231. Broke to Millionaire - How Money Has Changed Us
15 Aug 2025 · 32 min
Episode 231 — Ben Simpson and Bergs reflect on moving from near-bankruptcy to multi‑seven‑figure/net‑worth status while scaling their crypto research company, Collective Shift. They describe the brutal early years (no wage, debt to the tax office, selling crypto to fund the business), the emotional toll (loneliness, stress, PTSD-like wariness), and what changed after growth: time-choice, larger stakes, new stresses (public exposure, bigger customer base), and the responsibilities of managing wealth. They emphasize that money solves money problems but creates new ones, warn against lifestyle creep, and recommend investing, building personal wealth separate from the business, and surrounding yourself with high‑quality peers. The episode mixes practical advice (save/invest, FU fund, tax-efficient investing) with reflections on fulfillment, identity, and continuing to take risks.
Questions this episode answers
18 (hosts say 'we're 17, 18 full time staff' and later 'we have 18, 18 staff members').
About 1,000 clients ('we have... a thousand clients').
'We did one 1.2 last month' (stated as '1.2' — context implies 1.2 million in a month).
1.8 million views ('I think we had 1.8 million views on Instagram in the last month').
$90,000 per year ('I spent $90,000 a year to join a mastermind').
Chapters
Welcome back to another episode of the bennetbergs podcast. I'm Ben, your favorite high school dropout and founder of Collective Shift alongside Ms. Bergs, your favorite MBA and CEO of Collective Shift. We're here to bring you world class crypto research strategies and insights to help you crush this crypto bull market. Plus get an exclusive behind the scenes look as we scale one of the leading crypto research companies in the world. And if you like the podcast, we'd love for you to leave us a follow. Otherwise, subscribe if you're on YouTube and is how we grow the podcast each and every week. And today we did a bit of reflection over the course of our five years building Collective Shift and the journey we've been on. And now we're really, you know, we're 17, 18 full time staff, we're scaling internationally, we're growing businesses going exceptionally well. But it wasn't like that for the first three or four years. It was a huge slog and personally was absolutely all in. I was up the eyeballs in.
Debt to the ATO when I took profits on my crypto to roll into Collective Shift and trying to get everything in order to scale the business and get it going. And it was really fucking hard. And I had no money there for a little while when I was trying to get this thing going and selling my crypto to fund the business and the business wasn't profitable and it was tough. And at the moment over in, in Asia taking a week off and reflecting back on the journey that's been and how pumped and excited we are for the business and everything we've got going on and essentially that journey of essentially broke on the, on the verge of bankruptcy at 21 to you know.
Having you know, sort of multiple seven figures is Val like net worth is crazy to think about because in a way Berg's like, and you've, you've had a lot of money for a lot longer than I have. It's crazy how it changes so much, but also doesn't change anything.
It's, it is interesting. Like some of, some of your parts of your life will change, a lot of it will just stay the same and it depends on the kind of person you are, what you want to achieve, how much lifestyle creep you have as well. But before we get into that mate, let's talk about what it actually was like because it wasn't that long ago, maybe two and a bit years ago where you weren't even getting paid a wage, you didn't have a house to live in you were. Didn't have a car. It was pretty dire, mate.
It was brutal. It was, yeah, I didn't have a car, I didn't have a place. Broke up with my ex Mrs. Tried to go capital raising. FTX was blowing up. You know, just come off the back of, you know, the ex business partnership that went south, losing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars some months. I'd sold pretty much all my crypto to fund the business. I wasn't taking a wage. I was trying to keep the company alive by keeping our team paid.
I owed a lot of money to the ATO because I sold that, that, that crypto, no rollover concessions, were losing money, trying to raise capital. And it was the most brutal two years of my life. It was like constantly banging your head up against the door, getting no results, not knowing what, no not knowing why, trying to figure it out. And it was just day after day after day, just like grinding, stressed. I was, I was not in a great mental way, very lonely. It was tough, man. It was really tough to get through that period. And like, there's so many times where I was like, what the we, like, what am I doing? This is just absurd.
