How To Build Wealth From Zero Using Relentless Frugality | Graham Stephan

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0:39What would you say are the three habits that you started to develop early on when you didn't have a lot of money into becoming a millionaire? there. Could you think back on three specific habits that supported you from going from $50 ,000 to$100 ,000 a year to breaking into the first million?

0:58Graham Stephan:Yeah, I would say definitely consistency. I was relentless in just keeping the same habits over and over and over again. I would then say it was the focus of just, I had one goal in mind of just like, I'm going to do this one thing and do it really, really, really well. That's all I wanted to do uh and i would also say um saving money i mean i lived really really really frugally you're obsessed about that probably too frugal i was too frugal you were like every penny yeah i can't go out and have an extra sushi i can't let you down oh not even like i wouldn't even do the sushi um it was probably unhealthy i mean looking back like i i can't have regrets about it but i mean it got to a point where i remember i was talking about this yesterday i was calculating the cost of gas to go and visit a friend and i determined it's how bad it is though like the cost of gas was not worth the time i would be able to spend with his friend and like i did the the analysis on that and thinking well if i'm only gonna see for two hours and it's gonna cost me x amount like that's stupid like i should not be looking at it like that but that's how i was in the beginning where did that come from is that like a childhood learned behavior Did you model that from somewhere?

2:12Were you just, like, why did you feel like you needed to be so obsessive about every penny and decisions of, like, driving to see a friend? Is it worth the money? Like, when?

2:22Graham Stephan:Yeah. A lot of it I thought of, like, how much I would be making or the cost of, like, my time and then extrapolating from there, like, what my time is worth doing certain activities. There was also another point. I must have been like 15 years old, maybe 16 and I just got my driver's license. And I remembered like how far$20 could get you. And I was like, okay, if I have$20 and that's my budget and that's what I'm spending, I could put$10 in the gas tank. I could spend$5 on a Subway footlong sandwich. And that's like two meals to$2.50 per meal. And then I have another$5 left over for like miscellaneous.

3:02Graham Stephan:Like I remember breaking it down to that degree. and then just from there you know taking that to well here's what a dollar could buy and just like appreciating that but then also going through uh there was a time briefly i think i think the job was like six weeks i worked at this uh gold precious metals bullion investment firm i did data entry because i thought i wanted to like be an investment banger i'm like this is a great way to get experience it wasn't but i think i was i think i must have been paid like seven dollars and 75 cents an hour like it was maybe eight bucks like max and this was back in early 2008 um and i remember thinking okay like if i'm making like eight dollars an hour is a subway sandwich worth 40 minutes of that no and then how could i stretch that further so i just thought everything in terms of like going back to making like eight bucks an hour wow did your parents teach you lessons about money early on?

3:58Did you have money mentors? No. What were the things, what were the beliefs you had early on around money? Like, what did you think when you thought of money, when money came in, did you think I need to save it? Did you think money was good? Money was bad? You know, what were your beliefs about it?

4:14Graham Stephan:Yeah, I never thought money was bad. I had always been obsessed with, I guess, like saving and collecting. Like even as a kid, I think it was my grandpa showed me like his coin collection. And I thought it was so cool. And he's, and he showed me a picture of like a 1909 SVDB penny it's like these pennies are out there still they like X amount that are probably still in circulation and like every like and I was like maybe six years old I just be checking pennies like every penny would be like this is a 1909 SVDB I think I never found one but I just been obsessed with I think just saving collecting like I even if I got like birthday money or Christmas money like I would say that I wouldn't spend it and And I liked just to see that accumulate in like an envelope in my room.

4:56Graham Stephan:Or a piggy bank or something, yeah. Yeah, it'd be like a hundred bucks or something like that. Like the whole year's worth of like saving and collecting. I just naturally, I think, gravitated towards that.

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