HomeVideos

The Savings Expert: Are You Under 45? You Won't Get A Pension! Don't Buy A House! - Jaspreet Singh

Now Playing

The Savings Expert: Are You Under 45? You Won't Get A Pension! Don't Buy A House! - Jaspreet Singh

Transcript

4528 segments

0:00

We have to get over these money myths

0:02

that you can't build wealth if you rent

0:04

where you live. You can't build wealth

0:06

if you don't have access to millions of

0:07

dollars. That's not true. And there's

0:09

one key thing that's given much better

0:11

returns than any real estate, than any

0:13

stock, and even any cryptocurrencies.

0:15

So, let's talk about the real way to

0:17

build true wealth. Jaspreet Singh is the

0:19

no-nonsense financial guru, realtor, and

0:22

entrepreneur,

0:23

whose methods have helped millions of

0:24

people solve their crippling money

0:26

problems

0:26

and unlocked financial freedom. People

0:28

don't like when I say this, but I'll say

0:30

what I say to make friends. I say what I

0:31

say to help people be better with money.

0:33

There's a lot of people that are lacking

0:34

financial education. And we're taught

0:37

study hard, get a good job, and if you

0:38

continue working down that path, you're

0:40

going to become successful. Yet, most

0:42

people buy a house they can't afford,

0:43

and statistically are living paycheck to

0:46

paycheck. In fact, that's 78% of

0:48

Americans. Because, ironically, the key

0:51

thing that keeps so many people poor for

0:53

the rest of their life is they're scared

0:54

to look broke. So, what do they do? They

0:56

drive around in nicer cars, going on

0:58

better vacations, and to the nicer

1:00

restaurants, but they no longer have

1:01

money to save, they no longer have money

1:03

to invest. And the problem is you need

1:05

about $1.8 million to retire

1:07

comfortably. Wow. So, if you are in the

1:09

financial danger zone, which is you

1:10

don't have $2,000 saved up for an

1:12

emergency, and you have credit card

1:14

debt, you have to make drastic changes

1:15

today. So, what do I do? Well, the first

1:17

thing you got to understand is the

1:18

75-15-10

1:20

plan, which is

1:22

But now, let's dig this a little bit

1:23

deeper. And let's talk about making

1:25

money. I put my money in five places

1:27

that has been proven to win. Number one,

1:31

This is always blown my mind a little

1:32

bit. 53% of you that listen to this show

1:35

regularly haven't yet subscribed to this

1:37

show. So, could I ask you for a favor

1:39

before we start? If you like the show

1:40

and you like what we do here and you

1:41

want to support us, the free simple way

1:43

that you can do just that is by hitting

1:45

the subscribe button. And my commitment

1:47

to you is if you do that, then I'll do

1:48

everything in my power, me and my team,

1:50

to make sure that this show is better

1:51

for you every single week. We'll listen

1:53

to your feedback, we'll find the guest

1:55

that you want me to speak to, and we'll

1:57

continue to do what we do. Thank you so

1:59

much.

2:03

Jaspreet,

2:04

who should care about your message,

2:07

and why should they care?

2:09

Anybody who uses money,

2:11

which is everybody.

2:13

The interesting thing about money

2:15

is we use money every single day.

2:18

It costs money to eat, and it costs

2:20

money to feed other people.

2:21

Yet, most of us are never taught about

2:23

money.

2:24

So, most people say money doesn't

2:26

matter. I shouldn't think about money. I

2:28

shouldn't have to worry about money.

2:30

Money's bad. Money's evil.

2:32

When in reality, it costs money to eat,

2:34

and it costs money to feed other people.

2:36

And when you don't understand that,

2:38

now, you're the one

2:40

that's going to be

2:42

paying the highest taxes.

2:44

You're the one that's going to be

2:45

struggling to pay your bills. You're the

2:47

one that's not going to be able to go to

2:49

Disney World. You're the one that can't

2:51

pay for that amazing gift for your wife

2:53

or your husband. And you're the one that

2:55

can't pay for the health care for your

2:56

parents. And you wonder why.

2:59

And in this economic system that we all

3:02

live in,

3:03

money talks.

3:05

And unless you understand that,

3:07

you're never going to be able to win in

3:09

the system. What is the difference

3:11

between people who figure out how to

3:12

make themselves wealthy and those that

3:15

don't? If we put all objective

3:17

advantages aside, rich parents,

3:19

inherited lots of money, all these kinds

3:21

of things, what is like the fundamental

3:23

difference that you've seen from the

3:25

many, many hundreds of thousands of

3:26

people that you've worked with and

3:28

taught and have consumed your content?

3:30

What is the fundamental?

3:32

There's one difference. One key

3:34

difference. People that become wealthy

3:38

understand how money works.

3:40

And everybody else does not.

3:43

And I'll tell you where I came to this

3:44

conclusion.

3:45

I checked all the boxes. I studied hard

3:48

in school.

3:50

I went through high school.

3:52

I went to college.

3:53

I spent 1 year in graduate school.

3:55

And then I went through law school.

3:58

But I never once learned a thing about

3:59

money.

4:00

I never once learned a thing about

4:02

building wealth.

4:03

I never once learned a thing about

4:04

investing.

4:06

I never once learned a thing about

4:07

passive income.

4:09

But if you just look at the wealthiest

4:11

people in the world,

4:13

they don't get there

4:14

by working a job and getting a raise.

4:17

They don't get there by working to climb

4:19

the corporate ladder.

4:20

They get there because they understand

4:22

how money works.

4:24

And they understand how to win in that

4:27

economic system.

4:28

And the crazy thing about that is we're

4:30

all taught to trust the system.

4:33

My parents are immigrants from a state

4:35

in India called Punjab.

4:38

And like many other traditional Indian

4:40

immigrants, they wanted me to become

4:42

successful.

4:43

Now, in my house, that definition of

4:45

success was very simple. They gave me

4:47

two options. I I I can guess.

4:50

Well, option number one was Jaspreet,

4:52

you can be a doctor. Yeah. Option two

4:54

was Jaspreet, you can be a failure.

4:56

Okay. And they said I get to pick which

4:58

one. And this is me when I'm like 1 year

5:00

old. That since the day I could start

5:02

talking, my parents told everybody, not

5:05

just people around us, they'd call my

5:06

family in India, my family all around

5:08

the country, that Jaspreet is going to

5:10

grow up and become a doctor, because

5:11

he's going to become successful.

5:14

Now, I had nothing against that, because

5:16

I wanted to become successful, too. I

5:18

saw how hard my parents worked.

5:20

My dad, if he got a Saturday and a

5:22

Sunday off, it was considered a long

5:23

weekend. I mean, my parents bust their

5:26

butt, and I wanted to become successful

5:27

so I could give back to them. And they

5:29

told me that if I wanted to become

5:30

successful, the way I do that is by

5:32

becoming a doctor.

5:33

Which makes sense, because when you're

5:35

in school, you get those like pamphlets,

5:37

those career pamphlets.

5:39

And they show you the different career

5:40

options you have. And anytime you look

5:42

at that, the top of the list is always

5:45

doctor.

5:46

And so, they said, Jaspreet, if you want

5:48

to become successful, you have to become

5:49

a doctor. And because we came to this

5:51

country, you have to become successful,

5:53

so you have to become a doctor. Now, I

5:55

didn't think anything wrong with it,

5:56

because I liked the idea of becoming

5:58

successful. So, I went down that path.

6:01

Now, along the way, I realized I didn't

6:03

want to be a doctor.

6:05

I told my parents that I'm not going to

6:06

be a doctor.

6:08

My mom almost had a heart attack.

6:10

My dad couldn't believe it.

6:12

And so, my dad essentially told me that,

6:15

Jaspreet, if you want to keep any pride

6:16

in the family, you have to at least

6:18

become an attorney.

6:20

So, I said, okay. I went to law school

6:22

part-time, worked on my business

6:24

full-time.

6:25

Now, today I am a licensed attorney,

6:27

but I've never worked a day as an

6:28

attorney.

6:30

And the reason why I've never worked as

6:31

an attorney is because it's just not

6:33

worth my time, and it's not where my

6:35

passion is.

6:36

And along that way, that's when I

6:38

learned

6:39

that we're taught

6:40

this is how you win.

6:42

Go to school. Study hard. Get good

6:45

grades. Get a good job.

6:47

And if you continue working down that

6:48

path, you're going to become successful.

6:50

But if you look at the successful

6:52

people,

6:53

that's not the path that they followed.

6:56

And if we take a look at the three

6:57

things that have built more wealth than

6:59

anything else over the last century,

7:02

it's starting a business,

7:05

investing in real estate,

7:07

and investing in stocks.

7:09

Yet, along my entire educational path, I

7:13

was never taught that.

7:14

We're focused on how do you get a good

7:16

job, but all wealthy people are focused

7:18

on is how do I grow my assets.

7:21

And that's the key difference here.

7:23

Is wealthy people are working to own the

7:25

corporate ladder.

7:27

Everybody else is working to climb the

7:28

corporate ladder.

7:29

And then the next thing, I'm going to go

7:31

back to what you said.

7:32

Assuming that you don't have rich

7:33

parents, because most people assume that

7:35

you have to be rich in order to do this.

7:37

You need millions of dollars. You need

7:38

access to all this money.

7:41

But that's not true.

7:42

You can start now with $100, $10. But

7:46

you have to get started.

7:49

The problem is most of us are never

7:50

taught how to do this.

7:52

But unless you start doing this, you're

7:54

never going to build wealth.

7:56

And that's the way that you win in this

7:57

economic system.

7:59

So, I want to go through all of those

8:00

three things you've just said. I want to

8:01

talk about starting businesses. I want

8:03

to talk about investing in stocks, and

8:04

also want to talk about real estate. But

8:06

I'm curious in your own personal story

8:08

there. When did the penny drop? Because

8:11

it's so interesting. In my life, there's

8:12

key moments where I got to see behind

8:14

the curtain. And when I say see behind

8:16

the curtain, I I I'll refer to my

8:18

friends when we're we're speaking uh

8:20

privately, I'll say I'll refer to it as

8:22

money games. Like the day where I saw

8:24

these billionaires playing money games

8:26

that I was I didn't know existed. And I

8:28

was there working my butt off, working

8:30

in call centers or building whatever.

8:32

And then I got to meet a billionaire. I

8:33

got to spend time with them, got to see

8:35

behind the curtain. I was like, oh, they

8:36

just play these money games, which

8:38

nobody else has been told about.

8:40

Right. Um when was the penny drop moment

8:42

for you? You qualified as a lawyer. Why

8:45

didn't you end up pursuing that? Some

8:46

some something happened. Yeah, so when I

8:48

was in grade school, I began working at

8:51

Indian weddings.

8:52

I played a drum called the dhol. It's a

8:55

Punjabi drum. That's where my family is

8:57

from in India.

8:58

And I used to play this drum at

8:59

weddings. And my parents didn't like

9:00

that I did this, because anything that

9:02

was not math or science was like, you

9:04

don't do this. So, I had to play this

9:05

drum uh in secret.

9:08

But I would play it at weddings, and I

9:09

started to make a little bit of money.

9:11

And by little bit of money, I mean $50

9:13

per wedding when I was in middle school,

9:15

then maybe $100, $200 in high school.

9:19

And one of the DJs that I was working

9:20

with said, Jaspreet, you know a lot of

9:22

kids in high school.

9:24

Uh how about we host a teen party for

9:27

some of these kids in your school? I was

9:29

like, okay, why not?

9:31

So, we hosted this teen party, and it

9:34

was a big success. And at the end of the

9:35

night, uh the DJ then starts paying out

9:38

all the costs, because we were going to

9:39

go on 50/50 on this business venture.

9:42

And then we pay out the money for the

9:43

security, for the venue, for the

9:46

marketing. And then he says, all right,

9:48

let's count our profits. And he has four

9:50

bills in his hand. One, two, three,

9:53

four. There's four singles left. $2 for

9:56

him, $2 for me.

9:58

And I saw that we put in so much work

10:00

into this business venture, into this

10:02

idea, into this this first party. And we

10:05

made $4 of profit, which we split 50/50.

10:09

And at that moment, he was really upset,

10:11

but I was really not upset at all

10:13

because I was like, this was fun.

10:15

You know, it was it was it was a lot of

10:17

fun putting this together. But in my

10:19

mind, it was just one of those hobbies

10:21

that I was doing because I needed to

10:22

become a doctor.

10:24

Well, I did a few of those teen parties

10:26

when I was in high school. And now, it

10:29

was time for me to go to college.

10:31

I was 17 years old.

10:33

And I get there.

10:34

And I see everybody partying,

10:37

drinking, blowing money they don't have.

10:40

And I was shocked.

10:43

I had no idea that people went to

10:45

college to party.

10:46

And I had no idea people got the money

10:48

to spend money on all this alcohol.

10:51

I don't drink. I'm not into partying.

10:54

But now I needed something to do on

10:55

Friday nights.

10:56

And so now I'm thinking, well, what do I

10:58

do?

11:00

How about I take this teen party

11:01

business concept that I had in high

11:03

school and now do it in college?

11:05

So, I was 17.

11:07

And I started knocking on the doors of

11:08

all the

11:09

bars, venues, restaurants, trying to see

11:12

if anybody would let me host a party

11:14

there.

11:15

And in the beginning, some said, "Sure,

11:17

you can host a party here.

11:19

We just need a $10,000 deposit."

11:22

I don't have $10,000. I was 17 years

11:25

old. So, I kept going. Some said I

11:27

needed $20,000 deposit. But eventually,

11:29

I found this one club that said, "Yeah,

11:31

you can host a party here. You don't got

11:33

to pay us anything. Just pay us half of

11:35

the cover charge that you generate. Pay

11:37

us 50% of whatever revenue generate."

11:39

Now I'm in business.

11:41

I made the same arrangement with my DJ.

11:43

I said, "Look, how about you DJ for me

11:44

for free, and I'll split whatever

11:46

profits I make with you?"

11:48

And that was the beginning of my first

11:50

real business. It was this party

11:52

promotion company, which then became an

11:55

event planning company.

11:57

And it grew pretty big in college. I

12:01

mean, I started off by hosting these

12:03

one-off parties. Then I was contracted

12:05

by one of the largest clubs on campus to

12:07

host their weekly college night. So, I

12:10

was hosting their parties every week. We

12:11

were hosting official shows and

12:13

after-parties. And it grew pretty large.

12:17

And

12:19

now, as this business starts to make

12:20

money,

12:22

the first thing that I realized is

12:24

I don't need a license or degree to make

12:27

money. I thought that was something that

12:29

I needed because I thought I needed

12:30

these good grades to qualify for this

12:32

thing to make money. So, that was the

12:33

first kind of shock and realization.

12:36

The second realization that I had was I

12:39

knew nothing about money. I was making a

12:41

little bit of money, and I was very

12:42

fortunate that I started reading books

12:45

about money and business.

12:48

And I started reading these books.

12:51

And the first thing I learned

12:53

was the difference between an asset and

12:55

a liability, which with things I had

12:57

never heard of before.

12:59

An asset is something that puts money in

13:01

your pocket. A liability is something

13:03

that takes money out of your pocket.

13:06

Wealthy people want to own assets.

13:08

I was buying a whole lot of liabilities

13:11

because I was working in this party

13:12

promotion business, and I wanted to look

13:13

the part. So, I would make a little bit

13:15

of money, buy a nice watch. Make a

13:17

little bit more money, put some new rims

13:19

on my car, put a new sound system in my

13:21

car, put a new uh

13:23

subwoofer in my car. I mean, I was

13:25

blowing money on all these dumb things

13:26

to look like I was rich.

13:29

When in reality, I was just making a lot

13:30

of other people rich.

13:32

And then, I learned about this thing

13:34

called investing.

13:36

Which

13:37

really started to upset me because I

13:40

thought I was doing everything right.

13:42

And I'm reading these books that are

13:43

talking about how every wealthy person

13:46

invests in real estate.

13:49

I have no idea what that means. Nobody

13:52

in my family is a real estate investor.

13:54

I had never heard of this concept of

13:55

real estate investing before.

13:58

I don't know what it is, but if wealthy

14:00

people are real estate investors, and I

14:01

want to become wealthy, maybe I should

14:03

invest in real estate.

14:05

So, when I was 19, I'm now studying to

14:08

get into medical school because I still

14:09

think that I'm going to become a doctor.

14:12

And I was bored out of my mind because I

14:15

would spend all day, 10 to 12 hours a

14:17

day in the library studying.

14:19

And this was around 2011.

14:24

And the reason why I say the year is

14:26

because if you remember, 2008 was the

14:29

great financial crisis. That was when we

14:32

had the real estate collapse in America.

14:34

So, real estate prices were decimated,

14:37

and they didn't hit rock bottom until

14:38

2012. That's why I'm saying this.

14:41

So, in 2011, I'm studying to take the

14:44

Medical College Admission Test, the

14:45

MCAT.

14:47

And I'm reading these books talking

14:48

about how wealthy people invest in real

14:49

estate. And now I'm making a little bit

14:51

of money from this party business. I

14:53

have a little bit of cash in the bank.

14:55

So, during my breaks when I'm studying

14:56

for the test,

14:58

I start looking on the internet websites

15:02

of finance. And they all talk about how

15:04

real estate prices have hit rock bottom,

15:06

how real estate is being decimated in

15:08

America.

15:10

And so, I was like, well, maybe I start

15:12

looking to buy real estate.

15:15

And so, on August 22nd,

15:17

I took the Medical College Admission

15:18

Test.

15:19

And then on August 23rd, I purchased my

15:22

first real estate investment property.

15:25

It was a small condo that I purchased

15:27

out of foreclosure.

15:28

A few years prior,

15:30

it had sold for a little bit over

15:33

$150,000.

15:35

And then like many properties, it went

15:37

into foreclosure.

15:38

The banks couldn't sell it.

15:40

And it was listed on sale for $8,400.

15:44

That was the total price of the condo.

15:47

So, I came in with an offer of $4,000

15:50

because I don't know what how this real

15:53

estate investing stuff works.

15:55

And we went back and forth with the

15:56

bank.

15:57

The bank said, "We'll sell it to you for

15:59

$7,000." I tried to negotiate them even

16:02

lower. And then the bank said that they

16:04

had another offer on the table. So, now

16:06

it was a bidding war.

16:08

And I had to pay offer my highest invest

16:10

price.

16:12

So, I said, "I'm willing to offer $8,000

16:14

to buy the condo. No more."

16:16

And they accepted my bid.

16:18

So, I purchased this condo for $8,000.

16:21

I put in a few thousand dollars with the

16:22

work.

16:23

And then I rented it out for $600 a

16:26

month.

16:27

And now, I start to question things.

16:30

Why did nobody tell me about this?

16:33

This condo is putting money into my

16:36

pocket without me having to do something

16:38

because I own this asset. We're all

16:40

taught

16:41

to trade our time for dollars. We're all

16:44

taught to work to get paid because

16:46

that's what we're taught to do.

16:48

But wealthy people are not working for a

16:50

bigger salary. They're working for more

16:53

assets because that can continue to pay

16:55

you even when you're not working.

16:57

And that's that shift when I saw that,

17:01

that really sparked a fire under me and

17:04

really made me angry. And I don't know

17:06

why I got so angry, but I got angry

17:08

because I felt like I was checking all

17:10

the boxes. I was doing good in school. I

17:12

bust my butt in school. I was going to

17:14

do all the right things, become a

17:15

doctor, and do everything that I was

17:18

told.

17:19

But what I didn't realize is

17:21

those boxes weren't my boxes. Who

17:24

created these boxes? And why is there

17:26

this whole world of financial education

17:28

that we're never taught?

17:30

Because if this is how wealthy people

17:32

build and grow their wealth,

17:33

why is

17:35

everybody else not taught this?

17:37

So, I want to make a distinction here.

17:39

Are you saying that in order to build

17:40

wealth, people should

17:42

buy a house?

17:44

No.

17:45

If you want to build wealth, you have to

17:46

buy assets. When people say buy a house,

17:50

what does that mean to most people's

17:51

eyes? It means buy my home. Yeah.

17:54

I want to buy this nice place for me to

17:55

live. Which is what most people do when

17:57

they get a bit of money. What they take

17:58

their salary from work, and then they go

18:00

and buy a house to live in, and then

18:03

they pay into the mortgage,

18:05

which means that they are now building

18:07

an asset, right?

18:08

They're building what many people call

18:09

generational wealth. Which is one of the

18:11

biggest lies when it comes to money. The

18:14

reason why

18:16

is because

18:17

your house

18:19

is actually a money pit.

