21 Ways To Guarantee You Stay Poor (or Make You Rich) with Matt Aitchison

In this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we're gonna talk to Matt Aitchison about the 21 Ways to Guarantee That You Stay Poor.

 

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Transcript:

On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we're gonna talk to Matt Acheson about the 21 Ways to Guarantee That You Stay Poor.

What's up everybody, and welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast. I'm your host Andrew, founder of Master money.co. And today on the Personal Finance podcast, we're gonna be talking to Matt Acheson from Millionaire Mind on the 21 Ways to G. That's you. Stay poor. If you guys have any questions, make sure you hit us up on Instagram or TikTok at Master Money Co.

And follow us on Spotify, apple Podcast or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast. And if you want to help out the show, leave a five star rating and review on Apple Podcast. Now, today we're gonna be talking about the 21 ways to guarantee that you stay poor. And the reason why we're talking about this with Matt is not to discourage anybody who is doing these things, but to alert you as to why you should not be doing these things.

And it's really important on your wealth building journey to understand what not to do. Most people tell you what to do, but knowing what not to do can be just as impactful on your life. And. We go through these 21 ways to guarantee that you stay poor. And what you're gonna see here is you're gonna see a ton of similarities in what we're talking about based on what you need to be doing to get the best outcome you possibly can.

And so what you really have to listen into here is what can I do to make some of these changes? We all do some of these things. I do some of these things, everybody does some of these things, but understanding how to get rid of some of these things on this list is going to really change your wealth building ability over time.

And that's what Matt and I talk about here on this episode as well. And so that's what we're gonna get into today. We're gonna talk about some of the investments that Matt does as well. We're gonna talk about why building wealth is like a crockpot instead of a microwave. And we're gonna talk about some of the similarities of millionaires that Matt has interviewed on his podcast as well, millionaire Mind.

So I'm so incredibly excited to share this episode with you guys. So without further ado, let's welcome Matt to the Personal Finance Podcast. So Matt, welcome to the Personal Finance podcast. Andrew. Always good to spend some time with you, brother. So we are so incredibly excited to have you here because you have a really cool background and there's a lot of cool different things that you invest in, and I would love to dive into some of that stuff.

And we're gonna talk through 21 ways to guarantee You Stay poor because you have a great podcast episode about that. And so I want to kind of go back and forth on some of those ideas as well. Cause I think it's extremely important for a lot of people to understand, you know, what not to do as well. I know one of my favorite Warren Buffet quotes from a long time ago is, you can learn from failures.

They just don't have to be your failures. And kind of knowing what not to do is so incredibly important for a lot of people on the wealth building journey. So that's my favorite part about that episode and kind of how you talk through this process. But before we dive into some of this stuff, can you tell us about your background and how you got to where you are?

Yeah, I mean, I call it a string of many majestic failures. You know, a lot of stepping stones, some winds along the way, many inflection points, right? Where anybody that is looking to go and achieve more and, you know, become more and live a bigger and better life, you constantly find ways of kind of embarking on this call of adventure and learning about yourself and building up new things about yourself and face planting and, you know, picking yourself back up.

And, uh, my journey all started in, you know, entrepreneurship. I actually kind of had a little bit of a turbulence start in terms of a lot of my audio and, you know, the words that. You know, saying outta my mouth and my video and the actions that I was taking were not aligned. That actually led me to getting expelled from high school.

Um, I was arrested in college, uh, and I finally kind of hit that fork in the road moment in my life where I found, uh, a purpose and a reason to become aligned with, you know, what I was saying and what I was doing. And that led me on a journey of personal development. And I ended up, you know, finding my way into, uh, real estate.

And back in 2010, I ended up mentoring with a guy. Uh, worked for him for free for about a year. Um, and he was flipping a lot of houses and he taught me how to flip houses. And that led me into opening my mindset up around how real estate can kind of be this vehicle in terms of a career path and a wealth building and a freedom path.

For me, I knew that I wanted to be my own boss. I knew I wanted to kinda have the flexibility, um, and, you know, the time freedom. I wanted that lifestyle. I wanted, you know, still to make an impact on other people. And really the kinda the last box was I wanted a career path that allowed me to actually build wealth and, uh, real estate was that path for me.

So fast forward, I. You know, flipped hundreds of houses. Um, I slowly started working my way into buying commercial real estate investments, um, with commercial strip centers and medical plazas that I own. Uh, that led me to buying my first hotel about four years ago. Um, I've got three hotels now, building the fourth, and, um, kind of played in the private equity world.

I've done apartment syndications and I'm, you know, got some different alternative investments that I've done in laundromats and, uh, bourbon and distilleries and, you know, some different stuff that, um, really have all kind of led me to where I'm at today. And, you know, one without the others, I don't know if I would find myself here in this particular part of my real estate, uh, investment journey.

And then, you know, having the podcast Millionaire Mind has been as, you know, just such a great way of learning and networking and bringing value to others. So it's been a pretty fun ride, man. That's absolutely amazing. And as, as you guys can see, Matt is doing investing on fun mode here because this is kind of the way where he started off and started to build out this huge portfolio of different things that he's doing now.

And I absolutely love how diverse your portfolio is as well. So as we kind of go through this, you have a, some great content on living a rich life and what a rich life is, and you kind of talk through that process and you have this acronym for having a rich life. So can you talk about that a little bit?

Yeah. So I'll give you a little context to where it started. I, and I think everybody knows on this show, you want more, right? You're listening to, you know, this amazing podcast that Andrew has because you know that when you take control over your personal finance, there's a path to freedom. And I was on that path early on in my twenties and I had kind of unlocked some milestones that allowed me to, uh, through a mentor.

Get invited to a mastermind, a millionaire mastermind called GoBundance. And I've been a part of that community for about eight years now. And I remember going to that first event, all millionaires, um, all people that are very purposeful with wealth building. And I was going, man, I'm gonna unlock the secrets of how I go from 1 million to 10 or a hundred.

Um, and what came out of that was something that really changed my life. I, uh, had networked with, you know, there was, it was a small group. I think I was member number 13. I think we're up north of 800 plus members now all over the world. Um, and the group of 15, there was really what I discovered were two different types of millionaires.

