BiggerPockets Money Podcast - 516: Jaspreet Singh: Getting Rich Slowly and Why Some People STAY Broke

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Want to know how to get rich but fear it could be too late? Perhaps you’ve got responsibilities, bills to pay, and a family to feed. How can you possibly get ahead? Jaspreet Singh’s message is clear: you can still build wealth, but you’re going to have to be intentional with your money, just like every other rich person. There are no shortcuts!  Today, Jaspreet is a serial entrepreneur, real estate investor, licensed attorney, and host of The Minority Mindset Show. But growing up, his parents wanted him to become a doctor. Despite the immense pressure to fulfill their wishes, Jaspreet found himself gravitating toward entrepreneurship. He started several businesses throughout adolescence and young adulthood—from playing drums at weddings and planning college parties to building ecommerce stores. He lost a TON of money along the way, but taking these risks early on paid off. Eventually, he discovered his true passion, financial education, and built an enormous online business by teaching others how to master personal finance. America’s capitalist financial system benefits those who are willing to “play the game.” In this episode, Jaspreet shares how fostering a “minority mindset” unlocks the ability to use this country’s tax code, banks, debt, and other systems to your advantage. The catch? It’s a hard, long road. Jaspreet recommends drastic lifestyle changes, such as ruthless frugality, a “decade of sacrifice,” and the 75/15/10 rule. Make no mistake—it’s not going to be easy. But years from now, you’ll be thankful you stuck to this tried-and-true wealth-building philosophy! In This Episode We Cover How to foster a healthy relationship with your money The three phases of wealth (and how to handle money in each stage) How risk tolerance varies in different stages of wealth building Why a “decade of sacrifice” is the foundation for long-term wealth What you MUST do to thrive in America’s financial system How to be “intentional” with your finances using the 75/15/10 rule Pre-tax versus post-tax investment accounts and avoiding risk in retirement And So Much More! Links from the Show BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group Network with Other Investors on The Path to FIRE Through the BiggerPockets Forums Finance Review Guest Onboarding Join BiggerPockets for FREE Mindy on BiggerPockets Scott on BiggePockets Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place Apply to Be a Guest on The Money Show Podcast Talent Search! Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area Find Investor-Friendly Lenders How to Get Rich Slowly and Retire Early Than Most with a Modest Portfolio How to Become a “Quiet” Millionaire and Avoid the Financial Guru Trap Subscribe to the Market Briefs Newsletter Click here to check the full show notes: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-516   Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email us: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's episode is about the financial system we have in this country and how you can work within it and succeed as long as you understand how to play the game. That's right. Today we've got Jaspreet Singh, the minority mindset with us. Jasperid is going to tell us about the simple tried and true path to building wealth, which is really an all-out path that involves philosophy steeped in risk-taking, the need for early sacrifice, including the decade of sacrifice that he really touts there that I couldn't agree with more. and why he chose to invest in a specific way, including not investing in a 401k or IRA. Scott, I'm super excited for today's episode, and I cannot wait to bring in Jespreet. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. My name is Mindy Jensen, and with me as always is my risk-taking co-host, Scott Chens. Thanks, Mindy.

Great to be here with my beta half of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast, Mindy Jensen. I love that one. We're here to make financial independence less scary, less just for somebody else. us to introduce you to every money story because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you're starting. And as long as you have the minority mindset. Jaspreet Singh, welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today. Well, thank you for having me on. It's really an honor to be on with you. And you guys are doing some amazing things. So thank you. Well, you are doing some amazing things. Thank you.

your YouTube channel and personal brand is called minority mindset. For you, what defines a minority mindset? So the minority mindset has nothing to do with the way you look, your ethnicity, or your skin color. It's the mindset of thinking differently than the majority of people. And it's kind of funny. I started this whole kind of personal brand on accident. I was always kind of an entrepreneur, but I had to do it in secret because my parents never wanted me to be an entrepreneur. I was supposed to be a doctor.

And so I got involved with investing and entrepreneurship kind of in secret. But then a little bit later, like I was in college, I got scammed during the launch of one of my businesses. And I was so frustrated because I had to go through so much like just a lot of, let's call it, crap to figure out how to start a business, how do you start investing and doing it all in secret and kind of never really feeling I had support. So I created a class called How to Launch a Business without getting screwed over. I sold it for like $7 online.

