How To Make Money In An Economy That Hates You

Hey there, real quick, before we jump into the episode, listen, if your earnings treadmill hasn't set you free yet, running faster won't either. Listen, hustle without principles just going to burn you out. So here's what I want for you. I want you to join me for my money machine experience Live. It is three free trainings. Deep dive into how to escape the treadmill and build a money machine that actually works for you. All right, grab your spot here by going to moneymachinelive.com and I'll see you in the free training. Curious. What do you do when the economy feels like it's working against you? When no matter how hard you work, prices keep rising, opportunities feel like they're scarce, or financial security seems like it's further and further out of reach? You know, if you ever felt like the system was rigged and like you're doing everything right but still struggling to just get ahead, this episode's for you. Because here's the truth. Tough economies don't just create struggle. They also create opportunity. And if you know where to look and how to move, you can take advantage of it.

All right, let's be honest. Right now, it feels like the economy is kind of working against us. There's so much uncertainty. We don't know what's going on. We don't know about tariffs. We don't know about taxes. We don't know about inflation. Things are costly, prices are skyrocketing, wages aren't keeping up. And it feels like no matter how hard you work, no matter how much you do, you just can't seem to get ahead. So if that's how you feel, you're not crazy. You're just paying attention. All right, here's the thing. Maybe you're. You've lost your job, or maybe you're in fear of losing your job. You feel uncertain. Maybe you're in a business and it's struggling and you're having a difficult time making sales. Maybe you're just exhausted from working so hard and feeling like it's never enough. And just know this, it's not just you. It's millions of people that are feeling the pressure. And here's the truth. Tough economies don't just create struggle. They do create opportunity for those that know where to look and have the resilience and the adaptability to take hold of it. So today, I'm going to kind of show you how to not just survive, but how to thrive, how to come out ahead. And we're going to cover some things, like how do you make money even when the economy is stacked against you? The other thing I want to touch on is how do you protect and grow what you already have? And then the mindset shifts that you need to have to win in whatever economy is happening. So let's start in, because the reality is this, the economy doesn't really care about you. And this sounds harsh, but it doesn't. It just goes along. And you have to take control of the things that are controllable. And it's a harsh truth, but the economy isn't designed to make you wealthy. It's designed to build wealth in a certain way. And in some cases, you might say, well, it's designed to make corporations and governments rich. Maybe, maybe not. But when you do, look at what's going on. We have a middle class that is shrinking. We have inflation that's eating away at savings. And if we don't shift how we think about money, we'll get left behind. And so whatever the economy has been designed to do, but we need to then say, all right, these are the rules. This is the system. How do I use the system.

To make it work for me? And people will learn, literally, how to move differently during tough times. They don't just survive, they thrive. Here's the thing. I look at tough times as if you're going to the gym. When we go to the gym and we do resistance training, we lift weights, we get the weight and we're lifting the weights, we're pushing against the waist. We have the resistance. The challenge is this.

Without the resistance, we would never build the muscle. So I look at these times as the resistance in the gym to refine you, to define you, to build you, to create the person you need to be on the other side of that so you are stronger, more resilient, more adaptable to take on what's happening. So when you look at some of the things that have happened and why, I think that we should look at uncertain times as a place of opportunity. Let's just look at some things that were created during bad times. For instance, Airbnb was founded in the recession, okay? Netflix boomed during the 2008 crisis. The biggest wealth transfers happen, happens during downturns. Those who invest and adapt will win. I know that I've had a tremendous increase in our net worth and wealth from after the 2008 recession, okay? Waiting for an economy to get better is a losing strategy. Hoping that it doesn't impact you is a losing strategy. The winners are the ones that look at it and say, what Are the things that I can control? What are the moves that I can make right now and make the moves and just control the controllables so I don't have to worry about the rest of it. Okay. And not allow yourself to get frozen in fear, to allow the media to get you set in cement, to allow social media, the uncertainty, the angst that is out there, the zeitgeist that's out there to say, oh my God, I'll just crawl in a corner and hope this passes. The storm passes. Instead, it's time for us to look at it and say, whatever is coming our way. How do I use it to my advantage? How do I allow it to grow me? How do I allow it to grow my. My wealth? How do I allow it to grow my income? So how do you make money in a difficult economy? Okay, I'm not going to say a bad economy, but a difficult economy, maybe a difficult time. And so the first thing is this I'm going to tell you, as hard as this could be, is that if you're in a career, I want you to start to shift your mindset from a job mindset to an ownership mindset. If you're relying on just a single paycheck, you're vulnerable. If you're relying on a company to take care of you, you're vulnerable. And I know that some people think that entrepreneurship is risky, but if you really understand entrepreneurs, they do everything they can to strategically mitigate the risks.

