What's REALLY Holding You Back from Financial Freedom

Are you truly prepared for the future, or are you just hoping things will work out? In today’s episode, I’m sounding the alarm on where we’re heading financially and what that means for your future. This isn’t just about goals or dreams—this is about waking up to the reality of what’s happening around us. The cost of living is skyrocketing, wages are stagnating, and inflation is eating away at our savings. Whether you’re 22 or 62, it’s time to take a hard look at where you are and where you’re going. I’m sharing eye-opening stats, like how home prices have soared 138% in the past 15 years, while incomes have only risen 25%. This trend isn’t getting any better, and if you don’t make changes now, you could find yourself working harder just to keep your head above water. It’s time to stop waiting for someone else to save you—no politician, no influencer, no external force is going to fix this for you. I’m challenging you to think about your career, your spending habits, and your future. If you’re not earning enough, it’s time to consider new skills, a side hustle, or even a complete career change. The world is evolving fast, and so must you. I’m not going to sugarcoat it—this path won’t be easy. But if you want to rise above the average, you’ve got to be willing to put in the work and develop skills that make you undeniable. Remember, your future won’t be shaped by chance—it will be determined by the actions you take today. This episode is about confronting the truth, taking control of your life, and making the decisions that will set you and your family up for success. Key Takeaways: - The alarming gap between rising costs and stagnant wages - Why relying on traditional savings or a single income stream may not be enough - The importance of developing skills that make you irreplaceable - How to think differently about spending and saving in today’s economy - Why now is the time to take control of your financial future This episode is your wake-up call to stop coasting and start making strategic decisions about your life. It’s not about fear, but about preparation. The future is coming whether you’re ready or not, and today’s the day to decide where you fit into it. Max out your life! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  So hey guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive. And the question is, how do you find a way to get an edge? I'm a big believer that if you're getting mentoring or you're in an environment that causes growth, a growth-based environment, that you're much more likely to grow and you're going to grow faster. And that's why I love Growth Day. Growth Day is an app that my friend Brendan Burchard has created that I'm a big fan of. Write this down, growthday.com/ed. So if you want to be more productive, by the way, he's asked me, I post videos in there every single Monday that gets your day off to the right start. He's got about $5,000, $10,000 worth of courses that are in there that come with the app. Also, some of the top influencers in the world are all posting content in there on a regular basis, like having the Avengers of personal development and business in one app. And I'm honored that he asked me to be a part of it as well and contribute on a weekly basis, and I do.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  So go over there and get signed up. You're going to get a free, tuition-free voucher to go to an event with Brendan and myself and a bunch of other influencers as well. So you get a free event out of it also. So go to growthday.com/ed. That's growthday.com/ed. I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too.

• 1:30Ed Mylett?

  And you definitely can't afford to waste it waiting weeks on a big bank for capital. Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason. Over 20 years in business, over 12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff, borrow better.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  This is the Enmired Show.

• 2:12Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back to the show, everybody. So I'm really excited about this week's show because it's gonna be a little bit different. You know, usually what we do on the show is you guys submit a topic, or I come up with a topic that could be and any number of different ideas. It could be about personal development, self-confidence, peak performance, spirituality, uh, mental programming, you name it. We go through all kinds of different stuff. Health and wellness, family, achievements, success, bliss, you name it. And then I usually say, and here's eight keys, or nine strategies, or 10 of this or that. And this week, I don't know that there's an easy answer to what I want to cover, but what I want to do is begin to get you to think this week. Because I'm, I have growing concerns about frankly, the future for so many of us. Especially when it becomes, when it comes to the topic of money, which is one of the most

• 2:54Ed Mylett?

  popular topics that I cover on the show because I don't cover it very often. And what I want this to be this week is you're listening, or you're on your ride, or you're running on the treadmill, or you're watching this on YouTube, wherever it might be. That you really give some thought as to the future of your own life. And what it's going to look like 10 and 20 and 30 years down the road. And I don't say that in the normal way I talk about on the show, where we talk about our dreams and our vision. I want you to have an audit of your life today because I have some concerns. All of the data that I look at doesn't bode well for millions and millions of people, especially in the United States, when it comes to retirement, when it comes to money, when it comes to creating experiences for their family, stress, etc. And so I want to give you some stats first.