And I did it under the alias minority mindset because you had to think differently than the majority people to start a business. That slowly became an Instagram page. That slowly became a YouTube channel. And that, I mean, it's crazy, but it really grew from there. But it all kind of just started on accident. Well, I'd like to go, you know, Zoom all the way back and start from the very beginning of your journey. Can you tell us about your journey with money growing up? It sounds like there was heavy encouraging.

to go into the medical profession here. I'd love to hear, you know, where this begins, where this entrepreneurial pursuit starts. So my family is from a state in India called Punjab. My parents immigrated to America just before I was born. And I grew up in a house where it was me, my little brother, my parents, and my grandparents. And in my household, I was raised in a very traditional Indian house. I was told from pretty much the day I turned one that I needed to become a doctor. And if I did it become a doctor, I was going to be a failure. Like there was no in between. From the day I could start speaking, my family around the world in Punjab, India and America was told that Jasperi Singh is going to be a doctor. And I didn't think anything wrong with it.

For me, that was, it made sense because I saw how hard my parents were working and I wanted to give back to them and support them because I love my parents and I wanted to become successful. That was something that I wanted to do. I was a hardworking kid. I wanted to become successful. So I thought if I did good in school, I became a doctor, I'm going to have more success, financial success. Along the way, I started to see things that really didn't add up because my parents also were kind of big advocates of this whole thing of don't talk about money. Don't worry about money. Don't stress about money, but you need to become a doctor so you can make a lot of money. So I was like, well, that doesn't make much sense.

Why is it taboo to talk about money? Why is this whole concept of money bad? And then at the same time, I would see my dad work six or seven days a week, consistently, long hours, and then say, don't stress about money. I said, why are you working so much? Why are you working so hard to get a paycheck if we shouldn't be stressing about money? So I started questioning things and that was when I started to kind of dabble into different entrepreneurial ventures. I picked up a drum called their toll. It's a traditional Punjabi drum.

I think I was like 12 or something when I got it from India because I would go there pretty often to visit my family. And I played it at my uncle's wedding. And the DJ there asked me if I'd like to play this drum at other people's weddings and get paid. Now naturally when you're 12 years old and somebody is going to offer you 50 bucks to play a drum, no 12 year old is going to say no. So I started doing that, but my parents were very against it. And that's when I realized kind of very early on that, you know, I want to try some of these other things because something is not making sense. Now, I didn't know what it meant at the time, but I started kind of doing different things.

So I started working at weddings when I was 12 or 13 years old. That kind of evolved how I started hosting parties in college. So it was a lot of kind of doing things. secret trying to figure it out. I read a lot of books and I had to go out and really just figure it out because I didn't really have a quote unquote mentor per se. It was really just a lot of trial error mistakes, screwing up learning and doing. So I have this theory that I try with a lot of entrepreneurs. I think I know what you're going to say to this one. But there's a stat that is probably made up by somebody out there that says nine out of ten businesses

fail in the first couple of years or whatever. And my conclusion from that is to start 10 businesses in that case. Do you agree with that interpretation of that stat? And is that reflected in your journey then? I mean, it took me a lot of tries to find one that actually stuck. My company that I run now was Briefs Media. It took me a lot of tries to find something because it's not just learning how to build a business. It's also finding what you like to do. Like I started off in the event planning space. I don't drink. I'm not into partying, but here I was hosting the parties.

By the time I was a junior slash senior in college, I was making good money. Now, we were hosting parties, concerts, shows. We were doing pretty well for a college kid. But I hated the industry. I mean, I was like, I'm doing something that I am morally against. Why am I doing this? For money? Well, now I'm getting money and I don't want to do that anymore.

It was like, it just doesn't make sense to me. Then I got involved in real estate. I started investing in real estate. And I quickly realized I need more money to buy more real estate. So I got a real estate salesperson's license. I started helping people buy and sell real estate. And I learned very quickly, I hate being a real estate salesperson. I got involved in wholesaling real estate.

And I learned the same lesson. I got involved on Amazon. And I realized this whole FBA thing, I don't have any intellectual property. It's not what I want to do. I mean, I got involved then in e-commerce, trying to create my own sock company, which is where I got scammed. And I realized I don't have any passion for socks. And then I started getting more involved in the financial education, financial news side of things.

And I realized I like this space. I am passionate about this space. There's like a personal motivation and a personal driver for me in this industry. After a short ad break, Jaspreet Singh will reveal the smartest money move he made early on in his career and how that contributed to his entrepreneurial success. Tax season is one of the only times all year when most people actually look at their full financial picture, including income, spending, savings, investments, the whole thing. And if you're like most folks, it can be a little eye-opening. That's why I like Monarch. It helps you see exactly

where your money is going, and more importantly, where your tax refund can make the biggest impact. Because the goal isn't just to look backward, it's to actually make progress. Simplify your finances with Monarch. Monarch is the all-in-one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier. It brings your entire financial life, including budgeting, accounts and investments, net worth, and future planning together in one dashboard on your phone or your laptop. Feel aware and in control of your finances this tax season and get 50% off your Monarch subscription with the code Pockes. What I personally like is that Monarch keeps you focused on achieving, not just tracking. You can see your budgets, debt payoff, savings goals,

and net worth all in one place. So every decision actually moves in Edle. Achieve your financial goals for good with Monarch, the all-in-one tool that makes money management simple. Use the code Pockets at monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50% off at monarch.com code pockets. I love Matt, said no one ever. Nobody starts a business thinking, you know what would make this more fun? Calculating quarterly estimated taxes. But somehow every small business owner ends up doing it. Your dreams of creating, selling, and growing get replaced by late nights chasing receipts, juggling invoices, and wondering if that bad sushi lunch with Scott counts as a write-off. Change all that with Found. Found is a business banking platform built to take the pain out of managing money.