1 million. Was somebody that was financially crushing it in their business, um, had tons of wealth, but they were bankrupt in their marriages. They were bankrupt in their health. They were bankrupt as parents and they were bankrupt as leaders and giving back to other people. And then I saw the other individual that I call the whole life millionaire, which was somebody that was not only living as purposefully and intentionally and as skilled and disciplined in their financial journey, but they were also applying that same discipline, purpose, passion and intention into their marriages, into their kids, into their employees, into charities.

And I was like, I want to be that person. And it was kind of mind blowing to me because I'd felt like I was a pretty resourceful person seeking and, you know, engaging with ways of getting more and becoming more. And this was all like, you know, mind blowing information and ahas for me. And I was like, if I am having a mind-blowing moment right now, I know there's so many other people on this planet that could value and get benefit from this.

And so that's why I started the Millionaire Mine Cast. And over the course of all my interviews, I started kind of boiling down like what I thought was a very rich and fulfilling life, and my acronym of R I C H is. You know, leading with purpose and intention and goal setting in your, our relationships, personal and professional I as income and investments, finding ways to enhance and elevate your income to then dispose of that into other investment vehicles that allow you to get that time freedom.

C as your community and contribution, investing in people, investing in relationships, investing in giving back to other people beyond something that just serves yourself. And then h of course, right, without your mental, physical, and spiritual health, right? That is something that is critical to, you know, rounding off what can be a very, you know, fulfilling and rich life that goes far beyond what dollars can buy you.

And so that's kind of how I started leading and living my life. I created the Rich Life Planner because that was something that I knew that, you know, if I can create frameworks and systems that allow me to really. There is no silver bullet to all of this, but it's more so about just being aware. And by being aware, you can be more purposeful and intentional about what you need to fix or what you need to continue doing more of.

And that is what I believe the rich life is all about. It's not being perfect, it's just being empowered to go out and make the next right decision that aligns with the goals that you're trying to unlock. And, uh, that's my definition of a rich and fulfilling life, knowing that everybody has a different definition of what that looks like, but most people aren't clear on what it is.

And so step number one, right, is just getting clarity and what is your definition? What does that look like for you? And then we can kind of reverse engineering back into it from there. That's absolutely incredible because I absolutely love when I hear you talk about this because most people think about building wealth cause you have to be all in on the business side and that is it.

Whereas being well-rounded is what true wealth is. And we kind of talk about true wealth on this podcast all the time and having, you know, those relationships with your family, having those additional things that you want to be doing in life and having that freedom is so incredibly powerful. And that's what you talk about with that Rich Life acronym, which I absolutely love.

And the Rich Life Planner, I saw that you have that as well. We'll link it up down the show notes below so that you guys can check that out. Listening. Awesome. Because I think that's an amazing way to kind of go through this process, especially as we enter into this new year. Um, a lot of people I'm sure are gonna be interested in that as well.

So that is absolutely amazing. I love that acronym and I love that thought process cuz most people just need to understand how wealth is actually created and that is part of it, a little bit of everything. So I absolutely love that. So I want to dive into. The 21 ways to guarantee you stay poor. Because I think, like we said earlier, I think a lot of people need to understand you can make mistakes, but understanding, you know, learning from other people's mistakes is one of the most important things that you can do.

So what I'd love to do is kind of go through each one of these and we can talk back and forth on 'em as well. But, um, let's do it. I think there's a lot of things that a lot of people can learn from some of these as well. So the first one is procrast. Procrastination is one of those things that so many people get paralyzed in fear that then prevents them from actually taking action.

And oftentimes, whether it's fear or it's overwhelm or it's stress, right, it's just inactivity. And a lot of people ask me like, man, you've accomplished so much, you know, at the age of 34. Like, how have you been able to do what you've been able to do? And you know, as I've really kind of like reflected back and thought about a lot of things, I've kind of boiled it down to one sentence.

And I tell people I'm dumb enough to believe in myself and I'm smart enough to take action every day. And I think that, you know, if I had the perfect plan laid out, I would still be trying to figure that out, and I would've never taken any action. And so I'm totally okay with taking imperfect action and just being really aware of every step of the journey on what I need to tweak, what I need to optimize, what I need to pivot away from what I need to.

Kill what I maybe need to combine. But I think, you know, procrastination is one of those things where there's so many people that are way more talented than me or than some of the most successful people out there. But it's, you know, the people who unlock a lot of those milestones and achievements in their life and their career on their journey is by just getting in the trenches and getting messy.

And, you know, trying to find ways to keep improving along the way versus feeling like you have to have the perfect opportunistic time to take that. Absolutely, and I could not agree more cuz I think one of the biggest things that a lot of people do is they just wait for that perfect moment to do something.

They wait for the perfect moment. Like a lot of people, for example, will wait for the new year to start getting their money right or getting it all put together and or getting their fitness goals put together, all those different things. But the biggest thing to do is take action now. You know, it's to take that action right away.

It's so incredibly powerful if you can learn to do that. I heard recently, Alex Hormoze was just talking about this, where he said, uh, you know, I've never seen a circumstance where it is a better decision to wait than to just take action right away, especially when it comes to business or building wealth or all these other things.

And so taking action is just one of the most powerful things that you can do when it comes to especially your money, but everything else in life as well. So I absolutely love that one. The second one is one that we talk about a lot in this as well, is people who are information junkies or people who just consume but do not produce.

Can you talk a little bit about that one? Yeah, I mean, I see so many people nowadays that in the information age that we live in, it becomes one of those. Things that becomes a crutch for people is I need to learn more. I need to be an expert on this. And there's always gonna be more information to consume.

And I think it's one thing to be knowledgeable about something. There is kind of a journey that I look at. You know, there's a, the philosophical. Piece of it in terms of I need to learn, I need to gain as much knowledge, I need to have as much wisdom before I can really take that next step. But that's where most people stop, right?

I mean, I look at professors that are teaching in the school of business and they've never. Owned a business before, they've never played in the arena of business. Right? But they know a lot of information. You can listen to as many podcasts, read as many books as you want, you know, go to as many conferences and learn about all of these things.