• 3:37Ed Mylett?

  Just to sort of set the stage. And when I give you these stats about everybody else, I want you to think about your life. I don't care if you're 22 years old, listening to this, or 72 years old. And believe it or not, our audience is so diverse. We have people from every walk of life, all over the world, all different demographics, listen to the show or watch the show. And so you gotta see you in these stats, and they matter. And I want you to wake up and listen very closely today as I cover these things because somebody needs to bring this to your attention. And I gotta get you thinking about it. And I'll try to give you a couple ideas, but more today is illuminating the truth. And defining it, you know, there's so many distractions to the truth in the world today with, you know, all the world issues going on and we're in an election season, the time that I

• 4:21Ed Mylett?

  am recording this. And so there's all these things that will get us to look around and look outside of ourselves for answers to some of these problems and none of these problems are going to solve themselves. No government person is going to solve them for you, no actor, no reality TV star, no influencer on social media is going to solve these problems. These are real issues. And I worry sometimes that we're so distracted that we don't look at our own lives. And it concerns me and I don't want you to wake up 10 years from now, if you're 22, go, my gosh, I'm 32 years old. I've still got student debt and I'm not in the job or the career that I want. Or if you're 52 years old and you wake up in 10 years and now you're 62 years old and you're a few years from retirement and you're millions of dollars short.

• 5:02Ed Mylett?

  And you look back at your life and go, I wish somebody would have alerted me and made me think because you're more resourceful than you believe you are. And if you really get focused on fixing something, I think you can fix it. You've got a powerful God that has your back as well. And so that combined, we can fix things. But we got to know what the problems are first. So let me just give you some statistics. First of all, I think these are going to blow your mind. Over the last 15 years in the United States, incomes have increased 25%. But the cost of a home has gone up 138%. Think about that. Incomes up 25, cost of a house 138. And I worry about for my children right now, them ever having the prospects of buying a home.

• 5:44Ed Mylett?

  I especially if somebody that live in California or states where homes are expensive. The idea of saving to $300,000 so you can put a deposit, a down payment down on a seven or 800,000 dollar house, which is what a lot of homes cost there. After taxes, saving 200 or 300,000 dollars after your 401k is funded, is almost impossible. And even if you live in the Midwest and you know, your home is 3, 4, 500,000 dollars, you have to accumulate $150,000 for a down payment on a home after taxes, after what everything costs nowadays to go to the grocery store? And that's just the deposit, the down payment on a house. And so, think about that for a minute, how crazy that is. Because, you know, there's two political parties in, in, in the United States.

• 6:28Ed Mylett?

  And one will give you their information on one, and one will give you the information on the other. You know, one will tell you that the rich don't pay their fair share. Well, statistically, here's the facts. The, the facts are that the bottom 50% of taxpayers in the United States pay 2% of the taxes. The, the bottom 50%, the bottom half, pay 2% of the taxes. The top 1% pay 46% of the taxes. So, the truth of the matter is, that's not a real truth. By the way, that's just income tax. That doesn't count the property taxes and sales taxes that affluent people tell. The other party, though, doesn't address the other problem, which is what I started with. People aren't making enough money. So, these companies are keeping so much of their money, that the big corporations are keeping so much, wages haven't gone up. The stat that I gave you in the beginning matters.

• 7:13Ed Mylett?

  It's a fact. Wages have only got up 25% over 15 years, but housing prices are up 138. So, it's harder and harder and harder for a family to build a great life. And this is now with almost every family having two incomes, and sometimes three or four incomes. So, one party who tells you the rich don't pay their fair share, that's not true. The rich pay most of the taxes. But the other party who tells you everything's great, they're not telling you the truth either. Because the fact of the matter is, people aren't making enough money to build a great life. And that's the middle class. Never mind working people on minimum wage, or, or poor people in our country. It's not fair. So, there's not a solution in the middle, and I'm not looking at one party or the other to fix it. They're both wrong. People ask me all the time, "Why don't you speak out on politics more on the show?"

• 7:57Ed Mylett?

