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The richest 10 Americans got $365
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billion dollar richer just over the past
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year. The stunning increase in wealth
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amounts to a gain of roughly $1 billion
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per day for those billionaires. By
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contrast, the typical American worker
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made just over $50,000 in one year in
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2023. Here are the top 10 actionable
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things you can do to improve your
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finances and build long-term wealth.
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Whether you're starting from scratch or
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you're well on your way, in most videos
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like this, the speaker is going to start
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with the easiest or at least just the
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first step first. Understandably, but
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I'm going to start with the end in mind.
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Your ultimate goal needs to be this
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right here. If I just say get rich or
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have $5 million in the bank, that sounds
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good, but that's not actionable. What's
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going to actually get you to become rich
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or live the life that you've always
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wanted and to be financially free and
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secure? So, number 10 on this list is
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that you need to own assets, not just
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income. The rich don't work for money,
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they make it work for them. Buy stocks,
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real estate, a small business, or
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digital products. Build assets that
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generate cash flow, appreciation, or
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passive income. You definitely want to
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avoid oversaving in cash because you
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lose to inflation. All those
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billionaires that I showed you at the
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beginning of this video have most if not
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all of their net worth tied up into
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assets, not in cash. That's how it grew
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so substantially and how it grew every
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single day for the entire year. You need
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to retrain your mind. The ultimate goal
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here is not to have more cash and put it
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into the bank and have your bank account
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grow. That's nice, but that's the
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overall result. What we want is how do
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we get to that point? How do we make it
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so that we're building this thing up
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like crazy? And that's what you need to
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focus on. So, here's how you're going to
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get there. Number one, you need to track
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every dollar. What gets measured gets
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improved. Use a budgeting app like YNAB,
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Monarch, or Mint, or now C-pilot. Know
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your monthly inflows and outflows. Know
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your debt, your net worth, and your
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savings rate. Build a zerobased budget
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that aligns with your goals. Whenever I
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say the word budget, I usually lose
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people right off the bat, but do this.
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Trust me, I still do this. I don't
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understand how people don't do this.
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This is how you're going to get to where
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you want to get to. Number two, you have
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to destroy highinterest debt first. Pay
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off credit cards, personal loans, or
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anything over a seven to eight% interest
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as fast as possible. Use the debt
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avalanche method where you pay off the
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highest interest debt first and then hit
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the next ones. You could also consider
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refinancing or consolidating to lower
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rates. And yes, I will always suggest
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that you pay off highinterest debt first
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before investing. Number three is
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literally the cheat code to actually get
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you to hit these goals. And this is to
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actually automate your savings and
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eventually your investing. Set up
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automatic transfers to an emergency
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fund. Try to get up to a 3 to 6 months
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worth of living expenses. As far as
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investing, set up automatic transfers to
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a 401k or the Roth IRA or a brokerage
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account. Even having automatic transfers
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to the high yield savings account for
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short-term goals. Treat investing like
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it's a bill. You're not just going to
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not pay your rent and not pay your
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utilities, right? Make it a line item in
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your budget that says, "Hey, I want to
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invest $100 a month or I want to save
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$100 a month." Great. Now, call that a
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bill and make sure you pay it. Number
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four, at this point, we can start
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investing. And what you need to do is
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keep the main thing the main thing.
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Let's build up a solid foundation of
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index funds or ETFs and try to stay away
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from those individual stocks that I know
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are very tempting or even cryptos that
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have gone up 100% in a month. I promise
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you, you can hit those later, but you
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want to build up this base first. Start
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with broad market ETFs like VU for the
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S&P 500 or SCHD for dividends, QQQM for
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tech growth, even VT if you want more
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global exposure. Dollar cost average
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every paycheck or month. Time in the
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market beats timing the market. Small
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wins make a huge impact, especially at
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first. And I know for me when I was much
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younger and even the students that I
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teach at the university, they say they
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don't want to invest yet because they
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don't have enough money to invest. Like
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will $5 really make a difference? Well,
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$5 per day is about $150 per month. 150
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per month in something like the S&P 500
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that produces about 10% on average for
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40 years comes out to $796,666.
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So yeah, $5 is enough to invest, but
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you're absolutely right. It's about that
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time to start thinking about how can we
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make more money. So number five is to
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grow your income earning power. Invest
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in yourself. Take online courses,
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certification, side gigs. You're doing
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your part right now watching this video
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or watching anything that I produce
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because it's just free education for
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you. And my ultimate goal, the whole
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reason why I made this channel is to
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truly help you. I saw that there was a
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lot of bad advice out there. And I also
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know that the finance industry is quite
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shady with financial adviserss and
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things doing questionable things with
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your money and just doing whatever they
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can to take a portion of your portfolio.
