- Hey, what's up, guys?
We actually recorded a pre-roll that went wrong
so we're re-recording it here right now.
We did a past version of this episode about a year ago.
Go check out that episode.
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- Yes.
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- Description box below.
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- I didn't get any boobs.
What did I do when I started making money?
I went and bought boobs 'cause like, that's what I wanted.
"You're gonna die from your implants."
Like, I'll die a D cup.
(dramatic music)
- Hi, my name's Tim.
I'm a community organizer here in LA.
I work on environmental justice, social justice,
housing justice, and incarceral state issues.
- My name is Christianna Hurt.
I'm the owner of the seven-figure brand Wealthy College Kid
and I'm 24 years old.
- My name is Graham.
I'm a real estate agent, real estate investor and YouTuber.
- My name is Beatriz.
I am 21 and I am a Target worker.
- My name is Brett Knutson.
I am an entrepreneur and an investor.
- My name is Tierra Lucky and I am a minimum wage worker.
I just hustle, do Instacart and I'm also an actress.
- [Speaker] The first prompt is:
I worked for everything I earned.
- So I grew up with two parents
that were basically paycheck to paycheck
and none of them had any extra money.
It was by seeing my parents struggle like that
that I really realized the value of money.
So I basically poured everything I had into my work.
There were years, I would say four years
that I didn't have any friends.
From 18 to 22, it was just me.
And I was working from probably 8 AM until midnight
working as a real estate agent.
- I completely agree.
I think that what a lot
of people discount is all the sacrifices that are made.
I didn't go to parties.
I don't really, honestly have like a ton of friends
and it's not like a sacrifice where I was like,
"I'm gonna have no friends,"
but you can only balance so many plates
or you drop everything.
And the plate that I chose to give up was a social life.
- There's a lot of labor and communal effort that goes
into getting all of us here that we don't get paid for
that other people don't get paid for.
The examples that you two gave are perfect actually.
You both earn your money
by extracting value from capital transactions.
You are not building the house you're selling.
You're not out there working like in a slave mind
pulling selenium out of the earth
like some people on this planet are.
And we have to re-understand what it means to earn money
and how we all interact to do that.
- How would you address based off extracting value
if you start a company from the ground
and then you build it into a multimillion dollar company?
- But no one does that
because there's investors and stuff that come in too.
- Not always. - Most of the time.
I mean, you happen to get capital.
- I have raised money before.
But I've also started companies
that I didn't raise money for.
- How would you finance them?
- By working a part-time retail job for minimum wage
and then saving up and then putting it in.
- [Speaker] I have felt judged for my income level.
- I think it's part of general society.
We are always judging each other.
Having used SNAP points before, like standing
in a grocery store using the card that I've gotten
for the government to pay for food and feeling the people
behind me thinking that's something
that you haven't earned or gotten.
- Has somebody ever asked you to use your SNAP on them?
- I mean, I have.
Generally, there's not that much to go around.
- It's the same mentality when it's a dollar versus SNAP.
Somebody could still ask me to share.
Well, you get it.
Why can't you help me out?
- I didn't step forward because me personally,
I surround myself with people
that just like what's in my bank account just doesn't matter
to the people that are around me.
I do think a lot of judgment
towards how much you made reflects
on like your dating experience.
That, I do feel
- See I've never had that because I'm so frugal.
If there are girls that are out there who want me
for my money, they should know
I'm probably like the cheapest person out there.
I literally will wait like 9 PM
for happy hour to start just so I get the happy hour menu.
I would be like the last person
any sort of like gold digger would want.
(people laughing)
- I find myself in situations
with these boys that have no job, no nothing,
and I end up taking on these charity cases of relationships.
"Oh, why don't you put him on or build him up?"
And it's like you can't build...
- Yeah, it's not build a bear.
- I mean you can,
I mean, I bet guys I've dated that go on
to have successful businesses from my input.
You wanna date somebody equal greater
but then you don't wanna be materialistic
about, well I only date people with money
because I make money.
- Exactly.
- [Speaker] Anyone can become rich if you work hard enough.
- So I just think that anyone could become rich
if they actually like believed in themselves
and took the risk to actually believe in themselves
that there is some success at the end of the line of that.
- I feel like a lot of it comes down to mindset first
and really having the belief that you can do that.
I know for me, one of my biggest concerns
as I didn't have any skills whatsoever
and I didn't get into college.
I have like a 2.0 GPA in high school.
It was terrible.
I had such bad grades.
But I really turned that
into a positive and I really believe this actually happened
for a reason because now I could pursue something else
which was real estate,
because that didn't require a college degree.
And looking back now,
that was the best thing that had ever happened.
- That's like a really sticky situation
with anyone can become like rich.
'Cause I don't think that's completely true.
A lot of people can
if they have like connections and stuff.
But I still like sometimes people like, they work two jobs
or sometimes, they have other things going on.
They have to pay their needs first.
They don't always have like money for that.
'Cause like my dad, he's like a landscape worker.
He has tried making his own company
and it doesn't always work out.
He has tried hard, it doesn't work.
That's why I think you have to have connects.
That's why-
- Do you mind if I interject?
- Yeah. - Yeah.
In terms of building connections,
I didn't have any connections either
when it comes to working in real estate.
And what I did to make the connections
is I went to open houses every single Sunday for months
and I probably met at least 50 or 60 real estate agents.
And it was through that
that I met one agent who was really gracious enough to say,
"If you wanna come work underneath me
I'm happy to do that."
And it was really that connection,
which like you mentioned connection, that I met that person
through just really putting myself
out there to meet people.