18:23

And that's why I want you to think of

18:24

your house as a liability.

18:26

But I want you to hear me clearly. I'm

18:27

not saying you shouldn't buy a house.

18:29

I'm not saying it's bad to buy a house.

18:31

You have to treat your house like a

18:33

liability. This suit that I'm wearing is

18:35

a liability. This watch is a liability.

18:38

My shoes are liabilities. Should I not

18:40

buy them? No. I got to make sure I can

18:43

afford them.

18:44

So, when people think about buying a

18:45

house, what do they think of? They think

18:47

I'm going to build generational wealth.

18:49

I'm going to build wealth. I'm going to

18:50

pay it off, and I'm going to be able to

18:52

have more freedom in my life because I

18:54

can own this house. Let's go with the

18:57

best case scenario. You buy a home for,

19:00

let's call it, $300,000.

19:03

You pay it off.

19:05

And throughout your lifetime, this

19:07

$300,000 home grows in value to a

19:10

million dollars. And now you're going to

19:11

say, "Jaspreet, I showed you this is an

19:13

asset. My house tripled in value, more

19:16

than tripled in value. And now I'm going

19:17

to pass it down to my kids."

19:19

So, now, yeah, your kids got a million

19:21

dollar house. But unless they have the

19:22

income to support paying for a million

19:24

dollar house,

19:25

they might have to find some more cash.

19:28

Now, what do they do? Because you can't

19:30

just pull cash out of this house, right?

19:32

I mean, it's not an ATM.

19:33

Unless you go to the bank.

19:36

The bank will give you the cash

19:37

because the bank says, "Oh, you have a

19:38

million dollar house. How about we loan

19:40

you $800,000?"

19:43

But that's not an ATM because you have

19:44

to pay that money back plus interest.

19:47

And now, unless your kids have the

19:49

income to pay for the property tax, to

19:51

pay for the insurance, to pay for the

19:52

upgrades, to pay for the maintenance,

19:54

and the mortgage,

19:55

they can't afford that house.

19:57

So, maybe now they have to sell.

20:00

Okay, now you sell it. You got a million

20:02

dollars. Great. We're not even going to

20:03

talk about taxes right now. But, you got

20:05

a million dollars.

20:07

You're rich.

20:09

But, if they don't have any financial

20:10

education,

20:11

and you have a million dollars, what's

20:13

going to happen?

20:15

Well,

20:16

let's think about this. If you had a

20:17

million dollars, what would you do with

20:18

it? If I went down the street and I

20:20

asked the average person, "If I wrote

20:21

you a check for a million dollars today,

20:23

what would you do?"

20:24

What are people going to say? "I'm going

20:26

to go to the Bahamas. I'm going to buy

20:28

myself a nice house. I'm going to buy

20:29

myself a nice car. Buy myself some nice

20:30

clothes. Go to the Gucci store. Go to

20:32

the Louis Vuitton store, and buy myself

20:33

the extra guac at Chipotle."

20:35

That's what the average person will do.

20:38

Now, maybe you're a little bit more

20:39

financially smart. You say, "I'm just

20:40

going to live off of $50,000 a year."

20:43

But, after 20 years, you have nothing

20:45

left.

20:46

Not to mention the fact

20:49

that 10 years from now,

20:51

that $50,000 a year lifestyle is going

20:53

to buy you half of what it can today.

20:56

So, now let's go back to that situation.

20:58

You thought you built generational

21:00

wealth. You did a good thing by paying

21:02

off the mortgage because you don't have

21:03

to pay the mortgage payment.

21:06

But, is that really the type of

21:07

generational wealth that you want?

21:10

And now, to fully

21:11

hammer this home,

21:13

I'm not saying it's bad to own a house.

21:15

It's actually very great. It's an

21:16

amazing thing to own a house free and

21:18

clear because now you can

21:20

rest assured, you don't have to worry

21:22

about the mortgage payments. If you have

21:24

the financial education, that's great.

21:26

But, let's talk about now the real way

21:28

to do this and build true wealth. When I

21:30

buy my real estate investment

21:32

properties, and my property values go

21:34

up,

21:35

the rental values also go up.

21:37

The rent is what pays for the

21:39

maintenance. The rent is what pays for

21:41

the upgrades. The rent is what's paying

21:43

for the property taxes and the

21:44

insurance. The rent is putting money in

21:46

my pocket.

21:48

And this is cash flow that I can use. I

21:51

can use this cash flow to buy a

21:53

vacation. I can use this cash flow to

21:55

buy food. I can use this cash flow to

21:57

pay for my lifestyle.

21:59

But, your house

22:01

doesn't do that. You have to pay to live

22:03

in your house.

22:04

But, people think, you know, they're

22:05

getting their mortgage payments. They're

22:07

spending whatever they are, you know,

22:09

spending on their mortgage payments.

22:10

They They think they're

22:12

Well, we're kind of told that that

22:13

mortgage payment is an investment

22:15

into an asset.

22:18

Your mortgage payment

22:20

is

22:21

a payment to your bank.

22:23

Banks are not stupid. In fact, they're

22:25

very smart. Banks do something called

22:28

front-loading your mortgage.

22:30

What that means is if you go out and get

22:31

a 30-year mortgage, which is what many

22:34

people do in America,

22:36

and you pay $3,000 a month on your

22:38

mortgage,

22:40

you're not paying $1,500 to your

22:42

interest, your bank, and $1,500 to your

22:45

principal, your equity.

22:47

The way it works is banks front-load

22:49

your mortgage, which means for the first

22:51

almost 15 years,

22:54

it's about 14 years and 8 months or so,

22:57

but for almost 15 years of your

22:59

mortgage, the first 15 years, the

23:01

majority of your mortgage payment is

23:04

going directly into your banker's pocket

23:06

in the form of interest.

23:08

Which means if you're paying $3,000 a

23:10

month on your mortgage,

23:12

for the first part of your mortgage,

23:14

maybe $100 is going out of the $3,000

23:18

into your equity. The other $2,900 is

23:21

going right into your banker's pocket

23:23

with interest.

23:24

And now, yeah, after 15 years, now half

23:28

of your mortgage payment

23:30

is going to your equity, and half is

23:32

going to interest.

23:34

But, if you refinance before that

23:37

15-year mark, that starts over.

23:40

And so, this is where banks understand

23:42

the game.

23:43

Again, I'm not against buying a house,

23:45

but you got to understand the game of

23:47

money, and most people don't understand

23:49

that. And so, the mistake that people

23:50

make is they buy a house they can't

23:52

afford,

23:53

and now they're paying all this money

23:55

into their mortgage thinking that I'm

23:56

building wealth. They no longer have

23:58

money to save. They no longer have money

23:59

to invest into other real assets.

24:03

And their money is just going to pay

24:05

down their mortgage thinking that this

24:06

is going to build my wealth,

24:07

but you've been sold a lie.

24:09

This term, opportunity cost.

24:12

Most people don't know what this term,

24:13

opportunity cost, means, but it appears

24:15

to be very pertinent to what you're

24:16

saying, especially when you just said,

24:18

"This is money that you can't then

24:19

invest in assets." Can you explain what

24:22

opportunity cost is and how it's

24:24

impacted if you if you buy a house?

24:26

Sure.

24:27

If you have Let's Let's make the numbers

24:29

very simple. You want to buy a $100,000

24:31

home,

24:32

and let's say the banks require a 20%

24:35

down payment, $20,000.

24:38

You could do a few things. Number one,

24:41

you can take that $20,000 and go out and

24:43

buy this house.

24:45

And now, that's how that money has been

24:46

used. But, if you use that money to buy

24:48

the house, you lose the opportunity to

24:50

take that $20,000 and say use it to buy

24:53

a rental property.

24:55

You lose the opportunity to use that

24:57

$20,000 to invest in the stock market.

25:00

You lose the opportunity to take that

25:01

$20,000 and maybe build a business.

25:04

Now, the question is, what is going to

25:06

give you the best and most growth? Now,

25:10

hopefully this house that you buy will

25:11

go up in value. It's not guaranteed. We

25:13

know that houses don't always go up in

25:15

value, no matter what your banker says,

25:17

no matter what your real estate agent

25:18

says, because we saw what happened after

25:20

the 2008 crash, where real estate prices

25:24

were slashed in half.

25:26

It was

25:27

as much as 93%

25:30

real estate values dropping in the state

25:32

of Michigan, where I am.

25:34

So, we know real estate prices don't

25:35

always go up. Stock prices don't always

25:37

go up. Businesses don't always work.

25:40

Everything has a risk.

25:42

But, now the question is, which risk do

25:44

you want to take? And which risk do you

25:46

want to take first?

25:48

Are you in a situation now where you're

25:50

ready to go out and buy a house? Or do

25:52

you want to build your wealth first a

25:54

little bit more? And that's the question

25:56

that I want people to start thinking, is

25:58

am I ready to buy a house? And then

26:00

people say, "Well, if I go out and

26:01

invest my money, the problem is housing

26:03

prices keep going up.

26:05

I'm chasing this housing market that

26:07

keeps getting more and more and more

26:09

expensive."

26:11

And you're 100% right. It's a risk.

26:14

But, there's also a risk that housing

26:15

prices could fall. I think one of the

26:17

biases that makes people want to buy a

26:19

house is that they're currently renting,

26:21

and they see that as just giving money

26:23

away.

26:24

So, they think, "Listen, I could spend

26:25

this money on a mortgage, and I'll own

26:27

this thing one day, or I could spend

26:29

this same $2,000, whatever it is, on

26:32

rent, and I'm never going to own this

26:33

thing."

26:35

Well, I'm here in Los Angeles right now.

26:38

I had to stay in a hotel.

26:40

That hotel payment is paying somebody's

26:41

mortgage. It's paying somebody's

26:44

college tuition. It's paying for

26:46

somebody's stuff. When I go to a

26:47

restaurant and I eat out,

26:49

I'm paying for somebody's mortgage. I'm

26:51

paying for somebody's college tuition.

26:53

I'm paying for somebody's bills. Because

26:55

when you go out and you rent, that's

26:56

what everybody says, "I am making my

26:58

landlord rich." Well, when you eat at a

27:00

restaurant, you're making that

27:01

restaurant owner rich. When you go to a

27:02

hotel, you're making the the hotel owner

27:04

rich. When I go and buy a mug, I'm

27:06

making the mug owner rich.

27:09

And the reality is,

27:12

yeah, it's good for you to own a house.

27:15

But, are you ready to own a house? Can

27:17

you afford to own a house?

27:19

And what do you want to own first? I

27:21

rent where I live right now. I am making

27:23

my landlord rich today. I also rent for

27:25

my offices. I am making my office

27:28

landlord very rich because my office

27:30

rent is very expensive.

27:33

Do you feel bad for me?

27:34

I hope not.

27:36

And this is where we have to get over

27:38

these these money myths that many people

27:41

keep selling you that you can't build

27:43

wealth if you rent where you live. You

27:45

can't build wealth if you don't get a

27:47

good degree.

27:48

That's not the way that the system

27:50

works.

27:51

See, there's the traditional rules, and

27:53

then there's the real financial

27:54

education money rules.

27:56

And again, I'm not saying it's bad to

27:57

own a house, but it's bad to own a house

28:00

you can't afford. How do you know if you

28:02

can afford one?

28:03

Well, there's three parts to affording a

28:04

house.

28:06

You have to afford the down payment.

28:07

You have to afford the monthly payment.

28:09

And you have to afford the moving costs.

28:12

I'm going to go start from the simplest

28:13

one, which is the moving costs, because

28:15

many people don't factor this in.

28:17

When you buy a house, you got to move

28:19

in. And I'm not talking about the the

28:21

closing costs.

28:23

You might have to hire movers, which are

28:24

expensive. You might have to upgrade

28:27

your furniture, which is expensive. You

28:29

might have to upgrade the house, which

28:30

is expensive. Factor that in.

28:33

Then, I want to talk about your down

28:34

payment.

28:36

People don't like when I say this, but I

28:38

don't say what I say to make friends. I

28:40

say what I say to help people be better

28:41

with money.

28:42

If you want to afford the house, you

28:44

have to have at least a 20% down

28:46

payment.

28:47

That way you actually have some equity,

28:49

some skin in the game, that way you can

28:50

actually afford the house.

28:53

The third part is you have to afford the

28:55

monthly payments.

28:57

Now, every bank is going to have a

28:59

different rule for you. Banks have like

29:00

the 28% rule and these other rules.

29:03

I have Sorry, just on that last point.

29:04

Why do people not like it when you say

29:06

that? Because it's very hard to pay a

29:08

20% down payment. Housing is expensive.

29:11

Mhm. You want to buy a $500,000 house?

29:13

You have to have $100,000 as a minimum

29:16

for your down payment.

29:16

Okay. And that's extra cash. Great.

29:19

Now, if we talk about the monthly costs,

29:23

the simple way that I like to follow it

29:25

is you have to have a system for

29:27

yourself. You have to know how much

29:29

money you are allowed to spend, how much

29:31

money you need to be investing, and how

29:33

much money you have to be saving every

29:35

single month.

29:37

Then,

29:38

just factor it in.

29:39

So, the way I like to look at it, a

29:41

simple rule of thumb,

29:43

is something like a 75 15 10 plan,

29:46

which says for every dollar that you

29:48

earn from here on out,

29:50

75 cents is the maximum that you can

29:53

spend.

29:54

15 cents is the minimum that you invest.

29:58

10 cents is the minimum that you save.

30:01

Now, let's do the math.

30:03

If you know that you make, let's call it

30:05

$100,000 a year.

30:06

That means the max you can spend out of

30:08

the $100,000 is $75,000.

30:12

So, if out of that $75,000,

30:15

you can afford your mortgage costs, you

30:18

can afford your food, you can afford

30:20

your vacations and lifestyle,

30:22

then sure, you can afford it. But, if

30:24

you can't afford that, then you can't

30:26

afford that mortgage. And the reason why

30:28

I like to go by this rule is because

30:30

some people are going to say,

30:32

"I can live in a small house. I just

30:33

want an expensive car and some nice

30:35

vacations."

30:36

Other people are going to say, "I want a

30:38

beautiful home. I don't care about the

30:40

car and vacations." So, now you can

30:42

factor it all in there.

30:43

How much can you afford out of that 75%

30:46

of what you make?

30:48

Do you think people even know how much

30:49

money they

30:50

spend? No.

30:53

I was thinking, I wonder how many people

30:54

listening right now know, over the last

30:57

6 months, the exact figure that they

30:59

spend every single month.

31:02

Most people, statistically,

31:05

are living paycheck to paycheck.

31:07

So, they're basically spending

31:08

everything. Or more. Okay. 78% of

31:11

Americans are living paycheck to

31:14

paycheck.

31:15

Which means, I make some money

31:17

and I spend all of it or more. There's a

31:19

There's a joke that I like to make,

31:21

which is

31:23

in the traditional Indian culture,

31:25

people make a dollar to spend 20 cents.

31:29

In the traditional American culture,

31:31

people make a dollar to spend two

31:33

dollars through the help of lines of

31:35

credit, credit cards, and other forms of

31:37

debt.

31:39

And the reason why I'm going to take it

31:40

a step back. I don't think you wanted me

31:41

to go this way. I'm going to go

31:42

anywhere. Anyway,

31:45

we live in what's called a credit-based

31:47

economy.

31:49

Which means, if you make $50,000 a year,

31:52

you don't live off of $50,000 a year. At

31:55

least most Americans don't.

31:58

We live in what's called a credit-based

31:59

economy, which means you have the

32:01

ability to spend the $50,000 you earned,

32:03

plus debt.

32:05

Because as you make more money, as you

32:06

have a good job, you become more

32:08

creditworthy.

32:09

And so, as you show the bank, "Hey, I

32:11

made $50,000." they'll give you credit

32:13

cards, they'll give you lines of credit,

32:16

they'll give you whatever types of debt

32:17

that they can, that way now you can go

32:19

out and spend 60,000, 70,000, 80,000

32:22

dollars.

32:24

Because that's what grows the economy.

32:26

The more money you spend, the richer

32:28

somebody else gets.

32:30

And so, now when you live in this

32:31

credit-based economy with no financial

32:33

education, people spend, spend, spend,

32:36

the economy grows, grows, grows, and

32:38

most people have no idea what hit them.

32:40

Do you know what's really interesting

32:41

is, 2 days ago, I was having a

32:44

conversation with one of my friends. It

32:46

was actually I did a podcast about

32:48

finance um

32:49

recently, and in there I mentioned some

32:51

of my friends, and then they messaged me

32:53

on WhatsApp and we're having a chat in

32:54

our group chat. And I, for the first

32:57

time ever, one of them asked me to

32:59

guess. We're very close friends. We talk

33:00

about money, we talk about how much

33:01

money we have, etc. They said, "Guess

33:03

who has the most money in the group?"

33:05

So, I went through and I did, I think

33:07

this is this person's net worth of my

33:08

five best friends, and I think this is

33:10

how much cash they have.

33:12

Now, one of my friends

33:14

who

33:16

is

33:17

very What's the word? I guess frugal.

33:20

Lives a very, very simple life. As I was

33:22

going through, I got, "You know what?

33:24

This friend is this like a high-flying

33:26

guy, lives in this

33:27

amazing apartment. This person has all

33:29

these wonderful things. This person's

33:31

been successful in business. This

33:32

person's successful in crypto. But, you

33:34

know what? I bet my mate, and I won't

33:36

say his name, I bet he's richer than

33:38

everyone else in that chat."

33:40

Um all of my other friends in the chat.

33:42

And so, I did my little prediction and I

33:44

said, "I bet you've got X figure."

33:46

And he replied and got and said, "This

33:48

is my current cash position." He was

33:50

richer than everyone in the chat in

33:53

terms of cash combined. This guy

33:56

lives so He lives in like a studio

33:58

apartment. He never balls. He does

34:00

doesn't have like a fancy car, doesn't

34:01

have fancy clothes. And he's richer than

34:03

the entire lot of my friendship group.

34:06

And I thought, "God, there's something

34:07

really important here in terms of

34:11

And it's it's so crazy if you if you

34:13

know the context of what I'm saying,

34:14

because I've got a friend in that chat

34:15

who's built like a big business. I've

34:17

got a friend Like everyone in that chat

34:18

runs businesses, is successful. But,

34:20

they're living in different ways, and

34:22

the one friend who runs the smallest

34:24

business, who like probably has

34:27

the least income, is the richest.

34:32

And over the last couple of days, it's

34:34

so funny. I was thinking about all the

34:35

dinners I've bought this [ __ ] guy,

34:36

and I'm like, "I didn't know you WERE A

34:37

MILLIONAIRE."

34:38

I'M LIKE, "GO ON, YOU [ __ ] I WOULD

34:40

HAVE BEEN PAYING for everything." But,

34:42

this is really I mean, if we ignore your

34:44

friends, it's very easy to look fake

34:46

rich. Yeah. Because everybody will give

34:49

you a line of credit. If I want a Gucci

34:51

purse, I can't afford the Gucci, guess

34:52

what? I can buy now, pay later. I can

34:54

open up a credit card and buy the Gucci

34:56

and look like I'm rich.

34:57

Mhm. When in reality, I'm just making

34:59

Gucci rich. In fact,

35:01

one of the richest people in the world,

35:02

in 2023, he was the richest person in

35:04

the world, is Bernard Arnault. He was

35:07

the founder and CEO of LVMH or He's the

35:10

founder and CEO

35:12

of the company that owns Louis Vuitton.

35:15

And why? Because millions of people pay

35:17

him to look rich, when in reality, he's

35:20

the one that's getting rich.

35:22

And we assume that when you make some

35:24

more money, you got to start looking the

35:26

part. And this is that mindset shift

35:29

that we have to make. And, you know,

35:32

a lot of people resonate who come from

35:35

the Indian

35:37

traditional families.

35:39

They message me saying, "Jaspreet, I

35:41

became a doctor or my wife and I are

35:43

doctors. We make hundreds of thousands

35:45

of dollars a year. We make a great

35:47

income,

35:48

but we have no savings and no

35:50

investments, and I don't know what to

35:51

do." And the reason why is we have a

35:54

Range Rover and a Benz. We have a nice

35:56

house. We go on the doctor vacations. We

35:58

have to look the part.

36:00

But, we don't have any money left over

36:02

at the end of our

36:03

paychecks.

36:05

And it's a very easy thing to get caught

36:07

up in, because when you make more money,

36:10

you become more creditworthy. Banks will

36:11

give you bigger loans. When you make

36:13

more money, you want to spend more

36:14

money. And it's very easy.

