Everyone wants to hate you if you dare say you want to make money or get rich. I’m here to tell you it’s okay.
It’s better to have ambition than to sit on the sidelines and watch everyone have the time of their lives while you drown in regrets.
Money is just a resource. If you have no resources life is one big struggle. You spend your days worrying about dumb stuff instead of doing things that make you come alive. That’s the story the get-rich-haters don’t tell.
Wealth expert Codie Sanchez says it like this:
Hard truth:
It is very hard to change the world when you are broke. So don’t apologize for chasing money.
And author Mark Manson nails it with this:
Normalize not criticizing others for attempting something you were too f*cking scared to try.
It’s time to reprogram your mind.
The #1 goal you must have while you’re still young is to get rich, so you can move on to more important things than numbers in a banking app.
The definition of young is open to interpretation. You can be young if you’re 20 or 80. All comes down to how you think, so you decide.
The 2 ways to get rich while you’re young
Let’s keep this simple.
- Start a business
- Invest in financial assets
These are the two skills you need. Everything else is a distraction.
There are two types of business 1) A business with employees 2) A one-person business. I recommend you start with option 2. Running a business with adult baby employees isn’t for most people and it’s expert mode.
The skill of investing isn’t one we get in school or college. The smart way is to start with reading all the best finance books. Then go deeper with a membership to a financial education service like Real Vision.
Become a digital real estate investor
Real estate investing is the get rich scheme I hate the most. It’s a terrible idea while you’re young because it:
- Gets you into huge debt (and stress)
- Requires expert experience
- Attracts huge tax bills
- Makes tiny annual returns
- Comes with unpredictable & enormous maintenance bills
Yet Airbnb gurus tell us to stack houses and rent them out to millennial teenagers who have big parties and trash the place.
Investing in digital real estate while you’re young is a better idea. It includes:
- Owning a website
- Starting a paid newsletter
- Building a social media following
- Self-publishing books
Each of these options pays you a dividend if you stick at it for more than a year, and study successful people who have done it.
Build online. Use the internet to spread ideas. Let those ideas attract money, people, and opportunities into your email inbox.
Find people with complementary skills
All of us lack at least one crucial skill to get rich.
That’s why the goal of networking while you’re young isn’t to meet cool people and swap business cards over a romantic coffee.
It’s to meet people who have skills that you lack. Then it’s your job to recruit them as partners, friends, mentors, or freelancers.
Combining high-value skills is the fastest and dumbest way to get rich. An example from my life is my business partner Todd.
He’s an amazing traditional writer, published author, copywriter, journalist, and lover of Jane Austin book p*rn.
I am the total opposite.
My skills are entrepreneurship, ethical persuasion, finance, and wiping snot off a 17 month old toddler who gives me 5-minute warnings before “poo poos.”
This combination of skills has created my cheat code to wealth. Find complimentary people with different skills and have skill s3x.
Good ideas rarely make people rich
The reason is a good idea you don’t give a f*ck about is one you’ll give up on when things get hard or a roadblock stands in the way.
It’s better to follow your curiosity. Eventually, it’ll lead you to find something you’re obsessed with and can’t stop thinking about. From this foundation you have an uncommon path to getting rich.
I followed my curiosity with writing online. I had no clue where it would lead…but I became obsessed. Some people thought I was a robot or that I was really just AI in disguise.
The path to wealth eventually revealed itself when I stuck at it for long enough and didn’t give in to the unemployed critics.
We all fart out ideas all day long. So what. Focus on chasing your curiosity to the ends of the earth until it turns into obsession.
Then watch yourself come alive.
The 7 simple ways to make money
Getting rich isn’t complicated.
- Entertain people
- Save people time
- Save people money
- Make people happy
- Fix a painful problem
- Make people healthier
- Help people get laid in a back alley (love)
That’s the wealth code. It’s where all the money is. You don’t choose a niche or a business. No. You choose one or more of these ways to make money.
Not acting like a dumbass is an underrated money hack
Taking out a 50K loan to pay for a 6 hour wedding is crazy to me — Matt Allen
Buying a luxury car with debt is just as dumb.
And buying fast fashion on a credit card or Afterpay is even dumber. Avoid these poverty traps and it will make your journey to getting rich while you’re young so much easier.
Looking good is never as good as being free.
Remember the golden rule of making money online
On the path to getting rich it’s easy to ruin your reputation.
Writer and entrepreneur George Mack says, “If you run enough A/B tests, you’ll end up with a p*rn site. Always have some brand guidelines you won’t compromise on.”
I shouldn’t admit this but I’m guilty of this crime.
All the make-money-online advice and clickbait tweets about wealth will turn you into a horrible human being if you’re not careful. In the pursuit of money, you’ll sell your soul to the TikTok or OnlyFans devil.
A guy I know tweets a lot. He has hundreds of thousands of followers. At the start I loved reading his stuff.
Now all he does is post a photo of a tran$gender person with a caption “how did the world come to this?” Or he posts “join the church and have a big family.”
In between those posts are ones of him going to his 9–5 job with a suit and tie and multiple firearms with a caption that says “protect your family.”
This is the sort of crazy stuff that happens if you don’t set some standards and rules upfront when getting rich.
What are you NOT willing to do or say? Stick to it.
The #1 problem stopping you from getting rich
Most people overcomplicate getting rich.
They think it’s harder than it needs to be (including me). Isaiah McCall says “overanalytical people struggle with it because they paralyze themselves with their perfectionism.”
He says most rich people credit their success to being dumb.
What they politely mean is this (via Ed Latimore):
Someone with half your IQ is making 10x as you because they aren’t smart enough to doubt themselves.
We must get out of our own way to get rich. Investor Alex Hormozi says it another way:
You’re not making as much money as you want because you’re not as good as you think you are.
Don’t overthink getting rich while you’re young. It’ll only take you further away from your goal.
I heard a story recently of a woman who charges $5000-$20,000 to come and organize your garage. She’s the Marie Kondo of American garages. Oh, and she charges for flights and accommodation on top.
The dumbest ideas make the most money.
How to know when you’re rich and it’s time to stop
Busy people are the new poverty class.
Even if they have money, they have no time. Being rich used to mean being productive and working hard, long hours at work.
This version of reality is dead.
Everyone sees through it now. Being rich means you get to slow down. It’s going from rushed to unrushed. When you reach this point, that’s how you know when you’re rich enough.
Final Thought
You are obligated to get rich while you’re young, so you can spend your precious time on this planet with your family — not in the office being whipped by a submissive boss like a racing horse.
Getting rich is being a responsible adult.
This idea hits parents like me even harder. We’re obligated to get rich so we can provide for our kids and not have them struggle and be distracted by their parents’ financial problems.
Being rich lets you focus on the stuff that matters in life.
