Master Financial Literacy in 37 mins: Everything They Didn't Teach You in School

Let's be honest. Did you ever sit in class wondering, when am I going to use this in real life? Yeah, listen, me too. You know, I learned how to find X and everything, but nobody taught me about financial freedom or financial literacy. And dang, you know what? Turns out that that's the math that actually matters. Listen, if you ever wished that there was a shortcut to mastering your money without needing a PhD in finance or economics, or maybe to take a time machine back to that one crazy credit card mistake that you might have made, well, you're in the right place. Because today I'm going to break down the money lessons they should have taught us in school. The practical steps that you can use right away. No jargon, no shame. Just real talk, real solutions, and maybe, you know me, a few dad jokes that keep us up. All right, let's have some real talk. Did you ever learn more about parallelograms or mitochondria or even the art of dodgeball than you did about credit scores or investing or wealth? Let's listen. If so, you're in good company. Because I know my high school, they didn't teach me squat about money. I mean, we didn't even have conversations about money. And as a cpa, I'm living proof that you can kind of move through these things, survive recessions. You can survive bad haircuts, think mullets, and the financial fumbles along the way and come out smiling and still have a little bit of hair left. So today, let's toss out the boring textbook. Let's. Let's get real about the money education that you deserved, that you should have had. Fewer quizzes, more laughs. Grab a coffee. Let's do this. I'm going to break it down for you, and we'll make it happen. All right, so the first thing I think we need to start with is this. Financial literacy is the real superpower. Now, I know you're feeling like. Wait a second. What do you mean? Well, here's the deal. I remember back when I got my first job, you know, I was getting paid. I think it was like $3.75 an hour. That was minimum wage way back when. All right? And so I did the math. I worked 40 hours. I was going to get 375 an hour. And I thought I was going to get a paycheck for that amount. And when I got the paycheck, I look at it and it is way less than I thought I was going to make. That's not what they told me to make. That I was going to make. And I was. I'm looking at it, and I go, what is this? Who is this person? FICA that I'm paying? You know? And it turns out that FICA is a guy you don't want to invite to a party. What happened was I was not financially educated. I just said, oh, I'm making 375 an hour. 375 times the number of hours. That's the check I get, and I go spend it. I had no idea about FICA and Social Security and taxes and all that stuff. And so this is part of this financial literacy journey. And the reality is that here's a stat. Nearly two out of three Americans live paycheck to paycheck. And that's not just folks that are working for minimum wage. That's the lawyers, that's the doctors, that's even celebrities that are quietly googling things like, how do I cancel my Netflix? Netflix after midnight. You know, financial literacy isn't about being a math genius. It isn't about memorizing tax codes. It's about having choices. It's about having freedom. And without it, you're basically. You're basically trying to win a Monopoly game without reading the rules. And we all know how that goes. You end up mortgaging Baltic Avenue, and you just buy a bag of chips. Okay, that's it. Okay. So the first piece of this is to realize that your dedication to financial literacy is the superpower that they should have placed in you years ago. And so I'm going to invite you right now to say I'm going to make financial literacy a priority. And I get it. Look, you wouldn't be watching or listening to me or reading my books if it wasn't something that you were interested in or trying to get control of. So we're going to make that happen. But I just want you to know that it's one of the most powerful things around, and we're going to build on. On that. So the first thing that comes to mind with this is that having a conversation about the money mindset, this is your financial operating system. The mindset's like the Windows system or the iOS system. And if you're still running a Windows 95 kind of thinking with respect to money, like money's evil, or I'm never good with numbers, then don't be surprised when you're finances don't go. That go well for you because you're running bad programming in your mind. Now, here's the thing to understand. This isn't Your fault. This is not something that you consciously did. Because the first thing that I want you to understand is that all of our money, our wealth, is built on behaviors. It's built on habits. You know, 80% of wealth creation is based on decisions, habits, and behaviors of the past. And I get that that can be confronting, but it should be empowering because all we do is change our habits, change our decisions, change our behaviors, we change our financial future. But where do those behaviors come from? Where do they start? Well, they start in the mind, the money mindset. And the challenge is this, is that we are never taught that. We were never discussed. We were never taken a course. And so the majority of our financial lessons are caught, not taught. They're caught by us watching our parents and what they did with money, whether it was they handled it well, or they were fighting about money all the time, or one parent was hiding things from the other parent. Or you watch the media or the social media, or you even watch cartoons growing up and how they portrayed those that had wealth and those that didn't have wealth. All those things become part of our psyche when it comes to money. They become part of our money beliefs, and they create what I call a money set point. And so in this first piece, the first thing that I want you to do is to grab a piece of paper and start writing down some of the money beliefs that you have. I remember one of my first money memories, and I wrote about it in my book. Building youg Money Machine was of my dad. I was five years old, and here I. I see this tower of power, my father in tears because he felt like he was letting the family down. Him and my mom were having a discussion, a heated discussion about money, and him saying, we can't do that right now. We can't afford it. I don't even know what it was. All I saw was this man that was my idol in tears. And I then brought that into my world and said, oh, my gosh, if you don't make enough money, you'll let down the people you love. And that was my observation. But this is the kind of thing that we don't realize, unconsciously get into our system, and they impact and affect and infect how we see money and what we do with money. It could be things. Stuff like money doesn't grow on trees. Oh, did I hear that one a lot? Okay, but let's be honest. It does grow on trees. I mean, come on. But now you flip and you say, well, instead of saying things like, I'll Never be rich. Maybe it's looking at it through a different set of eyes and saying, I'm learning new ways to build wealth every day. You know, I'm filling my brain and I'm creating a financial brain that gets me to understand this.

