When You Get RICH, Tell NO ONE (Act Like You're Poor)

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. Most people think being rich means showing it off. The car, the watch, the trips, the culture. The culture. We're swimming in it. And that's the challenge. But the catch is this. Here's the thing. The louder your wealth, the faster it disappears. The quiet millionaires, they're the ones that are sleeping peacefully at night while the flexors are drowning in debt. Okay? The real secret isn't to look rich. It's to act broke and let your money quietly build your freedom behind the scenes. Not literally broke, but to act quietly. With respect, I've spent the last 30 plus years as a CPA, as an advisor, as a mentor, as an entrepreneur, and someone on the financial journey just like you, watching the difference between the loud rich and the quiet rich. And trust me, quiet wins every single time. 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 that freedom, it starts the moment we get your money to work harder for you than you did for it. And in this episode, I'm breaking down why the rich tell no one and why it protects your relationships, your sanity, and and even your safety. And how to find the right freedom number that's going to drive everything. The one thing that tells you that you're truly financially free. So if you're ready, let's dump in. Let's do this.

The fastest way to wreck your wealth is to announce it. Because here's what we see. The second people find out you're rich, you're not you anymore. You may be seen as an ATM with shoes to the scammers, to relationships, to family, to other folks. So it's not about not allowing people to know that you are of means. It's just the way you do it. I think that matters when you start to look at it. It's not about just staying quiet. And so, yes, I said act poor. I don't really Want you to act poor, but I do want you to be respectful of the wealth you have in a way that protects you, protects the wealth, protects your future, protects your family, and protects your journey. So I wanna break it down for you here. And the first thing that I think we need to talk about is this psychological burden of loud wealth. You buy the car. You don't just buy the car. You buy the character role of the guy with the car. Think about the ads. Think about what they're doing is they're selling an identity. Whether it's an Aston Martin, which happens to be one of my favorite cars in the world, okay? Aston Martin, a Ferrari, a Mercedes, a Rolls, you're buying a lot of it. What they're selling is the role, you know, of the person that's buying it, that identity. And so when we buy that car, what are we really buying if we're not careful? When we buy, the bigger vacations, the flashier dinners, the constant pressure to keep up with yourself becomes magnificent in a negative way, the level of comparison that comes with it. Now, I've had clients that are worth millions, millions, and you would never know it. One drives a Toyota Corolla. The other that I talked to, he wears Costco jeans. You know, there's another that looks like he walked out of a rap video. Leased cars, designer everything, chains everywhere. And guess who really sleeps at night? It's not the guy in the Gucci belt. See, 90%. 90% of millionaires live below their means. Why? Because peace of mind is greater than performing wealth. And so in this first piece, when you start to think about it, here's an action step that I want you to look at is right down your top three monthly expenses. And ask yourself, are any of these purely for image? If what's driving it is image, what you're doing is you're putting your money to work to allow people to see you through a different light. And trust me, that freedom is fleeting. However, when you turn around and say, I'm just going to downgrade this, because.

