00:00:00
Read this headline. Even Americans
00:00:02
earning six figures, say they're living
00:00:04
paycheck to paycheck, including people
00:00:07
making over
00:00:09
$200,000 a year. Turns out half of
00:00:12
Americans making $100,000 a year, are
00:00:15
broke. And the number is even higher
00:00:16
when we're looking at younger
00:00:18
millennials making six figures a year.
00:00:19
But more than one out of three Americans
00:00:22
earning $200,000 a year or more are
00:00:26
broke with $0 left over every month
00:00:29
after paying their bills. It appears
00:00:31
that a six figure salary isn't even
00:00:33
enough to starve off feelings of
00:00:35
discomfort. Now, let me be 100% real
00:00:37
here because there's two problems at
00:00:39
play. There's the system problem and
00:00:41
then there's the you problem. The system
00:00:43
problem is real. We've had inflation
00:00:45
that's been eating people's savings.
00:00:47
It's been eating people's salaries. The
00:00:49
prices of things have been outpacing
00:00:50
wages. Things are more expensive.
00:00:52
Housing is more expensive. Groceries are
00:00:54
more expensive. The economy is slowing
00:00:55
down. There's a lot of weird things
00:00:57
happening in the economy. And the system
00:00:59
is there to profit off of you being
00:01:01
financially stupid. Banks profit when
00:01:02
you're in debt. Corporations profit when
00:01:04
you spend all your money. The government
00:01:05
profits when you were just an employee
00:01:07
because investors get tax breaks that
00:01:09
you don't get as an investor. This is
00:01:11
all 100% true with the system. Now, it
00:01:15
doesn't matter how much money you make.
00:01:18
If you are broke at $200,000 a year,
00:01:21
there's something else going on. And
00:01:23
this is where I want you to understand.
00:01:25
Yes, there are these problems with the
00:01:27
system. Yes, the system is designed to
00:01:29
profit off of you spending all of your
00:01:31
money, but at the end of the day,
00:01:33
constantly blaming the system,
00:01:35
constantly blaming the government,
00:01:36
constantly blaming your boss, constantly
00:01:38
blaming your landlord, constantly
00:01:39
blaming everybody else in the world
00:01:42
except yourself, doesn't fix the
00:01:45
problem. Because when you're sitting
00:01:47
here pointing your finger at everybody
00:01:49
else, there's three fingers pointed
00:01:50
right back at you. And this is where you
00:01:51
got to also understand the you problem.
00:01:54
And yes, it's very easy to understand
00:01:55
this when you're making $200,000 a year.
00:01:58
But it's the same situation when you're
00:02:00
making less money as well because at the
00:02:02
end of the day, this is not going to fix
00:02:04
your financial situation. But this can.
00:02:08
If you're earning $200,000 a year,
00:02:10
that's
00:02:12
$16,600 a month. that when you're making
00:02:14
$16,600 a month in gross, guess what
00:02:17
that means? That means the bank is going
00:02:18
to be willing to lend you more money to
00:02:20
buy a house. That means the bank is
00:02:21
going to be willing to lend you more
00:02:22
money to buy a car. That means the bank
00:02:24
is going to be willing to give you a
00:02:25
bigger line of credit on your credit
00:02:26
cards. It means the bank is more likely
00:02:28
to lend you more money because when you
00:02:30
have a bigger salary, you become more
00:02:31
creditw worthy. And this is where it's
00:02:33
so important for you to understand this
00:02:34
because everybody thinks that, man, if I
00:02:37
just made an additional $1,000 a month,
00:02:39
an additional $10,000 a year, an
00:02:41
additional $30,000 a year, all my
00:02:43
financial problems will be solved. But
00:02:45
here's what happens. You work for that
00:02:47
raise. You work to make some more money,
00:02:48
and then all of a sudden, boop, your
00:02:50
salary goes up. But you know what
00:02:51
happens next? Your expenses go from here
00:02:54
to here. And for some people, your
00:02:56
expenses actually go to here because now
00:02:58
as you become more creditworthy, you
00:02:59
start borrowing more money. And you
00:03:01
always every time you make more money,
00:03:04
you keep spending more money. And now
00:03:06
you don't understand how it is that you
00:03:08
never can get ahead, how you can never
00:03:10
build any wealth, how you never have any
00:03:11
freedom, because every time you get a
00:03:13
raise, you feel even more stuck. And you
00:03:15
can't leave your job that you may or may
00:03:17
not hate. You can't take a vacation
00:03:19
because number one, it's going to be
00:03:20
expensive. And number two, you can't
00:03:21
take the time off for work. And you
00:03:23
can't understand how you going to ever
00:03:24
have a chance to be financially free.
