Saving Money *Isn't* a Privilege
And saving is still not enough without this one other action
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Saving money is a religion.
And it’s a false god. It gets worse. The “it ain’t fair” crowd say saving money is a privilege. “I’m poor dontcha know.”
We all start from different places in life. Granted. But you don’t have to stay where you start. A toxic money mindset that says saving money is a privilege will only f*cking hold you back. It’ll even make you poorer.
There’s a better way. And a big opportunity once you go down this rabbit hole.
Most people can’t save a single dollar and never will
Wait, what?!
Yep. Most people can never save money. Their paycheck hits their bank account and it’s gone shortly after.
We haven’t learned a simple rule of thumb as a society:
Spend less than you make.
Now some of you will throw a hammer at my big head for saying that. Hear me out. Not buying a coffee each day isn’t going to make you a millionaire. Just like you can’t save your way to becoming a millionaire.
The reason we can’t spend less than we make is because we refuse to downgrade our biggest costs:
1) Housing
2) Car
When I lost everything in 2011 I had to sell my BMW. It hurt my ego like hell. The replacement Holden Astra car I got gifted from my aunty was hilarious. It looked like a grandmother’s car with a blanket across the back shelf.
When I rolled up to social events people laughed at me. The ex-employees of my startup gave me sh*t. I was a joke. But selling my car wasn’t enough. I had to downgrade my housing costs too.
That meant living in a house with people I didn’t want to live with.
We can’t spend less than we earn because we refuse to take a hit to our egos. We’ll do anything but move further out of the city or get a smaller house.
The real problem is we refuse to change.
We may even be embarrassed by our financial position. But if you can get over these basic challenges, then it’s 100% possible to spend less than you earn, no matter how low your income is.
You can’t budget your way out of poverty
One critic said this. He says that’s why saving money is a privilege.
Not quite amigo. You can’t save your way out of poverty because inflation and currency devaluation (money printing) destroy your money. An employer has no incentive to increase your paycheck either.
It’s one reason why when I wanted a pay rise in my banking career, I just joined a new company. Easiest pay rise I ever got. But the pay rise still wasn’t enough to keep me just over broke. I had to build something online after hours to escape poverty.
Call it a side hustle, side business, or whatever the heck you want.
Discipline doesn’t work either.
Being a tightarse only robs you of happiness and freedom. If being disciplined is all you needed, then every navy seal would be a billionaire by default…haha.
The three devil words most people use that destroy potential fortunes
Devil word #1: Discounts/Coupons
Asking for discounts is offensive. Read that again.
It tells the person on the other side that you don’t value what they do. Or that you will screw them if it means you get what you want. Let me be harsher if I may…
“Can I rob your family to feed mine?”
That’s what asking for discounts does. And focusing on prices is the fastest way to kill a potential life-changing friend. Imagine if when I first met writer Justin Welsh, I asked him for a discount on his products.
Would Justin have responded? Would he have done a Zoom call with me? Would he have introduced me to some of the most influential people in the world?
Hell no.
Paying full price is an underrated financial strategy.
Devil word #2: Budget
Budgets don’t work.
Why? Because curveballs happen. And life is full of risks. You can have $50,000 savings and get cancer. Now all your money is gone. You’ll likely end up in debt. A budget assumes everything stays roughly the same.
But tragedies are guaranteed and they wipe out whatever piss weak “emergency fund” you likely have. Stop falling for a scarcity mindset that’s focused on the idea that money and incomes are fixed.
Devil word #3: Favors
Also known as “can I have all your stuff for free?”
This is probably the worst strategy. Most of us only do favors amongst friends. Stranger favors are stupid. They get a 0% reply rate. Free mentor? No. Scholarship? No. Free advice? No time.
I know it sounds harsh but it’s how the world works. Trust me.
When you get stuff for free you don’t value it. Read that ten times.
And when you don’t invest your money into something, you have no accountability to follow through and get the value. Stop asking strangers for favors and spend your time networking using the skills you DO have. Or write online to attract opportunities.
Don’t listen to gurus
The privilege lovers say this.
Anyone who gives money strategies is a scammer? Ummm…okay. What they don’t say is if you don’t get money tips from people who do it for a living, then your only alternative is to ask your network, family, or friends.
I did this in 2011. My best friend was a crack addict. My other two friends were broke and on welfare. So if I just avoided these so-called “money gurus,“ then I would never have got out of my own bubble.
