If I Started 2026 With $0, Here's How I'd Get Rich

If I started 2026 with nothing, here's how I'd get rich. And that title should scare you a little. Not because starting from zero is frightening, but because most people who aren't starting from zero are living like they are. See, 78% of Americans, including those that are making more than $100,000 a year, are living paycheck to paycheck. Zero savings, zero runway, zero machine. That's not a money problem. That is a plan problem. And in this episode, the plan I would actually follow is step by step, a real sequence, no fluff, that I'm going to walk you through. And the first move isn't what you think it is. This is Building Your Money Machine, where we help you master your money, eliminate financial stress so you can live a life of choice. Because earning more doesn't make you free. A money machine does. And I'm your host, Mel Abraham. And after 30+ years as a CPA and entrepreneur, a money mentor, someone who's walked this financial freedom path from nothing to something, then broke it and rebuilt it again, I learned real quick what real wealth is. And it's not about bigger numbers. It's about bigger choices. So if you're ready, let's do this. So if I had to start over in 2026 with nothing, with no savings, no assets, no clients, no cushion, What would I actually do? That's what I want to talk about in this episode, because it's a totally different game. And to be honest with you, right out of the gate, I'm not going to give you a whole list of hustle tips, and I'm not going to tell you, hey, cut out the lattes, okay? And I'm certainly not going to pretend that the goal is to get rich as fast as humanly possible. Because here's the thing that I think most money videos get backwards. They chase a number. They optimize for the account balance, yet they treat wealth like it's the finish line. But here's the thing. If you hit a big number and your life still is empty, that's not a win. You didn't win. You just got there faster with the wrong map. So this plan, my plan starts somewhere different. It starts with your life. Your life, okay? The one you actually want. And then we build the money around that, okay? That sequence, that changes literally everything. So let me show you what I mean, okay? The origin of this is what is money for? Now, my dad came here to this country at 17 years old with nothing, okay? He was a son of an immigrant family. He was living in a country where they were persecuting people and there was a real threat. And at the time, he was a part of a group of people that were smuggling people out of the country, smuggling guns in to protect them. And they caught 2 of them, and those 2 were being tortured to get the names of, of the other 3, including my dad. And they were all going to be hung in the square. And my dad and, and his friends that were still free got fake papers. Changed their names, helped the others escape, and then my dad was able to get here. Now, he arrived in the US with nothing. No money, no connections, no blueprint. But he had something more valuable than any of that. He had clarity about what mattered to him. So he went to school, he became an engineer, and he built a modest life. We lived in a single-story tract home. All our lives, the same house through my whole childhood. Nothing lavish, but everything that counted. You know, 4 days before Dad passed away, I sat with him in the rehab center. We didn't think he was going to pass away. And I looked at him as he sat in this wheelchair. I said, "17 years old, Dad. You were risking everything. You knew that they would hang you in the square if they caught you. Why would you do that?" And sure as he was sitting there in that wheelchair, I saw more power than I had seen in him in weeks. He looked at me and put his hand on my knee and he looked and he said, "Because it was the right thing to do." Not because of money, not because of reward, but because of what it meant, because of who it let him be. See, that is an inflection point. His decision in 1946 meant that I'm sitting here with you today. The books that I've written, the stages I've spoken on, my son, my granddaughters, all of it traces back to one man making a choice that had nothing to do with a bank account. And I tell you that story because, because this is the thing that I think we miss. What is the money is it actually for? Not how much do I need? That's a math question. But what is it for? What life does it make possible? What are the moments that it protects? What are the choices that it buys? Because if you don't know that, and most people don't, then you're building a machine with no destination. You're just running and you're running hard and you're running harder and harder for a really long time. And you know where that leads? To break down, to burn out, to a point where maybe you don't realize what has happened. Okay? So when we look at this, I want you to start step one with all of this is to understand that you define the life first. Okay? Here's what I mean by this practically, before we touch a dollar, before