Okay?

It's not some expensive software required. It is literally just an upgrade in your thinking. And when you take the time to write down your money stories, your money beliefs, and understand the underpinnings of them, you can then start to shift them to more empowering beliefs. And this may sound like a whole lot of woo, but here's the thing. I'm. I'm a cpa. I'm an accountant. When I started working with people to help them build their wealth, I literally thought I was going to come into their world and say, here's the math, here's the columns, here's the rows, here's the spreadsheet. Just go do this. And I quickly found out that until I was able to help them navigate what was in their head and what was in their heart, I couldn't affect what was in their pocketbook, because this is the thing that drives a lot of it. So if you're sitting back, let's just start with this idea of mindset, because I really believed in a lot of these things, and I had to unlearn them and relearn what really happens. Because for years, I believed that you had to grind 247 just to make ends meet. Turns out if you build the right money machine, your cash is happy to work the night shift for you as you sleep. And that's my kind of hustle. That's what I want to do. So that's. That's pillar number one. Pillar number two is earning. Okay, turn on your money machine. Turn it on. You can't. You cannot just cut coupons and think you're gonna make it. Deprivation isn't the path to a rich life. We can only cut so much. Now, what happens is that you need to start to look at it and say, well, wait a second, what can I do to earn more? The average millionaire has seven streams of income. That's at least what they say. But the average American has one. Now, I'm not telling you to go out and start to create a bunch of streams of income, because when I did it, I had a single stream of income. And I made sure that I optimized that stream of income to the fullest extent possible. So whatever your primary stream of income is, I want you to focus on it. I want you to Build it. I want you to optimize it. I want you to create the skills that will make it happen. Then look for little, little elements at one degree, two degrees off that you can then supplement that income, but not have to recreate something else. Okay, so watch what happens. I was a cpa. In order to get the projects, I was consulting, I was buying and selling businesses, I was valuing businesses, really what I was doing. In order to get those projects, I would go out and speak. Now, at the time, I was speaking for free just because I wanted the project. But then all of a sudden I said, well, wait a second. The project is where I make the lion's share of my income. But what happens if I asked for a speaking fee when I was speaking to get the project? And so then I got paid to speak, and now I get paid 20 to $25,000. A keynote. But point being is that it wasn't a huge jump from what I was already doing. And I was trying to find a way to make additional money because the bigger the shovel you have of earnings, the faster we can build the money machine, which gets you the faster path to freedom. So when we talk about, oh, you know, millionaires have seven streams of income, they didn't have seven streams of income at the beginning. They started with one. They optimize it and they built onto it. In fact, I did an episode of the show Talking about the 12 streams of income that I have, the leverage streams of income between the money machine and some of the other things that I do. And it's great. But I didn't start there. I started with one. Okay, so when you start to look at it, say, what are the little things that I can put in to make that happen? So your action here is this. What's one thing you can do this month to earn more?

Okay, is it.

