The School of Greatness - 7 Signs You're About to Get Rich | Lewis Howes

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

There are seven quiet signals that show up in your life long before the money does, and most of them feel like losing.In this solo episode, Lewis walks you through the money mindset shifts he lived from his sister's couch to a life where his investing runs on autopilot. He tells you about the networking event where he stuffed cheese and crackers into his pockets with a full arm cast on, because he had no idea where his next meal was coming from.Then comes the number that stops you cold: 48% of people earning over $250,000 a year are still living paycheck to paycheck. A raise was never the answer. Lewis walks through why rich is a number and free is a length of time, and why saying no to a $20,000 sponsorship or a $10,000 coaching call felt like losing his mind right up until it felt like peace.You will hear how one conversation at a salsa club sent him to Toastmasters and rewired what he could charge, and how he bought a life insurance policy in his twenties for a wife and kids who did not exist yet.By the end you will have one small assignment: take what you have, divide it by what you spend in a month, and look at the number without flinching. Then start adding months.Make Money EasyThe School of GreatnessThe Greatness MindsetThe Mask of MasculinityIn this episode you will:Spot the seven quiet signs that wealth is already arriving before anyone else confirms itClimb Myron Golden's Four Levels of Value so you get paid for deciding and imagining instead of grinding harderDismantle the scarcity habits that keep hardworking people stuck, including judging the rich and hoarding out of fearReclaim your peace by saying no to real money that violates your values, the way Lewis Howes turned down millions in sponsorshipsMeasure your runway in months rather than chasing a net worth number, so freedom becomes something you can countBreak the paycheck to paycheck trap that still swallows nearly half of people earning over $250,000 a yearFor more information go to https://lewishowes.com/1984More SOG episodes we think you’ll love! Get More From Lewis! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Everywhere I go, airports, events walking down the street, people stop me and say, Lewis, this show got me through one of the hardest seasons of my life. And it's one of the coolest things when people come up to me. So if you see me, please come up and say hi. And let me know how this show, the School of Greatness, has impacted you. It lights me up because our mission at Greatness Media is to impact 100 million lives every single week. So if today's conversation hits home for you, do me a favor and push the follow button right now. it means that the next conversation will be delivered to you and will find you exactly when you need it.

Again, thank you so much for being here and listening to The School of Greatness. Make sure to follow right now to stay up to date on the latest and greatest. I have asked hundreds of people who have built incredible wealth about the year that everything changed for them. And they barely ever point to one deal, one job, one big launch, one big exit. They point to a stretch where they started thinking. thinking differently about what they were worth and what they'd actually say yes to and more importantly what they would say no to. I have asked hundreds of people who have built incredible wealth about the year that everything changed for them. And they barely ever point to one deal, one job,

one big launch, one big exit. They point to a stretch where they started thinking differently about what they were worth and what they'd actually say yes to and more importantly, what they would say no to. For me, when I compare my life now to when I was broke and lost on my sister's couch, there were seven signs that helped made it clear I was actually building wealth. So today, I'm going to give you these seven signs and the things that show up in your life before the money actually does. So this sounds counterintuitive, but I promise it's what will actually separate your current identity from the wealthiest version of yourself.

And fair warning, most of these seven signs, they don't feel good, they're not enjoyable, they feel like losing friends, they feel like turning down work that you're used to being grateful for. They feel quiet and sometimes slow and backwards, which is exactly why people miss them. and they're standing in the middle of the proof and calling it failure. So please pay attention to which one sounds like your life because the ones that do are already in motion. So let's go ahead and dive into sign number one. You stop talking about money the way broke people talk about money. And again, if this is your first time here, my name is Lewis Howes. I've had this show for over 13 years, the School of Greatness.

And again, I've interviewed some of the biggest billionaires and some of the wealthiest people in the world here. also written a book called Make Money Easy that breaks down the relationship side that you have to money and what's blocking you emotionally from actually creating more money. But an opening question that I have for you is why do so many good, so many hardworking people stay exactly where they are financially for 20, 30, 40 years? And maybe you know someone in your life. Maybe you know a parent, an uncle or a friend that has been working hard for 20, 30 years. And for whatever reason, they still haven't broken free financially. So why do so many good hardworking people stay exactly where they are financially for so many years? Well, the answer is because

they never stopped resenting the thing that they said they wanted. So hear me out for a second. When you listen to how people talk about somebody with money, they usually say a few different things. They might say, oh, that must be nice. But he probably inherited that money. She probably stepped on somebody to get that money. They probably did something illegal to get that money. I could never do what they did. Every one of those feels harmless because everyone around you is also saying them. So you're in a circle where people are reaffirming that same mindset and that same belief. but your mind is listening to you more carefully than anyone else is. You will never become the thing you speak badly about.