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So my goal is to make it so that you can
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do this all by yourself and that you can
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make all of your hard-earned money just
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grow that much more for you. You can
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negotiate your salary. Most people leave
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10 to 20% on the table. Don't just cut
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your expenses, grow your income. I know
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this isn't for everyone, but I always
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try to suggest if you have even just a
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little bit of extra time in the day,
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which most people definitely do if
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you're going to be honest with yourself,
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why not start a super small side hustle?
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For me, I've always had multiple income
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streams. It's just something that was
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just wired in me and that's just the way
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that I like to do things. Right now, I'm
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a professor at the university. I'm
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obviously doing YouTube. I do private
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financial coaching and I'm an investor
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in and own a jiu-jitsu gym here in
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California. So, before I showed you if
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you have $5 per day to invest, that's
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going to get you a very solid sum in 40
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years, about $800,000, which is awesome.
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But if we can increase that earning
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power and instead you built one more
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revenue stream and now you have an extra
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$1,000 per month. 1,000 per month at 10%
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for 40 years comes out to 5,311,110.
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I hope now you're starting to pay
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attention. Number six is a huge one and
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this is kind of like number one where
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most people glance over this and just
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keep moving. But this one right here is
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the secret. Live below your means.
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Always. Avoid lifestyle creep even as
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your income rises. I have so many
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friends that make $250,000 a year or
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more and they're broke. They can't go
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out to dinner. They can't buy things
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because they have too much credit card
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debt or too much debt in general because
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they bought too many things as their
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income increased. Don't be that guy. Buy
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used cars, cook more, delay big
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purchases, whatever you have to do. Live
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below your means. It's simple, but I
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understand it's not easy. Number seven,
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get financially educated. Again, you're
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already doing that watching this video,
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so good job. Read or listen to The
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Psychology of Money by Morgan Hel. I
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will teach you to be rich by Rammit
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Sadi. Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert
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Kiosaki. Watch solid YouTubers that you
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can trust. I personally like to read
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solid CEOs earning reports over the
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years. Two of my favorite books would be
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The Essays of Warren Buffett and then
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Dear Shareholder by Lawrence Cunningham.
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These books taught me so much in my own
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investing in my own finances, but also
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as a business owner myself. The insight
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was invaluable. Number eight, this one's
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huge, especially as you start putting
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into practice everything that I've
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talked about from before. Your taxes are
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inevitably going to be an issue. And so,
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you want to make sure and mitigate those
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taxes and bring them down as much as
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possible. Max out your 401k, especially
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with an employer match. Use the Roth IRA
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for tax-free growth or a Roth 401k if
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you have high income and you can't add
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to a Roth IRA traditionally. Learn how
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to do a backdoor Roth or mega backdoor
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Roth if you'd like. Consider HSAs and
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529 plans for additional tax-free
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growth. I'd highly recommend that you
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speak to a tax professional and just see
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if there's anything that they recommend.
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That small little conversation that you
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have with them could save you tens, if
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not hundreds of thousands of dollars
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over your lifetime. Number nine seems
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self-explanatory, but it's actually one
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of the things that I have seen a lot of
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people not do. I'm shocked that people
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don't do this one. And number nine is
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have a wealth-b buildinging plan. Set
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clear financial goals like net worth
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milestones, retirement number, income
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targets. review progress monthly or
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quarterly. This is my specialty.
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Honestly, God gave me a gift to be able
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to simplify complicated material,
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whether it be at the university or with
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my private clients talking about
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finances specifically. I love to sit
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with people and figure out the puzzle of
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their finances and then work to put
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together a strategy that's not a cookie
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cutter strategy for everyone. It's
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specific for their specific goals and
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needs. If you're interested, I provide
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private financial coaching and have
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worked with well over 500 clients at
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this point so I can share what has
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worked for them and we can develop the
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perfect strategy for you to live your
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best life. Email me at
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professorgg.investgmail.com
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to schedule a consult. You need to stay
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focused on long-term wealth, not just
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short-term wins. There's a big
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difference between making a couple extra
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bucks and actually building your net
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worth. Once you've done all this, you
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can now clearly do what I started this
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video with, and that's number 10. Own
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assets. By owning assets like stocks,
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real estate, businesses, or whatever,
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you now have an evergreen wealth source
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that will not run out and will be able
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to get you to the life you've always
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dreamed of. The best way to start this
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is by creating a portfolio at least of
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something like a base of investing that
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I talked about with those nice broad
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ETFs and beats almost anything else on
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the market today. Watch this video to
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learn about the best threeund portfolio
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that's super simple that you can
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absolutely do all by yourself without
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having to pay any extra fees. Or watch
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this one to keep you going strong in
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investing. And remember to keep
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investing simplified.
