🤑Easiest Concepts Anyone Can Master To Never Let Money Rule Your Life Again

Imagine you won the current jackpot sum of 2 billion dollars, including the deduction in millions in taxes FYI.

What would you do after receiving this hefty Bezos bar chunk of change?

A reasonable and educated person would act like it never happened. They would be excited that it was their lucky day but sensibly know that a new car and Loui Vuitton overpriced bag won’t change who they are. Stuff could possibly make them a worse person.

Spending Habits:

Appreciating goods: Real estate, investments, some fun to rejuvenate and pay off all debt.

An uneducated person would show it off, tell everyone about it, and buy junk while ending up getting robbed becuase he told the whole world he was the ultimate winner.

Spending Habits:

Depreciating goods: Yacht, vacation, margaritas, and a jet

The way you spend anything is all based on your comprehension of financial literacy and it is disappointing despite YouTube and the internet at your dispense for free, 60% of Americans are financially illiterate.

There is no concept of the value of money which we can blame the education system for. It’s not a surprise that 70% of lottery winners end up bankrupt in just a few years and 78% of NFL players who are retired for only two years, at age 40 FYI file for bankruptcy.

See a pattern?

Receiving large financial windfalls mess up your mind and logic, thinking that money is only used for showing off and buying goods not for happiness, but more for their ego.

As someone who has the privilege of growing up in NYC in an upper-class family considered the 1% if you are making more than 400k+ per year, compared to my colleagues from other countries or with less opportunity, I not only spend less, I live a happier, more peaceful life simply becuase I prioritize and have the financial knowledge to live a smart life. Becuase at the end of the day, if your finances aren’t in check, your life can’t be bliss, no matter how many parties you attend.

So instead of blaming the uneducated for their faults and how they are wasting their time on TikTok, let’s help them out get out of that rut to make sure they can start letting their money work for them not against.

#1: You Are Not What You Buy

Many of us assume the more we buy, the more we have and as a result, the more we get from that. I’m not going to lie, money can buy you a lot of things and buy happiness in some circumstances. I’ve gotten a lot of positions simply becuase I could afford a club membership and meet unique individuals there. I go to NYU where I have access to professors and students from different backgrounds which give some a leg up. That’s all paid for in advance. NYC isn’t cheap. But not everyone can afford this privilege and they still want freedom. That’s where savings and out of the box thinking comes into play.

A new Nintendo will make you happy for a day after purchasing it but a few days after, the happiness will plateau and you usually want the newer one that just came out afterwards. This leads you to figuratively and literally buy into lifestyle inflation, feeling the urge to upp your lifestyle becuase you assume you have enough money to afford everything now.

Don’t fall into the trap of working harder and harder for more and more useless garbage. Prioritize what you need, save a majority of your income, especially these days when you can and more opportunities such as connections at Equinox will arise.

An average millionaire owns a Honda and a $60 suit, not a Dolce Gabanna blazer, for whatever price the poor pay for one. As hard as it is to believe, your looks say nothing about you besides how much you care about other more important things other than subjective opinions based on your style. I wear the same white shirt almost daily (washed of course) and that’s my style. Keeps me comfy, able to afford and live a nice lifestyle in NYC and that shouldn’t bother anyone. Priorities people!

#2: Even if your net worth is up 10% one year, if the S&P 500 is up 20%, that still means you’ve underperformed.

The stock market is all relative. To gauge if you are really outperforming the market and your net worth is rising is to compare it to the best benchmark out there, any index such as the S&P500, Dow Jones or Nikkei, the Japanese index, if you live there.

Every year, month, day fluctuates. This year I’m saving 90% of my worth. Just keep in mind as a student I don’t pay for housing expenses, utilities or insurance since my family does and instead just have commuting expenses that vanished in February due to the pandemic. For a Millennial out of the house post-pandemic in real life to an adult, saving up to 70% of your income is the best advice I have for becoming a millionaire by 50.

As a perspective, commuting costs roughly cost me $400 per month with the MetroNorth train and the handy dandy gross subway. Commuting costs are something that are hard to budge on. They are fixed costs that don’t change unless the subway could be generous and lower the costs for a 2 block ride. Plus, on my side, there is no way I can walk to NYC from Westchester and I will never attempt driving to school being stuck in traffic for 3 hours compared to just taking 2 trains that equate to an hour total.

There are some things in life you just have to spend more on and for me, commuting is one of them! I don’t own makeup, jewelry or much clothing, the easiest spending traps a young college student can make so that’s why my projections according to Personal Capital to become a millionaire are at age 26.

Figuring out how much you spend, need to spend and what you can cut out will help you maximize more towards your savings and so you can take advantage of these record low-interest-rate environments with low inflationary rates which won’t last long!

Always make sure you aren’t too kind with your benchmarks and comparisons. Don’t compare yourself to the last year because this year you should perform better. Always strive to earn more return than the index. If you are underperforming, don’t beat yourself up. When that happens, ironically it must have been a bad year for the markets and a good year for the world as the economy and stock market aren’t correlated at all. Readjust, look more long term and continue to hold longer than 7 months for a real return.

If you are close to retirement or already retired, the best net worth benchmark to follow is 3X-4X the 10-year bond yield. The 10-year bond yield takes into account everything from inflation expectations to equity and real estate return expectations so you are all set before you become a grandma.

