I’m tired of money gurus.
They’re a plague taking over social media and infecting people’s minds. They do two horrible things:
- Focus on price predictions.
- Make people think short term about different money opportunities.
I rebel against this. I don’t give a damn what the price of an investment is today or what some money guru thinks. I do my own deep research and focus on data and fundamentals.
Let me share a few more truths no money guru will tell you.
Buying real estate gives people a fake sense of intelligence
Writer Mike Alfred bought a house 3 years ago for $1m. 3 years later he sold it for $2.2m. He did nothing to the home other than sleep in it.
I have many friends exactly like Mike. They think they’re freaking geniuses because they bought a home and sold it for way more money a few years later. It pisses me off.
The house (mostly) didn’t go up in value. The government just debased the currency through money printing to make it look like it went up in price.
The money gurus get high as a kite over real estate. They think they’re so smart for buying it. They become landlord hoarders.
Real estate is overrated.
In many parts of the world, real estate does appreciate over time, just not as much as the money gurus preach it does.
The way poor people think about rich people is flawed
Unknown software engineer Kevin Mitnick said this:
A poor man always thinks the rich man made his wealth out of luck.
This truth is inconvenient because 9 times out of 10 rich people are self-made and they worked bloody hard for it. The idea they basically won the lottery is nonsense.
But the rich man is flawed too. Wait, what? Yep.
The rich man believes the poor man is poor because he is lazy.
This, too, is a toxic money mindset. Laziness is rarely the cause of poverty. Some of the poorest people work the hardest in service jobs. It’s more likely a lack of financial education than it is laziness.
What keeps us poor is how we think about money. Dan Koe says:
The worst thing you can do is demonize money and think it’s evil. That’s exactly how you end up dependent on others for money.
Money is crucial to our survival. Without money we’re forced to think about it 24/7 and it feels like a form of insanity.
Crypto is the best-performing asset class of the last decade
Let’s stack up the hate comments right now.
Sorry for saying this but it’s true. Many of you hate crypto. Meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum have broken every record in the last 6 months.
They’ll continue to do so now that Wall Street and your bank/financial advisor can legally sell Bitcoin using big name firms like Blackrock and Fidelity.
Now, if you’re a money guru like Peter Schiff, Jim Cramer, or Dave Ramsay and you say crypto is rat poison, you just sound uneducated and probably stupid. Crypto is the best-performing asset class in history.
The main reasons are:
- Digital asset
- Decentralized
- Infinity divisible
- Not limited by country borders
Again, I’m not interested in your feelings. All I care about is what the data says and that’s clear to anyone who understands 5th grader math.
Going broke is fine
There’s a stigma around going broke.
It’s happened to me many times. But being broke is a positive if it happened because you were building, creating, learning, or investing. Even if it didn’t work out you likely learned lessons that will create future wealth.
The only stupid form of going broke is trading money to go shopping and buy luxury so you can look better than others. By the way, this is what keeps most people poor.
Not going to the mall is such a life hack.
Don’t sacrifice peace of mind for a piece of luxury.
— James Clear
Buying the S&P 500 index fund isn’t what it seems
The money gurus get h0rny over the age-old advice, “Buy the S&P 500 Index Sonny Jim and you’ll get rich one day.”
I own an S&P 500 index fund, so initially I was offended when I found out it’s not the holy grail self-help money books preach.
Sure, if you invest in the S&P 500 you’ll make some gains. But the true gains are hidden behind smoke and mirrors because you have to factor in inflation and currency devaluation — and those numbers are up for debate.
The government says inflation should be 2%. But we all know that’s only an estimate and it’s been 5–10x higher over the last few years.
Currency devaluation isn’t easy to measure either because most people don’t look at this M2 money supply graph daily.
Here’s the U.S. graph:
Image Credit-FRED
Investment gains and price discovery look different when there’s a boogie man in the room messing with the money supply (a bit like poisoning a village’s drinking water).
The other challenge is buying the S&P 500 a little bit each month for the next few decades, even if it does make you rich, will take your entire life.
Being rich at age 85 isn’t that useful.
If the government can print unlimited amounts of money out of thin air, why do you pay taxes? — Nayib Bukele
Making loads of cash isn’t the real goal
Getting rich is snake oil.
Entrepreneur Sahil Bloom recently hosted a gathering of stinking rich businessmen. He went around the room and found that despite their wealth, many didn’t feel rich at all.
The cause was a lack of freedom.
Their bank accounts are full but so too are their calendars. Sahil says “Conflating money and freedom is the mistake people often make.”
More money doesn’t guarantee freedom. Money can help you buy freedom, but often in the process, gaining more money becomes a liability. Getting more money forces you to want more and more. It becomes an obsession, an addiction.
We don’t want more money, we want freedom.
No money guru tells you that because they can’t profit off it and it’s too simplistic and hipster.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.