I'm not worried about the image, I'm worried about how I experience life. The richness in life, if you will. Now, I am totally guilty of this. Just so you know, early on, the cars that I drove, the things that I did, was to portray an existence to the outsiders. I'm just being totally frank with you. And there's that moment where it feels good, but then the bill comes in and it doesn't feel so good. And then you start to question why the attention's Coming your way, Is it because the image or because they truly know who you are? And I came to realize pretty quickly that I am who I am and what you see is what you get. If we ever meet on the street or when I'm out there speaking, you're going to see the same person that is here and I'm down to earth. At least I hope I am, and that we can have those conversations. So, so I would look at this in your action steps and say, what are the three things? Three monthly expenses. Are there any of them that are just strictly for image? And if they are, consider downgrading it, it's going to feel a lot more freeing for you. That leads me to number two. Number two is really this idea of the social media trap. Here's the monster. I mean, this, this, it's like when social media was created, we thought that it was going to be more social, but it isn't. It's more judgmental. I mean, it truly is. Think about the comparison. It's this, it's like this monster with WI fi. And, and when we're not careful about it, it's, it can be a problem. When you're posting your new car, your designer watch, and you're basically saying, look at my beachfront. You'll see that very rarely do I post. A whole lot of our lifestyle. We're very private people. And one of the reasons for it is I don't want to share and literally audition for the scam victim of the year contest. I want to keep my wife safe. I want to keep my life safe. I want to keep my family safe. I want to keep what I created safe. And when you start to look at it, the stats, wealthy households are 10 times more likely to be targeted for tax audits and financial schemes. So legal and illegal kinds of things coming your way. Why? Because they look like low hanging fruit. Okay, so let's be real. Nobody brags. Check out my Roth IRA contribution, okay? Unless you're a financial nerd like me. But that is actually the flex that's worth posting. The reality is that you gotta look at it from that perspective. So in this one, I think the action step here is to audit your social media tonight. To delete anything that screams this idea of just look at my stuff, replace it with the experiences, replace it with lessons, replace it with gratitude, replace it with memories. Now, I'm not saying that you're, you're doing that. Maybe you're not, but if you are, because I had to check myself plenty of times where I kind of said that's just not me. And pull it down. Okay, the next one is the silent advantage. Here's the secret weapon. Being underestimated is the secret weapon. See, when people think you're average, you negotiate better. You don't get charged a rich person prices. Look, I live in a, in a gated community. And we joke around here that when someone drives in to the gates, we have the gates, we have the community, we have the beach. And that there's this surcharge from. For driving through the gates by the repair people, by all that. I don't know if it's the case, but some of it I can tell you where we lived before the same repairs, the same work, cost a whole lot less. Okay, so here's, here's the deal. When you sit back and you try to. You keep it on the down low and everything, I think that you look at things through a different set of eyes. You're not getting hit with the cousin Larry's. Hey, just a little loan request that makes it challenging at Thanksgiving dinner. You, you get to move under the radar. One Scandinavian study, I remember reading this, found that when hidden wealth was factored in, the richest families actually controlled 30% more wealth than the official number showed. Translation, the wealth you see is just the tip of the iceberg. And I want you to build that money machine. I want you to build the wealth so you can live the rich life. Now, if you choose to broadcast it, that's up to you. It's how you want to live. But if you're doing it for the sake of the feedback, that's something that I think we ought to think about. I want to build the wealth for the freedom, the choice in my life to do the things that I want to do when I want to do them with who I want to do it with. I want to create memories. I want to get behind movements, I want to get behind missions. I want to, I want to know that people are better because I was there. So we look at it and try to make sure that we do the these things. And when I talk about this in the money machine blueprint in the guard pillar. But try to camouflage financial camouflage this month. You know, whether you have the assets, are they paid off, wear a simple watch, skip the flex, all of those things. Notice when you do that, just for a little while, do you feel lighter? I know that when I wasn't so caught up with all the external imagery of what it looks like, it didn't. I felt a whole lot. I'm just I am who I am. Like I literally getting on planes, I'm not wearing designer stuff. In fact, I don't really wear designer stuff. Do I have some of it? Yes. But if you saw me, I'm in Adidas sweats and a T shirt most of the time. All right? That's just the way I live. And I think that there's something to be said for that. The next thing that I think that to look at is this idea of assets over image. Let's get tactical here, okay? The rich don't stack brands, they stack assets. When you start to look at it, the top 110 of a percent, 83% of their lifetime wealth comes from equity investments, not paychecks. And a lot of them save 70% of their income. Now, some of them may have a substantial amount of income, but when you look at it and compare it to that, that Instagram guy, the Instagram rich guy or gal who's leased the Lambo, it looks great online, but they're stressed and broke offline because they're drowning in debt. And so the true wealth is not in trying to stack and have a whole bunch of brands and labels and all that stuff. It's about stacking assets, building the money machine that creates cash flow, that allows you to live by choice instead of having to do that. Now. I work still, but I do it by choice. And that's the gift in it all, is that everything becomes choice. So here's what I would tell you to do, is the action step here is to redirect one status purchase, if you have one, just to redirect it into an asset this month. So if you're thinking of dropping $1200 on the new iPhone, okay, put it in an index fund instead. Your phone's going to depreciate and the fund is going to compound, it's going to grow. Boom. I mean, you are better off by doing that. Now, truth be told, I just did get the new iPhone. Okay, I'm just being transparent, but did I pay for it? No, AT&T paid for it. Okay. Because they gave me a trade in and it's basically free. Now. Here's the other thing. If you don't know how much you actually need to build, that's where my freedom number calculator comes in. It's totally free. And all you got to do is punch in the numbers of what it is you're trying to get to, what's that freedom number you're trying to get to, and it'll tell you exactly how much income you need the machine that you're trying to build, at least in a rough estimate. It's not a detailed plan, but it is a plan. It's. It is a number that allows you to look at and say, I'm looking at the right horizon and we'll hook it up for you down below. But you can go to melabraham.com number to get access to it. All right, here's the other thing that I think is the next thing to consider when we talk about, about this. And that is cultural and historical proof. Let's, let's look at the receipts. Okay. Warren Buffett still lives in the same omaha House since 1958. Now, my parents, they bought the house at the same time. 1958. We didn't sell until mom went into. I said living. I grew up in one single house. Okay, the IKEA founder, okay, the IKEA founder, Ingvar, I can't pronounce his last name, but Ingvar, he literally drove the same beat up Volvo for decades. Now, I'm not saying to drive beat up cars or live in older homes, but when your values are aligned with your investing in your money, it just feels congruent. And if you value a nicer car, great. But remember, they're depreciating assets, buy them. Right. And I've done episodes on that. You know, another person is Chuck Feeney. He gave away nearly his entire fortune quietly while living in an apartment. Or Keanu Reeves is a big one. He's so quiet, but he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He still rides the subways. He just wants to keep it simple. Okay, but meanwhile, let's think about this MC Hammer. I don't know if you remember. Remember him? MC Hammer, $30 million, gone. Okay. EVANDER Holyfield, met him at a car wash once. $200 million Holyfield, gone. Why? Because you can't out or earn stupid spending. You just can't. Okay? And here's the kicker. When you look at some of the data, a survey of ultra wealthy families worth $50 million plus, they found 23% of them admit to hiding their wealth from their own kids. Now, that's how serious they guard their privacy. Now, here's the thing. I'm not telling you to hide it from your kids. I believe in transparent conversations. My son as a single dad, as me raising him, I started talking with him about money at 10 years old. Now, did he know what we had? Does he know exactly what we have now? No, he can surmise it, but I wanted to Give him a set of values. I wanted to give him a set of skills. I want to give him a set of ideals that didn't create an entitlement mentality to that because I knew that I was going to role model how it was to live a rich life, a good life, a life that is to give back and have an impact. So your action step here, I think, is to pick the right role model of quiet wealth. Study their habits, see what they do, how are they showing up, how are they doing things, and adopt one habit from them this week, okay? Then the next one is the real prize. The real flex isn't the car in your driveway, okay? It's sleeping without money stress. It's knowing that scammers aren't circling you like vultures overhead. It's having the peace of mind and the control of your time. For me, it was knowing that, God forbid the worst happened during the cancer that my wife, my son, my grandkids, his wife, my brother, everyone is taken care of. There's a gift in that. That's truly where the real prize is, is having the freedom to know that you've lived a life of your own design. Not the design by your degree, not the design by your parents, not the design by your siblings, by society, by media, by social media, by the expectations, but by your own hands, by your own vision, by your own choice. The reason we want the money is not for the money. It's because the money is the paintbrush that we get to use to paint the masterpiece called our life. And that masterpiece can be something that is neon bright flashing to the world where people might go, hey, I want a piece of the masterpiece. Or it can be something that is bright and shining and glowing in your soul that allows you to live richly with peace of mind and choice. And it all ties back to one number, your freedom number. What is that number? What's the size of the money machine you need to give you the freedom you desire and deserve? How much cash flow does it take to make that happen? Now it's your generic finish line until you get a dispute bespoke dynamic plan in place. And if you don't know what your freedom number is, that's where the freedom number calculator comes in. You can grab it, it's totally free, download it, and work through some numbers. Get an idea, play with the numbers. You can go to melabraham.com forward/number and start to get yourself looking at the right horizon. But more importantly, make sure that you're building wealth for the right reasons. And those reasons, they're more internal than anything else. They're for you and your soul. They're for the missions, they're for the movements, they're for the family. They're for creating something that makes a positive change in society. And I hope that you got this from this. I'm not telling you to be broke. I'm telling you to be smart. I'm telling you that I have seen what happens when people get over their skis too far. I have seen what happens when people get too loud and then they get scammed. I've seen what happens when they overextend themselves just to create an image. Okay? So when you get rich, and you will, if you follow me and you keep going, don't tell the Internet, don't even tell the neighbors. Heck, don't even tell your cousin Larry because.

