You may think you're careful with your money,
but actually, you're just throwing it on the fire.
Here's why.
Hi guys, it's Mark.
So the truth is I lost $237,000 during the past recessions
and the next one is right around the corner
according to many experts,
the reality is, a recession is the perfect time
to make your fortune
and that's why this video is so important
as if you can avoid some of the mistakes
I'm gonna be talking about today,
then you'll be further ahead than anybody else.
Now, I'm not gonna pretend I haven't made money
during the past recessions.
I've actually spoken about it
multiple times on this channel.
However, I've never revealed how much money
I've actually lost along the way.
So you could say the next 10 minutes or so
is worth a quarter of a million dollars.
- [Producer] So if I watch it four times,
I'll be a millionaire?
- Not quite some, but you've sorta got the idea.
Mistake number one is doubling down.
There's a common belief
that successful people keep going and never quit.
It's the whole hustle hard concept,
working 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But what if I told you that this is completely incorrect?
By getting good at quitting,
you can actually accelerate your success
to a whole new level
and avoid losing a lotta money in the process.
This is especially important during a recession.
One day, I woke up with an amazing idea for a new product
that I wanted to distribute all over the world.
I thought it was gonna be the next big thing.
As soon as I got to the office,
I called my factories in China,
sent over the designs
and commissioned my first batch of sample products
to be produced which cost me $10,000.
Fast forward five months and I had the product in my hands,
I was so excited that I took it out to show a few people
and get some customer feedback.
To my dismay, no one seemed to be as excited as me
so instead of facing the harsh truth
that my idea wasn't as good as I thought it was,
I threw an extra $15,000 at the product development,
essentially doubling down.
Another few months went past
and a new version of the product arrived
but people were still not excited
and therefore, I was back to square one.
This is when I realized
I'd fallen victim to the sunk-cost fallacy.
In other words,
because I had invested an initial sum of money
getting this product off the ground,
I didn't want to give up on it
as I would've lost all my initial investment.
I was absolutely blind to the fact
I was barking up the wrong tree
with which led me to losing an extra $15,000 unnecessarily.
If you keep pumping time and money into something blindly,
then you're gonna run into some issues,
especially during a recession.
The key to being successful is knowing when to quit.
This could be with investments into a side hustle,
crypto, or even the stock market.
It's a bit like when your favorite stock dips,
the common strategy to counteract this is to double down
on your stock and lower your average buy price.
Sometimes this works well, but that's why I love public.com
as they put the customer first
and help people to be better investors.
You can join the community
and see what stock trends people are following.
The best part is I'll leave a link below
where you can get a free stock slice
worth between three and a thousand dollars.
Just let me know in the comments what free stock you get.
The lesson here is
that no matter how much money you invest into something,
you shouldn't let it sway you
from making logical and strategic decisions.
Mistake number two: falling for scams.
During a recession, people have less money.
Therefore, scams are at an all time high.
Many are desperate and some are willing to do anything
to get hold of your money.
With the rise of buying products online during the pandemic,
lots of scammers have not only embraced the internet,
they're actually thriving on it.
When building wealth,
having your money make you money is vital.
This means the amount you get scammed for
is not actually the true amount you lose
as the money could've turned into more
when invested correctly.
One day I had an online order come through
for an expensive model boat,
it was a thousand dollars.
I thought this was odd
as we never really sold many of these,
but, you know, I was happy.
I phoned the customer up to see if he wanted a battery
and he said, "Yeah, no problem."
And actually agreed to buy two batteries and a charger.
It was the easiest upsell I ever had, totaling $500.
He then asked if I could deliver it tomorrow?
I said, "Yeah, I could, but it would cost an extra $45."
And he said, "Yeah, no problem."
Now looking back at this, there were a couple of red flags.
Firstly, why did he order the boat
and not the batteries when he needed them?
And secondly, why not ask for a discount
or even free postage on such a big sale?
Everyone asks for a discount in my industry.
The goods got sent off with no problems at all.
A few days later, another order came in for two more boats
and lots of batteries and chargers from same person.
Now, of course, I was really suspicious
especially as this boat was normally a slow seller
but the payment had gone through.
I phoned him up to confirm the order
and he said they were for his friends
who were very impressed with his one,
which was, you know, very believable.
So that order was shipped
and I was happy as I'd had a few great days of trading
despite the crippling economic situation.
A month and a half later,
I woke up and started my day
with two credit card chargebacks for stolen cards.
The craziest part was the person they stole the card from
wasn't living at home at the time,
so they were ordering to his address on 24 hour delivery
and waiting outside for the things to arrive
so they could pick it up without being noticed.
This was a really clever scam
but I did ignore a few red flags
because I was really eager for the sales.
This is just one example,
but over the years,
I've probably lost over $100,000 from chargebacks
and other scams of a similar nature.
During a recession, scams are on the rise
as people get desperate.
We're seeing this with the explosion
of crypto pump-and-dumps, NFTs,
and fake profiles on social media
but it doesn't have to be as complicated as this,
you could just get scammed
by simply selling your old Xbox on Facebook Marketplace.
It's all about being wary and noticing red flags
even if you are excited about the opportunity.
If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
Mistake number three: not valuing ideas.
The other day I saw a graph
that I thought was very interesting
so I wanted to share it with you.
As you can clearly see,
the person that uses their brain
instead of their time has a much higher potential.