  Because I'm not really a member of either place. I have my own beliefs, and some of them fit in one party, and some of them fit in another. But the fact of the matter is, they're both wrong. And we're not being served by it. One party that's kind of the party of, you, you figure more of the affluent. Well, wages aren't going up. People aren't making more money. In the 50s and 60s, you could have a single family, a single income in a family, and they could own a home and have a decent life, and take a couple of vacations, and retire. That's gone. Now, both mom and dad work. Sometimes mom works two jobs, dad works two jobs. Their wages are going up 25, houses are going up 138. And what happens to people like my kids' age? So, both are wrong. And so, I'm not waiting around for anybody politically to save me.

• 8:40Ed Mylett?

  The solution clearly is not raising more taxes. Because as taxes go up, the same people pay most of the taxes already, and then they don't pay higher wages. But the other problem is also true. When we've reduced taxes, these same wealthy people haven't given it back in wage growth. So, it's kind of a really interesting dichotomy, right? I'm gonna say this to you again. It's really true that the wealthy pay most of the taxes. But it is also true that when you cut their taxes, they don't increase wages for the people that they pay at the rate they used to. Certainly, big companies don't. So, this will give you an idea, give you a flavor. If you had a million dollars in 1985 with inflation that's out of control, people will tell you, "Well, inflation's gotten in control the last couple of years."

• 9:25Ed Mylett?

  Inflation's crazy. Go to a grocery store. Your entire order, it's crazy how much more food is right now. And wait till gas prices go back up. So, in 1985, if you had a million dollars, to this day in 2024, the same price, the same value of that million dollars, you would need 3.1 million dollars to provide the same level of wealth that a million did in 1985. Now, let me ask you a question. How many of you currently have 3.5 million dollars saved right now? And by the way, what will you need 20 and 30 years from now? This idea that, you know, you're a millionaire. That was a big deal in 1985. Being a millionaire today is not in any way a super extensive lifestyle like it once was.

• 10:10Ed Mylett?

  That's a term, you know, I have a friend of mine go, "Hey, so-and-so's a six-figure earner." And as if that's an impressive thing, or that they're wealthy. Well, six figures was a lot of money in 1985. It's not a lot of money in 2024. Not with what things cost. And if you're not at six figures, where are you? I mean, you're really falling behind. And that may be of no fault of your own. It blows my mind that a schoolteacher in our country can't make six figures. It blows my mind that, you know, first responders don't start off in many cases at six figures. It blows my mind what companies pay people for the positions they're in now. It also blows my mind that the solution is just to tax the people to pay all the taxes anyways. And so, a couple more stats, okay? The average American right now has a $48,000 car,

• 10:55Ed Mylett?

  and their average salary is $45,000. Think that through. The average person, their salary a year is less than how much their car costs them to buy. The average person who makes a hundred thousand dollars a year also owns two cars and their family, and those cars are valued at a hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars. So it turns out, actually, the person who thinks they're doing well, they're doing worse than the person who knows they're not doing well. You make a hundred thousand dollars a year, both your cars are worth a hundred and twenty-seven thousand dollars, you paid for them. So most people spend more money on their car or cars than they do what they actually make in a year. This is scary stuff, okay? They also carry, the average person also carries about seventy thousand dollars of

• 11:40Ed Mylett?

  student or consumer debt combined. Right now to this day. Seventy thousand dollars. Couple more stats, and then I'll stop painting the sign of what I'm so worried about. This is now the first time in our country where the average American has a net negative savings rate. That means in the history of our country, it's the first time the average person owes more money on consumer debt than they have in savings. They owe more money on credit cards, they owe more money on student loans than they actually have saved. And most people, most of their savings is through forced savings at their job through a 401K, and that money's not been taxed yet. And most people don't even understand that. And so that is not, you say, "Oh, I got seventy thousand dollars in my 401K." No, you don't. You have seventy thousand dollars before the taxes in your 401K.

• 12:25Ed Mylett?

