The 5 Levels Of Wealth & What You Need To Do To Reach Each One

Quick question. How many days do you think is in a million seconds? Go ahead. Take a guess. A million seconds is 11 days. Okay. Now, how long do you think is a billion seconds? Did you take a guess? Well, it's 31 years. A million seconds, 11 days. A billion seconds, 31 years. Most people have no concept of the difference between a million and a billion. And because of that, most people have no real concept of what wealth actually looks like at different levels. They hear she's rich and picture a billionaire. They hear multimillionaire and think it's basically the same thing. It's not the same thing. It's not even close. Today, I'm going to break down the 5 real levels of wealth, what they look like, what they feel like in real life, what it feels like to live like that, and how rare each one is. And what it actually takes to reach each level. Because when you understand how rare each level is and even how achievable it is compared to what people think, everything changes. Today I'm going to answer Fred's question: When do you know when you're rich? But let me be clear, I'm only going to be covering what it means to be financially rich because you can be rich in other areas of life, of course, like relationships, health, spirituality, whatever that might be. But today, We're talking about money. When I was 22 years old, I had a realization that changed the entire direction of my life. If I was relying on someone else to pay me, I was not in control of my financial future. Full stop. It doesn't matter how hard you work. It doesn't matter how valuable you think you are. It doesn't matter how much you think you deserve. If the company decides they don't need you anymore, it's over. I know people personally, friends, family members who are high earners. They were living in 5-bedroom homes with 3-car garages with BMWs in the driveway. Then the economy shifted. They got let go from their jobs and within a year or so they were living in a 2-bedroom apartment paycheck to paycheck. This is not wealth. That is high income with no foundation under it. It could be shaken at any point. Real wealth requires you to have leverage. And there are 2 ways to get leverage through a business or through an investment. Investment is leverage through capital. Money making money while you sleep, right? Money working for you. Business, on the other hand, uses all forms of leverage at the same time. Capital, labor, technology, media distribution, multiple things working for you at once. This is really important because here are the facts. The facts are you only have 24 hours in the day. The only way to produce wealth beyond what your own hours can generate is to use leverage. And this is the foundation of today's episode, because you can't reach any of these levels of wealth without doing this. 90% of people who have a net worth of $10 million or more have earned their wealth through business ownership, equity, and investing, not being an employee. Now, I mentioned this word net worth. So what is net worth? Well, add up everything you own— your cash, your investments, your real estate, your business equity, your cars, your assets, your stocks— and then subtract everything you owe, all your liabilities, all your debt, including what you owe on your mortgage. What's left is your net worth. And here's why this number matters more than your salary. If your net worth is high enough, you never have to work again. You have started to enter into what's called rich, wealthy. Now, obviously, I don't mean that you have enough money to last you the rest of your life by just spending that money. No, we're talking about using that money, leveraging that money through a pretty conservative investment that generates income for you. And until you reach that point, you're still exchanging time for money. And exchanging time for money is the definition of not being wealthy. So here are the 5 levels of wealth based on 2026 economic realities, and we're going to go through each one, how rare it is to get to each level, and then also how do you get there and what are some of the things you're going to expect along the way when you're at that level? Let's go. Level number 1, $2 million to $4 million in net worth. And this is the entry point to real freedom. I believe once you get to this point, you are now starting to taste what financial freedom is like. First of all, how rare is it to reach this level of wealth of $2 to $4 million in net worth? Well, according to USB Global Wealth Report, Approximately 80 million people worldwide have a net worth of $1 million or more. Now, that sounds like a lot, but it's only 1.6% of all adults on the planet. At $2 million to $4 million range specifically, you're roughly at the top 1% of all human beings alive today. 1% out of 8 billion people. So what does it feel like to be at this level? Well, this is where wealth begins. And here's the math. If you take $2 million, and you make it liquid and you put it into a basic index fund earning you a conservative 8% return every year, that's $160,000 a year. Your base investment stays completely intact. Your money doesn't go anywhere, but you're living off the returns. At $4 million, you're generating about $320,000 a year, still having a touch of your original capital. Can you live a good life on $160,000? Uh, it's not bad, but it's also not, you know, allowing you to indulge in all the luxuries you want. At $320,000 a year, you're getting pretty comfortable now. Now you can pretty much indulge. Your mortgage or rent is going to be covered. A couple of solid cars, holidays every year. You're going to be comfortable. And here is the most important thing you want to hear about level 1. If you reach it, you are rich. You are financially