The Wealth Destroyers Hiding in Plain Sight

Discover the six common money traps that could be draining your finances: get-rich-quick schemes, lifestyle inflation, high-interest debt, not researching investments carefully, falling into unsuitable investments, and out-of-control debt. Learn how to identify and avoid these pitfalls, from staying away from too-good-to-be-true investment promises to managing sudden income boosts wisely. Get practical advice on building wealth the right way, starting with consistent, informed decisions and avoiding high-interest debt. Download our one-page guide to keep these tips handy and take control of your financial future today.

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Transcript

 today we're gonna talk about the next three costly. Money traps that you could be falling into. One is falling prey to get rich quick schemes. The second is what I'm calling lifestyle inflation, and the third is the cost of high interest debt. You may be thinking, I'm too smart to fall for investment scams, or I always handle my money responsibly, but that's what many, many people think. Very smart, high earning individuals lose money and get rich schemes all the time.

The average person's lifestyle costs grow faster than their income, and unfortunately, high interest debt is stealing thousands of dollars from people every single year. The worst part is these traps become more expensive every single day. We ignore them.

Okay, trap number four, not researching investments carefully. If someone presents you with an investment and you don't understand it. Do not invest. Guys, this has happened to me many times, especially in the real estate syndication world. Many, great deals went bad unbeknownst to very, smart people.

It's not necessarily fraudulent or shyster, it's just sometimes economic conditions change and make things go bad. Also, it, it might not be. Bad. It just might not be what you thought, which was the case for me when I invested in that franchise that I had to walk away from and lost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

It just wasn't what I thought. I didn't realize I would have to be an owner operator. I didn't realize the work and expertise that it required. And I researched this thoroughly, but yet still lost money. So this trap of. Falling into an investment that isn't what you thought, whether it be fraudulent or you're just not educated enough, or just the markets change that can happen to the best of us, believe me.

But there is sometimes fraud involved. So someone is promising to make you rich overnight. They're about to make themselves rich with your money. And I see this all the time in the real estate space, is these grandiose promises that just aren't founded in reality. If you've seen this, turn a hundred dollars to a thousand in just 24 hours run secret investment strategy only for the elite guaranteed returns.

There's no guarantees in life. So if someone's guaranteeing you something, run. Oftentimes we see these people that are offering these investments in their fancy Lambos in front of their boat or their mansion or their yacht. And let me tell you, this is likely not even real.

The solution here is to trust boring investments like the s and p 500, steady 10.5% annual returns. Flashy, get rich schemes can be devastating, and if you lose your money, it takes three to seven years just to recover. Believe me, again, I know this from having to walk away from the franchise business, I'm still recovering.

And this isn't just numbers on a screen. This is your savings. This is your kids' college. For me, this was my retirement. All gone in a blink of an eye. And these schemes work so well because they pray on our desire for instant gratification. They create artificial. Urgency. They show you what you want to see and they make impossible possible, sound reasonable.

And again, that is kind of the scammy, fraudulent. There's the investments that I like have been in that just didn't turn out like I thought. Sometimes that just happens, but if you don't understand the model, don't do it for me.

So let me tell you something that nobody wants to hear. Building wealth is like building muscles in the gym. It takes time, it takes consistency, and there just aren't any shortcuts. Think of this, if you invest $500 a month in the s and p 500 index fund, and let's say it's averaging 10.5% annual return after 20 years, that's $380,000 after 30 years, that's 1.1 million. So slow and steady wins the race, my friends. So next time someone promises you quick riches, ask them one simple question. If your strategy works so well, why are you selling it? Instead of just using it yourself.

Remember people like Warren Buffett didn't get rich overnight. Jeff Bezos didn't get rich overnight and neither will we, unfortunately. But you can get rich the right and sustainable way. Okay. Lesson number five of the costly money traps is out of control. Lifestyle inflation, I'll call it. Have you ever gotten a raise and somehow ended up more broke than before? If you're nodding yes, then you have been infected with what I'm calling lifestyle inflation. Picture this. You got this amazing new promotion. Your bank account is looking bigger and better than ever, so you naturally upgrade your apartment.

Lease a nicer car, buy some fancy clothes, start eating at trend your restaurants. This is something that no one's talking about, but most of us do. While you're celebrating that 3.1% annual raise, your lifestyle costs are silently creeping up by 4.7%. Your money's growing at 3.1%, but your spending is jumping at 4.7%.

That's a negative 1.6% wealth gap. That's literally making you poorer while you think you're getting richer. Let's put this in numbers. So you get a $5,000 raise your lifestyle inflation starts spending $7,000. You're actually going backwards by $2,000 every year. It's like running on the treadmill.

Your legs are moving, you're sweating, you're putting in the work, but you're getting nowhere. I see this all the time. Entry level worker lives in a modest apartment, drives a used car, builds wealth, gets promoted, and they immediately upgrade everything five years later, making double the money and have zero savings. The secret, the plan is simply to live like you didn't get the raise when the raise hits. Keep your current lifestyle. And take 80% of that raise straight to investments. Instead of upgrading your car payments from 300 to 500.

Invest that 200 difference and watch it be 30 plus thousand in 10 years and over 300,000 in 30 years. At the very least, next time you get a raise, wait 30 days before changing anything in your lifestyle. Let it sit.

Because remember, getting a bigger paycheck doesn't make you wealthy. Keeping a bigger percentage, that's what makes you wealthy. Okay, friends, our sixth most costly money trap, high interest debt,

debt can feel like you're running on a treadmill. Like I said, you're working hard and you're getting nowhere. If you've got credit card debt, I'm about to show you why that's the case. You know what's scarier than quicksand. Credit card debt, because at least with quicksand you can see it coming. But credit card debt, it's a silent killer that's draining your bank account.

So let's say you've got $5,000 of credit card debt. You know, not a huge amount, right? Maybe it's from a vacation or holiday shopping or an emergency, but here's the truth. That $5,000 debt is stealing a thousand dollars from your pocket every single year, and that thousand dollars depends on the interest, but that's a lot,

and it's just gone to that credit card company to no longer to be seen. It gets worse if you keep carrying that debt, let's say for 10 years, which is exactly what credit card companies want you to do. If you're just paying the minimum payment and you're never paying off the debt, that $1,000 can grow to like $15,000 in interest alone.

Do the math. If you have credit cards, figure out what you're paying and how much of that is going nowhere to the credit card company out of your account. So write now. Write down every single debt you have. Write down the interest rate for each one, and add up how much interest you're paying a month and get angry about it because that anger can fuel your change. Take that amount you're paying in interest each month and write it down on a sticky note.

Put it on your mirror. Look at it every morning, and remind yourself that every dollar of debt you pay off is like giving yourself a raise, investing in you. 'cause this debt trap is real, but it's not unbreakable. Friends, you've got the power to turn those interest payments into wealth payments for yourself if you start today.

There you have it. We have exposed all six of the costly money traps. Please share this if someone in your life is struggling and , this could be of help to them. And remember, real wealth is not built overnight. It's built one smart decision at a time, consistency.

To help you stay on track, I've created something special. Download the one pager that has the six costly money traps that you can refer to so you can remember what we talked about today, and you can get started on each of those money traps and alleviate them from your life.

Remember, you have the power to change your financial future, and I'm here cheering you on every step of the way.