36:17

And you have to understand, how do you

36:18

control that spending? And that's why if

36:21

you follow something like 75-15-10,

36:23

one of the simplest things you can do to

36:25

start is just always, no matter what,

36:27

whether you're making $10,000 a year or

36:29

$10 million dollars a year,

36:31

you always put money aside to invest,

36:33

you always put money aside to save, and

36:34

you spend whatever's left.

36:36

My friend doesn't invest. The friend I'm

36:38

talking about doesn't actually invest.

36:39

He just doesn't spend.

36:41

He like just doesn't spend money, and

36:43

he's just stacked up to like a million

36:45

dollars in cash,

36:47

whilst earning less than everyone else

36:49

of my five friends in that chat.

36:52

And it's it didn't take a long time.

36:54

Like it took him

36:55

4 years or something, four or five years

36:58

of just running this small business with

37:00

a couple of people. When I say a small

37:01

business, I mean a really like a small

37:03

business, like a business of maybe four

37:05

or five employees.

37:06

And he's built up a million million

37:08

dollars in cash for himself,

37:10

because he just doesn't spend money.

37:12

And he lives He doesn't have like a an

37:14

ego, doesn't care if people what people

37:15

think of him.

37:16

Yet, my other friends who are earning

37:18

maybe five times more a month have five

37:21

times less cash than him.

37:24

It's like

37:25

It was so inspiring. It was honestly so

37:27

inspiring, because it it says something

37:29

about the importance of saving. But, who

37:31

the hell wants to save? If I titled this

37:33

podcast today the something about

37:35

saving, no one's going to click.

37:37

It's not fun. Saving isn't exciting. Who

37:40

wants to go out and save $2,000? Who

37:42

wants to spend less money? We want to

37:45

buy more nice things.

37:47

But, unless you can control the

37:48

spending, unless you know how to save,

37:51

you will never build wealth. Do you know

37:53

if people that are in that paycheck to

37:54

paycheck cycle, which I was in for many,

37:57

many years of my life, where I'd get

37:59

paid for my call center, I'd go and

38:01

spend the money, and I'd pretty much

38:02

spend all the money within the first

38:03

couple of days of getting the paycheck,

38:04

and I was just waiting the next 3 weeks

38:06

for the next paycheck.

38:08

What advice would you give them about

38:09

getting out of that cycle? Cuz it Cuz

38:11

you almost feel imprisoned by that cycle

38:13

if you're in it.

38:14

Absolutely.

38:15

Well, before I give the advice, I want

38:16

to explain to that person what's

38:19

happening. Because you are the prime

38:21

customer

38:23

for

38:24

our economic system.

38:26

Banks love you, because they can sell

38:28

you payday loans, they can sell you

38:30

credit cards, they can sell you lines of

38:31

credit, and they can keep you in debt

38:33

for the rest of your life. Which means,

38:35

you keep making the bank rich.

38:37

Corporations love you,

38:39

because you're not going to think twice

38:41

when we show you this nice bag, when we

38:43

show you this nice vacation. You're

38:44

going to want the stuff, and so we love

38:46

selling you this stuff. The government

38:48

loves you,

38:49

because you are going to pay the highest

38:51

taxes.

38:53

Employees pay the highest taxes.

38:56

And so, when you're in that situation,

38:58

you are making everybody else rich at

39:01

your expense.

39:04

And so, if you want to break out of

39:05

this, the first thing you should

39:06

understand,

39:07

you need to make yourself rich before

39:10

you make everybody else rich. Because

39:12

when you're spending all your money, you

39:14

are putting your money in to their

39:15

pockets, and you have to stop that. You

39:17

got to keep that money for yourself.

39:18

You're in a boat. Think of it this way,

39:20

you're in a boat,

39:21

and this boat has water just flowing in,

39:24

and you are sinking. And you got to

39:26

start by sealing the holes. You got to

39:28

stop the water leaving this You got to

39:31

stop the water coming in. You got to

39:32

stop the bleeding.

39:35

And that means you got to stop the

39:36

spending.

39:37

So,

39:38

if you are in what I call the financial

39:40

the zone, which is you don't have $2,000

39:43

saved up for an emergency and you have

39:45

credit card debt.

39:46

If you are in that situation, you are in

39:49

the financial danger zone and you have

39:50

to make drastic changes. That means

39:53

right now

39:54

no more eating at restaurants, no more

39:56

vacations,

39:58

no more doing anything that doesn't put

39:59

money in your pocket and no more

40:01

Netflix. No.

40:03

And the reason why I say this isn't

40:05

because you're going to save $15 a

40:06

month.

40:07

It's so you can save 2 hours of your

40:09

time a day. The average American is

40:11

watching more than 2 hours of television

40:14

a day.

40:15

And if you don't have $2,000 saved up,

40:18

if you have credit card debt, you cannot

40:20

afford those 2 hours a day being wasted

40:24

on TV.

40:25

And that means right now you have to go

40:27

out and start using the time to learn,

40:30

start using the time to work and start

40:31

using the time to make some extra

40:33

dollars.

40:34

So, what do you do? Start selling stuff?

40:37

Stop spending money. Selling stuff you

40:39

own. Selling stuff you own.

40:41

Stuff you have. A TV that you're not

40:43

using, sell it. You have a car that you

40:45

can't afford, sell it. If you're living

40:47

in a house that you can't afford, sell

40:49

it. Downgrade. Move smaller.

40:52

And then work to earn more money.

40:54

I've got to say the couple of things

40:55

that I came to mind as you were saying

40:57

that and funnily enough I put myself in

41:00

the shoes of 18-year-old Steven Bartlett

41:02

when I was in that small apartment with

41:05

three or four immigrants in Moss Side

41:07

Rusholme and I was

41:10

you know, my rent was nothing. My rent

41:11

was a 1,000 150 pounds a month, which I

41:15

could not afford and I could not pay and

41:17

I was

41:18

intermittently working between call

41:20

center jobs and whatever money I got I

41:22

spent and part of the reason I spent it

41:25

just pre is because like many people

41:27

watching, especially men who sometimes

41:30

feel the need because of the way society

41:32

is,

41:33

I was trying to get laid at the same

41:35

time.

41:36

And it's hard Yeah. when you're a young

41:38

man and I say young men in particular

41:40

because the stats do support the fact

41:42

that there is an expectation that men

41:43

pay.

41:44

Um when you're a young man it's

41:46

particularly difficult to do all of

41:47

these things, to cut back and also get

41:49

laid. And what am I going to do? Defer

41:50

getting laid for 10 years? When I say

41:52

laid I'm really saying meeting someone

41:54

and falling in love and having a having

41:56

a life. So, what do I if I if I'm living

41:58

in a shoebox, which I was, I can't bring

42:00

anyone back there. I can't take anyone

42:01

for dinner. I can't take anyone to the

42:03

movies. So, what do I do? And this is

42:05

why every Indian parent tell their kids

42:07

to become a doctor so their son can get

42:09

married.

42:10

It's the same concept.

42:12

But here's the thing, you have to pick

42:13

your hard.

42:14

Either life's going to be hard now or

42:16

it's going to be hard for the rest of

42:17

your life.

42:19

And you have to pick what's more

42:19

important to you right now.

42:21

And

42:22

you know, if we talk about balance, if

42:24

you want to have a balance of everything

42:26

where you want to find a girl

42:28

and you want to make money and you want

42:30

to stay healthy,

42:32

you are dividing your attention

42:33

everywhere. Not saying it's impossible,

42:35

but very few people can actually do

42:37

everything all at once.

42:39

And if your number one goal is to become

42:41

wealthy, if your number one goal is to

42:43

turn your finances around, you have to

42:45

get serious about it because

42:48

where you put your attention is where

42:50

you get the results.

42:51

And so if you want to be in a better

42:53

financial situation,

42:54

you are going to have to make

42:55

sacrifices.

42:56

And it's difficult. I can't come here

42:58

and tell you it's going to be easy Yeah.

43:00

because that's going to be me lying to

43:01

you.

43:02

I've got to be honest, I did to make a

43:03

sacrifice and for me the sacrifice was I

43:05

started a business and frankly that

43:08

meant that I didn't have time to be

43:10

going out, getting laid or meeting

43:11

people or socializing, but it's

43:15

my story arc ends with it going well

43:19

and then

43:20

the romantic situation taking care of

43:22

itself many years later once it had gone

43:24

well because I was so focused on myself.

43:27

And it's funny, there is a bit of a

43:28

paradox to life that the more you

43:29

actually focus inward, the more you

43:31

become a magnet. Yeah. Um and the more I

43:34

focused outward, the more I pursued and

43:35

chased and sort of neglected myself, the

43:38

the more harder it was to get people

43:39

interested in me.

43:41

Yeah and you know,

43:43

I also want to say that when I talk

43:45

about building wealth, I'm not talking

43:46

about becoming a money hungry, just

43:48

money greedy, this is evil person that

43:50

just cares about money. That's not what

43:51

I'm talking about because I want you to

43:52

live a holistic life because money is

43:54

just one part of your life.

43:56

But the second part to that

43:58

is I'm not telling you to never enjoy

44:00

life. I'm telling you to make a

44:02

sacrifice for a period of your life that

44:04

way you can enjoy the rest of your life

44:06

and never have to worry about money

44:07

again.

44:08

It's hard for us to naturally see life

44:09

for seasons, especially when we're

44:11

looking forward. When we're looking back

44:13

it's very easy to say oh that was that

44:14

season. Like I can sit here now and say

44:16

oh that 20 to 25 was that sacrifice

44:19

everything in my life to make myself

44:21

something season and then 25 to 30 was

44:23

like building and learning and then I I

44:26

now, you know, can can think of

44:28

it's easier actually now to think

44:30

forward in seasons now that I've been

44:32

through some seasons, but for someone

44:33

that's hasn't been through seasons in

44:36

life,

44:37

it's hard to think about life in those

44:38

terms. I now think of my life in these

44:40

five-year seasons

44:42

and that helps me to say to you know,

44:44

even have conversations with my partner

44:45

where I go this is the season I'm in

44:48

um and it will last probably roughly

44:49

this this long and I'm going to

44:51

sacrifice these things and prioritize

44:54

these things in this season.

44:56

But um it's hard for people to

44:58

understand this idea.

45:00

It's difficult and that sacrifice is

45:02

difficult

45:03

especially during a time

45:05

where everybody's showing off everything

45:07

on Instagram.

45:09

You look at your friends who have a

45:11

crappy job, but they drive around in

45:13

nicer cars, going on better vacations,

45:15

going to the nicer restaurants and

45:17

you're thinking what did I do wrong?

45:19

And then especially if you're a guy, you

45:21

have a girlfriend, you have a wife,

45:23

she's going to say how come they keep

45:25

get to go can they keep getting to go to

45:27

Cancun, they keep going to these nice

45:28

restaurants, how come you can't take me

45:30

to these nice places?

45:31

And now you feel like you're doing

45:32

something wrong because where is this

45:34

discrepancy? The reason why I call my

45:37

show the minority mindset is because I'm

45:39

a big advocate of not doing what the

45:41

majority people do.

45:43

The first time I made a million dollars

45:45

in a year I was in my 20s.

45:47

I was driving a car worth $500.

45:50

It didn't have a bumper on it.

45:52

It was not pretty.

45:55

My wife sat in the car with me

45:58

and my employees drove better cars than

45:59

I did.

46:01

So,

46:03

you know,

46:05

you got to be confident

46:07

and you got to work for something

46:09

bigger.

46:10

And you want a partner that's going to

46:11

understand it.

46:13

That's my belief.

46:16

Which is not the easy thing.

46:19

It's interesting because confidence is

46:20

such a internal thing and I just feel

46:23

like I just probably just didn't have it

46:24

then

46:25

cuz I I think I was scared for someone

46:29

to know

46:30

that I was broke.

46:31

I was so scared to know for someone to

46:33

know that I was broke that I just didn't

46:35

entertain romantic relationships.

46:37

And that is the reason why so many

46:40

people will go into debt to buy

46:43

vacations, to buy things, to buy stuff

46:45

to look rich.

46:47

And

46:48

ironically, that's the key thing that

46:50

keeps so many people poor for the rest

46:52

of their life is because they're scared

46:53

to look broke.

46:55

And now when you try to look rich,

46:57

that's the thing that's actually keeping

46:59

you broke.

47:00

There's another element to this which is

47:02

my life was pretty miserable. So, when

47:04

you have a

47:06

relatively miserable life, when you

47:08

don't have many nice things cuz you're

47:10

working in a call center as I was until

47:11

11:00 at night time doing overtime every

47:13

overtime hour I could get. Then because

47:15

you're also lonely you're going home

47:16

alone, walking home cuz you can't afford

47:18

the bus.

47:21

Anything that gives you a little

47:22

dopamine hit.

47:24

Gambling. This is why all the gambling

47:26

shops are in the areas that struggle

47:28

with the worst financially because those

47:30

I mean a lot of people say because those

47:31

people are

47:33

looking for that, you know, that big

47:34

payday, that dopamine hit from a payday.

47:37

Um my TV

47:38

in my

47:40

tiny tiny little bedsit room

47:42

was like half the size of the wall.

47:45

I was making reckless spending decisions

47:47

because I think it gave me some kind of

47:49

hit that I I was missing in my life. It

47:51

gave me like a dopamine rush that was

47:53

and there wasn't many things giving me a

47:54

dopamine hit at that point in my life.

47:56

And see here's the thing,

47:58

during that time you are making

47:59

emotional decisions as many people are

48:02

and it's very difficult to speak logic

48:05

to emotion.

48:06

But this is where now you have to be

48:09

able to understand the difference

48:10

because if you're listening to this and

48:11

you're in that situation,

48:14

you have to understand if you want to

48:16

continue being able to live that

48:17

lifestyle,

48:18

you're going to have to make some

48:19

changes today. Otherwise you're going to

48:20

be stuck in this lifestyle

48:22

for the rest of your life. And it's only

48:25

going to get more difficult.

48:27

And that's the thing is if you want to

48:29

become wealthy, the first part is just

48:30

your own mindset. It's your own

48:32

discipline.

48:33

And until you can conquer that, I can

48:36

tell you everything about investing. I

48:38

can tell you different ETFs and index

48:39

funds to invest in. I can tell you

48:41

different investment institutions out

48:43

there. I can tell you which stock

48:45

brokerages to use. I can tell you just

48:46

invest 15% of your income into this for

48:48

the next 10, 20, 30 years and you're

48:50

going to become wealthy.

48:52

But until you can get over that mindset,

48:53

you're never going to become wealthy

48:55

because then what happens in that

48:56

situation

48:57

is when you're in that state of

49:00

I just want to look rich. I just want to

49:02

have that dopamine hit. I just want to

49:03

have some nice things because I deserve

49:04

it. I work hard.

49:06

You know what happens next?

49:08

You are the one that gets caught up in

49:09

all the get rich quick schemes.

49:11

Because someone's going to say look,

49:14

put $1,000 into this,

49:16

you'll have $10,000 in the next 3 months

49:19

or I'm going to show you you can live

49:20

the laptop lifestyle.

49:22

You can work 5 hours a week, make

49:24

$10,000 a month, $10,000 a week. You're

49:27

never going to have to worry about money

49:28

again. Just buy this program.

49:31

And now you're a prime candidate

49:33

because now you are driven by this

49:35

emotion of I want that. I can't imagine

49:38

if I had an extra $10,000 a month and I

49:40

don't even have to work for it.

49:42

Because you can't see past it. You're

49:44

all you're doing is being sold by

49:46

emotion.

49:47

And so you you're the one that's going

49:48

to get caught up in the get-rich-quick

49:49

schemes. You're the one that's going to

49:51

make the bank rich because you're going

49:52

to get stay stuck in debt. Corporations

49:54

are going to love you because they can

49:55

keep selling you the nicest and newest

49:57

stuff because you want to look rich,

49:58

want to show it off to your friends,

50:00

want to show it off to the girls.

50:02

And you get stuck in that cycle. So, I

50:05

want to talk about what the money

50:06

mindset is. But just on that

50:08

thing you just said there, you said

50:09

get-rich-quick schemes.

50:12

Crypto.

50:13

What's your point of view on

50:14

cryptocurrencies and investing in

50:16

crypto?

50:18

So, I'll tell you where I invest my

50:19

money so you can understand. I put my

50:21

money in five places. I put my money

50:23

into my own business.

50:24

I invest my money into real estate. I

50:26

invest my money into stocks.

50:28

I invest my money into speculative

50:29

assets, which includes cryptocurrency.

50:32

And then I own some physical gold.

50:34

So, starting with my own business. I run

50:36

a company called Briefs Media. We're

50:38

probably most known for our Market

50:40

Briefs newsletter where we break down

50:41

what's happening in the financial

50:42

markets. So, that's Briefs Media.

50:46

Number two is I invest in physical real

50:47

estate.

50:49

So, I'm going out to buy rental

50:50

properties that I can use to generate

50:52

cash flow.

50:53

Number three, I invest in stocks. This

50:55

is in the form of investing in

50:56

individual companies

50:58

and investing in funds. Funds are ETFs,

51:01

index funds, mutual funds where you can

51:03

get investment into a broad basket of

51:06

companies.

51:07

Number four

51:09

is my speculative investments. Notice

51:10

how I said number four, this is one of

51:12

the smallest pieces now,

51:14

which are things that I believe can go

51:16

up very quickly,

51:17

but can also fall just as fast. So,

51:19

these speculative assets, which make up

51:21

a small piece of my portfolio, include

51:23

things like startups that I invest in.

51:26

It also includes things like

51:27

cryptocurrency.

51:29

And then I own a little bit of physical

51:30

gold.

51:31

Physical gold makes up about 2% of my

51:33

portfolio.

51:35

But going back to cryptocurrency because

51:36

that's what you asked. I think it is a

51:38

speculative investment. I have made a

51:40

ton of money in cryptocurrency.

51:42

Uh

51:43

and I started buying cryptocurrency

51:45

before it was as popular as it is today.

51:48

I began buying it in uh 2016 or so

51:53

when Bitcoin was around 3,000, maybe

51:54

2016, 2017 when Bitcoin was around

51:56

$3,000 a coin.

51:59

And I have sold some.

52:00

And for me,

52:02

I understand it can go up very fast, but

52:05

it can fall just as fast.

52:07

And the issue that I have is when people

52:10

now want to get into this idea of

52:12

investing

52:13

because now they're in this tough

52:15

situation, I'm living paycheck to

52:16

paycheck, and I hear about this

52:17

financial education and investing.

52:19

If I just dump my money into Bitcoin or

52:21

crypto, maybe it'll 10x and I'll have

52:23

financial freedom.

52:26

And that's where I have issue.

52:28

Because

52:29

you're taking your money and you're

52:31

going for your long-term investments

52:33

into a speculative asset that hasn't

52:35

been proven.

52:36

Maybe it will work and you'll become a

52:39

multi-millionaire.

52:40

Maybe you'll lose everything.

52:42

But I don't want to gamble with my

52:44

wealth. I want to build my wealth with

52:46

something established and then use a

52:48

speculative asset as something that is

52:50

speculative and treated as such. In

52:53

terms of your net worth, then how is it

52:55

broken down in terms of percentage

52:56

between these five things?

52:58

So, if you look at real estate, real

52:59

estate is probably close to almost 50%

53:03

of my investments. Okay.

53:05

Stocks make up

53:07

probably right around 30%.

53:11

Speculative is about 18% of my

53:13

portfolio. Sorry, just the 30%, how much

53:16

of that is into individual company

53:17

stocks versus ETFs?

53:19

It's about half and half.

53:20

Okay, so 50% each. Okay, cool.

53:22

And then speculative? About 18%. And how

53:24

much of that is like crypto versus

53:26

startups? It was a lot more crypto. Now

53:29

it's a lot more startups. I sold a a

53:31

chunk of Bitcoin when it was breaking

53:33

record highs

53:34

and I'm going to be using that money to

53:35

buy some more rental properties. Okay.

53:38

And gold? About 2% of my portfolio.

53:40

Okay.

53:42

And the reason why I buy gold,

53:44

I don't

53:45

I myself don't consider gold an

53:46

investment. I look at gold as a way of

53:49

saving hard money. Because my theory

53:52

is if I take $10,000 of cash and I take

53:56

$10,000 with the physical gold and I

53:58

bury both of these things in my backyard

54:00

today,

54:01

in 10 years, what's going to have more

54:03

buying power?

54:04

My theory is that the gold is going to

54:06

have more buying power.

54:08

And so that's why I own some physical

54:09

gold. For me, it's a way of saving hard

54:12

cash.