free. You don't have to work anymore because your money is making you money and making you enough to live. Most people on earth will never reach this level. Now, if you build a high margin service-based business, a digital product, a software and you target around $200,000 to $400,000 in annual profits, not revenue, we're talking about profit. And you, let's say you live on 60 to 70% of what you earn and you invest the rest in like index funds every single month and you run this discipline for 5 or 8 years. That's the most reliable path actually getting to $2 to $4 million for someone who's just starting out with nothing. So as you can see, it's not so far out of reach. If you have a business that's making $300,000 to $400,000 to $500,000 in annual net profit, it's pretty reasonable for you to become rich, become millionaire very quickly in less than a decade. Let's move on to level 2. That's $5 million to $10 million in net worth. This is where your life really has a meaningful shift. This level is pretty crazy and it's pretty rare. Approximately 1.7 million people worldwide have made it to this level. And out of 8 billion people on Earth, only 0.04% of the adult population have hit this Level. In my opinion, this is the most interesting level of the list because I don't really believe your life is going to feel significantly different from this level and beyond. But let's run the numbers. Let's say you have $10 million earning you 8% returns. You're making about $800,000 to $1 million a year without working. A lot of people don't realize $1 million is a lot of money, especially if you're trying to spend it in a year. Some people never actually sit down and do the math and calculate their dream life. I really highly recommend you do this exercise. Where you just sit down and you write down everything you want, whether it's like 2 homes and all the cars and the investments and the vacations, and you write everything down and then run the numbers. And a lot of people are surprised it's not even close to $1 million. A lot of people, it's like closer to like $300,000, $400,000. At level 2, you stop looking at price tags. That's how I feel about it. You no longer look at how much something costs at the grocery store or when you're shopping for clothes. You upgrade your home, you upgrade your experiences. You can afford to to invest in a startup that needs a seed round of $20,000, $30,000 just for fun because you believe in the idea, right? But here's the most important thing about level 2. The gap between level 2 and every other level above, like I mentioned, in terms of actual daily life experience is surprisingly small. I mean, the things that you can do beyond this point, beyond $10 million, is not really that much. Like, what, own a private jet? Personally, I think the experience of flying commercial on business class, it's a better experience on the plane. What else? Own an island. The point I'm making here is that you want to get to level 2, okay? Because level 2 is where a lot of fun's being had. So how do you go from level 1 to level 2? Number 1, you need to know how to scale and grow your business. And you want to do this as fast as possible because you want to take the profits from this scaling business and start earning with a second income stream, whether it's real estate or angel investing or the stock market, like I mentioned. Now, again, I'm not a financial advisor. I'm not a financial expert. This is not financial advice. This is just for educational purposes. But the point here I'm trying to make here is that when you have a business, a lot of people can hustle their way to $1 million to $2 million in revenue. But in order for you to get to this level, up to $10 million in net worth, you're going to really need to start growing a team, start hiring some talent, start delegating and doing less and less. I believe that level 1 is the hardest level to achieve. It's hard to get to. It takes time. It takes effort. It's a lot of grinding. But once you get to level 1 and you're making $2 million or your net worth is $2 million, I should say, getting to level 2 is actually not as hard. The jump from $4 million to $10 million is often faster than the jump to $0 to $1 or $2 million. Why? Because of leverage. We talked about this because your capital is compounding alongside your active income, meaning your business is making money every year. You have a profit, you take some of that profit, you allow that money to work for you in investments. And the reason why business is so wonderful is that you have the ability to have infinite amount of profit so that you can then take that profit and allow it to work for you. You're not just building, you're accelerating. If this episode is changing how you think about money, wealth, achievement, success, then you should subscribe to the show. Why? Because I'm working on an episode right now that I think you're going to absolutely love. It's called The 5 AI Tools to Replace a $60,000 Employee and How a Team of 3 Becomes a Team of 1 with AI. I'm really going into the research. I'm, I'm actually using these tools to figure out what type of team members can you actually leverage with AI? So if you have one team member, maybe you can turn them into the value of 3 team members, allowing you to make more money. Hit subscribe so you don't miss that episode when it comes out. All right, let's go to level 3, $11 million to $30 million in net worth. Welcome to the ultra high net worth club. Okay, this is super, super rare. About 0.03% of the world's adult population have reached this level. and I say how rare it is, it's not only like, wow, you're special. No, it's also like it's a lonely place, right? And there's not a lot of people like you. So what does it feel like? Obviously, all your