78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck that is a staggering number
that means seven to eight people out of ten that you meet walking down the
street are in a massive amount of debt their one paycheck away from basically
going belly-up
so what can you do to avoid being another statistic today we're going to
touch on seven more tips that you can do to succeed it doesn't matter what walk
of life you're from it doesn't matter what your financial situation these are
tips that will apply to every type of person the main focus of my channel is
to live frugally and retire early joining me on the journey of how I did
it and by sharing my story I realized there's a lot of people out there that
want to know what it takes to get to that point there's a lot of people that
have already started their journey on that path so let's go back to that
statistics 78% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck that is really
really scary this shows you that the playing field is pretty much level for
everyone it doesn't matter whether you're a janitor and you're making
twenty five thousand dollars a year or your car salesman making $50,000 a year
or you're a CEO making five hundred thousand dollars a year if you have no
debt and you're making an income and you have a positive net worth that you can
be in a lot better situation than a CEO that's making 500k a year that's got a
rolls-royce payment and a three million dollar mortgage so my first tip is a
very simple and somewhat obvious tip and that is to stay out of debt
and there is a difference between good debt and bad debt we can make a video on
that at a later date but as far as bad debt don't get credit card debt at least
something that you can't be responsible for don't buy cars don't buy flashy
things that you can't afford the reason why 78% of Americans are living in a
paycheck-to-paycheck situation is because they have too much debt or
they're living above their means or both so probably get some nasty comments
for my remark about the playing field being level for most people
financially but it's never been more true than it is now if you live below
your means no matter what your income is and you stay out of debt and you have a
zero net worth or a slightly positive net worth you're always going to be in a
better situation then even someone that makes 5 to 10 times more than what
you're making because you have no debt a really hot topic in the last few years
has been college graduates getting out of college and having hundreds of
thousands of dollars with a college debt if you can manage to graduate college
without having any school debt whether it's by keeping a job during college or
taking a semester off to earn money to pay for your next semester whatever it's
going to be if you can graduate college and get a degree and not carry any
school loans when you're done and not carry any other kind of debt you're in
the best position that you'll ever be in in your life you're young you're
ambitious you have time to recover if you fail in something and you're a blank
slate you have zero debt if you played your cards right you have everything to
gain in life you're very resilient you're very moldable and your mind is a
sponge you're not set in your ways yet and you can just absorb all that
information number two find a mentor
I've had lots and lots of mentors through the years and it doesn't always have to be
something that's oriented towards your business it could be someone who teaches
you how to cook differently or someone who teaches you how to manage your time
better or someone who teaches you how to organize something but I will continue
to always have a mentor in my life just to always try and better myself if
you ask any successful person whether they're a city planner or an architect
or an entrepreneur they will have all at least at some point in their lives had a
mentor even if you find a mentor that's not
even in the field that you are wanting to succeed in a mentor can be someone
that just gives you inspiration every day or that just sheds positivity on
something that you want to do or someone to bounce ideas off of you can find a
mentor with someone that you work with or at a social gathering or even on
YouTube the great thing about a mentor also is that they are very passionate
about whatever made them successful and most of them love to talk about it
because it's their passion in life so if you're a wise student and you're around
the mentor you keep your mouth closed and your ears open so tip number three
goes hand-in-hand with number two what's better than having a mentor? well, having
several mentors so surround yourself with people that are smarter than you
you'll hear many people say that it's a good thing to be the dumbest guy in the
room but I'll say it all the time I love surrounding myself with smart people
because if I'm the dumbest guy in the room that just means there's a wealth
of information around me that I could absorb businesses that my wife and I are
in are surrounded with very smart people and very successful people and there's
always information that can be learned so anytime I'm in any kind of event or a
gathering that's related to real estate or real estate investing or really
anything for that matter I have my ears open because people that are successful
in what they do they always want to share why they're successful and how
they've done it so ask questions and be a sponge number four I could go on and
on about for a long time
and that is cutting out negative people in your life and it's really tough to do
these days because we're surrounded by it and if you don't think that you're
surrounded by negativity check your Facebook page sometime or check someone
else's Facebook comments or your Twitter feed or heck check the comments that
people leave me on my videos sometimes we're surrounded by negativity and it's
a huge hurdle to overcome the easiest way to overcome it is just to cut down
on it or cut it out completely there's always going to be people in your life
that are telling me you can't do something that you're crazy that you
don't know you're doing accept your ex cetera I call them boat anchors because
they want to keep you close they want to keep you on their level they don't want
you to rise above where they are at in their lives and those are the people
that you want to just brush off to the side and not associate with and I know
in a lot of cases that's easier said than done because a lot of those people
will oftentimes be your friends your acquaintances or even your family
members but you have to kindly let them know that not having a positive effect
on you number five is don't get discouraged especially in the beginning
and learn from your mistakes
and going back to number four all those people who are telling you that you
can't do something those are the people that are gonna swoop in during number
five when you've made a mistake or you failed at something they're gonna be the
first ones that say see I told you so see I told you so don't let that affect
you move on if you're smart you will learn from your mistakes I think that
failures and mistakes are oftentimes more important than your successes
especially if it's a big mistake because you learn exactly what not to do and
that lesson will ring through the rest of your life because you'll remember
that time that you failed or that you made a mistake especially if its
financial number six is to stay humble and don't get too big for your britches
as they say
keep your confidence at a high and your arrogance at a low there was a
difference even when you're a little kid no one likes a bragger no one likes to
hear someone talk about themselves for 20 minutes straight when you have some
successes stay humble stay real stay a genuine person and tip number six easily
slides into number seven because number seven is to treat people with respect
the waitress at the restaurant or the guy delivering your mail or the guy that
cuts in front of you at the grocery store could be your next potential lead
or your next potential big connection to something that you're trying to strive
for and let's face it it's just a good habit to be nice to people in general I
have a great example of this the guy that founded the company that my wife
works for is an extremely humble guy very successful he started a real estate
company from the ground up to one of the top real estate companies in the nation
and if you ran into him on the street you would never know that he was the CEO
of a big company he wears Hawaiian shirts and it could
have been purchased at a thrift store up until just recently he drove a 1990s
Subaru wagon that most people wouldn't be caught dead in and this is a guy that
could basically buy any car that he wanted but he's extremely down-to-earth
and he has always treated all of his employees as an equal and it's made his
company successful because he has a mutual respect with every single person
that works for the company so I hope these seven more tips on getting started
to an early retirement have helped you out if nothing else that hopefully
allowed you to shed some light on looking at something in a different way
if you haven't already take a moment to subscribe we do some self-sustained
living some frugal living and now we do everything kind of related to that with
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YouTube algorithm get this video to the people who actually want to see it I'd
also like to hear from you guys maybe some tips some suggestions or some
content that you'd like me to touch on so throw me a comment in the comments
section I always love hearing from the community and since you've stuck around
with me this long I'm going to give you an extra bonus tip and that is to be the
best at what you do
this is an obvious but often overlooked thing I don't know why you wouldn't want
to do the best you can at everything you possibly can at all times anyway but if
you are the best at whatever it is you do whether it's training dogs or selling
cars the income and the success will come to you in the mean time this is
retired at 40 remember to live life simple we'll catch you next time