Wealth Is NOT What You Think It Is

Wealth is not money. The problem with most of our thinking guys about money is that most people believe that wealth requires money. And most people believe that the only path to wealth is through having lots of money. We want to sort of rearrange and reframe our viewpoint on money. In order to get better with money, to get smarter with money, to be more effective with money, to be more strategic and disciplined with money, you have to reframe the way that you think about money, your viewpoint about money. Everyone won't have a lot of money. Doesn't mean everyone can't have a measure of wealth. Doesn't mean just because you don't have a mountain of money, doesn't mean that you cannot have a measure of wealth. Real wealth is really an idea. It has to first be in your mind. Real wealth. Wealth comes from the mind, not from things. And money is a thing. Wealth doesn't come from things, right? Having a lot of things doesn't make you wealthy. There's a lot of people that have a lot of things that really are missing something. They're missing something that's very important. Real wealth is having freedom, it's having choices. One of the things you want to think about, first and foremost, is placing yourself in a position to have freedom. Placing yourself in a position to have some choices in life. Because choices in life is a big part of freedom. I mean, sorry, it's a big part of wealth, right? Ask the person that's 60, 55, 60, 65 years old. Just ask them, what would you want to have right now? A lot of them will say, I want to have the freedom to do what I want to do. I'm going to have the choices to do, to be able to make my own decisions about what I want to do. That's real wealth. Doesn't take a ton of money, right? Real wealth is things like having the right friendships, having good family around you. Real wealth is having a mature spiritual life that's in order. That's real wealth. A person that has all the money in the world means nothing if he doesn't have a soul, and his spirit is undeveloped. We see people like this all the time on TV, the entertainment industry. Many famous people you see, they look famous, they have all this fame, and they have all types of money, but they have no spiritual maturity. People that have a lot of money but have no wealth, there's a lot of people out there like that. They have no real wealth. They just have a bunch of things, and it looks like they have a lot of money, and it looks like they have a lot of wealth. That's not real wealth. A lot of times in America, especially in America, and all over the world really, but we live in an illusion sometimes because we're so used to watching TV and being propagandized to through the TV. We live in this illusion where we're oftentimes sold a bill of goods when it's not really the real thing. We see a person standing by a Bugatti wearing some nice jewelry and some nice expensive clothes, and we think that's wealth. We're used to the illusion. We've been sold the illusion since we were born. If you're here in America, nobody here was born in the 1840s, I don't think, 1850s. Because of that, you were probably born in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s where the illusion was strong. It's a propaganda that that's wealth because that's not real wealth. Real wealth is things like information and the intelligence and wisdom to apply what you know. That's real wealth. Remember, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding is wealth. But wealthy is time and the proper use of your time. Time is wealth. That's a big piece of wealth is time. It's one that's oftentimes overlooked. If I told you I'd give you $10 million right now, but you only had 24 hours to live if you accepted the $10 million, would the money matter anymore? If you only have 24 hours to live, you have no time left, but I gave you $10 million, would the money matter? The answer to that is probably no. The money wouldn't matter because I don't have time. That's how you know time is way more important than money in terms of wealth. We all know that, but we all know it intuitively. We know it kind of innately, but we allow this illusion of wealth to sort of take us over and we don't really allow it, we're just taught it, conditioned to believe it. Real wealth is health. Now I'm naming a bunch of things. I'm naming a bunch of things that real wealth is, but real wealth is health. What good is it to have all the money in the world and be lying on your deathbed not able to utilize all the money in the world because you neglected your health? You never hear people on their deathbed talking about money. At the end of the day, money is not as important as most people think it is to build wealth. Most people think money is the most important thing and we make it out to be because we've been conditioned to believe that it is. Again, you got to reframe the way you think about money, the way you think about wealth because money is just one tool. It's not wealth. Wealth is a plethora of other things. Again, real wealth is healthy friendships, family relationships, and being respected, being influential amongst your friends and your associates and the people around you, your network of people that you're surrounded with. That's wealth. Ask a person who's respected by the people around them. It feels good to know that people respect you. Like I said, a person laying on their deathbed, if you ask people on their deathbed, if you ask anybody, not even laying on their deathbed, just any normal people, anybody in this chat, what do you want to be surrounding when you pass away? Nobody is going to say my accountant, my CPA, my checkbook, and my money, all that cash, I want it all around me when I pass away. People don't say that. No one says that. We always read about people on their deathbed, they died peacefully because they were surrounded by what? Friends and family. So those things are wealth. Friends and family. We all need people and no, we all don't need money. Every one of us in this chat can name about five grandmothers off the top of our head right now that don't have a whole lot of money. We all know people like that. You can name several people you know that don't have a lot of money, but they're well taken care of. They're well cared for. By who? Loved ones, friends, and family, because that's more important than money. And you may be saying like, you may be saying, hey, this is a strange sort of message coming from a person who calls themselves smart money bro, but that's the reason I call myself smart money bro, because I put money in its proper perspective. I don't put money on a pedestal. I don't believe in worshiping money and putting money above everything else because money is not above everything else. Do we all want to have some money to help us live a better life and have some more, you know, things that we can feel comfortable about and feel comfortable with and have those choices and freedom? Absolutely. But understanding and putting money in its proper space in its proper place and not worshiping money, that's being smart with money, bro. We all come in this world with nothing. We don't have any. We're born in this world, come out the womb with nothing, right, basically. And when we leave this world, we're going to leave this world with what? Literally, physically. Physically, what are we going to leave with? Nothing, right? We're going to leave with nothing. We