17 Brutal Lessons To Get Filthy Rich

In this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we break down the 17 brutal truths about building wealth that separate the rich from the rest—why saving alone will never make you wealthy, how 94% of millionaires live below their means, and why missing just 20 market days can slash returns by 70%. We explore uncomfortable money realities most never hear: why hard work isn't enough without assets, how lifestyle inflation destroys million-dollar earners, and why building multiple income streams is essential for financial freedom. Watch this episode in Youtube. How Andrew Can Help You: Listen to The Business Show here. Don't let another year pass by without making significant strides toward your dreams. "Master Your Money Goals" is your pathway to a future where your aspirations are not just wishes but realities. Enroll now and make this year count! Join The Master Money Newsletter where you will become smarter with your money in 5 minutes or less per week Here! Learn to invest by joining Index Fund Pro! This is Andrew’s course teaching you how to invest! Watch The Master Money Youtube Channel! , Ask Andrew a question on Instagram or TikTok Learn how to get out of Debt by joining our Free Course Leave Feedback or Episode Requests here. Car buying Calculator here Thanks to Our Amazing Sponsors for supporting The Personal Finance Podcast Shopify: Shopify makes it so easy to sell. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/pfp Thanks to Policy Genius for Sponsoring the show! Go to policygenius.com to get your free life insurance quote. Indeed: Start hiring NOW with a SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR SPONSORED JOB CREDIT to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/personalfinance Go to https://joindeleteme.com/PFP20/ for 20% off! Shop outdoor furniture, grills, lawn games, and WAY more for WAY less. Head to wayfair.com Get 50% Off Monarch Money, the all-in-one financial tool at www.monarchmoney.com/PFP Chime: Start your credit journey with Chime. Sign-up takes only two minutes and doesn’t affect your credit score. Get started at chime.com/ Links Mentioned in This Episode: Connect With Andrew on Social Media: Instagram TikTok Twitter Master Money Website Master Money Youtube Channel Free Guides: The Stairway to Wealth: The Order of Operations for your Money How to Negotiate Your Salary The 75 Day Money Challenge Get out Of Debt Fast Take the Money Personality Quiz 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.

• 0:00Andrew Giancola?

  Longtime listeners know, one of the best ways to build wealth is to increase your income. And one way to do that is by starting a side hustle. And that's one reason why I absolutely love Whatnot. Now, my son and I, we love collecting sports cards. And we've used Whatnot to buy and sell cards. It's been a really fun way to enjoy something we love together. Now, Whatnot is a live shopping platform where people sell everything from sports cards to clothing, electronics, and collectibles. And what's really cool about it is you can turn something you're passionate about into a business. And you could do it right from your phone. You don't even need a storefront or a website. So whether you're looking to make some extra money or find great deals on your next shopping trip, check out Whatnot.

• 0:44Andrew Giancola?

  Search Whatnot, that's W H A T N O T, in the App Store. Download and start selling right away. When I started the Personal Finance Podcast, I had no idea how big it could become. I just knew I had something I wanted to share, so I started putting it online. And looking back, I definitely wish I would have started a decade earlier. One of the horror parts about building something online, though, is making it look professional. A website used to mean hiring a developer, figuring out design, and potentially spending thousands of dollars. In fact, on my website, I spent tens of thousands of dollars. That's what impressed me when playing around with Hostinger's AI website builder.

• 1:27Andrew Giancola?

  I told it what kind of website I wanted, and I built the first version in minutes. No coding, no designer or developer needed. And Hostinger doesn't stop at launch. Their AI can help with SEO, website copy, email marketing, and more. Plus, your domain, website, email, and marketing can all live in one account, with plans starting at just $3 every single month. Hostinger builds your vision step by step. Create your website today. Go to hostinger.com/pfp and use code PFP for 10% off now. On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, 17 brutal lessons to get rich.

• 2:23Andrew Giancola?

  What's up everybody and welcome to the personal finance podcast. I'm your host Andrew, founder of mastermoney.co. And today on the personal finance podcast, we're going to be diving into 17 brutal truths to getting rich. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the master money newsletter by going to mastermoney.co/newsletter and don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast on. And if you want to help out the show, consider leaving a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player. Now today, we're going to be diving into

• 3:03Andrew Giancola?

  17 brutal truths about getting rich. And the cool thing about this episode is I want this episode to motivate you. I want this to spark that fire because one big thing that most people need to understand is that you need constant reminders on the journey to building wealth. Because if you do not have a community, if you do not have people around you who are talking through this with you, you are going to want to find ways to motivate yourselves. And you could do that by finding a community. You could do that by listening to podcasts and YouTube channels just like this. You can do that by finding accountability partners and making sure that overall you have people in your life who are helping you along this journey. And our goal today is to motivate you as much as possible on this road to building wealth. So without

• 3:45Andrew Giancola?

  further ado, let's get into it. All right. Truth. Number one is nobody gets rich from saving alone. So saving money, as we know, is a big part to building wealth. It is a fantastic habit. In fact, your savings rate is going to dictate how fast you can achieve financial freedom. If you want to be free from your job or that cubicle that you hate, you can remove yourself from that situation by increasing your savings rate. But the big thing is you can't just save your cash. You also have to make sure that you are investing your dollars. And if you are just saving alone and stuffing your money under a mattress or putting it in the shed out back. That is never going to allow you to be able to build wealth because cash loses

• 4:30Andrew Giancola?

  value over time. So even high-yield savings accounts barely keep up with inflation. If you get a 4% rate of return, let's think about this for a second. And inflation is 3% every single year, you have possibly a 1% delta. So even in a high-yield savings account, all that money is doing is keeping up with inflation over time. Instead, you need to learn how to invest because investing creates exponential growth and compound interest is one of the greatest forces you will ever see. Now, examples will help you prove this point because $100 invested in the stock market in 1928 in the S and P 500, just $100 invested in 1928, we're worth over $800,000 now. And so the big key here is that you need to make sure that you are investing your dollars

