If YOU Give Me 20 Minutes, You'll Become Financially Free

Learn proven strategies to become financially free by saving, investing, and building wealth through 401k plans, stocks, and real estate.

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Key Takeaways

Earning more money alone does not make you rich; financial education and strategy are essential.
Pay yourself first by saving a portion of your income automatically, ideally through a 401k or similar plan.
Invest for growth by allocating savings to stocks and real estate to build long-term wealth.
Homeownership significantly increases net worth compared to renting.
Avoid lifestyle creep and spending traps enabled by modern technology to maintain financial discipline.

What the video covers

The speaker reflects on personal debt struggles and the misconception that earning more money alone leads to wealth.
Making more money does not guarantee financial freedom; many high earners remain broke due to poor financial habits.
Becoming financially free requires learning strategies to increase personal value and earn more effectively.
The importance of paying yourself first by saving at least 14% of gross income, especially through 401k retirement plans.
Automatic contributions to retirement accounts help build wealth over time by investing in growth assets like stocks.
Homeownership and stock market investments are the two primary ways wealth is created in the US and globally.
Homeowners are significantly wealthier than renters, with average homeowner net worth over $400,000.
Lifestyle inflation and consumer technology encourage spending, making disciplined saving and investing critical.
Understanding tax advantages and employer matches in retirement plans is key to maximizing wealth building.
Real estate investment trusts (REITs) offer an alternative way to invest in real estate without owning property.

Chapters

What is the main strategy to become financially free according to the video?

The main strategy is to pay yourself first by saving at least 14% of your gross income, invest that money for growth in stocks and real estate, and avoid lifestyle inflation.

How does homeownership contribute to wealth building?

Homeowners in America are worth significantly more than renters, with an average net worth over $400,000, making home equity one of the primary ways to build wealth.

Why doesn't earning more money automatically make someone rich?

Because many people increase their spending as their income rises (lifestyle creep), and without proper saving and investing strategies, higher income alone does not lead to wealth.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

Speaker A

A lot of people listen to this, and if I go back, if I go back just over 10 years in my life, I would have been sat listening to this conversation in £7,000 of debt, and I would have thought, God, like becoming a millionaire, that's a million miles away. No pun intended. To become a millionaire, I'm going to have to earn so much more money. And at the time, I was working in call centers.

Speaker B

it it would have just felt so far away and I say you know people are struggling to feed their children let alone become a millionaire is Is it far away for the average person?

Speaker C

It would have just felt so far away, and I say, you know, people are struggling to feed their children, let alone become a millionaire. Is it far away for the average person?

Speaker D

How much of it is just earning more money? Because when I have these conversations on my show, I think the surprisingly untouched territory is we don't teach people how to become more valuable so that they can earn more

Speaker D

It's far away if you don't know the strategy. There's a strategy to getting out of debt. There's a strategy to building wealth. There's a system.

Speaker E

We know for a fact that making more money doesn't make you rich. So, so people can go, as I told you earlier, like from $100,000, they can go from 50,000 to 100,000 and still be broke. They can go from 100,000 to 200,000 a year and still be broke. They can go from 200,000 to 300,000 and still be broke. In the US, when you take

Speaker E

How much of it is just earning more money? Because when I have these conversations on my show, I think the surprisingly untouched territory is we don't teach people how to become more valuable so that they can earn more

Speaker E

to spend more money. And nobody wants you to spend money once. They want you to spend money for a lifetime, right? It's a lifetime value of a customer. So, there's a battle for our income. And everyone wants a piece of it. Starts with the government. Like you go to work and you go to work at 9:00 and you actually work from 9:00 to 12 for taxes. Now, this is an important lesson actually. The government doesn't ask you to budget to pay taxes. They take your taxes from you automatically. They take

Speaker E

money. A lot of it's about like index funds or savings, whatever. But how much of it is just like I need to get higher valued skills in the market?

Speaker F

What do you mean by that? So, what that means is whatever you earn, you could be making minimum wage, you could be making $20 an hour, $30 an hour, $40 an hour. Whatever you earn, the first hour day of your income has to go to you. You're the first person who gets paid.