54:13

I look at it as a insurance against

54:16

doomsday, against something really bad

54:17

happening, against something bad

54:19

happening to our currency, something bad

54:21

happening to the economy. That's why I

54:23

own a little bit of physical gold.

54:25

But the problem with gold is when I own

54:27

my physical gold, it just sits there in

54:30

a vault.

54:31

It doesn't produce cash flow. It doesn't

54:33

create new value. It just sits there.

54:35

When I invest in real estate, it

54:37

produces cash flow.

54:39

When I invest in stocks, the companies

54:41

are working to produce a better product,

54:44

to grow their profits. The gold doesn't

54:46

do anything. What about cash? Do you

54:47

keep a lot of cash on hand? Uh cash is

54:50

definitely a position. I I don't know

54:51

about percentage, but I always keep

54:53

cash.

54:55

And I want to break this down a few

54:57

ways.

54:58

Because I have one

55:01

let's call it bucket of cash, which is

55:03

my emergency savings. This is cash that

55:06

is there to protect me against an

55:08

emergency in my personal life.

55:10

I also have a separate bucket of cash,

55:12

which is my business emergency savings.

55:15

Then I have a bucket of cash

55:17

which is there to be invested money.

55:20

This is money that's waiting to be

55:21

invested in real estate.

55:23

And then I have in stocks. And then I

55:25

also have another little piece of cash

55:27

that's waiting to be invested more into

55:28

speculative assets. So, I have cash

55:30

waiting to be invested in speculative

55:31

assets, cash waiting to be invested in

55:33

real estate, cash waiting to be invested

55:35

in stocks, and then I have my emergency

55:37

cash. So, I like to separate it all out.

55:39

A second ago you said that unless you

55:41

have a money mindset, you're never going

55:43

to be wealthy. What is the money

55:45

mindset?

55:47

The mindset is number one, you have to

55:49

believe that you're going to become

55:50

wealthy. What I like to say is you have

55:51

to say I will become wealthy. Why?

55:54

Because if you don't believe you're

55:55

going to become wealthy, it is going to

55:56

be impossible for you. Why? I used to

55:59

guest teach in Detroit public schools.

56:01

So, Detroit is a

56:04

it was a very rough and it still is,

56:06

rough area. Certain parts of it. Our

56:07

office is in downtown Detroit, but there

56:09

are parts of Detroit which are still

56:11

very rough.

56:12

And I used to guest teach in some of the

56:13

public schools there.

56:15

And these are kids, good kids,

56:18

who were not exposed to some of the best

56:21

things. And what I mean by that is when

56:23

I would go into these classrooms,

56:25

you'd first have to go through multiple

56:26

metal detectors. There'd be police

56:28

there. You might have to be patted down.

56:30

And when I get into the classroom,

56:32

I'd ask the kids,

56:34

"How many of you have two parents in a

56:35

home?"

56:36

Almost nobody would raise their hand.

56:39

I would then ask, "How many of you work

56:40

a job?" Almost everybody would raise

56:43

their hand.

56:44

And as I got to know the students

56:45

better, I also started to realize that

56:47

these kids, high school kids, some of

56:49

them are already in gangs.

56:51

Some of them already have been arrested

56:53

by the police. Some of already been

56:55

involved in these what we consider bad

56:57

things, and they are bad things.

56:59

But

57:00

to the kids,

57:02

that's just normal.

57:04

Because when I talk to them about these

57:05

gangs, what they'll tell me is

57:08

"I don't have parents at home.

57:10

I don't have a dad. I don't know my dad.

57:12

My mom is working. How am I going to

57:14

eat? My brothers, this gang, provide me

57:17

some comfort because there's people that

57:19

are around me. They give me food. They

57:21

help give me money.

57:23

It's not a bad thing in their eyes."

57:26

And so when you grow up in that mindset,

57:28

it's very hard for you to think bigger.

57:29

And so when I would come into these

57:30

classrooms, I would talk about life,

57:32

motivation, money, all things. And And

57:34

so one of the things that I'd like to

57:36

do, an exercise that I would do,

57:38

is try to get you to think about

57:40

successful things. What are things that

57:42

kids want? A nice car.

57:45

So, I would ask these kids, "What is

57:47

your dream car?"

57:49

And the responses that I would get were

57:50

things like a Ford Mustang or a Dodge

57:53

Challenger. And you know, these these

57:55

nice cars, but I would follow up with

57:58

"Why not a Bugatti?

57:59

Why not a Lamborghini? Why not a

58:02

Rolls-Royce?"

58:03

And they would say,

58:05

"Somebody like me can never have

58:07

something like that.

58:08

So, I can't even dream about having

58:10

these nice things."

58:11

And that was really shocking to me. I

58:13

mean,

58:15

that you are kind of suppressed to the

58:18

point where not only do you not think

58:20

that you can achieve it, but you can't

58:21

even dream that you can achieve it. You

58:23

can't even achieve it in your own

58:24

dreams.

58:26

And so when you don't believe that you

58:28

are worthy of anything more than a Ford

58:29

Mustang,

58:31

how in the world are you going to work

58:32

for something nicer? And I'm not saying

58:34

you have to work just for materialistic

58:36

things,

58:38

but this is that mindset shift that if

58:41

you don't believe that you can do it,

58:43

you are never going to be able to do it.

58:46

And so this is where the first thing is,

58:48

you have to say I will become wealthy.

58:50

And sometimes you have to be able to

58:52

find a taste of success and see what

58:53

that looks like.

58:55

And there are many ways to go about

58:57

doing it. I mean, you can just go on to

58:59

Instagram and see what success looks

59:00

like to some people.

59:02

But you start to define what is that

59:04

success and tell yourself, "I will

59:06

become wealthy." Not that I might, not

59:09

that I can, but I will become wealthy.

59:12

The second thing

59:14

is money is a tool.

59:16

And the reason why I say that

59:18

is because we've been kind of hinting at

59:20

this throughout this entire discussion.

59:23

But the reason why many people are

59:25

so scared to talk about money,

59:28

the reason why money is such a taboo

59:29

topic,

59:30

is because we are insecure about our own

59:33

money.

59:34

I just want to pause there before we

59:35

carry on on the money is a tool point.

59:36

Um,

59:38

it's so interesting what you're saying

59:39

about those kids.

59:40

So interesting because I was thinking as

59:43

you were speaking about stereotype

59:44

threats. And in my previous book I I

59:48

spent some time talking about

59:50

self-belief and confidence and this idea

59:52

of stereotype threats. And some of the

59:54

studies I came across showed that if

59:56

there's a stereotype that people like

59:58

you, let's say black people like me,

60:00

are bad at a certain thing, let's say

60:02

maths,

60:04

before they do a math test, if they

60:05

reminded a black person that they were

60:08

black, just got them to tick a box

60:09

saying that they were black, their

60:10

performance on that test would drop. And

60:12

they did the same with women. So if

60:13

there's a stereotype surrounding your

60:15

ability in something,

60:17

if they remind you of that

60:19

part of you before you do a test, your

60:21

performance drops. And really

60:23

importantly,

60:24

in the studies, when they don't remind

60:26

the black person or the woman about that

60:28

particular feature of themselves,

60:31

their performance is the same as

60:32

everybody else. And it's it's

60:33

interesting that you say that when you

60:35

you're talking about money

60:37

that we have a stereotype threat there.

60:39

We we exist in a world where we think

60:41

people like us make a certain amount of

60:42

money. And if the stereotype threat

60:45

studies are true, that means that I'm

60:47

going to show up in the world in such a

60:48

way Yes. that's going to bring that

60:50

amount of money about. But it's not easy

60:53

to

60:55

genuinely believe

60:57

outside of your stereotype.

60:58

100%

61:00

outside of the context in which you were

61:01

raised. Now I went undercover in a

61:02

school in a rough area in Liverpool that

61:05

was doing very poorly. And I was

61:06

undercover as a school teacher. So I was

61:08

getting to know the kids. And I met this

61:09

one kid. And I remember him saying to me

61:12

um about his plans for the future. And I

61:13

sat there and I said,

61:15

"Do you know any millionaires?" He was

61:16

like, "No, there's no no millionaires

61:17

around here." I was like, "Have you ever

61:18

met one?" He goes, "I've never ever met

61:19

one." And in that moment I'm his mom, it

61:23

which it's on video, it was a channel

61:24

four documentary I did. Um, he then

61:27

goes, "But I think I want to be a

61:28

millionaire." And his mom burst out

61:30

laughing.

61:31

She was on the sofa next to him. And she

61:32

burst out laughing. And I remember

61:34

asking her on I remember asking her on

61:36

camera saying, "Why are you laughing?"

61:38

And she goes, "No, there's no cha

61:39

there's no chance." So it's like

61:40

indoctrinated into your context, your

61:43

family, your roots, your friendship

61:45

networks that you can't make it. So it's

61:48

hard.

61:49

It is 100% difficult. And it it doesn't

61:52

stop

61:54

in any level.

61:56

If, for example,

61:58

when I told my parents that I didn't

61:59

want to be a doctor,

62:01

I was told by everybody I'm throwing my

62:04

parents' sacrifice away.

62:06

And that somebody like me can never make

62:07

it in business because I don't know

62:09

anything about business. No one in my

62:10

family is a business person. No one in

62:11

my family is an investor. No one in my

62:13

family does this. You've never learned

62:14

this stuff before. You didn't get into

62:15

business school. You

62:16

How are you going to do this?

62:18

And I'm not saying this to compare. I'm

62:20

saying this to explain that there are so

62:23

many levels to this mindset block.

62:28

That if you cannot

62:31

break out of this invisible barrier,

62:34

you will never become successful. When

62:35

when

62:37

any employee joins my team, the first

62:39

day we make every employee, every single

62:43

one, regardless of the role, do this

62:44

exercise.

62:46

It's called the nine dots exercise. And

62:48

you have these nine dots on the screen.

62:50

And if you go to Google, you can see the

62:51

nine dots exercise or nine dots trivia,

62:53

where it's nine dots.

62:54

We'll put it on the screen.

62:55

Yes.

62:56

And I'm not going to spoil it, but I

62:59

will, actually. That's the only way I

63:00

can get it across. But the way that this

63:02

exercise works

63:04

is you have to, in four lines, touch

63:07

every dot on the screen

63:09

without picking up your pen. You have to

63:11

touch every dot, all of these nine dots,

63:13

without picking up your pen.

63:15

And so when you do that, you might say,

63:16

"Well,

63:18

there's it's impossible. How do you do

63:20

that?"

63:21

And so this is where now Oh, okay, not

63:23

going over a previous line.

63:25

Right, not Well, you can go over a

63:26

previous line, but you cannot pick up

63:28

your pen. So if there's nine dots, one

63:30

one two three four five six seven eight

63:32

nine. Yeah. You have to connect all four

63:36

dots. Sorry, all nine dots with four

63:38

lines. You can't curve the pen and you

63:40

can't pick up your pen.

63:41

And people will say, "This is

63:43

impossible." And the reason why you say

63:45

it's impossible is because you have just

63:46

created an invisible barrier. Because

63:49

now if you go outside of the box, if you

63:51

extend the pen a little bit further,

63:53

then you can start to connect all of

63:55

these dots. And now you realize, "Oh,

63:57

it is possible if I don't create these

64:00

invisible walls around myself. If I

64:02

don't put myself in this invisible box."

64:04

And that's what we do. We're all

64:05

conditioned to do this to some extent.

64:08

If you grew up in poverty,

64:09

it might be that you can never become

64:12

any level of successful.

64:14

If you grew up thinking that you want to

64:15

big be this thing, it might be that you

64:18

can never start a business. You can

64:19

never become an investor. If you have

64:22

become an engineer and now in your 30s

64:24

you want to go out and do something

64:25

different, it might be that somebody

64:26

like you can never do something

64:28

different. But these are all invisible

64:30

boxes. You see it right there. And that

64:32

is that's why we make every team member,

64:35

every employee do that on the first day

64:37

because what we say is, "Look, we've got

64:38

to come here and innovate. And if you

64:40

want to be able to innovate and do

64:41

something big, you have to get out of

64:42

your own mind. And you have to be able

64:44

to break out of these invisible

64:45

barriers." And so now when you go back

64:47

to question, it's very difficult. It is

64:48

difficult.

64:50

And so how do you do it? And so this

64:53

goes into now your personal development.

64:54

What I would recommend

64:57

is go read five books on And

65:00

really now try to implement these things

65:02

into your life because until you can

65:04

start to think a little bit different

65:06

and you can start to see the world a

65:07

little bit bigger,

65:09

you're never going to be able to achieve

65:11

the maximum level of wealth that you

65:13

deserve.

65:14

I've just uh gone on Google and found

65:16

this nine dots thing which I've got

65:17

here. This is the nine dots.

65:19

You got it. So you're telling me I've

65:20

got to connect all of the dots without

65:22

lifting up my pen.

65:23

Exactly. Okay, let me try. Yeah, but

65:25

only four lines and you can't curve. I

65:27

can I can only do four lines.

65:29

Only four lines.

65:31

Four straight lines.

65:35

It's not as easy as it looks. Come on,

65:37

Steven. Show me how to do it.

65:40

So what most people do is they start

65:42

going like this, this, and then now we

65:45

freeze up because I don't know where I

65:47

can go next.

65:48

But the way that you do it is we're

65:50

going to break the invisible barrier. So

65:52

what I'm going to do now is I'm going to

65:53

start the same way I did before, but

65:55

instead of creating the same cut that I

65:58

did last time, I'm going to break the

65:59

invisible barrier, go a little bit

66:00

further down.

66:02

And now I'm going to come up like this.

66:05

Then I'm going to go this way.

66:08

And then I'm going to finish it up

66:10

like that. You break the invisible

66:12

barrier.

66:14

You go beyond what you think you can do.

66:18

Because you blew past your own

66:19

expectations. We have this invisible box

66:21

around ourselves. And this is what you

66:23

want to be able to break out of. This is

66:25

that mindset shift that you have to be

66:26

able to make. And that's the first part

66:28

of becoming wealthy.

66:32

When you talked about invisible

66:33

barriers, it reminded me of a video that

66:36

actually changed my life. And it was a

66:38

video of an ant.

66:40

Some people have heard me talk about

66:41

this video before. This is the video.

66:44

Shows an ant. And they get a Sharpie pen

66:47

and draw a circle around it.

66:49

And the ant now believes that it's

66:50

trapped in the circle. No matter

66:53

what it does, it goes around and it

66:54

checks all the sides of the circle. It

66:56

thinks that it's it's trapped. We can

66:58

see that that circle is a figment of its

67:00

imagination.

67:01

Right. And when I see this, I think, "Oh

67:02

my god, we've all got this sort of

67:03

imaginary circle drawn around us." And

67:05

then I watched this video of a spider.

67:07

So they can do the same thing with a

67:08

spider. But the key moment in this video

67:10

that really inspired me is the spider's

67:12

currently trapped by this pen, right?

67:14

But in this video, there's a moment

67:16

where the spider accidentally steps over

67:18

the pen. And when it steps over the pen,

67:21

it can never ever be trapped by the pen

67:23

again. You'll see it in a second.

67:24

It's running towards it.

67:26

So this is like a an imaginary imaginary

67:28

barrier in its mind.

67:30

Um, and then if I just bring it forward

67:31

a little bit,

67:34

this is the moment here where it gets

67:40

Wow. It's like a real wall. It thinks

67:42

it's a real wall. And then it gets too

67:44

tight here. It runs over it and it can

67:45

never be trapped again.

67:48

I love that because once you break it,

67:50

you can't be stopped after that. You

67:52

realize that it's an illusion that was

67:53

trapping you the whole time. And this

67:54

kind of feeds into what we've been

67:56

saying about these stereotypes. For me,

67:58

when I

68:00

at a very young age, when I was able to

68:01

make my first money or start start a

68:03

business or turn an idea into a thing

68:05

that put money in my pocket, that

68:06

illusion was broken forever. The

68:08

illusion that the only way to become

68:09

successful, you said the same thing, was

68:11

to go to school, get a degree, get a

68:13

job. Um, and you can't un you can't

68:16

unsee it.

68:16

You can't unlearn it.

68:17

Yeah. You can't ever go and follow the

68:21

same traditional path and do that again

68:23

because you saw the other side.

68:26

And until you get a taste of it,

68:29

you're

68:30

going to be stuck. And that's where,

68:32

again, all success starts with your

68:34

mindset. And that's why I say,

68:37

I will become wealthy. That first point

68:39

though of awareness, just knowing the

68:41

fact that you're trapped by something.

68:42

And it's it's not to say that I've

68:44

broken out of all of my

68:47

psychological barriers now. I'm just in

68:48

a new one.

68:50

I'm just in a new set of barriers. I

68:51

think that I can be I can have nine

68:53

figures. I don't I probably don't think

68:55

I could be a a billionaire or whatever

68:58

at this moment. And all of us, no matter

69:00

how successful we think we are, are in

69:02

some kind of circle.

69:03

Always. In every stage of your life,

69:05

you're in some sort of barrier.

69:07

And

69:08

you know,

69:10

everything that you do now has to be

69:13

constantly working to shock yourself.

69:15

When I started my YouTube channel, it's

69:17

kind of funny.

69:18

Uh, I I didn't start my YouTube channel

69:21

thinking that it was going to be big.

69:22

And the funny thing was I always thought

69:24

that I thought big. I think big. I'm

69:26

going to start a business. I'm going to

69:27

prove everybody wrong. I didn't start my

69:29

YouTube channel to make money. This was

69:31

kind of a hobby for me.

69:33

But I remember

69:34

and I laugh at this now.

69:36

I told my brother when I started my

69:38

YouTube channel, if I hit 100,000

69:42

subscribers,

69:44

I don't know what I'm going to do.

69:45

But if I had a million subscribers, I'm

69:47

going to shut my channel down because

69:49

there's no way. It's impossible that my

69:51

channel's going to hit 1 million

69:52

subscribers. Like there's not 1 million

69:54

weirdos in the world that are going to

69:55

want to watch this random guy on YouTube

69:57

talk about guacamole and money, right?

70:00

And the funny thing is

70:02

I started making these videos.

70:04

I started enjoying making these videos

70:06

because I started talking about the

70:07

things that I wish somebody would have

70:09

told me before.

70:12

And people started to watch.

70:14

And people started to actually enjoy it

70:16

and share it with their friends.

70:18

And then we had 100,000 subscribers and

70:21

I couldn't believe it.

70:23

We hit 500,000 subscribers and I

70:25

couldn't believe it.

70:27

And then one day we hit a million

70:30

subscribers.

70:31

And I was like, oh crap. I hope my

70:32

brother doesn't remember this promise

70:34

because I don't want to shut this down.

70:35

But then we continued growing.

70:37

And

70:39

here I was, this guy who had been

70:42

successful. I'm already investing in

70:43

real estate. I've had some business

70:45

success.

70:46

I

70:47

broke out of this idea of becoming a

70:48

doctor and started a business.

70:51

And I'm still putting these limitations

70:52

on myself that I can't start a YouTube

70:54

channel. Mhm.

70:56

Why did I do that? Because I had never

70:58

done that before. I had never seen this

71:01

happen for somebody like me before. So

71:03

is there anything practical that someone

71:05

who's currently trapped in some kind of

71:08

psychological barriers can do

71:10

practically

71:12

to help them be more expansive with how

71:13

they think about their life?

71:15

What I do, and I don't know if I

71:17

recommend this to anybody else, is

71:20

I'm a little stubborn. I'm going to kind

71:21

of preface it with that. Is

71:24

I do things to stick out and be

71:28

different. So what I mean by this, I'm

71:30

going to go back to what I said before.

71:32

The first time I made a million dollars

71:33

in a year,

71:34

I thought originally that I would be

71:36

flying in private jets and balling out

71:39

and doing all this stuff.

71:40

But I knew that I wanted something

71:42

different. I would I wanted to build

71:43

this wealth, but I didn't want to now

71:45

start living like everybody else. I

71:47

wanted to do something different. So I

71:49

continued living small. That's why I

71:51

continued driving around in this car

71:53

because

71:55

everybody questioned what the heck I was

71:56

doing.

71:57

People were wondering, is Jaspreet

71:59

actually successful or is this guy a

72:01

hoax?

72:02

Is Jaspreet

72:05

broke? Can he not afford a nicer car?

72:07

And so I kind of put myself in this

72:08

position of like

72:10

hearing this stuff and

72:12

wanted to really keep You talked about

72:14

confidence. I wanted to really build my

72:16

confidence to be that person that did

72:18

something different.

72:21

And

72:22

I I don't know. I get joy out I'm a

72:23

weirdo. I get joy out of that. When I

72:25

graduated law school,

72:28

I told my dad before I graduated law

72:30

school, even before that, I'm only doing

72:32

this for you.