Is it asking for a raise? Which is a whole different issue. We don't ask for a raise just because we think we're entitled to it. If you're going to ask for a raise, we need to come with a value proposition that says, here's the value I provide and here's what it should be. You know what it's worth. Or here's the way I can create more value and become higher paid. It might be that you start to do freelancing or side gigs. Maybe you want to start something small. Maybe you sit back and go, I'm going to sell that treadmill that's acting as a clothes rack and a laundry rack in the back. But that is where we start to look for things and have an eye for opportunity and continue to do that. Because I remember my first side hustle was teaching martial arts lessons in my garage. Had two students, you know, and the neighbor's dog. That was it. But you know what? I got paid. And it helped pay for my car. It helped pay for the things I didn't start big. Okay, you don't have to start big, but you do have to start.

Okay?

Pillar number three. This is about savings. Pay yourself first. This. This is. We hear this all the time. As people say, pay yourself first. Pay yourself first. Savings isn't a punishment. It's sending a little care package. Package to the future. So it. So it takes care of your future self. It's literally saying, here's some money so you can take care of yourself and you're not stuck on ramen or Mac and cheese down the road. And so it's important for us to put ourselves first. This is why the wealth priority ladder is built the way it is, where we start with a comfort fund to make sure that we don't end up in a hole somewhere that it can cover, you know, the deductibles or some unknown expense. Then we'll build to the full peace of mind emergency fund of what I call nine to 18 months. But we need to start that because, let's be real, 39% of Americans couldn't cover a $400 emergency. That's. That's like one flat tire. Or if you're like me, it's one trip to the vet after Budo eats something mysterious in the backyard. All right, that's the thing. So here's your move. I want you to automate your savings. That means that I want you to go set up a high yield savings account at one of these banks, make sure it's insured, make sure it's liquid, and make sure it's not. There's no fees to it. And I want you to automate putting 10, 20, 30, 40 fee when I was speaking to get the project. And so then I got paid to speak, and now I get paid 20 to $25,000. A keynote. But point being is that it wasn't a huge jump from what I was already doing. And I was trying to find a way. It was my observ. But this is the kind of thing that we don't realize to make additional money, because the bigger the shovel you have of earnings, the faster we can build the money machine, which gets you the faster path to freedom. So when we talk about, oh, you know, millionaires have seven streams of income. They didn't have seven streams of income at the beginning. They started one. They optimize it and they built onto it, unconsciously get into our system and they impact and affect and infect how we see money and what we do with money. It could be things. Stuff like money doesn't grow on trees. Oh, did I hear that one a lot? Okay, but let's be honest. It does grow on trees. I mean, come on. But now you flip and you say, well, in fact, I did an episode of the show Talking about the 12 streams of income that I have, the leverage streams of income between the money machine and some of the other things that I do. And it's great. But I didn't start there. I started with one. Okay, so when you start to look at it, say, what are the little things that I can put in to make that happen? So your action here is this, what's one thing you can do this month to earn more? Okay, Is it asking for a raise? Which is a whole different issue. We don't ask for a raise just because we think we're entitled to it. If you're going to ask for a raise, we need to come with a value proposition that says, here's the value I provide and here's what it should be. You know, what it's worth, or, here's the way I can create more value and become higher paid. It might be that you start to do freelancing or side gigs. Maybe you want to start something small. You know, maybe you sit back and go, I'm going to sell that treadmill that's acting as a clothes rack and a laundry rack in the back. But that is where we start to look for things and have. Instead of saying things like, I'll never be rich, maybe it's looking at it through a different eye for opportunity and continue to do that. Because I remember my first side hustle was teaching martial arts lessons in my garage. Had two students, you know, and the neighbor's dog. That was it. But you know what? I got paid. And it helped pay for my car. It helped pay for the things I didn't start. Big set of eyes is saying, I'm learning new ways to build wealth every day. You know, I'm filling my brain and I'm creating a financial brain that gets me to understand this, okay? It's not some expensive software required. It is literally just an upgrade. Okay? You don't have to start big, but you do have to start, okay? Pillar number three, this is about savings. Pay yourself first. This, this is, we hear this all the time. As people say, pay yourself first. Pay yourself first. Savings isn't a punishment. It's sending a little care package, package to the future. So it, so it takes care of your future self. It's literally saying, here's some money so you can take care of yourself and you're not stuck on ramen or Mac and cheese down the road. And so it's important for us to put ourselves first. This is why the wealth priority ladder is built the way it is, where we start with a comfort fund to make sure that we don't end up in a hole somewhere that it can cover, you know, the deductibles in your thinking. And when you take the time to write down your money stories, your money beliefs, and understand the underpinnings of them, you can then start to shift them to more empowering beliefs. And this may sound like a whole lot of worse, some unknown expense. Then we'll build to the full peace of mind emergency fund of what I call nine to 18 months. But we need to start that because let's be real, 39% of Americans couldn't cover a $400 emergency. That's, that's like one flat tire. Or if you're like me, it's one trip to the vet after Budo eats something. But here's the thing. I'm. I'm a cpa. I'm an accountant. When I started working with people to help them build the mysterious in the backyard. All right, that's the thing. So here's your move. And I want you to automate your savings. That means that I want you to go set up a high yield savings account at, at one of these banks, make sure it's insured, make sure it's liquid, and make sure it's not. There's no fees to it. And I want you to automate putting 10, 20, 30, 40, $100 a week to put it aside automatically so you start to build that liquidity, that safety net for you. So the next time the cable guy or the water heater goes out, like we just had to replace our, our tankless water heater. The next time something like that happens, you're not looking at saying, oh, gosh, which credit card is wealth? I literally thought I was going to come into their world and say, here's the math, here's the column maxed out. But you can look at it and say, I got this.