00:03:26
How are you going to give that real
00:03:27
freedom to your kids? How are you going
00:03:29
to have the time to relax? How are you
00:03:30
going to finally go on the vacation and
00:03:32
be able to relax? Well, it starts not by
00:03:34
blaming this but by taking care of this.
00:03:38
Understand how the system works. This is
00:03:41
the first rule that I always teach about
00:03:42
in my financial education. You got to
00:03:44
understand how our money works. You have
00:03:46
to understand how our economic system
00:03:47
works because the reality is, and this
00:03:49
is going to sound painful, our economic
00:03:51
system doesn't care about you. Our
00:03:54
economic system is designed to profit
00:03:56
off of you. Period. In fact, our
00:03:58
economic system is designed to benefit
00:03:59
the investor, not the employee, not the
00:04:02
consumer, the investor. Now, you might
00:04:04
say, "Oh, those greedy rich investors."
00:04:06
But here's the reality. You don't have
00:04:08
to be a multi-millionaire to become an
00:04:10
investor. If you have an extra
00:04:12
$100, you can now become an investor.
00:04:15
See, becoming an investor means you just
00:04:17
have a little bit of extra money that
00:04:19
now instead of you saving it and instead
00:04:21
of you spending it, you're now investing
00:04:24
that money. Now, I know that can feel
00:04:25
very overwhelming. Where in the world do
00:04:26
I start to invest? What stock brokerage
00:04:28
do I use? What stock do I buy? How do I
00:04:30
actually go about doing this? But it
00:04:31
doesn't have to be all that complicated.
00:04:33
I want you to think about it like this.
00:04:35
If you were 400 lb and obese and now you
00:04:38
wanted to lose weight, what do you do?
00:04:40
Well, should I do keto? Should I go
00:04:42
vegan? Should I do this diet? Should I
00:04:44
be doing intermittent fasting? Should I
00:04:45
be doing At the end of the day, what
00:04:46
should you do? Get on a treadmill and
00:04:49
put down the donuts, right? You just get
00:04:51
started with a little bit because that's
00:04:53
a step in the right direction. when you
00:04:55
put down the donuts, you put on the ho,
00:04:56
and you get on a treadmill. Now, maybe
00:04:58
the next thing you do is you put the
00:04:59
treadmill on an incline. Now, maybe you
00:05:01
say, "Well, you can add in some
00:05:03
weightlifting as well." Don't get into
00:05:05
all the the confusing stuff as to which
00:05:07
way you do workouts. Just start picking
00:05:09
up weights and do things with them. Just
00:05:10
start moving the weights. And now, as
00:05:12
you start doing that, maybe you get a
00:05:14
trainer who helps you lift weights. And
00:05:16
as you do that, maybe you start learning
00:05:18
about different diets. And maybe now you
00:05:20
start looking at different types of
00:05:21
workouts. And now as you start to get
00:05:22
more advanced, you can start doing more
00:05:24
things. It's the same thing with money.
00:05:26
It is so easy to get caught up into the
00:05:28
whole idea of should I put my money into
00:05:30
real estate? Should I put money into
00:05:31
stocks? Should I put my money into ETF?
00:05:32
Should I put into index funds? Should I
00:05:34
put into individual stocks? How do I put
00:05:35
my money? Do I put into dividend paying
00:05:37
stocks? Should I put it into a high
00:05:38
growth ETF? It's very easy to get
00:05:41
overwhelmed. But this is where I want
00:05:44
you to remember. The reason why so many
00:05:46
people stay broke isn't because they
00:05:49
make the wrong investments. It's because
00:05:52
they don't invest their money at all.