• 5:12Andrew Giancola?

  and early and often and doing this over time. Time is your greatest asset. Time is your greatest ally. And if you have patience and if you have the wherewithal to make sure that you understand how market works, you invest in your financial education. So you can see how the market shifts over time and you know, the market long-term goes in one direction. That means that over time, you will be able to invest your dollars and they will grow. In addition, frugality has a ceiling. There's only so much that you can cut back when you are cutting back your dollars. If you are looking to cut your expenses, you can only cut so far. This is why people who live paycheck to paycheck, who also don't make a lot of money, have a very difficult time getting ahead because the biggest thing

• 5:53Andrew Giancola?

  they need to do is increase their income and not focus all their time on clipping coupons or saving on very small, particular items. Instead, what you need to do is focus on growing your income and wealth builders are always prioritizing returns and making sure that over time, they are optimizing their portfolio for the returns that they are looking for. Portfolio optimization is a multimillion dollar decision and it is really, really important that you look at your asset allocation because it could make a million dollar difference over the course of your lifetime if your asset allocation is off. Number two, is hard work isn't enough. You need to own assets. So working a nine to five, you can absolutely build wealth.

• 6:35Andrew Giancola?

  Working a nine to five, we have debunked that myth over and over and over again on this podcast. But working hard is not the only thing you need to be doing. Sure, maybe you have a great income coming in. And when that income is coming in, if you are taking all of those dollars and spending them on your lifestyle, that is never going to get you anywhere. In fact, you are running on a hamster wheel every single month by doing that. So instead, what we need to do is we need to make sure that we get our dollars working for us. Every single dollar that we place into an investment account that starts to work for us is going to take us one step closer to financial freedom. This, my friends, is the power of building wealth. This is what is going to unlock wealth for you if you start investing your dollars over time. And what do you invest your dollars in?

• 7:20Andrew Giancola?

  You invest them in assets. So Naval, if you've never read Naval Ravikant's book, it is absolutely fantastic. But he has this quote in there, "You will never get rich renting out your time. You must own equity, a piece of a business, to gain financial freedom." And so this is the big thing I want you to understand is that wages are limited. Equity is timeless. So you can own equity in a stock, which means you own a piece of a business. You can own equity in real estate, which means you have your own business. You can own equity in a small business, which is probably the greatest opportunity of all coming up over the course of the next couple of decades, is you can buy a business. But you need to own assets that go up in value over time in order to be able to become financially free. Because what are you going to do when you stop working?

• 8:05Andrew Giancola?

  You stop earning when you stop working. And if you're just only going to rely on social security, that is the wrong equation to be looking at that. Social security is not guaranteed in the future. You know what is guaranteed? Whatever financial plan you put together in order to create financial freedom for yourself. Because that is the one thing that you can control. And here, we want to focus as much as possible on the things that we can control. In addition, equity in different things is going to help you build passive income. So for example, if you buy stocks, over time, your portfolio is going to grow. And when your portfolio grows large enough, you can start withdrawing from that portfolio passively so that you can replace the income that you need to fund. Your lifestyle that my friends is completely passive income that is as passive as it gets.

• 8:51Andrew Giancola?

  Over time, you take a portion of the income that you're earning. You put it into stocks, those stocks grow. Once those stocks grow large enough that you can pull down enough money every single year, you are completely financially free. Secondarily, let's look at real estate. You could go out there and start buying rental properties. And let's say you buy enough rental properties where the cash flow replaces how much your job pays you. All of a sudden you are financially free. Assets are going to generate money while you sleep. Most millionaires own assets. In fact, I've never met a millionaire who doesn't own assets because ownership equals upside. So employees get paid for effort, but owners get paid for outcomes. And so because of this, you need to make sure that you are focusing the majority of your time

• 9:34Andrew Giancola?

  on buying more assets as you're in your wealth accumulation stage. So as you start to accumulate more and more wealth over time, this is where the shift needs to be made. Now, number three, time in the market beats timing the market. Now you have heard me talk about this time and time again on this podcast. If you are a long time listener, I will say this till my face turns blue because this is supported by historic data. The longer you hold your assets, the more valuable they become over time. In fact, if you invest your dollars in the S and P 500, there has never been a 20 year period since the beginning of the S and P 500, where if you held the S and P 500, you would lose money and that's all based on historical data. Now, what will the future hold?

• 10:19Andrew Giancola?

  We have no idea, but historically that is what the data shows. The longer you hold your investments, the greater the possibility of a reward. Now, a lot of people have seen this with the baby boomer generation. A lot of the folks in the baby boomer generation, they bought their personal residences years and years and years ago. And what happened? If you held on to your personal residence from 50 years ago, you probably have seen a good amount of appreciation in that house. Now, there are a lot of other variables that you've heard me talk about total cost of ownership. Set all that aside. This is just an example to show you how one asset can appreciate in value over. Time over the course of the long term. Now, Warren Buffett said it best, "The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient."

• 11:04Andrew Giancola?

  There are a lot of people in this world who are extremely impatient. They want to build wealth now. Every time we do a video on TikTok or Instagram talking about long-term wealth building, I get tons and tons of comments from people saying, "That takes way too long. I'm gonna be way too old in 30 years." Sure, we all want to build wealth quickly, but those who get base hits over and over and over again, those are the ones who are building sustainable wealth. I am very pro getting base hits when it comes to building wealth because patience is where the profitability is. Patience is where the profitability is when it comes to your stocks, with your real estate, with your other investments. It is so incredibly important to learn how to be patient with your investments.

• 11:46Andrew Giancola?