you open an account, before you start optimizing anything. It's what I do with my students, my clients, and what we do in our life. You need to know what you're building towards. I call this the Affluence Vision, but it, it's not a dream board. It's a decision. Okay. Ask yourself 3 questions and write them down and actually write down the answers. First question is this: what does a fully funded What does a fully funded life look like for you? Not how much money do I want, but what does the day look like? What does Tuesday at 10:00 AM look like when money isn't a constraint? Are you with your kids? Are you building something? Are you behind a cause? Are you traveling? Are you serving? Are you creating? Get specific. Not, I want to travel, but where? With who? How often? And the second question to ask is, who do you want to be present for? See, Jeremy, when I became a single full-time dad, he drew a picture of me one day at 6 years old because I thought I was doing everything right. And he came in, he says, Daddy, Daddy, I drew a picture of you at school today. And I kneel down and I see this picture and here I am standing in front of 2 computer screens. With a phone in each ear. And at the hands of a 6-year-old boy, I saw a mirror into my soul that I was totally screwing up. Jeremy wasn't even in the picture. Here's this family picture of him and I, but he's not there. And when I asked him, "Where are you, buddy?" He says, "Where do you think I am?" And it's like, holy moly, at the hands of a 6-year-old, I realized that I wasn't present for him. So ask yourself the question, who do you want to be present for? What does that look like? And then the third question is this: what would you do if you weren't afraid? Now, this one is a big one, okay? Because it strips away the performance. Because underneath every kind of, I want more money, is the reality or a real life, the real life version of yourself that maybe, just maybe, you're putting on hold. Because of fear, because of concern, because of judgment. I don't know why, but take those 3 questions, all 3 of them, and write it down. Keep them visible because every financial decision you make from this point forward needs to be run through those filters. Not, is this a good return? I know that's blasphemy for an accountant to say, but the question isn't, does this get me closer to the money I want. The question really is, does this get me closer to the life I want? That's the compass. Now let's build it. All right. So step 2, once we have defined the life, step 2 is we have to get brutally clear on where you stand. This is our lived reality. Life is defined. Now let's look at the reality of where we are, because in between is the gap. And I wanna be as gentle but direct as possible. Most people are operating in the dark financially. They're sleepwalking through their financial life and they have this vague sense that things are okay, or they have a vague sense that things are not great, but they don't actually know. That's like driving with a blindfold on and you're hoping for the best. When I rebuilt after being $300,000 in debt, here's what I did. I literally sat down and I got completely clear on 4 numbers. 1, what's my income? Everything that's coming in after taxes. 2, what's my expenses? Everything that's going out. 3, what are my assets? In other words, what are the things that I own that had value? Not just stuff, not shoes and clothes and technology and all this stuff, but stuff that has value. And the 4th was Liabilities, everything I owe. And when you start to understand that, then you have two equations that start to run everything that based on these four numbers, income minus expenses equals your surplus. That's the margin you have to build the wealth that you need to have the life that you want. Okay? That's what we're trying to deal with. Now, at the same time, If we need more fuel, if we need more margin, if we need more to build the wealth faster, to build the money machine faster, then we need to manage those two pieces of the equation, income and expenses. Okay? The smaller that gap is, the slower everything moves. The bigger the margin is, the faster it moves. The second equation is this: assets minus liabilities. That's your net worth. That number will actually tell you how big your financial machine, your money machine is. Now, I refine it in the sense that the only assets I include are those that can generate cash flow and support my lifestyle down the road. So, things like cars are not going to be included in it, even though it technically is an asset. But see, those are the two equations that I would run things through. I don't care how much you make. And I've heard it, you've probably heard the same thing, oh, it's not how much you It's how much you keep that matters. Y'all, it's not even how much you keep that matters. It's how much you get to work for you that matters. See, I'm making money, I'm spending money. There's a portion that I keep, but if I keep it on the sidelines in a savings account, it's not gonna build the machine I