Your subconscious, your nervous system, your body, your mind won't let you. It will protect you from turning into the person that you just insulted, or the person that you think did something bad or wrong, or the person that you think stole or lied to get money. This is it. Why this is one of the same. signs. Here is the shift. The shift for you is someone ahead of you shows up and the first thing out of you isn't judgment. It's a question. So instead of seeing someone who's made more than you

or got some raise or did some big launch, instead of judging them and questioning them and making them wrong, you start with a question and you start asking questions like, huh, how do they do that? Who do they have to become in order to create that? What do they, they know that I don't know yet. And once you're asking how you stop competing with them or judging them and you start learning from them, which is really inspiring. And if you can go even beyond this, this is one layer, but if you can go beyond this and celebrate them, boom, you start unlocking a different level of awareness around your

relationship to money. When you see someone winning and earning and getting opportunities and getting a big sale or getting an exit or getting a job raise or whatever my view, you know, and you see them win and they talk about it or they announce it or someone talks about it celebrate them congratulate them it's one of the first things that i do now i used to get jealous and insecure when i was starting out when someone was ahead of me or someone got something more than me i used to be like huh why are they getting that and i'm not getting this that energy didn't serve me it just made me swirling around in judgment comparison make wrong and not enoughness and i still

stayed in that energy. So if you can shift that energy and just start clapping for people, start celebrating them, start encouraging them, say, congratulations. It's incredible because you're celebrating the thing that you want to achieve in the future instead of criticizing, judging or pulling them down. Why would you emotionally, psychologically, or spiritually get to a place where you're constantly pulling something down or pulling someone down from? so you can get above them. This isn't a win-lose game. This is about win-win.

And when you shift that energy around acknowledging and really celebrating people who accomplish things, you create win-win rather than win-lose. Money goes where it's respected. So if you're in an energy level of disrespect, why would money come to you? Why would the thing that you disrespect come to you? And you can't respect something while you're trashing everything. one who has it. So this is something we need to start shifting with. And I want you to start thinking about that. Is this something that you are dealing with right now? Is this something you've

already let go of? If you're not judging people who have money, then you're in a good sign. This is a great sign for you that you're on the right path. But if you're still in an energetic container that says, this person or that person just makes more money than me or they're promoting something they have online that I don't have and it doesn't feel good, You've got to shift that. That means you're still not getting past that season that you need to in order to energetically start creating the wealth that you're looking for. So that is sign number one.

Sign number two. And before I get to sign number two, this is a practice I try to do because I feel like we could all go back into old patterns at any moment. So something I try to do. I saw this person online who did some big launch. I don't even know who this person is. I've never met them. I saw them and they did a big launch and everyone was talking about and talking about the

ins and outs of the launch. And I just sent this person to DM. I don't follow this person. I sent them a DM and I just said, hey, I'm so happy for your success. Congratulations. Keep going. That's literally all I said. The person replied and said, oh, my God, thank you so much.

I really appreciate it and love what you've done as well. And it's just celebrating others. It doesn't cost you anything to. celebrate someone for accomplishing success or making a lot of money. In my mind, it just brings me closer to more of what I'm looking for. So sign number two, you're getting paid less for doing and more for deciding. You're getting paid less for doing and making more for deciding. Now, why can two people work the exact same number of hours? Work the exact same number of hours. Work the exact same work ethic, hard work, and end up 10 times apart in income. Why does this happen? And I know you

know people that you're like, man, they work, they grind in 10, 12 hours a day and they just seem to paycheque and they're not making the money, but they work so hard. But someone else doesn't seem like they're working hard at all. And the answer is because they're selling two completely different things. My friend Myron Golden broke this down for me on the School of Greatness, better than anyone I've ever heard. And he says there are four levels of value. And the first one is doing the thing. You show up. You perform the task. You get paid for the task. And this is where everyone starts. This is where I started. This is where everyone starts. You start getting paid to do a task to get a job done. There's nothing wrong with this.

And the challenge is it's capped because it's hard and by hours and by body. So you, You have to keep showing up, and the only way you can make more is if you're able to charge more for your hours. The second one is managing the people who do the thing. That's what Myron says. You're not carrying it anymore. You're not doing it all yourself anymore. You're coordinating. You're organizing.

You're empowering and you're delegating in certain ways. And there's more money in that, but there's still a ceiling to how much you can earn in that role. But this is another level that is necessary. because once you can have other people getting more results than just you on your own, you become more valuable. You become more valuable when you can oversee two people, 10 people, 100 people, in producing more results than you for the outcome of the business. You become a valuable asset and you'll be earning more for that value.

The third one is communicating. this is about moving a message. This is about resonating a message that moves people, getting people to feel something and to make a decision to act. This is where wealth actually starts because you can say it once and reach thousands or millions. And before I get to the fourth, I'll give you an example of this. I remember when I was broke on my sister's couch, I was trying to figure out what I was going to do. I was reaching out to mentors and coaches. I was trying things on LinkedIn. I was doing stuff on social media. I was just trying to learn as much as I could.

I was reading books. I was learning copywriting. I was learning sales. I was working in all these different areas where I could just try to consume as much knowledge as possible. And I wasn't still making any really good money, but I was working hard. And I met a guy at a salsa club

because I was also salsa dancing for fun to overcome this fear that I had around dancing. And he told me, after we'd met a few different times, and I asked him what he does. and he said, you know, I speak and travel around the country to colleges. And I get paid, you know, multiple six figures a year to speak at colleges. And I thought to myself, I'm living at my sister's couch. I'm broke.

I've got no money. I'm working really hard trying to figure this life, career, business thing out, failing everywhere. What he is doing sounds like a dream. You get to travel. You get to speak to people and you get to make multiple six figures. I was like, how is this possible? He said, meet me tomorrow.

I'll take you to coffee. Went to Starbucks, so we had coffee. And he told me a thing about if you want to make a difference in the world or if you want to make a difference in your community or in your family or in the company that you're in, there's one skill and one skill only that you need to learn how to master.