  Market timing also rarely works. In fact, professional money managers cannot outperform the S and P 500 when they try to time the market. 90% of those professional money managers, I'm talking about the folks on Wall Street, the folks who run mutual funds. They cannot outperform the S and P 500 with an entire team of Harvard graduates? Why do you think that you can't? And so overall, market timing rarely ever works. And if you miss key days, you are going to lose out on tons of market gains. If you miss the top 10 days, you're reducing the value of your portfolio by over 20% just because you missed the 10 best days. It is absolutely incredible what can happen if you just start to buy assets, hold them for long periods of time,

• 12:28Andrew Giancola?

  and then utilize those assets as passive income when you are ready to retire. It is the formula to win with money, and it is incredibly important to be consistent when doing so. Number four is risk is inevitable, and you need to learn how to manage it instead of avoid it. So how many people in this life do you know who never took a risk in their life? They never decided to go out and take a risk. They wouldn't buy stocks. They wouldn't buy real estate. They wouldn't even buy bonds because they felt like it was too risky, and so they stuffed their money under a mattress, or they just really, literally will not take that next step. Most of those people are living their life. They are not able to do what they want in life. They are not able to actually provide for their family. When they die, they give nothing or hand nothing down to their children.

• 13:12Andrew Giancola?

  And so over time, this is something that we have seen this countless and countless and countless times. People who do not take small amounts of risk never ever get anywhere. You have to take risks in life in order to get to the next level. If you want to get to a different level, if you want to change your family's financial future, you have to take risks. Now, I'm not talking about swinging for home runs. I'm not talking about taking huge risks. I'm talking about getting base hits. Small risks over time can grow to very large amounts of money. And so figuring out what those small risks are is a huge, huge difference maker. In fact, in my opinion, the biggest risk of all is not taking any risk. Because if you take no risk, you will literally never get anywhere.

• 13:57Andrew Giancola?

  You will never be able to move forward. I've talked to so many different people who are scared to invest in stocks because they lost money in the 2007 and 2008 crisis. If you look at where the stock market has gone since the 2007 and 2008 crisis, it is absolutely incredible. It has been an amazing upward tick. Now, sure, we've had a lot of complications in between there in terms of the COVID crash. From 2010 to 2019, we had all kinds of different dips. This year, we had a dip when it came to tariffs. All these different things have a big, big difference. But the secret is don't avoid risk, instead manage it intelligently. So if you play it too safe, it is going to lead to stagnation or a slow erosion of wealth.

• 14:40Andrew Giancola?

  But instead, what I want you to do is learn how to take calculated risks. Because calculated risks are going to help you drive growth. Every wealth building move, starting a business or investing or even changing careers involves uncertainty. I know so many people who will not change jobs because they are comfortable in the job that they are in. If they just took that slight risk and understood the numbers, understanding that people who change jobs, who are not getting paid more over time, if they go out and change jobs, they have the opportunity on average to make about 16 to 17% more when they move on to the new company. And I've seen a lot of people. People make a lot more than that, up to 25, 30, 35% more, just because they switched companies. And some people aren't even willing to take that risk.

• 15:24Andrew Giancola?

  They'll say things like, oh, man, well, I don't know what my new boss is gonna be. My current boss is fantastic. I don't know what's going to happen. Maybe I'm gonna hate the work that I do. Right now, I've got it pretty easy. All that stuff is great if you don't want to build wealth. If you don't want to really get after it, if you don't want to stay tenacious, that is completely fine. Unless you are already hitting your wealth building numbers, then stay in the job that you like. Stay in the job that you enjoy. There is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. But if you are not hitting your wealth building numbers, you need to make sure that you are taking some risk. Now, here's the cool thing, and this I learned from Warren Buffett as well. But successful people actually study risks. So Warren Buffett said this a while ago, and I'm gonna butcher this quote, but he said something along the lines of,

• 16:06Andrew Giancola?

  you can learn from mistakes, they just don't have to be your mistakes. And basically what he's saying is, learn as much as possible about some of the mistakes that other people made. This is why some people read biographies, because they want to see all the mistakes that business tycoons took before them, or people before them took. And so, learning to understand and look for mistakes other people have made, remembering that and learning from it is a skill that I highly, highly recommend everybody out there work on. Try to figure out how you can learn from other people's mistakes, so you don't make the same one. Number five is, not all debt is bad. And it's hard to say this on a personal finance podcast, because there are a lot of people out there who need to get out of debt. But not every part of debt is bad. In fact, good debt can help you build wealth.

• 16:51Andrew Giancola?

  So if you utilize an SBA loan to go out and buy a small business, that could help you build wealth. Or if you use a bank loan to go out and buy a rental property, that can absolutely help you build wealth. There are areas where you are buying real assets that you completely understand. When you buy assets that you understand with debt, that can be a good move. That can be what we call good debt. Not all debt is bad. Now, what is bad debt? If you take out debt that has a very high interest rate, for example, that is very likely going to be bad debt. Or if you take out a personal loan, or if you go into debt for credit cards, that can also be Bad debt because bad debt is going to drain your cash flow. It's going to drain the amount of money that you can take those extra dollars that you can put towards wealth building.

• 17:33Andrew Giancola?

  So your credit card payment is destroying your wealth building ability to be able to take those extra dollars and put them towards your investments so that you can be financially free. So leverage is going to help you scale faster, but you have to be cautious when you utilize leverage. I'm going to say this again, you have to be cautious when you utilize leverage. So good debt can turn into bad debt very quickly if you make the wrong move. So you need to understand every parameter around that debt so that you know exactly what you are doing. So you need to understand your limits because the goal isn't to avoid debt. It is to manage it strategically and avoid overextending yourself. If you're in an interest rate environment, for example, like we had in COVID where there's 2.5% interest rates, oh my goodness, you can take on a lot of those situations.

• 18:18Andrew Giancola?