needs are covered. Almost every single thing that you can think of, you can buy. But something unexpected really happens at this level, something that nobody really talks about, and that's money needs to be managed. You're going to start to inherit some headaches you did not expect. You cannot let $20 million just sit in the bank account. Okay, you just can't do that. Inflation is eating at that money every single day. And just as fast as money compounds when you invest, so does it lose its value when you just don't do anything with it because inflation is a beast. $20 million is not worth $20 million tomorrow or the next day or the next year or the next decade. You need to make sure that you're investing in something not only that will get you a return, but something that is not going to sink all your money down the drain. The stakes are high, so you got to be smart. And this is where a lot of people, especially people like me who didn't grow up with money experience something nobody really prepares for, and that is analysis paralysis. You work incredibly hard to get to this point. The last thing you want to do is make a bad decision and lose a bunch of money, right? After you spent years building it. And here's my advice: get qualified financial help. Okay, get a good team around you before you need them. Okay, I started to get this help at level 1 because I wanted to focus on my business and grow my business and do my thing and let my team of advisors help me. I have a team of people that are specialized in real estate, in stocks, in bonds, in commodities. They can advise me on what are the best paths and how to go around it and what are the risks. This is money well spent. Okay. Qualified accountants, fiduciary financial advisors, people who have no financial incentive to push you one way or the other. They're getting paid regardless of the return and they don't get paid any more or less on the products that they offer you. Okay, so how do you get from level 2 to level 3? By level 3, your business should be largely systemized, meaning you can just leave your business, go on holiday for 2, 3, 4 months, and the business not only is going to sustain itself, but it's going to grow. You're really an investor in your own business. You're somebody who is thinking about how to allocate or deploy capital in your business that's in a smart way. Why? Because you have a lot of choices when you are profitable. Meaning you can invest in your own business again and grow the business. You can take that money, take it off the books, right? Take a dividend and invest in something else. You can invest within the business in something else. You could buy assets. There's so many things that you can do, and that becomes your new job. And a lot of entrepreneurs, creatives, they get to this level, then they don't like this life. Okay? And this is kind of where they stop. They sell their business, they move out of this game, and they're like, I'm going to just now focus on my hobbies and go golfing because this is a different type of entrepreneur, a different type of business person. You're not creating things anymore. You're not team building. You're not doing any of that kind of stuff anymore. You're trying to make sure that you don't screw up being rich. Level number 4, $31 million to $100 million in net worth. This is super rare. How rare is it? Well, less than 0.007%. Okay. Just so you understand. That's less than 1/10 of a percent. Only about half a million people in the world out of 8 billion people on Earth have reached this level. For every 14,000 adults, there's only one person that reached this level. Now you're in super rarefied territory, and honestly, it's a lonely place. And the honest truth is that your life improvement from level 3 to level 4 is very marginal. Some people at this level own private jets, they own yachts. And let me tell you the reality about people. I know these people. I've been on these yachts with my friends. That own them, and it's a lot of headaches. There's insurance, there's fuel, there's maintenance, there's hangar fees. There's— what do we do when it's not in the water if it's a yacht? What if the plane— I need a pilot that is going to be able to take me around and do everything for me. Owning one of these things like a yacht or a plane is a business in itself, okay? Flying business class or first class on a commercial airline in a lot of ways is a lot better. The primary difference of a Level 4 is not really the quality of your life, but it's really the impact you can make. And this is why a lot of people are attracted to this level, getting to level 4 and beyond, because of— they can make some real change in the world, like massive change, whether through philanthropy, whether it's building institutions, whether it's funding causes that matter to them, like curing certain diseases, helping people that are going through starvation, planting trees, doing things for the environment. And frankly, this level is quite complicated because more people are wanting something from you, more legal exposure, more to manage, and it's hard to hide. You can't be quietly rich at this level because you're going to have to deploy your capital somehow. And even in your local community, people are going to realize who you are, not by the car you drive, but just the fact that you are now, you know, spending this money to invest in your local community or to help other people or do something with this money. You become now the talk of the town. This also means you have more legal exposure, you have more to manage. And, you know, some of this is good problems, but there's still problems. How do you reach level 4? Well, by this stage you're primarily an investor. Okay. Your business may have been sold or you run it independently