This is because
ideas are one of the most valuable things on the planet.
Even during recessions,
there are people making huge amounts of money
and the only thing separating you and them
is a couple of good ideas and some action.
Just think about that.
I've probably had so many ideas that could've taken off
but I just didn't find it in myself to value them correctly.
If you didn't know, I've got ADHD,
which basically means I find it hard to focus,
sit still, and can become pretty restless,
so it was no surprise that my mates and I
always used to pop bubble wrap like this,
and we even used to put model airplane propellers
on screwdrivers and spin them.
What fun we used to have.
Little did we know that this was a billion-dollar idea,
as I'm sure you're aware a few years ago,
fidget spinners took the world by storm,
as well as push popper toys
which are basically ever-lasting bubble wrap.
With my background as a carpenter
and my connections in China
and my extensive business knowledge
of bringing products to market.
I could've profited very nicely from this craze.
Of course, I'm not saying I'd have invented fidget spinners
and taken over the world, but it is possible.
I definitely would've made at least $10,000 out of the idea
even if I just sold them in my shop for fun.
When I first heard about crypto,
I didn't value the idea at all.
This has cost me big time
as I missed out on the first mover advantage prices.
An even more dramatic example of this
is when Bill Gates came up with the idea of a pocket wallet,
which was basically a smartphone
but he did nothing with the idea
and he left the door open for Apple and Blackberry
to come in and capture the market.
The bottom line is,
if you don't take your idea seriously,
then no one else will.
Everything is created twice,
once in your mind and once in the real world.
So if you're lucky enough to have a good idea,
then it's up to you to do everything in your power
to bring it into reality.
The harsh truth is if you don't,
then the idea will simply move onto someone else
that's willing to take the necessary action.
Number four: investing without understanding.
During the pandemic, many people started investing
as stocks and crypto were going to the moon.
And at the same time,
the governments were handing out free money.
This led to a lot of people
believing investing was as simple as throwing your money in
and watching it grow without any dips.
However, when you apply the same thinking
during a recession,
you can end up getting burnt.
When I originally started investing,
I felt like I had a spy on the inside.
I know it sounds strange,
but my friends down the local meat market
were always hearing rumors
about stocks that would go to the moon,
and these rumors would filter down to me.
Over a two year period,
every investment I made returned a decent profit.
Well, some didn't perform amazingly,
but they never went down
and others did absolutely brilliantly.
It was a lot like investing during the pandemic,
but, of course, when the recession hit
and people had less money in their pocket,
things started to take a turn for the worst.
Once the bull market ended and a dot com bubble popped,
every tip was complete trash,
which led me to losing around $30,000.
Everything switched and I felt like a loser.
The truth is, everyone's a genius in a bull market
which can make you believe that you're better at investing
than you actually are.
That's why it's more important than ever
to be strategically analyzing each investment you make.
If it's a crypto project,
then make sure you're digging into the utility of the coin
or NFT and the team behind it.
If you're more interested in stocks,
then make sure you do your fundamental analysis
and pay close attention to the company's financials.
There will be good investments out there,
but during a recession,
it will be much harder to identify them.
You can't just throw your money into anything
and expect to 10X it.
Number five: not focusing on making money.
During times of economic slowdown,
it makes sense that people are in panic mode.
When the cost of goods are rising,
you feel lucky to even have a job
because all the people around you are getting fired.
This causes people to become very cautious
and shifts their focus from making money
to conserving money.
The issue is that job security and the overall economy
are completely out of your hands
so taking your eye off the ball
and forgetting to produce extra income
is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
When I was a young whippersnapper,
I had purchased my first property for $36,000.
Real estate back then was a lot cheaper that's for sure.
About a year or so into paying my mortgage,
the apartment next door to me went up for sale at $18,000
which was half the price that I'd paid for mine,
despite being exactly the same,
a one bedroom apartment.
Properties are often valued by the recent sale
of similar real estate in the neighborhood
so when the apartment next door went up for sale
at half the price I paid for mine,
it left me feeling pretty angry.
The value of my apartment had essentially halved overnight
through no fault of my own.
But what I didn't realize at the time
was the property was cheaper
because it had been repossessed
and they had to get a quick sell.
In the moment, I was so angry and frustrated
that I couldn't see the amazing opportunity
of buying the apartment at a bargain price,
literally right in front of me.
The apartment sold and two years later,
it was valued at $40,000,
but that's not the worst part,
15 years later, it was worth well over $100,000.
If I had just purchased the property
instead of being so blinded by my emotions,
I could've had both apartments
for an average cost of $27,000.
Overall, this mistake cost me $82,000 in home appreciation
and that's capping things at 15 years.
If I ran this estimate to current day values,
it would've been in the hundreds of thousands.
I was so worried about the recession
and the future of my business,
that it caused me to shut myself off
from a fantastic opportunity
as it just seemed too risky at the time.
To be honest, I didn't even consider it.
People all around me were saying, "It's a recession.
People are losing their homes, what do you expect?"
The key takeaway here is to never take your eye off the ball
and miss opportunities to make extra income,
even during challenging times.
In fact, especially in challenging times
as these are often when the best opportunities arise
should you dare to take them.
So I'm gonna leave the next video right up there
but don't click on it just yet,
make sure to subscribe if you wanna grow your wealth, okay?