Speaker A

We know for a fact that making more money doesn't make you rich. So, people can go, as I told you earlier, like from $100,000, they can go from 50,000 to 100,000 and still be broke. They can go from 100,000 to 200,000 a year and still be broke. They can go from 200,000 to 300,000 and still be broke. In the US, when you take

Speaker B

You have to invest it. So, how do you invest the first hour of your day without paying taxes? The answer is you pay yourself first using a 401k plan. So, if you have a job with a retirement account, 401k plan, you sign up and you use that plan. Now, I can't just stop right there, right? Because because it sounds so simple like, okay, I'll use my plan. No, you have to know the formula to using your plan to be rich. We know after 40 years now exactly what you need to do if you want to be a millionaire. I can tell you how to become a millionaire starting in your 20s so that you're done by the time you're in your mid-50s. You save a little one hour of your income is

Speaker B

households that make $150,000 a year, one out of three of them are still broke. When you peel back the curtain and you ask why is that? Well, we know things cost more, but we also know there's massive lifestyle creep, right? You get around other people who are making more money and then you spend more money. And the reality is these phones are designed to get you to spend everything, right? Today, with the algorithms, there's better technology today than there's ever been to get you

Speaker C

What is a 401k?

Speaker D

to spend more money. And nobody wants you to spend money once. They want you to spend money for a lifetime, right? It's a lifetime value of a customer. So, there's a battle for our income. And everyone wants a piece of it. Starts with the government. Like you go to work and you go to work at 9:00, and you actually work from 9:00 to 12 for taxes. Now, this is an important lesson actually. The government doesn't ask you to budget to pay taxes. They take your taxes from you automatically. They take

Speaker E

because you know, we've got a lot of global listeners. There's different types of 401k in every country.

Speaker F

social security from you automatically. They take the money from you automatically because they know you won't have anything to give if they don't take it from you. Then people work from 12 to about 3:00 for housing and food, and then from 3:00 to 5:00 for all the rest, all the rest of things. The people who build wealth in America and really all over the world, they do something different. They keep the first hour a day of their income.

Speaker F

most of my work. In the US, those who have a 401k plan, the ones that are millionaires, what they did, here's the formula, the exact formula. They saved 14% of their gross income. And their employer had a small match on top of that. And then how they invested the money is key because it's not enough to just put money in these 401k plans. You have to be invested for growth. And growth means stocks, right? So, you'd have to have and and the actual specific allocation in these 401k

Speaker F

What do you mean by that? So, what that means is whatever you earn, you could be making minimum wage, you could be making $20 an hour, $30 an hour, $40 an hour. Whatever you earn, the first hour day of your income has to go to you. You're the first person who gets paid.

Speaker F

automatically and then it moves the day it hits your bank account automatically first for retirement. Then later we'll talk about building a security account, building a dream account. The key is that the money moves automatically. So in the United States now, there's, by the way, 24 million millionaires now. So we've seen an increase of 8 million millionaires to 24 million millionaires in the US in just 20 years. How did they do that? There's two primary escalators

Speaker F

And you mean you have to save it, invest it.

Speaker A

It's owning a home or owning REITs?

Speaker B

You have to invest it. So, how do you invest the first hour of your day without paying taxes? The answer is you pay yourself first using a 401k plan. So, if you have a job with a retirement account, 401k plan, you sign up and you use that plan. Now, I can't just stop right there, right? Because it sounds so simple like, okay, I'll use my plan. No, you have to know the formula to using your plan to be rich. We know after 40 years now exactly what you need to do if you want to be a millionaire. I can tell you how to become a millionaire starting in your 20s so that you're done by the time you're in your mid-50s. You save a little one hour of your income is

Speaker C

REITs. Real estate equity, investment, trust. So, that's another way to buy real estate without actually having to own the home, but you don't get the same level of returns.

Speaker D

12 and a half percent of your gross revenue. I went online today to look at what's the latest statistics with 401k millionaires. The new stats that just came out from Fidelity. There are 654,000 people in Fidelity 401k plans that are now millionaires.

Speaker E

Yeah. I mean I couldn't feel more differently when we look at where is wealth created in the United States and also abroad. It's in two places. It's in home equity and it's in the stock market. So, when you look at housing and you take someone who owns a home, and we'll talk about it, I know it's hard to buy homes right now, but when you look at people who own a home versus people who rent, homeowners in America, follow this for one second, homeowners in America are worth 40 times more than renters. So, the average homeowner in America today is worth over $400,000.

Speaker F

What is a 401k?