It automatically tracks expenses, organizes invoices, and even preps you for tax season without you doing the heavy lifting. You can set aside money for business goals, control spending with virtual cards, and find tax write-offs you didn't even know existed. It saves time, money, and probably a few years of life expectancy. Found has over 30,000 five-star reviews from owners who say, found makes everything easier, expenses, income, profits, taxes, invoices even. So reclaim your time and your sanity. Open a found account for free at found.com. That's F-O-U-N-D-com. Found is a financial technology company, not a bank.

Banking services are provided by lead bank, member FDIC. Don't put this one off. Join thousands of small business owners who have streamlined their finances with Found. Audible has been a core part of my routine for more than a decade. I started listening years ago to make better use of drive time and workouts, and it stuck. At this point, I've logged over 229 audio book completions on Audible alone, and I still regularly re-listen to the highest impact titles. Lately, I've been listening to Bigger Leaner Stronger for Fitness, the Anxious Generation for

parenting perspective and several Arthur Brooks' audiobooks that have been excellent for mental well-being. What makes Audible so powerful as its breadth. Beyond audiobooks, you also get Audible Originals, podcasts, and a massive back catalog across business, health, parenting, and more, all accessible in one app. If you're looking to turn everyday moments into real progress, Audible has been indispensable for me over over 10 years. Kickstart your well-being journey with your first audiobook free when you sign up for a free

30 day trial at audible.com slash BP money. Welcome back to the show. How do you think about the subject of personal finance and money and how should people in a general sense begin pursuing the discussion of money if, for example, they're completely naive to it and just getting started on the journey of learning about how to master wealth? I think it ultimately comes down to understanding why do people want money? Why do you want money?

And the first thing is, well, it costs money to eat. it costs money to feed other people. Now, when you understand that, you can start to grasp this idea that it is important to become successful. You should not avoid the topic of money. You should talk about money. And then, if you should become successful, you should also understand that it is your duty to become successful because it is up to you now to support yourself, your family, and your community. If you want to be able to take your wife or your husband on a nice You want to be able to take care of your kids. You want to have to spend more time with their kids. You need money to do that. So let's stop living in La La Land and understand that. Now once you understand that, now it's all about understanding how do you use your money? Because I think the big mistake that a lot of people make, especially in America is people make money to spend money. And now what do you do? You make money. You're working hard to make money. And then you give all of it to Gucci, BMW and Rolex. So people, people, are working hard so they can qualify for debt so they can buy the BMW so they can have the

big and expensive home that is making them live paycheck to paycheck so they can have the nice watch on their wrist so they can wear the nice clothes but now you have no assets and no investments to make yourself rich or your future generations rich and I think this is where now understanding if you want to make yourself rich it all starts with what you do with their money and that means instead of spending your money all of it you got to keep some of it for yourself now once you're keeping something for yourself. Now the question is, what do you do with this money? You want to save a little bit, but then you also want to be investing this money to own some assets. Now, an asset is something that you're buying for the purpose of making money, and this is where it gets

so important to understand because this one, when I started understanding this, it made me so upset and angry because I went through a lot of schooling. I ended up becoming an attorney. I became an attorney because my parents found out that I wasn't going to be a doctor. They were very upset and said, if you want to keep any pride in the family, you have to at least become an attorney. So I went to law school, got my law degree, passed the bar exam, and never worked a day as an attorney. But throughout my long educational period, what I learned is I never learned anything about money. I never learned anything about how our economic system works. Now, we live in what's called a capitalist system.