Well, that's it. Like, most reasonable people would have given up, but you're insane. So you kept going because you're just all in. You're like, nah, no one's gonna prove you wrong. And it was, it was crazy. And things pop up that you don't expect where you're going. So. Well, then you have to, you know, I was on reduced wages, you're on reduced. And then we had to fire people. And it was just, it was horrible. These things that you don't expect that pop up when you're building a business in a remote business in crypto and the, you know, the market can change on a whim. And again, like, we're learning a lot about business, running a business, structuring it, trying to find, trying to build our brand, find customers. When you're hemorrhaging customers, it was horrendous. But then I think it was a point, was it maybe last year where the business is going quite well. And I think you realize that like you were, you're a millionaire, right? Like with the business equity and everything that you have. And I remember asking you, like, how do you feel? And you're like, oh, better get back to work. Like, it was, it was very, very interesting. And now you've kind of, you've built on that. And I want to hear from you like how, how has having going from basically having. Well you did have a lot of some money in crypto, like a lot the more than most people sold that put it into the business. Then you're actually negative because you owe money now to swing right the other way. And having a successful business. So how does having that money and that money change, swing wildly? How has that kind of, you know, changed your life or how you, you look at this now? Because the goal for people is always like I want to be a millionaire, I want to be this, I want to be that. How does it actually feel and how has it changed you?
To be honest, hasn't changed really anything. I like, I sometimes I look down and look at the bank balance or you know, we did our first seven figures, we did seven figures in a month last month. And I'm hungry than ever. Like I'm probably hungrier like and it's not even about, it's not about the money. If it was about the money we wouldn't be where we're at and I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. I just love the game and I love impacting people and I love helping other people get wealthy too. There's nothing better than seeing other people like get wealthy and you're getting wealthy with your mates like and, and your clients and you're helping them make money and then change their lives and they come and tell you how, how their lives changed since working with us. And I know that sounds potentially a bit woo woo but.
Because 99% of people in this space are absolutely full of shit to know that we're doing an actually an act, an actual like business doing it in a, in a really good way and genuinely helping people is just something that's so inspiring and impactful and I think what gets me going is seeing still how many people are getting burnt, see how many crappy businesses are out there selling the dream to people. And every day I see, I know more and more people are signing up to these awful, awful platforms. Just gets me so fired up. It gets me so, so motivated, angry nearly that we're not everywhere and we're not helping enough people just yet. And that's genuine. Now how's it changed my life? Well, I would say that I'm able to live a much more, I'm able to spend more time on the things I want to spend time on. I can outsource everything else, you know.
I don't spend time on stuff that I don't like doing and I don't have to think twice about it anymore. Like I remember for. You have more choice. I've got choice.
You get to choose to suffer.
Yes. Your time choice.
Time freedom. Sorry. Time freedom. And that is probably the most powerful thing because. And again I'm by the way we're like, you know I'm, I'm probably you know doing, doing and I'm very grateful to be doing pretty well for, for where we're at. But also small fish compared to people way above in the, in the, in you know, in bigger businesses in doing tens of tens of millions a month and things like that. Like very small fish compared to those guys. There's always a, you never, you're never at the top. There's always more, there's levels. That's actually the other thing I've learned since being able to get to where I'm at. I'm able to join new groups, new masterminds, new communities, new peer led groups and it's all just who you know. It's not what you know, it's who you know. You get connections, you get introduced people you get to meet different people. The inside like inside into like businesses that are doing amazing things. You get insights into people that have done what you, you know, you're trying to do. You keep leveling up and it compounds like we would. Like we only did six figures a month maybe like what two years ago. Maybe November, maybe a year and a half ago. That was the first time we did that in a month.
100K month.
Yeah. And we did one 1.2 last month. Like 18 months later in a month.
Yeah.
10X in 18 months. Like the compounding growth you get once you hate velocity is, is next level.
