How To Build Wealth In 2024

0:00Hey guys, so have you been feeling a little bit stuck or frustrated with your progress? I know that I hear that often from so many of you. And I wanted to tell you about something called Growth Day. Write this down, growthday.com forward slash ed. My friend Brendan Brouchard, who here on the show from time to time, has created the single best personal development app that has ever existed on the planet, and it's incredibly affordable. And I am now contributing to that app on a regular basis. So I do Monday Motivations in there. I do different trainings in there. Plus, you get access to some of the best courses that have ever been built on business, entrepreneurship, success, time management, peace of mind, your physical body.

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1:53this is the Ed Myland Show all right welcome back to the show everybody today we're going to talk about money so many have been emailing and dming the show saying would you please Ed discuss budgeting and finances a little bit more saving retirement and debt so that's what we're going to cover today. We're going to talk about savings, retirement, and debt. And it's something I'm very concerned about. It's very much on my heart. Before I get into some of the things I'm going to cover, let me just say, I'm not coming to you on some soapbox, some guru or expert on a high horse, you know, thinking I have everything figured out or that I'm perfect.

2:27I'm actually today coming to you. You're listening to somebody who understands. I've had cars repossessed, unfortunately. I know what it's like to be behind on your credit cards and have them taken from you. I know what it's like to have a house foreclosed on. I know what it's like to really consider bankruptcy. I've had my power turned off. I've had my mobile phone turned off before. This is not stuff I'm proud of. I've had the water turned off. Man, you don't want that to happen. And most of that stuff was self-inflicted for mistakes that I made. And so I don't want you to make those mistakes.

2:57And I see so much terrible advice on podcasts from these gurus. Social media, the different examples that are held out there about what wealth looks like and what being rich looks like and what the right things are to do financially. And so we're going to talk about some of those mistakes I've made and that I see being made in the world today. And it pains me. Let me give you some statistics first. If you make$80 ,000 a year, do you know about how much money you have to have saved in order to retire just at the same standard of living? And when I say same standard of living, I'm not talking about now you're retired, you get to take extravagant vacations or anything like that.

3:31I mean, just to live the same as you live right now with your job. If you make$80 ,000 a year, how much money do you think you have to have saved? Well, the data tells us you need about$2 million saved after taxes. So what that means is a lot of you say, well, I've got money on my 401k. You do understand. You haven't paid your taxes yet when that money comes out of that 401k or that IRA. So after taxes, you need about$2 million saved if you make$80 ,000 a year to provide the same standard of living. How do we know that? Well, at a$2 million amount of money, 4 % interest on that would spit off about$80 ,000 a year.

4:06You could live at about the same standard of living that you currently live at now. Are you on pace to do that? Because let me tell you what the average American, the median American, has saved in the median. $5 ,000. $5 ,000 is the median. There's a difference between the median and the average. The median is the person in the middle. The average is when you take all of the affluent people, wealthy people, and all the people that have nothing. The average savings is about$100 ,000 currently. The median is five grand. That's a problem because when you look at debt, the average American has$114 ,000 of consumer debt.

4:43$114 ,000. That doesn't count their home loan. That's college loans, car loans, credit card debt. Average person carries about$10 ,000 on a credit card. Average interest rate about 15%. Can you see there's a problem? We are in a consumer culture. We're in a culture that tells us to spend, spend, spend to keep up with people. We've also got a lot of influencers out there telling you to get rid of all of your money, that you should just, every dollar you get, you should get rid of it, spend it somehow or invest it and stay broke so you stay hungry. Let me say something to you about that first of all.

5:15That's terrible advice. This idea that the only way you can stay driven and hungry is to remain broke or to get rid of all of your money is insane. If your motivation level is so low that you need to deplete all of your cash in order to stay hungry and motivated. You don't need to check your bank account. You need to check your actual inspiration level. That's insane. And so the other thing that's in our culture today, and I'm going to give you some of the keys, is that we're trying to keep up with the Joneses. We're trying to impress people by buying really expensive things. Let me say something to you.

5:44I've been very fortunate. I've had, you know, like I said, I've been, you're listening to somebody today who's had their car repossessed, home foreclosed on, power turned off, water turned off. None of those are things that I'm very proud of, okay? But I've also been blessed to become very wealthy. I've been blessed to, you know, I've driven every car you could possibly ever have. I've owned them all, basically most all of them. I've had six different jets, including a Global Express that I bought from Oracle. I own my own island, right? I've owned multiple oceanfront homes. My studio right now is in one of them.