Okay?

And the funny thing with doing these Things is that the first time you set up an automatic savings plan, you'll forget about it. You think that it's going to burden you because you think you're going to be seeing, here's the rows, here's the spreadsheet. Just go do this. And I quickly found out that until I was able to help them navigate what was in their head and what was in their heart, this money going out in and out of your check and you don't. And then you're going to check it months, years later and go, I couldn't affect what was in their pocketbook because where did this money come from? Okay, that's the thing that I want you to do. All right? That leads me to pillar number four. And this is tame the cash flow chaos. This is about your spending. We can't have this conversation if we're not going to control or manage our spending. Now, I am not telling you to cut everything out. I am not one of those folks that says you got to live on ramen and Mac and cheese until you're on your feet. Now, we have to be responsible. Let's just be real, okay? So you can't live beyond your means and think that that's going to. Going to work. I mean, I guess our government gets a chance to do it, but we can't. So. So this isn't about telling you what, what to do with every single dollar, but this is the thing that, that drives a lot of it. So. So if you're sitting back, let's just start. Here's what I do know. If you don't tell your dollars where to go, they're going to sneak off in the night with this idea of mindset. Because I really believed, just like Samson will, when I leave the gate open, okay? And suddenly he's running down the street, and I'm running down the street after him in my pajamas and yelling for him to come back, okay? And we in a lot of these things, and I had to unlearn them and relearn what, what, what really happens. Because for years I've seemed to not think about, well, where did that money go? That's because we're not direct believed that you had to grind 247 just to make ends meet. Turns out if you build to get the projects, I was consulting, I was buying and selling businesses, I was valuing businesses, really what I was doing in order to get those projects, I would go out and speak. Now, at the time I was speaking, it is directing us, or the emotions are directing us. And so this is a time for you to get your arms around where your money's going and to ask yourself, is this really where I want it to go? So it is intentional, it's conscious, it's aware. It's not as much about budgeting.

Okay?

Yes, indirectly you can look at it as budgeting. It's more about planning and directing.

Okay?