  I tell people who have mortgages with a two and a half, three and a half percent interest rate, I wouldn't touch that with a 10 foot pole. I would just pay the minimum payment every single month because that is debt that I am willing to hold on to because you can get a higher rate of return in the market than you would paying off that debt. Now, if you are the person who is like, I'm never going into debt, you follow Dave Ramsey and the stuff that he teaches over there. Hey, nothing wrong with that. In fact, that can be a very good decision for a lot of people. But if you are out there looking to invest in real estate or businesses, you can utilize debt as good debt as long as you understand what you are doing. Because if you don't understand what you're doing and you don't understand how to run the numbers and you don't understand business prudence, then you can make a huge mistake and that good debt can turn into bad debt very, very quickly. Number six, a high income does not equal wealth.

• 19:03Andrew Giancola?

  Wealth requires owning assets. So many six-figure earners out there live paycheck to paycheck. And I'm talking to all my high earners right now. There are a lot of high earners out there who think they are set because they are earning a good amount of money. But if you are not taking those dollars and putting them into real assets, I'm not talking about buying a few stocks here and there on Robinhood. Too many people have zero financial plan whatsoever. I'm talking about making sure that you are investing your dollars in things that go up in value over time strategically. And doing this every single month. So obviously assets make money without you. And if you have a really high income, what I would suggest is trying to maintain your lifestyle,

• 19:45Andrew Giancola?

  but taking the increase in income and over time, investing those extra dollars into income producing assets. Your salary is linear and assets are going to compound. And so this is a huge thing that you need to understand is your money can work so much harder than you can. And if you can convert your income into ownership, that is the ultimate formula to be able to build wealth, especially for high earners. High earners, I talked to way too many of you who are living paycheck to paycheck, or really not saving as much as you should be. This is your wake up call. This is your reality check because otherwise you are going to be working forever. And there are too many of you that are not investing enough of your money. And instead you are out there spending those dollars to impress people you don't even like.

• 20:27Andrew Giancola?

  And the last thing I want for you is to spend your dollars trying to impress people that you don't like, instead of putting it towards your financial future so that you could provide for your family, your kids. You can have more time to do the things that you actually want to do in life. This doesn't mean you don't have to work anymore. This just means you have got that F you money, where then you can do whatever you want in life. So convert as much as your income into ownership and it will absolutely change the way that you see money.

• 20:56Andrew Giancola?

  If you've heard any recent episode of Health Corner, you know that I have spent the last few years trying to optimize my sleep. I've tried sleep trackers, cooling my room, changing my nighttime routine, all the different things, but nothing really matters as much as having the right mattress. And that's one of the reasons I love Lisa. A great mattress is one of those things that you use every single night and you spend a third of your life sleeping and it can make a huge difference on how you feel the next day. Lisa has mattresses designed for different sleep positions and comfort preferences. And their sleep quiz can help you get matched in less than two minutes. Plus they're designed and they're assembled in the USA and they come with free shipping,

• 21:39Andrew Giancola?

  easy returns and a 120 night free sleep trial. So go to lisa.com for up to 30% off mattress plus and get an extra $50 off with promo code PFP. Exclusive for my listeners. That's L E E S A dot com promo code PFP for 30% off mattresses plus an extra $50 off. Let them know we sent you in the survey after checkout. Lisa.com promo code PFP. My relationship with money has changed a lot over the years. Early on, I thought building wealth was about making more money. Now I know it's really about having clarity. When you know exactly where your money is going and whether you're on track, you make better decisions.

• 22:24Andrew Giancola?

  That's one of the reasons I love Monarch. It's the personal finance app that tracks everything from your accounts and investments to your savings, goals, and spending. So you can see your entire financial picture in one place. One habit that's made a huge difference for me is my five minute drill every single morning. I open Monarch, check my spending, investments, cash flow, and net worth, and I'm done in just a few minutes. It gives me confidence that nothing is slipping through the cracks. I also love the AI weekly recap because it'll flag spending changes, upcoming expenses, or shifts in my net worth before they become a problem. Instead of reacting after the fact, I can make adjustments early. It really feels like having a financial advisor in your pocket. Write your own money story with Monarch.

• 23:09Andrew Giancola?

  Use code PFP at Monarch.com to get your first year of Monarch Core half off at just $50. That's 50% off your first year at Monarch.com with code PFP. It's kind of amazing how much can change in just a single year. Every summer, the kids are a little bigger, a little more independent, and life looks a little different than it did the year before. And it reminds me that while we can't predict the future, we can prepare for it. That's one of the reasons I like PolicyGenius. See, PolicyGenius isn't an insurance company. They're an online marketplace that lets you compare life insurance quotes from some of America's top insurers side by side for free. And their licensed team helps you compare coverage, prices, and terms.

• 23:55Andrew Giancola?

  Answers your questions and even handles the paperwork so you can get the right policy without the hassle. For me, having life insurance isn't about expecting something to happen. It's about knowing my family is protected so I can actually enjoy these moments together instead of worrying about what comes next. And with PolicyGenius, you can find 20-year life insurance policies, starting at just $276 a year for $1 million of coverage. Head to PolicyGenius.com to compare life insurance quotes from top companies and see how much you can save. That's PolicyGenius.com. If you've been listening to this show for a while, you know it's not just me anymore. It takes a great team behind the scenes to make everything happen.

• 24:36Andrew Giancola?

  And if I had to hire someone tomorrow, I'd want someone who could jump right in and make an impact. That's why I'd use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. When workplace chaos hits, Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps you reach qualified candidates faster. Your job gets boosted in search results, so you're spending less time searching and more time interviewing the right people. Plus, you only pay for results, which I absolutely love. Sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored posts. That's a huge advantage when you're trying to grow your business. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all of your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results.

• 25:19Andrew Giancola?

  When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is the job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com/podcast. Just go to Indeed.com/podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Number seven, building wealth is a long game and learning to get rich slow is a skill. So despite what viral success stories and internet gurus promote, building wealth is almost always slow and steady. The average American millionaire is 61 years old.

• 26:05Andrew Giancola?