Speaker F

It actually does. And I'm going to go through that here. So, the average renter is worth $10,000, right? So, why why does buying a home build wealth? And how much wealth in the United States is now in home equity? Wall Street Journal just ran an article on this came out two days ago. There's $34 trillion now in home equity in America. This number has gone up 90% since before co the other money is in retirement accounts which is 60 70% in stocks. There's $45 trillion now in retirement

Speaker F

Okay,

Speaker F

says, "Look, you don't have to buy a home. It's cost more to have a house than rent. You You know, I I watched one of the shows. I won't say who it was. It doesn't matter. They all say the same thing. Don't buy a house. You'll be trapped. You'll have to pay you'll have to pay real estate taxes and you'll have to pay insurance and things break. They go through all these expenses and it it makes it sound like, "Oh yeah, if I rent it'll be cheaper." No. Who Who do you think pays these expenses when

Speaker F

because you know, we've got a lot of global listeners. There's different types of 401k in every country.

Speaker F

he starts working right away. Just will be. Probably won't for two or three years. A lot of young people when they move to a major city, they can't afford to buy right away. When I came out of college, like you, I was in credit card debt. I had $12,000 in credit card debt. I remember opening up my bills and having the room spin and thinking, I'm never get out of credit card debt. How am I going to buy a house? But I did. And in fact, I didn't buy a home when I

Speaker F

So, in the US, a 401k plan is a retirement account. It is a retirement account that the company has set up, right? And it allows you to put money away tax deductible. They call it pre-tax. In most countries, you have a deductible retirement account, but it depends on the country, too, right? Like in Canada, it's a different type of plan than it is in Australia, than it is in Italy, than it is here in the UK. Almost every country, though, has some form of retirement account, and has the ability to put money away automatically. Here's the problem, and I'll use the US specifically because it's where I do

Speaker F

cover our mortgage. We scraped it together and that's what a lot of people do when you're young. But if you don't get in the game of home ownership and you rent in your 20s and you rent in your 30s, you're going to turn around in your 40s and having not been built any net worth. When I wrote the automatic millionaire 20 years ago, two things have happened since then. The stock market has gone up in 20 years 600%.

Speaker A

most of my work. In the US, those who have a 401k plan, the ones that are millionaires, what they did, here's the formula, the exact formula. They saved 14% of their gross income. And their employer had a small match on top of that. And then how they invested the money is key because it's not enough to just put money in these 401k plans. You have to be invested for growth. And growth means stocks, right? So, you'd have to have and the actual specific allocation in these 401k

Speaker A

can get a mortgage. I want to bust this myth because what happens is people come on they go the stock look I can tell you right now the stock market over the last 20 years has averaged over 10% annually people go the returns are better in the stock market than the real estate yeah but that's not applesto apple comparison why you buy a piece of real estate when you buy a home people don't typically pay cash for their first house they put down 20% and they borrow the other 80%. So

Speaker A

millionaires I just talked about was about 70% stock and 30% bonds. Okay. Now, what are people doing that aren't achieving this? Well, the average American saving maybe 3 or 4%. Maybe 5%. If they have a 401k plan, people who don't have 401k plans in many cases aren't even doing this. They can open up an IRA account, but in most cases, they're not doing that. So the whole secret is not budgeting, not using discipline, having the money move right from your paycheck. Paycheck gets deposited

Speaker A

their down payment. They go to sell their house. They don't pay taxes on the gain because when you own a home, at least in the United States, you own a home for over two years. If you're single, you get $250,000 in taxfree gains. If you're married, you get over half a million dollars in taxree gains. You get tax deductions on the mortgages. So, what happens is people come here and they go, "You know what? You shouldn't be you shouldn't be tied down. You need to be

Speaker A

automatically and then it moves the day it hits your bank account automatically first for retirement. Then later we'll talk about building a security account, building a dream account. The key is that the money moves automatically. So in the United States now, there's, by the way, 24 million millionaires now. So we've seen an increase of 8 million millionaires to 24 million millionaires in the US in just 20 years. How did they do that? There's two primary escalators

Speaker A

absolute freaking myth that people take this extra money that they could have used to buy a house and they're going to put it in the stock market. They don't do that. And that's why also, by the way, corporate America got into the game of buying up real estate all over America, houses, and building apartments to rent to an entire generation, hoping these people never buy this. Like 10 days ago, Trump came out and basically said he wants the institutions out of buying up all the

Speaker A

to wealth. That is stocks and real estate. And if you're not in stocks and you're not in real estate, you are being left behind. When you say real estate, does that mean having a mortgage and owning a home?