The right money machine. Your cash is happy to work the night shift for you as you sleep. And that's my kind of hustle. That's what I want to do. So that's pillar number one. Pillar number two is earning. Okay, turn on your money machine. Turn it on. You cannot. It's about saying yes to what actually matters and no to the things that will bury you financially. It is sitting back and say no today, not today to some of that impulse buys, okay? Because if it's an impulse buy, it's an emotional buy. And when our emotions are involved in financial decisions, typically they're not good. So I want things planned out. Just cut coupons and think you're gonna make it. Deprivation isn't the path. I want things dialed in and I want you to track what's going on, okay? Because then we have the ability to direct it. Think about it this way. Study of 10,000 millionaires. 79% of those millionaires were first generation millionaires. That meant that they created it in their lifetime. It wasn't one. It wasn't. It wasn't inherited, it wasn't gifted. They created it. So if almost 80% of people created it in their lifetime, that means that you can. But here's the even better statistic. 30% of those never made much more than $100,000. Now that's the cool thing because you start looking at it and go, wait a second. If 30% of those, you know, first generation millionaires created it and didn't make more than 100,000, then it's not about making large sums of money. Yes, the more money we make, the more money we have to put towards building that wealth and that financial freedom. But we don't need magnificent sums. And if we just do the right thing with what we have. So here's the other piece of this. I want you to track every single dollar for the next 30 to 60 days minimum. Yes. Every single one. Every time you drop through a drive thru, every time you go to Starbucks, every purchase from Amazon, I want you to strike. I want you to track it all. I want you to journal what it was, what it was for the amount and what you were feeling at the time because that will help us understand the emotional spending triggers that might be in his place. And so here's the thing. You're gonna then be able to shine a light on some of these things. Not to say you're gonna stop them, but to say that you're gonna have a choice in them. That budget isn't meant to be a straight jacket. It is meant to be like bumpers in a bowling alley. It keeps you out of the gutter, but you can still knock down the pins. But you have all that lane to kind of work with. So the purpose of this pillar is simply to raise your awareness and consciousness and allow you to be intentional with every dollar that comes in and be specific with what the dollar is meant to do. Okay, that leads me to number six. Number six, the good, the bad, the ugly. Debt. All right, now I am one that does not believe that all debt is the devil. I just, I don't. I think that debt is a very dangerous thing when we don't do. Do it properly, when we don't understand it. Now I do think that all debt has two personality traits. All debt costs, that's called interest. Okay, you're going to pay interest on it. And in a time where interest rates are higher, that interest cost can be dramatic and it can bury us. Okay, if we're paying 20 to 30% in interest, it's hard to get ahead financially and to build wealth. And so I look at debt in two categories. I look at productive debt and destructive debt. Destructive debt is when we use debt to finance our lifestyle consumables. It's the big screen tv. All debt has two personality traits. All debt costs, that's called interest. Okay, you're going to pay interest on it. And in a time where interest rates are higher, that interest cost can be dramatic and it can bury us.

Okay?

If we're paying 20 to 30% in interest, it's hard to get ahead financially and to build wealth. And so I look at debt and ease. It's the lavish vacations, it's the designer jeans, it's all those things that are lifestyle related. Those are consumables. We do not use debt to finance them. It is because what's going to happen is you got to ask yourself, is the pleasure of having it, the time frame of that shorter than the payment stream to pay for it? Then it's a consumable and it shouldn't be financed. Now there's productive debt. Now productive debt, that is the debt that we use to build wealth or Build cash flow. So it could be a mortgage on a rental property. Two categories. I say I look at productive debt and destructive debt. Destructive debt is when we use debt to finance our lifestyle consumables. It's the big screen TVs, it's the lavish vacations, it's the designer jeans. It's all those things that are, you know, that's strategic productive debt that we can do. It can still get you in trouble because of the interest cost or lifestyle related. Those are consumables. We do not use debt to finance them, but we, we can use it better if we're smart about it. So, so I don't believe that all debt is the devil, but I do think that we need to be careful about it. And if you have consumable consumables on, on debt, if you have consumer debt, credit card debt, that kind of stuff, we need to wipe it out. Here's an ugly stat. The average household today has over $7,000 in credit card debt. Average. Carrying a balance. That's a lot of money flying out the window. And it's probably for stuff that has lost its benefits long, long, long ago.

Okay?

And the kit is because what's going to happen is you got to ask yourself is the pleasure of having it, the time frame of that shorter than the payment stream to pay for it? Then it's a consumable and it shouldn't be financed. Now there's productive debt. Now productive debt, that is the debt that we use to build wealth or build cash flow. So it could be a mortgage on a rental property. Carrying of that debt with high interest costs makes that $7,000 cost. You, you know, that's strategic productive debt that we can do. It can still get you in trouble because of the interest cost. But we, we can use it better if we're smart about it. So, so I don't believe that all debt is the devil, but I do think that we need to be careful about it. And if you have consumable consumables on, on debt, if you have consumer debt, credit card debt, that kind of stuff must double by the time you get it paid off. And so here's what I want you to do. This is the action step. If you find yourself in this space where you have, you have credit card debt, you have consumer debt, you have maybe even student loan debt at a high interest rate, okay, it's time for you to get on a debt payment plan.

Okay?

List every single debt out the interest rate you have the balance we need to Wipe it out. Here's an ugly stat. The average household today has over $7,000 in credit card debt. Average. Carrying a balance, that's a lot of money flying out the window. And it's probably for stuff that has lost its benefits long, long, long ago.