And it's just bigger numbers. I think the other thing as well burgs is like you've got, it's leverage now. It's leverage. It is everything you do is at a much big. It's not, it's no longer one to one. You're not putting in a dollar getting back $2. You're putting in $100,000 and getting back half a million dollars. Like your bigger, your biggest stakes, your balls on the line. You're at the big boys table now. Not around anymore. Like this is not, this is not bloody high school. Like this is. You're in the big boys league and that is you get big boy, big boys league results. But big boys league risks associated that way too. Right. And that's, that's the way I think about it.
And in business some of your life Gets easier. But you still. You're dealing. It's the same thing. You're still dealing with what you were dealing with, but they're bigger numbers, but you still have the same stress and anxieties. Like, some of them are quashed. And, you know, things are a lot better because your company is doing well. But there's still. You still have to propel things forward. You still have to, you know, hire the right people.
Manage those people and lead them. And then there's, you know, externalities as well. Things like, you know, tax or legal, or this customer's upset, or this person says something about your business, or you're attacked in the media. There's all these things you can't account for that still happen to you and still cause you stress as a business owner.
Well, and it's bigger scale, too, right? When you've got three customers, there's only three people that can talk bad to you, you know?
Yeah.
I think we had 1.8 million views on Instagram in the last month on my social account. Like, that's 1.8 million people that see my. My rude head every month that you're not. You're going to get a lot of people that don't like you, regardless of who you are. So, like, there's a lot more. There's a lot more you're dealing with. And I think that's the other thing that. The time aspect. I actually have far less time, but I allocate it to better things. It's a weird dichotomy. It's like I found the bigger the business has gotten and, like, the more people we have, like, we have 18, 18 staff members, a thousand clients.
Hundreds of thousands of followers. And then you've got your friends and you've got family and you've got, like, there's just less. And then you've got your work colleagues and you've got business groups you're a part of, and then you've got travel. And then it, like, the circles get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger, and you cannot. You can't. You can't. You can't reply to everyone. You can't speak to everyone. Like, it's, it's. That's.
That.
That's the part that sucks because you just. You can never be on top of it anymore. I remember I was able to get through all of my Twitter replies and all my DMs. I used to make it, like, a job of mine to make sure I get through it. I physically cannot anymore. Like, it and it makes, it stresses me, but it's like, you know, you.
Have to be selective. Like, it's, it's overwhelming. Like, you have to choose where you spend your time and who you reply to.
Yeah, yeah.
That's one of the downsides. People don't factor in about building a brand or gaining, you know, popularity or fame. You have to be very selective with your time because you just get overwhelmed with everyone that's messaging you, whether it's your friends or your family or whatever. Plus, your time needs to be spent in certain areas to keep the machine going.
Totally. And now you've got money problems, too. So now I'm looking at, okay, like, you know, now it's like, cool, what now? What do you do with it? How do you protect it? How do you allocate it? How do you store it? How do you, you know, how do you preserve it? How do you, like your, you know, and, and I was always this for myself with crypto, but now I'm, you know, the Ben fund manager for Ben, broadly, like, outside of crypt. Like, I'm investing in, you know, getting property from my dad at the moment, you know, looking at stocks. It's like, now you've got to preserve broader than just crypto. You.
You get into, like, people think that money solves their problems, but only solves money problems. And it is its own problem itself.
Yeah.
Because now you have to manage it. And you really need to think about what are you on the hook for and what prison are you building for yourself? Like we discussed this morning, where, yeah, you're building a prison. You're the prisoner, but also the warden. You got the keys, you can break out. So you need to decide what kind of life you want, how you want to invest that money, how much you want to spend. And it can be quite.
Complicated and overwhelming. Like, it's an unnatural thing to have a lot of resources when you. Especially when you've grown up with next to no resources and everything's scarce.
Yeah, it's very weird.
And yeah, we were the same bird, so we didn't grow up with a lot of money. You know, you're taught so the value of money because you don't have any to spend.
And I think money just exposes you. And I was having this conversation with my girlfriend the other day, and just like, it's. It's crazy, like, like sitting back and going, if, like.