There are some that are adrenaline junkies. Risk adrenaline junkies. But most are not. They're strategic thinkers. Now, when I say job mindset, from an ownership to an ownership mindset, I'm not meaning that necessarily you're only going to start a business. But ownership means that I'm going to own every aspect of my life. I'm going to take responsibility for it. I'm going to own my circumstances, I'm going to own my future, I'm going to own my ability to earn. I'm going to own my skills. Ownership's a big word. And when you start thinking like an owner, not just an employee, things will shift. Now, you might look at it and use that to start asking yourself, can I start to make money by creating a side hustle of freelancing a, you know, turning, doing some consulting or outside work. So I've got additional income streams because I believe that multiple income streams is no longer a luxury, but rather a requirement for you to excel and to build wealth and to have the diversification of income streams as well as the diversification of assets to sustain you no matter what kind of market is in place. But it's also a place for you to own your career path. It's also a place for you to look at it and say, can I create more value for the company I work for so I become invaluable for them? So if there is downsizing, outsizing or un, or anything like that, or layoffs, I hopefully don't participate in them. Because the more value you bring, the higher they can pay you, but also the more valuable you are. And so this is a time for you to, to really start to own that piece of it. Okay. The second thing to look at is can you look for recession proof problems and solve them? Money follows value. And I've kind of talked about this already, but I, I think that this is the thing that people don't get. Money doesn't follow time. We've gotten into a habit of, of, well, you know, how many, what's your hourly rate or what's your, your pay per hour? And so we've, we've commoditized our compensation by virtue of putting it into a time equation. But that's really not how the economy works. The economy, the money follows the value. The value is the solution and the problem you solve. And there are recession proof problems that when you are in that aisle to solve them, that you'll come out on the other side of it. Where can, where does the money flow during tough times? Ask yourself that. Helping people save money, financial coaching, tax strategies, budgeting, those kinds of things can help. You know, helping businesses increase revenues, cutting costs. So consulting, marketing, automation, the things that will optimize their cash flows can help. Do you have skills in that? Do you have talents in that? Do you have strengths in that? Whether you're owning it in a job or you're owning it as a side hustle, or owning it as a business providing essential or affordable alternatives. Listen, when things are tough, people aren't buying new cars, they're repairing old ones. They're not necessarily buying new homes in a high interest environment, they're repairing the current one. So maybe you have essentials or affordable alternatives like repair services, resale, budget friendly products, those kinds of things. Maybe it's simply that you're going to help people escape their current angst through content creation, digital products, products, online courses, things like that. If you watch my episode on the 12 incomes, the 12 different incomes that I generate right now, you'll see that some of my income is literally generated by me creating content through the purpose, through the, the idea of ads and branding and that kind of thing. Could you do something like that?

See 2008. Let's just go back to 2008. Many businesses came in there and started to help people cut costs. So you had coupon blogs, you had budgeting apps, all those things, they all just exploded during that time.

So we got to think about this and ask ourselves, are there some recession proof solutions, recession proof problems that I can solve and create some income streams around it because they will thrive during recessions, but they will also thrive beyond the recessions. The other thing to think about is this. Build an online income stream. Why, you know, why do I, why do I keep focusing on online income streams?

Because for me it is one of the highest margin businesses out there now. It is much more than just, hey, hang a website and they'll come running and swipe the credit cards. That's not the way it works. It takes, it takes effort, it takes marketing, it takes work. But online income streams are high margin businesses, so you don't need to generate as much in revenue to put more in your pocket. The other thing is to look at it from the perspective of people. During recessions, people will start to go to online to try and skill up, to find other skills, to find other ways to make money and do the things they want to do. And if you are there to provide that, you start to give them the opportunity and the avenue to make it happen in their own life. You become part of their solution during the difficult times. So when you look at making money online, whether it's a digital product, it could be ebooks, it could be templates, it could be online courses, it could be spreadsheets, it could be tools. Maybe you do freelancing. If you're a writer, a graphic designer, a virtual assistant, you get a chance to, to do freelancing and you put yourself out there and you'll get these freelance gigs. Maybe you do coaching, tutoring, consulting. People pay for your guidance, your assistance. Or maybe you believe in certain products that you use and you decide to create an affiliate type of online thing where you're reviewing products and reviewing, you know, whether it's beauty products, whether it's healthcare products, whether it's technology, and you get paid an affiliate commission for that. There's so many ways that don't take a tremendous amount of, of effort, there's still effort involved. Don't let me kid you, okay? But the fact is that you have the opportunity to build a high margin business with low upfront Costs if you do it right. The fourth thing is this to leverage your skills and the assets you already have. Okay, you have a skill set. If we're going to develop these online courses, if we're going to develop, don't maybe make a complete 180 degree turn, just take 1 degree off of where you're at. You don't need to reinvent yourself completely. You just need to use what you already know in a new way. If you're an English teacher, maybe you get a chance to tutor kids where English is the second language and do it online in groups.

