The School of Greatness - Become A Millionaire With These Habits w/ Graham Stephan EP 1382

Episode Date: January 23, 2023

https://lewishowes.com/mindset - Order a copy of my new book The Greatness Mindset today!Raised in Santa Monica, California, Graham Stephan obtained his Real Estate license shortly after his 18th birthday and dove headfirst into the world of Real Estate in 2008. Since then, Graham has sold over $130,000,000 of Residential Real Estate. His notable clients include Orlando Bloom, Chloe Moretz, Suki Waterhouse, LaVar Arrington, Wale, Casper Inc., among many others.Outside of Real Estate sales, Graham owns six rental properties that he manages in his spare time throughout Los Angeles and San Bernardino County. He also runs one of the largest Personal Finance based YouTube channel with over 10,000,000+ monthly viewers and over 3.7 Million subscribers.In this episode you will learn, The habits Graham developed to become a millionaire.How to prepare yourself for a recession.The 3 best assets to invest your time in.How house hacking can benefit you.How YouTube has the power to transform your career.The money beliefs that can help you move forward or hold you back.For more, go to lewishowes.com/1382

If you feel like you're not living your most authentic life, not leaning into your purpose, and not living the life that your future self would be extremely proud of, I've written a new book called The Greatness Mindset, and I think you're going to love this. Through powerful stories, science-backed strategies, and step-by-step guidance, The Greatness Mindset will help you overcome all the different challenges in your life to design the life of your dreams and then turn it into your reality. Make sure to click the link in the description to get your copy today. The you could die tomorrow is a common thing that I would hear a lot of people say. I'd rather just live now than my perspective is that you could always live tomorrow. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete

turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. What would you say are the three habits that you started to develop early on when you didn't have a lot of money into becoming a millionaire? Could you think back on three specific habits that supported you from going from $50,000 to $100,000 a year to breaking into the first million? Yeah, I would say definitely consistency. I was relentless in just keeping the same habits

over and over and over again. I would then say it was the focus of just, I had one goal in mind of just like, I'm gonna do this one thing and do it really, really, really well. That's all I wanted to do. And I would also say saving money. I mean, I lived really, really, really frugally. You're obsessed about that. Probably. Too frugal. I was too frugal. You were like every penny. Yeah. I can't go out and have

an extra sushi. I can't eat it. Oh, not even like I wouldn't even do the sushi. It was probably unhealthy. I mean, looking back, like I can't have regrets about it, but I mean, it got to a point where I remember I was talking about this yesterday. I was calculating the cost of gas to go and visit a friend. And I determined how bad it is though. Like the cost of gas was not worth the time I would be able to spend with his friend. And I did the analysis on that and thinking, well, if I'm only going to see for two hours and it's going to cost me X amount of... That's stupid. I should not be looking at it like that, but that's how I was in the beginning. Where did that come from? Is that like a childhood learned behavior? Did you model

that from somewhere where you just... Why did you feel like you needed to be so obsessive about every penny and decisions of like driving to see a friend is it worth the money like when yeah um a lot of it I thought of like how much I would be making or the cost of like my time and then extrapolating from there like what my time is worth doing certain activities there was also another point I must have been like 15 years old, maybe 16, I just got my driver's license. And I remembered how far $20 could get you. And I was like, okay, if I have $20,

and that's my budget and that's what I'm spending, I could put $10 in the gas tank, I could spend $5 on a Subway Footlong Sandwich, and that's like two meals, so $2.50 per meal. And then I have another $5 left over for miscellaneous. I remember breaking it down to that degree. And then just from there, taking that to, well, here's what a dollar could buy, and just appreciating that.

But then also going through, there was a time briefly, I think the job was like six weeks, I worked at this gold precious metals bullion investment firm. I did data entry because I thought I wanted to like be an investment banker. I'm like, this is a great way to get experience. It wasn't. But I think I was, I think I must've been paid like $7.75 an hour. Like it was maybe eight bucks, like max. And this was back in early 2008. And I remember thinking, okay, like if I'm making like $8 an hour, is a Subway sandwich worth 40 minutes of that? No. And then how could I stretch that further? So I just thought everything in terms

of like going back to making like eight bucks an hour. Wow. Did your parents teach you lessons about money early on? Did you have money mentors? No. What were the things, what were the beliefs you had early on around money? Like what did you think, when you thought of money, when money came in,

did you think I need to save it? Did you think money was good, money was bad? What were your beliefs about it? Yeah, I never thought money was bad. I had always been obsessed with, I guess like saving and collecting like even as a kid I think was my grandpa should be like his coin collection and I thought it was so cool and he's and he showed me a picture Of like a 1909 SVDB penny. It's like these pennies are out there still They like X amount that are probably still in circulation and like every like and I was like maybe six years old