  And then you gotta ask yourself a question. When you retire, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, 40 years from now, are taxes likely to be higher or lower at that time? So then, let's just say they were 40% then. So that's seventy thousand dollars you've got is now forty-five thousand dollars, right? This episode is sponsored by Ro. A lot of people assume GLP-1's cost a fortune, and that assumption keeps them from even looking into treatment. Ro helps people find a more affordable path to FDA-approved GLP-1 treatment. Ro wants to help people lose weight, that's why they have more affordable GLP-1 options, whether you're paying with insurance or cash. Ro's free insurance checker makes it easy to see if you're covered for GLP-1 injections. Just submit your insurance card. And Ro handles the rest.

• 13:09Ed Mylett?

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• 13:52Ed Mylett?

  My wife wanted to get this new garden bed and Wayfair was the place that offered the perfect solution. Wayfair also helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value and trusted reviews. Wayfair verified products are hand vetted by product specialists. They use a 10-point quality inspection system. Here's what I can tell you. The stuff has lasted over time. It looks great and I get compliments on it. Shop thousands of products across every style and budget, whether you're trying to refresh your space for fall or transform your space for Halloween. Use filters, custom photos and reviews to find the right fit for your home. More than 20 million verified five-star reviews. 20 million. So transform your space with the pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5% back on every purchase.

• 14:33Ed Mylett?

  Head to wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com.

• 14:48Ed Mylett?

  So this is scary stuff and we don't ever stop and think about it because we just kind of go on with our lives. I'm voting for so and so, I'm voting for the other one. And all these things that are worthy of our attention end up distracting us from our own life. I don't want to say this to you again. No one's coming to save you. Nobody's coming to save you. I don't know about you, but I don't come from a family that has any money. So I didn't inherit any money. I'm not going to inherit. In fact, I've inherited a little bit of debt. Right? I'm not going to inherit money. No one's going to come with a, a, a magic, you know, pot of gold and pay off all my bills. No, that wasn't going to happen for me. I don't come from that type of a family. And my guess is 99.9% of you don't either. And all you've done is try to win in your life. You played the game the way you're supposed to play it.

• 15:32Ed Mylett?

  And I'm telling you that this is the reality now, and it's not getting better. The trends are getting worse. So I don't know what you feel, but I feel like, what if I could change my life? And then there's this other thing coming. And that is there's a revolution happening in the economy with AI. And if you start to study what's happening with artificial intelligence, we've always had AI, by the way. But now what it's able to do and what they're programming it to do is going to eliminate many careers. And if it doesn't eliminate them, it's going to make their wages suppressed because these robots will be able to do things on an automated basis that a human being can do. And so you won't need, your supply and demand will tell you that either it's going to eliminate millions of jobs or it's going to further suppress and reduce what people get paid to do them.

• 16:17Ed Mylett?

  This is a real thing. And I know some of you say, well, I'm in the trades. That doesn't affect me. Yes, it does. They're building robots right now that can flip and do drywall. They can, they're starting to learn how to 3D print a house. These are real things. These are, there's a prospect over the next 10 to 20 years that millions of jobs could be eroded. And the stats I just gave you, this is the current economy before things get suppressed. And that hopes that there's no major event that happens, no major terrorist event around the world, at least in the United States, they're happening around the world. Or that there's one big world type war. I didn't mean you to tune in today to get to the negative. What I did is to say, okay, wake up. What are you going to do? And I, I want you to ask yourself, you know what?

• 17:01Ed Mylett?

  I'm never going to retire at my pace, not the way I'd like to live my life. And what's more crazy to me is you go to a mall on the weekend, they're packed. People are still spending money like they have it. People still spend money to buy things to impress people who don't care. That's what blows my mind. We're a consumerist economy, right? Where we got to buy things to impress people. This watch, this purse, these shoes, right? I could tell you the wealthiest people I know, the mega wealthy people I know.

• 17:29Ed Mylett?

  Don't buy things to impress people. It's the ones sort of on the cusp that think they need those things. When you're actually really wealthy, I can tell you, because I've been through every stage. I've been poor, I've been middle class, and I've been wealthy. And I've been in between. I could tell you, when I was poor, I was just paycheck to paycheck. When I was middle or upper middle, I kind of wanted to buy things to impress people to look wealthier than I was and feel wealthier. But when I actually got wealthy, you actually almost, when you really get there, want to almost, I don't want to call it hide it, but you don't want to brag it or show it. And so like my main car, most of the time is a truck, most of the time. Favorite car I've ever owned, I've owned every car in the world. People think I'm crazy. I've owned Rolls Royces, Lamborghinis, Ferraris. You know, I've owned lots of different cars. I've owned jets, I'm blessed, right?