don't have no cash in our hands, no checkbook and no credit card in our hands when we leave. No estate plan in our hands when we leave. We just won't. So for some of us, guys, we think that wealth is based on money, but the money that we accumulate, I'm here to tell you that the less you rely on money, hear me, hear me closely, the less you rely on the money that you think will make you wealthy right now while you're living, the less you rely on that, the more wealthy you will truly be. The less you rely on money, the more wealthy you will truly be while you're here. Now, again, I'm not saying money is not important. We all know that money has its place. I'm saying money is not the most important thing and is certainly not the measure. It's one measure of wealth, but real wealth doesn't have to do with money. I'm telling you to reprogram your mind if you want to get good with money, if you want to properly build wealth, if you want to strategize to have more money, this is the way you need to understand and think about money. Real wealth is adding value to other people's lives, exchanging our value that we bring for something they want in exchange for what we have. And I mentioned a word earlier, I think it was influence, right? I mentioned the word influence. Bringing change and bringing value to the world makes you influential. That's wealth, right? The question for you guys, really, for each one of us in this chat, every single person that's watching this on the replay, the question I have for you is, what is your area of influence? What is your area of influence in the world? It could be to the people that you see every day, could be the people you go to work with. What is your area? What are you influencing people in what area, right? And I say that because being influential is wealth, but you should be asking yourself this question, what value am I creating in the lives of other people? That's wealth. Who are you helping? That's wealth. You know, the greatest compliment you can give a person is, you helped me out a lot. Thanks for your help. I really appreciate your help, your help. That's value. That's wealth. You're affecting other people's lives and being influential. So whose life are you affecting? Whose life are you affecting? It doesn't matter if you don't have any children and you're a single person, right? There's still a local food shelter near you. There's a homeless shelter near you. There's a domestic violence shelter near you, right? There's a food kitchen near you that you can go serve and help and get to know people and influence people there, right? Even if you're single and have no kids. There's a YouTube where you can create a YouTube channel and start reaching a bunch of people to affect and influence people's lives. That's wealth. When you help other people solve their problems, that's wealth. When you do that, you become valuable. And as a result of becoming valuable, you gain a measure of wealth. And I don't mean, again, wealthy with money. I mean wealthy in some things other than money. That's true with riches. That's true wealth. And you create wealth. You create wealth by creating value. When you make yourself more and you provide that value to other people. You don't just store up all the good stuff. You provide that value to other people. And this is why I'm amazed at people when they have a platform and they reach thousands of people. Maybe even millions of people. And when I say platform, I mean maybe it's social media on Instagram or Facebook or somewhere like that. Or they have a platform where they're a singer. Or they have a platform where they're on TV and they're reaching millions of people. I'm shocked and amazed and saddened every time I see somebody that has a platform and they're not adding good to the world. Because you have a platform, being influential in a positive direction is so key. If you have thousands of people that follow you on anywhere in the world, positive. Be positive. If you look at Smart Money Bro on any social media network, it's always trying to bring something positive to you with my message, with my brand. Because I want to be a positive influence in the world. Because that's wealth. That brings me wealth. A measure of wealth. And I can create that. I get a chance to create and build and produce the value that I bring to you guys on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m., Thursday afternoons at 4.30 p.m. when we do our lives. And even in the videos that I put out on YouTube, I have an opportunity to bring value to other people. That's wealth. Listen, people don't remember your money. They remember what you do for them and the value that you brought them. We talked about a couple of lives ago, we talked about our last live, we talked about Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard. He brought index funds to regular people like me and you. Because before, that was not possible. But just regular average everyday people can invest because he pushed Vanguard in the 1970s. His money wasn't important, but his lasting value is important. The history books don't record what the net worth of Martin Luther King was. Martin Luther King Jr., right? The history books just simply talk about what he did for people. Real wealth is also living a life of appreciation. I'm talking about all the things that are real wealth so we can dispel the myth that wealth is money. Because wealth is not money. Real wealth is living a life of appreciation, having gratitude, focusing more on your wins than you focus on your losses, right? Wealth is focusing on what you do well and appreciating what you have and a life of embracing opportunities. That's real wealth. And I realize, guys, this is a different type of money message. But it's the type of money message that a lot of us, we need. Because we've been programmed to think that money is the most important thing of all time. Money is everything, right? Money is going to save you. Money is going to make you happy. Money is going to bring you joy. Money is going to do all these wonderful things for you. But guess what? A lot of people with money ain't happy. Hello? A lot of people with money, they're not thrilled and they're not living a life of one. You see, listen, the illusion shows you that they're doing well. But guess what? TV, the internet, they can make a tree talk. So if they can make a tree talk and they can make a leaf run or they can make a car, have a family and be sitting in the kitchen and talking to other cars that are sitting around the kitchen table, they can do all that type of stuff. You best believe they can fool you into believing that money is the most important thing in the world. And that's what they've done to a lot of us. But again, real wealth are all these things I'm talking about. Gratitude is a major game changer, right? Focusing on what you have and not on what you don't have. And I guarantee you, if you employ a whole bunch of gratitude in your life today, you're going to have more. That's a great place to stop and put a bookmark. And we're going to pick up and have a conversation on next Thursday at 4.30 p.m. Central Time. And also we'll have a conversation again next Saturday at 11 a.m. Central Time. I appreciate you, but always keep this in mind. The best person who's going to take care of the old you is the young you, all right? Take care of yourself and take care of other people. Until the next video, peace.