6:13I've owned some of the homes in the nicest neighborhoods in the world. I've had, you know, all the material things you could possibly want. And let me tell you something. They're really nice to have, but you can't enjoy them if you're broke. living in a really nice house that you can't afford and that you're sweating the payment on all the time is no way to live. And trying to keep up with people to impress people who don't care by buying stuff you don't need is insane. And I see it happening. And so striving to impress people with material things, let me just say this to you up front, doesn't work.

6:43It doesn't impress them. And for the few that it does impress, those are the wrong types of people. You want people to be impressed with the content of your character, with the way you live your life, the way you treat your family and other people. And if to get them to be impressed by you, you need a particular purse or a particular jacket or pair of shoes, those are people whose approval you don't want anyway. Yet we seek it, don't we, to keep up with people. We're in a consumer culture, which is why consumer debt is so high relative to savings. And so, and by the way, if you're a young person, listen to you go, well, I don't care about retirement.

7:15That's 30, 40 years away. First off, it's going to happen faster than you think. Let me ask you this. Do you want to be in control of your life? Do you want to be able to call the shots and not have the world dictate shots to you? Do you want to be able to help your parents or your siblings or your friends at any time you want to? Do you want to be able to take advantage of opportunities when they come along and be able to write a check at any time you want to buy something on discount that's an asset as opposed to a liability? So at any age, you should be saving money. I figured this out. By the time I was about 23, I had made some money.

7:43And like I said, I had a house foreclosed, a car repoed, and I started to change the way I viewed things. I found out most of these people I was impressing with these cars that I had, they weren't around once I didn't have them. They weren't impressed with me. They were impressed with the car. And you know the other thing about nice stuff? It's out of style in like two or three years anyway. Right? Like the truth is even a nice house you have, stylistically in 10 or 12 years it's dated. It just is. What I started to get addicted to was watching my savings account grow, watching my investments grow, watching my assets grow.

8:14I got more fired up every month saving money, stacking paper, than I did with what I was buying to impress people. And then I'm going to give you the keys in a minute. I'm 52 years old. I'm worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I've made hundreds of millions of dollars. And I've only bought two new cars in my entire life. Because buying a new car is one of the dumbest things you could do. You should be either leasing your cars or buying them used. Let someone else pay all that depreciation. You let that thing drive off the car lot. Let them drive it for a year or two, and then you buy that thing at a discount.

8:45It's still going to drop after you buy it, but not at the same rate as the dummy who buys the new car. So let's go through a few things here that can help you. Number one, by the way, that stat I gave you earlier, if you make$80 ,000 a year, you need$2 million. That's if you're retiring today. If you make$80 ,000 a year and you're retiring 30 years from now, if you factor in inflation, you'll need$5 million. So you have to start to ask yourself, are you on pace? Are you doing the things that will get you wealthy? And that's where I want to begin. The first thing you have to do when it comes to money is get some goals and some outcomes.

9:17And this is for everybody who makes minimum wage all the way up to those of you that are making six or seven and even eight figures. You need to have financial outcomes, a financial focus. If you don't invest or save money when you're making very little, you will not invest or save money when you're making a lot. That's one of the great fallacies and lies about money is that people think, well, I'm on this limited amount of income. So once I make more, I'll save more. That's not what I see happen. I see someone making$40 ,000 a year living paycheck to paycheck. And then when they're making$70 ,000, now instead of driving a Honda, maybe they got a Lexus.

9:55Instead of having a so-so apartment, they got a nice apartment. And then when they go from$70 ,000 to$100 ,000, then they upgrade from the Lexus to the Mercedes, and they buy a house, and they deplete their savings buying a house. And then when they go from$100 ,000, if they do, to$150 ,000, they get rid of that house, They get a more expensive house. And then they got a second car and a second house. And they never get around to really accumulating any savings. In other words, they upgrade their lifestyle as they make more money. Smart people don't change their lifestyle for a long, long time when they begin to make more money.

10:30And they begin to build the habits and disciplines of a wealthy person when they're a broke person. I was saving money. See, here's how old I am. I was making minimum wage working McKinley Home for Boys, working at an orphanage that I worked at. And I was making minimum wage, which back then was$8 an hour. And I was still finding a way to save$50 a month in a savings, in a forced savings. Because I wasn't going to Starbucks. I didn't have cable TV. I eliminated basic things because I wanted to build it. And I started to get excited. Wow, I've got$300 saved. I've got$1 ,500 saved. I've got$6 ,000 saved.

11:06As my friends were buying expensive cars. In fact, there's a great story I tell often that even when I started to make money, I wanted to buy a Mercedes. I bought a fake one. I bought a kit car. I bought a Chrysler LeBaron with a Mercedes body on it because I wanted to look like I was driving a Mercedes, but I want to spend the money. That's a true story, by the way. I had a kit car. It was a LeBaron with a Mercedes body on it because I was so addicted to saving and accumulating money. So it's that time of year. Everybody's talking about forming new habits. You change your habits, you're going to change your life, right?