And until I learned what it really meant, all I knew about capitalism is that a, it inflated a lot of emotions. Some people got very excited. Some people got very angry. And what I realize is, well, we live in a capitalist society. We live in a capitalist economy. Now, you can hate it or love it. It really doesn't matter. What you want to do is understand how our economic system works. And in a capitalist system, the people that make the most money are not the people that rely on their labor. It's the people that rely on their capital, which made me so upset because in all of our schooling, in all of our education, we're taught to make money from our labor. We're taught to get a good job. We're taught to get a high-paying job. We're taught

how we can grow in our careers to make a good income from our labor, which there's nothing wrong with that. But the second piece to this puzzle is if you want to win in this economic system, you've got to use your income from your labor to put it to work because capital means money. And that means now using the money you're making from your job, using this capital from your job, and putting it to work in the capital of the system so you can win in the system because that's how people become wealthy, stay wealthy, and pass on wealth. It's not through your job. Because eventually you're going to stop working, eventually you're going to want to stop working. And now what do you have? So where does, and you know, I feel very strongly about this. I want to see how you feel about this. But I want to use the word frugality in here as a term and how much. important of a role does that play in this conversion of labor, of income derived from labor, into the accumulation of capital on this journey? When and where is it a key tool for you? It depends where you are on your journey. In the beginning part of my journey, well, I think

it's always important, but the degree and extremeness of your frugality is going to change depending on where you are. So I call it three phases of wealth. The first phase of wealth, which is now where you're trying to save your first $2,000 and you're trying to pay off credit card debt if you have any. This is what I call the financial danger zone. If you don't have $2,000 saved up or if you have credit card debt,

you cannot spend money on anything that you do not absolutely need to survive because you're in this financial danger zone. What I like to say is if you have credit card debt, you cannot afford a Netflix subscription. And it's not because it costs $15 a month. It's because it's costing you two hours of your time.

And this is where now, if you have credit card debt, this money is making so many other people rich. If you have the average credit card debt in America, which is about $6,500 today, and you have the average APR, which I believe is around 27% today because it's been shooting up with the higher interest rates, and you make the minimum monthly payments of $150 a month, it's going to cost you $28,000 to pay off your $6,500 with the credit card debt. So if you have credit card debt, you cannot afford to be wasting your time. You cannot be affording to go out and buy luxuries because right now all you need to be focused on is paying off the credit card debt. Then phase two in that more systemization phase, this is where I like to talk about something called a 75, 15, 10 plan, which says for every dollar that you earn, 75 cents is the maximum that you can spend. 15 cents is the minimum that you're investing. 10 cents is the minimum that you're saving.

Now, what does that mean? If I make $100, I can only spend $75. The other $0.25 has to be put to work, either saving or invested for myself. And this is now a type of frugality. Now, notice what I said here, that $75 out of the 100 is the maximum that you can spend. There's a whole kind of range of now how extreme do you want to be on your frugality. For me, when I learned, when I started to learn about money, I read Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. When I learned how dumb I was being with my money, I went on the extreme. I was buying rental properties and I had holes in my shoes because I refused to go out and buy new shoes. I duct tape them and I continue wearing those. When I was in law school, I started making decent money. I was making over $100,000 a year in law school, but I lived in an apartment where I was paying $400 bucks a month. And the reason why I was paying so little was because I didn't have a room in the apartment. I slept on the living room floor. I had a mattress in the hallway and I would drag that up, put that in the living room floor, lay out my sheets, go to sleep in the morning, wake up with the mattress back in

the hallway and go to school that way. I refused to spend money because when I realized how this system worked, all I wanted to do was make money and buy rental properties. Make money and buy rental properties because that was what was important to me. Now, most people are not going to want to do the crazy side of this, which is okay. because I'm a little crazy and weird. I get that. But you got to find kind of the right degree for you. And there is 100% a time and place to be extremely frugal.

But at all times, you've got to live below your means. So I love that you highlight all of the really extreme things that you did, or some of the really extreme things. I'm sure there are more that you did, but also point out that that's not what you have to do in order to get your finances good. I think a lot of people who hear about the financial independence movement and they're like, oh, they, for some reason, they all land on Jacob Lund Fisker's website, early retirement extreme. And I don't know if there's like a landing page that says, hey, in order to become financially independent, you have to eat beans and rice and peanut butter and jelly and never enjoy your life at all yet. Because that is the mindset that people have or the opinion that people have about this concept of getting.

your finances in order. But what you just said, you broke down the dollar, 75 cents is the most that you can spend. 15 cents is the least that you should be saving, investing. And 10% is the least that you should be saving. At least, most. There's a lot of wiggle room in there. And that doesn't mean that you have to have a 50% savings rate. You will get to financial independence faster if you do have a 50% savings rate. But it's not like it's either 50% or you're never going to hit it. You have to eat beans and rice or you are never going to be financially independent. There's so many different nuances. It really ultimately, you know, personal finance is personal. The way you want to do it, it really depends on you. Your life goals are different than