00:05:53
You're going to make mistakes. You're
00:05:55
going to have screw-ups. It's a part of
00:05:58
the process. But until you make those
00:06:00
screw-ups, you're never going to get to
00:06:02
the next level and start to see more of
00:06:04
that success. And so the very first
00:06:06
thing you got to do, the very first
00:06:08
thing, I don't care if you're making
00:06:09
$200,000 a year, $2 million a year, or
00:06:11
$20,000 a year, is you got to stop
00:06:13
spending all of your money. Now, how do
00:06:15
you go about doing that? You got to find
00:06:17
a way to have less expenses than your
00:06:20
income. Maybe that means you work to
00:06:22
earn more money. Maybe that means you
00:06:24
work to cut back your expenses. Maybe
00:06:26
that means you do both. But if you spend
00:06:28
all of your money or more than all you
00:06:31
earn, you will never ever have a chance
00:06:34
to become wealthy. Because the way you
00:06:36
become wealthy, remember we just
00:06:37
established this, is you have to invest
00:06:39
your money. How do you invest your
00:06:40
money? You got to have some extra money
00:06:41
to invest. And in order for you to do
00:06:43
that, you cannot spend all of your
00:06:44
money. So the very first thing you got
00:06:46
to do before you do anything else is you
00:06:47
got to have some extra money that we
00:06:48
have some money to invest. Now that you
00:06:50
have some extra money, let's just lay
00:06:52
the groundwork. The first thing that I
00:06:54
would want you to do is have $2,000
00:06:56
saved to protect you against an
00:06:57
emergency before you do anything else.
00:06:59
You got to have an extra $2,000. And
00:07:00
then I want you to pay down your high
00:07:01
interest debts. So, if you have credit
00:07:03
card debts, before you worry about
00:07:04
investing your money, pay down your
00:07:06
credit card debt first because that 25%
00:07:08
interest rate that you're paying on your
00:07:10
credit card is going to skin you alive
00:07:12
financially. So, before you worry about
00:07:14
investing your money, pay down your high
00:07:16
interest debts, your payday loans, your
00:07:17
credit card debts, and all that stuff.
00:07:18
Now, once you do that, now we can start
00:07:20
talking about how do you actually invest
00:07:22
your money. And it doesn't have to be as
00:07:24
complicated as you might think. You can
00:07:26
go and find whatever stock brokerage you
00:07:27
might like. Just go to Google, find
00:07:29
stock brokerages, find one that you
00:07:30
like. Simple. Once you find a stock
00:07:33
brokerage, you got to link it to your
00:07:34
bank account. And now you need to find
00:07:36
something to invest in. This is where
00:07:37
people start to get really overwhelmed.
00:07:39
Do I buy Amazon? Do I buy Nvidia? Do I
00:07:41
buy Tesla? Do I buy Microsoft? Do I buy
00:07:43
McDonald's? But the thing is, you don't
00:07:45
necessarily have to pick the best stock.
00:07:48
In fact, for a lot of people, that is a
00:07:50
losing strategy because now, how do you
00:07:52
know what price point you should come in
00:07:53
and buy Amazon? When do you actually go
00:07:55
out and buy it? Is it a good time to buy
00:07:56
it? Today, should you wait 2 months? The
00:07:58
reality is, if you're not interested in
00:08:01
actually studying the company and
00:08:03
valuing the stock and keeping up with
00:08:05
their earning statements and reading
00:08:07
their financial statements and keeping
00:08:08
up with the actual company, well, then
00:08:10
you might not be best served by
00:08:13
investing in an individual company. In
00:08:15
fact, maybe then a better thing for you
00:08:18
is to invest into the broad American
00:08:21
economy because there are funds you can
00:08:23
invest in that will give you exposure to
00:08:24
the American economy. But I do got to
00:08:26
give you a disclaimer, not a financial
00:08:27
adviser. Investing has risks. You're
00:08:30
never guaranteed to make money when you
00:08:31
invest. In fact, you will lose money at
00:08:33
some point. So, make sure you always do
00:08:34
your own due diligence and never blindly
00:08:36
trust a random guy on YouTube. But what
00:08:38
I mean by this is there are funds out
00:08:40
there that will give you exposure to the
00:08:41
broad American economy. So, you have a
00:08:43
stock brokerage. I'm going to give you a
00:08:44
couple examples here. Again, I can't
00:08:46
tell you what to invest in. These are
00:08:47
just examples. There is an ETF out there
00:08:50
called
00:08:52
VTI. VTI is a fund that gives you
00:08:56
exposure to the total stock market. So,
00:08:59
if you said, I just want to invest my
00:09:00
money in the stock market, but I don't
00:09:02
know which stocks to invest in. This
00:09:03
will give you exposure to the total
00:09:04
stock market. If the stock market is
00:09:06
going up, well, then your fund will go
00:09:08
up. The stock market's going down, your
00:09:10
fund will go down. Another one if you
00:09:12
want to get a little bit more niche is S
00:09:15
Py or VO. These are two different ETFs
00:09:21
that give you exposure to the same
00:09:22
thing. These are giving exposure to the
00:09:25
S and
00:09:26
P500. This is a group of the 500 largest
00:09:30
companies in the stock market. So now
00:09:32
instead of investing in the total stock
00:09:34
market, these are two funds that will
00:09:35
give you exposure to just the largest
00:09:37
500 of them. And now if Amazon, which is
00:09:40
at the time of me recording this video,
00:09:42
one of the 500 largest companies in the
00:09:43
stock market, if Amazon starts to do
00:09:45
really bad and they're on the verge of
00:09:46
bankruptcy, what happens? These funds
00:09:49
will kick Amazon out and replace it with
00:09:51
a different stock. And you don't have to
00:09:53
worry about doing anything. All you have
00:09:55
to do is keep investing your money here.