72:34

And so when when it was my graduation

72:36

day,

72:37

everybody, you know, you wear a nice

72:38

suit and tie and you kind of get all

72:40

dressed up to go. I told my dad, look, I

72:43

told you I'm going to get you the

72:44

diploma, but I'm going to do it on my

72:45

terms.

72:46

So I decided not to wear a suit. I

72:49

decided to wear a very traditional

72:51

Punjabi outfit called a kurta pajama,

72:54

which is a a long shirt and pants and I

72:57

wore traditional It's called a Punjabi

72:59

jutti, meaning Indian shoes.

73:01

And

73:03

for me, I just wanted to do that because

73:06

it gave me this confidence. And yeah, I

73:08

mean, people will say, what the heck are

73:10

you wearing? But for me, I needed that

73:14

burst of confidence that I'm doing this

73:15

for me and I

73:18

I get fueled by people

73:21

questioning me.

73:22

And you have to find what fuels you. On

73:24

my first point of it's my duty to become

73:27

wealthy,

73:28

is that just something you say out loud?

73:30

Is there a way you can remind yourself

73:32

of this?

73:33

So I I'm not a big fan of, you know,

73:35

meditating on this idea of you become

73:37

wealthy. I'm not a big fan of this

73:38

woo-woo idea of I'm going to become

73:40

wealthy. I'm going to become wealthy.

73:41

That's not how it works.

73:43

But what I do believe is you have to

73:44

keep reminding yourself and giving

73:46

yourself the motivation and discipline

73:47

in the beginning as to why you started,

73:49

some fuel as to why you started. So one

73:53

of the things I like to talk about is

73:54

what is your why? Who are you doing this

73:56

for?

73:57

And so in our office, everybody has next

74:00

to their desk this this tack board where

74:01

you can put pictures or whatever it

74:03

might be to remind you of why you're

74:06

working hard.

74:08

And in the beginning for me, it was I

74:10

was pissed off. I wanted to prove people

74:12

wrong and I was angry and I don't try to

74:16

cuss on camera that often, but here we

74:18

go. Uh I was angry and the reason why I

74:20

was angry is because

74:23

when

74:24

I

74:26

made that decision to not become a

74:27

doctor,

74:29

the thing that I was told

74:31

was I'm throwing away the sacrifice that

74:34

my parents made.

74:35

And I started a business at the time. I

74:37

was working in the e-commerce world and

74:39

I started a sock company.

74:42

And so then the comments that we get was

74:44

so Jaspreet, you were going to become a

74:46

doctor. Now you're selling socks?

74:49

And it was this very just reoccurring

74:52

just like uh you gave up your dreams.

74:55

You gave up all the sacrifices that your

74:57

family did. You don't even appreciate

75:00

the things, the sacrifices and now

75:02

you're just going to sell socks on the

75:04

internet.

75:05

And

75:07

that was my fuel.

75:10

Because

75:12

I knew

75:13

I don't know how, but I knew I was going

75:15

to prove you wrong. Toxic fuel. It was

75:18

100%.

75:21

It was just anger, just pure just anger.

75:24

I'm going to prove you wrong.

75:26

And uh slowly the business started to

75:28

grow. I started to be seen on TV and all

75:30

these things started to happen and and

75:31

so I was fortunate that my business also

75:33

flipped that now I'm not selling socks.

75:35

I'm, you know, building this financial

75:37

media company, Briefs Media.

75:39

And now for me, it's

75:41

there is a purpose for what I do.

75:46

There's a lot of people that are lacking

75:47

financial education. There's a lot of

75:49

people that are working really hard

75:52

that have no idea why they can't build

75:54

any wealth. They keep hearing about how

75:58

people are becoming so wealthy.

76:00

Investment levels are skyrocketing.

76:02

Billionaires are becoming even richer.

76:05

And they don't understand and people

76:06

just get angry.

76:07

When in reality,

76:09

you can participate in that same game

76:12

and win in this game because our

76:14

economic system is designed to benefit

76:16

investors.

76:18

And if you don't understand that,

76:20

you will never be able to win in this

76:21

system.

76:23

Point number two in your money mindset

76:26

is that money is a tool. What do you

76:29

mean by money is a tool?

76:30

And how is that different from how

76:31

everyone else thinks about money?

76:34

You have to understand how money plays a

76:36

part in your life.

76:39

When I say money is a tool, what I mean

76:41

by that is money doesn't make you a good

76:43

person. Money doesn't make you a bad

76:45

person. It amplifies who you are.

76:48

And what I like to say

76:50

is that there are four fitnesses in your

76:53

life if you want to live a happy and

76:54

fulfilled life. You have to be

76:55

physically fit,

76:56

mentally fit,

76:58

spiritually fit,

77:00

and financially fit.

77:01

If you're physically fit, you're on your

77:03

deathbed, you're morbidly obese, having

77:05

$10 million is not going to make you

77:06

happy. All you want to do is be healthy

77:08

again.

77:09

Mentally fit is about being happy.

77:12

If you're surrounded by toxic people, if

77:14

you're unhappy, if you're depressed, if

77:15

you're anxious, if you're just

77:17

miserable, you're never going to be able

77:19

to really enjoy life. Having more money

77:21

is not going to fulfill that hole.

77:23

Spiritually fit does not mean religious.

77:25

It means having a purpose. What is the

77:27

reason for getting out of bed every day?

77:29

What is the reason for wanting to go out

77:31

and achieve and do something?

77:33

Because if you have $10 million, what's

77:34

the reason for wanting to get

77:37

and

77:38

conquer?

77:40

At the very top is financial fitness.

77:43

And once you have the bottom three,

77:45

having financial fitness gives you the

77:48

most power and ability to live the best

77:51

life possible because this is all about

77:53

now being able to solve your financial

77:55

problems,

77:56

being able to not worry about paying

77:58

your bills, being able to have the nicer

78:00

stuff when you want and not have to

78:02

worry about the price.

78:03

And the thing about this that I want to

78:05

really hammer home

78:06

is if you don't have this financial

78:09

fitness, now your physical fitness can

78:11

get hurt because you can't afford the

78:13

nice gym membership. You can't afford

78:15

the healthy food. You can't afford to

78:17

take care of your body.

78:20

If you don't have the financial fitness,

78:22

your mental fitness can get hurt.

78:24

Financial problems are one of the

78:25

leading of suicide and divorce.

78:29

Financial problems can really stress you

78:32

out. And they can cause a whole lot of

78:34

anxiety and depression.

78:36

Financial problems can also ruin your

78:38

spiritual fitness because if you can't

78:40

pay your bills, you can easily lose your

78:42

sense of purpose.

78:44

So yes,

78:45

being financially fit is its own part,

78:48

but it all comes together in your life.

78:51

Number three to this money mindset,

78:54

money is abundant.

78:57

And what I mean by that is

79:00

you have to be willing to think bigger.

79:03

Because oftentimes what happens

79:06

is

79:07

we start to think about

79:09

the dollars that I'm giving as opposed

79:12

to the dollars that I'm getting.

79:14

If I pay you a dollar,

79:16

you are getting rich off of me.

79:18

But I'm not looking at what I'm getting.

79:20

If I'm getting $2 from you,

79:23

well, is it bad that I pay you $1?

79:26

No, and this is where now we know just

79:27

we need to start to understand there's a

79:29

lot of money in the world.

79:30

Just because somebody gets rich, that

79:33

doesn't mean somebody else can't get

79:34

rich. And the reason why we get this

79:36

confused is because we assume that money

79:38

is scarce.

79:40

And this comes from our childhood.

79:43

Because when you grow up,

79:45

you're fighting for your parents'

79:46

attention.

79:47

And there's a limited attention span

79:49

that your parents have.

79:50

If you have siblings, now it's divided.

79:53

And so you can't have all the attention.

79:55

So, if they're giving your your parents

79:57

are giving their attention to somebody

79:58

else, that means you're not getting

79:59

attention. This is it's a yes or no.

80:02

It's a black and white.

80:04

But with money, that's not the case. You

80:07

can be rich and I can be rich.

80:10

But we have to understand that there's a

80:12

lot of money in the world. I mean, the

80:14

United States government has 35 some

80:16

trillion dollars of debt. It's a lot of

80:18

money.

80:19

And so, if you just take a small piece

80:21

of that, a small piece of the dollars

80:23

out there, you can build wealth and

80:25

somebody else can build wealth. And why

80:26

is that that particular point in this my

80:28

money mindset so critical? Why is it

80:30

important to know that there's so much

80:31

money out there? How does that change

80:33

you? So, if you make $50,000 a year

80:35

right now,

80:38

what you might start doing if you become

80:40

financially smart is you might say, "All

80:42

right, I'm going to start living off of

80:45

75% of what I make and I'm going to

80:48

invest the other 15%."

80:52

That means I'm going to live off of

80:54

30,000 and save and invest, we'll call

80:57

it $20,000.

81:01

You might now say, "Ah, I like this idea

81:04

of investing. I'm seeing the potential.

81:06

What do I do?

81:08

I make $50,000 a year.

81:10

How about I keep cutting back? Now, I'm

81:12

going to live off of 25,000,

81:16

23,000.

81:17

There's a limited number of dollars that

81:20

you can squeeze out of this pie.

81:22

But there's no limit to how much you can

81:23

earn. So, what if I say, "Let's flip it

81:25

up a little bit.

81:26

How about instead of trying to squeeze

81:28

more pennies out of this $50,000 that

81:30

you have,

81:32

let's try to earn $500,000 a year now."

81:35

And the first thing that's going to

81:36

happen is you're going to say, "Whoa,

81:37

whoa, whoa, $500,000 a year?

81:40

My boss is not going to give me a

81:42

$500,000 a year salary. What are you

81:44

talking about, Jaspreet?"

81:46

Well, okay, let's break this down.

81:48

If you want to make more money, how do

81:50

you do it?

81:52

Uh I don't know. Well, let's start

81:53

learning. Where are you going to go to

81:54

learn?

81:55

I'm going to Google, YouTube. Okay,

81:57

let's go to Google and YouTube. How can

81:59

I make more money?

82:00

Maybe you start by learning how to ask

82:02

for a raise.

82:03

Maybe learn to get a career change.

82:06

Maybe you learn to change jobs.

82:08

Or maybe now you start to think a little

82:09

bit different and you say,

82:11

maybe you start to

82:13

build a side business or a side hustle.

82:16

That way you can start earning more

82:17

money.

82:18

But until you realize that it's possible

82:21

to instead of trying to go from 50,000

82:23

to 55,000 to 58,000 to 65,000, let's try

82:26

to go a little bit bigger. How about

82:28

50,000 to 500,000?

82:30

And that's going to require, number one,

82:32

you break out of that mindset shift that

82:33

that that invisible barrier, but also

82:35

understanding there's a lot of money out

82:37

there.

82:38

And the last point here is I will become

82:40

wealthy, which is

82:42

different to the first point, which is

82:43

it's my duty to become wealthy.

82:45

So, we discussed the first one, which is

82:46

I will become wealthy. The last one is

82:49

it is my duty to become wealthy. Oh,

82:51

okay. Why is it your duty to become

82:53

wealthy? Because I believe that it's up

82:56

to you to take care of your family,

82:58

to be the one that takes care that takes

83:00

care of yourself,

83:01

that we can also help take care of your

83:02

community.

83:04

That is my belief that it is your duty

83:05

to do so. And if you rely on the

83:07

government or somebody else to do it,

83:10

well, you are asking for problems.

83:13

And you know, we've seen this in many

83:15

instances

83:16

where

83:17

you might have heard in the United

83:19

States social security is drying up.

83:21

It's never going to dry up because the

83:23

government can just print more money and

83:25

pay it out, but it's never going to be

83:26

enough to live a great life.

83:28

People that relied on pensions, well,

83:30

pensions are becoming a thing of the

83:31

past. Some pensions have gone bankrupt

83:34

and people have lost that.

83:36

So, it is more important than ever for

83:38

you to become financially sufficient and

83:40

financially stable

83:42

through your own financial education.

83:44

Trump has just been elected the new

83:47

president of the United States of

83:48

America. And when you saw that news, did

83:51

it change your thesis as it relates to

83:53

wealth creation? Is there anything

83:55

you're now going to be doing

83:55

differently? Is there any new

83:56

opportunities that you now see? Are you

83:58

shifting your capital allocation towards

84:01

more risky assets or less risky assets

84:03

or real estate? If we take a look at the

84:06

last 15 presidents in the United States,

84:09

some have been Democrat, some have been

84:11

Republican.

84:12

The stock market has gone up under

84:14

Democratic presidents. It's also fallen

84:16

under Democratic presidents. The stock

84:18

market has gone up under Republican

84:20

presidents. It's also fallen under

84:23

Republican presidents.

84:25

So,

84:26

what does that mean?

84:28

Well,

84:29

if you're just investing for the long

84:30

term, who cares?

84:33

But for some investors that we'll call

84:35

it a little bit more sophisticated,

84:38

you might want to understand

84:40

what the president is going to do in

84:43

terms of shifting government spending.

84:46

Now, I'm going to make this a little bit

84:47

technical, but let me kind of break this

84:48

down. Our economy is measured through a

84:50

number called GDP.

84:53

And GDP is a measure of all spending

84:55

that happens in our economy. In the

84:57

United States, the largest spender

85:00

is the government.

85:02

30% of our GDP,

85:05

our economy, is government spending.

85:08

Which means that there are certain

85:10

entities, certain businesses that will

85:12

benefit depending on where the

85:13

government spends money.

85:16

And that can then impact those stocks.

85:18

It can impact those industries and it

85:19

can impact those businesses. So, now,

85:21

let's break this down. If you're a

85:23

long-term investor, you're investing in

85:24

the S&P 500, you're investing in just

85:26

general ETFs and index funds and mutual

85:28

funds, it does not matter.

85:31

But if you are, let's say, a little bit

85:33

more sophisticated, you want to

85:34

understand now government shifts that

85:36

are happening.

85:37

Now, we can dig a little bit deeper. So,

85:40

prior to the election, we published a

85:41

whole report in Market Briefs Pro on

85:43

this.

85:44

What we talked about is

85:46

if Trump is elected president,

85:48

here are the things that he has said

85:50

that he's going to do.

85:52

Number one, he wants to deregulate oil

85:54

and gas. Number two, he wants to

85:56

deregulate the financial service

85:58

industry. And number three, he wants to

86:00

invest in the military.

86:01

So, if we break this down, oil and gas,

86:05

these are companies

86:06

that are investing and drilling oil.

86:09

And so, these companies have less

86:11

regulations and more ability to produce

86:14

product and sell more product,

86:16

they could see bigger revenues and

86:18

bigger profits.

86:19

Number two, with financial service

86:20

industries,

86:22

things like

86:23

the companies on Wall Street,

86:25

if you deregulate them and give them the

86:26

ability to do more things, they can make

86:28

bigger revenues and bigger profits. And

86:31

crypto as well. And crypto. Crypto's

86:33

since the news that he's been

86:35

and he's going to be inaugurated, the

86:37

prices have just skyrocketed. Exactly.

86:41

And number three

86:42

is investing in the military. Now, what

86:45

does it mean to invest in the military?

86:47

Well, if we're investing in the

86:48

military,

86:50

that means that we're going to be

86:51

practicing shooting more guns, shooting

86:54

more bullets, having artillery, having

86:57

planes and other machinery.

86:59

And these are then done by private

87:01

companies.

87:03

And so, if the government can spend and

87:06

choose where to spend money,

87:08

and the government then decides that

87:09

they want to spend more money or allow

87:11

companies to be more free to do whatever

87:13

they want in these industries,

87:16

those industries then have the ability

87:17

to potentially grow their revenues, grow

87:19

their profits, grow their stock prices.

87:22

These can then create what we call a

87:24

government shift because the government

87:26

spending shifts and that can create an

87:28

investment opportunity for investors

87:29

that want to be a little bit more

87:30

sophisticated. But I'm going to say this

87:32

again, as a long-term investor,

87:35

forget the election cycles. You're

87:36

investing for the long term.

87:39

For those less sophisticated investors,

87:40

as you were when you were 19 years old,

87:43

you chose to invest in real estate as a

87:46

cash generating asset.

87:48

Now, if I want to invest in real estate,

87:50

it's my first investment as you did,

87:53

what are the things that I should be

87:54

looking out for if I'm someone that

87:55

knows nothing about real estate? What

87:57

kind of property should I be looking

87:58

for? How big? Does it matter how how

88:00

much those properties cost? Am I looking

88:04

for family rentals, studio apartments?

88:06

What kind of things matter?

88:08

What you invest in is going to depend on

88:09

what's best for you. But the way I like

88:12

to look at it for me cuz

88:14

I can't tell you what to do.

88:16

Is for me, when I invest in real estate,

88:18

is I look for a 7% cash on cash return,

88:22

minimum. What does that mean? So, if I

88:24

invest a

88:25

a dollar today, I want 7 cents of cash

88:28

flow after expenses

88:30

every year

88:32

for my dollar that I invest. So, if I

88:33

buy, let's just call it a $100,000

88:35

house. And I'm going to keep it very

88:37

simple. We're going to have no debt. I

88:38

take $100,000 out of my bank account and

88:41

I buy this $100,000 house that I then

88:44

rent out.

88:45

That rent, after all the expenses,

88:49

should then put at least $7,000 into my

88:52

pocket every year.

88:55

That's what a 7% cash on cash return

88:57

means.

88:58

Now, for me, I prefer

89:01

single family houses or multi-family

89:04

apartments.

89:05

Because that's kind of where I got

89:06

started and I've found more success

89:08

there and it's a little bit more

89:10

innovation proof because we know that

89:12

offices can go up and down. If companies

89:15

are working from home, offices be

89:17

affected. The retail sector can be

89:20

impacted if companies are moving online

89:22

and we see that there's a lot of shifts

89:24

happening in the retail spaces.

89:26

But

89:27

uh at the end of the day, you got to

89:28

find what's right for you and how

89:30

involved you want to be. When I invest

89:32

in real estate, I want it to be passive

89:35

for me. That after I find a property,

89:37

after we do the renovations, I want to

89:39

give the keys over to a property

89:40

manager.

89:41

I don't want to have to worry about it.

89:42

Okay, so you don't you don't become the

89:44

landlord yourself and deal with the

89:46

tenants directly. I do not. And the

89:48

reason why is I have other things I need

89:50

to do.

89:51

And I don't want to spend my time

89:53

managing the property. I want to spend

89:55

my time acquiring. I want to spend my

89:57

time investing, but I don't want to

89:59

spend my time managing. What's the best

90:01

investment you ever made?

90:03

The best investment I ever made is the

90:05

investment in myself.

90:07

That has given me a much better return

90:09

than any real estate, than any stock,

90:12

and even than any cryptocurrency.

90:14

And when I say the best investment in

90:15

myself is

90:18

two things.

90:19

Number one is the investment that I have

90:22

made in my own education outside of

90:24

school. So, books, podcasts, classes,

90:28

coaching.

90:30

Number two,

90:32

the failures.

90:34

I have made a lot of mistakes. They have

90:37

cost me a lot of stress,

90:40

a lot of headache, a lot of money,

90:44

but they have taught me a ton.

90:47

So, we'll talk about real estate for a

90:48

second.

90:50

If we go back to the first condo,

90:53

the sunshine and rainbows is I rented

90:54

this property out for $600 a month.

90:57

But the downfall or the risky part and

90:59

the bad part is that I made every

91:01

mistake possible.

91:03

Number one, I hired a bad contractor.

91:05

Number two, I hired a property manager,

91:08

which I didn't realize was a fake

91:09

property manager.

91:11

We didn't even sign a lease with the

91:12

tenant. I didn't even sign a contract

91:14

with the property manager. They weren't

91:16

working with the tenants. And they gave

91:18

the tenant my phone number. So, here I

91:20

am sitting in my organic chemistry class

91:22

getting calls from my tenant saying the

91:25

property's going to implode because the

91:26

light bulb fused.

91:28

Then we hired brought in a bad tenant.

91:30

Can I ask you a question there then?

91:32

How could you have avoided all of this?

91:35

Well, I could have either number one had

91:38

a real estate investor that I could have

91:40

talked to, which I didn't have access

91:41

to.

91:43

I read a lot of real estate books.

91:45

So, if you say what could I have done

91:47

differently,

91:48

Totally agree with that. Because there's

91:49

people listening right now that are

91:50

going, "Jesus, I I want to get into this

91:52

real estate game, but I don't want to go

91:53

through all those mistakes."

