If you talk about it too much people think you’re weird. In the virtue-signaling world we live in it’s cool to knock money or keep quiet about it.
Not me. I like to talk about it so we can collectively do better financially. These 12 sentences about money might rub you the wrong way. Good.
When we’re uncomfortable we grow our net worth.
Few people get rich from high salaries
“Get a degree and get a good job” created this reality.
The most financially successful people are either investors or business owners. Not wage slaves. Harsh but true.
Sure, some CEOs get rich, but most employees don’t. And those executive jobs are a giant pain in the ass that require you to be away from your family and attend back-to-back useless meetings.
Younger generations now get this. It’s why getting a replacement job is never hard because the whole value proposition of employment is changing. New types of work are becoming more popular.
Make money from a side hustle, passive income, investing, and maybe even an online business. Otherwise you’ll probably be working hard for the rest of your life.
Trust fund kids have a huge hidden handicap they can’t see
Old mate William Vanderbilt is one of the richest trust fund babies to ever live. God bless the now-dead man.
Right before his death in 1920, he told the New York Times his life would never be happy. He called inherited wealth a handicap, worse than being born with no arms and no legs.
It is as a death to ambition as cocaine is to morality.
One of my high school friends was the son of an oil tycoon. We all worked jobs delivering pizzas when we were young.
He sat at home in his swimming pool room the size of my current family home. He got given everything so he did nothing. Instead, he found weed and smoked it until his lungs went black. Now he’s 30 and looks like Grandpa Simpson.
You don’t want free money. It’s better to earn it because then you get the bundled life lessons that make you rich.
Poverty is harder in every single way
Some preach that money is evil.
They tell you making money online is a scam and side hustles are just hustle culture that’ll lead to burnout.
So their solution is to do nothing. Practice self-care. Watch some Netflix because you’ve earned it. Stay in a job and get paid less than you’re worth. Be patient. Put up with your boss. Being behind on bills is normal. Life is tough and the economy did this to us.
Screw that.
I’d never recommend you choose to believe any of that horse sh*t. Poverty is damn hard. It’s easier to focus on being moderately wealthy and use money to outsource the stuff you don’t want to do.
Sure, you may not make $1M a year and that’s okay. But at least try to make a decent living.
This whole money-doesn’t-buy-happiness narrative is a joke. A lack of money stops you being happy because you can’t afford any of the life experiences you’d like to, you know, “experience” before you’re dead.
Broke people ask “how much is this?”
Price on its own means nothing.
The ROI determines the value of goods and services. A book might cost you $300. That’s a lot more than a $20 book from Amazon. But if it teaches you something that makes you $100K, is it work it? Of course.
Stop being obsessed with price. Start being obsessed with ROI.
How much money you have is 100% due to your actions
Stop blaming others for your financial position.
If you lost money then own it. It doesn’t rob you of power. No, it gives you back power. Once you know you’re 100% responsible, suddenly, the roadblocks are gone and it’s just you against the world.
Homes shouldn’t be investments that make you rich
People buying homes to rent to others and extort money from them should be illegal.
As Rock Renzi said, “Home ownership is the cornerstone of a strong community.” So when housing becomes unaffordable it starts to break down society. The gap between rich and poor increases.
Right now there are tax and financial incentives to own as many family homes as you can. The supply of homes can even be manipulated through the artificial reduction of new homes being built.
Homes give families a place to live.
There are plenty of other wealth-building vehicles governments could steer us toward by disincentivizing the hoarding of family homes.
To be obsessed with looking wealthy happens because of deep insecurity
When the dude on Hollywood Boulevard revs his Lambo engine, what he’s really saying in an alien language is “I’m insecure and desperately need you to notice me.”
Big business figured this out so they invented luxury brands and items, instead of therapy to treat human insecurities.
Stop trying to look rich.
People are so busy with their own problems to worry about what Rolex you’re wearing or what brand your suitcase is. It’s dumb.
Your skills compound faster than the S&P 500
There’s a lot of talk about “invest in an index fund” or buy tech stocks.
These methods outsource your wealth building to third parties you have no control over. The laziness will get you a mediocre return.
Instead, invest in your skills. Learn skills the market needs and then charge bloody high prices for them.
You’ll go from $100K to $1M faster than you think. Meanwhile, the index fund suckers we’ll be waiting to get old and grey before their investment makes them cash they’re too old to enjoy.
The pursuit of endless amounts of money is a prison that leads to a mental health crisis
On the one hand, I love billionaires.
They show us what’s possible. They send rockets to Mars and expand our minds. But on the other hand, billionaires are psychos.
They’re $100 bill hoarders. No amount of money is ever enough.
They always need more to feed their ego and make them feel enough. They’re so good with money that they’re painfully ill-equipped in all other areas of life.
Too much money becomes a mental health crisis. Too much money creates a mental prison that limits your view of the world and castrates reality.
It’s bloody selfish to start a business
It’s fun to leave work early, work in a flow state, never get told what to do, and make more money because you keep more of the value.
So, I’m guilty as charged your honor.
Business is selfish and we have to look after ourselves first so we can feed our families. I ain’t mad at it.
As Dan Koe says, “Stubborn personal motivations can be more powerful than materialistic ones.”
Ask $30,000 questions instead of $3 questions
This is the philosophy of my entire financial life & comes from Ramit Sethi.
I remind my wife nightly when she wants to talk about grocery expenses. I don’t give a f*ck if the coffee costs $3 or $3.30. That’s not how you get wealthy, despite what the financial gurus preach in weird-ass books.
$30,000 questions include:
- What new skill will I learn this month?
- How do I get my lame boss to pay me 20% more?
- How can I tweak my investments to produce a better return?
- What small bets can I make that’ll pay off in the next 5 years?
- What new side business could I start to increase my income?
- How do I lower the amount of debt I have faster so I can pay less interest?
That’s where it’s at. Everything else is a $3 distraction.
We all start out as financial dumbasses
Finally, no want wants to hear that we all start out as financially stupid.
But let me share a quick story. In 2008 a shy college lecturer made his way to the Berkshire Hathaway annual conference to ask billionaires Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett a question.
He was nervous as hell. His palms were sweaty. His face went red.
In a shaky voice that sounded like a 5th grader asking a stranger for milk money, the question he asked was … how does a newly successful 30 year old, non-investment professional invest?
Warren and Charlie answered. They gave some generic advice about index funds that the young lecturer found helpful.
That young lecturer was Timothy Ferriss. He’s now seen as a legend when it comes to finance and business. Yet back then he was a financial dumbass.
We all start somewhere. Start your financial education asap and make it a habit to invest in it every day.