He may ask for a few bucks. But here's the deal. Keep the wealth quiet. Live the life richly inside. Share your experiences, share your feelings and live in peace, freedom and choice. Alright? Alright. So the final action step is this. Just start small today. Start building your wealth. Don't worry about any flex expense. Get rid of that out there if it is attached to you, to your image. And start small, but automate it. Make it easy. A savings transfer, high yield savings account, whatever it is, $5, $10, doesn't matter because here's what we know. The best wealth isn't loud. It's the kind of quiet wealth that builds the life you don't ever need to escape from and you don't need to protect yourself from. All right? It's something that you get to live each and every day. And that's what I want for you. So I hope that you found this valuable. I hope you'll look at it one with the seriousness that it could be, but also the fun that it is. And I know that I was talking about broke and all of a sudden, but in the lighted hearted perspective of looking at it, I hope that this helps and I hope that you're on the right journey for the right reasons, to the right destination. And if I can help you on that journey, that's what we're here for, that's what this channel is for. If you haven't subscribed already, do me a favor, subscribe. Let me know what you think, let me know in the comments and until I get a chance to see you in the next one. As I always say, always, always strive to live a life that outlives you. See you in the next one. Thank you for listening to the Affluent Entrepreneurship with me, your host, Mel Abraham. 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.

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 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 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.