Speaker A

when you look at why you know you asked the question about causation if a family doesn't buy a home the likelihood the next generation can buy a home is very low because it's when someone dies the money that is in the house that home equity is often what transfer transfers to the next generation helps the next generation buy a house. I was looking at some stats here because I want to what I want I wish I could sit

Speaker B

It's owning a home or owning REITs?

Speaker C

it could be a really interesting conversation. Right.

Speaker D

REITs.

Speaker E

and I'm going to give you some of the things they've said just so so you can rebuttle them um and have your say on them. One of the things that they often say is that long-term real inflationadjusted home price

Speaker E

REITs. Real estate equity, investment, trust. So, that's another way to buy real estate without actually having to own the home, but you don't get the same level of returns.

Speaker E

So when you dig into these kind of numbers like this, what they are is they're numbers, but they're not real world, right? And so like when you when you talk to someone who owns a home today and they've owned it for 20 years and you ask them how much of your net worth is now in the equity in your house over 50% of their net worth is in their house. You will see people on your YouTube channel that literally if you read the comments and I'm sure you do. I do

Speaker E

I mean, this is, um, this is one of the hot topics of conversation we've had on this show several times. Many of my guests that are sort of financial advisers say that owning a home is a bad investment. I think from what I understood from the research and from reading your books that you feel differently about that.

Speaker E

apartment was like $6,000 a month. When I left New York, that same apartment was $25,000 a month. Follow the follow the insanity of that math. Now, that apartment went from being $2 million apartment to a $5 million apartment. So, I could have been renting it, but in my case, I owned it and it went up in value $3 million. So, I have friends who have been renting in New York for 20 years. They have built no net worth. I have no vest interest in this conversation. Meaning,

Speaker E

Yeah. I mean, I couldn't feel more differently. When we look at where is wealth created in the United States and also abroad, it's in two places. It's in home equity and it's in the stock market. So, when you look at housing and you take someone who owns a home, and we'll talk about it, I know it's hard to buy homes right now, but when you look at people who own a home versus people who rent, homeowners in America, follow this for one second, homeowners in America are worth 40 times more than renters. So, the average homeowner in America today is worth over $400,000.

Speaker E

called a middleclass neighborhood. Their home at the time was worth about $300,000. They had paid their mortgage off and they had bought one more house on their street. They rented the first house. They bought a second house on their street. They paid that mortgage off. And so they owned two homes free and clear. One house they got income from. One house they lived in with no debt. And then they had saved money in their 401k plan. So, if I was a young person or not

Speaker E

But this doesn't establish causation. That doesn't mean that buying a home made them rich, right?

Speaker F

Here's why the index fund theory doesn't work. You can't live inside an index fund. You can't live inside a mutual fund. You have to live somewhere as long as you're alive. Here's what people should do.

Speaker F

It actually does. And I'm going to go through that here. So, the average renter is worth $10,000, right? So, why does buying a home build wealth? And how much wealth in the United States is now in home equity? Wall Street Journal just ran an article on this that came out two days ago. There's $34 trillion in...

Speaker A

Yes.

Speaker B

Okay. So, they're paying 60,000 a year. Let's take that number.

Speaker C

Yeah.

Speaker D

So, over 10 years, they're going to spend $600,000 in rent. Yeah.

Speaker E

If the rent doesn't go up,

Speaker F

Yeah.

Speaker A

in 20 years, they're going to spend 1.2 million in rent. If the rent doesn't go up, in 30 years, they will have spent $2 million in rent if the rent doesn't go up. But the rent does go up. So, the question you just have to ask yourself is, am I going to take all this money that I'm spending on rent and never build anything? And if you really believe that renting is better than owning, then you should still consider the idea of buying something than that somebody else rents. Because I promise you, somebody's getting rich in the transaction. If

Speaker A

you're the renter, you're not the one who's getting rich in the transaction of renting. It is a great short-term solution renting. It is not a great term long-term wealth buildinging solution.

Speaker B

If you love the D CEO brand and you watch this channel, please do me a huge favor. become part of the 15% of the viewers on this channel that have hit the subscribe button.

Topics:financial freedomwealth building401kinvestinghomeownershipstock marketreal estatesaving strategiespersonal financefinancial education

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