or it's gone public. And so that you don't have full control anymore. Wealth grows through disciplined capital allocation and the investments that you make. A lot of people, they get to this level through private equity. This is a business you genuinely understand. A lot of people have many and long-term real estate investments. And the discipline here is not making more money. It's not losing what you have. That's really it. At this level, it's not really about can I make more and more money? And really, if you speak to anybody that's at this level, capital preservation is like their middle name. It becomes the most important thing that they think about every day. Level number 5, $100 million to $1 billion plus. And this is a completely different game. Okay. And this is the final level we're going to be talking about today, because anything beyond this is just absolutely absurd. We know plenty of billionaires, obviously, like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk and all these people. But just to paint the picture how rare this is, approximately only 100,000 people worldwide have a net worth over $100 million. Think about that. It's not much at all. That's 0.001% of the global population. There's only 3,000 billionaires in the world. 3,000. And in fact, you're more likely to be struck by lightning multiple times in your life than to become a billionaire. Okay, now I'm not saying that you can't become a billionaire. I'm just saying that statistically, that's what the numbers show. Remember, a million seconds is 11 days. A billion seconds is 31 years. The gap between a millionaire and a billionaire is not a step up. It's a completely different universe. So what does it feel like? Well, at this level, you're not making money. You're managing assets. You are a fund and your job is not to generate income. Your job is really a steward to protect and to thoroughly deploy the enormous amount of capital that you have built for you and your family. You're not only thinking about yourself and your immediate family, you think about the generations to come after you. Because remember, $1 billion is a lot of money. For context, if you spent $1 million a year, it would take you 1,000 years. This is generational wealth. And your job really is going to be coming— how long can I keep this going for generations? Some people at this level, they just hire entire teams to handle all this. All the ventures, all the philanthropy, everything they do because they just don't want to deal with it anymore. Don't get me wrong, being a billionaire is extraordinary, but as I just illustrated, it's beyond anyone really needs to live their life at an exceptional level. The goal I believe most people should have is actually to reach level 2 or level 3 as fast as possible. Not because ambition is wrong, but because level 2, level 3 deliver almost everything most people want out of life. They give you the freedom, they give you security, give you the ability to do exactly what you want to do, when you want to do it, with whoever you want to do it. With the people you love. All of that is available long before you need $100 million. And the reason why I'm saying that is because life is short and you don't want to spend another day accumulating money you don't need. I guarantee you that if you told Warren Buffett, give me $10 billion and I'm going to give you 10 years of your life back, he would take that deal any day of the week. Just to recap what these levels look like, level 1, $2 million to $4 million net worth, top 1% in the world. Okay. Level 2, $5 million to $10 million in net worth. You're the top 0.04% globally. Level 3, $11 million to $30 million in net worth. You're in the top 0.03% globally. Level 4, $31 to $100 million in net worth, 0.007%. Okay. And then obviously level 5, $100 million to a billion dollars and beyond, 0.001% globally. I wanna be honest about one thing before we wrap up. And this is quite important. Wealth is more than just a number. The most important thing I've experienced in reaching financial freedom is this: the feeling of security comes much earlier than most people expect. And the things people sacrifice to chase higher levels of wealth—time, relationships, health, peace of mind—are often worth more than that incremental lifestyle. That little higher thing that you can get, whatever it's a jet or a boat, is it really worth it? Those things at the end of the day are things. Before I go, let me leave you with this. You can't build lasting wealth without controlling how you earn your income. You have to be the person that controls your own income, your own destiny when it comes to your financial situation. This journey has levels and these levels begin today, right? Even though we didn't mention before level 1, level 0, it's okay. You're going to get there if you apply yourself. If you use leverage, if you are determined. Listen, I didn't come from much. My parents came from Egypt as immigrants and didn't have a dollar in their pocket. Okay? They didn't have much at all. And we grew up pretty poor. I didn't have any advantages. I didn't inherit anything. I didn't have generational wealth to use, but I was determined. And it took me a long time. It took me a bit of time to get to where I want to be, but I got there. It's not impossible. If you want it bad enough. I hope this episode impacted you, helped you kind of think of wealth in different ways and think about where you want to land and where you're heading. If you want to keep learning and you want to take that first step to reaching level 1, 2, 3, and beyond, I highly recommend an episode I recently published called How to Turn $100 into $100,000 and What You Need to Do Starting Right Now. Go ahead and check it out, and I'll check you in the next one.