And it will unlock money and opportunities for you if you master it. And I was like, what is it? And you said the ability to enroll people in your vision. And I was like, what does that actually mean? He goes, you need to master the art of communication. And if you're working for a company and you're trying to grow in that company, if it's a room of 10 people in a boardroom,

you need to be able to present yourself in an idea that you have in your mind that will get results, that will add value to the company. You need to be able to present it in a compelling enough way that it enrolls people and the whole team in saying, yes, let's go with Lewis's idea. Let's take action there. And then you need to coordinate to get those results to happen as well. So you're using multiple layers of this to create impact, to create a difference in that company or in your family or in your community or in your friend group to make a positive change. And this is where wealth actually starts because you can say it once and reach thousands or millions based on the platform that you have. Or you can say it once to do the decision makers and make a difference in your opportunities and theirs as well.

And I said, well, I'm terrified to speak in front of anyone. I could speak one to one pretty well at that point. But when it was one to like four, I don't know why. I just didn't know how to manage like a small group of people. and I always felt like someone was judging me and I always felt like, oh, now I'm the dumbest person in this group. What are they thinking about me? I was so afraid of the opinions of other people

that it held me back. It made me feel less than. And it made me scared to speak up. And he said, you need to overcome your fear of public speaking. The best way to do that is go to Toastmasters. It's an international public speaking course. It's like 50 to 100 bucks a year and they have them all over the world.

He said sign up to one in this city right now, go every week and go through the curriculum to overcome your fear. And wait until the very end and you'll see what one unfolds for you. Now, I was terrified to do this. But this was probably one of the greatest gifts I gave my younger self because it has paid dividends for the last 18, 20 years now because of one gift I gave myself. the ability to learn how to overcome the fear and have the courage to communicate publicly. This is one of the biggest fears for most people is learning how to communicate and public speaking. Why? People say public speaking is scarier than death. I have no idea, except for the fact that it feels terrifying and it does feel like if everyone is laughing at me

and if I humiliate myself in front of 50 people or 500 people or 5,000 people, then no one's going to like me. I'm not going to survive when I'm going to die. It feels like that, but this is all the psychological fear. So we have to learn how to communicate better. And at this season of my life, there is still a long way for me to go to be able to communicate effectively even greater. So this is not a thing you learn once and you've mastered it forever.

It's a constant process of learning how to do it better. So the fourth one is imagination. using your mind and your money to make more money. Seeing the thing before it exists and putting resources behind it, that one thing has no ceiling at all. So what does that look like? Seeing the thing, this is a thing I had in my mind,

a book called Make Money Easy. And why did the thing come to me? Because in so many episodes that we do around money here on the School of Greatness, I would just see thousands of comments come through on these different episodes of people struggling with money not being able to figure it out. I also had a huge pain around money

most of my childhood. And in my 20s, when I was sleeping on my sister's couch, I didn't know how to make money. So I understood the struggle for myself. I understood the struggle for a lot of people watching or listening. And I said, we've done so many great episodes on this. Why don't we take this idea, this concept from my mind, and actualize it and put resources behind it,

invest in making the design of the cover, invest in writing the book, invest in the marketing of the book. This has no ceiling. I could sell an unlimited amount of these and earn money on this for a lifetime. It's an asset. It's a product.

Here's another one. The greatness mindset. This was an idea. This was a concept that we actualized. We put it into a physical thing. This was a thought. So imagine the power of your mind. Your mind,

has the ability to think your mind has the ability to think to make something and then to make you money my mind went through so much pain most of my life and so much internal struggle internal conflict and internal suffering that i was like i need to find solutions on how to have more peace in my life because inner peace is the new rich inner peace is the new wealth inner peace is the new wealth inner peace is the new abundance. Without inner peace, you lack freedom. Without freedom, you have no abundance. So when I was like, okay, I need to figure out a way. I need to use my mind to figure out a way to create peace. And what that is is really finding a way to heal, healing the parts of myself that were holding me back, that were holding on to anger, resentment, frustration, trauma, whatever it might have been

that was blocking me from peace, blocking me from peace, blocking me from feeling. freedom and ultimately blocking me from abundance. So I used my mind and I took a lot of action to heal. And I said, okay, how can I use my mind to make something and then have that thing help people and also make me money as well. And the greatest mindset, unlock the power of your mind and live your best life today is that book. This is probably the book I'm most proud of because it's everything I wish I would have learned when I was a teenager that I didn't have the skills or the insights on how to emotionally and intellectually navigate traumas and pain in my life to create the peace that I was really seeking for. And a lot of us numb our life or take actions

or buy things that we don't need to feel good because we don't have the ability to create inner peace. So we put a price on things to try to fill us up to feel better about something that we don't have within us. And this is the power. that you have when you learn how to use imagination. This fourth one. Using your mind to create something that can make you money. It is key. Seeing the thing before it exists and putting resources

behind it, that has no ceiling at all. But most people are afraid to have something in their mind and put it out in real life. Because what if it fails? What if no one buys it? What if no one reads it? What if I get criticized? What if people laugh at me?

What if I make a fool of myself? What if I get broken up with? What if my family doesn't support me? What if my spouse doesn't want me to do this? What if all these things come into our nervous system and it shuts down and says, no, don't do it because it's not safe. It doesn't feel safe.