But if never gets put into action, you're never truly gonna get the real life experience and skills and results from that, right? So I think it's a. Thing to get stuck in learning mode too much. And oftentimes what I do is I'm always interested, I call it info sponging, like every day I try and, you know, sponge and kind of extract wisdom out of some area that I feel I want to learn or grow myself in.

But I really have kind of built a bunker around a lot of the platforms and areas that can turn into information overload. So I don't consume a lot of content unless it's very purposeful and intentional. And yes, I do my reading. Yes, I listen to a podcast here and there. But for the most part, it's very purposeful learning and once I learn it, it gets put into integration or implementation very, very quickly.

And then I just, through awareness and through certain frameworks, find ways of reflecting on how that served me, what results it got me, do I wanna. Double down on it, or do I want to course correct and make a pivot away from it, or do I want to kill it all together? But it's very dangerous when you get in this consistent space of constantly consuming and no doing.

It reminds me of early on when I really wanted to invest in real estate. It took me three years to actually take that leap and take action on that because I was consuming so much information. I can tell you anything about real estate investing on a, you know, a textbook basis, but right when it came to taking action, having that experience, I had.

So once I started to take action, I realized, oh, I should have done this way sooner. Cause I'm learning so much more just from the mistakes I'm making as I start investing and going through that process. So that was when I learned the big lesson about this, because I was consuming so much information. I was reading so many books and just going through that whole process.

And then after that I realized I gotta take some action. I gotta stop consuming so much information and start doing some of this stuff as well. I'm the same way as you where I still, I'll read a book a week and I'll go through that whole process because I want to always, constantly be learning and investing in myself, but at the same time, I'm very cautious of what I'm consuming.

Like I don't even consume news anymore whatsoever, just because that's not something I can control. So I focus on the things that I can control and then kind of go through that process as well. And you see all these people who are news junkies and kind of go through that whole thing. It's just a waste of time for a lot of situations.

So it's really interesting to kind of think through that as well. The third one, and I love this one, is taking advice from the wrong. Taking advice from the wrong people. I mean, you just kind of talked about it, right? I mean, how many people make a daily decision off of what CNN or Fox News told them? And I think that is something that is probably been one of my best hacks to success, honestly, is having the right mentors versus, you know, allowing the wrong people to influence me.

And I do a pretty, I'm pretty ruthless with how I do my relationship. One of my initial mentors has a quote that I ultimately live by, which is, I am a loving human being, but my standards are not. And when I got clear on what my standards were around who I allowed to speak into my life, who I allowed to mentor me, who I allowed to influence me, it became one of those things that was really empowering and really easy to get clarity around who were the people I allowed to influence and lead me, and who were the people that I was willing to listen to, but I didn't act from.

And you know, I always believe we grow into the conversations or the environments that we spend the most time with. And so, if. Hanging around a bunch of people that are, you know, influencing you or speaking certain words into your life that really aren't aligned with who you are, who you want to become, where you want to go, then ultimately you're gonna get influenced by that, whether you like it or not.

And I also think the alternative to that right, is you hang around nine other millionaires who are being purposeful, intentional, positive, challenging each other, holding each other accountable, sharing resources. You're probably gonna become the 10th as well. So that's something that I think is very, very important.

And a quick way of doing just an audit every single year. Draw line down the center of a piece of paper, put a plus and a multiplication sign on one side, put a uh, subtraction and a division sign on the other side. List down all of the people that you spent most of your time within that year and who gives you energy and multiplies your energy and, you know, adds value to your life.

And who subtracts divides, you know, complains and sucks energy from you. And it becomes a little bit easier to start com compartmentalizing some of those relationships. And this is so, I love that exercise cuz this is really important nowadays, especially in the TikTok information Age and the Instagram information age, where you see some of this false information coming from left and right.

I'm. Sometimes my jaw drops looking at some of the information and some of these videos will go viral and it's just terrible information on vesting or something along those lines, . So you can see that coming from left and right. So making sure that you guard where your attention is is really, really, really important.

And so I love that exercise of, you know, what is taking away your energy and what's actually adding energy, because it's really, really important to do this every single year. This is a perfect time of year to be doing this as well. Totally. Number five is fail once, quit forever. So I love this one because there's been so many instances where I have failed in some situation and I've wanted to quit.

So can you talk a little bit about this one? Yeah. I mean, I think we've all heard the cliched statements, right? Failures, just feedback. Um, every time I've fallen on my face, while it's painful and sometimes leads you to dark, you know, either spaces in your head or physical, you know, whether it's a financial challenge or it's a, you know, an employee or a business challenge or it's a marriage challenge, whatever it may be, like failing.

And quitting is really when you fail. It's when you fail and you get the feedback, and you get the learning lessons. Those have been some of the greatest stepping stones for me to get to that next big win. And I know for myself, looking back on my journey, I think in my first year of real estate investing, I literally thought about quitting six times.

I went back and I calculated up all the money I made in my first. And how many hours a week I worked and how many total hours of the year I worked. And I think my hourly rate was like $12 and 8 cents. And I was like, dude, I could have made more money, like as a barista at Starbucks. And I gotten free coffee every day and I.

Questioned myself many times of wanting to quit, but it was those string of failures and me consistently picking myself back up and the lessons, and more importantly, the confidence that was built, right? Like every time you fail, every time you push up against fear, every time you overcome a challenge, there's this newfound confidence that gets poured into the foundation of who you are.

And so for me, I now look at fear as a call to action. I now look at my failures as just another stepping stone to my next big win. And when you kind of can change the psychology around fear or around failure and start to use it in a positive way that pushes you in the right direction, you just know it's just gonna be a part of your journey.

It's just a part of the process now. And so I don't necessarily question it. In the capacity that I did before, and my engagement with it is actually in a much more positive way that serves me instead of stops me. Absolutely. And I think early on, this is something that you can learn over time. I remember the same thing when I was investing in real estate.

Problems would happen. The only way I can describe it is almost like my brain would panic. Like, I just don't wanna do this anymore. I don't wanna feel these feelings anymore. And I remember kind of going through that entire process. Over time, you kind of adjust to it. You callous towards some of these failures and learn that these are part of your stepping stones to get to the next level.

