Picture a millionaire. Who do you see? A

businessman in a fancy suit? A spoiled

kid with rich parents. That Lambo guy on

Instagram. Well, it turns out the

average millionaire is nothing like

that. Over my 18 years in finance, both

on Wall Street and here in Europe, I

have worked with many millionaires. And

in this video, I will overturn six myths

about millionaires. Because if you

believe these myths, building your own

personal wealth could be much harder

than it needs to be. To explain myth

number one, let me quote the popular

YouTuber Gary Stevenson. When asked how

young people can get rich today, here's

what he said.

>> There's there's basically one really

really good method for getting rich in

today's society. It's almost foolproof.

Have a rich dad.

>> This sounds believable, right? I mean,

we've all heard that wealth inequality

is growing. As older people accumulate

more and more wealth, that leaves less

for the rest of us, unless you're one of

their children. But do you actually need

rich parents to become wealthy here in

Europe? I mean to be sure it helps. The

most detailed study on this topic that I

found comes from the Institute for New

Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin

School. They published a report which

showed that if you look at the top 1% of

wealthy families in Britain and other

European countries, more than half of

them received some inheritance or gifts.

The percentage ranged from 54% of

families in Italy to 72% in France. But

you have to keep in mind two things.

First, many of these inheritances or

gifts would have been quite small. And

second, this still leaves anywhere

between 30 to 50% of rich families that

did not receive any inheritance or gift.

So in short, rich parents help, but you

don't need rich parents in order to

become wealthy. Now, of course, you

could argue that this is changing

because wealth concentration is going up

in many European countries. And

certainly, this is a problem, but it's

actually not as bad a problem as you

might think. We are not heading to a

world where only a few rich families own

everything and nobody else can build

wealth. Because we've got centuries of

data that show that inherited wealth

does not last. As Robert Arnot of

research affiliates says, the rich are

getting richer, vastly so, but it's

never the same people for long. After a

fortune is first built, the rich often

get relentlessly and inexurably poorer.

So why does this happen? Well, first of

all, because wealthy people have kids

and then their kids have kids and the

same limited amount of wealth gets spent

by more and more people. And second,

because people who become wealthy are

usually above average in their ability

to make money and save and budget, but

typically their kids and grandkids are

not above average. So they spend too

much. They make poor investment choices.

They're not nearly as successful in

their careers or businesses and the

wealth disappears. The second myth that

I want to address is the myth of the

online millionaire. You can hardly go on

the internet these days without seeing

these stories. Just 10 years ago, I was

broke. Living in a small apartment with

a broken down car, eating instant

noodles. But thanks to hard work and the

five principles you can learn in my

course. The link is in the description,

I'm now a sevenf figureure entrepreneur

at age 30. And then there are pictures

of Lambos and private jets and beautiful

girlfriends. Well, here's the reality.

The Lambos and private jets are often

rented just for the photo shoot. In some

cases, even the girlfriends are paid

models, and very few of those

30-year-old influencers are actual

millionaires. The reality is that making

money online is not that easy. I've had

an online business for a long time. I

got my own two comma club award years

ago. That's when I first generated a

million dollars in revenue. I've been in

various masterminds and groups with

other online business owners. And I can

tell you that many so-called 7f

figureure entrepreneurs aren't even

making €100,000 per year after taxes.

You see, the millions that everybody

boasts about on Instagram are revenue

figures. But online businesses come with

big expenses. The biggest one is ad

costs. Running ads on Facebook or

YouTube is really expensive. But then

you've got staff costs. You've got to

hire video editors and salespeople and

administrative assistants. And finally,

you've got to cover taxes. everything

from VAT and sales tax to payroll tax to

corporate income tax and your own

personal income tax. A highly successful

online business owner might make low to

mid6 figures, but most influencers make

far less if they earn a profit at all.

Next up, we've got the myth of the young

millionaire on social media. It can feel

like if you're not wealthy, by 30 or 40,

you have failed. But that is delusional

because building wealth takes time. If

you look at the data, the average

millionaire globally is not 25, not 35,

not even 45. The average millionaire is

57 years old, and the average

multi-millionaire is 60. It takes most

people decades of hard work at their job

or business to reach this milestone.

Now, are there exceptions? Of course,

you've got successful sports people or

artists or entrepreneurs who become

wealthy much earlier. I myself became a

millionaire at 37 through a combination

of investing and entrepreneurship and

also some good luck. I do also know a

few young people who became millionaires

through YouTube or Instagram, but they

are the exception, not the rule. Okay,

now it's time for the fourth myth. It's

probably the most damaging one because

if you believe it, you will find it

almost impossible to build wealth. But

before I explain it, here's this. If you

live in Europe, building wealth can be

tricky. Nobody teaches you about money

or investing at home or in school. And

you've got practical obstacles like low

salaries or taxes or bureaucracy. Well,

that's exactly why I write a newsletter

for everybody in Europe who wants to

build wealth through saving and

investing. If you'd like to join over a

100,000 readers in 34 European

countries, just follow the link in the

description to sign up. And I promise

you, I'm not going to send you any

get-richqu tips. All right. To explain

the fourth myth about millionaires, let

me go back 30 years. I was sitting in

the kitchen as a teenager eating lunch

with my mom and grandma and they started

talking about the price of milk and

bread and where you could buy the

cheapest sugar. I listened for a while

until I just couldn't stand it. I said,

"How can you talk about this nonsense?