Nothing that you do that is going to be great is ever gonna feel safe and easy and certain. you might have a belief inside of you that says, I am going to figure this out. I know it'll all work out for my good. I believe in a beneficial result that will come. We don't know 100% for anything what will happen in our life. But we do know that if we play it safe, it's hard to be great. It's hard to make something that's going to create abundance.

If you always play it safe, there has to be some risk, some courageous, leap, some act that gets you out of a place that you're in now and moves you into a place that you want to create. And this sign here, most people spend an entire career trying to get rich at the bottom level, working harder doing the same thing. And then they're confused why the number doesn't grow, why the number doesn't move. And you don't get wealthy by doing more. You get wealthy by moving up. So the sign isn't that you got busier or you're working five days a week to six days a week or six days a week to seven days a week. That's not the sign. The sign is somebody paid you for something that didn't require your hands. They paid you for the meeting. They paid you for the idea.

They paid you because of something you said. And if you're honest, it felt a little wrong like you hadn't earned it properly. It felt like the first time, you know, I can remember the first time that somebody paid me for what I knew about LinkedIn back of the day or about social media instead of for me doing something. And it was kind of weird. It felt like I was getting away with something. I was like, someone just paid me a few hundred dollars for just speaking, just giving them some ideas. I was like, huh, it was just, it was a little weird, but that was a sign. And if you've ever experienced that, then there's a sign for you in your life right now that you just moved up a level.

You moved up a level for something. And that is key. And I remember getting paid to speak on stage. I was speaking for free for a year while I was practicing public speaking. And I remember someone paid me $500 to speak at like a workshop, like a local business workshop, teaching LinkedIn. And I thought to myself, wow, I just made $500 where normally I would have to work a certain amount hours to make this money and I got up here and I got to speak and present and I made $500.

And I remember the time I made $5 grand and then $10,000 and then $25 grand for a speech and then $50 and then $100 and it was just like, huh, this is fascinating. It is fascinating and it is a very powerful sign that you are just leveling up. And so I want you to be thinking about that in your life, thinking about what level you're at right now in those four levels. And sign three is actually going to help you figure out how to level up to that next level. Sign three is you can walk away from money. Now, this is strange. For me as a kid, growing up, who's like, I was trying to find money anywhere I could get it.

And I was like, I'll do any job. I'll do anything. I was truck driving. I was a bouncer at a nightclub. I mowed lawns. I worked at a golf course at 5 a.m. cutting greens and raking leaves when I was a teenager. I did so many different like odd jobs.

And I was like, wherever there's money, I'll go and just do that thing. But why do some people seem to close everything easily while other people fight for every single dollar that's provided for them? The answer to this is because one of them needs this money and the other one doesn't need this money. And everybody in the room can feel which is which. So let me give an example. When I had Myron on it, he put this in a way that is super powerful. He says that you have to work with human nature instead of against it. So what does this mean?

Human nature is simple. If you chase, people run. If you're chasing after someone, they're going. going to be like what is going on they're going to run away from you if you lean in too hard or you're you're screaming at someone people are like let me lean away from this like uh it's a little too much like give me some space here like no one wants to be chased on no one that's to be like you know broken into their boundaries of their space so the awareness you have to start from is this i have to make a sale i don't have to make this sale and this is a different distinction here yes you have to

earn money, but do you have to make it from this moment, from this person, or this potential clients, or this way of making money? These are two entirely different energies. And they produce two entirely different lives. And there's a difference between when you need this money, when you need this client, when you need this customer, because when you need something, you're over-explanning and you're chasing them. You discount before they actually ask. You take the client you already knew was going to be a nightmare and could have consumed your life. You say yes to a number that you resent and then you spend six months paying for that yes. You're overworking, you're discounting yourself, all these things. So the sign to look out for is that the first time

you said no to real money. Not money you didn't need, money you could have used and you said no to it. and you let it go because the price wasn't only the price. And, oh, man, this is crazy because I remember the reason I got burned out, probably back in like 2017, 2018, is because I said yes to everything. Everything, I was, everything was growing, everything was doing great, and there was opportunities coming in left and right.

You know, I'd already hit my first book with the New York Time bestseller. getting on talk shows. My podcast was exploding. Opportunities flooding in. The more you grow, the more people are going to bring you opportunities. And I was just like, we have to say yes to this money. How can I turn down money? It makes no sense. When you're broke and you're living in scarcity your whole life, it doesn't make sense that you're going to say no to thousands of dollars, tens of thousand dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars, a million opportunity. I can't say no to this. It's a million dollars. It is the craziest thing when you say no to a million dollars.

It is crazy town, I'm telling you. And yet, it is necessary in order for you to get to the next level. Because you're not saying no to a million dollars. You're saying no to or $1,000 or $500 or $20,000. You're saying no to something that doesn't line up with your values. You're saying no to something that doesn't line up with your timeline. You're saying no to something that is going to distract you from something greater that you're meant to be doing. And you're saying no to something that is going to pull you away from earning a lot more money

that actually feels like more peaceful and freedom. And I don't know how many times I've said no to money. I've said no to money a lot of times, not because I don't want money, but because it wasn't the right money. And it's still kind of confusing today for me. But when I made clear boundaries, you know, years ago, especially when I started taking on sponsors for the podcast, I had to make a list of yes and no. Because we were getting little sponsors, you know, in the beginning. In the first like four or five years, we weren't making any money with the podcast. But then we started bringing in sponsorships.