If you're a fitness instructor or a dietitian or a nutritionist, maybe you create meal plans. If you're someone that coaches in whether it's sports or something else, maybe you create something that are skill development based. This is a time for you to, to audit your skills, to ask yourself what do I know? And one of the key ways to do this is look at what people ask for your help of. You know, people will call me and ask for help on their finances, on their cash flow and their business and they're building wealth.

They see it as a strength. I see it as a strength for sure. Okay, Or I wouldn't have written a book and the work that I do. But what do the people around you see as a strength in you and what is that skill and how do you refine that skill and put it out there? How do you package it in a way that people will pay for it? During COVID teachers, they moved online. Corporate workers were doing consulting remotely. Mechanics started mobile repair services. Our groomers for our dogs were went mobile. What can you do? And then the question is, is that once you do that, what are you doing with the money? Because you will have the earnings. What we're talking about is the earnings machine, the one pillar in the money machine. But there's a second pillar which is the grow machine, which is the grow, which is the money machine. Now when we taking the money and you know, people will say, well it's not how much you make that matters, it's how much you keep. It's not, it's not even how much you keep, it's how much of your money you get to work for you that's going to determine your financial freedom. And so the key is this. You're going to do the earnings, you're going to build the earnings. Now you have cash flow coming in, how much of it are you keeping? And now getting it to work for you.

Cutting just expenses doesn't Serve your goals. What serves your goals is if you cut those expenses is to take that difference and put it to work for you so you don't have to work for it again.

You don't need to live broke to make it happen. But you do need to stop spending on things that don't move you forward. So let's get some tough decisions to look at it and say, here's the money I have coming in, here's the money I have going out. Let me remove the stuff that I don't need to go out and keep that and put it to work for me. That might be cutting subscriptions. That might be stopping things you don't use. If you're not going to the gym, maybe putting it on pause, that might be going to your Internet provider, your insurance, your rent, and trying to negotiate.

Might be looking at it and saying, maybe I don't need to make the big purchase. Maybe there's a different way. Maybe instead of a new car, I get a used car. Maybe I look at discount stores. Using tactical moves to cut the expenses.

And then use that to build your future is important because the decisions we make with our money today should be in service of the future we want tomorrow. The money situation you have today is a result of the choices you made yesterday and the day before. The money situation you have tomorrow will be based upon the decisions you make today.

So we need to be very diligent and disciplined in it. And I'm not saying deprivation's the path. I am saying discipline is okay. And now once you're doing this, let's use that, and let's also start to build liquidity. So this next piece would be to get yourself recession ready. If there's a difficult economy, those that have cash liquidity, money in a high yield savings account will be okay. Not only will they be okay, they'll be in position to take advantage of the opportunities and the decreased values that are out in the marketplace, whether it's stocks, whether it's real estate and other opportunities. If you don't have an emergency fund, if you don't have a peace of mind fund, as I talk about it in my book Building your money Machine, this is the time we don't need the emergency fund.

And we don't start building it when we need it. We need to build it before we need it and hope that we never use it.

So this is the time to build that emergency fund. And know that I've said it over and over again. I don't think three to six months is enough. I think nine to 18 is what you're really looking at. So over time, I want you to follow the wealth priority ladder, chapter 12 of my book that walks you through it. How do you allocate and what do you do with each dollar as it comes in? It's your recipe, it's your job description. Keep it liquid, keep it safe, keep it insured.

And then the other piece of this one is going to be investing wisely. This is the time to actually make, make wise investments. Building a diversified portfolio that will take off when the market turns around, when the economy turns around is, is a path to accelerated wealth and accelerated freedom. The rich will get richer during reception recessions because they buy things that are cheap. They buy assets when they're cheap. Listen, if the stock market drops 20%, if the stock market drops 30%, you've got good companies in there that you know are not going to zero, okay? They're on sale. Why are we not taking it when Nordstrom is having a sale? Are you running inside the store? You're running out? I know what we do, okay? So tactically, this is about staying in the investment game. Always be buying dollar cost average in, but make sure that you're, you've got a properly allocated portfolio, properly diversified portfolio. Properly allocated portfolio. You can look for undervalued assets, you can take advantage of those things. There might be real estate deals that you can take over, but in order to do that, you need liquidity.