11:37Well, I'm sure you've started some new habits this year, but how are you going to track those habits? Have you ever wondered which habits matter more than the other ones? What do the high performers do in life? What do the ultra successful do? Do you track them daily, monthly, weekly? There's all these different things. And a lot of people know they need to improve their habits, but they don't know where to start. And that's why I think you're going to love Growth Day. You keep hearing me talk about Growth Day over and over again because I'm such a believer in the tools and the environment and the system that Growth Day provides.

12:08and it's affordable, which is most important. Growth Day is the number one personal development system in the world, help you track your habits, lead to long-term success and wellbeing. You can score your life every day, week and month in there. Plus you're part of a community of people that are achieving and changing their lives at the same time. You get target video training, you get live training from people like me in there, Brennan Bouchard, Trent Shelton, just to name a few. Courses from some of the top leaders that have ever existed in personal development and business all come as a part of the package.

12:40So you can even score your life in different categories on there, finances, mission, relationships, mindset. And the reason I think people love Growth Day the most is that you can finally understand what matters and you can score your habits and actually create a real change in your life. And like I said, I feel like it's very affordable. What you measure, you can change. So hop into growthday.com forward slash ed today and start being serious about measuring and improving every area of your life. Listen, you deserve to know and you deserve to grow and win. So Monday Motivation videos by me are in there every Monday.

13:13You get a free trial at growthday.com forward slash ed. Let me say that to you again. You can actually get a free trial right now at growthday.com forward slash ed. Go check it out. Growth Day is the place where I can help you stay on track and have your A game all year long. Growthday.com forward slash ed. Well, first things first, let me give you some keys. Number one is you need to decide what your outcomes are, what your goals are financially. Do you want to have financial freedom and independence? Right? That's one level of wealth. Or do you want to be like stone-ass wealthy? Those are two totally different things.

13:53And for a lot of people, the answer is, I just like some financial peace and independence. I don't have to have Lamborghinis and Jets and Islands and all these other things. but I sure would like to live financially peacefully. I'd like to someday not have to work. I'd like to pay off my house. I'd like to have a bunch of money saved. Whatever that is for you. I want some element. I don't want debt. Scriptures tell us, oh, no man, nothing. I'd like some financial peace in my life. And the truth is, I think most people see the wealthy thing on Instagram all the time and think that's what they want.

14:24But maybe it's not what you want. Maybe the truth is you just like more time. If you could just save enough money to pay all your bills and have your house taken care of and some basic stuff. Maybe you'd like to take more time off. And if you're one of those people who say, money's not that big of a deal to me, I get that. And the truth of the matter is that's how I started out. It was not that big of a deal to me. But I knew the lack of money. Man, I knew that was a real big deal. I didn't want to be broke. I don't want to be stressed. I did not want to be in a position in my life where I couldn't help my family if I needed to.

14:52And so my first goals were not to be super wealthy. They were to get financially independent. And the first step in doing that is you need to know your financial independence number, your FIN number. Your FIN number is the amount of money you need saved so that living off the interest on that money, you no longer need to work anymore. The next thing is this. You've got to stop going into debt. You've got to stop spending money to impress people. You've got to stop it. You've got to stop buying meals on credit. Stay out of malls, frankly. I've been to a mall maybe five times in 15 years. You know what?

15:25Monitor and really be smart about your Amazon account. Don't have people shipping you stuff you don't need to your house. Take a look at all your subscriptions. Do you need all of them? Do you need every single one of those subscriptions? Or could you eliminate some of those things if you're on a budget and start to put that money into savings? The next thing is to understand the distinction between three separate things. You need an emergency fund set up. An emergency fund is three to six months of your current expenses accessible at any given time. You need that money set aside. That's a case of a job loss, car breaks down, somebody needs some help, emergency.

15:59quite frankly life's just going to happen so the first things first is you need three to six months of money set aside in an emergency fund you should start to make that your goal and your ambition and start chipping away at doing that if you're someone making a lot of money right now carve that amount out and put it to the side the second thing that you need to do is you need to have savings savings is just money that you're accumulating that in case you need it it's there for a rainy day you should have some savings anybody who tells you you shouldn't is wrong in case you have some some measure of savings.

16:31And then the third thing is investing. That's money you're going to take that has some risk to it that you're going to try to get rates of return on. And I'm not going to tell you where to put that money today, but I can tell you that you need an emergency fund, savings, and then investments. The only advice I'll give you on saving money, because I'm licensed, I'm not, I can't recommend particular investments. What I will say to you is this, if you can't explain it to me, you shouldn't be putting your money in it. If you can't understand it and explain it back to me, it's not the place for you to be putting your money yet.

