“I Got Rich When I Understood This…” | Charlie Kirk

If you want to have people remain super poor and dependent on the government, don't teach them financial literacy. And if you want to have them filling out credit cards at 25% interest, don't teach financial literacy. I don't think being wealthy is that important. Do you want to be wealthy of the soul or just have a bunch of money? If you want to be rich, I can tell you how to get rich. That's actually not that hard. Work relentlessly and solve a problem for people and dedicate your entire life to it. Most people I meet that want to be rich, they actually don't want to be rich. They want to have the lifestyle of being rich. They don't actually want to be rich. If your whole reason for living is to become rich, you will become rich. I think if getting material wealth is the most important thing, I think there actually is a playbook for that. Like honestly, not being poor is awesome. That's like the best thing I could tell you. Like being super rich, and I'm not super rich, but I would consider to be successful under American terms, is great. But up to a place, it's kind of like, you're blessed, you're wealthy, it's fine. Not being poor is the true blessing. Not worrying about medical bills or being in debt is really bad. You have to sacrifice everything to want to become actually rich, unless you're born into it. No nights, few weekends. I traveled 3,000 days over a decade. I'm a million miler in America, Delta, United. I'm in all 50 states multiple times. It's thankless, gritty work. Not easy. So if you actually want to be rich, then there is a path for you. You have to sacrifice immensely. I don't drink alcohol. Tucker Carlson doesn't drink alcohol. Donald Trump doesn't drink alcohol. That doesn't mean that you can't be rich if you don't drink alcohol, but you must sacrifice stuff. Now, it might be that you create a good widget, or you might have a good social media app, or you might get good venture funding. But even those guys will tell you, you have to fail a lot, you have to sacrifice a lot, you have to be really gritty. But yeah, it depends on what you want. If you want to be rich, like actually have your bank account big, then America, of course you can do that. There is a way forward for, if it's your number one reason for living, to earn $500,000 a year. That's very conceivable in America. But if you're like, hey, actually the most important thing is to have kids, which I actually think having children's more important than having material success. And I have both, and I can tell you kids are way better than having money. But is there anything inherently wrong with a billionaire? No. Most billionaires actually have solved big problems for us. People love hating on Elon Musk. I like Elon a lot. He's become a friend. I know there's been a lot of social media talk about it, but I refuse to say anything negative about Elon. Like, okay, you tell me the next time you're able to launch a rocket and land it. Like, actually, that's pretty cool. Like, okay, you're able to revolutionize the electric car industry. Like, you deserve a lot of money if you do that. How many young kids right now that are 17 can tell you the difference between credit and debit? They can't. So one of the things I like about Trump's upcoming big, beautiful bill is that every new baby born in America will get a thousand dollar loan from the federal government in, I don't know if you guys know about this, but in a investment account that they can't touch, they're 18, invested in the Dow Jones Industrial Average that they'll be able to monitor throughout their 18 years. It can be grown by philanthropists, family members, grandparents. So they'll actually be able to see their wealth increase, their stakeholders. So if we have two kids, if we have another kid, that kid will immediately have a investment account that's only a one-way drop box. You can't access this money until you're 18. So it actually creates ownership units for the next generation. If you want, like, the secret to get rich, it's actually not super hard. It's like, live below your means, save your money, invest in good companies, and then find good ideas and read a lot, like, read a lot. If you just read a lot and you understand, like, all of a sudden you'll see trends and you'll be well-informed. Again, I don't want to make it seem like it's super easy, but it depends what you define by rich. But I'll say one final thing. People are so bad with money. Like, again, if your top priority is getting drunk, okay, then go do that. Like, I know a lot of people, they're like, I want to be rich. I spent $700 going out this weekend. Like, I guess you don't want to be rich, okay? You want to feel good and you want to have a bunch of, you know, toxins go through your liver, but you actually don't want to live a life of happiness and contentment. And if you want to, I'm not a moralist, if you want to drink, go ahead. It's a free society, go do that. But then don't all of a sudden complain to me that you're not materially wealthy. The best way to build wealth is over long periods of time, saving money and doing boring stuff. It's not get rich quick. It's not big meme coins, right? It's not big spikes. It's just going to work, saving money and living below your means. I know that's not the sexy answer everyone wants, but that's what Warren Buffett did. Warren Buffett's one of the world's wealthiest men. He started with like very little money 70 years ago. And no one wants to hear that, right? They want to hear about like, what's the next Nvidia? Okay, I don't know, but I can tell you that in 40 years, if you put a hundred bucks a week into a moderately managed wealth account, you're going to be great. A hundred bucks a week, man. I can't afford that. Okay, well, let's talk about it. How much money do you make? Oh, I make $91,000. You can afford a hundred bucks a week.