• 18:14Ed Mylett?

  My favorite car I've ever owned is my Ford Raptor. I love that car. And that's a great car, it's an expensive car, right? But it's my favorite of all of my cars, not the fanciest of ones. Because when you actually get wealthy, I don't think you want the attention of necessarily always being wealthy. The question becomes for you today, after I've laid all of this out as a friend, is are you listening a little more closely now? A little bit more awake? By the way, I'm an optimist. I believe there's solutions to everything. I think, but I can tell you this, at any given time, somebody's winning and people are losing. And if you want to be one of the people winning, you got to start to think and realize these are issues. What I just laid out for you here, most people don't care about. They're not paying any attention to. They'll get around to making their life great. They'll get around to making their dreams come true. They'll get around to starting their business.

• 18:58Ed Mylett?

  And then there's this other thing that worries me, if I can be candid, that I think social media, because what did you just conclude? What you just concluded is, man, I need another income. I need to control my future. I need to start a business. I need to start another business. I need a secondary income. If I've got a job, maybe I should start to find something part-time that could supplement my income. Get me a side hustle that I could supplement my income with, and then maybe that turns into a full-time gig. Maybe I need to start to study and learn a new trade or a new craft that's not going to be replaceable. Maybe I got to go start to chase my passion again, right? I want to become entrepreneur. And a lot of you that are listening to this are entrepreneurs. And here's one of my biggest concerns. I think social media has made entrepreneurship ridiculous.

• 19:39Ed Mylett?

  It makes it look easy. It makes it look like everyone's driving Lambos, everybody's on a yacht, everybody's taking vacation. It's a cakewalk. It's easy. Everyone's giggling and chuckling. They're at events. They're jumping up and down and singing and praying and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Entrepreneurship isn't like that. So if you, if you want to be an entrepreneur, it's a grind. It's difficult. As, as hard as you think it is to be an entrepreneur and build a great business, a million times harder. It's a grind. It's mentally taxing. There's early mornings, late nights. People let you down. There's ups and downs. There's no predictable income. Then the real entrepreneurs that are listening to this right now are like, amen, my let, man, tell them. Right? This stuff's hard. Building a great life is difficult. It's not easy.

• 20:20Ed Mylett?

  Right? And you gotta be, you almost gotta be like, put on armor and go, I'm gonna go do something great with my life. And I'm gonna have to wake up. I'm gonna have to make some changes. I'm gonna have to build some new skills. Cause here's what I know. The cream always rises to the top. If you're, if you get mega skilled at something, you become great at something that solves people's problems, that you're passionate about. Okay? I believe it rises to the top, but average, ordinary skills, average, ordinary thinking, average, ordinary life produces average, ordinary results. And I think it's heading in a direction where so many people are gonna be in a bad place. You have to be great. You have to get great at it. You have to be the best at it. And I don't know that enough people, at least in my case, I'm gonna say it to you today.

• 21:03Ed Mylett?

  You gotta get great at what you do. Are you the best in the world at what you do? Are you working on your skills? Are you working on your abilities? Do you get up most mornings fired up about your life? By the way, are most of your days difficult? Because if they are, that's a great sign that you're doing something awesome. Right? If most of your days, you're like, I don't know how I'm gonna fix this. I can tell you that's what entrepreneurship is. And if you're not an entrepreneur, what is your answer to this stuff I just shared with you? And maybe it's that you're gonna get so great in your chosen career that you're so awesome that the people in your company or industry can't deny you. And you're gonna get promoted and make progress in that career. I gotta tell you this. More than ever.

• 21:46Ed Mylett?

  It's gonna be the great people in every industry that survive and thrive. And people with average skills, average mindset, average savings habits are gonna mean a world of hurt. This AI thing's gonna change stuff, right? It's already trending in the wrong direction. So what's the answer for you? I could just tell you, I think that if you're in these, this stats, these data that I'm referring to, you need to consider either building an entire new skill that solves people's problems, or you need to start a business on the side, or you need to leave your career and start a full-time business at some point. That's what I believe. Okay? I think you gotta get so great that you're undeniable, so great that the market demands you. And more and more and more, it's not gonna be good enough to be in the average.