need. I need to put it to work for me. Okay? So, so this is the thing that we need to start to look at and look at really clearly because income, Without direction just becomes a more expensive lifestyle. So block out 2 hours, an hour, 90 minutes, 3 hours, whatever. Maybe it's just a Saturday morning or Sunday afternoon. Make a coffee or a tea. Sit down, pull up your bank statements, your credit card bills, your investment accounts, your loans. Add it all up. Don't be afraid of the number. This isn't about judgment. This is about awareness. The number is just information. And that information is powerful. I promise you, the moment you look at the real picture, something shifts. I've seen it happen with hundreds of people that I've coached and mentored along the way. The anxiety of not knowing is always worse than the clarity of knowing. If it matters to you, you measure it. Now, you know where you're starting from. That's the foundation. Then we go to step 3. Step 3 is build your comfort cushion first. Not an emergency fund, a sanity fund. When we talk about the wealth priority ladder, I'm talking about making sure that you have oxygen in case something doesn't go right. And typically at the very beginning of the wealth priority ladder, I say fund your comfort fund. This is $1,500 or one month's expenses. Because one of the biggest reasons people can't make smart financial decisions is because they're making them from survival mode. And they're literally one unexpected bill away from the edge. And every decision is made not from a place of abundance and vision. It's made from a place of fear. You can't think long-term when you're terrified about this month. And research has shown it and showed that financial scarcity literally consumes your cognitive bandwidth. It literally reduces your ability to make good decisions. Not because you're not smart, but because your brain is in crisis mode. And when your brain is in crisis mode, it can't think about anything other than crisis. So before anything else, before investing, before big strategies, before we need to do any of that, we have to get out of survival mode. That's why I call it the comfort fund. Okay, now it's not fully funded, uh, emergency fund or peace of mind fund where we have months and months of expenses. but it is enough to carry the day if something unplanned happens. Okay? So that then leads me to step number 4. This is where I want you to expand the gap, earn more or spend smarter or do both. That's the game. Now we need to widen the surplus. Now we need to widen the margin we have to work with, the gap between what comes in and what goes out. There are two sides of this equation, and I want to talk about both because most of the time what people are telling people to do is cut, cut, cut, cut, stop spending, stop spending, stop spending. But you cannot cut your way to wealth. You can't do that. And I think you train yourself to living a lack life. You can't find joy on the journey to financial freedom. You'll never find joy in the destination. And so I'm not saying not to cut. We actually need to start by looking at what's leaking. That's, that's the first element, not forever frugality, but, but to look at and say, what really matters here? What are the things that I actually value? It's not to say you're not going to have the lattes. You're not eating out again. You're going to cancel every subscription and live like a monk. That's not freedom. That's just miserable with savings account. That doesn't work. But I do want you here to do a ruthless 30-day audit. Look at where the money is going and ask yourself honestly, is this really adding value to my life? Am I getting something from it or am I just getting used to paying for it? You might find an extra $200, an extra $400, an extra $600 a month that you're not even noticing that's going out the door. That money redirected is not a sacrifice, it's just a reallocation towards the life you actually said you wanted back in step 1. That's the game. Then side 2 of this is that we need to increase what's coming in, and this one matters more for the long term. Okay, I, I want to be clear here. I'm not talking about you picking up 20 side hustles and and just grinding harder. We just established that grinding harder without a system is how you end up being that blue stick figure glued to two screens. Like my son saw me when he drew the picture of me. But what I am talking about is identifying the most valuable thing you can offer right now at whatever level you're starting at and finding a way to deliver it at a higher rate. What do you know? What problems can you solve? What skills do you have that someone else desperately needs? How can you position yourself? How can you become more invaluable to the world, to your employer, to the people you serve? Could you be consulting in your field? Could you be freelancing? Could you be teaching something? Could you be a service? Could you be leveraging that expertise? Are there skills that you can add on to make you invaluable? And here's the key question I want you to