You know, how would I have felt if I knew I was going to be here two years ago? And, like, how it would have changed? But I don't think it's really changed me a hell of a lot, but I can see how it would for a lot of people. You know, people get arrogant, they get dismissive and they're better than others and, and you know, for me I'm like, no, I just want to keep putting myself in the, in the, in the room with the smartest people and be the dumbest guy in the room, like always leveling up. And I think that is like, you know.
Yeah, yeah, like, sorry, just like success is a very bad teacher. And I think I've seen the people that have either struggled growing up or struggled in their businesses, almost lost it all versus people that tried something, got successful straight away or received a big inheritance, something like that. It's very, very different. You also got to bring in their personalities and everything like that as well.
Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it?
Well, yeah, and I went through that period where things were really good at the start, like eight, nine years ago, you know, when I was starting out in the past business and then everything went to shit. Like I've seen what going to shit looks like for two years of like proper going to shit personally in business. So when you've been through that, you kind of, you had the battle scars and you never want to go back there again, which can create some ptsd. Same with all you listeners that are, you know, in crypto. Like once you round trip, you never want to round trip again. You know, you've been through that period in pain. So now you're trying to build a more like secure moat for yourself. And you know, it's interesting though because like, once you're at, I feel as though once you're at a certain level, there's fewer and fewer people you can actually have open conversations with about where you're at. And I think that's the power of like what we're trying to build is like we're trying to build that wealth driven community of other wealthier people that can have these curated conversations and catch ups. Because, man, you start talking about some of this stuff to some people and it's just.
Mate, how weird is it as a society that we don't talk about money? It's like this forbidden thing. Yet we all go to work all day, every day to earn money, but we don't spend the time to understand it or talk about it. And it's like, why not? It's just money. It's just another resource and tool over. We talk about houses, that's a resource as well, it's like something that you have is something you can invest in. Talk that to the cows, come home. But talking about where do you invest or, you know, what do you earn, how can you get a better job? Or how can you save more money or structure better, whatever it may be, we just don't have those conversations. And it is the saddest thing, especially when you elevate and you are successful and you do have financial success that can be challenging in itself because, you know, we, we all seek this out because we, we all work, we study, we do, we start a business because we want financial security. And once you've achieved that, and a lot of us fucking overshoot when we do it. We don't need that much, but we do it anyway. And then who do you talk to? Like, who are those groups? Who are those people? And just trying to talk to the friends that haven't necessarily come up the same level that you have, or they might be levels ahead of you. They can't talk to you either. It's just really difficult. They don't want to hear it. They don't want to hear about, some of them don't want to hear about your success or what you're spending. There's things like jealousy, misunderstanding, frustration. It's the most challenging thing and I imagine it's even more challenging for you because you, you're 26, you with, you know, your, your net worth and, and salary, you'll be in the 1%. It'll be very isolating and challenging. None of your mates from Tazzy would understand what the going on, right?
No, I don't really, I don't talk about it really. I mean, I will to some of my mates, but no, like I, and I think that's where a lot of, you know, I, I would highly recommend anyone to really review who they're spending time with. Like, I think that's one thing that's been a huge benefit to me is like I've consistently paid a lot of money to being groups like EO. Like the mastermind I just joined. I spent $90,000 a year to join a mastermind of winning business owners in the US and the first month I reckon I made 5x that based off some of the stuff that I learned like in the first month. And so that, and now I'm a part of a group that, that are winners, that are successful, that are, that are better than me, that are doing bigger things. And that makes me hungry again. You know, as soon as you, you know, you get comfortable with your surroundings and you start to like, I don't know, I've been there in the past. You start to hang out and spend time with people that are maybe not as, you know. And it's not even about success. It's more about energy and like, you know, not be with energy drainers, but be with that. You know, energy charges. Like, that's the battery charges. That's where you want to be. And I think that's where I'm positioning myself to spend more time with people that get me up and about, that get me excited, that are like, positive on life than. Versus the. Oh, the world's like, you know what, you know, Debbie down is all the time. Like, it's just. It's just miserable.
Yeah. You work with people you want to and you can build dope shit. Like, we're talking about this before the pod, where it's more about fulfillment because once you've kind of.