00:09:56
Now, the reason why I put an asterisk
00:09:58
here is because I personally have my own
00:09:59
money invested into BO. But the whole
00:10:02
idea here is now you're just investing
00:10:03
in the top companies in the stock
00:10:04
market. is essentially a way for you to
00:10:06
invest in the American economy and you
00:10:08
don't have to really do any work. And
00:10:10
the way that you win here is to follow a
00:10:12
strategy. Now, there's a couple things I
00:10:14
want you to know. Number one, if you are
00:10:15
an investor or you want to be an
00:10:17
investor, my team at Briefs Media
00:10:19
publishes a free daily newsletter called
00:10:21
Market Briefs where we break down what's
00:10:22
happening in things like the economy,
00:10:24
stocks, housing, crypto, and the global
00:10:26
markets into a fun and weekly and easy
00:10:28
to read newsletter. Plus, when you join
00:10:30
Market Briefs for free, we're also going
00:10:32
to give you my investing master class as
00:10:34
a bonus for free just for joining market
00:10:37
briefs. So, if you want to join Market
00:10:38
Briefs for free and get our investing
00:10:40
master class as a bonus, all you have to
00:10:42
do is click the link down in the
00:10:44
description below. Once you understand
00:10:46
all this, you need to have a strategy.
00:10:48
Now, the strategy that I like to talk
00:10:50
about when it comes to investing into
00:10:52
things like this is something called
00:10:54
ABB.
00:10:56
always be buying. This is how you win
00:11:01
because the reality is markets go up,
00:11:04
markets go down, recessions happen,
00:11:06
economic booms happen, market crashes
00:11:08
happen, market booms happen. It's
00:11:11
happened in the past and they will
00:11:12
continue to happen in the future. In
00:11:13
fact, do you know how many recessions we
00:11:15
have seen in the last 100 years? Take a
00:11:18
guess. It's not 10, it's 16. Do you know
00:11:21
how many market crashes we have seen in
00:11:23
the last 100 years? It's not 16 or 20.
00:11:26
It's 25, which means we're averaging
00:11:29
more than two market crashes per decade.
00:11:31
And by market crash, I mean a bare
00:11:33
market, which by technicality means that
00:11:36
the markets have fallen by at least 20%.
00:11:39
So we know the market crashes happen. We
00:11:41
know the recessions happen. But every
00:11:43
time markets go down, what do we see
00:11:45
happen? People panic. They freak out.
00:11:47
They think, "Oh my god, the world is
00:11:48
ending. The economic system is
00:11:49
collapsing. Everything is going to go
00:11:50
down." But if you are a long-term
00:11:53
investor, which is the way you win here,
00:11:56
those create great buying opportunities.
00:11:59
This is why I talk about ABB. Always be
00:12:02
buying. You want to have a system that's
00:12:05
automated where every week or every two
00:12:08
weeks or every month, many brokerages
00:12:10
will allow you to do this for free. You
00:12:11
have a system where money is pulled out
00:12:13
of your checkings account and it's
00:12:15
automatically invested into the funds
00:12:17
that you want to invest in and you don't
00:12:19
turn it off. period. You don't turn it
00:12:21
off when you go through a recession. You
00:12:23
don't turn it off when markets are
00:12:24
crashing and everyone is running around
00:12:25
with their heads chopped off. You don't
00:12:27
turn it off. You just keep buying. In
00:12:29
fact, the only change you might make is
00:12:31
when things are going down and
00:12:32
everyone's freaking out. You buy a
00:12:34
little bit more aggressively. Now, it's
00:12:36
hard to do that because when people are
00:12:37
panicking, everyone's saying you need to
00:12:38
get out and sell while you still can.
