Ep 90 | Wealth Building 101 with Brian Gubernick

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. Let's get into it today. Today we're going to be talking about wealth building, and more specifically We're going to be talking about the wealth building curriculum that I would consider if I am just starting my wealth building career or my focus on wealth building, or if I'm already well underway but want to just up my level of knowledge, my level of expertise, and maybe even spark some new energy to gas this journey that we're on. Okay? So how did this curriculum come to be? Over the years, the individuals that I've had an opportunity to coach or train or even host at our Metrics Masterminds, they've asked questions around starting the wealth-building journey, and it prompted me to kind of reflect and think, if I was to build out a course curriculum, a college course, let's say, what would be the things that I would have the class read, study, listen to, attend, and practice in order to learn more about finance and more about wealth building? And so what I did was actually write out this curriculum, and I've shared it with many over the years, and it's been updated and revised a time or two. And I thought it'd be beneficial to share these things with everybody today. So here's how I've broken it down. I have separated this curriculum by what you should or could be reading, what you could or should be listening to, what you could be attending, and what you could be putting into practice immediately. So let's start with reading. Now, I have shared, uh, many episodes back, uh, around my top 5 favorite financial books, and there is some overlap with respect to what I'm about to share, but there are some different books on this list, and you'll understand why here in a moment. So when I think about reading, I kind of break it down into wealth, uh, reading, uh, around mindset and wealth reading for knowledge. So let's talk about the mindset section first. In the curriculum I've written out, I would encourage you to read 2 out of the 3 books I'm about to share. This is specifically around wealth-building mindset, okay? Choose 2 of the 3. The first, Rich Dad Poor Dad. Many of you have probably already read this. The next, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And the last, The Richest Man in Babylon. So Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, and The Richest Man in Babylon, those are 3 of my favorites, 3 books I've gifted probably more than most any other books I've gifted over the course of time. And I believe they are phenomenal books around wealth mindset, financial mindset. How do you lay the framework or the foundation to begin your wealth building journey? Choose 2 of the 3 as part of your curriculum. I want you to think about this almost as like a semester in college. These are 2, you got to choose 2 of these 3 books as required reading for this course. Now that's around mindset. Now let's talk around knowledge. When I think knowledge, I think you read these 3 books and then I'm going to give you a bonus. This is not a choice here on these 3. You read these 3 as part of the wealth-building curriculum that we're discussing here today. The first, Simple Path to Wealth. This is a newer addition to this list, but one that I think, uh, has amazing tactical advice when it comes to wealth building. So Simple Path to Wealth. The next, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor. There are lots of great real estate investment books, many of which could be on this list, but "The Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Dave Jenks, Gary Keller, and Jay Papasan was one of the first books I read on real estate investment that made a massive difference in the trajectory of my wealth-building career. The last thing I'd put on here to read as required reading, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway's annual letters. Now this is not a book you go out and buy, though actually I shouldn't say that, maybe there is a book somewhere that has all of the annual letters. But what I want you instead to do is just Google Berkshire Hathaway annual letters, and you will find the Berkshire Hathaway site. And every single year, Warren Buffett writes a letter to the stockholders of Berkshire Hathaway with his thoughts around what's going on in money, business, the economy, et cetera, et cetera. I would go back over the past several decades and I would read every one of those letters. I've done this multiple times. And it makes me a much smarter investor, a much smarter business person, and it certainly aids in the wealth creation. Now the bonus thing to read, this is a bonus, if you want extra credit in this curriculum, read the Wall Street Journal on a fairly regular basis. Pick it up and read it, read a physical copy of it. I know that's kind of old school, some of you are probably laughing, But I really think looking at the Wall Street Journal every day makes a difference. Now, the things I'm talking about as it pertains to reading, yes, you'll gain knowledge. Yes, you will shape your mindset. But this is an awareness exercise. I want you thinking about money. I want you thinking about finance and wealth more often. Reading these things prompts you to be more aware around money and finance on a daily basis. That's reading. Now let's get to listening. Choose 2 of the 3 podcasts I listen, I listen to on a regular basis. Choose 2 of these 3 podcasts as part of the curriculum for things you should be listening to. Number 1, the WealthAbility Podcast by our friend Tom Wheelwright. Talks around tax and wealth building. It's brilliant. Number 2 podcast is called We Study Billionaires. I don't think I have to describe that one. It is exactly like the title implies. Number 3, The BiggerPockets Podcast. Always a different real estate related topic or a real estate investment related topic. Makes me think nonstop about actions I could take. Choose 2 of the 3, WealthAbility, We Study Billionaires, and The BiggerPockets Podcast. Choose 2 of those 3 and start listening today. We've covered reading, we've covered listening. Now let's talk about attending. These are things that I think you should get on your calendar for the next 12 months. The first thing I want you to pick any money or wealth related conference and attend it in person or virtually, just one. Maybe it's Tony Robbins, maybe it's Dave Ramsey, maybe it's a BiggerPockets summit. I'm talking about something that has to do with wealth building, financial management, or real estate investment. Not a traditional industry-related event, though, though you should be attending those as well, but specifically around wealth. Pick a conference, something that's appealing to you, sign up for it and fly there and attend it. The next thing I want you doing as far as attendance goes, I want you to set 2 meetings per year with your CPA right now. Maybe every 6 months you meet with the CPA and it's to talk tax, it's to talk strategy. The last thing as far as attendance goes, and this is a bit aspirational and it is optional, but I strongly encourage everybody to make this trip more than one time if ideally it goes on for a lot longer, but the odds are kind of stacked against us. I think everybody should make a trip to the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder conference. Where Warren Buffett, our prophet as it pertains to wealth building, and his partner Charlie Munger sit in front of the audience and they talk about business and wealth and Berkshire Hathaway. But everybody should go to Omaha and make that trip. Getting tickets, you just got to have a share of Berkshire Hathaway. So you spend a couple hundred bucks, few hundred bucks on a share, and you're now a shareholder and you get invited. Everybody should make that trip. And let's call it what it is, Warren and Charlie are not the, uh, youngest guys out there. I think you need to take action on that one sooner rather than later. Then lastly, we've covered reading, we've covered listening, we've covered attending. Now let's cover practice. What do you put in practice? What are your assignments? First, start tracking your net worth and tracking your passive income. We will share a link with a resource in the notes. Click on that link, download the net worth spreadsheet, and start tracking today. Along those same lines, the next thing you gotta start doing as far as practice, begin maintaining a personal profit and loss statement. Record your income, record your expenses, and be very clear around what it is you're netting. Create more awareness around these things. Next, Be very selective around who you're spending time with. Choose your 5, and those 5 people you're hanging out with, you should be having money conversations. This is part of the wealth-building curriculum, hanging out with the right people. And then last, as far as practice goes, I want to see everybody teaching. Teach a class on real estate investment. Teach a class on managing your personal P&L. Teach a class on anything wealth-building related. The greatest way to learn and master something is to, in fact, teach it. So pick some subjects and start teaching. So that's your curriculum. Those are the things you should be reading to up your mindset, increase your knowledge. Those are the things you should be listening to. This is what you should be attending. And here's what you should be putting into practice. This is Wealth Building 101. In the future, we'll go through, uh, the 201 course, but here's where we start. Hopefully you pick something out of there to increase your knowledge and, and your path to creating wealth. So that's all we have for today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to to get better. So let's get after it.