Life is so short. Why are you wasting it

talking about the price of sugar?" Now,

to be clear, I'm not proud of what I

said. I was a cocky teenager. I didn't

have to feed a family. But it actually

took me years to fully understand how

damaging my attitude was because around

10 years later, I got my first job on

Wall Street and for the first time in my

life, I had money. I was making over

$100,000 per year. And my first priority

was to stop being cheap. I just loved

going shopping and eating at fancy

restaurants and not worrying about the

price. I was on Wall Street and I was

going to be rich. Well, over the next

four years, I earned more than half a

million dollars. But at the end of this

period, I had virtually zero savings. I

had completely missed a tremendous

opportunity to build significant wealth

while I was young. So here's the fourth

myth about millionaires that you need to

absolutely eliminate from your mind.

Millionaires are high spenders who live

flashy lifestyles, drive fancy cars, and

take expensive vacations. The reality is

simple. Your wealth is the money that

you do not spend. It is hard to become a

millionaire and it's impossible to stay

one if you don't control your spending.

Now, to be clear, this doesn't mean that

you have to clip coupons or count

pennies all your life. Back when my wife

and I finally got serious about building

wealth, we spent some years living very

cheap and saving every euro. Today, we

live in a beautiful house. Our kids go

to private schools. We travel a lot. I

mean, as your income and wealth rises,

you can spend a lot more. That said, I

still make sure that I spend less than

my income and I never take out more than

three to 4% of my portfolio in any given

year because I know that wealthy people

who don't control their spending don't

stay wealthy. All right, now it's time

for myth number five. To illustrate this

myth, imagine that you meet somebody who

is really rich. This guy travels the

world, has a yacht and a private jet and

all the coolest toys. So, you ask him,

"How did you make your money?" And he

says, "Oh, it's easy. Anybody can do it.

Just buy lottery ticket every week.

Would you copy this strategy? Of course

not. If you did, you would have fallen

for survivorship bias. This means basing

your conclusions on the one person who

got lucky as opposed to the millions who

did the same thing and got nothing. But

survivorship bias is only obvious with

the lottery. It is much harder to spot

when it comes to other areas like

business. Imagine that a millionaire

businessman tells you, "All you need to

do is pick a niche, work hard, and take

risks. Do that and you will build

wealth." Is this good advice? Maybe it

is. But it actually ignores the

thousands of other entrepreneurs who

picked a niche and worked hard and took

risks and ended up going broke. In the

UK, less than 40% of businesses survive

5 years, and the data is virtually the

same for Germany. of the businesses that

survive, most never become highly

successful. I mean, the median profit

for small and medium enterprises in the

UK is around £13,000 per year. If you

add a typical manager salary of 30

to50,000 per year, you've got a decent

income, but in many cases, it is less

than what the owner could have made in a

corporate job. So, the fifth myth that I

want to address is that you need to

build a successful business to become

wealthy. Now, don't get me wrong. I love

business. It can be a great way to build

wealth. If you are an expert in your

area, if you've got years of experience,

if you've got a good network of contacts

and some basic skills in sales and

marketing and accounting, by all means,

start a company. But if you don't want

to become an entrepreneur, you don't

have to. When Dave Ramsey surveyed

10,000 American millionaires, the

majority were not business owners. Most

had regular jobs with a decent salary.

They were engineers, teachers, doctors,

and lawyers. And they got wealthy

through saving and investing. Which

brings us to the sixth myth, which is

something that I once believed myself.

You see, I grew up in Eastern Europe in

a family of teachers. Nobody had money.

Nobody knew anything about investing.

So, when I first landed on Wall Street

in 2007, I thought I was about to learn

the secret investing strategies that are

used by the smartest people in the

world. But much to my disappointment, it

turned out that secret investment

strategies are mostly a myth. I did meet

many traders who talked like they had

some secret strategy, but if you

followed their careers long enough,

sooner or later, most of them blew up

and lost money. I discovered that the

most reliable way to make money on Wall

Street is to manage money for clients

and take a percentage. But when it comes

to their personal portfolios, the

smartest people in finance usually don't

rely on fancy strategies. They invest

most of their own money in simple,

diversified, lowcost investments. Now,

of course, I'm talking about ETFs and

index funds. There's a reason even

Warren Buffett, the most famous investor

in the world, recommends that after he

passes away, his wealth be invested in

index funds. Today, when I take

dividends from my businesses, I don't

put them into advanced Wall Street

strategies. I buy a simple ETF portfolio

and let my money grow over time. If you

live in Europe and you're thinking about

investing, you may already have heard

about ETFs and index funds, but it's

possible that you don't know how they

work exactly or why they get such good

results. If so, watch this video next

because I put together the ultimate

guide to ETF investing for beginners who

live in Europe.