  Is up from 57 in the early 1990s. This reflects decades of disciplined investing, working to save some extra money so that they can get to that millionaire status. An overnight success takes about 10 years is what you need to understand. Wealth building is like farming, okay? I want you to think about it this way. You have to plant the seed, you have to endure storms, and then you harvest later. But it takes time, it takes patience, it takes persistence, and it takes a little bit of know-how as well. And so since compounding takes decades and not days, you need to learn how to become patient. And most millionaires, if you look at the average millionaire, they build their wealth slowly. See, here's what happens to a lot of people is the folks that get rich really, really quickly.

• 26:49Andrew Giancola?

  There are a lot of folks out there who have gotten famous on social media because they hit home runs. And they hit these big home runs that are really, really amazing. And the reason why they hit those home runs is a lot of them are outliers. A lot of them are folks that are doing things that most people don't do. And so they'll give you advice like, oh, getting rich slowly is not the way to go. You gotta get rich fast. Nobody wants to get rich slowly, yada, yada, yada. But instead, what you need to understand is that most people out there, they get rich slow. Again, the average millionaire is now hitting at 61 years old. And so understanding that building wealth over time, there is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. In fact, I would say that is one of the best ways to build wealth over time because you built it brick by brick by brick. And it is sustainable long-term.

• 27:32Andrew Giancola?

  Nobody can take that away from you, and it is very controllable when you do it that way. Number eight is living below your means. The real rich aren't flashy. So how many really wealthy people out there have you seen who are not flashy? I'm not talking about your neighborhood person who is flashing their new Mercedes or their G-Wagon or whatever else they're doing. I'm talking to folks who are really wealthy. If you look at the really wealthy, go look at Warren Buffett, go look at Bill Gates. There's not a Gucci belt in sight when those guys walk around. And the reason for that is because between them, they understand how money works. They are not flashy for a specific reason. The wealthiest person in this world that I know personally, who is a billionaire, drives a Ford Explorer. And so this is something I think a lot of people need to understand because Morgan Housel said- Does it best. Wealth is what you don't see.

• 28:18Andrew Giancola?

  It's the nice car not purchased, the upgrade declined. Being rich isn't about flaunting, it's about freedom. And resisting lifestyle inflation is one of the most underrated secrets to financial success. A lot of people think that folks with the flashy car or the big house, they think they are rich. And a lot of times I have seen so many different people just see a car and say, oh, that person's probably doing really well. But what they don't see underneath is that there is a lot of lifestyle creep involved in there. And so, understanding how to live below your means, you don't have to be this penny pincher. You don't have to be this coupon clipper. You don't have to be this person that just hoards all your cash. Just learning to live below your means and investing the difference is the biggest thing that you can do. Frugality is going to help you build freedom.

• 29:02Andrew Giancola?

  So if you are frugal in some areas, meaning you spend more on things that you actually value and you spend less on the things that you don't value, that is where money is going to be optimized for you. You're going to be so much happier with your money. You're going to be so much happier over time in life. And instead, you're going to be able to really have long-term staying power. Number nine is failures and setbacks are stepping stones, not roadblocks. So failure is part of the journey when it comes to building wealth. A Kellogg study found that success often comes after multiple failures, not despite them. And you could look at entrepreneurs like Henry Ford or J.K. Rowling, who experienced bankruptcy and rejection before massive breakthroughs. And so, what I want you to understand is you don't fail once.

• 29:46Andrew Giancola?

  You fail over and over and over again, and you learn from those failures. There has never been a situation in my life that I have not learned from my failures. I have made failures over and over and over again. I talk about the story all the time, even with my personal finances. Where early on, I got my first job, I started to live paycheck to paycheck really quickly. I inflated my lifestyle, then I realized, oh, this is not working. I am failing with my money. I need to figure out what I need to do in order to get this right. Started budgeting, started getting my money together, started cutting back some of my expenses, started to increase my income, started to invest my dollars more. And all of a sudden, everything just started clicking and running. But you have to learn from those failures and you have to make a change. If you do not change after a failure, You are just going to fail again. And this is the most simple concept out there, but most people need to hear it.

• 30:32Andrew Giancola?

  If you do not change after a failure, if you think your outcome is going to be different this time, and you do the same exact thing, that is absolutely crazy. You need to make sure that instead you are changing your behavior. Your behavior is 90% of money. And if you understand how your psychology impacts your money, it can be a huge, huge difference maker. Failure is the best teacher out there, and the wealthy fail often. They fail often, they fail fast, and they make shifts based on that. Now, there's a word here that I think a lot of people need to understand when it comes to failure. And it's having resilience, because when it comes to failure, a lot of people quit after they fail once. Maybe they fail twice, and then they decide, oh, this is just not for me. And so they decide to go out and they quit. But having the resilience to stick with it after failure is one of the most powerful things that you can do,

• 31:17Andrew Giancola?

  and it separates winners from quitters. If you want to separate yourself, then making sure you're resilient is one of the best qualities that you can work on over time. Number 10, and this is one a lot of people need to hear, is no one is going to make you rich. It's on you. Here's the cold hard fact. No one cares about your financial future as much as you do. Not your employer, not the government, not your financial advisor. This means that you are the CEO of your financial life. You are the person who is in charge of your financial life. And if you're waiting for someone to come rescue you, like your parents, or you're waiting for some big opportunity to just show up in your lap, that is absolutely not going to happen. Instead, you need to take ownership of your own life, and you need to take responsibility, and you need to take control.

• 32:02Andrew Giancola?

  If you are blaming all of these different other variables that you cannot control, you will never get ahead in life. If you go out and start blaming the government, you will never get ahead in life. If you start going out and blaming housing costs, you will never get ahead in life. Why? Because the housing costs are what they are currently. And I get it. I get how difficult it currently is. And we've talked about that a number of different times. You were dealt a bad hand if you are trying to figure out how to deal with housing costs with wages that are significantly lower. You were dealt a bad hand, but what are you going to do about it to fix the situation? We have to come up with solutions in order to get ourselves out of these. Ruts. You have to take accountability for your decisions. You have to take accountability when you take on too much debt. And now you have to decide and figure out a way to pay it off.