You know, solved your money problems and you're kind of okay, then you can start to make other choices in your life. You don't necessarily have to do certain things. One thing I wanted to ask you, though, is you're talking about comfort. Right. And once you are in a position of privilege and you do have some wealth behind you, you kind of want to protect that. You want to get comfortable, not go back to the way that you were. And you want to have this kind of level of lifestyle. Yeah. And it's a very interesting balance where you don't want to lose it, but you kind of also don't want to protect it too much and become complacent. You still want to progress with whatever you want to do in your life.
Yeah. You've sort of take risks. It's like. It's like in sport when you're up, you're up at half time, and now you're trying to protect the ball and play defensive. And, you know, usually that's when teams will get run over because they're playing defensive, and then like, they. They get caught out and then the attackers from the opposition will take over and. And win. So that's how I think about it. Like, you've got it. Like, the reason I got here was not by not taking risks. The reason I got here was by. I took calculated risks. And. And I. And I fast track my way to being here by. By doing that. I don't want to now become complacent and, you know, take the foot off the throttle. Like, I'm putting. I'm buying another car to put Another foot on the throttle, you know, not actually literally, but like. Like, my point being is I'm doubling down. Like, I'm not jumping off the rocket ship. I'm holding on even tighter. Like I'm strapping myself to it and let's go. Like, I'm working 13, 12, 13 hour days because I love the game and I love what we're doing. And I'm like, now's the time to go even harder because now it's actually working. You don't go hard until it works, then take the foot off, you go even harder.
You're going so hard this morning, you're fighting off a monkey, mate.
So I'm in Bali at the moment. We were looking at a few venues for our platinum retreat. We're doing a three day retreat for our platinum clients. Platinum elevate clients next year. And at 6am, Mrs. Is pissed because the alarm's gone off. Like, babe, time to dial in. I'm getting to work. We're on holiday, but I'm working. Sorry, sorry, darling. And then I'm doing this live stream and I'm speaking in front of camera 3, 400 people, and this monkey.
Comes into the villa and starts eating a mango and stealing my bananas right next to the camera. And I'm like, it's panic stations. I've absolutely nearly wet myself because this thing is big and it's looking at me and it's angry and I'm like, what the? I'm trying to hold the live stream going and then I hand it over to Matt, turn my camera off and mic off and I'd start yelling at it and it's just looking at me like I'm an idiot. So I threw through a coffee pod outside to go chase it. And then it got even angrier and it came out and I was like, now. But now I'm actually just chasing me. And then I just start being a gorilla. Back to it.
I saw the WhatsApp chat. You post a photo of it and you're like, I think this monkey's trying to kill me.
It was mad, man. It stole our cake, it stole all the bananas and fruit. And it was just sitting there, like looking at me. I'm like, this is not good. And then so I tried to scare it off and then it got outside, I shut the door and then got back on the live stream.
Oh, mate, so good. Just getting after it and you're talking about levels before. And I find like, I've seen in some of my friends a big trap when they come into some money through whatever means, whether it's, you know, their job or a business or an inheritance, good investment, whatever it is.
It'S lifestyle creep, hedonistic adaptation and fucking 10 times out of 10, first thing they do, buy the big fucking house. Don't know why. Always buy the big house, which is just like a mausoleum. It's just like a chain around your neck. And I heard this brilliant quote where like status games are like, you want to get into that room with those people, right? And then you want to get into the next room and there's always another room. Just diminishing returns. And then wealth games. It's like, I want the boat and I get the good boat and I park it at the harbor. Oh, but I see the yacht over there now I get the massive yacht but now I can't park it at the harbor. I gotta park it in the middle of the ocean because I can't go so close. And I look next to me and there's a bigger boat. Are you constantly just on that kind of, on that kind of treadmill and you know, you have got some, some nicer things but you're being very reasonable with what you're purchasing and you're very kind of calculated and aware of what you're doing. I mean you bought yourself some new shoes, but probably that's about it, mate. You're doing pretty well.