#3: Net Worth Formula All Money Creators Follow

Dr. Thomas J. Stanley, author of Millionaire Next Door came up with this net worth formula. This is something I’ve followed for ages, jk, years since I’m only 20 but has helped me prioritize by budgeting, spending, asset allocation, and become really mindful about my financial goals.

#4: 10% X Age X Income = Expected Net Worth.

Why should you focus on net worth so much?

Well, you don’t really need to. The number doesn’t make a difference considering that you should only buy what you need after all. If your net worth is $4m vs $4.7m, you won’t feel a dollar. But for those who have trouble planning for the future, staying diligent out of day trading platforms or rich quick schemes, staying diligent about the number behind your name will keep you hopefully more grounded and reasonable when it comes to spending. Just because it grows every year doesn’t mean it will stay like that forever. Since it is easier to spend versus save, bankruptcy is easier than keeping that jackpot.

#5: The Rich Only Look at Careers Not Jobs

So I mentioned in order to make it big, you need to let your money work for you instead of you working for it. Money doesn’t chase people who are beggars, they chase people who add value to others and make life’s easier.

So what does this mean? Well first off, don’t get a job that pays you for your time or manual labor. You will end up working until you die. That shouldn’t be the goal for any job. Without using the overused word, passive income, find subsequent, supplemental income that will make you money when you are sleeping, eating, hopefully not too much scrolling, and so on. Never be reliant on one thing.

Diversification and moderation are key in everything in life. From limiting the amount of cash to diversifying your investments, balance it properly with these two key terms.

This will let you live a more fruitful life and actually enjoy it. Don’t become the workaholic 22-year-old on Wall Street who died the other day working 300 hours at the bank purely on the addiction to making money. How many times do we have to drill into you that money won’t save you from cancer or a nasty divorce?

You are better and smarter than that. Money is there when you deserve it. It knows when you want it in the wrong way.

#6: Steps the real rich make to never worry about losing a cent again:

Contribute to their pre-tax retirement savings

Invest an additional 20% of their after-tax savings

Own a primary residence

Believe in 12 months of cash to avoid bankruptcy

Build Income Streams Like A Lifelong Millionaire

We already addressed that the average millionaire doesn’t own a Lambrogini because when you hit that $1m mark, you realize that money isn’t there to impress others, it is for more freedom, opportunity and a whole lot of relationship, personal rebuilding after getting through the rich quick scheme dilemma you always believed in as a teen.

The average millionaire also has 7–8 income streams and they include:

Investment Income: Dividend income from stocks they owned

Earned Income: Paycheck income from contracted employment

Rental Income: Rents from real estate why own

Royalty Income: Payments for royalties form selling rights to use something they’ve written/created/published such as articles, films, songs, YouTube videos, blogs, etc.

Profits: Income After expenses form businesses they own

Capital Gains: From selling appreciated assets like real estate not rent

Interest Income: Money from savings, CDs, Treasuries, bonds, etc.-where cash gets stored

#7: Money Has To Be Boring

Sure spend it all on a night out on the town and be miserable the next day losing it or enjoy life moderately and conservatively all the time without ever needing to worry. I don’t know about you, but I would rather be content 24/7 then ride the roller coaster, especially when it comes to finances, our life’s savior.

Nothing about money should be fun. It is exciting to earn something because we value our time and are too selfish about ourselves thinking that we are experts and deserve more than anyone else. But those who treat investing or money as a game, even worse, Las Vegas, lose the most.

You must be willing to risk whatever you are willing to lose. Pretend whatever you give up, will be gone. Men, listen up. This is a preach to you. It is proven extensively that men have a much higher dangerous risk appetite than women which results in them losing more, accumulate more debt, and waste their energy, time on retail investing apps that prove little to no return in the long run as it is mostly based on day trading, timing the market and options, the worst moves to take with your money.

Money needs to be about goal setting. Why waste your hard-earned work on something sketchy like Robinhood or in a casino? Think long term, 12–24 months down the road, and be consistent. Don’t obsess over checking every day nor have FOMO. Ride the waves becuase it all flattens out in teh long term. That’s a guarantee.

#8: Make your Money Invincible

The reason lottery winners, HS dropout college sports starts and anyone frivolous with money losses it faster than anyone else with less is because they see it as something that should be used ASAP. We have this illusion that money will escape if we don’t use it. Rest assured, it only will if you, well, use it! If you save and invest it, it will only grow in a hidden way.

There is no point in showing off your wealth anyway. Those who see you wearing Gucci and in debt will never be willing to help you out. I believe highly in stealth wealth not becuase more opportunities arise simply by staying grounded and caring to be less of a show-off, you become a better person inside and an inspiration for others.

The next time you get paid or money goes into your checking account, immediately move it into an investment brokerage account or put it somewhere where you can’t touch it and use it on discretionary silly items that you don’t need. The reward of saving isn’t as gratifying in the short term but in the long term when you accumulate all of that extra cash simply by being diligent and patient, you will thank yourself big time.

The biggest regrets we have in life have to do with money. Everything has to do with our wallets becuase it is prevalent and guides our decisions, where we live, what we eat, who we hang out with, so on and so forth. Those who’ve adopted these habits not only feel more internal confidence in building wealth to create a long-lasting beautiful future for themselves, they never feel the stress about getting evicted, not having the fanciest dress, money at every decision nor staying on top of the hot trends of Robinhood.

KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid. Financial markets and history repeats itself so adopt these habits earlier than later.