Ep 574 | 7 Wealth Killers That Keep Smart People Broke

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. You do not build wealth by simply working hard. You also, in my opinion, don't build it just by being smart. I think you build wealth by avoiding the things that quietly kill that wealth before it could even grow. In today's episode, I want to walk through what I believe to be 7 wealth killers. There's probably more, but the 7 wealth killers that are top of mind for me that I've actually observed take down some really smart, really talented, really driven people. People that had all the potential but maybe lost the game before they ever really built that wealth, built that freedom. So let's run through these, these 7. Number 1, the number 1 wealth killer of the 7 today is actually saving too much. Now this one kind of throws people off because you're told all your life that you should save your money. I mean, odds are Uh, if your family ever discussed money, it was around saving. If you went to school and money came up, it was around saving. And yes, you should save to a certain extent. At the very minimum, a basic emergency fund is clearly very important. But remember, saving is not the ultimate goal. Wealth creation is the goal. So if all you do is, is hoard cash, then you're losing to inflation. You're losing to opportunity cost, and you're certainly losing time. Cash, in my opinion, is of course very important for, for flexibility. You want cash available to you, but too much of it sitting idle is probably just fear that's disguised as some degree of discipline. So I think you've got to learn to move money toward growth. Whether that's in investments or, or putting that money into your business or, or simply buying back your time. And that's going to, that's going to tie out here in a few more of these wealth killers. But number 1 is actually saving too much, just hoarding cash and sticking it under the mattress. That is not going to allow you to grow your wealth. Number 2, the second wealth killer is getting comfortable and complacent. This is again one of those silent killers. You start making some good money, your lifestyle starts to level up, which is all awesome, but then you start thinking, you know what, I'm kind of sitting pretty good right now. Like, I kind of like where I'm at. It's better than where I've ever been. And you stop maybe pushing for more. The mindset kind of turns into this mindset of stagnation. You stop innovating, you stop building. You may not think you're stopping, But if you analyze your actions, you probably are. And before you know it, 5 years down the road, you're sitting in the same spot and you're really slowly losing ground. Now, the goal isn't to stress yourself out. It's to simply stay in motion because wealth loves momentum and complacency kills it. And if you've been hanging out here with us at the No Days Off podcast, you know that if you just stay the course and you, and you invest strategically, then your money will double and triple and quadruple over time if you play the long game. So, getting comfortable and complacent is an absolute wealth killer, which leads to number 3. The third wealth killer is a lack of knowledge. You cannot build what you don't actually understand. I think most people spend more time comparing car prices or trying to, you know, figure out how to maximize their points on their credit card. They spend more time doing that sort of stuff than studying how wealth actually works. They could probably tell you how to book cheap flights, but they can't tell you the difference between a Roth IRA and a Solo 401(k). I think wealth requires learning the language of wealth. Now, you don't have to be a financial expert. I don't expect that, but you do need to understand how to protect and how to grow and how to multiply your money. So if you're not reading and listening and asking questions, then you are asking to just stay stuck, stay where you're at. So a lack of knowledge is a major, major wealth killer. I can tell you for me personally, early in my career, I was, you know, I had a job, if you will. I ran my business, but it was more or less a job, and I was making money. And I was saving that money, but I was not nearly as educated as I could or should have been. And as a result, even still today, I'm further behind where I could potentially be if I was more knowledgeable at that time. Now, number 4, this is kind of a funny one, but, you know, being that number 3 was lack of knowledge, number 4 is actually knowing too much. Knowing too much. Some of the most broke people I've met are also some of the smartest. They know every possible investment. They know every possible downside. They play devil's advocate on their own dreams. They wait for perfect timing, and that perfect timing never comes. There's a quote I recently came across, and I love it. It was, the quote is this, it goes, "Someone with half your IQ is making 10 times more because they aren't smart enough to doubt themselves." Someone with half your IQ is making 10x what you're making because they aren't smart enough to doubt themselves. It's kind of an interesting one to think around. Over-analysis creates paralysis. Smart is great, don't get me wrong. I want you to be smarter, but bold action usually beats brilliance every time, especially when it comes to building wealth. Number 5, playing short-term games. Playing short-term games. Wealth is a long-term game. If you're thinking about next month's revenue or this year's income, but you're not thinking in 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, you're probably playing small. I think the most successful people I know make decisions today that don't pay off for years. They, they delay gratification. They stack their skills. They build things that compound. They invest in things, uh, and know that it's a long-term investment and don't react to the ups and downs of the, of the investment's market value of the day. If you need it all right now, you're— you'll never have enough to build anything meaningful long term, in my opinion. Number 6, the number 6 wealth killer is actually failure to delegate, failure to delegate. Maybe a good, a better way to say this, lack of understanding around your dollar per hour. Your time is worth X dollars per hour. If you're doing work below that value, then you're actually losing money. And I see it all the time, entrepreneurs that do their own bookkeeping or design their own flyers or chasing paperwork. Because they don't want to spend the money. And I get it, if times are lean, you got to do what you got to do. But I still see people that are trying to build, but they're doing things that they should in fact be hiring for. What they're really doing is buying problems and selling their time. Wealth is very much about leverage. Building a big business is about leverage. That means learning to delegate and outsource and invest in help so you can operate in your highest value zone. A lot of times though, again, it goes back to that complacency. It goes back to that stagnation. You're kind of good with what you have, but if you're willing to take dollars off the table right now to invest into your business, into delegation or outsourcing or help, long-term-wise, that'll pay off for you. And then number 7, the 7th wealth killer of the 7, And this one's maybe the most dangerous because it feels harmless. This is lack of awareness and a plan. Most people have no real idea how much they make, how much they spend, what their net worth is, and even what they're building toward. This was an episode we just recently did talking about net worth. So many people are flying blind. You need to know what you have, where you want to go, and why that goal even matters to begin with. You need to have awareness around that, and you need to build a plan, and you need to honor that plan. And you could tweak it, but at least have direction. Wealth doesn't happen by accident. It takes awareness and it takes a plan. And without both, you're probably just busy, but you're not really building. So here's the deal. I didn't really— I didn't just like kind of come up with this on a whim. I didn't make this list in a, in in a vacuum. I've actually lived different parts of this, and I've worked with people who've lived all of it. Most of the time, it's not one killer that holds you back. It's, it's probably 2 or 3 of these combined. Maybe you're saving too much and you're afraid to delegate. Maybe you're smart and ambitious, but you're playing a 1-year game instead of a 20-year game, and you have no plan. The good news though is that these killers are all fixable. But not tomorrow. You fix them today with small moves and better decisions and more awareness. You start to fix them. Make sense? So here's my challenge to you. I want you to pick one of these 7 wealth killers that hit home for you, and I want you to take real action this week to eliminate it. And if this episode helped you think differently in any way, I would love for you to share it with someone you care about. The first step to building wealth isn't about earning more. It's about removing the stuff that's holding you back. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.