ask yourself. Is this income tied to my hours or can it one day run without me? See, that question is what separates the earnings machine from the money machine. That drawing that Jeremy created was the thing that saw, that made me see the fact that as long as I was imprisoned by the earnings treadmill, in other words, earn, earn, earn, earn, and it was driven by my efforts, I would never be free. I could not have the freedom. And until I was able to separate the efforts from the earnings driven by the efforts, I was never gonna see the freedom. So, you don't have to build the full thing right away, but I want that in your mind. I want you to start planting the seed early. And when you're building an income stream to, to look at it and say, look, even if this income stream is small, is there any way to make it more leveraged over time to allow you to get your time back? There's 9 income elevators that I teach my, my students in the Money Machine Blueprint. But that thinking, starting early, is what accelerates the whole journey. I did not start that thinking until late because I was entrained into this trade hours for dollars mentality of accountants. Well, we need to change that. And I want you to look through a different set of eyes. Okay. That leads me to step number 5, build your peace of mind fund. This is beyond the comfort fund. Okay. Now I want you to start dealing with the gap that might be widening. How do I make sure that if there's a market downturn, if there's an economic downturn, if you have a health scare like I did with cancer, and it takes you out of the game for a longer period of time, can you sustain yourself? See, the greatest thing you can give yourself at the very beginning is an unshakable financial foundation. And that comes from managing your debt, which we're gonna talk about in the next piece, and making sure you have liquidity to sustain yourself if something goes wrong. That is beyond the comfort fund. It's the peace of mind fund or the emergency fund. An emergency fund is 3 to 6 months expenses. The peace of mind fund pushes it to 9 to 18 months. But at the beginning, let's just start with trying to get 3 months of expenses put away and give you that ability to sustain yourself. Now, I believe that you need more than that, especially in today's world, today's economy, is the way things are shifting. Okay, now I get it, you're probably sitting there going, Mel, that feels like forever. It's a lot of money just sitting in a savings account. We're going to put it in a high-yield savings account, get as much as we possibly can for it. But remember, This money that you're putting away in this step isn't about building wealth. It is about protecting wealth. And it, and I think it is absolutely non-negotiable. Think about what happened to people during the pandemic or in the market disruption in 2008 or a job loss or a health crisis. So, people who had 3 months or 6 months of runway, they were in panic mode within a quarter. Because they had to make desperate decisions. We already see that when we're making crisis-based decisions, they're not good decisions. They start raiding their retirement accounts. They start taking bad opportunities because they're terrified. But when you extend it beyond and have more than that, then they could breathe. Okay? That's the game I want you to play. All right? Step number 6, invest in the highest return asset first. And that's you. Okay, okay, comfort fund, we got the peace of mind fund, building, everything's going, but now I want you to start thinking about how do I invest in me? A lot of people at this stage are saying, okay, markets, index funds, ETFs, let's get it working. But I'm gonna push back on that instinct for a moment because investing, not because investing's wrong, but I think that the greatest return on investment is gonna come from investing in you. If you're earning $60,000 a year right now and you could invest $2,000 to upgrade that skill, get a certification, develop an expertise that takes you to $80,000 a year, that's $20,000 more every single year on a $2,000 investment. Show me a stock that does that. This was the step that changed my trajectory for my entire life. After I hit rock bottom, after the debt, all of it, I started to look at at what I could do to build my wealth, to build my income, to build my value, and that way it would accelerate my portfolio. My income grew, the margin grew, the fuel for the machine grew. The sequence allowed me to then fuel the machine faster. So, invest in yourself first to earn more, then use that higher income to build the assets that earn without you. Okay, so look for places where you can go— the conferences, the certifications, the coaches. Go to a mastermind, the courses that can start to drive that. Invest in you first. Then step 7: eliminate destructive debt. Let me talk a bit about debt for a moment, okay, because this is where a lot of people get paralyzed. There we've indoctrinated into a debt payment society— credit cards, consumer debt, all the things. I'm not a person that says all