And I absolutely love kind of thinking through this and understanding this early on. If you can understand this as early as possible, it's really gonna change the way that you kind of deal with a lot of situations as you go through life. Because the next one really goes hand in hand with this, which is thinking the world is fair because a lot of people think the world is fair now, this is one that is a big one in today's day and age.

So can you talk a little about this one as well? Yeah, I mean, I just think, you know, at the end of the day, , yeah, I heard this so many times. Growing up life was not fair, right? You're like, every time my parents told me that, I'm like, screw you. You know? Like, who are you to tell me is not fair? I want it to be fair.

And I think that's ultimately when you can rid your mindset of the fact that you are entitled to anything, you will become. Such a more powerful and purposeful person and appreciative person for everything you go and get. Knowing that the world is not fair. There's a Japanese concept called Shaquita gk, and it's recognizing that there are things out of your control that ultimately you just gotta let go of and accept the fact that there's gonna be certain things along the way in your journey that happened to you, that happened to somebody else that just aren't fair.

And instead, you know, focusing on the things that you can control and making the next right decision that aligns with your goals or with what you're trying to accomplish or what your values are. And I think you know when you can release the entitlement mentality and instead ask yourself the question as what does it take to earn the right to.

Blank, right? Like what does it take to earn the right to travel the world, you know, and make $10,000 a month and work for my laptop? What does it take to earn the right to become a millionaire? What does it take to earn the right to hire my first administrative assistant? What does it take to earn the right to whatever, right?

If you can start asking the right questions and ask better questions, your mind and your brain is gonna go to work and getting clear answers, which with people like us, people that are purposeful, intentional, and are bad asses, that want to go out and get more and live more and be more, the clearer you are, the easier it is to make a better plan that aligns with that clarity.

And then you just go to work. You just start executing. And so I think when you get away from entitlement and you start asking the right questions and you just realize, Hey, the world's not gonna be fair, but I'm just gonna focus on what I control. It narrows the focus of what you can really take ownership over.

Absolutely. And really truly the biggest thing we talk about on this podcast all the time and people, long time listeners will know this, is just focusing on those things that you can control. Because there's gonna be so many things that happen to you, it's not gonna be fair. You're not gonna be, you know, in the perfect circumstance every single time.

So you gotta really think through working backwards. Like Matt said, what can I do to kind of get to where I want to go and what I want outta life? So that is one of the most powerful things that you can understand early on as well. The next one is blaming your circumstance. So they kind of go hand in hand here.

Um, but blaming your circumstance is a big one that I see everybody do that's their first go-to, is to blame their circumstance. So can you talk a little bit about that one as well? Yeah, I mean, I just think that that's an easy default answer for a lot of people that makes them feel better about their lack of achievement or their lack of progress.

And ultimately it's just not the answer. It's just not what's gonna serve you that unfortunately, there are gonna be the trust fund babies that have $2 million to start with and go out and be successful, and there's gonna be the $2 million trust fund babies that go out and waste it all and aren't successful.

And there's also gonna be the person that grew up in a village walked five hours to get clean water and along the way, Figured out how to build a relationship with somebody that opened a door for them that then led them to traveling across the world, that then led them to building a multimillion dollar company.

Like everybody starts from somewhere different. Everybody's journey is unique to themselves, and so I think it's such a cop out when people blame their circumstances or this person is more privileged or more capitalized, or more resourced. Go back to number, you know, whatever we just talked about, right?

Which is thinking that the world is fair. That's just another example of it. And so just accepting that your circumstances and where you're at right now is where you're at right now. And the beautiful thing is the next decision that you make is a hundred percent in your control and can completely change your circumstances.

Like I believe every single human being is one decision, one conversation, one relationship, one experience away from completely changing their life and the trajectory of what it can produce for you and for your kids and for your future generations. And so if you're one of those people that is allowing that narrative to be a part of your story, I would encourage you to bring some awareness around that and release it.

And the other people also I think, who look at their circumstances from a perspective of motivation and what they don't want and moving towards what they do want are the people that are really gonna make some great progress. So don't be one of those people that blames your circumstances. And that's basically what this podcast was built on originally because I truly believe anybody in this world can build wealth and unfortunately, privilege is a real thing.

And there's a whole situation where if you're born in one situation, maybe your family's been poor forever, you can be that person that changes this by learning how to build wealth to take the next step to change your life, and you could change your family's life, your family's trajectory, all of these different things.

It's so incredibly powerful to be able to do this, and that is why this is one of the best things that you can understand early on. Not blaming your circumstances and understanding that you have the power to make that change. That's the most powerful thing that you can really do early on. And number eight goes hand in hand with this as well, which is complaining.

Yeah, complaining. Very short and sweet complaining equals garbage magnet. If you're somebody that is a consistent complainer, you are somebody that will consistently attract more negativity and garbage into your world. And, uh, one of my favorite quotes around complaining is, uh, do not complain about what you tolerate.

And so many people tolerate all the stuff that they bitch and moan about every single day and don't do. Anything about it. And instead, if you were to take that energy that you have about complaining about something and put it towards a solution to that, you'd see massive results and differences in your life.

Exactly. It's finding those solutions. Learning to find solutions instead of complaining about 'em is one of the best things that you can absolutely do. And you, you answer it perfectly. It's short and sweet. That's exactly which, how you gotta think through this process. It's okay, here's a situation, here's the problem.

How do I solve this problem? Instead of worrying about it, complaining about it, focusing on the things that you can control. The next one, same thing along those lines is expecting the government to save you. Yeah. I mean, I just, uh, I put that one on there because I think whether, you know, we'll keep politics outta this, right?

Sure. But I think, um, you know, whether you love capitalism or you hate capitalism, one of the beauties of capitalism is the fact that there is no bounds on innovation. And ultimately what problems can be solved, like innovation At the root of it is people trying to solve problems. And the second you think that the government is your savior and gonna solve all your problems, is the second that you ultimately lose all of the upside and opportunity for your life.

And so I just think that, you know, no matter how you feel about what happened in 2020 and what side of the aisle you lean on, or if you go back and you look at history, at the end of the day, the government, you know, is ultimately not there to, uh, serve you and make your life, you know, the best possible life on earth.