mine. I went through my own crazy story, right? And I went through my own journey, which is my journey. I'm not telling anybody. Look, I drove a $500 card to get to the office today. My car. My car does not have a bumper on it. I am looking at a new car now, but all of my employees have better cars than me, but my journey is mine, okay? And I'm doing this for my own reasons. Now, what you do is going to depend on what is right for you. Like there's a big debate between should you buy Starbucks or not, the $5, $7 Starbucks is just keeping people poor. And at the end of the day, the way I look at it is, well, if you're in phase one, if you're in credit card debt, you don't have $2,000 saved up? No, you should not be buying Starbucks because you can't afford it. Now,

if you're in phase two and now you're doing the 75, 15, 10, and you love the idea of getting Starbucks and it fits within your budget, it's within your spending, okay, fine. You're still investing. You're still saving. That's something that provides value for you. Go ahead. Now, you know, you got to remember, money only has value if you use it. Money doesn't do anything for you if it's in a bank account in your entire life. So you're working really hard. get this money, so you might as well use it in a way that's in a way that you're going to like it. So from your time spent learning about finances, what do you think is the main factor in our system that keeps people broke? You said earlier that people think their job will make them rich,

and that's not true. How do you speak to that person who can't seem to get over where their mind is going and shift them a little bit to see that investing a little bit consistently? can make you very wealthy. Well, I think you've got to premise that by essentially understanding that our system profits when people are financially stupid. Our system is designed to keep people financially dumb. And it sounds extreme, but it's true because, I mean, well, look at it this way. We'll look at it from a tax perspective.

Who does our tax code benefit? It benefits the entrepreneur and it benefits the investor. Does not benefit the employee that much? because if you're an employee, and that's your only source of income, you've got to pay the highest tax rates and you get the lowest tax breaks. Well, let's dig a little bit deeper into this. Banks profit, when you're financially dumb in market briefs, which is my financial newsletter in briefs media, we just covered this, but it just came out there in 2023. The big three banks, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo made, I forget, like $2.2 billion in overdraft fees last year. That's from people spending money they didn't have.

You got to pay a fine because you spent money you didn't have, but you didn't have money in the first place. So banks love it when you're financially dumb because now they'll keep selling you loans on your cars and jewelry and things that you can't afford. It's not making you any money. Corporations love it when you're financially dumb because they can get you to buy things that you don't need, that you don't want, just because they're good with their advertising. Even the government loves it when you're financially dumb.

I mean, we talked about it in terms of how you pay taxes, but it goes a little bit deeper. The number one asset on the United States balance sheet is student loans. It is the number one largest asset that the United States government has. So now we have this whole student loan dilemma, student loan crisis. Every young person who has student loans tells you that, dang, this student loans is expensive. It sucks. Student loans are keeping people from people being able to buy a home.

to being able to invest, being able to do a lot of things. And now you hear, well, is the government supposed to help me with this? Well, if you really look at it a little bit deeper, you look at the government's assets, their largest asset, by a long shot, or student loans. So now, when you are constantly relying on everybody else to take care of you, you end up in a very bad financial situation because for the average person, who do they go for financial advice? It's not a financial advisor, it's their banker.

So now when you go to your bank about, hey, can I afford this whole? can I afford this car? What is their best interest? To give you a loan, to give you a bigger loan. They don't really care if you make the payments on it or not. They just get paid when you sign the paperwork, especially that banker over there. Now, I'm not saying every single person is bad. I'm not saying salespeople are bad. I'm not saying bankers are bad. But you've got to understand everybody has some sort of goal. Everybody has some sort of intention. And this is where now your intention should be to be financially educated so you can make smart decisions with their money Because guess what? You can also use the bank to your advantage. If you know how to use the bank,

if you know how to use debt, you can use debt to your advantage. If you know how to use the credit cards, you can use your credit cards to your advantage. If you know how to use your student loans, you can use it to your advantage. If you know how to use whatever products you want to buy, you can use it to your advantage because now you can buy all the nice things that you want when you can afford it. But when you don't have that financial education, you are the subservient to everybody else and you're making everybody else rich and you get stuck. We're taking a quick ad break. When we're back, Jaspreet Singh will talk to us about what he calls the decade of sacrifice. Tax season is one of the only times all year when most people actually look at their full financial

picture, including income, spending, savings, investments, the whole thing. And if you're like most folks, it can be a little eye-opening. That's why I like Monarch. It helps you see exactly where your money is going, and more importantly, where your taxed refund can make the biggest impact. Because the goal isn't just to look backward, it's to actually make progress. Simplify your finances with Monarch. Monarch is the all-in-one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier.