And it was small at the beginning. I didn't want to have a lot. I just wanted to have a few. And then it was like, oh, would you do these types of companies? And they want to give you a lot of money. Like oh man, that's a lot of money. But something feels off for that company and it doesn't really align with me. Gosh, but am I really going to say no to $20,000 for an ad read?

And I had to really make a decision in that moment. I was like, not all money is good money. And there's a slippery slope here. And if I start saying yes to this, then I'm going to say yes to other things. And then what am I really promoting? It's going against the values of. of the show. Now, I don't care if people want to make decisions on certain products or companies in their own life, but it's not what I believe is encouraging at the highest levels, right?

And so I started saying no. And then I started saying no to people coaching. At one point, I was charging $10,000 for a coaching call for one hour back in 2017, 2018. And I remember saying, this doesn't work for me anymore. Like, for whatever reason, it's not scalable. It doesn't work from anymore. And if you would have told me my 22-year-old self that someone's going to pay me a $10,000 for one-hour call, I would have said, I will do this 10 hours a day. Like, of course, let's do it. But there's an energy exchange. There's time. There's something that's not scalable to that as well. And I remember I stopped after I did my last $10,000 hour phone call. It must have been nine years ago, eight, nine, ten years ago. And I was like, something,

wrong with me but it actually feels like a sense of freedom when you can say no to money that you know isn't where you're heading maybe it was great for you to take that money and to do that action and use that time for a period of time but it's like I didn't need it anymore I had saved a lot and invested a lot at that point I wasn't spending my money on stupid things I was really thinking about my future and so I was like huh I don't I'm not living in scarcity. I'm not living paycheck to paycheck. I don't need to do this.

So if it's not supporting a vision, that's something scalable that I can impact more people, then right now the one-to-one doesn't make sense to me anymore. And that's just the decision I made at that time. It doesn't feel powerful in the beginning when you do this. It feels terrifying because you're like, how am I going to say no to money coming in? What am I thinking?

Am I crazy? Have I lost my mind? In some ways, you have lost your mind because most people don't think this way. you second-guess it all week or all day. You're like, oh, I should really take this client or do this job. You do the math on what you just gave up on. You can't believe it. And then you notice that you're not available to every bad deal that also comes along

anymore. You start saying no. You start having boundaries. You start valuing yourself in a different way. When it's before, maybe you took jobs just because you needed the money. and now you're investing in things because it aligns with who you are and your vision and your value for the world. The first time you turn down money, your time gets a price. And it's a powerful thing.

And I have said no to a lot. Sponsorships that are worth millions of dollars. I've said no to speaking gigs that are hundreds of thousands of dollars. I've said no to business deals, equity for businesses that just weren't the right fit. Or they weren't at the right timing or they weren't a right alignment. And maybe some things I missed out on and maybe some things I could have said yes to. But I really wanted to put more value on my energy and my time rather than being on a plane more or having to promote more things or having to do more that I felt like was just going to

exhaust me. And so it's learning how to make money that also doesn't mean you're not going to work hard, but making sure you keep your peace. And that's an important thing. Has this resonated with you in any way? If you have ever said no to money, please leave a comment below if you said no to money before. Tell me why you said no to it and how it made you feel when you said no to it. I'd love to hear your thoughts or see your thoughts in the comments below. My friend, I hope you're enjoying this episode. And the School of Greatness drops new conversations every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday around money, mindset, healing, manifestation, and relationships.

And if you're not yet following the show, then you're missing all of them. Please tap the follow button right now. And you'll get notified the moment every new episode drops because the next one might be exactly what you need. Now, let's get back to the conversation. sign number four your raise stopped being an event so what does that mean well how is it possible for someone to make a quarter of a million dollars a year and still be one miss paycheck from panic well there's an answer to this because more income has never once solved this on its own

my guy anthony o'neill is a best-selling author and has an amazing show all around money. He came on this show recently and shared a number with me that I haven't been able to think about, or I haven't been able to stop thinking about since. The number he said was 48% of people earning over $250,000 a year are still living paycheck to paycheck. People who are earning a quarter of a million dollars a year, almost 50%, 48% of people, of people who are making a quarter million dollars a year are living paycheck to paycheck. That is crazy to me. A quarter of a million dollars living paycheck to paycheck. So let's let's kill the fantasy right now about money. The raise isn't going to save you. The raise isn't

going to help you solve all your problems. It solves some problems. It solves some money problems, but if nothing else changes in your life, a bigger number just gives your bad habits more room to operate. So what does that mean? Well, if you are a gambler and you only have so much money or you love going out every single night and drinking and eating dinners and paying for everyone and you have more money, you're just going to keep spending more money on that habit that is causing you to spend more money. Or if you, every time you get a paycheck, you're like, all right, I need to go buy a new bag or a new shoes or whatever it is.

The more the paycheck is, you're going to say, I have more money to go spend this now. And so you've got to recognize this within your life. Why are half of people who are making quarter million dollars a year living paycheck to paycheck still? Why? You have to navigate your own. own money habits. So why is this a sign? Here's what it used to look like. More money showed up and it became a weekend for people. Again, it became a dinner, a party, a celebration, an upgrade,

let's spend more for an apartment, a bigger car payment, something that wasn't there before. Wasn't there the year before, months before. You made more money, you spend more. Then the income went up and the lifestyle went up with it. And you ended up at the end of the year, the same place, with just nicer things, but the same internal feeling. This sign, the sign is when that stops. So when this feeling stops, those action stops, this is the sign. When the extra money starts to come to you and you already decided where it was going before it came, that's when things start to really shift.