Okay?

And the, you have the, the payment that you make, and you're going to choose one method or the other. The snowball method, which is paying the smallest balance first, or the avalanche method, which is paying the highest interest rate first. I'm not worried about perfection. I am worried. I'm focused on progress. I want you to get in the game and I want you to decide which one I want. Carrying of that debt with high interest costs makes that $7,000 cost you all. Snowball or avalanche. Let me get on a debt payment plan and let us knock this thing out and celebrate. Every time we have one of the credit cards paid off, you will feel lighter in the process.

Okay?

And if you're unsure how to do it, I have a debt breakthrough calculator. It's free. You can go to melabraham.com no debt. Put it all in there. Do it almost double by the time you get it paid off. And so here's what I want you to do. This is the action step. If you find yourself in this space where you have, you have credit card debt, you have consumer debt, you have maybe even student loan debt at a high interest rate, okay? It's time for you to get on a debt payment plan for yourself. Do it for your future. Get out of debt. Now that leads me to the next number. Six. You gotta. You gotta invest. Okay? Investing is the key. You gotta let your money go out there and make some friends. That's bottom line. Investing's like cloning your money, only it's legal.

Okay.

List every single debt out the interest rate you have. The balance is the reality. You cannot win the wealth game sitting in the stands or sitting on the sideline. Have the payment that you make, and you're going to choose one method or the other. The snowball method, which is paying the smallest balance first, or the avalanche method, which is paying the highest interest rate first. I'm not worried about perfection. I am worried. I'm focused. You have to be on the field playing the game.

Okay?

And the only way you get on the field playing the game is to start investing. Now. I get it. You may not have a clear understanding of what to do for investing, and there's some simple things to do. Don't get caught up in all the the memes and the sexy stuff. Your investing should be boring, but it's more consistent just on progress. I want you to get in the game and I want you to, to decide which one I want. Follow me for, for this. We will, we will talk through it. I talk about it in my book. I've got trainings on it, how to invest and how to do this. And I in a simple way. So it's not complicated and it's easy to do.

Okay?

And here's the thing. I don't care if you're just investing $10. You don't need to wait till you have thousands of dollars to invest. In fact, you shouldn't, because snowball or avalanche, let me get on a debt payment plan and let us knock this thing out and celebrate. Every time we have one of the credit cards paid off, you will feel lighter in the process.

Okay.

And if you're unsure how to do it, I have a debt breakthrough calculator. It's free time is your greatest wealth lever. So start with the $10. Put it in a high yield savings account. Then we'll put it in an ETF. $20, $30, $100 a month for 30 years at 8% is going to give you almost $150,000. That's a hundred a month. What happens if we double it or quadruple it to 400? You can go to melabraham.com node put it all in there. Do it for yourself, do it for your future. Get out of debt. Now that leads me to the next number. Six. You gotta invest. Okay? Investing is the key. You gotta let your money go out there and make some friends. That's bottom line. Investing's like cloning your money, only it's legal. Now we have some meaningful numbers. It's not about about large dollars. It's about consistently getting in the game. This is about timing the market. This is about getting you in the market. No one has a crystal ball. I don't have a crystal ball, do I? Do I know if the market's going to go up? Yes, the market goes up. Eight out of 10 years, it's going to go up. Do I know if the market's going to go down is the reality. You cannot win the wealth game sitting in the stands or sitting on the sideline. There's no fees to it. And I want you to automate putting 10, 20, 30, 40, $100 a week to put it aside automatically. So you start to build that liquidity, that safety net for you. So the next time the cable guy or the water heater goes out like we just had to replace our tankless water heater. Yes, the market's going to go down. It's part of the cycle. I just don't know when it's going up. I don't know how long. I don't know when it's going to go down. And if someone tells you they know? Absolutely. If the market goes up tomorrow or the market goes down tomorrow, run. Because no one does. Even the best hedge fund traders do not have the ability to predict that nowhere long term. Get in the game. Allow the game to work. You have to be on the field playing the game.

Okay.

And the only way you get on the field playing the game is to start investing. Now I get it. You may not have a clear understanding of what to do for investing. And there's some simple things to do. Don't get caught up in all the memes and the sex. The next time something like that happens, you're not looking at it saying, oh, gosh, which credit card isn't maxed out? But you can look at it and say, I got this.