It is there to. Serve what purpose government serves in all the capacities that it serves. So just don't get lulled into being one of those individuals that thinks that an external force, whether it's the government or it's your mom and your dad, or it's somebody else is going to save you. It's taking full and complete ownership over your finances, over your marriage, over your, you know, parenting, over, you know, you giving back to other people like.

Ownership and control over your own life. Is that the root of that one? Absolutely. It's just taken that personal responsibility. That's the perfect way to, you explained that one perfectly as well. So the next one is valuing others' opinions over your own. Yeah, I mean, I think it's important to seek counsel and advice from other individuals, but I think as I have gotten more clear on who I am and what I stand for and what my core values are, and what my morals are, and the more I've leaned into those, the more my life in terms of the people in it, the opportunities in it, the experiences in it have become a direct reflection of me making the decisions that were ultimately what I felt in alignment with my goals.

My. My vision, my values. And so it can be very easy to allow other people to sway you out of that. And I think the more you can lean into the confidence and the trust that you have in yourself and who you are and what you stand for, the more your life as it plays out will be an organic reflection of that.

Exactly. It's kind of figuring out what your rich life is, what your why is, understanding what that is. Once you know that, I guess you'd call it your north star, once you know what that is, it's wise to talk to other people. It's obviously wise to get other people's opinions, but making sure that you stick to what you truly believe in and what you're trying to do with your life is one of the most powerful things that you can do.

The next one is avoiding discomfort. And I know this is a big one for a lot of people because discomfort is sometimes a good thing, and we've talked about that a little bit already here today. Um, but it's one of those things that you definitely want to look into as well. So can you talk a little bit about avoiding discomfort?

Yeah, I mean, again, that goes back to I think a lot of people, all of us, you know, at the end of the day, we love comfort. You know, it's kind of the way human beings are designed, and when I think about some of my most expansive moments, In my life, whether that is, you know, expanding my mind, expanding my body, you know, expanding my love, my relationships, whatever it may be.

Oftentimes, um, a very consistent thread in all of that expansion is pain and it's discomfort and it's leaning into doing hard things, especially when you don't want to do them. You know? Uh, so I think for a lot of people, and I'm one of those people now, when I feel that discomfort, I have rewired my brain to engage with it in a way that is serving and building me up into something that I know is gonna take my life, my relationships, my mindset to that next level.

And so anytime I see or feel that discomfort, I actually lean into it. Cuz if you really think about pain or fear, like there's fear of, hey, somebody's pointing a gun at your head, and like if they pulled a trigger, you're gonna die. Like, that's real fear. But most of the other fear is made up and it's false, and it tricks us into plain, small and plain comfortable.

And I can say this, every time I have leaned into that fear, I've come out the other side of that fear and I like, you know, take a pulse, check my heart, still breathe in. My wife still loves me, my kids still, you know, love me, think I'm awesome, I got a roof over my head. You realize that that fear was fake.

And as you do it more and more and more and you overcome that discomfort, it really does harden you up and it builds a level of confidence that empowers you, that the next time it comes, it makes it a little bit easier, and the next time it comes, it gets a little bit easier. So in 2023, hopefully any of you who are feeling or seeing some discomfort in your life, lean into it.

Absolutely. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, and I don't remember who said it was, comfort is the enemy of success. And it's kind of like thinking through that process of, you know, embracing that discomfort is one of the most powerful things that you can do. In fact, over time it's actually reduced, you know, stress and anxiety.

It can actually help you, you know, just take on almost anything if you can kind of embrace some of that discomfort as well. Now the next one is one, a lot of people do and a lot of people get stuck in a rut doing this and it's tolerating mediocrity. Yeah, this is probably the one that was the hardest for me and also the biggest, um, it paid the most dividends for me and this came in the forms of my relationships.

With myself, with my friends, with my family, and going back to that quote that I had mentioned earlier, I'm a loving person, but my standards are not. When I got clear around what my standards were for myself, standards were for my marriage. Standards were for how I parented standards were for my employees or our team and company culture.

When you get clear on what those. And you uphold them, they actually mean something to you. And the beauty is we let so many people off the hook that we should be calling up to a higher version of themselves by upholding those standards instead of letting them feel comfortable and living in and justifying their mediocrity.

And now I feel like there's a tasteful way of doing it, of course, right? There's a, a diplomatic way of doing it, but it doesn't change the answer of standards or standards. Boundaries or boundaries. And it's up to you to decide how to uphold them in your life, in your business, with your finances, in your marriage, whatever it may be.

And the second I stop tolerating mediocrity with myself and then started, you know, relaying. Kind of pushing that into other relationships and areas of my life and my business. So many things changed and the beauty is it's probably the highest form of leadership for you and for somebody else. I can't tell you how many times I built boundaries and standards around whether it was a certain role in my company or it was a certain relationship in my family or in, you know, my marriage.

That even though sometimes it can be painful for people or dis comfortable for people, or frustrating as they elevate up to that bar, up to that standard, and you were the catalyst and the reason they did it. There's a newly found level of love and respect and appreciation, and it's really fulfilling seeing somebody get the most out of themselves and at the same time, right?

You really do elevate the caliber and quality of the relationships in your life. That's why it's almost important to just have like a personal mission statement in place where you have these standards set up, you're writing them down, you have these in place, and then taking actions towards those standards to make sure that you're actually accomplishing what you wanna accomplish.

And the cool thing about this is a lot of times people will kind of go through life and not really understand how to handle different situations, but if you have these in place, it is so much easier to make decisions because you have your standards, you know exactly what you need to do. You have the bar set.

And so once these are in place, life becomes a little bit easier actually. And so maybe it's tough in that season. It's tough to kind of meet those standards up front. Yeah. But life becomes easier to make those decisions going forward. So the next one is making promises and breaking promises. Yeah, I think this is something that I, you know, was on both sides of the fence, and I'm sure many people can relate to this, right of you make a promise to yourself, whether it's, you know, spoken in your mind or spoken word out to somebody else.

And then you break that promise. Not only do you erode the trust and integrity that you have with that person, more importantly, you erode the trust and integrity you have with yourself. And so for me, you know, as I really started thinking about, you know, a lot of the people that I've seen in my life have great success, great results.