Yeah, like I think where I've spent money is just lifestyle enhancement to help me achieve and do more, be more productive. Like I've got a rental, like I'm rent vesting because I'm getting my money to the house. I want to build up my investment properties. I've spent money on, you know, whether it be cleaner at home, you know, I spend money on, you know, a pay. I've got an assistant that helps me like know, get stuff at home sorted. So I've sort of spent in areas to help me ultimately and, and, and also I spend money on a good bed and couch and like, you know, so I can sleep good. Like that's really where I've spent the most of my money. But now I'm like, how can I tax efficiently invest capital to grow my wealth, not buy a boat, not buy a car, not do these things. And yes, like, you know, I think one day I will do that, but I'm not doing that until I've reached my goals. And I think worst case scenario, what happens if tomorrow it all goes away? Like what happens if you know, something happens and.
You can't live off a Car and a boat. Like the depreciating assets. I want cash flow, I want income, I want growth and protection. That's what I'm looking at now.
And that's one of the important things my business mentors told me is you need to be personally wealthy.
And not.
Just have everything you know in your business. And when you do, and your executives do as well, you're going to make much better decisions in the business because you're not stressed about those little kind of everyday things. And if you're buying, you know, big houses and cars and boats and lots of holidays, you're going to be stressed because you're on that treadmill, you have to feed the machine. You're constantly looking for cash flow. Get to a position where you've got, you know, your salary covers your expenses or you know, you've got a some money saved up and you got an FU fund, six months worth of expenses, or even the ultimate position where your investments are just generating at a rate that is more than you would actually spend on your lifestyle. And I think that's achievable for most people. It's not some fantasy kind of thing. And mate, let's talk about entrepreneurs because for some reason Gary Vee's been popping up in my LinkedIn feed a lot and I love him because he just swears on LinkedIn and I think LinkedIn is just ridiculous. Everything's about B2B sales and humbled and honored and he just gets in, he's like, you motherfucker, what are you talking about? And all these people, come on, they're young people, early 20s, some of them are older as well and they're like, I want to be a millionaire. And he's like, are you fucking serious? Like, why is that your goal? Like just by you saying that, I know you're not going to get there. Like first of all, have a smaller goal. But, but being a millionaire is not the outcome. Like people get there and you're like, huh, it's not like this huge party, it's just this small five minute moment in time where you crack a bottle, bottle of wine. And the most important thing, and I think you're starting to see this as well now, Ben, is that it's the journey along the way and it's all the things you achieve, how you grow as a person, the people that you do things with, the experiences that you have. And then as you get older, you realize the journey is all there is. The outcome never really matters. It's, it is just the journey Just striving for something, working with people and achieving it and being fulfilled.
Yeah.
That is all there is in life.
No, totally agree. I love the game. That's what I love. I'd hate to be.
And then you realize that after you've achieved the money. Right. It's weird.
Hey. Yeah.
I think I can appreciate along the way. But you only truly realize that once you've achieved or even if it's not money is your outcome. When you achieve the outcome. Like let's say you're a sports person, you swim 50 meters really fast and you win a gold medal. It's not about like that five minute gold medal. It's about everything leading up to it and how effort you put in and achieved as a person.
100% it was nothing. I didn't feel anything. When, when, when we hit seven figures, it was just, okay, what Now I've.
Talked to a lot of people and they all say the same thing. Like none of them have really cared. And it wasn't this big thing that we're brought up to believe it is going to be because we've heard it in the news or some rich person talking about it or, you know, social media has told us this is what you need and all your problems will be solved. No, it's the beginning of your problems. You feel nothing. It's. It's bullshit. Like your life's like, you know, marginally better. You have more resources, but you still got your same fucking problems.
It's the start of you. It's the start of your fucking problems.
It is because you think it's going to be this great utopian, like, oh, what? It's not. I'm not super happy in fucking, you know, flying in like jets and shit. And even if you are, it's not going to fulfill you. You still have that now you have to work on yourself. That's where the real work begins.
Totally, man. It's funny, it's funny. I've been very lucky and grateful to find my passion of business and crypto. Like, I love that. And education and finance and like investing. I love all. It's just like, it's just a perfect storm and, and content. I get to do that and help people and it's just fun, man. I love it. I love the game. Won't be able to stop. Like what? Like what else would I do? Like, you know what I mean?
