Rob Perkins had $300,000 sitting in a bank account earning almost nothing because he thought investing required special knowledge and was too risky. He learned the hard way that saving money and building wealth are different things: wealth means putting your money to work, not just keeping it safe.
While I was spending a lot of money on that Mercedes, I was also saving. I had accumulated $300,000. That should have put me in an incredible position. But almost all of it sat in a regular bank account earning about 0.01%. On $300,000, I was earning roughly $30 a year. Why? Because I thought investing was basically gambling. Successful investors seemed like people with some special ability. They could research companies, predict the market, and know exactly when to buy and sell. I basically pictured a guy in a suit yelling sell into 2 phones while 6 monitors flashed behind him. I believed expertise had to come first, so I waited. I was so worried about making a mistake that playing it safe became its own expensive mistake. But here's what I eventually realized. Income is what you earn from working. Wealth is what you keep and put to work.
