26 Minutes of Brutal Financial Advice (from a Millionaire)

a lot of people say they want Financial Freedom but do you really know what that is do you really know exactly how much money you need and do you know how to get there I've helped millions of people radically improve their finances and I get messages every single day telling me how they have Incorporated it into their lives so in this video I'm going to give you the brutally honest Financial advice you need to hear if you want to become financially free starting with step number one ask the right questions now just 30s into this video you might be wondering hey REM tell me how much how much money do I need to be financially free is it 1 million 5 million 10 million and I can tell you that you're already asking the wrong question the truth is no amount of money will give you Financial Freedom if you don't actually know what a rich life means that is why there are so many people who become wealthy and they still chase the next dollar cuz they never actually asked what is it all for so you need to understand your personal definition of a rich life there's no point chasing a random number without a personal reason behind it remember your rich life is different than mine that's how it should be unlike most people you shouldn't just pick a number a number itself is not very motivating especially when things get difficult cell C13 is not going to keep you warm okay a rich life has got to be much more aspirational and personally rewarding than some number and second you don't even have any idea if it's the right number think about this instead imagine yourself as financially free what does that phrase even mean to you does it mean being able to leave a job where you don't like or respect your boss does it mean being able to set limits on how much you work or potentially start a business where you can travel two or 3 months a year does it mean being able to pick up your kids every afternoon from school you need to know what your vision of a rich life is before you start chasing money so the first step is simply knowing what is your vision of being financially free and the crazy thing is this is the most important step and yet it's the one that most people skip over so much easier just to look at a number a number makes me feel so good I love numbers are so quantitative and in America quantitative goals are so much better than qualitative Humanities are such a waste of time what the are you talking about you have to understand what your vision is before you start chasing ing millions of dollars okay I know I lost half of the people watching this video cuz they just want me to show a bunch of math and show them some razzled dazzle calculations you can do you all realize that money is just a small but important part of a rich life you can make $500,000 a year or $5 million a year and not live a rich life alternatively you can be a teacher you can make the median income and you can live a very rich life so yes more money is going to help you live a rich life that's obvious but you need to understand what that rich life even is honestly if you can't create a vision today for what your rich life is it's not going to get easier in 10 years and sometimes we hear words like create a vision and we think it's got to be this thing we sit watch the sunset and sketch out the rest of our lives that's not how it is sometimes a rich life can be as simple as I like this pen I'm going to go on a pen travel journey to Japan to Norway and I'm going to find the very best Pence could be as simple as my rich Life starts with having a iPhone charger in every single room but of course being financially free is bigger than that and that's why I am emphasizing the importance of setting these big beautiful goals so to Achieve Financial Freedom start by defining what your rich life looks like think about it what would you like to be spending more on and what would you like to be spending Less on what would you like to be doing with your time what will it feel like like when you wake up when you eat lunch and in the afternoon and when you're with your family or your friends think about that in other words instead of obsessing over a specific dollar amount focus on what you truly want to get out of life and how your money can support that Vision start by asking yourself these important questions how many hours do I want to work each week what do I want to feel like at different parts of the day week and year how do I want to spend my time outside of work where do I want to live why do I want want to live there and how much money would I need to be able to create this vision of my rich life because really Financial Freedom is about aligning your money with your personal goals and values and it has to be done together one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they say I'm going to make a bunch of money and then I'll figure out what my rich life is listen up you freaks would you ever say oh I'm going to wait until I'm 55 years old and then I'm going to make some friends well some of the people watching this video probably are doing that right now that's why you're sitting alone and if you look at your text message it's literally completely blank since 2008 you haven't received one text except for Capital One saying here's your login code 025 683 you can't wait until you're 55 to make friends just like you can't wait until you have money to create your vision of a rich life you've got to start now you've got to build the muscle of envisioning that rich life of Living it of realizing oh my God I actually don't care about pens I want something else I want a beautiful Mouse that's what my rich life is at this stage and then you can start to develop It ultimately your rich life will always be about not just what oh I get to buy some stuff fine I love it but also who who do I get to take with me who do I get to Delight who do I get to surprise and these are skills you've got to learn by doing that now if you don't make your financial goals specific you're going to end up doing what a lot of other people do which is simply chasing this elusive number trying to solve a hole in your soul that will never be solved by Excel and saying I just need another 250,000 I just need to be able to withdraw 3. 2% not 3. 5% per year safe withdraw 3.