• 22:30Ed Mylett?

  You go to that mall on the weekend and watch people spend money on those tennis shoes and that purse and that shirt and, you know, guys, whatever, your pair of pants that you gotta have, you watch those people, okay? Then you go through what they think about, what they're planning on doing on Sunday night to start their week Monday. Most of it's just autopilot, they're gonna get in their car, they're gonna go to the same place, they're gonna do the same thing, they're gonna clock in, they're gonna clock out, they're gonna go spend money they don't have, they're gonna put money into their 401K that they're not gonna get for a million years, then get taxed on, and they're just gonna hope that someday stuff changes. And if that's you, I wanna challenge you today, say, "No, that's not the life I want. I'm gonna take control of my life." I'm gonna take control of my life by being aware, by being a saver, and I gotta make more money.

• 23:14Ed Mylett?

  I gotta help more people. And no, not everything in life is about getting wealthy, okay? No, not everything in life is, my gosh, about, you know, material things. I could just tell you, I've had most material things, it's overrated.

• 23:30Ed Mylett?

  But I can tell you what's not overrated, being able to protect your family, being able to care for your family. Many of you are gonna be in a situation someday, or are currently, where you're gonna have to take care of your children and your parents at the same time.

• 23:44Ed Mylett?

  Right now, you're having a hard time just taking care of yourself. Right? That's probably coming. What's not overrated is being able to call shots in your life. Being able to give to the charity or the church that you want to. Be able to help out a family member in need. What's not overrated is being proud of yourself. What's not overrated is being great. What's not overrated is overcoming a bunch of adversity and difficult times. And being proud of yourself for how tough and resilient you are. And getting to the other side of it. As great as you think it's going to be to make your dreams come true. It's pretty damn good, but let me tell you what's even greater. Making the dreams come true of the people that you love. Being the rock in your family. As I call it, the one. And every family that wins, that's happy.

• 24:29Ed Mylett?

  Or faith-based. Or wealthy, any one of the three or all of the three. There's one person that changes that family forever, generationally. One person rises up and says, I'm the one. I'll take the shots. I'll take the risks. I'll get up early. I'll stay out late. I'll get great in my career so that I'm undeniable. Or I'm going to get great in my career and start a business. Or even though I'm full-time hustling, I've got a side hustle for my family that I want to win in. Okay? I want to challenge you today to not be a statistic. So you know those pieces in your closet that you find yourself wearing like on repeat all the time? That sweater that kind of just goes with everything or these perfect pair of pants? Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy. And that's what Quince does best.

• 25:11Ed Mylett?

  Quince focuses on high-quality wardrobe staples with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton. The styles are timeless, versatile, and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for every day. It's what I'm wearing right now. They give you the softness and quality you'd expect from a luxury brand without the price tag. Quince also makes premium pants, fitted tees and polos, and breathable activewear. Quality basics designed to work with your wardrobe and hold up to everyday wear. I love their cotton tees. I'm wearing one now and I get a ton of compliments when I wear them on the podcast and when I speak. So find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com/ed for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too.

• 25:54Ed Mylett?

  That's Q U I N C E dot com slash ed.

• 26:00Ed Mylett?

  One thing about that too, I can tell you something very interesting. My friends that make fifty to sixty thousand dollars a year, by and large, are actually doing slightly better than my friends that make between eighty and one-ten. You think that's impossible? Well, here's why. The ones that are making fifty and sixty thousand dollars a year, by necessity, every single month, they're smart with their money. They're smart with their home purchase or their apartment rent. They're smart with their car purchases, where they spend money on food, the different things they buy. They're smarter. And once you get to that eighty to one-ten, you become somewhat delusional. You start thinking you're pretty wealthy. You start thinking you're pretty successful. You start imagining that this income's just gonna keep going up all the time.

• 26:45Ed Mylett?