91:54

as much as you want. You're going to

91:55

make mistakes. It is a part of the

91:57

process.

91:58

You can learn as everything you want,

92:00

but every real estate deal is unique.

92:01

You are going to screw up.

92:03

And I have made a lot of screw-ups. But

92:05

once you get through the screw-ups, it

92:06

becomes a lot easier. I call it the

92:08

hurdle.

92:09

But then things get even more exciting

92:11

because now we bring on a new property

92:12

manager.

92:14

And

92:16

the tenants move out.

92:17

And then we think everything is good.

92:19

And now

92:21

I get a letter

92:23

delivered to me, hand-delivered. Well,

92:25

this is a nice gift. It says, "Jaspreet

92:27

Singh, you are being sued."

92:30

And I said, "What?"

92:32

Those tenants then

92:35

sued me

92:37

because they claimed that the bathtub

92:40

was too slippery when the water was on.

92:44

True story.

92:45

And now here I have this lawsuit. I'm

92:48

21, 22. I have no idea what's going on.

92:52

Jaspreet, was the bathtub too slippery?

92:54

Well, I'll tell you exactly what

92:55

happened.

92:57

There was a chip about the size of a

92:59

quarter

93:00

in the bathtub. The paint had chipped.

93:02

They filed a complaint with my new

93:03

property manager. Thank God I switched

93:05

property managers because what a good

93:07

property manager does is they're going

93:09

to document everything that happens.

93:11

So, my property manager documents that

93:13

okay, tenant complains of a chip in

93:15

their bathtub.

93:16

We send out the contractor. So, the

93:18

property manager sends out the

93:19

contractor to go there

93:21

to fix the chip in the bathtub. And you

93:23

know what the tenant says?

93:25

"Can you come back a different time? My

93:26

husband slipped and fell at a friend's

93:28

barbecue. And so, we don't want you to

93:30

fix that chip today." The contractor

93:32

says, "Okay, we note this down." He

93:35

tries to then fix the chip three more

93:38

times, but the tenant denies it every

93:40

single time.

93:42

And so, we thought, "Okay, just let us

93:43

know when you want the chip fixed. The

93:44

contractor is waiting." They never

93:46

brought it up again.

93:48

Then we get this lawsuit saying that we

93:50

were negligent, that I'm this evil,

93:52

greedy human being because I refused to

93:55

fix this chip in the bathtub, which made

93:57

the bathtub slippery when the water is

93:59

on, which caused this person to slip and

94:01

fall and break their hip.

94:04

And so,

94:05

now we go through the lawsuit process.

94:08

Thankfully, I had insurance,

94:10

but the insurance company still has to

94:11

pay for the attorney. I still have to be

94:13

involved through all the proceedings.

94:16

And now they're claiming that because I

94:18

didn't fix this chip and made the

94:20

bathtub slippery and that's what caused

94:21

this tenant to get hurt.

94:23

But we had the documentation saying that

94:25

they slipped and fell at a friend's

94:26

barbecue. And then we go through the

94:28

hospital records. And we found out that

94:31

this person slipped and fell at a

94:32

barbecue.

94:34

But they wanted to get some money out of

94:36

this rich landlord.

94:39

I'm a 22-year-old kid. I'm 21-year-old

94:41

kid. I have no idea what's going on.

94:44

And so, the insurance company had to

94:46

settle.

94:47

They paid $14,000

94:49

to make the case go away.

94:51

It's interesting cuz even when people

94:52

hear all of that, they think, "Gosh, I

94:54

really don't want to go through that."

94:55

So, Jaspreet, please tell me something

94:56

to avoid some of those things. And and

94:59

you know, as you were talking, I was I

95:00

was writing down some principles. Yeah.

95:03

And what the first principle that I

95:04

wrote down, which could have avoided you

95:05

a lot of that heartache, is to really,

95:08

really, really, really take time

95:11

when picking people.

95:14

100%

95:16

And we know one does it. No one does it.

95:18

And I have an investment portfolio where

95:20

I have 40, 50 companies now. And if

95:22

there was one piece of advice that I'd

95:24

give to all of those portfolio

95:25

companies, which I know they are not

95:27

going to listen to, no matter how

95:29

passionately I say it, no matter if I

95:30

bang on the desk, no matter if I scream

95:32

or show them my scars, the one piece of

95:34

advice I'd say to them is that

95:36

recruitment is the single most important

95:37

thing.

95:38

And and

95:40

you can say that to people, but they

95:41

still rush the process. They still will

95:43

just go with their vibes and biases.

95:45

They'll still just go with the person

95:47

who sounds the smartest. They won't

95:49

acknowledge the fact that they don't

95:51

know what good looks like. You don't

95:53

know what good looks like. If you start

95:55

with this base premise, which most

95:57

people don't start with, which is I am

95:59

really, really bad at recruitment. If

96:02

you start with that, then you'll put

96:03

systems in place

96:05

to alleviate the downsides of you being

96:07

really bad at at recruitment. And if

96:08

you'd started with that when you were, I

96:10

don't know, 20 years old or whatever it

96:11

might have been,

96:13

you would have gone to seek out someone

96:14

else's opinion on which contractor to

96:16

hire, which tenants to bring in. And

96:18

that could have alleviated a lot of this

96:20

pain, it seems like.

96:21

I was in a rush. In a rush, yes.

96:25

I wanted to get it done. And so, I'd

96:27

find the cheapest and fastest

96:29

contractor, the cheapest and fastest

96:31

property manager, the cheapest and

96:32

fastest or not the cheapest, but you

96:34

know, the fastest tenant that I could

96:35

bring in

96:36

because I wanted to do it quickly. I

96:38

wanted to get there fast. It reminds me

96:40

of people picking romantic partners. I

96:42

was in a rush, so I ignored the red

96:44

flags.

96:45

And it's funny cuz you said the

96:47

cheapest. This is actually what plays

96:48

out in business all of the time as I

96:50

speak to these young founders that are

96:51

starting businesses, and they go,

96:53

"Steve, yeah, I know you say like take

96:54

time and hire great people, but look at

96:56

the salary. This person costs $100,000

96:59

and this one's $50,000, so I'm going to

97:02

go for the one that saves me money."

97:06

And that is the trap.

97:07

One of the most expensive things that

97:09

you can do is be cheap. And I learned

97:11

that the hard way because I was born to

97:14

be cheap.

97:15

You know, I talked about how Indian

97:17

people make a dollar to spend 20 cents.

97:19

That was my family growing up.

97:22

And that was the way that I was raised.

97:23

That if you become a doctor, you'll make

97:26

a nice six-figure salary. You can live

97:28

off of $30,000 a year and save a whole

97:31

lot of money.

97:32

And I never questioned it. But this is a

97:34

very kind of just don't spend money.

97:37

That's how you build wealth. Because if

97:38

I give you money, that means I'm taking

97:41

my wealth and giving it to you and I'm

97:42

getting nothing in return.

97:44

And that's because goes back to the end

97:45

of mindset. Money is abundant.

97:48

And that scarcity thinking

97:51

is one of the most expensive things that

97:53

you can do. So true. And I'll give you

97:55

an a story of this. I told you I have a

97:57

If you want to talk about mistakes, we

97:58

can go for hours and days about my

98:00

mistakes because I screwed up a lot.

98:02

Uh-huh.

98:04

I had an accountant.

98:06

And I

98:08

figured that if I'm paying less money in

98:11

accounting fees,

98:13

I am saving money, so my business can

98:16

keep her money, I can build more wealth,

98:17

right?

98:18

But one of the most expensive things

98:20

that you can do is be cheap. So, I had

98:22

this accountant that was cheap.

98:25

And all he did was file my taxes. Kind

98:27

of. I mean, he was late and whatever,

98:29

but he was cheap. The monthly payment

98:32

was cheap. So, I didn't really care too

98:33

much because I got the taxes done.

98:37

And then

98:38

I always wondered why we don't like talk

98:40

about tax planning. What should I do?

98:43

It's just like at the end of the year, I

98:44

get this like vague email, "Send me all

98:45

of your stuff." And then I don't hear

98:47

from him for a long time. And then he

98:49

says, "Sign this paperwork." And I

98:51

didn't really think much of it.

98:53

But then one year,

98:55

it was January.

98:57

I'm in my office.

98:59

And I get a call early in the morning

99:01

from my accountant. And if you get a

99:02

call from your accountant early morning

99:04

in January, it's never a good sign.

99:06

I didn't know that. He calls me, says,

99:08

"Jaspreet, how are you doing?" I said,

99:09

"I'm good. How are you?" Thinking I'm

99:11

going to get some good news. He said,

99:12

"Hey, uh I made a little mistake on the

99:15

taxes. Could you do me a favor

99:18

and uh wire $18,000 to the state of

99:21

Michigan by the end of the day?"

99:23

I said, "Excuse me?" He said, "Oh, uh

99:25

also, could you also by the end of the

99:27

day please wire $100,000 to the federal

99:30

IRS by the end of the day?"

99:33

"Excuse me?" Oh, and the last part,

99:35

"You're going to have to pay penalties

99:38

and interest on this, too."

99:40

And it took me a minute to really absorb

99:42

all this information.

99:44

So, you want me to send a hundred some

99:46

thousand dollars by the end of the day?

99:48

Whose fault is this?" And I remembered

99:50

this response.

99:52

He said, "It's nobody's fault."

99:55

And, you know,

99:57

I didn't really process what he said,

99:59

but I had to think through this. I said,

100:01

"Whose fault was it?"

100:03

It's my fault. That's whose fault it

100:05

was. I wanted to blame him.

100:08

But it was my fault. Because

100:11

I was being cheap.

100:13

And I learned.

100:15

I hired a new accountant who cost me

100:17

many, many, many multiples more than

100:20

what I was paying before. But, you know

100:22

the crazy thing?

100:23

Is it's actually saving me more money

100:25

now because we do these tax

100:28

strategizing,

100:30

which then allows me to pay less money

100:31

in taxes legally,

100:34

even though I pay more money to my

100:35

accountant.

100:36

This is one of the most pivotal things

100:37

that I learned in the last sort of three

100:38

to four years of my career. And I've

100:39

been in business for maybe, well, my

100:41

first business maybe 15 years ago, but

100:43

in the last three years in particular, I

100:45

just got overly obsessed about hiring

100:47

and recruitment.

100:48

And really

100:51

how much the the exceptional person

100:54

costs

100:55

is inconsequential to the long-term net

100:57

impact they'll have on my business.

100:59

Remember I spoke to Jay Jason, who's my

101:00

older brother who works in my company

101:01

now. He's like super smart LSE actuarial

101:04

scientist. He's like a calculator.

101:06

Um and I I'd said to him, "Can you tell

101:09

me where my net worth has originated

101:11

from?" He said, "Your net worth is X

101:12

hundreds of millions or whatever." I

101:13

said, "Can you like go upstream and tell

101:15

me where it came from?" And he he didn't

101:18

come back and say, "Oh, you made this

101:19

great bet or this investment." He said,

101:21

"Effectively, what happened is you hired

101:25

six or seven good people.

101:27

And those six or seven good people

101:29

ended up hiring a couple more good

101:31

people and making a couple of good

101:32

decisions, and those people made a

101:34

couple more hires and made a couple more

101:36

good decisions, and it propagated." And

101:38

it reminded me of something Steve Jobs

101:40

said. Steve Jobs said, "People think

101:41

I've built this,

101:42

you know, multi-billion dollar business

101:44

because I'm so smart." And he says in

101:45

that interview, "I've built my career by

101:47

doing the really, really hard work of

101:49

finding truly exceptional people, and it

101:52

propagates. I.E. A players hire A

101:54

players, B players hire B B players, C

101:56

players hire C players. So, the game of

101:58

business, I mean, the definition of the

101:59

word company is group of people, but the

102:00

game of business is to assemble the best

102:04

group of people. And if you're cheap,

102:07

that mission is not possible. Yeah. And

102:09

and you'll you'll get a short-term win,

102:11

but the long-term pain, which is that

102:13

January phone call from your accountant

102:14

when they say, "I [ __ ] up."

102:16

You get what you paid for, Jaspreet. And

102:18

and you know, it goes back to you know,

102:20

we talked about touching the fire,

102:22

right? But becoming successful means

102:24

you're going to make mistakes. You have

102:26

to make mistakes. You cannot bypass the

102:27

mistakes. You ask me, "How does somebody

102:29

do this without the mistakes?" You're

102:30

going to make your own.

102:32

But the difference between somebody who

102:33

becomes successful and somebody who does

102:35

not become successful is they are

102:37

willing to make those mistakes. See,

102:39

most people say, "I don't want to try to

102:40

touch the fire. I don't want to risk

102:42

it."

102:43

But until you touch it, until you screw

102:45

up, you're not going to know it's hot.

102:47

And you got to be willing to screw up.

102:49

I want to add something to that as well,

102:50

which I had noticed in you. You just

102:52

said that

102:53

unless you're willing to make mistakes,

102:55

you're not going to become successful.

102:57

But there was a question I asked you. I

102:58

said, "Whose mistake was it?" when I was

103:00

talking about your accountant. And I was

103:02

testing you.

103:03

Because I was I was trying to see where

103:05

you put responsibility today. And I

103:07

think that point of taking

103:08

responsibility is actually the biggest

103:10

indicator that that mistake turns into a

103:13

lesson. So, your your accountant [ __ ]

103:15

up, clearly incompetent. But when I

103:16

asked you, "Whose fault was it?" you

103:18

said it was my fault. And that

103:20

immediately tells me that you now have

103:21

an internal locus of control. I.E. The

103:23

control

103:24

of that decision and your belief of

103:26

where the control lies is within you.

103:27

So, in the future, you can do something

103:29

about it. But when I speak to people

103:32

about bad relationships, about bad

103:34

hires, or about any sort of bad personal

103:37

decision they've made, maybe a bad

103:38

friend,

103:40

99% of the time, they will blame the

103:43

person. That was a bad person.

103:46

And what you did is what I think is the

103:47

most important thing, and actually the

103:48

science corroborates that if you have

103:50

this internal locus of control, internal

103:51

responsibility for what happened, you're

103:53

much more likely to be successful, much

103:55

more likely to learn from it, much more

103:56

likely to be happy, much more likely to

103:58

be rich. Which is you and it was my

104:00

fault.

104:02

Can I tie that together now with wealth?

104:05

When people ask me, "Why is it that so

104:07

many people are poor and struggling with

104:09

money?"

104:10

I said, "There's two things at fault.

104:12

And there's two ways you can look at it.

104:14

There's the it's your fault and the my

104:16

fault. And I always like to talk about

104:18

both of these because you have to

104:19

understand this. Because it ties in very

104:22

well. I appreciate all the kind words

104:23

because

104:24

I really do appreciate that. But when I

104:26

say it's your fault, look, our economic

104:29

system is designed to profit off of

104:32

people being financially stupid.

104:35

Period.

104:37

Banks profit when you're financially

104:38

stupid because that means you stay in

104:39

debt, and they keep making interest for

104:42

the rest of your life.

104:44

Corporations profit when you're

104:46

financially illiterate because that

104:48

means you're going to keep buying their

104:49

stuff and not think twice. And they're

104:51

going to hire the best and smartest MBAs

104:53

to get you to open up their wallets.

104:55

To open up your wallets.

104:57

Number three, the government is going to

104:59

profit when you're financially

105:00

illiterate because that means you don't

105:02

do anything outside of your W-2 job, and

105:04

you're going to pay the highest tax

105:05

rates.

105:06

You profit when you're financially

105:08

educated. So, now, what can you do? You

105:09

can say,

105:10

"They're the reason I'm broke.

105:12

This company is the reason why I'm

105:13

broke. My company is the reason why I'm

105:15

broke. The government's the reason why

105:16

I'm broke. The banks are the reason why

105:18

I'm broke."

105:19

Well, that's not what I'm saying. That's

105:21

just part one.

105:23

The second part to part one before I get

105:24

to part two is once you understand this,

105:27

you can learn how to win. You can learn

105:28

how to use the bank. You can learn how

105:30

to use corporations because you want to

105:32

have nice stuff. You can learn how to

105:33

use the resources that the government

105:35

has.

105:37

But now, let's flip the script. The

105:39

second part to this is you need to

105:40

understand

105:41

it's your own responsibility.

105:44

Because if you spend every dollar that

105:46

you earn, you're never going to become

105:47

wealthy. If every time you make money,

105:49

you go on a nice vacation, you're never

105:51

going to build wealth if you can't

105:52

afford it. If you just make money and

105:54

you make everybody else around you rich

105:57

before you make yourself rich,

105:59

that's your choice. People don't want to

106:02

take personal responsibility there, you

106:03

know, it's a topic I always talk about

106:05

um

106:06

because that's like holding a mirror up

106:08

to yourself. It doesn't feel good, does

106:09

it? To say that it was my mistake. I'm

106:12

the reason why I don't have money. I'm

106:14

the reason why I'm living in this, you

106:16

know, this little bedsit with these four

106:19

strange guys when I was 18 years old and

106:22

I didn't have carpets on the floor and I

106:24

was shoplifting food to feed myself. I'm

106:26

you know, it that hurts to say that it

106:28

was me. It's my deficiencies. The

106:30

self-esteem doesn't want to

106:32

to take such an attack. And you know

106:34

what?

106:35

Here's the thing. It might not be all

106:37

your fault.

106:39

There might be a lot of reasons why

106:40

you're in that crappy situation. There

106:42

might be a lot of reasons why you're

106:43

struggling with money today. You might

106:45

have grown up in a very crappy

106:46

situation. You might have had horrible

106:48

parents. You might have had a horrible

106:50

upbringing. You might have had horrible

106:51

surroundings. You might have been dealt

106:53

a horrible set of cards.

106:55

Okay, now what?

106:57

Now what?

106:58

You were.

106:59

Now the question is are you going to

107:01

take that responsibility today going

107:03

forward or not?

107:04

And you have to take that drastic

107:06

responsibility. You have to take that

107:08

drastic mindset shift, and that's what

107:10

you have to do. And it's difficult.

107:12

Who wants to blame themselves?

107:16

But if you want to change where you are,

107:19

they're not going to do it. Your banker

107:21

is not going to say,

107:23

"Hey, Stephen,

107:25

you know, you can't afford this car.

107:27

Don't take this debt. Don't take this

107:28

house." Because if they can sign you up,

107:31

they're going to want to get paid.

107:32

They're in the business of making money.

107:34

Not for you, but for them. Gucci's not

107:36

going to say,

107:38

"Maybe you should buy some socks instead

107:40

of this purse." Because they're going to

107:42

want you to buy their stuff.

107:44

The government's not going to say, "Hey,

107:47

why don't you take a look at our balance

107:48

sheet?"

107:50

I'm going to get I'm going to take this

107:51

little tangent.

107:54

The government says student loans are a

107:56

problem. We've all heard that.

107:58

Millennials can't buy houses. They can't

108:00

buy their home. They can't invest

108:02

because they have student loans.

108:03

The government says student loans are a

108:05

problem.

108:06

Really?

108:07

Let's take a look at the United States

108:09

balance sheet. Your balance sheet is

108:11

your asset and liability statement.

108:14

The number one largest asset on the

108:17

United States government balance sheet

108:20

are student loans.

108:22

So, here we keep saying, "Oh, student

108:23

loans are bad." We keep hearing this

108:25

from the government.

108:26

But on the other hand, the government is

108:29

so rich because of the student loans.

108:32

Because so many people are stuck in

108:34

these student loans.

108:35

And

108:37

guess what? You pay the highest tax

108:39

rates when you are just an employee.

108:41

I'm an attorney. I'm not your attorney,

108:43

but I am a licensed attorney, and I

108:44

spend a lot of time studying the tax

108:46

law.

108:48

And what I can tell you

108:49

is that the tax law

108:51

rewards you when you are an investor.

108:56

In 2024,

108:59

the CEO of Coca-Cola, James Quincey, is

109:02

going to make about $8 million in cash

109:04

compensation. He'll also get equity, but

109:06

about $8 million in cash compensation.

109:08

His top tax rate on that $8 million is

109:11

going to be 37% on the federal taxes in

109:13

the US.

109:15

Warren Buffett is going to make over

109:17

$700 million

109:18

from Coca-Cola dividends

109:21

in 2024. His top tax rate is going to be

109:24

20%.

109:27

He's making way more than the CEO,

109:29

but he's going to pay less in taxes on a

109:32

percentage level

109:34

because he made that money as an

109:35

investor.

109:37

We're never taught that.

109:39

This goes one step further though,

109:40

doesn't it? Because if you look at

109:41

someone like

109:43

an Elon Musk,

109:45

they never even take a salary, these

109:47

people.