• 32:44Andrew Giancola?

  There are so many different things that if you take ownership, if you take extreme ownership. Jaco Willink has this great book called Extreme Ownership that talks about this concept. If you make sure that you take extreme ownership over your life, your life will drastically change over time. Maybe it's with your health, maybe it's with your fitness, maybe it's with your career, maybe it's with your money. This goes across every area of your life that really, truly matters. You need to take ownership over your life. You have to want it because no one else is going to give this to you. And you can't delegate discipline. Having the discipline to make sure that you do this day in and day out is going to be one of the biggest thing. And here's the empowering truth. Since it's on you, you don't have to wait. You can start today. Because this is on you, this is why this is so empowering.

• 33:29Andrew Giancola?

  You can make a difference in your life today and you can start building wealth today. You can decide, hey, you know what? I'm done with this. I'm done with trying to live paycheck to paycheck. I'm done with just trying to get by. I'm done feeling like I have no freedom whatsoever. I'm done feeling like I have no financial future whatsoever. Instead, I'm going to take the reins and I'm going to take over. And now I'm going to make a big difference in my own life. This, my friends, is going to unlock so much potential for you. And I cannot wait for you to get started by doing this. Now you know what else you need to take control of? You need to take control of your financial protection plan. One of the most important things that is happening right now is there are data breaches. And there are people out there who are trying to steal your identity.

• 34:12Andrew Giancola?

  And one of the best things that you can do is you can go out there and remove your personal information from the internet. There are so many data brokers out there who have your information. And they can actually sell your personal information to other people. And so that is why we've partnered with Delete Me. What Delete Me does is they remove your personal information from the internet. So that scammers who get part of your information can't find the rest of your personal information on the internet or go out and buy it from these data brokers. It is one of the most important things to protect your finances online. And I cannot recommend Delete Me enough. They have very Very affordable monthly plans that help remove your personal information. So you don't have to spend hours and hours and hours trying to figure out how to do this

• 34:53Andrew Giancola?

  on countless of websites. Again, delete me, remove my personal information from thousands of different websites, and I know they can do the same for you. So if you go to joindelete.me.com/pfp20, you can get 20% off of your order at Delete Me. That's joindelete.me.com/pfp20, or use promo code PFP20. You can get 20% off Delete Me. Again, this is one of the best services out there. You need to take advantage of it because Delete Me has saved me hours and hours of time, and it removed my information from so many different data brokers. And the cool thing is, they continuously will keep removing your information from those data brokers. They keep checking and making sure that your information is removed, so it doesn't show up on a bunch of

• 35:34Andrew Giancola?

  other various websites. So again, make sure you have your financial protection plan in place. It is one of the most important things that you can do, and Delete Me is the first step to doing it. Number 11 is the crowd is usually wrong, and so learning to think independently is one of the most important things that you can do. So following the herd might feel safe in the moment, but it rarely leads to extraordinary results. So a study from Chicago Booth showed that entrepreneurs who zigged while others zagged were more likely to get funding and go public. So Warren Buffett said it best. Uncle Warren said, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." Building wealth often means thinking different. It often means investing when others are scared,

• 36:15Andrew Giancola?

  and holding back when others rush in. And so what happens a lot of times is the herd will go and chase the hype. So for example, you have seen meme stocks starting to boom again as of late. And so what happens is, a lot of people will go and join the herd, and they will chase that hype over time. And all of a sudden, what happens with meme stocks, they drop very, very quickly. And so if you get caught in all that madness and all that mess, you are most likely going to lose money. And so for folks who are big into the meme stock world, that is going to be a huge, huge different maker. Folks who are in meme coins and crypto, you can see crypto going up, and then all of a sudden it crashes drastically. There are celebrities, or personalities, or influencers who start their meme coins. Then all of a sudden, they crash those meme coins and it's because people are just following the hype.

• 36:59Andrew Giancola?

  There's no fundamental analysis, there's no understanding of the business, there's no understanding of what they're actually investing in. And so this happens over and over and over again. When the market starts to crash, I cannot tell you how many messages I get when there is a pullback in the market. When we have a 20% pullback, I get tons of messages, what do I do? And people start to panic. Why? Because the media wants you to panic. The goal for the media is to try to get you to panic sell because it gets them more clicks. And so over time, what we try to do is hey, stay calm, stay patient. In fact, stocks are on sale. When the market goes down, I love to buy stocks on sale. I love to buy my index funds on sale. And so making sure you understand, have a financial education, you think independently and you look at opportunities

• 37:42Andrew Giancola?

  is a very important thing to be able to do. Now, being contrarian is very hard. It is not easy to be a contrarian, but the best returns come from seeing value before others do. So think about this like a house. Say for example, you want to go out and buy a house. You have two options. You can go buy a house that is completely done, already renovated and all of the value is already extracted from that house. Or you can go buy a fixer-upper that needs work on the kitchen. It needs work on the bathrooms, it needs new floors, but it's got a good solid roof. It's got a good solid foundation. It's got a good air conditioner or heating ventilation system. All the big ticket items are there that are doing A okay. It just needs some cosmetic upgrades. You can look at that house that needs cosmetic upgrades. And if you have the vision, if you can see the vision of what that house can become,

• 38:28Andrew Giancola?

  you can force value into that home and have so much more equity than someone who goes and buys a flipped house already. And so that is how I want you to think about your investments. Are there investments out there that you're interested in? That you could go find ways, you have a vision on how to turn some of those investments around? That's what contrarians do. And then if you were doing your research, if you're doing your homework and if you were investing time in your financial education, I want you to trust your homework. I want you to trust the time that you spent looking into this stuff and understanding this stuff. Because this is going to be one of the most important things. Every time that I have done my homework and I know what I'm doing and all of a sudden, Entire market makes a shift and I follow that shift. I'm wrong every time I follow what the herd does.