It brings your entire financial life, including budgeting, accounts and investments, net worth, and future planning together in one dashboard on your phone or your laptop. Feel aware and in control of your finances this tax season and get 50% off your Monarch's subscription with the code Pockes. What I personally like is that Monarch keeps you focused on achieving, not just tracking. You can see your budgets, debt payoff, savings goals, and net worth all in one place, so every decision actually moves an needle. Achieve your financial goals for good with Monarch, the all-in-one tool that makes money

management simple. Use the code pockets at monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50% off at monarch.com code pockets. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. That means you can stop struggling to get your job notice on other job sites. Indeed's sponsor jobs helps you stand out and hire the right people quickly. Your job post jumps straight to the top of the page where your ideal candidates are looking. And it will. works. Sponsored jobs on Indeed get 45% more applications than non-sponsored posts. The best part? No monthly subscriptions or long-term contracts. You only pay for results. And speaking of results, in the minute

I've been talking to you, 23 people just got hired through Indeed worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash bigger pockets. Just go to Indeed.com slash bigger pockets right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash bigger pockets. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. When you want more, start your business with Northwest Registered Agent and get access to thousands of free guides, tools, and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business all in one place. Build your complete business identity with Northwest today. Northwest Registered Agent has been helping

small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They're the largest registered agent and LLC service in the U.S. with over 1,500 corporate guides who are real people who know your local laws and can help you and your business every step of the way. Northwest makes life easy for business owners. They don't just help you form your business. They give you the free tools you need after you form it, like operating agreements, meeting minutes, and thousands of how-to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And with Northwest, privacy is automatic. They never sell your data, and all services are handled in-house, because privacy by default is their pledge to all customers.

Visit northwest registeredagent.com slash money-free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at Northwest Registeredagent.com slash money-free. Where are my gloves? Come on, heat. Any day now? Winter is hard, but your groceries don't have to be.

This winter, stay warm. Tap the banner to order your grocery online at voila.ca. Enjoy in-store prices without leaving your home. You'll find the same regular prices online as in-store. Many promotions are available both in-store and online, though some may vary.

Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember, 9-88 Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder

anytime. 9-8-8-8. A suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. Welcome back to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. We're talking with Jaspreet Singh about how you can accumulate wealth even at an older age. Just Breed, I, you know, just observing a couple of things here, you know, you started out on your journey. And, you know, you say didn't learn much about money growing up, but you clearly took away the importance of money from the fact that it wasn't discussed in your household and ran with that concept. You self-educated relentlessly. Once you kind of figured it out, you said, oh, spending is an enormous lever in my financial journey.

And I'll point out a few things. Maybe you've had this and discussed this from a philosophical standpoint as well. But frugality is extremely efficient in moving one towards financial independence because it reduces the amount that you spend, allowing you to accumulate more. And it reduces the amount your assets need to generate or that your income needs to generate in order to fund your life. style, which allows you to take many, many more risks. So this cycle of self-education, the learning experiences from entrepreneurship, the frugality and the capital accumulation, or a compounding set of forces that just rocket ship off your journey in particular, from my observations and what I've learned today here. And that compounds over the last

decade following this journey, allowing you to buy more and more real estate, allowing you to buy more and more, I'm sure, other assets and allowing you to invest heavily in this business. And you've kept the foot on the gas the entire time on all of those levers, I imagine, from self-education, from income generation and the pursuit of optimization there in a controllable fashion. And with frugality, saying you drive a $500 car to work today. And that, I think, I think there's a couple of things to unpack there that I'd love your take on. first, that position starts in high school for you, in college for you, at 12 years old, really. But for someone, let's take a peer. You know, I'm sure you can think of somebody that went to those parties that you were

entrepreneurial hosting in college, who is now locked into a home mortgage, works at one of those banks that has made $2 billion in overdraft fees last year, has a car payment or whatever, you know, that, I think there's something there that from, you talk about this, what is the system that's holding us, that's holding so many people back. I mean, you're going to have not just 10 times, not just 100 times, but maybe 100 times the wealth of somebody on that other path over the next 10 years. Tell me if you agree with my diagnosis here, first of all. And is there, am I on to something here? Is there a kernel in there around how to extract people from the system? because it's hard to take somebody on that other path and put them on your path here.

It's almost impossible for them to do that at a certain point. Does it have to begin early? I think what you said was 100% correct. You said, number one, it's hard. And number two, you said nearly impossible. But notice you did not say it is impossible. And this is where one of the things I like to talk about, because this is what you said is the same question I get asked anytime I do an interview.

What if somebody's 35 years old, they're in debt? do they get started? What do they do? They're making an average income. How do they now start building wealth? And the reality is first, you got to get your mindset in the right place because unfortunately, the internet loves to sell this idea of get rich quick, get this passive income by doing X, Y, Z, and you're going to make $1,000 a month doing nothing. It doesn't work like that. It's not that easy. But this is right now. If you reframe your mind, what I like to talk about is the decade of sacrifice. It takes a decade. to see that significant change.