It's the people that when they say they're gonna do something, your word is your bond and you uphold that no matter what. If you're not gonna do it, don't say it. Okay? But you say it to yourself or you say it to somebody else and you uphold that. There's a foundational fabric that I believe, you know, in terms of integrity and really like following through on your word, that creates so much upside in ways that just can't be measured, right?

Like there's the physical side of, you know, getting achievements and accolades and making money or making a difference in your business or in a relationship. But then there's a lot of other things that we cannot measure within ourselves that truly pay endless dividend. And imagine if you're the type of person who goes through life and you make a promise to yourself.

Say for example, you want to get fit this year, for example, and you go through life and you keep failing over and over when you make those promises to yourself, imagine if you were the person that actually followed through every time you said something, or every time you made a promise to yourself or someone else, how your life would change over time and thinking through that process.

Having those why's in place is really powerful once you start to do this, because once you start to stick to this stuff, it can really, really be life changing. The next one is waiting for perfect conditions. Yeah, I mean, there are too many people, whether you're trying to time the stock market, you're trying to time the real estate market, you're gonna start on January 1st because that's the best day to do it.

There never is a perfect time. And what is more important in my opinion, is having clarity and a good plan. And that plan once it's. Can start and begin any day, any condition, any market, you just have to stick to the plan and small smart choices done consistently over an extended period of time. Whether that is your investment plan in, you know, stocks or in real estate, or your life insurance, or with your health or with a marriage, whatever it may be, having a clear plan that with small steps and chunks that you do consistently over an extended period of time, you're going to win.

And there never is a perfect time to start that there's gonna be storms along the way that come up and rain on your sunny day, right? But at the end of the day, there's never gonna be those perfect conditions to start, so there's no point. Waiting. It's just get clarity in the plan and get into action.

Exactly. It's having those big things in place and taking small steps each and every single day to get one step closer to that plan. It's one of the best things that you can do. The next one, this is right up our alley on the Personal Finance podcast, is prioritizing looking rich over being rich. Yeah. I mean, Most of the people that I known and have been around that are really, really wealthy, you wouldn't know it.

Yeah. You go to their house, beautiful. Maybe they have one really sexy car, but for the most part their day-to-day, they're very humble. They spend money generally on experiences and people and impact than they do on material stuff. And don't get me wrong, like I like material stuff. They like material stuff too.

But generally it's using their time and their money investments into the right things that pay roi, that generate and kick off a lot of other cash flow that then ultimately does pay for the material. Things that aren't, you know, assets that really bring more value or. And so I think there's a lot of people, especially in today's world that have been duped into, you know, thinking that a nice car or nice watch or a lot of the stuff that ultimately has kind of been romanticized and celebrated in social media world, um, that tricks a lot of people on their journey to actually building wealth in a way that could give them all those things, but they do it back.

Exactly, and it's like taking those dollars, putting those dollars into things that are going to be assets that are gonna produce cash flow, all those things that we talk about here on the podcast all the time, and then letting those assets pay for your liabilities, if you're gonna do it throughout that process is one of my favorite steps to do as well when you go through this.

So the next one is avoid. Working on what matters most. Hmm. This is, you know, for most people they mistake movement for achievement. And you know, when you talk to somebody, Hey, how you doing? What do most people say nowadays? They go, oh, I'm just so busy. You know, life's this and that, and da, da, da. And when I think about that, I usually, when I talk to people like that and actually kind of get under the hood with some of the people, their calendar and what they are committing their time to on a daily basis is really not aligned or reflecting of where their time should be based on the goals in the life that they want to lead.

And so again, that comes back to. Clear vision, having a plan for chunking down how you achieve some of those goals, and then just consistently focusing on the right activities consistently. Day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, and every quarter, right? You're really gonna see some great progress around those things, but too many people get distracted or they get, you know, pulled in for various reason.

To areas or lanes that ultimately they shouldn't even be playing in. And then they look up at the end of the year really frustrated that they didn't cover the ground that they want. When you get really clear on what you should be spending your time on and really what is aligned with your big goals and big vision, you can take a five lane freeway and narrow it down to your fast lane and really see some major progress.

Absolutely. And that is one of the most powerful things that you can do is a lot of people will go through this process of thinking that they're just busy all the time, so they think they're making progress, just like you said. But once you get clear and intentional about what you want to do in life, then it kind of shows, you know, what are my most important things that I need to be focusing my time on?

What are the most important things that I need to be doing? And most people listening, as you see as we go through a lot of these things, being intentional in life is going to solve a lot of these problems for you if you can do that as we go through this process. The next one is saying you're gonna do something and not do.

Yeah, I mean, I think this kind of ties back to making promises and breaking promises. One is more of like, I think personal commitments and like a real bond. Another one I think is more of just lying to yourself and lying to other people, which I think can impact your relationships. It can impact your reputation.

And you know, I think that's something that in today's day and age, there are a lot of people who say a lot, they're audio, but their video and the actions they take are misaligned. And the ones that are really successful oftentimes are the ones who say very little but few things and consistently do it.

That you look up in a couple years and you're like, oh my gosh, that person's crushing it. Versus the people that are doing and talking about a lot of cool and sexy things, but really don't follow through on them. And. They're still in the same spot or worse off. So if you say you're gonna do something right, going back to that one statement is like your word is your bond.

Keep it. Absolutely. It's taking that action and making sure you're taking those actions towards the next step of exactly what you want to do. But we gotta take the correct actions. And number 18 is doing what everybody else is doing. So how do we figure out that as well? Yeah, I mean, I think there's good and bad to this, right?

Like, um, I've always been an early adopter, so I try and find, you know, trends and things that I believe are gonna be interesting and gonna evolve and have some merit and value to them. But usually once everyone is doing it is when I really start to one question it and oftentimes pivot away from it. Um, more of that contrary and mindset, right when everybody else is zigging is maybe.

Time to start zagging or get ahead of that and you can go back to write the Bitcoin craze. When everybody was throwing their stimulus checks into Bitcoin, I was like, this is not good. This is not gonna end well. And right in hindsight and how it all played out, that's probably wasn't the best thing to do with your stimulus check.