What you earn and what you keep are two different numbers. And only one of them has ever built. anything. Anthony made one more point on the show that I love. He says your credit score can be lying to you about your actual wealth because a great score means you're good at borrowing money. You can have an 800 credit score and own almost nothing. So this is an important thing. I want you to be thinking about it. And this is why I love like, I struggle with this earlier. on. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't the guy that would spend more. I was the guy that would hoard more because I was so afraid to go back to broke. I wouldn't spend my money. I had money

and I was taking Greyhound buses. I was like the cheapest commercial flights anywhere with multi-connections to save an extra $50 to $100. I wouldn't sleep in hotels. I would ask friends whenever I'd travel if I could sleep on their couch. I didn't have a car for a few years even though I could afford one I was like I just don't want to spend the money I was kind of like the opposite there I was afraid because a scarcity of going back to broke so I wouldn't spend it so I would just hoard it so my money never actually did anything for me it didn't help me grow and it was always like a scarcity so you have to think about are you a spender or are you a hoarder when you're making money both of those you know aren't good energetically it's better to have money that you keep I guess

that's sitting there in the bank, but that's not adding value long term for you. So sign number five is money stopped giving you a feeling. And for me, I was pulled emotionally by money in every which way for so many years. But sign number five is when you really started to create wealth for yourself and abundance, is money stopped giving you a feeling?

So what if the thing you're calling burnout in your life is actually the healthiest your relationship with, money has ever been. So what does this mean for you? For most people, money isn't just a number. Money is a mood. A deposit lands in your bank account and there's a lift.

A bill lands and then there's a drop. Your mood goes up, your mood goes down based on money coming in, money coming out. And you check the balance and your whole day reorganizes around what you saw, right? It's like, And some of you never look at your bank account because you're afraid to see what's in there or afraid to see how much is gone.

How many of you, again, leave a comment if you check your bank account every day and you're always like checking, checking, checking, and you're kind of, it causes stress. If you check it every day and there's a neutral feeling, that's different. You're just making sure that everything is according to the plan. But if you're checking and you're anxious, that's not probably the best solution. and some people never check. I've gone both sides. I went and checked multiple times a day for, you know, a year.

And then I've gone, and I've probably gone a year without checking because I was like, I don't want to know what's in there. I'm so broke. I don't even want to look at it because it just makes me feel bad, knowing that I have no money, and I'm a piece of crap for not being able to make money or not be able to save it. It's like the emotions, the mood of what I saw in my bank account dictated my life in a lot of ways. So leave a comment letting me know if you check it every day, if you never check it, or how it makes you feel when you check it. And it's tough to make a good decision in the middle of this when you're feeling the stress and anxiety around what's in your bank account.

So why this one is a sign? Well, the sign here is boring. And this is what starts to shift. When money comes in, it's almost like nothing happens to your chest. Nothing happens to your immune system, to your nervous. system to your body to your brain to your mind you're just kind of like you notice it you just notice it you acknowledge it you say thank you I'm grateful and you appreciate it but you're not like yeah money let's go spend it ah I'm gonna buy everything and when you spend money or there's a bill that comes in

you're not like this big drop right so you open the app without bracing yourself you're not like squinting looking oh what is that number you open the app without bracing a bill comes in and it's just information okay there's the bill uh it's a it's a hot summer right now in los angeles and our electric bill is like doubled it's like thousands of dollars and i was like at first i was like man is this something off here is this like what happened and then everyone in our neighborhood was saying oh our our electricity bill just went up because it's so hot this summer so okay well it's just a heat just cost more to cool the, cool the house, I guess. But initially, it could be a shock, right?

You're like, oh, I'm not used to spending this much money on a bill. Like, what is this? But when you get used to it, you know a bill comes in and it's just information. Okay, this is information. How can I respond to this information in a more neutral way? Not in the way that I'm freaking out and angry or upset or so high that it shifts everything that I am my energy is based on a number that comes in and goes out you don't feel rich you don't feel behind you feel more like oh I'm just I'm following my game plan and people panic when this happens

they think they've gone numb right they think they've lost the hunger that that got them there but you didn't lose anything the the money just stopped running your mood and this is such an important thing. It doesn't mean you don't think about it. It doesn't mean you don't focus on it. It doesn't mean you don't have a game plan for it, but it shouldn't dictate your emotional mood on a day-to-day basis. And that might take you years to figure out and years to process. So here's how you'll know. You had a good month and you didn't have to tell anyone about it. You got a bad month. You didn't have to tell anyone about it. Not because you were hiding it, it just never occurred to you that it was actually news to be talking about.

And you're sticking to a game plan. You're sticking to a game plan where your money is working for you, not against you. This was probably one of the hardest things for me. Money was very emotional. Again, I wrote this book, Make Money Easy, Create Financial Freedom and Live a Richer Life for myself. I wrote this for myself and really wrote it for my younger sense. I wrote it for my younger that struggled because I was interviewing people for years to learn how to navigate these emotional feelings myself. I didn't want money to manage me. I didn't want money to dictate my feelings about myself or about life.

And I wanted to have a different money mindset. Than the one that I had that I kind of grew up with and I had in my teens and my 20s, which was much more about scarcity. I didn't learn, I didn't know how to make sense, know how to make money in my early 20s and my mid-20s. And then I finally learned how to make it through great mentorships and coaches that guided me, but I had to have the courage to take action to go earn it.