What I did was find a guru.
Yep. I found him on Youtube. His name was Tony Robbins. I listened to all his free stuff. He made me think differently. I started to believe in abundance and that put me on a different path.
Sure, don’t follow billionaire advice. But for the sake of your family, don’t listen to broke people about money. Especially the ones that talk about privilege.
The article that triggered this outburst from me here on Substack, said one other funny thing:
If you vote for the Democrats, they’ll fix this.
LOL. No f*cking political party is going to fix the financial system or make you rich. Both left and right have been in power at different times. None of them have fixed our money problems. It’s not their job. They don’t know how.
In fact, if you go down the rabbit hole, you realize politics is what created these inequality money problems in the first place (let’s not go there).
You don’t control global politics. Focus on what you CAN control.
“The system” is designed for us to not get ahead
I stole this one from the privilege worshippers as well.
They say the elites and billionaires have a vested interest in keeping us poor. What a load of crap. I recently learned yesterday that my friend in America is now a billionaire.
Kind of wild!
I’ll tell you something about him. He’s a nerd. He plays a lot with code. He wears shorts, singlets, and an Aussie cowboy hat. He drives a 1985 BMW that’s falling apart.
I know his schedule well. And there’s one thing that doesn’t appear on his calendar: secret Illuminati meetings with other billionaires.
That’s right. The elites aren’t behind closed doors having conversations about you. Or trying to find ways to keep you poor. They don’t have time. They are focused on their businesses despite their enormous wealth. Crazy, right?
The people who talk about “the system” are just conspiracy theorists with tin foil hats. They don’t know how the world works.
The system isn’t based on luck or birthplace anymore. The internet turned the world into a merit-based system. If you do the work, stack skills, and learn about money, then you’ll do well.
That last one is key.
The solution to money problems was never to save!
Once you transcend the stupid privilege debate, you realize the real problem is this: saving money keeps us poor.
What’s missing is most of us don’t have a financial education. So we blame, luck, privilege, some fake system, or banks for our money problems. But when you learn about money you can figure out how to use it properly.
There’s a level two to this game…
You have to invest your way out of poverty.
Saving is for losers. Investing is what the wealthy do. It starts with small investments, like buying $15 books about money, which is what I did. Then you invest in your self-education and skills. Then your network (masterminds).
Then comes the big one…
You invest money to buy financial assets.
Assets store monetary value. They also appreciate in value if you buy the right ones. I have very small savings. My savings are assets. This is what is missed.
The cycle you want to break out of is believing anything other than a financial education (that tells you what assets to buy) will fix your money problems.
Wealth = Asset Accumulation
You save in assets, not money.
A 10x better strategy than saving
To buy assets you’ll need an income.
Instead of focusing on how you can save money or buy soap from Walmart at 2% off, spend your time learning new skills that create new income streams.
Cash flow is king. With cash flow, you can unlock leverage and the law of compounding. These are the real saviors that not enough people talk about.
New income streams start out as experiments or side hustles. Then they grow into new income once you figure out what works. So try new things. Dare to see how money can be made online.
You’re not lazy
I have to say this because many financial gurus gaslight us.
They imply people with money problems are lazy or stupid. But having been a broke person, I can tell you their opinions are bullsh*t.
When poverty strikes, it’s not motivation or productivity we’re lacking. No. It’s a lack of financial education. When we learn about money instead of being angry with wealthy people, everything changes.
When we focus on scarcity it produces poverty. When we focus on abundance, the result of our mindset, money is easier to find. How you think about money determines more than how much money you have, where you grew up, or your parents’ wealth.
Final Thought
“Privilege” is jealousy in disguise.
The game has changed. Learn more about money. Accumulate real assets. Upgrade your skills. Disconnect from conspiracy theories. Spend less time around the news and politics. And perhaps unfriend those who have a toxic mindset.
That’s how you escape poverty and start building wealth. Not billionaire wealth – but modest, quiet wealth. The best kind.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.
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To get out of poverty, the first step is to change the way you think about money. Unfortunately it will probably imply to change your circle of influences; your relationships! That is the biggest challenge where most people struggle to do...
Great ideas Tim! 👍
One different opinion could be where you say “discount” is wrong. However, consider price gouging, severe price inflation, etc where things are literally overvalued, to exploit the consumer. So asking for discounts might not necessarily be wrong. No business sells anything at a loss. But grossly overvalued costs is borderline exploitation and definitely greed.