter, not harder. But it's a very difficult paradigm to break because if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself. And that's the paradigm we grow up with to actually, we've got to move ourselves back out of that. And that's the difficult thing to do because you feel compelled to work because you think that's where

productivity comes from. But it's actually working less and helping you know, getting help from other people and from systems and from your capital to do the heavy lifting for you. For example, you can delegate certain things and they can do it for you and you can split the profits and also use systems to do repeatable tasks and of course, deploy your capital, buy assets,

produce more income while you're sleeping. As the old saying goes, it's better to have 10% of a watermelon than it is to have 100% of a grape. Huge myth around money that people don't understand is that they think money grows. And the reality is money doesn't actually grow. In fact, it goes down in value from inflation. It does the opposite of growth. And so when inflation or price inflation happens in the world, the

price of goods and services goes up. So it provides the notion or it creates this phenomenon where the value of money falls. And so when people say, I want to grow my money, what they're really saying is, I want to take my money, buy an asset, let the asset grow, and then eventually sell the asset and take the money back. So if you want to grow your money, a better question to ask yourself is, how can I buy

an asset that grows in value with my money? And if you do that, you'll be looking for different ways to actually grow money that's not inherently in the money itself, if that makes sense. Huge myth, time is money. It's so wrong. I used to think that time was money as well. It wasn't until someone taught me, a mentor taught me that time is more valuable than money. And so those who are building wealth always put their time before their money. And someone like Warren Buffett, the

greatest investor who's ever lived, he has done this his whole life. Even when he was a small boy, there was a story of where he used to go and collect golf balls from the local golf course. He used to fish them out of the ponds and then go resell them. So it was a little business he discovered at the age of seven. And then he worked out that time was more valuable than money. So he actually got another kid to actually go and fish the balls out.

He did the deal with the golf shop and he actually paid the kid a little bit. He took a margin. So he was actually making money without having any effort. So he saved his time. And ever since then, he's always put time in front of money, which is why If you ask him about his calendar, if you ever get the chance to ask Warren Buffett about his calendar, then you'll notice it's very clear. And because he makes money with his mind, he doesn't make it with his time. His

time is so valuable. And you want to make your time valuable too because you want to do the things you want to do. And I think that's what really got me out of my job because I was trading my time for money. and I needed to flip it on its head. I needed my time back. And it's always compelled my decisions since then, which has effectively scaled my wealth. You grow up hearing these funny sayings like money doesn't grow on trees, money's

the root of all evil, and money doesn't buy happiness. But I challenge that because if you, if you... have the opposite mindset that money doesn't buy happiness, then it'll never help you. Like if you just believe that money doesn't buy happiness, why would you want to get any money? So if you have that block or that program running, the most effective way to overcome it is to just flip it and

just accept the fact that money can buy you happiness because it'll buy you choice. It'll buy you Sometimes friendship, it can buy you some love, although it's not going to buy you those things straight away, but it will position you in a place to meet someone who you can fall in love with. It'll give you the money to be able to meet new friends. It'll give you the flexibility to do the things that

bring you joy. So inadvertently, money does buy happiness, but it's certainly a better mindset to carry through life than money doesn't buy happiness, because then why would you want to go get money? Just quickly, if you're ready to take control of your finances but feel stuck on where to start, I have a solution. My book, Money Buys Happiness, simplifies investing and wealth building with practical steps to help you achieve financial peace. Get your copy via the

link in the show notes, and let's get your money working for you. Now back to the episode. The money myth that rich people are selfish and evil, and this is a... a paradigm that's developed in us through watching films. It's literally the programs we watched as kids where, you know, in the movie or the cartoon, the villain is always rich. And if you ever watch The Simpsons, the number one villain in that movie is Mr. Burns. And of course, he's wealthy, right?