But this is the time to do it now. Avoid high risk, speculative types of stuff, okay? This isn't about you gambling. This isn't about going well. If it goes, it goes to the moon. If not, I lose it all. I don't want you to do that. I want to raise the probability of your success and accelerate your path to financial freedom. All right? That leads me to this last piece and that is this. This is a time to pay down high interest debt, okay? As you're making money and you're putting it away and you're being disciplined with the expenses, be smart about your debt. If you're drowning in credit card debt, it's time to get out. Because at 25, 28%, there's no way you'll get ahead. It's going to eat you up $1 at a time. All right? So this is about you focusing on getting any kind of consumer debt, high interest debt paid off. High interest debt is anything over 7% in my book, okay? If you, if you are holding balances on credit cards, it's time to get rid of them. Now, if you're still using credit cards to live each month, it's time to stop that. That means that we need to go back and really be clear on one, our income and two, our expenses. Put yourself on a debt payment plan. Get yourself out of debt. Either work, work the snowball method or the avalanche method. I have a worksheet that can help you do that. Just go to melabraham.com forward slash, no debt. Look at it. Negotiate with your credit card companies. Work, work to get yourself out of high interest debt. Because you cannot get ahead in a, in a difficult time when interest rates are high and you have a lot of debt on your shoulders. Okay, now low interest debt, let's keep it like the mortgage. Maybe it's manageable so you just leave it and you don't worry about it. But the rest of it, let's get it off your back. Okay, so here's the thing. I know that this is a lot and I know that when you're in difficult times, it can be scary. But the worst thing that you can do right now is to freeze, to crawl in the corner and hope the storm passes. That if we are in a down economy, that's the time to take action. That's the time to take ownership. That's the time to step in. That's the time to make sure that you're disciplined and that you have a plan and a strategy to follow. You know, what I want you to do is start to take three steps right now. Write down one way you can start making extra income. One way, just a single way. Write it down. Number two, look at last month's spending and look at anything that you're not using that you're not getting value for that, that it doesn't really benefit you and you don't necessarily get joy out of it. Cut it out and take that money and put it in a high yield savings account. And number three, start that emergency fund, that peace of mind fund, even if it's with $100 and make it automatic. Start building that liquidity. Get yourself a place. So bottom line is you're going to find ways to increase your income. You're going to find ways to decrease the expenses and move that money to work for you. And you're going to find liquidity to move you forward. Listen, if the economy is tough at the time, we just have to be tougher. We're resilient, we make smart moves. We follow simple principles that have worked no matter what's going on. In the economy, and those will be the ones that win tomorrow. All right? I hope that this helped, and I hope that you get a chance to look at this through a different set of eyes. And if you have questions, if you have challenges, or if you're unsure about something, do me, do me a favor, reach out, leave me a comment. Get, get me, get me in the conversation with you so I can kind of guide you in this place. Remember, I. I'm not selling investments. I'm not selling insurance. Just want you to live your life fully, fully expressed in the way that you envisioned and help you find that path to get there. Okay? And if you have someone that may need to hear this message or may need some of the guidance that I give, do me a favor, share this with them. Let them know that we're here. Let them know that we've got this stuff going. And if you have not subscribed, make sure you're subscribed to the show. Love to hear from you. Love to hear a review, Love to get your thoughts. All right. And I hope I get a chance to see you on your road to your financial freedom. And until I do, always, always strive to live a life.

Thank you for listening to the affluent entrepreneur show with me, your host, Mel Abrahamic. If you want to achieve financial liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join me in the affluent entrepreneur Facebook group now by going to melabraham.com group and I'll see you there.

And that's it for this episode of Building your money machine, where we help you learn how to master your money, eliminate financial stress, and live a a life of choice. If you found this valuable or helpful to you, here's what I'd love for you to do. If you do me a favor. Go to Apple, Apple Podcast, or wherever you're listening to this podcast and rate and review the show. It helps us tremendously to keep us at the top of the list so we can continue to get this information and this message out to people. Because I truly believe that financial freedom is your birthright, and I want to help each and every one of you claim it. Thanks so much.