So I just think it's really important to just be aware of these things. Sometimes there's total merit invalid, you know, reasons to go into something that other people are doing, but Russell Brunson talks you know very well about this, as you know, a red ocean versus a blue ocean Once. It's a red ocean and there's blood everywhere, right?

You wanna find the blue ocean where there's clean waters and there's something new and there's not as many people fishing in the same pond. It reminds me of Warren Buffett's quote, be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. Yeah, because it's just taking those actions towards the things that you know, not everybody else is doing.

And one thing I that comes to mind here is something like boring businesses. For example, back in the day most people were doing boring businesses cuz that's what they had access to, was to build up some of those boring businesses. Now there's a lot of people who don't want to own some of these boring businesses, and you kind of look at some of those and there's a lot of opportunity there available to you where more people are starting tech companies or some of the more exciting stuff that's available now.

So just kind of thinking through some of these processes, a great thing in investing in life and everything else in between. The next one is, I love this one by the way, is do your best. Not what it takes. Yeah, I think, you know, one of my favorite quotes is, winning isn't everything, but wanting to win is, and you know, I think back to some of my greatest mentors and some of my greatest coaches in life and, uh, one of my early coaches always used to tell me is, you know, um, you may not like me right now, but you will love me later for what I bring out of you.

And that ultimately was. One of the things that I took with me throughout my life of like, I'm just gonna, I can't control the outcome here always, but I can control my actions and my actions. I can give my best every day. I can give my ultimate effort in each and everything that I do and live with.

Wherever, you know, the chips may fall and you know, sometimes you'll do everything that, you know, on paper says you should get the W or that you should get the contract or that you should make the sale. But that's not always how it's gonna play out. But as long as you do your best and you leave it all out on the floor every single day, I can live with that.

Absolutely it is really understanding. This is kind of going through a lot of failures and realizing I did this early on where I realized going through some of these failures, I'm not doing every single thing I can to kind of get to the next step. And once you start to do that and you start to unlock and getting to those next levels, it really is a major, major clarity for me as well.

So the next one is talk more and do less. And we talked a little bit about this before, but I love this one as well. Yeah, I mean, for me, I think it might have been the other way around, talk less and do more, where at least in my opinion, I think there's a lot of people that like to do a lot of talking and it's usually the silent ones that are kind of flying under the radar, that are asking lots of questions, that are really, really curious, that are extracting information and just getting into default action, less talking, more doing.

Those are the individuals that often end up a lot further down the path than those that are doing most of the talking. Exactly. It's just, it's choosing that to take action. It's the best thing. We all know people who just talk too much, but they don't take that actual action. And the last one is, start something new today.

And start something new tomorrow. Yeah. I mean, you know, every day is a fresh, clean slate, but getting into action is most important. One of the things that I try and do is, you know, every month, you know, really do something that is outside of what my normal routine is to help challenge me in building new skills, new habits, you know, a new mindset.

But at the end of the day, having a clear foundational routine and rhythm around that. Things that really keep you, I metaphorically use, you know, a bowling lane, those frameworks, those habits, those disciplines, that routine and that rhythm that has you. Something every single day that moves the needle forward on your goals is gonna kind of be metaphorically the, you know, bumpers to your bowling lane of life and in business that prevents you from bowling gutter balls, has you at least throwing, you know, down the middle, knocking down pins, ideally strikes in spares, but do something that challenges you every single day that's inspiring to you every single day, but have a foundational flow and rhythm around things that keep you operating at a really high.

And so anyone who has listened to this list, and you probably have a couple of things on this list that you're doing, I know you know everybody probably does, um, as you go through this process. So pick a couple of these, see how you can work on them and how you can make some of these changes and make progress with some of these.

Cause it really is life changing to kind of unlock all of these. And it's one of those things where if you want to build wealth, you have to start taking the correct actions, having your why in place and being able to get to that next level. So I wanna shift gears here a little bit, Matt, because I know you have some great content as well on building wealth and some of the biggest things that you talk about is that building wealth is you compare it to a crockpot instead of a microwave.

So can you talk a little bit about that? Cuz I absolutely love that. Yeah. I mean, I just think that, you know, at the end of the day, especially in the world that we all. Live in today, uh, especially for millennials and younger generations, is we live in the instant generation of, Hey, I, you know, click a button, I get a response right away, you know, I send this message, it sends right away, I put my food in the microwave, it spits it out in three minutes for me.

And at the end of the day, you know, when it comes to wealth building, that's unfortunately, Just not the answer. And just like in a crockpot, you know, it takes ingredients fusing together and marinating over an extended period of time to create what is a really amazing and tasty dish. That's the same way wealth building is.

You have to make small, smart, consistent choices over an extended period of time to look up and now start to see some really big results. But most people want that microwave, you know, quick hit lightning in a bottle, you know, wealth in their life. And while you know, there are the Zuckerbergs out there and there are the Jeff Bezos out there, at the end of the day, they're lightning in a bottle.

Moments that most people look at. Were actually a very, you know, long sequence of small, smart choices made over an extended period of time that led to what we all get to see today. So it's the same thing with wealth building. It's not sexy. It's oftentimes boring, but what the uns. Sexy actions lead to, which is sexy results.

That's what we all crave and desire, and I think just being aware of that and making sure that you have the crock pot mindset when it comes to building your wealth versus the microwave mentality, those are things that make it a little bit easier to do some of the unsexy stuff along the way. Building wealth is that long-term game.

It is the really, the long-term investors are the ones that always come out and win. I think Warren Buffet, when he made the majority of his money after the age of 60, it's like 99% of his money is after the age of 60 or something like that. That's just a perfect example of long-term investing. Building wealth over time is something, if you want to have a tremendous amount of wealth, you gotta have some time involved as well, and I absolutely love that.

Yep. So you invest in so many different things. What part of your portfolio is your favorite way to invest, would you say? Well, I look at it in kind of a couple different buckets. You know, some are passive, some are semi passive, and some are fully active, right? Um, my active stuff is more of my vertical income where I spend a very, um, I guess heavier allocation of my time and, you know, attention in building and growing.

