How LOOKING Rich Can Keep You Poor

Guys, I heard something a few days ago and I wanted to run it by you to see what you think and you let me know what you think about it in the comments section below. It said that poor people keep score, financial score, by cars and clothes and things that you can see on the outside, right, trying to look rich. And it said that middle class people keep score by stuff too, but on top of that, middle class people also add to that education, you know, college degrees and titles and accolades and those types of things, trying to look rich. And it said the difference with wealthy people, people that have a lot of money and have built wealth, they tend to keep score by net worth, their assets minus their liabilities. And they keep score by appreciating assets and investments that you just can't see. In other words, it said basically that wealthy people tend to get wealthy by focusing on things that have nothing to do with what other people can see. They're just getting wealthy in the background while everybody else, the poor people in the middle class are trying to look rich and feel rich. Guys, let me know what you think about that in the comments section below. So in this video, I want to talk about why looking rich is what keeps people in the poor and middle class. So let's jump right into it. I want to go over a few of these things with you guys. The first thing is what people call lifestyle creep or lifestyle inflation, where people are just striving to look a certain way, the more money they get, the more income that they earn, right? Their job pays more, their expenses go up higher and higher. Lifestyle creep, where increased earnings means increased spending on luxury items or designer clothes, you know, high end accommodations or even expensive cars, right? These things that look a certain way on the outside, but they don't really add up to wealth. We see lifestyle creep happen all the time, keeping up with appearances on the outside, trying to look rich, but in the meantime, causing you to spend a lot of money to do so and going poor, trying to look rich to maintain some type of appearance of wealth or that you have some money or have something with the latest gadgets, the latest fashion, the latest status symbols, right? Doing that on a regular basis, that lifestyle creep can cause you to go poor. And the biggest reason is because you're using money to keep up with that type of lifestyle that you could be using for investing, that you could be using on buying assets. That's another reason why looking rich keeps you poor is because you're just lacking investments. You're lacking investments in things going up in value, appreciating assets because you're spending the money on things to look good and things to look rich as opposed to things to actually be rich and be wealthy, right? And usually that means minimal savings, minimal investing and a lot of missed investment opportunities. And then the other thing is this, there's always this debt accumulation. When you're trying to look rich, a lot of times that requires you to take on more and more debt, meaning more credit, more loans, and all that stuff is to finance a lifestyle of trying to look rich. So instead of lobbying $500 a month towards your investments, your assets that are going up in value, you're lobbying $500 a month towards a depreciating asset like a car or you're lobbying $500 a month towards a credit card that has a 20% interest on it. So you're accumulating debt, which is the exact opposite of actually building wealth. Then there's of course some of the psychological reasons, the social pressure, the peer pressure, the desire to fit in with a certain crowd or impress a certain crowd. And we know that everybody doesn't do that, but you'd be surprised at how many people actually do that. And they may not even know they're doing it, but they want to fit in, they want to look a certain way. So they're spending money that they probably shouldn't be spending on stuff that they probably shouldn't be buying or can't really afford. And they're taking on instant gratification, right? There's no delayed gratification when you're trying to look a certain way. And when you're trying to look a certain way, oftentimes you're acting out of emotion. So you're spending money to try to look a certain way. And next thing you know, you're looking good, but you're poor. You're looking good, but you're broke. You're looking good, driving good, nice vacation, nice cars, but you really don't have any money behind closed doors. That happens more than most people would imagine. Because money that you spend on maintaining an appearance is money that's not going towards your long-term goals, money that's not going towards your retirement savings, or that business that you wanted to start, or that real estate that you wanted to purchase, right? Every time you do something different with your money other than investing it in an asset that's going up in value because you're trying to look a certain way. And you may say, well, I don't spend too much money doing that, 300, 400, 500, but guess what guys? 300, 400, 500, it adds up. If you do 500 bucks five times a year, that's 2,500 bucks. Over the course of 10 years, that's $25,000. And over the course of 20 years, that's $50,000 that with compound interest could have grown to $150,000 over the course of 20 years. And so you're saying, ah, it's not too much. It happens every now and then, but it adds up over 10 years, over 20 years. And next thing you know, you're looking good, but you don't have any money. Not to mention, it sort of stresses out your finances. And so you may be making six figures or $150,000 a year, but guess what? You're feeling like you don't have any money. You're feeling like you're living paycheck to paycheck. One of the reasons you may be feeling like it, and we know there's inflation and all those types of things that are happening in the economy around us that we don't control. But at the same time, one of the reasons that you may be feeling like you're living paycheck to paycheck when you actually make pretty good money is because of this poor or middle class mentality that says, I want to look rich as opposed to actually being wealthy. And so you end up looking rich, looking good, but at the same time, you end up growing poor and poor. And all that does is add to your stress, add to the amount of stress, the amount of anxiety that you carry with you like a big old backpack every single day on your back. So here's what I'm saying, guys, get away from the poor mentality. You want to distance yourself from the poor mentality that keeps score by cars and clothes and shoes and material things that we can see on the outside. You want to get away from that mentality as you're trying to build some wealth because it'll leave you poor. And you also want to kind of get away or distance yourself from the middle class mentality that says, I keep score by stuff, too, but I also keep score by education or by college degrees or titles and accolades. That's that middle class mentality that you want to get away from as well, because you're going to spend all of your good money that can be invested on things you don't see and put that money into things that everybody sees. And that ultimately will leave you poor, trying to look rich. And ultimately, you want to have the mind frame that says, you know what, I keep score by net worth. I take a look at my net worth at least two to three to four times a year, and I'm working on building up my assets on things going up in value, and I'm looking at getting rid of the debt on things going down in value. You keep score by net worth and by assets that people can't see, you won't be poor. You're actually going to grow real wealth. So we want to get away from prioritizing appearances over real financial wealth, and don't sacrifice long-term wealth for short-term appearances. Wealth accumulation for looking good today, and get out of the cycle of spending more than you earn, having minimal savings in the process, and increasing debt on things going down in value. If you got anything of value out of this quick video, do me a favor and share the video with your friends, your family, your network of good people. And don't forget to drop that comment and let me know, do you agree with how poor people keep score versus middle-class people versus wealthy people? Let me know in the comments below. Hey, the best person to take care of the old you is the young you. Guys, do me a favor, take good care of yourself, but also take care of other people. Until the next video, peace.