00:12:40
But that can be one of the best buying
00:12:42
opportunities. And this is why I call it
00:12:44
always be buying because you want to
00:12:46
stick through it. Stick through the
00:12:48
downturns. Now, sometimes these
00:12:49
downturns can last a week, sometimes
00:12:51
they can last a year or a few years, but
00:12:53
if you stick with it, what we have seen
00:12:55
over the last 100 years is that markets
00:12:58
eventually recover and that can create
00:13:01
great buying opportunities. And this is
00:13:03
where you got to understand the game. We
00:13:05
are not taught how to win in this
00:13:07
system. School doesn't teach you how to
00:13:09
become an investor. School teaches you
00:13:10
how to be an employee. Period. But our
00:13:13
economic system is designed to benefit
00:13:14
investors. That means you have to work
00:13:16
as an employee to earn your salary. But
00:13:18
then you got to turn your salary into
00:13:19
investment money. Period. Because that's
00:13:22
how you win in this economic system. And
00:13:23
that means you can't spend all of your
00:13:25
salary. So now you're going to work to
00:13:27
make money. Now you can't spend all this
00:13:29
money. That way you're not just fueling
00:13:30
the system. Now you're going to fuel
00:13:32
yourself. And that means you can't feel
00:13:33
all that pity and keep beating yourself
00:13:35
up. Now you got to take some of the
00:13:36
money that you don't spend. And now you
00:13:38
have to start investing this money. And
00:13:40
now when you start investing this money,
00:13:43
now you can start to find what's the
00:13:44
better opportunity for you. You can
00:13:46
start by doing this. Okay, this is the
00:13:48
simple way to start and then you can see
00:13:50
if you want to get a little bit more
00:13:52
involved, a little bit more advanced.
00:13:53
Maybe now you want to start looking for
00:13:55
individual companies. You want to start
00:13:56
investing in your own research. You want
00:13:58
to start paying attention to more
00:14:00
financial trends and shifts. That way
00:14:02
you can find better opportunities. That
00:14:04
way now you can potentially take on more
00:14:06
risk for more potential return. Maybe
00:14:08
you want to start investing in real
00:14:09
estate. Maybe you want to start
00:14:10
investing in startups. All these things
00:14:12
can come. But you got to just get
00:14:15
started first. And it get started with
00:14:16
you understanding that you got to get in
00:14:19
control of your salary. Because what we
00:14:21
have learned in America and it happens
00:14:23
across the world now is it doesn't
00:14:25
matter how much money you make, you have
00:14:27
to get in control of your salary because
00:14:29
everybody assumes that if I make more
00:14:31
money, I'm going to have more money to
00:14:32
save and invest magically. But we have
00:14:34
seen through the numbers that that's not
00:14:36
true. People are making $100,000 a year
00:14:39
and are still broke. Many people are
00:14:40
making $200,000 a year and more and are
00:14:42
still broke living paycheck to paycheck.
00:14:45
And this is where we know yes there are
00:14:47
some things in the system that are set
00:14:48
up there to screw you over. Now, okay,
00:14:51
cry about it for five minutes. Now what?
00:14:54
Now you got to take control of you and
00:14:56
understand you got to get in control of
00:14:59
your salary, of your income wherever you
00:15:01
are today. And now you got to turn that
00:15:03
income from your job into assets because
00:15:06
we know that this system is benefiting
00:15:08
the investors. And now you just find a
00:15:10
way to get started. And once you get
00:15:12
started, then you can work to optimize
00:15:14
it. and then you're off to the races.
00:15:16
Now, it doesn't happen overnight. This
00:15:18
is not a get-rich quick system, but this
00:15:19
is a get-rich actually system if you are
00:15:21
willing to put in the work, stay
00:15:23
dedicated, and go through what I call
00:15:24
the decade of sacrifice. The decade of
00:15:26
sacrifice is you're going through 10
00:15:28
years of spending less and earning more
00:15:30
so you can invest like crazy. Because if
00:15:31
you can go through the decade of
00:15:33
sacrifice, you're not even going to be
00:15:34
able to recognize yourself at the end of
00:15:36
the decade. The time is going to come
00:15:38
and go, you might as well become wealthy
00:15:40
at the end of the decade as well. Being
00:15:42
wealthy means your investments are
00:15:44
making you enough money to pay your
00:15:46
expenses, so you don't need a job to pay
00:15:48
your bills. The problem is most people
00:15:50
will say just invest your money into the
00:15:52
stock market. But what if you don't know
00:15:54
what stocks to buy? Or what happens if
00:15:56
the stock market crashes and now your
00:15:57
portfolio gets cut in half and you were
00:15:59
relying on that income to pay your
00:16:01
bills? This is