2 okay it's fine risk risk the problem is this is exactly how people get stuck in the rat race regret really often comes from not having a vision and from having your money be misaligned with the kind of life that you want to live so ask the right questions only then can you take the Practical steps towards true Financial Independence which brings me to step two secure your financial base now you can start making steps towards Financial Freedom today right now and it doesn't matter if you make 35,000 $50,000 $400,000 a year this principle works you just have to adapt it for your own situation but first you need to secure your financial base you need stability and stability is not the most exciting thing when people talk about money they'd rather talk about infinite banking but stability is essential I love stability I created What's called the tripod of stability that means three things are super important in my life I need to make sure they are stable work relationships and what the hell was the third one oh yeah money that needs to be stable what does that mean it means that I'm spending time with my friends and family it means that my money is invested primarily in lowcost index funds it's automated and that allows me to take risks in other parts of life see there's no Financial Freedom without Financial Security many of the stories that you hear seem like moonshots this person got accepted to the NBA this person sold their company for $55 million that's fantastic but I don't build a rich life based on hoping that I'm winning the lottery no I'm going to engineer a rich life step by step by step even if it feels a little boring at first this Foundation this long-term thinking it's a total necessity it's the same principle that is a necessity in money in Fitness in healthy relationships and anywhere else you're trying to improve your self-development first the non-negotiable the truth is highin debt like credit card debt is one of the biggest barriers to Building Wealth if you are stuck paying high High interest debt like 26. 99% it's going to be very hard to get Financial Freedom this is why it always confuses me when people are in $28,000 of credit card debt and they're sitting there talking about generational wealth generational wealth why don't you pay off your credit card debt first this is like somebody sitting there in their kitchen going like REM I really think we need to add uh an extra bedroom it's really going to increase the property value and we certainly need extra space our family's growing I'm like your house is on fire right now why are you talking about a renovation pay off the debt okay credit cards for many people give them the illusion of wealth the problem is they don't really understand how high interest debt works for example I understand that I can get roughly 7 to 10% in the stock market which turns out to be a lot of money if I could get 26. 99% I would love it unfortunately I can't nobody can consistently Over time however you're probably paying 26.

99% if you have credit card debt so if you have racked up any amount of credit card debt treat it like a Red Alert pay it off as quickly and aggressively as possible I have lots of videos on this channel that will guide you through the process and look it doesn't matter if you have the best investment strategy in the world if you are drowning in highin debt you are stuck and your house is on fire period fix it first next the safety net once you've tackled that high interest debt the next step is to build an emergency fund think of it as your financial safety net covering 3 to 6 months of bare minimum living expenses basically what it would take to keep the lights on and this emergency fund is what will keep you afloat during unexpected events for example a job loss medical emergencies or unexpected car repair without this cushion any Financial progress you make could be wiped out in an instant now you might be wondering how do I start paying off debt or paying for an emergency fund when I don't have any money left at the end of the month now this is a very good question it's a very common situation for people I'm not saying you have to start saving $500 a month or $1,000 a month one of the problems that I consistently see when I look at people's finances is that they don't pay themselves first you've heard this phrase pay yourself first everybody's heard it but almost Nobody Does it and let me tell you what I used to do because it was a horrible mistake I used to sit there and work line by line by line with them you know somebody's at 116% fixed cost and I would be like okay where do you think you can cut this and they're like there's literally nothing we can cut I'm sitting there looking at a car payment of 1,200 bucks a month their groceries cost 1,600 a month their subscriptions are 948 they're like we really need three gym memberships and I realized that doesn't work so I started doing something entirely different I said this is Nip we're going to blank it out I just zeroed the whole thing out I'm like you tell me you have this much money where do you want it to go and what you will see is that when people are free of the very constraints they have put upon themselves they will often allocate their money very rationally they will put money in savings right up front they will put money in Investments right up front they will carefully control their housing and vehicle costs because most of us are simply dealing with our finances that have been decided months or even years ago in other words sometimes you just need a fresh perspective on your money here's another way to look at it instead of going by absolute number numbers I need to save $500 a month work with percentages that really helps make your financial goals scalable so if you're making a low amount of money then you're investing a low amount that's okay when you're starting out but as your income increases with a raise with getting married or whatever other form of side business that percentage naturally updates as well now my recommendation to start off is saving 5 to 10% of your take-home pay towards your savings goals which includes your emergency fund and again that means that as your salary increases even if you keep that number at 5 to 10% the amount you're saving will increase as well even better you can automate all of this I don't want to be sitting in Excel and typing all these numbers and calculating I don't want that okay I got other things to do like eat so you automate this I'm not kidding when I say that automating your money will be the single most profitable system you ever build you can get that automation system in chapter 5 of my book again I got plenty of videos showing you how to do this so make sure you subscribe hit that button right now if you haven't already done it automation is your best friend because it takes the guesswork out of managing money set it up once and your money works for you in the background now where do you automatically save for this emergency fund well I recommend a savings account or better yet a cash account one that I personally use is this video's sponsor the high yield cash account from betterman and I like this account so much that I actually moved $100,000 of my own money money into it earlier this year and just check out how much interest I've earned just from letting it sit there now what's so great about this account well the national average yield for traditional savings accounts as reported by the FDIC is 4% apy as of September 16 2024 that sucks with cash Reserve from betterment new customers get up to 5% variable apy with a qualifying deposit terms apply for 3 months and then the standard base rate afterwards which is currently 4 . 5% just look at the comparison now of course rates are subject to change and I can't guarantee these results I don't control the FED do not email me because rates go up or down I have no control over it please don't email me now this account is a great option for an emergency fund or anything you need cash for in the next 1 to 5 years for example a car a down payment on a house or an amazing vacation I'm personally saving a little bit each month for an amazing celebration that my wife and I are planning for our 10-year wedding iversary so if you need to save money and you want it to grow consider the cash Reserve account from betterment again new customers get up to 5% variable apy with a qualifying deposit terms apply for 3 months and then the standard base rate afterwards which is currently 4. 5% go to betterment.