debt's the devil, but high-interest debt and destructive debt is the devil, and I want you out of it. Meaning that destructive debt is the debt that you use to finance your lifestyle. The big-screen TVs, the lavish vacations, the cars that you have to finance for 7 years to try and pay to afford them. They don't belong in our life. If we can't buy it at the speed of cash, then we shouldn't have it. We put money away to be able to make it happen. Productive debt though, Is that debt that generates cash flow and wealth over time. It could be a mortgage on a rental property. It could be financing a piece of equipment at a business that increases your productivity or your margins. I'm okay with that if you do it smart and strategically. But if you have destructive debt that you're carrying, that is for consumables and lifestyle, I need you on a debt payment plan. I'm not gonna go deep into it here, but I need you to Make sure that you're putting money towards that, either in a debt avalanche or debt snowball. Debt avalanche is the highest interest debt first. The debt snowball is the smallest balance first. Either one works. Pick one, get at it. And if you're not sure, then go grab my tool, the Debt Breakthrough Calculator, at melabraham.com/nodet so you can get it dialed in. Let's get you out of debt now. When you do that, you've got the liquidity working and you've got the debt taken care of. You're working on building up your, your value and making more money. That leads me to step number 8. Start building the machine even when it's small. This is where we start to, to get at the machine. This is where we start to invest. This is where we start to, to look at it. A lot of people think I need a fortune to start. No, you simply need to get in the game. And the way you get in the game is you start to take whatever you can and start putting it away into investments. ETFs and low-cost index funds is where I want people to start because they're diversified, they're liquid, and they're easy to get in and out of. And to make that happen, I want you to follow the wealth priority ladder because it tells you the hierarchy and how to optimize it and make it work. I'm not going deep into it here because it, it'll take a while. To go through it, but the bottom line is this. The first place I want you to look at is, can I get any free money? If I'm working for an employer that matches a 401k, get the free money from the employer, and then start putting your own money away. We recommend, and we have our clients, we want them putting 20 to 25% of their income away over time. That's the game I want you to play. Okay? And then step 9 is really this: know your milestones. Every single journey has checkpoints. And this is one of the biggest reasons people give up on the wealth-building journey. The number's too big. They don't realize where they are in, in the journey. I want you to have a review rhythm. At the beginning, it might be monthly. Then as you start to get into a pattern and things in place, it'll probably be quarterly. And maybe semi-annually, okay? So that's the game I want you to play is know where you're at every step of the way. And this is what I would do if I was starting from nothing. And one last thing to make it easier, and that is this, step 10, automate it so it happens without your willpower, without your effort, okay? That means that I'm gonna make automatic transfers, automatic investing, Automatic bill pay, automatic, automatic. I'm going to remove as much friction to get the money to do the things that it's supposed to do to build the wealth that I need to have the life that I deserve. That's the game that I need you to play. All right. So I hope that this helps. I hope that you'll take a chance, time to really start to look at this and start there. Now, you might sit back and say, this isn't some grand wealth plan. No, it's not. But if you don't have that foundation in place, grand wealth plan, you'll never get to. So let's get the unshakable foundation in place to do it right and get it dialed in. Okay? So that's the game I want you to play. But remember, start with life. Define what you're building towards and before you start building anything and why you're building it, why it matters. Get clear on where you stand. Get clear on the 4 numbers and the 2 equations. Get your liquidity in place. Get your debt dialed in, start investing in yourself first and into assets that generate cash flow down the road and get yourself a rhythm, a review. All right. I hope this helps. Do me a favor. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear what you're thinking and what you took away from this. What's the most important thing? What's the first step that you got to get into? Because I'd love to have that conversation. So send me a DM, send me a comment, and let's make it happen. And in the meantime, As I always say, always, always strive to live a life that outlives you. And remember this: financial freedom is your birthright. Let's go out and claim it. All right, can't wait to see you in the next one. Cheers.