109:48

And people don't know about this thing

109:50

called lending against your assets. I

109:52

didn't know about it.

109:53

And I think it's a big secret that

109:55

people need to know about.

109:57

Elon Musk is interesting because he's a

110:00

risk-taker.

110:02

And he chose

110:04

to get paid not in salary.

110:08

And if we look at the tax benefit from

110:09

this, it's because

110:11

you are taxed

110:13

not on your income. That's not what the

110:15

tax code says.

110:16

You are taxed based on your taxable

110:18

income.

110:20

So now whatever you accounted, every

110:21

smart accountant, not every every smart

110:23

accountant is going to focus on reducing

110:25

your taxable income.

110:27

And so what Elon Musk did is when he was

110:29

building Tesla Tesla, he negotiated with

110:32

the investors and the board

110:35

that I want to get paid not with a

110:38

salary, I want to get paid with a stock

110:40

options. A stock option gives you the

110:42

right to buy that stock. And he was

110:45

awarded these Tesla stock options at

110:47

about $6 a share.

110:50

Which means if the Tesla stock goes up

110:52

to $7 a share, he could sell the stock

110:55

option for $6 and profit $1 for each

110:58

stock option. Now, he was given millions

111:00

and millions and millions of these stock

111:02

options.

111:04

And so now when the Tesla stock a $100 a

111:07

share,

111:08

now he is rich on paper. He doesn't have

111:12

any money in his bank. He hasn't a

111:14

salary, so he has no taxable income

111:17

because he hasn't actually received any

111:18

money. He has the option to sell this

111:21

stock for $6 and in return get $100. So

111:26

net 94.

111:28

But if he sold that stock, he would have

111:30

$94 of income.

111:32

Now you have a tax cuz you have taxable

111:34

income. So instead what he does is he

111:36

goes to the bank and he says, "Hey bank,

111:39

I have these millions and millions of

111:41

stock options

111:43

that are worth billions of dollars.

111:46

Would you like to loan me

111:47

a million dollars, 10 million dollars, a

111:49

hundred million dollars at three, four,

111:52

or five percent interest?"

111:54

No bank is going to say no

111:57

because the collateral is so valuable.

111:59

What's the collateral? The collateral is

112:01

the company and his assets, those stock

112:03

options.

112:03

Which is Tesla in this Which is Tesla in

112:05

this instance.

112:07

So then he gets let's call it $10

112:09

million loan from the bank.

112:11

Now he has $10 million in his bank

112:13

account, but it's not an income, it's

112:16

debt.

112:17

Debt is not taxed. If you go out and get

112:20

a mortgage for a half a million dollars,

112:22

you're not taxed. If you do a cash out

112:24

refinance, you're not taxed because

112:27

that's debt. So now he gets this $10

112:29

million of loans that he can spend to

112:31

buy a house, to buy a car, to buy food,

112:33

to buy vacation, to buy whatever you

112:34

want.

112:35

To buy Twitter. To buy Twitter

112:37

and pay no money in taxes and it's 100%

112:39

legal. Now you're going to say, "Well,

112:41

Jaspreet,

112:42

how does he pay it back?"

112:45

Well, let's just assume that you're

112:47

going to get a 5% interest on this.

112:49

If the value of Tesla goes up by say 7%,

112:54

he made a profit.

112:56

So now he can go back to the bank and

112:57

say, "How about you give me an

112:59

additional $10 million?"

113:01

And he can pay back the old loan because

113:03

the value keeps going up. And as long as

113:05

the value keeps going up, no problem.

113:08

But you can start to see where this gets

113:09

risky.

113:10

Because if Tesla goes bankrupt, now

113:13

we're talking about a house of cards

113:14

that can collapse. And now you have all

113:16

this debt that you've already spent and

113:19

no more collateral. But in his case, he

113:21

could

113:22

if Tesla

113:24

starts to fall in value, then the bank

113:27

will call

113:29

payment. So if it say it might be, I

113:31

don't know, Tesla falls from let's say a

113:33

hundred to $10 a share, they're going to

113:36

call payment. He's going to get What's

113:38

What's that called? He's going to get a

113:39

Margin call. A margin call.

113:41

Which means that they're going to say,

113:42

"Give me the money back quick." Yes. And

113:44

all they're going to sell off the asset

113:47

and

113:47

to get their money back quick. And it's

113:49

a losing transaction. The bank will lose

113:51

because if they banks do not profit from

113:53

margin calls.

113:55

Because once you start making margin

113:56

calls, that's when panic hits.

113:59

Yeah. And now you have to scramble to

114:00

sell.

114:02

And now the bank is just trying to

114:04

get pennies back out of every dollar

114:05

that they lent out.

114:07

I'm going to get old someday.

114:10

And um I think a lot about

114:13

making sure I'm wealthy enough so that I

114:15

can take care of myself when I probably

114:16

can't work.

114:18

A lot of people talk about this

114:19

retirement crisis

114:21

that the UK and the US are in.

114:24

What is the retirement crisis and why

114:27

did Why does it matter to any of us? And

114:28

what do we do about it?

114:30

This is a multifaceted issue.

114:33

The first issue is we have this huge

114:36

population of old people, baby boomers,

114:40

that are

114:41

retired or entering retirement

114:44

that have

114:45

not enough money. This is not just the

114:48

US, this is also the UK like you said.

114:50

Which creates a few issues.

114:53

Number one, who's going to take care of

114:55

them?

114:56

Number two, who's going to fund that

114:58

taking care of them?

115:00

The government doesn't have that money.

115:03

And the people that are going into

115:05

retirement don't have that money. And

115:07

their kids many times don't have that

115:09

money.

115:10

That's the first issue.

115:13

And now as we start to dig into that,

115:16

we have people that are working longer.

115:19

And

115:21

it creates now this

115:24

problem in the future

115:26

that we can see today. If you're in your

115:29

50s, 40s, 30s, 20s, teens, you can see

115:32

that there is this problem that's

115:33

happening.

115:35

How do we prevent that today?

115:38

Because I don't know what the solution

115:40

is for this retirement crisis. I don't

115:41

have a solution for that.

115:43

The average retirement savings for

115:44

Americans age 60 is roughly $500,000.

115:48

And the average age of death in the US

115:50

is 77 years old. So if you retire at 67

115:53

years old,

115:54

which is the average age of retirement

115:56

in the United States, then for the next

115:59

10 years, you're going to have to live

116:00

off about $50,000.

116:03

Um and the stats say that Well, I

116:06

actually got this from your YouTube

116:08

channel, The Minority Mindset YouTube

116:09

channel,

116:10

said that the average American needs

116:12

between one to two million dollars to

116:14

retire comfortably.

116:16

According to USA Today, you need about

116:18

$1.8 million

116:20

to retire comfortably. Wow.

116:23

And the reason why is

116:25

every year

116:27

we have inflation.

116:29

So if you live off of $50,000

116:33

this year,

116:34

you're going to need maybe 52, 53,

116:37

54,000 dollars next year, more the year

116:40

after that, more the year after that.

116:43

And $50,000 doesn't buy you what it did

116:46

30 years ago.

116:48

And so now when we take a look at all

116:50

these issues happening, the question is

116:52

what do you do today to prevent these

116:55

issues in the future?

116:58

And starting with in the United States,

117:01

we have what's called social security,

117:03

which is a government check that you get

117:05

when you retire.

117:07

The first problem with social security

117:09

because social security is drying up.

117:11

This is a fact that if you read the

117:13

headlines, they'll say social security

117:15

is going to be dry by 2034

117:17

if nothing changes.

117:19

The problem is people are paying money

117:22

in, but the government is paying out

117:24

more than what's going in. So from any

117:26

business perspective, if you have more

117:28

cash outflows and cash inflows, you have

117:30

a problem.

117:31

And the reason for that is well, number

117:33

one, the math was wrong. And number two,

117:35

people are living longer.

117:37

So when the government keeps paying your

117:39

social security check longer and longer

117:42

and longer because people are living

117:43

longer, life expectancy is getting

117:44

higher,

117:46

that means they have to keep paying.

117:47

That's not good for the government.

117:50

Now on the plane ride here to LA, I sat

117:53

next to somebody who was telling me, I

117:55

didn't verify this, but he told me that

117:57

the government knew that this was going

117:59

to be a problem from the get-go

118:01

because he told me that the first

118:02

recipient of the social security program

118:05

lived to a hundred. I don't know if

118:07

that's true or not, but you can Google

118:09

that to see.

118:11

But that's the problem right now. Social

118:12

security is is running out of money. And

118:14

this is where everyone says social

118:15

security is going to run dry, you're

118:17

never going to get a social security

118:18

check. That's not true either.

118:20

The reason why I say that is because

118:23

the government

118:24

won't let it fail. They'll either raise

118:26

your taxes or they'll just print that

118:28

money.

118:30

But the problem with it is you will

118:32

never be able to live comfortably off of

118:35

social security. That was never the

118:37

intention, but many people are looking

118:39

at it as I'm going to be able to live

118:41

comfortably from this government check.

118:43

But here's the problem. Let's take a

118:45

look at what's happening today.

118:47

Between 2024 to 2025,

118:51

social security recipients are going to

118:53

receive a 2.5%

118:56

raise

118:58

for inflation.

118:59

What they're saying is we have this

119:01

inflation in 2024.

119:03

And because of this inflation in 2024,

119:05

you're going to get a 2 and 1/2% raise.

119:08

There's two problems with that. Number

119:09

one, that raise is not enough.

119:11

Things are getting a lot more expensive.

119:13

Even though the rate of inflation is

119:15

falling, I mean,

119:16

2 and 1/2% raise is not going to keep up

119:18

with the real cost of living growth that

119:20

most people feel.

119:22

The second problem is it's a delayed

119:24

raise.

119:26

The government gives you a raise in 2025

119:29

based off of the inflation you had in

119:30

2024.

119:32

So, we already had this price growth

119:35

and then you get the raise next year.

119:36

And guess what? We're going to have more

119:37

inflation in 2025.

119:40

So, relying on social security is a

119:42

losing proposition.

119:45

Which brings the next

119:46

part of this three-legged stool. So, you

119:48

have social security, then you have

119:49

pensions.

119:50

Pensions have become a thing of the

119:51

past. I mean, if you're under the age of

119:53

45, chances are you're not getting a

119:55

pension.

119:57

And even if you're over the age of 45

119:58

and you're promised a pension, you

120:00

better cross your fingers to hope that

120:01

that pension fund does not go bankrupt.

120:03

Because there have been many pension

120:05

funds that have gone bankrupt and people

120:07

are then left with nothing.

120:09

Which leads number three.

120:11

Your own savings and investments.

120:15

And this is where we have so much

120:19

a lack of understanding because

120:23

people are not doing enough.

120:25

This goes back to the whole financial

120:27

education.

120:28

We make money to spend money.

120:31

That's what the American culture is. I

120:33

make a thousand dollars, I'm going to

120:34

spend a thousand dollars, maybe twelve

120:36

hundred dollars.

120:38

But you're never going to be able to

120:39

retire with that sort of mindset.

120:42

And here's the second problem with that.

120:44

I'm just going to lay the problems, then

120:45

we'll come up with the solution.

120:47

You might say, "Well, I need a financial

120:48

advisor."

120:49

No good financial advisor nowadays wants

120:53

to work with anybody

120:54

under

120:56

$500,000 in assets.

120:58

Maybe $250,000 in assets. Maybe if you

121:02

get lucky, $100,000 in assets.

121:05

But if you have under that,

121:07

they don't want to work with you because

121:09

they want people that have some money to

121:11

actually make money off of, right? They

121:13

financial advisors got to eat, too. So,

121:15

if you don't have the investments, you

121:17

don't have the education,

121:19

now you're stuck.

121:21

And this is where now your financial

121:22

education comes in.

121:24

Because if you want to build wealth,

121:25

you want to have {quote} retirement,

121:28

you got to do something different. You

121:29

can't keep doing what the majority

121:30

people do

121:32

because if you keep doing what the

121:33

majority people do, you're going to end

121:34

up like the majority people. And right

121:36

now, that's broke,

121:37

in debt, living paycheck to paycheck,

121:40

fat, and unhappy.

121:42

And I'm not saying this as a general

121:43

term. I mean, statistically,

121:45

that's what the majority of people are,

121:47

especially in America.

121:49

So, now let's come up with the solution

121:50

cuz we have laid out the problem.

121:53

The first solution is define what is

121:55

retirement.

121:57

Because

121:58

I'm going to get a little philosophical

121:59

here, but I have my issues with

122:02

traditional retirement.

122:04

There's a saying that says those who

122:05

retire early die early.

122:08

The reason why is because if you work

122:11

from the age of 21 to 65, maybe 67, at a

122:16

job you hate, but you work every single

122:18

day and all you're looking forward to is

122:20

retire at 67,

122:22

you retire at 67, you have this great

122:24

big retirement party,

122:25

now you come home

122:27

and you sit on the sofa and you start

122:28

watching TV,

122:30

you start to lose your sense of purpose.

122:33

And I've seen this

122:34

very closely with people in my not my

122:36

family, but close to my family,

122:39

where I've seen people who were healthy,

122:42

energetic, maybe they didn't love their

122:44

work, but they had a reason to get up

122:45

every day, go to work,

122:47

retire,

122:49

and

122:50

literally go insane. I mean, you have

122:52

nothing to do

122:53

and now you start to see health issues

122:55

that you didn't have before. You start

122:57

to have mental health issues that you

122:58

didn't have before. And all these things

123:00

just start to happen when you were going

123:01

to enter your golden years,

123:03

even if you have the money to do things.

123:06

So, when we talk about what is

123:08

retirement, I want to caution everybody

123:11

or if you have parents

123:13

to start thinking about

123:15

what do you want to do during

123:16

retirement? Because if your goal is to

123:17

do nothing,

123:20

you might enjoy it for the first few

123:21

weeks, maybe six months, but eventually

123:24

you're going to get bored. So, you got

123:25

to have something to do.

123:27

Then there's the financial side of

123:28

retirement.

123:30

What is retirement? And I have a

123:32

different definition than most people.

123:34

Most financial advisors don't like me

123:37

for the things that I say, but my

123:39

definition of retirement is the same as

123:41

my definition of wealth.

123:43

Wealth is

123:45

for me

123:46

when my cash flow

123:48

from my investments exceeds my expenses.

123:52

It's very simple.

123:54

If my expenses are $4,000 a month

123:57

and my cash flow from my stocks and my

123:59

real estate and everything else is

124:01

paying me $4,001 a month,

124:04

I am wealthy.

124:07

So, now the question is, how do you

124:10

actually achieve this type of wealth

124:14

retirement?

124:15

The reason why I don't like the word

124:16

retirement as well, besides the

124:18

connotation of I'm going to do nothing,

124:20

is they assume that I got to be 67 years

124:23

old to hit this retirement. When you can

124:25

achieve this wealth way sooner.

124:29

And now you have more options.

124:31

So, retirement is wealth. Wealth is when

124:33

your cash flow from your assets exceeds

124:35

your expenses. How do you actually do

124:37

this now?

124:39

Well,

124:40

you got to buy the assets.

124:43

And in order to do that, you have to

124:45

have the money.

124:47

And many people assume that the way you

124:50

get rich is by investing for passive

124:53

income. You get rich by investing in

124:55

real estate. You get rich by buying this

124:57

cash flow. That's a lie.

125:00

You have to have the money first.

125:04

You have to have the money to invest in

125:05

real estate. You have to have the money

125:07

to buy the cash flow.

125:09

So, if we just make the numbers very

125:11

round and simple,

125:12

if I need $70,000

125:15

a year to live

125:17

my life

125:19

and I can get a 7% cash flow on my

125:22

investments,

125:24

I need to invest a million dollars

125:26

to have that $70,000 a year to fund my

125:30

lifestyle.

125:32

Now, you're going to say,

125:34

"Where in the world are you going to get

125:35

a million dollars?"

125:37

You don't need it today.

125:38

It can happen over time. Right? When

125:40

people talk about retirement planning,

125:42

they're thinking about 45 years.

125:44

So, when we talk about wealth, why can't

125:46

we talk about the long term? It's not

125:47

going to happen in 2 days, but it can

125:49

happen if you put in that work.

125:52

So, now, you have to put aside this

125:54

amount of cash to buy certain

125:56

investments that can pay you this type

125:58

of cash flow.

126:01

The second thing is,

126:04

"Well, what about inflation, Jaspreet?

126:06

You talk about this all the time.

126:08

The buying power of my dollar is going

126:10

down. $70,000 when I'm

126:13

65 years old in a few decades is not

126:16

going to have the same buying power as

126:17

today." You're right.

126:20

But here's the thing. When you invest

126:21

your money

126:23

into dividend-paying stocks, which are

126:25

stocks that pay you, or into strong real

126:27

estate,

126:28

these are inflation-adjusted

126:31

s.

126:31

Which means

126:33

generally,

126:36

as inflation happens,

126:38

rental prices go up.

126:40

As inflation happens, stock values and

126:42

dividends also go up.

126:45

And this is where now,

126:46

if we start to understand this, you'll

126:49

understand the power of this.

126:52

Because it's actually a little bit more

126:54

extreme.

126:56

We've probably heard about, you know,

126:58

the wealth gap in America and how the

127:00

richer getting richer and the poorer

127:02

getting poorer.

127:04

Well, the reason why that happens

127:07

is because investment values

127:09

grow faster than incomes.

127:12

And inflation benefits investors.

127:16

So, you see how we start to tie this all

127:17

together because wealth is about owning

127:19

investments.

127:20

The way you become wealthy is by owning

127:21

investments. Our economic system is

127:23

designed to benefit investors.

127:26

If we take a look at 2019 to 2024,

127:30

over those 5 years,

127:33

household incomes, the median household

127:35

income, grew by around 18%.

127:40

During those 5 years, the S&P 500, the

127:43

stock market,

127:44

has grown

127:46

by almost 100%.

127:49

Which means that the wealth for

127:51

investors has grown almost five times or

127:55

about five times faster

127:57

than incomes.

127:59

This is why you can't earn your way to

128:01

wealth. You can't save your way to

128:03

wealth. You have to invest your way to

128:04

wealth. And remember, wealth is

128:06

retirement.

128:07

And you might say, "Well, Jaspreet,

128:08

that's just because of the pandemic and

128:10

everything that after happened after the

128:11

pandemic."

128:12

Well, let's go back in time. Let's look

128:14

at it a little bit broader.

128:15

Let's look at the five decades between

128:18

1971

128:20

and 2021.

128:23

Over those five decades,

128:25

household income

128:27

increased by around 600%.

128:30

Now, mind you,

128:32

that between 1971 and 2021,

128:35

we also saw the number of workers in a

128:37

household increase. Between in 1971,

128:41

the average household had one person

128:43

that went to work. The man went to work

128:44

and the woman didn't. That's how life

128:46

was in 19 early 1970s.

128:48

In 2021, many households have two

128:50

household incomes. So, 1971 to 2021, the

128:53

median household income grew by around

128:55

600%.

128:56

The S&P 500, the largest 500 companies

128:59

in the stock market, grew by around

129:01

4,000%.

129:03

So, again,

129:04

inflation happens. Inflation benefits

129:07

the investor. How do you become wealthy?

129:09

It's by investing your money.

129:11

So, if you want to retire, if you want

129:14

to build wealth, you have to be an

129:16

investor.

129:18

And you have to calculate what is that

129:19

wealth number for you.

129:21

For me, the way that I do it is I do it

129:23

through cash flow. Most of my

129:24

investments My real estate investments

129:26

pay me cash flow. When I buy a property,

129:27

I buy it for the cash flow.

129:29

Most of my stock market investments are

129:31

dividend paying assets, meaning they pay

129:33

me

129:35

cash flow dividends just for owning the

129:36

stock.

129:38

Some of my investments grow in value.

129:41

They're more appreciative. They're for

129:42

appreciation.

129:45

But when I think about retirement for

129:46

me, it's cash flow exceeding my

129:49

expenses.

129:51

What about starting a company? Should

129:54

people become entrepreneurs?

129:57

Well, I think everybody in America needs

129:58

to be a business owner.

130:00

But the majority people should not

130:02

operate a business.

130:04

When you invest in a stock, you become a

130:06

business owner.

130:07

You don't operate the business. If I go

130:09

out and buy a share of Amazon, I'm not

130:11

working in the company. I'm not

130:13

operating the company, but I own some of

130:14

it.

130:16

Some people should start a business. I'm

130:18

a huge advocate for entrepreneurship

130:21

for the right person. Who's the right

130:23

person?