And now what is a decade of sacrifice is you got to spend those 10 years, spending less and earning more so you can invest like crazy. If you stick with it through this decade of sacrifice, after those 10 years, you were not going to recognize your financial self. And now you're going to be on a whole new path of trajectory. But if you're starting a little bit later, that's okay. But you have to now start taking action. Because there's three factors that will determine how wealthy you be.

become. How much time your money is invested for. The return you can get on your money, meaning how fast you can grow your money, and how much money you're investing. The one thing we can't change is how much time we have left. If you're starting at 25 or 35 or 45 or 55 or 55, you can't go back and start last year. So if you ignore the T, the time, that means you have to emphasize more how much money you invest and the return that you get. And this is where now understanding, okay, if I're starting later, fine. But now it's time to make up for lost time and you got to go through the decade of sacrifice. Everybody's got to go through the decade of sacrifice. I completely agree. I want to use that for the rest of my life, the decade of sacrifice. That is a fantastic

point there. And absolutely, like, that's it is that decade of sacrifice. And I just want to point out for middle class America, that decade of sacrifice means if you actually want to get on the other side of this train and get to financial freedom and have that decade of to sacrifice, you're probably going to have to sell the home. You're probably going to have to downgrade the car. You're probably going to have to stop by on luxury artifacts and goods there. And you're going to have to like really accumulate a little bit because it's not just a linear thing here. You have to be beating inflation the entire way through that journey the entire time. And you have to go pretty big in those first couple of years. And I love it. And I think that's why

that I think is a better diagnosis of why the system is so skewed. Is because some people are doing that and some people aren't, I would even, I would even pause it to some degree. Now, that's not true for everyone, but that is true for why, from people who start off from the same middle class standpoint, the same people you graduated college with, some people will become very, very wealthy and some will be stuck in the middle class trap. It does not explain the poverty dynamic there. But I think that's the K here. And I wonder, you know, I think it's an interesting dynamic and what's fair and unfair in that context from a system perspective. Yeah, and I think it really, You have to define that decade of sacrifice because what a lot of people will say is,

dude, I've been working really hard for 20 years, but I have no wealth. But I think the question is now the intentionality of what you're doing during that decade of sacrifice. Because for a lot of people now, you're working hard. But if you're not intentionally using your money and investing your money and allocating your money, that hard work is being put to all the wrong places. So now when we talk about this decade of sacrifice, it has to be with the intention to buy more assets to invest more money, whether the market's up, whether the markets down. It's just this decade of trying to accumulate as many assets as possible. Not the watches, not the clothes, not the vacations.

I completely agree. And, you know, Mindy and I were just chatting here. She had, I think, said she had holes in her shoes a while back while she was saved up to buy real estate. I also had the same thing. I would get on my bicycle, bike to work, bike five miles to rugby practice, where all the other guys drove, bike back to my duplex house hack so I could save more money to buy more real estate in the first part of their journey. And I talked to some guys at a real estate meeting up the other day and they're like, house hacking no longer works. I'm like, well, walk me through it. Like, oh, I want to buy this like four bed, two bath house in this nice area and have a cash flow with my roommates.

I'm like, I did not, that was not what I was doing. But I was living in up and coming, if you want to call it, that area of town with a, you know, tiny little duplex, 700 square feet on each side with no air conditioning, no, none of the stuff there. Like, that is what you have to be doing there while also working very hard full time at work. And I think that's what you mean by the decade of sacrifice. Working you're working 60, 70 hour weeks while living in the nice home and driving the nice car is not the decade of sacrifice. That's what everybody in the middle class is doing. And that's why they're not getting ahead. and on this other side of accumulating.

I'll also say after-tax investments. I have no doubt that your portfolio is comprised mostly of after-tax investments in real estate, stocks, bonds, and your business, not primarily in your 401k and tax-advantaged accounts. Is that right? I don't have a 401k or an IRA. Everything is after-tax accounts. Is that going to offend people? Why is that?

I'm not a fan of those accounts. I don't think, I mean, just for me personally, well, I don't. I don't like the idea of number one giving up the control. I don't like the limitations on things like a 401k. And number three, well, I think I personally can get better tax benefits through

investing my money in real estate myself without using an IRA. Now, I'm not 100% against them. I think they're right for the right people. But for me, they don't add much value. And so now, and also we'll talk a little theory here as well

if we're talking pre-tax versus post- tax. If I'm investing pre-tax dollars right now, I'm going to have to pay those taxes at some point. And so now when I'm, you know, 35 years from now, or 30 years from now, when I start pulling this money out, where is a tax code going to be? And the argument that a lot of people make is, well, when I'm 65 years old, I'm going to have no income, so my tax rates are going to be lower. Why in the world would you want to have no income when you're 65 years old? My goal is to increase my income year after year after year. And so now if I'm working to increase my income, well, I'm hopefully going to be in the higher end of the tax bracket. But then the second issue is

where the heck is a tax code going to be? Because what we know is that the government is spending a lot of money and the government has a lot of debt. How does the government pay back the debt? Well, they're going to need taxes. And the government is clearly not making enough money from taxes so you can make an argument that tax rates are going to go up. And you can make a very strong argument, but I'm not going to go into that, but, you know, if tax rates have to go up, I'm bearing that burden of the risk. Why would I want to do that? So for me, if I was going to invest in something like that, I would prefer to do a Roth, but I don't do either because for me, I like to just invest my money into my own places, all after tax for my own control and to own it and use it however I want.