Um, that's my hospitality and hotel business and, um, spirits and distillery and, you know, creating experiences. Why I love that is, you know, my hotels, um, while they are a tangible asset and they have all the benefits of cash flow and cost segregation and all the, you know, other benefits that come along with owning real estate, um, there's an experiential component to my hospitality and, you know, hotel assets that, um, I get to get.

An r o e, which is an return on experience. You know, I can't, uh, I drive by, you know, some of my commercial properties all the time with my kids in the backseat, and I can't go and take my girls into the liquor store and have a bunch of fun. Right? But I can take 'em up to my hotels, to Airbnbs to get them, you know, really experiencing.

Investing in these types of asset classes can create, which is great from a monetary and financial perspective, but even more importantly, is the memories and the experiences that we get to share together. And not just for us selfishly, but my hotels in Lake Tahoe create memories and experiences for thousands of customers every single year.

And that's probably my favorite way of investing right now. And now I'm bolting on, uh, spirits, uh, and bourbon company. Um, that is gonna be another component of hospitality and creating a, you know, experience for, uh, people that enjoy the product in the space that, you know, we're playing in. So that's my favorite one.

But in terms of, you know, my other favorite ones are when I open up, you know, a mailbox and I get a check or I, you know, COI or come in and I did absolutely nothing for it in terms of syndications or pre i p o investments. Um, so really I think there's a perfect investment. Vehicle for everyone. And I would probably say to pick one that you want to spend your active time and an energy on and become really good at and build a skill on.

And that's one. And then the other one is there's another horse, another group, another person that's an expert in another vehicle that you want to be fully passive, that you trust, that has the reputation that has earned through their track record. You know, your. Money and your investment and have one that's passive and have one that's gonna get all your energy and attention.

And that's what I love about you and your portfolio and the way that you invest is that there's not one way to invest. A lot of people just pick one avenue and they just go directly at that avenue. And sure you can do that early on so that you can master one thing at a time. Yeah, absolutely. But you have a really diversified portfolio of passive income and active income and just a lot of different things that you're doing.

Um, and so I absolutely love that because now you can do fun things like a distillery and do all that other stuff as well, which will still be very profitable, I'm sure. Um, so it's just all those really cool things that you've kind of added together and then also teaching that to your children and how to build generational wealth and all of these aspects is really, really cool about your story.

I love that. So you have interviewed a ton of wealthy people on Millionaire Mind casts, so have you seen any similarities in the principles they follow over time with wealthy people? Yeah, I mean, I think lots of course, but I would say. From a wealth building perspective, you know, most people, we kind of talked about diversification, but diversification really came a little bit later on.

Most people that I've seen in general, whether it was through their business or real estate or stocks, their core tree, trunk of wealth building was one thing. So it was one of those vehicles, historically, the top three rider, stocks and bonds, real estate or uh, business. And it really like the core tree trunk really started to branch off in a way where they were financially stable.

They had more discretional income to start investing in other areas and diversifying and maybe. Earn the right to take, right their focus off of maybe their core business cuz they had built out, you know, a team and processes and had, you know, repeatable results over and over again. Um, 5 million was usually the mark.

It was 5 million net worth and about $250,000 a year in disposable or active income. And that's when they started branching out, whether it was into other investments or syndications or life insurance or starting a new business. Um, and I found that very interesting cause I think so many people, I was one of those people early on in my wealth building journey where I was trying so many different things to hit that one big one when really it wasn't until I just started focusing on my core tree trunk that I started to accelerate and build the foundation of wealth and the opportunity to expand into other things that were of interest to me.

Um, and so instead of chasing a lot of those shiny objects, And you know, kind of the squirrel syndrome that most people have. It was one of the things where they did the boring stuff consistently for, you know, a certain period of time that got them to whatever that ceiling was, generally 5 million. They broke through that.

They made it their new floor and kind of normalized it. That's when the branches off of the core tree trunk started to blossom, and I found that to be very. Scene because that's hard. You know, one of my early mentors said to me, if you are talented, which most entrepreneurs are, that's why we bet on ourselves.

If you're talented in some way, shape, or form, you're gonna get a lot of people and a lot of opportunities and a lot of things that ultimately as you, as the talented race horse, want to attach their coach to. And that can be very distracting. And it can be also a big deterrent for most people running the race that they know they're capable of running, but they're running 10 different races at the same time.

And instead of just running that one race, finishing it and getting better every single time and expediting getting to that podium and that, you know, kind of metaphorical success in the arena, um, they have to run tons of different races because they're spreading themselves thin and, and they feel really depleted in the process.

So that core tree trunk of getting to five is kind of like a milestone of net worth generally gives you the ability and the. Options to really start diversifying and looking at taking risk in other areas without really depleting the foundation that you built. I love that analogy of the tree because the tree trunk is your base.

It's setting up that base, having it available to you, then you can kind of branch out. And that 5 million number is really interesting cuz if you really think about that, having that $5 million number, you can spend, you know, anywhere between 200, $250,000 per year with that amount of money. And really that can cover the cost for most people of their living expenses almost anywhere.

So that's a very interesting number to kind of land on. Um, and that makes a whole lot of sense too, I mean, for that to happen as well. So the last question, Matt, before we wrap this up, that we, uh, ask all of our guests, and it's one of my favorite questions to ask people is, what does wealth mean to you?

To me, wealth means getting to the end of my journey and looking at my entire life playback, and not being excited about how many commas and zeros I have in my bank account, or how many plaques or accolades or accomplishments I have next to my name. But being able to say to myself, damn, that was a hell of a ride.

All the wins, all the losses, you know, peaks and valleys, all the inflection points, like all of the memories and experiences. To me, wealth means being able to live a full life and look on my deathbed back and see it all play out and say, I left it all out there and that was a hell of a ride. And that's what my definition of wealth equal.

I absolutely love that answer because that's what True wealth is, is having that. So that's absolutely amazing. So Matt, this has been incredible. Thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you and what you have going on? Uh, they can head over to millionaire mind.com and check out the podcast.

I'm on Instagram at official Matt a or they can always head over to my website, matt acheson.com. Amazing. Thank you so much, Matt. We'll leak all those down the show notes so you guys can check that out as well. And thank you again, Matt, we appreciate it. Thanks Andrew.