And so we get brought up that rich people are evil somehow or they're selfish. Yeah, they're not going to give anything. The reality is it's the opposite. Because to actually become wealthy, you have to give more value than you take in the world. Because money-making is just an exchange of value. So next time you see someone who's wealthy, say, hey, what value did they have to exchange? Or what value did their parents or their parents have to exchange to get the wealth in the first place? So

it's actually the opposite. Wealthy people are least selfish because they're giving more value. Whereas people who are poor, they're taking more value than what they're giving. So I'd flip it on its head and I'd say those who don't have money are more selfish and greedy because they can't say no to things. They must take, must take, must take, and it keeps them poor. Whereas someone who's building wealth must give, must give, must give. And so if you look at it, it's actually the opposite of

what you've been brought up to learn and to know. Selfishly, It makes me feel good. I've definitely salvaged that in that case. I tell you why, because I really have found it challenging, which is normal, to

build a successful life. It's so challenging. You're trying to work life out, you're trying to get ahead, you're trying to build a successful life in multiple areas, and it's so difficult that sometimes you wish that someone had told you something, given you an idea, and the reality is many mentors have done that and helped me. All you want to do is make it easier for someone because you want to see them

succeed too and you don't want to see them go through challenge after challenge. I like to, as the old saying goes, push the buttons in the elevator back down to the floor because I relate to how challenging it can be when you're first starting out, building a career, building a relationship. Building wealth so I like to help other people see him win But I think you know if you look at what our most precious Commodity is or what our most precious thing that we have is is

that time on earth? So I really felt like looking back the most damaging myth that I thought was time is money.

And the reality is that time is more valuable than money. And ever since I've kind of adopted that notion, I've approached things completely differently. It's created so much more time in my day, in my life. I mean, just like yesterday, my wife said to me, hey, it was 10 30 in the morning on a, what day is it? Wednesday, it was a Wednesday. And I was like, yep, let's go. And we just went for a walk mid-morning. And I think it's those things that you just can't put a price on. And that

mindset shift allowed me to achieve that. So I think that's the one that does people most damage. Because what's the thing that they say in their deathbed? I wish I had have spent more time with family. I wish I had have done these things. And if you don't put time first, you'll end up looking back on your life and all you'll see is one big commute to work. And I never wanted that. That's why I'm here doing this. The reason they have so many misconceptions around money is because money is

a story we tell ourselves. And quite often, we inherit that story from our parents, our teachers, our peers, and the story quite often is not effective. It's an ineffective money program, it's generational, it'll be passed on through generations, and so that's where it emanates from. But what's great about it is if you get told a story or you tell yourself a story about your money, The great thing about that is stories are made up. And so if you're making up an ineffective

money story, guess what? You can just make up an effective one starting from today. It's like tell yourself a new story and what will happen in your brain. It's a weird thing. It sounds woo-woo. But when you start telling yourself a better story about wealth, like I am good with money, money

is around, money is about it, I can make money. If you start telling yourself those stories, your reticular activating system, which is the component of your brain that picks up on patterns, that allows us to create survival mechanisms, it'll start to spot and identify opportunities where money's come up and it's there. It was always there, but because you're telling yourself a new story, you'll

spot it faster. A little bit like when you buy a red Kia Sportage and all of a sudden you see red Kia Sportages everywhere, it's the same with the money story. So you're like, money, money, money. I've got a student of mine, he just came into our program a couple of years ago, he's in his second season and we call him the money magician now because every time he gets onto a call each week, he's like, I've got a new money win, another

money win. It's almost like money's falling out of the sky for him because he's picking up on where it is and he's now able to exploit it because he

changed his money story. The more money myths you bust, the more money will come into your pocket. So there's some of the biggest money myths that you no longer have to buy into and you can go and build wealth. Let me know if you've got any myths you want to bust. Drop them in the comments below and we'll come and bust them together. Thanks for listening to Money Grows on Trees. If you enjoyed the episode, leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

and subscribe to us on YouTube so you never miss an episode. And if you're serious about building wealth, make sure to check out the links in the show notes and follow me on all social media platforms, at