I agree completely with your diagnosis, and that's why I invest in entirely aftertax assets. a Roth 401K for those reasons instead of a 401k that is pre-tax because I believe exactly that. Why am I doing this? Why am I doing the decade of sacrifice, as you put it, in order to not have any income in retirement? I'm doing the decade of sacrifice because that is going to swell for the next 30 years and produce so much income in retirement that I'm still going to be in the higher tax brackets at that point in time.

And that's why we do it, I think, here. Pete, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today. Where can people find out more about you? Well, thank you guys. This is an amazing conversation. I have a ton of content on the internet minority mindset on YouTube minority mindset. And you can also check out my company, Briefs Media. We have a free newsletter called Market Briefs. We cover what's happening in the financial markets every day. We publish Market Briefs six days a week. And it covers things like the economy, housing market stocks, crypto, global economy. You can go to briefs.co slash market. And yeah, anywhere else on the internet. Awesome. Well, thank you for the wonderful conversation. Really enjoyed it. And, yeah, best of luck.

Thank you for your support, guys. You guys are doing an amazing job. Thank you for the conversation, Jess Breed. I had a great time talking to you. And we will talk to you soon. Sounds great. Bye. All right, Scott, that was Jaspreet's thing.

And that was an amazing episode. I, when he first said that he didn't have a 401k or IRA, I was like, what? But his reasoning makes sense. and I say that because he has a reason. He's not just not investing in a 401k. He's not just skipping it. He's doing something different. And while I choose to invest in a 401k, traditional 401k to reduce my taxable income, I'm also in a different place than he is. I believe, although we didn't ask him how old he is, I believe him significantly older than he is. So I have a different financial situation. If you are doing something with your finances that is different than the traditional personal finance recommendations,

that's not necessarily bad. You just need to have a reason for it, not just, ugh, I didn't feel like it. That's not a reason. I mean, it is, but it's a bad one. Yeah. Look, I loved everything about his journey and the way he approaches things. And, you know, a lot of people say, oh, you can spend the money on the latte or whatever and all that kind of stuff.

But like, that's not what he did. He was all out. He had holes in his shoes. He was super frugal. He tried one business idea after another, read hundreds of books, saved every penny, tried everything he could to figure out how to optimize a blend of what he liked to do and what made what earned money and sacrifice for a decade. Drives a $500 car today to this point with a $2 million YouTube audience. I just like, I have this, this, not frustration, but that is the path.

to becoming wealthy and really driving a large financial outcome in one's life. And I don't, you know, like, it's not this, you know, save X percent of your income and put it into this, this path. It's this. It's go all out for this decade of sacrifice, which I think is a great framework. And I think that folks need to, need to kind of hear that and internalize it. Like, if the goal is to really get wealthy early in life from a financial freedom perspective, you kind of have to do that.

And I think I'll even go a step further that it's really hard to do once you're already, you know, set in a pattern in your 30s with a family and have the house and the kids or whatever. It's much easier to do that in your early 20s, starting right out the gate. And that, I think, is a fundamental reason for the split in outsized outcomes between the wealthy and the middle class in this country. It does not explain poverty. And I don't want to pretend it does. But I think that that is a major reason why a portion of millennials, for example, in Gen Z will become way wealthier and way more in an unequal distribution than a lot of the middle class, if you will. It's because of that dynamic out the starting gate in adult life. And I think Jasprey really confirmed that.

That was another data point confirming that bias for me in terms of that being the reason. Scott, I could not agree more. and I think you have a spot on observation there, which is why it could not agree more. Well, should we get out of here, Mindy? We should. Scott, that wraps up this episode of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. You, of course, are the Scott Trench. I am Mindy Jensen saying, be easy, breezy. If you enjoyed today's episode, please give us a five-star review on Spotify or Apple.

And if you're looking for even more money content, feel free to visit our YouTube channel at YouTube.com slash bigger pockets money. Bigger Pockets Money was created by Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench, produced by Kaelin Bennett, editing by Exodus Media, copywriting by Nate Weintraub. Lastly, a big thank you to the Bigger Pockets team for making this show possible.