But once I earned it, I didn't know how to manage it. And I didn't know how to navigate the emotional feelings that I had around money. And I was afraid of it still. So first I was broke and afraid of it. Then I made money, but I was still afraid of it. So I was like, making money did not bring me peace or freedom. So I need to learn what's underneath that, the other tools around money, the secrets around money that I wish they would have taught me in school. And so I wrote that for my younger self and for my current self to just continue to be a reminder that money is a tool.

And I shouldn't have this tool be working against me. Sign number six, you've started making decisions for people who don't exist yet. This is a powerful one. Why can you hand two people the exact same million dollars and one of them is broken side of the year while the other one builds something that outlives themselves? The answer is because they're playing two different games and on two different timelines. One of them is thinking in months and one of them is thinking about themselves. The other is thinking in years and decades and things.

thinking about others. And money behaves completely differently, depending on how far out you're looking when you decide. Anthony told me about writing his will in his 30s. And I thought that was fascinating. And the part that struck me wasn't the will. It was that when he brought it up, his family assumed something was wrong with him. So when he said, he's probably like, ah, you're going to die something?

like this. But it brought it up to his family and they thought it's something wrong with you. And that's how far outside the norm it is to plan past your own lifetime. So this one is quiet and nobody counts this. You filled out a beneficiary line instead of skipping it. You open something small for a kid who's four or even kids who are not even born yet. You caught yourself asking what this looks like in 10 years and 20 years. And so, Instead of what will they do for me this week, this month, next month, and you started thinking about what you're actually handing somebody. Because it's not just money, it's habits, it's a language, it's a belief system, it's a mindset.

And it's what feels normal in your house. That's what's going to get passed down whether you plan it or not. And here's why it's such a reliable signal. You don't plan for a future, you don't believe you're going to have. People in survival mode don't think in decades. It's very hard to think past today when you're in survival mode. That's all you're thinking about.

I understand the feeling of that. It doesn't feel good. So the day you start, part of you has already decided this is going to work. And I remember in my early 20s, right when I started making money, I guess my mid-20s, maybe I was 26, 27. Right when I started making money, I bought,

my future wife and future kids a life insurance policy. And this may seem strange for a 20-something-year-old to buy a life insurance policy. And I told this to my wife, Martha, when we met, I said, just so you know, like if we get married and if we have kids, I already was thinking about you 15 years ago when I made this decision to buy a life insurance policy for my future wife and kids. and I've been depositing a check every single month for almost 15 years at that point for my future wife and kids. People that I didn't even know existed yet. People that I didn't know who they were going to be.

I didn't know I was going to be marrying Martha. I didn't know who she was at that time. I had no idea that would be my life. I didn't know I'd have twin girls. You know, I had a vision, I had dream that I would be married and have kids one day. But I didn't know who, what, when, how many I didn't know. And it was a decision that I made.

Even though at the time I was like, ah, you know, do I really need this? I'm so young. I'm so healthy. What's the point of this? You know, are these people going to value this? You know, I'm spending money on something that I will never benefit from. It's interesting, when you buy life insurance,

you don't benefit from the money you're spending. Your kids and your wife or your beneficiaries do. So you're thinking outside of you, for something greater than yourself, family, your legacy. And that one shift was assigned for me like, okay, this is starting to shift inside of me. I was stretching past myself and my own lifetime. I'm not saying you need to go out and buy life insurance tomorrow or today to do this, but it's thinking in ways that what will work for you,

that you know you're thinking beyond yourself when you're spending this money. And the final sign, sign number seven, you change the unit you measure in. What does this mean? Well, what if you've been measuring the wrong thing this entire time? Everyone measures in dollars, or almost everyone. What do I make? What does he or she make? What would I need to make to finally feel okay or to buy this thing?

And that last number moves every time you get close to it. So, well, I would just need $100,000. then I'm going to feel okay. Well, I just need a half a million, then a million, then 10 million, then a hundred million will do it because then I can have everything I really want. Well, then it's a billion. I need a billion, then I'll feel okay. And the thing is, the closer you get to your original number, you're like, well, I can actually use a little more. A little more is going to make me feel a little bit better. There's a moment in my conversation with Anthony O'Neill where he lays out the difference between being rich and being free. And it changes how you think about

your next raise because rich is a number free is a length of time and why this one is a sign so here's the question that replaces the old one not how much do I make how many months could I go without working how many years could I go without working that's the real scoreboard and nobody knows their number not many people the answer is zero how many months could you go without working then you just haven't been building for it yet. It doesn't mean you're bad or wrong or you're behind. It just means you haven't been building anything yet for answering that question. You're renting your life one month at a time.

You're working really hard, which is a great thing to work hard. You're making money and then you're paying for your lifestyle. This is something I did for a season of my life. If the answer is one month, like if I could only go one month, you're one bad month away from starting over. The answer is six months, your whole life just changed, and you might not have noticed it. Because that number isn't about safety, it's about options. So I want you to be thinking about what is that number?

How many months can I go where I don't have to work because I have enough money to pay for my lifestyle for those many months? Six months means that you could potentially leave the job and not have to rush so quickly into the next thing that maybe isn't the best thing for you. You could turn down the client. You could start something. You could try to launch your own thing, whatever might be. You have options. You've got flexibility. People with no margin, no months off, can't take the risks that build wealth. Or it's really challenging because you've got to spend nights and weekends going all in on earning money on the side. And you could do that for a season of your life, but it's hard to do that forever.