17:00And if you don't have a financial professional in your life who can explain things to you in a basic way so that you can understand them, you have to ask yourself why they're confusing you. You have to ask yourself that, right? Sometimes people like to make things seem very sophisticated and complex so that you think you need them and that maybe potentially you make a bad decision. You ought to be able to explain to me why your money's in there and how it works and what it's doing and anybody can do it. Even somebody who doesn't want to know a lot about financial education doesn't matter. You should be able to do that.

17:31Okay, so that's number one. The next thing is, as soon as you can afford it, make sure you have a competent tax person and CPA in your life. If you're someone making a lot of money, you really need a good tax person in your life. A professional competent tax or CPA, and you probably ought to be working with somebody who can help you with your money as well. Make sure you have a financial game plan and direct it, and make sure you're running a budget. Now, in my budget recommendations, here's what I'm going to ask you to do. I'm going to ask you to take the first 30 % of your money, if you can afford it, 30 % of your money, and give it to your tithing and to pay yourself first.

18:03If you can't do 30%, if it's down to even 10%, carve something out that you're going to give away and carve something out because of the law of reciprocity and carve something out that you pay yourself first every month. Take it off the top. Don't pay yourself last because you're never going to get paid. If you make$3 ,000 a month, take$50 and pay yourself first. And now you make$29.50 a month. You say, Ed, that sounds good. You're a rich guy. Listen, I spend every single dollar I do every month. I understand it. I've lived on minimum wage. And I'm telling you that even when I lived on minimum wage, I found a way to pay myself first.

18:38You need to get in control of your life. And the way you get in control of your life is you first control your spending. You control your budgeting. You control your financial discipline. You begin to make this a massive priority in your life that you're going to become somebody who is financially in control because if you start the habits of being financially in control eventually you will be in control and you will call the shots in your life so please budget and begin to save your money and don't invest in something you can't get clear on what you want and if you're younger start saving money now you'll build the habits of trust me i'm 52 years old i started doing this in my early 20s and i really believe that's why i'm wealthy stay with me on this.

19:17There's a bunch of people you see on social media that won't be rich someday, that look rich right now. I have more friends in my life, listen to me, those of you that are making a little bit of money, that used to be rich than that currently are. I've watched them go seasons of five or eight or ten years where they were balling. They were making real money. They were driving the nice car, the nice vacation. They bought this or that. And then bam, things changed. They got caught with their pants down financially. They had no money saved, no cash, dead up to their eyeballs. You're not. And so I have more friends that used to be rich than currently are because they weren't in control of themselves.

19:57They didn't have delayed gratification. They had no financial discipline, no budget, no game plan, no goals, no outcome. Now, when it comes to your investments, let me just say this to you. There's lots of places to save money. I can't recommend it. I know kind of the cool thing right now, and I've made a lot of money in real estate. That's a great place. You know, start flipping houses. That's one of the real vogue things. That's great. And you should, maybe that is what you should be doing, but you're one bad flip away from being broke too, which is why you still need cash saved. How about having a plan in your life where if it goes bad, you're still okay.

20:28And I'm not talking about, I know you, maybe you listen, you go, well, that's just a luxury I don't have. Of course you do. You can save some money. There are ways to do it. And if you're not making enough money, then you need to get a second job, Work a second job. I've had multiple jobs at any given time, many times. When I was an entrepreneur, many times I had to go back and get a night job to support my entrepreneurial hustle. Being an entrepreneur is not easy. Being an entrepreneur is difficult. You entrepreneurs listen to this. Maybe you're going behind for you. Maybe you need to get a job two days a week or stocking shelves at night.

20:59I stocked shelves at a grocery store for two years while I was building my business because my business wasn't keeping my family afloat. And I still had to save money. So some of you that are entrepreneurs, maybe it's getting a second job. Some of you that have a full-time job, maybe it's starting a second business. Maybe you need a second income stream. The truth is that in this day and age, with how crazy things cost and how out-of-control taxes are, you may need secondary income. So if you have a job, maybe it's starting a side hustle on the side or a second job. If you're an entrepreneur, maybe it's having a second job on the side that's part-time to support your business.

21:37it's okay to work a lot it's okay to have financial discipline it's okay to go through a season of your life where you sacrifice lots of things including time in order to get wealthy but the the hardest thing that i see the most heartbreaking thing are those people doing the grind making the sacrifice doing all the things to make money and then they have no game plan no financial discipline and they watch all these idiots on instagram or social media go man i gotta have the car i gotta to have the house. I got to have the nightclub. I got to have the steak, man. Sometimes even me, when I show the things I have, I've got, you know, I'm lucky now in this video, I got a stupid expensive watch on, right?