  And I find that a lot of people between eighty and one-ten, eighty and one-twenty, aren't self-aware at all. They start buying a car they can't afford. They start going to restaurants they don't need to be going to too often. They start buying consumer goods that are outside their means to impress people who don't care. And ironically, that's sort of the delusional state. Now, once people get to three, four, five, six hundred thousand dollars a year, there's other things that come with that. But I gotta be candid with you about that as well. A lot of these people that you see that make three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, a million dollars a year, I know many of them, and many of them have no money either. They have not learned to control the beast within them to spend the money they make. And so, no matter what they make, they spend all of it. But ironically, income is not a direct correlation to comfort and wealth.

• 27:31Ed Mylett?

  It's just not. And so, don't always just think by making more money, your life's gonna get better. You gotta get in control of yourself, of your money, of your spending, of your mind, of your spirit, and what really matters to you in your life. I'm not saying don't have nice things. I'm wearing a very nice watch right now. I have a couple of them. And I bought them way after I could afford them, way after. I don't ever finance things like that. I always pay cash if I'm gonna have something stupid, like a watch on my wrist. It's gonna be something that I know that I can afford, that I'm not gonna miss the money when I spend it. But I did not become a wealthy man by buying watches to impress people. Way early in my life, I didn't do that. I saved and saved and saved and I finally started buying some stupid things at the point where it almost didn't matter.

• 28:13Ed Mylett?

  So ironically, sometimes people that make 50 to 60,000 a year are smarter with their money by necessity than people that make 80, 100, or even 200,000 dollars a year. Be smart. The money you make is a blessing. This body you have is your temple. Treat your body like a temple. Train it. Get it fit. Get it hydrated. Get it strong. Get it pliable. Get it flexible. Right? And with your money, it's a blessing when it comes in. And so you should treat it as such. Don't treat it as something that's just gonna keep coming in like it's always gonna be there because it may not. And the reason I bring this to your attention is I really believe there's a wide open lane for awake people. For alert people. For aware people. For intentional people. I had told my daughter this the other day and I want to say it to you just to give you advice.

• 28:59Ed Mylett?

  She's a, she's a junior in college and she's like daddy, I've got another year or two and be out in the real world and. You know, it's, it's a dog eat, dog world daddy. And I said, really Bella, I think you're only competing with 10% of the people. And she says, what do you mean? And I said, I think 90% of people are sleepwalking through their lives. They're just on to the next barbecue. They're on to the next television episode of the show they love. They're on to the next thing on Netflix. They're on to the next football game on Sunday. They're not spending any time working on themselves, working on their craft, getting great, developing their body. Getting fit, getting strong, developing their mind so that it's a weapon, developing their resiliency and toughness.

• 29:42Ed Mylett?

  Most people aren't putting themselves in difficult situations where they're probably gonna fail, where they learn all the great lessons of life. Where they're not comfortable. Most people are just kinda going all on the crowded road of life. All going in the same direction. The football game, the barbecue, the political issue, the thing on TV, the thing everyone's got the answer for. Their opinion about X, Y, or Z. They're all kinda sheep. Living life asleep, not aware that time is ticking by, that they're falling further and further behind. And I said, Bella, what I know about you is you're not going to be one of those people because you were raised by me and I know how you think. You want to be somebody, you work on yourself.

• 30:24Ed Mylett?

  Your fitness, your faith, your mental toughness matters. You want to be somebody, you want to do something great with your life. You live intentionally, you're self-aware. You understand the statistics. You saw your daddy when he was poor. You saw your daddy when he was middle-class. And you saw your daddy when we got to the other side. And you know, the big difference isn't how, where we live or our house. The big difference is all the people we can help. All the difference we can make, the places we can dedicate our time and money to, because daddy worked on himself, daddy got better. And you know daddy's not that talented. Daddy's not that smart. But daddy will fight for his family. Daddy will fight to win. Daddy's not going to be a statistic. The Mylett family, the thumbs, the world's not going to have their thumb on our family anymore. And so really Bella, nine out of 10 people sleepwalk through life.

• 31:09Ed Mylett?