This is what I said on the platinum day. Like some of us are just working dogs like border collies. You can't put them in an apartment, they'll just chew the couch. Like, you need to do something. And whether that something is, you know, just working your normal job that you really enjoy or working with people you like working with and. Or working on a fulfilling mission or philanthropy or volunteering or just expanding your mind and traveling, whatever it is that you want to do. Like, you need to occupy yourself somehow and keep growing as a person. And for us, it's this business. I'm enjoying it more and more every day. Like, the more hires we have, the more people we get in. Like, man, it just works. Like, everything compounds like you said before, and it just gets better every day.
So much fun. And I think that'll be my probably advice or just experience shares for the listeners. Like, you know, you guys are successful in your own right. Like, you probably could relate to a lot of what. What Bergs and I just said. But yeah, I think it's about, for me, you know, finding something that you enjoy, you love doing and learning and progressing it along the way and doing it with people that you love spending time with. Like, that's at the end of the day, what I love. And it's good fun and solving problems. Yeah.
And also be aware of what you're trading off, because there's some wild things. Like, if I could be.
10 years younger, I would trade everything instantly, easily every day I'll go back to $0. I'd even go negative dollars to be 10 years younger.
Right. So you got to be aware of what are you trading off? Like the time that you have or.
With your family or.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what? Because you trade a lot of time for your money. Because you've got to put that in. You got to put the effort in. You have to build something of value and then you can harvest that money and just be aware that money isn't all it's cracked up to be. It is time. It is those experiences. And the shocking thing is that you only realize that once you've done it. Right. And so if you're doing it, have those little checkpoints along the way and make sure you're still feeling the same thing that you're feeling. And don't be tied to a number or something silly like that. And just make sure that it is the goal that you want to live the life that you need. And don't overshoot like so many of us do. We're like, oh, I want to get to, I don't know, a hundred thousand dollars. When will you be comfortable? 200 now it's a Million or got a couple of million bucks, it's going to be 4 million. You ask any person, like, at what level we'd be comfortable. It's always dou. What they have now.
Yeah. It's them.
Don't be that person.
Yeah.
Also remember, you are a human. You. You will get old, you will get sick, you will be in pain, you will die. And just factor that into your decisions and live your bloody life along the way. And that's why I like working with you, Ben, because you actually live your life. And it's taught me a lot to be like, oh, don't do all weird and habits that you picked up along the way and things you learned from your parents. It's okay to, like, live your life, take time off, spend some money here and there, just get after and live a better life.
We actually compliment each other because I think, like, when we first started doing the content and working together, I was like, you. You. Like. From my perspective, you were very.
I don't know if uptight's the right word. Like, every dollar was risk averse, you know? Yeah, risk adverse. Like, it was just like. No, like, you know, very risk averse, where I'm the complete opposite. I was like, who cares? Like, we'll figure it out later. But I think, like, we've actually come closer to the middle where you're now, like, taking on more risk. I'm far less riskier than I was. I'm more risk adverse now.
Just the way you're talking now, like, the way you use some financial terms and the way you're thinking about the future, like you even said six months ago, like, you never really thought that much about the future. But now you've got a partner, you've been with her, you can see the future, and you're planning the future as well.
Yeah, yeah, it's exciting, but you got to think about it, like, f. K. Okay, that's. That's not going to be cheap.
Oh, bro over. He's looking at, like, housing and having kids and everything like that.
Like, it's.
Yeah, yeah. Life is proper expensive. So, yeah, do yourself a favor and spend less than you earn. Take 10% of that and invest it in something. Doesn't have to be crypto. It can be if you want, put it into something else. Something that will make you money. Like, just. Just get ahead.
Thank you so much, folks. Thank you for listening. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode and learned a couple of things on our experiences. If you like the episode, we'd love you to share with a friend or family member. It's how we grow the podcast each and every week. And we'll see you next time.
Thanks, champions.