130:26

I used to think

130:29

everybody needs to become an

130:31

entrepreneur.

130:33

Because when I started to see success

130:36

as an entrepreneur, I crossed that

130:38

invisible barrier.

130:40

I said, "Oh my god, people need to see

130:43

this. You have to become an

130:45

entrepreneur. You can do things on your

130:47

own."

130:48

And I was preaching this to my friends.

130:52

I got one friend of mine

130:54

who was an engineer

130:56

to quit his job

130:57

and to then join me. He would come to my

131:00

office and I would talk to him about

131:02

things and I said, you know, "Different

131:03

ways you can do this."

131:05

And I realized pretty quickly

131:10

he is not meant to be an entrepreneur.

131:13

The work ethic was different.

131:15

When he would go home, he didn't want to

131:17

work. And that did not click to me. What

131:20

do you mean you don't want to work after

131:22

5:00? Like that There's no stop point.

131:25

When you're starting a business, you got

131:26

to start.

131:28

The second thing was

131:30

the way you think about risk.

131:32

It's Oh, well, if I invest $100, how

131:34

fast am I going to make the money back?

131:35

Am I going to make this money back? It

131:36

became all these like little analysises

131:40

before you've even done anything.

131:42

You got to start.

131:44

And then it's the innovation of what are

131:45

you going to do? It's asking for a

131:46

blueprint.

131:48

Tell me exactly what to do. Tell me

131:49

exactly what to sell. Tell me exactly

131:51

how to sell it.

131:53

I don't know what you are good at. I

131:55

don't know what problem you can solve. I

131:57

don't know what innovation you can

131:58

create.

132:00

And this is where

132:02

I go back to

132:04

I am a big advocate for entrepreneurship

132:06

for the right person. Who is that right

132:07

person? Somebody who has this

132:10

entrepreneurial itch. That you have this

132:14

this

132:15

I need to create something. This I can't

132:18

work for somebody else feeling.

132:20

This

132:21

I want to build something. It's a very

132:23

much like I don't care what it takes. I

132:25

don't care what I have to do. This is

132:27

what is my calling.

132:29

And as you say there,

132:30

you're going to have to tolerate

132:32

uncertainty.

132:34

And when I say uncertainty, I mean

132:35

comfort as well. The lack of a

132:37

blueprint, the lack of certainty about

132:39

how much you're going to make this month

132:40

or how quickly you're going to make

132:41

money or if you're going to make money,

132:43

risk, which is you might have to put a

132:45

lot of things on the line including your

132:46

reputation.

132:47

And you said hard work as well. So, are

132:50

you willing to work 7 days a week? And

132:52

you're right, you know, when people say

132:53

that they think it's super toxic, but

132:55

like I

132:56

In my own experiences of starting

132:57

businesses, but then on every friend

132:59

that I have that started a business,

133:01

they'll all tell you that there's

133:02

absolutely no such thing as 9:00 to

133:04

5:00. You work We work whatever you have

133:05

to work. And if you're at a bar mitzvah

133:07

or a wedding or a anniversary meal with

133:09

your partner, at any moment, you might

133:12

get a horrible email and you have to act

133:15

upon it. You can't say I'm going to save

133:16

that till Monday or not my problem. Oh,

133:19

yeah. And I'm going to add one more to

133:21

that list.

133:23

The willingness to be criticized.

133:25

Oh, yeah. Any business you start,

133:29

you are going to upset a lot of people

133:32

at every stage of the business. I mean,

133:34

this is really important because

133:36

much of the reason why people want to be

133:38

entrepreneurs is cuz they want to be

133:40

their own boss. But what's so

133:41

interesting about the story you told

133:42

about that tenant is you became her

133:44

boss.

133:48

Whenever I speak to entrepreneurs,

133:49

there's one problem that always comes

133:51

up, but today's sponsor, LinkedIn, has a

133:53

solution and I think you'll want to hear

133:55

it. Connecting your business with the

133:56

right audience can be tough. You can

133:58

spend a lot of time and money trying to

134:00

get it right and still, regardless, fall

134:02

short of that, especially when it comes

134:04

to B2B marketing, where you're not doing

134:06

business with one person, you're dealing

134:08

with teams making decisions together.

134:10

Through LinkedIn ads, you can connect

134:12

with an extensive professional network

134:14

of over a billion members including 10

134:17

million C-suite executives. You can also

134:19

target specifically by job title,

134:21

industry, company, and more. It's no

134:24

surprise to me that LinkedIn is reported

134:25

to be the highest returning paid social

134:27

platform in the world. To help you get

134:29

started, LinkedIn is offering a $100

134:31

credit to launch your first campaign on

134:33

the platform. Just go to

134:34

linkedin.com/doac24

134:38

to claim your credit now. That's

134:39

linkedin.com/doac24. Terms and

134:41

conditions apply.

134:42

This diary won't change your life, but

134:45

the habit it teaches you definitely

134:48

will. The most unhelpful advice that I

134:50

ever received was don't sweat the small

134:52

stuff. You have to sweat the small

134:54

stuff. I sweat the small stuff. I always

134:57

have and I always proudly will because

134:59

small things that are easy to do are

135:02

also easy not to do. It is easy to save

135:05

a dollar, so it's also easy not to. It

135:07

is easy to brush your teeth, so it's

135:08

also easy not to. It is easy to make a

135:11

1% improvement, so it's also easy not

135:13

to.

135:14

Understanding

135:15

the power of compounding 1%, you can

135:18

absolutely

135:21

change your outcomes in your life. It

135:23

isn't about drastic transformations or

135:25

quick wins. It's about the small,

135:28

consistent actions that have a lasting

135:30

change on your outcomes. So, 2 years

135:32

ago, we started the process of creating

135:34

this beautiful diary and it's truly

135:36

beautiful. Inside, there's lots of

135:37

pictures, lots of inspiration and

135:39

motivation as well, some interactive

135:41

elements. And the purpose of this diary

135:43

is to help you identify, stay focused

135:46

on, develop consistency with the 1% that

135:49

will ultimately change your life. We're

135:51

only going to do a limited run of these

135:52

diaries, so if you want one for yourself

135:54

or for a friend or for a colleague or

135:56

for your team, then head to the

135:57

diary.com right now. I'll link it below.

136:01

What One of the things I really wanted

136:02

is to to talk to you about as well is

136:05

just a word that I think is so pertinent

136:07

to everything we've talked about today,

136:10

which

136:11

which I think is important, which is the

136:12

word patience.

136:14

Because there's some areas of my It goes

136:16

to what I said about my friend. My

136:18

friend who's been in our group chat,

136:20

who's made more cash than all of my

136:21

other friends in that group chat. And

136:23

he's done it by being boring and

136:25

patient.

136:26

Like he's he's just flown under the

136:28

radar. And when I think about my life

136:30

and many of the investments I'm making

136:32

now,

136:33

I'm like, "Oh god, what is it?" I'm

136:35

looking over there and my friend's

136:36

buying some like crypto meme coin and

136:37

he's told me it's gone up 150x this

136:39

month. I'm looking over there and people

136:41

are investing in, I don't know, the the

136:43

the picking stocks and stock trading,

136:45

whatever, and they're telling me it's

136:46

gone up 50%.

136:48

But in my wisdom, as I've gotten older,

136:50

I've realized,

136:52

like the tortoise and the hare,

136:54

that boring and patient is such a

136:56

wonderful investment strategy. It's such

136:58

like a paradoxical way to think. I have

137:01

so many seeds that I've planted that are

137:03

taking forever to grow.

137:05

But I just now know, because I've got

137:07

enough case studies in my brain, that

137:08

that boring and patient approach to

137:10

wealth

137:11

will put me in a better position at the

137:13

end of the game.

137:14

Yes.

137:16

And

137:17

you have to be sometimes impatiently

137:19

patient.

137:21

So,

137:23

if we talk about building wealth through

137:25

investing your money,

137:26

the numbers have shown that over the

137:28

last century,

137:30

the stock market has gone up by an

137:32

average of 10% a year historically.

137:35

But many people lose money when

137:36

investing in stocks. I mean, if you go

137:38

around talking to people, "Have you

137:39

invested in stocks?" Yes, yes, yes. How

137:41

many have made money? The hands start

137:42

dropping.

137:44

Well, if the stock market has gone up by

137:46

around 10% a year on average every year

137:48

for the last 100 years,

137:50

why are so many people losing money?

137:53

Because we start playing the wrong game.

137:55

And so now,

137:57

what happens?

137:58

If you invest your money into the stock

138:00

market, and by the stock market, I mean,

138:01

let's just say you buy the S&P 500,

138:04

which is a basket of the 500 largest

138:06

companies in the stock market. For

138:08

example, not financial advice, if you

138:09

invest in SPY, that is an ETF that gives

138:12

you exposure to the 500 largest

138:14

companies.

138:15

We know that historically, that's gone

138:16

up by 10% a year.

138:18

But that's not enough for a lot of

138:20

people. So now, I'm going to play this

138:22

game of I'm going to try to beat the

138:24

market.

138:25

And some people will.

138:27

Most won't.

138:28

So now, some people are going to try to

138:29

get into the game of investing in

138:30

individual companies or

138:32

maybe trading companies. Because even

138:33

investing in individual companies, if

138:36

you invest for the long enough period of

138:37

time, you're probably going to win.

138:40

But many people now want a quicker

138:43

solution.

138:44

So now, we start trading. We start

138:46

finding hot companies, the next Tesla,

138:48

the next Amazon. We see what Reddit

138:50

says. We see what Google says. and we

138:51

start buying these things because we're

138:53

excited.

138:55

But that excitement

138:57

is what's killing your wealth because

139:00

you're investing on emotion instead of

139:02

investing on financials.

139:05

And so this is where you talk about

139:06

what's boring.

139:08

Just keep

139:09

doing the market.

139:11

Keep investing in the market when the

139:13

market's up, when the market's down,

139:14

when the market's sideways, just keep

139:15

investing because that has been proven

139:16

to win. We know that if you invest $100

139:20

a month from the age of 21

139:23

until your retirement, 65, 66,

139:26

and you can get the same 10% return,

139:29

you're going to retire a millionaire.

139:31

Assuming you only invest $100 a month

139:34

from the age of 21 to 65 or 66.

139:38

It's so interesting cuz when I asked you

139:39

earlier what the best investment you

139:41

ever made was, you said the investment

139:43

you made in yourself.

139:44

And maybe we've not spent enough time

139:48

really talking about

139:50

how critical knowledge and skills are to

139:53

wealth generation. Maybe that is the

139:54

first principle of wealth creation.

139:55

Maybe that is the furthest thing

139:57

upstream is knowledge and skills. Um

140:01

and you can, you know, dabble in stocks

140:04

and whatever else, but really

140:06

over a 50-year time horizon, your

140:09

knowledge and skills,

140:11

and, you know, your knowledge might be

140:12

of patience. Your knowledge might be of

140:14

real estate investing. Your knowledge

140:15

might be of whatever. Your knowledge

140:17

might be of a philosophy towards

140:18

investing. Really it's your knowledge

140:20

and skills that are going to determine

140:21

where you end up. So as it relates to

140:24

getting those knowledge

140:26

and skills,

140:27

where's the best place to people to go

140:30

other than obviously the Diary of a CEO,

140:31

you know. But

140:32

outside of this podcast, where is the

140:33

best place for people to go to get

140:35

knowledge and skills that they can trust

140:36

without getting scammed, without having

140:38

to pay for some course from some

140:39

YouTuber who's

140:40

cha- charging $3,000 a month for like a,

140:43

you know, to tell them something that

140:45

reading off ChatGPT. What is like the

140:47

best place? Well, the best best place is

140:51

to go out and do it. Screw up. Make

140:53

mistakes.

140:54

But along with that, start with what's

140:56

free. YouTube, podcasts. Best book

140:59

you've ever read?

141:00

The first book, I'll start with that

141:01

because the best is it changes. Yeah.

141:04

The first book I've ever read cover to

141:05

cover was Rich Dad Poor Dad.

141:07

The second book was Total Money

141:09

Makeover. Rich Dad Poor Dad is by Robert

141:11

Kiyosaki. Total Money Makeover is by

141:13

Dave Ramsey.

141:14

The third book is a book called uh The

141:16

Creature from Jekyll Island, which talks

141:18

about the Federal Reserve Bank. Those

141:20

three books are going to give you a

141:21

foundation of

141:23

money

141:24

and different perspectives of it.

141:28

So start by learning for free. Even

141:30

before books, start by watching YouTube

141:32

videos, start by listening to podcasts.

141:34

Then you take the next step and you

141:35

start reading books. And what I talk

141:37

about is if you go out and over the next

141:39

12 months, you read five books on money

141:41

management and investing. I just gave

141:42

three.

141:43

Read five books on personal development

141:45

and self-development. Read five books on

141:48

how to start a business. Read five books

141:50

on leadership. And then read five books

141:53

on how to scale, market, and build, grow

141:55

your business, you're going to have an

141:57

MBA-level education for a fraction of

142:00

the cost.

142:01

Start with that.

142:03

And then

142:04

go out and make mistakes.

142:06

And as you grow, that's when you can

142:08

start buying classes and other things

142:09

cuz you'll find people that you might

142:11

want to get consulting from.

142:13

But start with that. What is the most

142:15

important thing we didn't talk about

142:16

today?

142:18

As it relates to wealth creation.

142:21

The most important thing that I think we

142:22

did not talk about

142:24

is we we talked about the economic

142:27

system. We talked about the principles,

142:29

but I think we didn't get into the

142:31

actual steps now of how do you preserve

142:33

and protect your wealth?

142:35

And how do you now continue to use

142:37

wealth protection tools? Because there's

142:40

a lot of that that every single wealthy

142:43

person is investing a huge amount of

142:45

time, effort, and money into

142:48

that most people have no idea even

142:49

exist. We started to touch on taxes, but

142:52

there's so much more.

142:54

So on those wealth preservation tools,

142:57

what exactly are you referring to?

142:58

Starting with first your accounting and

143:00

taxes.

143:01

Then we get into the legal, your estate

143:03

planning, what types of attorneys, what

143:05

types of legal protection and shields

143:07

and tools can you use to structure your

143:09

business, your investments to protect

143:11

you, but also amplify your wealth.

143:14

And then things like insurance.

143:17

But then also your estate planning

143:19

because you talk about generational

143:20

wealth,

143:21

well, generational wealth isn't just the

143:22

money. It's what your money does after

143:24

you die, and you can control that when

143:26

you're alive.

143:28

We have a closing traditional on this

143:29

podcast where the last guest leaves a

143:30

question for the next guest not knowing

143:31

who they're leaving it for.

143:33

And the question that's been left for

143:34

you is

143:38

what wakes you up every morning?

143:41

Well, I'm excited. I don't use an alarm.

143:44

Uh I'm I'm I'm getting up by the

143:45

purpose. I'm excited by the mission. I

143:47

mean, I I love what I do.

143:50

The purpose, the mission, that's what

143:52

gets me up every morning. What about

143:54

yourself and your own

143:56

happiness and mental health and

143:59

you know, you know.

144:01

I I am happy. I I've been so fortunate.

144:05

I've always been one of those people.

144:08

You could put me in a box and I'd have a

144:10

great time. I would turn the box into an

144:11

airplane and I'd be flying it around.

144:13

Before I came here, my wife recorded a

144:15

video. I found these So we were in a

144:16

hotel uh and they gave these cans of

144:18

water. Okay?

144:20

These two cans of water, I took them. I

144:22

said, "Record this video." I went on the

144:23

balcony and I did a Stone Cold Steve

144:26

Austin mock video where I opened up the

144:28

cans of water and just dumped it on

144:29

myself. Just I don't know why and I sent

144:32

it to my cousins.

144:34

I've been very blessed to uh

144:37

I I can have a good time with anything.

144:39

I'm a pretty

144:40

light-hearted guy. I know I talk about

144:42

serious stuff, but I I I've been very

144:44

fortunate on that.

144:46

And uh

144:47

I can have fun in a lot of situations.

144:50

I'm not driven by materialistic things.

144:53

Um

144:53

there are some certain things that I

144:54

like. I will spend money on luxuries. Uh

144:57

my wife got me into that into like like

145:00

nicer hotels and nicer travel and those

145:02

conveniences I like.

145:04

Uh and I want to keep my wife happy, so

145:06

whatever, you know, she likes, but I

145:09

I'm not driven by fancy cars, fancy

145:11

clothes.

145:13

Uh

145:13

that to me is not as important. I I I

145:15

like to see

145:17

change and I want to help empower people

145:20

and that gives me excited. If If you had

145:22

to bring it down to five things that are

145:24

driving you then, what are those five

145:25

things?

145:28

Number one, taking care of my family.

145:29

Yeah.

145:30

Number two

145:32

is my own purpose and mission and

145:33

feeling excited. Like my personal

145:35

excitement.

145:35

Yeah. Number three is the mission. Yeah.

145:37

Is to continue help people.

145:41

Number four is to bring light to the

145:42

community.

145:46

Number five is to continue giving back

145:47

and to help.

145:51

Just pre- Thank you. Thank you so much

145:53

for being so generous with your time and

145:54

I've learned so much

145:56

um

145:57

about so many things and I've had so

145:58

many sort of

146:00

ideas reinforced.

146:03

And sometimes that's it, you know, I do

146:04

these conversations because

146:06

I've been out there in the world and

146:08

I've met people who have listened to

146:09

these conversations about wealth and

146:10

finance and money, and sometimes in life

146:13

all it is is just a little seed of

146:16

information that can absolutely change

146:19

the trajectory of not just you, but the

146:21

generations that come after you, and

146:23

that's exactly what you're doing. It's

146:24

exactly what you've done on your YouTube

146:25

channel for so many people that probably

146:27

will never get to say thank you to you.

146:28

But it's to give these little seeds of

146:30

inspiration and information, and you

146:32

never really know which seed is going to

146:33

change someone's life.

146:35

But what you do is you just continue to

146:37

plant them, and hopefully those people

146:39

will water them for themselves. So thank

146:40

you so much for what you do. Thank you

146:41

for being so generous with your time

146:42

today, and please do keep doing it

146:44

because our education system is a bit of

146:46

a cookie cutter and optimizes for

146:47

creating people that are

146:49

part of a

146:51

system which doesn't seem to be designed

146:53

with their best long-term interests in

146:55

mind, and that's why we have these

146:56

problems. That's why we live in this

146:58

credit society. That's why we have these

146:59

retirement issues, and that's probably

147:01

why we have so much mental health issues

147:03

and depression. But it's people like you

147:06

out there that are

147:09

giving us the information that gives us

147:10

a chance, a chance to live a different

147:12

life. So thank you for that, Jaspreet. I

147:13

really appreciate you. Thank you for

147:15

having me on. It was really a pleasure.

147:19

Chuck me that Huel Ted.

147:21

One of the things that I think about all

147:23

the time because my life is quite hectic

147:25

and busy is how to manage my energy

147:27

load, and as a podcaster, you kind of

147:29

have to manage your energy in such a way

147:30

that you can have these articulate

147:32

conversations with experts on subjects

147:34

you don't understand, and this is why

147:35

Huel Ted has become so important in my

147:37

life because previously when it came to

147:39

energy products, I had to make a

147:41

trade-off that I wasn't happy with.

147:42

Typically, if I wanted the energy, I had

147:44

to deal with high sugar. I had to deal

147:46

with jitters and crashes that come along

147:48

with a lot of the mainstream energy

147:50

products. And I also just had to

147:51

tolerate the fact that if I want energy,

147:53

I have to put up with a lot of

147:54

artificial ingredients which my body

147:56

didn't like, and that's why I invested

147:58

in Huel Ted and why they're one of the

148:00

sponsors of this podcast. It has changed

148:01

not just my life, but my entire team's

148:03

life, and for me it's drastically

148:04

improved my cognitive performance, but

148:06

also my physical performance. So if you

148:08

haven't tried Huel Ted yet, you must

148:10

have been living under a rock. Now is

148:12

the time. You can find Huel Ted at Tesco

148:14

and Waitrose or online where you can

148:16

enjoy 40% off with code diary40 at

148:18

checkout. Head to perfectted.com.

Interactive Summary

Jaspreet Singh, a financial educator and entrepreneur, discusses his philosophy on building wealth by challenging common money myths. He emphasizes the importance of understanding how money works, moving beyond the traditional path of education and employment, and prioritizing the acquisition of income-generating assets over liabilities. Jaspreet shares his personal journey of discovering financial literacy and highlights the critical need for an internal locus of control and a mindset shift toward long-term investing.

Suggested questions

5 ready-made prompts