You need rest. You need recovery. You need time to be still and not work, work, work all day, all night long. The challenge is if you haven't given yourself that space, you can't afford not to. So the sign is catching yourself and asking for how long instead of how much. And if you can start doing that and get to your number, how long and how can I extend that number? You start to create more peace and more freedom in your life. And it was, you know, a few years.

I was months, I was really like day by day. When you're sleeping on your sister's couch, you're sleeping in your parents' basement or wherever you're sleeping and it's not your place. I remember thinking to myself like, where's the money for food tomorrow? Like, and you start to ration. I would go to these networking events, these free networking events to try to meet people. And I would literally, I was the guy, I remember my mentor called me out of this. I had a full arm cast on for six months during this season also because I broke my wrist

and it was in a full arm cast. So I had this big bulky cast on. I went to this kind of like networking event thing and they had cheese and crackers in the back of the room and bread. I went right to the back of the room first. I stuffed as much food as I could in my mouth. And then I stuffed bread, cheese and crackers in napkins in my pockets with this cast on and I'm holding food in my crumpled hand of my cast as well.

I'm sitting in the event for an hour. Then as I leave, I take more, put it in my pockets. And I meet a guy named Frank Egan for the first time at this event. And he meets with me outside. And he goes, he literally takes me to lunch right after this. He goes, you look hungry. Do you want some food? And so he walked me right down the block.

We had lunch. and I'll never forget this because he was generous enough to buy me a meal when I was literally just shoving food in my pockets because I didn't know where the next meal was going to come from this season of life. Now it wasn't like I was on the streets, homeless, you know, living under a tent or something like that under a bridge. I had my sister's house and I was eating her leftovers but I didn't have money to buy things for myself. So after six months or a year of eating off of her plate literally and not providing, I was just like, I need to find ways to make money and what's the food for tomorrow. If she's not in town, what I'm going to buy. It was that type of

feeling. It just doesn't feel good. You're living day by day, paycheck to paycheck, month by month. That doesn't feel good. Whether you have thousands of expenses and you're paying it or you're sleeping in your parents' basement, it doesn't feel good if you know you don't have some type of margins, some type of months where if you have no money coming in, you have some months to survive and you'll be okay. So it gives you some more freedom, more flexibility when you could figure that out. So some of that sounded like your life. Like maybe you might be in that season right now. So where do you actually start? I don't want you to start with a budget, not with some new plan, not with one number. I want you to go find out how many months you could go without working right

now and be okay and pay for your expenses. I want you to think about what you have and divided by what you spend in a month. That's the whole assignment. It takes a few minutes. How much you have, divided by how much you have in a month. And most people never have run it once in their entire lives. They've never thought about doing this process. Whatever comes back to you, don't make it mean anything about you that you're not good enough or that you haven't done enough at this season of your life. It's just where you're starting today and that's okay. We want this to be a place where you can have information and move forward. You can't move a number that you've never looked at or you don't know. And here's what happens when you do. The anxiety doesn't go up. It starts to neutralize.

It starts to go down. Maybe at first you're like, oh, I only have three months if, you know, I don't make any more money. I only have three more months. And that might feel a little more stressful in the moment, but it gives you a sense of clarity because a vague fear about money is always bigger than the actual number sitting underneath it. Then the goal is to just figure out how to go up one month at a time, how to extend this one more month at a time. That's it, one month at a time because every month you add is another decision you're allowed to make. and it brings me so much peace now knowing that my money is automated.

When money comes in, it's going into my investment accounts and I know it's building for my future. And that's something I think about and it brings me peace and it allows me not have to stress every single day saying, what do I do with this money?

Why is this here? I don't have to worry about that. It took me time to get there and it's okay if you're not there yet but I want you to get there soon. I want to leave you with this. Nobody is going to tell you that you're close. There's no announcement.

Nobody's going to call you. No one's going to send you an email. The season right before everything changes looks exactly like the season before that one. That's why so many people quit with their evidence in their hands. The people I've met with real wealth aren't more talented than you. They aren't smarter than you. Most of them aren't working harder than you. They aren't.

They just knew how to read what was happening while everyone around them was reading the bank balance and stressing about it. They kept going through the boring part, the boring season. They kept going when it was quiet, when it wasn't sexy. They kept going when the only proof they had was that they'd become somebody different. And then the money showed up late like it always does. And if you want to go deeper on everything we've covered, again, I wrote a book called Make Money Easy. The link is also in the description.

And go get it. Go read it. I have so many exercises in this book that's going to help you create financial freedom inside of you. Emotional and financial peace inside of you. This is the key. It's going to unlock it.

It's what I wish I had many years ago. And go get your number this week. You can do it right now. What is it? You can open up your account right now and see how much money you have and say, how many months do I have? How many months could you go without working?

Then tell me in the comments which one of these seven signs hit home for you. I love reading the comments here. So please con on what spoke to you the most. Because if even two of these sound like you, then it means that something is already working. And I want you to keep working on these signs. You are worthy of feeling peaceful inside of you. And you're also worthy of having a game plan where your money goes to bring you peace in the future. My name is Louis Howes. Thank you so much for being here. I'm grateful for you.

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