• 39:10Andrew Giancola?

  Instead, I need to trust my instincts, all the financial education that I put in, and instead, trust your homework. Number 12, is knowledge and skills compound? Invest your time in yourself. So, the most valuable asset you'll ever have is you. So unlike the stock market, unlike real estate, your knowledge and skills can't crash overnight. They compound and they pay dividends over a lifetime. So Warren Buffett said this, investing in yourself is the best thing you can do. Anything that improves your own talents, nobody can take away from you. And so self-made millionaires and entrepreneurs are almost always relentless learners. Their early failures become their biggest breakthrough. But again, most people who are out there learn to build up their skills. I cannot stress this enough.

• 39:55Andrew Giancola?

  If you are just getting started, the number one thing that I want you to do is focus your time and energy and invest some money into building up your skills. Because your skills will always be with you. Let's say for example, that you are someone who is really in to delivering website services. Now sure, AI is advancing, a lot of websites can be developed even with AI now. But let's say for example, you are interested in website services. Well, if you master the craft of building a website that actually converts and helps businesses convert, and you get better and better and better at that and invest your time and energy in that, nobody can take that away from you. Or if you get really good at sales and you start to develop your sales skills, nobody can take those sales skills away from you. Or if you become a master of Facebook ads,

• 40:38Andrew Giancola?

  businesses will pay you big money to be a master of Facebook ads, and nobody can take that away from you. You stay up to date on trends, you stay up to date on what's going on. That is a really, really powerful place to be. And so what I want you to understand is that your skills will appreciate in any market. Real estate, stocks, they can go down in value for a short period of time. But your skills will appreciate in any market. The more you learn, the more you earn. And that's what I want a lot of people to note is that building these skills allows you to increase your income. And increasing your income allows you to put more dollars towards your financial future, which allows you to become financially free that much faster. And so I want you to, right now, commit to investing time, energy, and money into you.

• 41:21Andrew Giancola?

  Invest in courses, in books, in mentors, and practice within those specific areas can offer an ROI that lasts a lifetime. Number 13, you can't do it alone, build a strong network. So networking is one of the most important things that you can do when it comes to building wealth. In fact, your network is your net worth. Now that may be a cheesy saying, but it is 100% true. We had an episode a couple of years back with a gentleman by the name of Jordan Harbinger. And Jordan Harbinger has a really big podcast where he interviews these huge guests. And he built up a really, really strong network and he gives his networking tips on how he did this. He spends four minutes every single day trying to network. And so he talks about that in that episode.

• 42:04Andrew Giancola?

  We'll link it up down in the show notes below, but it is one of my favorite episodes because he goes into detail on how powerful networking can actually be. Behind every success story, whether it's Warren Buffett, or Ben Graham, or Mark Zuckerberg, there's a network of people that are creating leverage, they're creating insight and opportunities. So there's five things I want you to understand here. Number one is that mentors can shorten your learning curve. If you can find a mentor in your industry who can help you through different processes, this is one of the most powerful things that you could do. Now, this mentor does not have to be specifically in your industry. Say for example, you're an entrepreneur, talk to other entrepreneurs out there who have been doing it a long time. If you come up on an issue with payroll, or if you come up on an issue with your taxes, or you come up with an issue with systems and operations,

• 42:47Andrew Giancola?

  you can talk through other people who have been through war already and they can help you through this. The second thing I want you to understand with this is partners can multiply your efforts. A strong team can multiply what no solo person can. So you can create leverage by buying back your time. There's a book by Dan Martel called Buy Back Your Time. And that book is very powerful when talking about how you can leverage your efforts with other people. Support systems create resilience is number three. So encouragement and feedback help you survive tough times. And you want to have support systems that are there with you. And that is why we create things like Master Money Academy. We want to be your support system when it comes to building wealth. And we want to be the people that are there with you as you start to build wealth. Connections are also going to help you open doors.

• 43:27Andrew Giancola?

  I cannot tell you how many doors have been opened in my life because I focused on building connections. And so making sure that you build those connections can be one of the most powerful things that you can do. Give value to grow your network. So you want to make sure that the best connections come from helping others. And so you want to make sure you're genuinely helping other people first. And that's how you build stronger network connections so that you can give back to others. Number 14, money is a tool, not the end goal. I want you to focus on value creation. Money is a tool that helps you in life. It is a tool to get you to financial freedom. It is a tool to get you to the life that you want. It is a tool that is going to help you go on as many vacations as you want. If you want to travel the world, it is the tool that is going to allow you to spend your time doing what you want in life.

• 44:11Andrew Giancola?

  And so because money is a tool, we want to make sure that we use it in that way. And the wealthiest people rarely obsess over getting rich. Instead, what they do is they focus on value, solving problems, serving people, or building products that matter. If you want to get wealthy, if you do one of those four things or all four of them, you will be able to build a ton of wealth. So John D Rockefeller said it best, who was one of the richest men to ever live. He said, "If your only goal is to become rich, you will never achieve it." Money, after all, is just a byproduct of usefulness. If you chase it blindly, you're going to risk burnout. But if you create value, the money often follows. I want you to think about these different things. If you solve problems, you'll be able to earn a profit. And the bigger the problem you solve, the bigger the profit can be. Number two is purpose beats greed.

• 44:56Andrew Giancola?

  So if you have a purpose, you want to solve problems for other people, and they have a mission-driven approach, that is going to be the biggest driving factor, and it's going to sustain your energy. If you're just being greedy and trying to make as much money as possible on something, you're going to burn out, I promise you. Money is a fuel, not the finish line. So your finish line is not just money. You want to make sure that it enables freedom and impact, but it shouldn't be your sole driver in what you do day in and day out. Short-term greed kills long-term wealth. If you focus only on money, it is not a fulfilling life. It is not fun. It is not something that you really are going to be doing. And instead, it'll often lead to destructive choices because you are focused on greed. Greed is not the way, okay? The love of money is the root of all evil. Number 15, here we go.