  That other 10%, that's a dogfight. You're going to be competing with 10% of the people. And that 10%, I really believe this Bella. If you work hard, you live right, you continue to grow, you learn from your mistakes. Now you're competing against 1 or 2%. And then it gets good. And I said, here's the other thing Bella Boo. Nobody has it all figured out. Nobody has all the answers. Most people are faking it, including your daddy, most of the time. But I'm willing to put myself in spaces and positions to win, even if I don't have all the answers, even if I might fail. And I have no illusions that entrepreneurship, or even leading a company if you're a CEO, or having a job is easy. I don't believe the Lambo life on Instagram. I don't, I don't believe any of that stuff. I know it's difficult. I'm built for the fight.

• 31:54Ed Mylett?

  I'm built to do something great and so are you. And as I say that to my daughter, I want to ask you something. Are you really wanting to do something great with your life? Because I could just tell you, it's trending in a direction. You guys, a million dollars in 85, you need 3 million for the same now? The average person's car? Costs more than they make a year? And maybe you'll say, well, wait a minute, I just did the math. That's not true for me. I mean, I make 80,000 a year and my car was only 50. Did you hear what you just said? Did you hear what you just said?

• 32:30Ed Mylett?

  That's not gonna work. That's not gonna work. And by the way, you will never stop working at this pace. So I just want to challenge you sister or brother. This week is just sort of a wake up call about where the world is. And you can decide based on what I described where you fit in it and where you want to fit in it. But I could tell you this, no one's coming to save you. It's time, a lot of you guys out there that are leading families, it's time not to be a boy anymore. It's time to be a grown man and win for your family. You hear me? It's time to step up. It's time to step up. It's time to, hey, maybe you need to start a second career dad. You young men out there that aren't married yet, that don't have kids, right now you're working for those kids someday. Right now you're working to take care of your mom and dad. Okay?

• 33:15Ed Mylett?

  Don't be casual about it. Don't be like everybody else. Don't be a sheep. Don't be a sleepwalker. Get up. Do something great. Get great at what you do. Build your body, build your minds, build your spirituality. Build your resiliency. Put yourself in situations where you're probably gonna fail and learn a ton. You ladies out there, you moms, it may have to be you. Maybe you, you single moms out there? Your children are looking at you? And let me tell you something, everything with your kids is caught, not taught. Is mommy fighting for our family? Is she giving? Is she giving everything she's got? Is she starting a business? Is she working on herself? What's she reading? Where's she going to the gym? Man, imagine if your kids copied you. Right? And then I would just ask yourself this question.

• 33:57Ed Mylett?

  Would you wish your life on your children?

• 34:01Ed Mylett?

  Like right now, if I said, your daughter can have your life. Your son can have your life. Would you wish your life for them?

• 34:11Ed Mylett?

  Okay, I say this to you as like a brother. Then I wish better for you. If the answer to that question is no, I want them to have better, I want better for you. You're still alive. You can still turn this around. And maybe it's going pretty good. Pretty good's not your standard. You want to live a great life. When it's over and they plant you in the ground. You want to go, hey? It was pretty good. Both of them standing there going, yeah, she had a pretty good one. Pretty good. Pretty good. Is that what you want? Or do you want them to go, wow, what a life. Those memories. Look at that difference. Man, she turned it around. At that age, she turned it around. She started a business. She wrote a book.

• 34:55Ed Mylett?

  She started speaking. She started that career. She did this. She did that. You men out there, what do you want at the end of your life when your kids are standing around? You young men that are listeners don't even have kids yet. You know exactly what I'm talking. By the way, if your parents are still alive, when they're in their final days, what do you want them knowing about their son? Where he is in his life? How proud he's made them? Right? You should think about that stuff today. And I believe there's a lane for you. I believe that lane is shrinking, but in some ways, it's wide open because more and more people are going down the road that I've described. And if you can just not go with the flow, just don't go where everybody else is going. Don't go with the in-crowd. Go the different direction. Here's a rule of thumb. When everybody's going one way, you go the other. Because you're going the great way.

• 35:39Ed Mylett?

  All right, you guys. I told you, not everything's a solution this week. It's a challenge. Here's the stats. Here's the world. Where do you fit into it? And what do you want to do about it? And I'll be back next week with a show that can help you with some specific recommendations about how to change your life in some area that matters most to you. All right, everybody. God bless you. Max out your life.