- There's a lot of institutional and systemic barriers
that we aren't really talking about.
If you walk into like a Beverly Hills $5-million house
not speaking English,
they're probably not gonna give you the like hookup.
We don't tend to move within circles
where those connections cross,
economic and socioeconomic lines.
But even beyond that, I wanna say,
you took a big risk and your risk paid off
but what if your risk hadn't paid off?
And that's for a lot of people
who do try and start their own businesses,
try and start their own YouTube channel,
that risk doesn't pay off
and there's no real safety net there.
So we're not really getting an adequate side of people
who have like taken that entrepreneurial risk
and not been able to take it again.
- I'm almost worried it becomes
a self-fulfilling prophecy though.
If you go in it fearing, "Oh, what am I gonna fail?"
And that becomes your main focus,
I think more people are less likely to take risks
actually needed to succeed because they're more focused
on not failing, if that makes sense.
- Yeah.
I think your beliefs create the level of action you take
and the level of action you take determines your results
and it is cyclical.
- [Speaker] I am not obligated
to give to the less fortunate.
- So the reason I stood up on this one is actually,
one of the missions in my organizing is getting away
from this kind of notion
that we have that charity or philanthropy is the way
in which we solve social problems.
At the same time, I still give people money
when I have extra change in my pocket.
So I don't wanna seem like I'm totally opposed to it.
- I agree with that.
I've given people money and not gotten it back.
I've given people money and they've wasted it on drugs.
Why did I even give you the money to begin with
if you weren't gonna use it to better yourselves?
Is it my job to make sure that you're not going hungry?
No, we have plenty of, organizations
that will make sure that you're eating,
make sure that you have a roof over your head.
It doesn't have to fall on my shoulders per se.
- I feel like when you say,
are you obligated to give to the unfortunate?
It's always the mindset of money.
Well, guess what?
I have no money currently to give.
But I have like my morality, I have my goodness about me.
I'm just trying to build a community.
Especially when you have a group
of people that is creative and supportive.
You build faster than just by yourself.
- I don't always donate with money.
Sometimes, I'll go and I'll fill bags of food
for kids that are starving.
You know what I mean?
So it doesn't always have to be money.
Like I don't think it's our responsibility
to give money based off
of what we think the person's gonna do with it.
That's on them if they choose to use it wrongly.
It's our responsibility just to be generous.
- [Speaker] I am not afraid to spoil myself.
- I personally do spoil myself.
I work hard to be able to go into a store
and get something for myself.
I bought a $4,000 hairless cat that I had genetically made.
And when I was in high school, when I started making money,
I went and got that cat.
When you're in middle school
and everybody's hitting puberty and getting taller and boobs
and I didn't get any boobs.
What did I do when I started making money?
I went and bought boobs.
Like, that's what I wanted.
And there's the controversy of like,
"You're gonna die from your implants."
Like, I'll die a D cup.
And I have no problem with it.
- So I rarely ever treat myself.
I basically keep my spending
at the same as when I was like 19 or 21.
No matter how much money I make,
I spend the exact same amount.
For instance, this sounds crazy
but when I was like 17, I wanted a Lamborghini.
And there was nothing I wanted more.
I wanna be that guy
18 years old and pull up with a Lambo.
That was my dream.
But when I actually got the money to go and buy the car,
all of a sudden, I realized,
"Wait a second, that's stupid.
I'm not gonna get the car, I'm going to invest it
in real estate instead."
But then I'm gonna wait,
and then I'm gonna get the Lamborghini.
And then you save up even more and then you realize,
"Wait, Lambo is still stupid.
Let me go and invest it."
And even now, like the chase and ambition
of getting something is way more fun
and enjoyable than actually getting that thing.
- Hmm.
- I don't really spoil myself
'cause I always buy my needs first.
I usually wait till like my next check to see
if I have extra money.
And if I do then, I spoil myself.
But if I don't then I just, I don't.
- I think it's interesting also that almost all of us
have associated spoiling ourselves with spending money.
- Yeah, that's true.
- And at the same time,
spending that money is very unfulfilling.
It's weird 'cause even myself,
I really just like having an F off day and I just hang out
and don't do anything and have any responsibilities.
But I don't think about it as spoiling myself
even though that's my favorite time to spend.
- [Speaker] I wish I had more money.
- For me, I think it's always a comfort thing knowing
that I have a little bit more saved up or invested.
And I think it could just be a psychological thing
that no matter how much money I have,
it's always psychologically never going to be enough
because that becomes your new normal.
So I think you're always chasing that.
- See I want more money
so that I can pay off my debt and travel.
And help some family members, and that's it.
- I mean, that's why I want money.
I mean, I don't wanna be like, "Oh, give me money."
But I just want it for my needs
or just for like a car because I need a car.
Or just stuff my family needs, stuff my friends need.
- I think for me, if I'm honest with myself,
it's getting further away from how broke I was
'cause I'm scared of that ever happening again.
There is no end because of that.
- So of course, everyone could always use more money.
Like I've met billionaires who could definitely say
that they would want more money the more.
I wanna see society in which the money that we have
doesn't determine all of our possibilities.
'Cause it seems like when we talk about solving problems,
it comes back to money.
My utopian vision is like a society
where money really doesn't matter
because we don't really need it to figure out value
but it makes a good translation for the time being.
(people chattering)
- Here goes privilege tips.
- Oh yeah, no, I'll tell you all about credit cards.
- Thanks so much for watching this episode
of "Middle Ground," guys.
We love having different people this time around
just to get different perspectives.
- Exactly.
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(upbeat music)