• 45:40Andrew Giancola?

  So number 15 is protect the downside. One loss can completely wipe you out. So Warren Buffett has two rules. Rule number one, never lose money. And rule number two is to never forget rule number one. So losses are part of the game, but permanent or catastrophic losses are wealth killers. And what I want you to do is I want you to focus your time and energy on looking for opportunities that could be base hits. Okay. What is an example of a base hit? A base hit is going an entire year maxing out your Roth IRA. Or a base hit is going an entire year maxing out your 401k. Or a base hit is saving 20% of your income. What else can be a base hit? A base hit is buying a sustainable business that is well within your means. Or a base hit is buying your first rental property instead of buying an eight unit apartment complex the first time you were investing in rental properties.

• 46:22Andrew Giancola?

  Or a base hit is buying a single family home to rent out instead of buying an eight unit apartment complex the first time you're investing in rental properties. Look to get base hits before you start to swing for the fences. Because when you start to swing for the fences, if you miss, it could tumble your entire financial life. And so I do not want you to try to hit homerun after homerun after homerun. Because people who do that typically, if they are wrong one time, all the work they put in is now gone. And so I want you to make sure that you think about avoiding ruin at all costs. And the way that you do this is A, diversify. B, have an understanding of what you're investing in and do not invest in anything you do not understand.

• 47:03Andrew Giancola?

  And C, have a margin of safety and always be prepared for the worst case scenario. If it wouldn't kill you, it's probably manageable. Also, never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever bet the farm. Even confident decisions could put everything on the line and they can absolutely destroy you. Some people need to hear this right now because it is one of the most important lessons that you can learn in life. Number 16 is to keep lifestyle inflation in check because income means nothing at all if it's all spent. So you can't out earn spending habits. And 78% of former NFL players and 60% of ex NBA players face financial stress or bankruptcy within five years of retirement, according to Sports Illustrated. Now, these are people who made millions, but lifestyle inflation just consumed all of their money.

• 47:47Andrew Giancola?

  So spending rises faster than you think. And so you need to make sure that You are keeping your lifestyle inflation in check. Now, one way to do this is I highly recommend tracking how much you're spending every single year. This is something we're gonna be doing in Master Money Academy, but learning how to track how much you spend every single year and seeing how much that rises every year is going to be a really great exercise. If it's rising higher than your personal inflation rate, then that might be something where you're seeing lifestyle inflation creep in. There's nothing wrong with a little bit of lifestyle inflation. It can absolutely creep in, but if your income is not rising with it, then we have a major problem. So avoid the trap of upgrades. A raise shouldn't mean a bigger house or flashier car every single time. Instead, we want to make sure that we are doing this in a way that is affordable. And we talk about percentages all the time, and that is why we talk about those. Wealth is what you keep, not what you earn.

• 48:33Andrew Giancola?

  And so remember this when you are trying to make a spending decision, especially with some of those big decisions. I want you to spend as much of your money as possible on your dreams and your passions and your realities. But what I want you to do is overall, I want you to think about this in a way that makes sense for you. And number 17, this is one that I absolutely love, and multiple income streams create stability and growth. So one source of income is fragile. So if you are in a household, for example, where one person earns an income, the other person stays home, and that's the only income that you have, that can be fragile, meaning that could be one other person's decision, your boss's decision away from you having zero income sources. So making sure that you have multiple income sources is really, really important. Now, you hear people say all the time, oh, most millionaires have seven income streams.

• 49:17Andrew Giancola?

  You don't need seven income streams, but you do need to make sure that you are protecting your downside. And so when you do this, making sure you diversify your cash flow can be really, really important. And so looking for ways to make extra money or looking for ways to have additional income streams that can protect that downside can be very, very powerful. So diversify income like you diversify investments. And so relying on one job or one client is really, really dangerous. Now, if you're looking to build income streams, I would build them one at a time. You can start with your main income, try to raise that main income, then layer in others as you grow your capacity and your extra dollars. So investing into index funds and ETFs or investing into real estate for cash flow or investing into some of these areas can help you produce more income. Now reinvest side income for faster growth.

• 50:00Andrew Giancola?

  So if you have side income coming in, taking all those extra dollars to invest into other income streams can be really, really powerful because income resilience is going to equal peace of mind. The more income streams you have, the more peace of mind you will have over time. Even smaller streams can add up. Let's say, for example, you flip things on eBay. Well, even those small income streams can really add up over time and maybe you can max out your Roth IRA every year by doing that. Or maybe you can take those extra dollars and start investing into real estate because you're flipping items on eBay. It's creating various income streams, some passive and some active, that can help you really diversify those streams is going to be one of the most important things. We're going to do an entire episode on building your multiple income streams and the framework on how to think about this. And so really excited for

• 50:44Andrew Giancola?

  that episode coming up. And if you're interested in that, please let me know because we are going to have that coming up here very, very soon. Listen, thanks again for listening to the Personal Finance Podcast. I truly appreciate every single one of you investing in yourself because it's exactly what you're doing. When you spend your time listening to this podcast, I hope this episode motivated you. I hope this lit a fire in your gut to get to wealth building, get the ball rolling and get to the next level for you, your family and your future. Thank you again for being here. We will see you on the next episode.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  At Edward Jones, we believe rich is more than caring about the latest and greatest. It's also taking care of what gives your life meaning. That's why your dedicated financial advisor meets you where you are with personalized financial strategies that help protect what matters. So you can preserve your progress while creating a path forward. The key to being rich is knowing what counts. Let's find your rich together. Edward Jones. Member SIPC.