I'd just be checking pennies like every penny would be like this is a 1909 svdb i think i never found one but uh i've just been obsessed with i think just saving collecting like i'd even if i got like birthday money or christmas money like i would save it i wouldn't spend it and i i liked just to see that accumulate in like an envelope in my room. Or a piggy bank or something, yeah. Yeah, it would be like a hundred bucks or something like that. Like the whole year's worth of like saving and collecting. I just naturally, I think, gravitated towards that. What was the, I mean, did anyone teach you about money though?

Did you ever like? No, not really. My mom had a book and I think it was like The Millionaire Mindset. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind? Maybe. I don't, something about The Millionaire Mindset or maybe it was The Millionaire Next Door. Yeah. And I must have been like 10, 11, 12 years old.

And for some, like I just saw the book that's a millionaire on the side of it. I'm like, I'm going to read this book. And I was not a reader at all. Like I was not reading books. But for some reason I just read that book and I enjoyed it. And it's just like all these things made sense. Like, oh, the average millionaire drives a Ford F-150. And, you know, it's more common to drive a Toyota Corolla than it is a Ferrari.

And most millionaires don't make a million dollars a year. They're making an average income and they save for 30 years. And so all of those things, like I just had an interest in that. What was the year you made your first million dollars or talking about net worth like in sales like that that came in what was the year that happened do you remember the year uh yeah that would have been 2019 and that was a combination of uh real estate sales and then youtube adding on top of that. Right. And the year before, where was it at? Like, was it half as much?

Was it close to that? Was it? The year before, I think I made $250,000 from YouTube. And then I think $500,000 from real estate. So about $750,000 the year before. Yeah. Okay. Probably about that.

What do you think was the difference between? What you did or how you thought? From 2018 to 2019. I would say I had never said for me. It was really YouTube But that really started 2017 for me because I never thought that I'd make money on YouTube at all like I started making videos just because it's like it it seemed like the fun thing to do. And even I remember making a dollar a day on YouTube through ad revenue and just thinking, wow, this is like a free sushi dinner that I could, cause I was going to do YouTube anyway. So it's like the fact that it's making $30 a month, it's like, that's sushi once a week, once a month for free. And I remember it being like a hundred dollars a month and being like,

wow, that's my cell phone bill. And then $300 a month. That's my car insurance and gas. Like, this is so cool. And it just, I guess seeing that I could make money without having to be like actively involved, even though like I became very involved, but with real estate, I was in sales. And so the bulk of my income at that time was really like, I got to be there. I got to show houses. If I don't sell a house, I don't get paid. I can work an entire year or nothing. And a lot of my commission is dependent on my ability to get listings, meet clients, be there for those clients. And I would drop anything for them at any time. If there's a client who wanted to see a house Friday at 10 PM, I would cancel any, I'd be there because that's what I had to do. But seeing on YouTube that I could work around my own schedule, post videos, and like every video, I was like, wow.

If every video I make just makes an average of a dollar a day, I get a thousand videos and that's a thousand dollars a day. And I could be anywhere in the world. And so something like that was very freeing to me that I knew that I could scale it away that I couldn't do as a real estate agent. Even the best agents I've seen, like we're talking about like the top few in the country, are making two to six million dollars a year. And they have like huge teams and they've been in the business for 20 years.

And I started seeing people on YouTube be like, they're doing this in, you know, a few months. And scaling to that point, the reach that I was able to get on YouTube and the benefits that I saw of just being able to network and meet other people. I could meet 1,000 people by making one video in the time it would take me years in real estate

to meet 1,000 people one-on-one. And that really changed my mind in terms of just seeing what was possible. So 2018, if I remember what you said, about a half a million came in from real estate. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. And then, of course, on top of that, though, you have like broker splits and miscellaneous

things. Sure. In terms of like sales coming in. You've got expenses and everything, obviously. But that's like, how many homes is that for a half a million dollars in commissions? It wasn't much. Well, in LA, I guess. Yeah.

Is that like five, ten homes? What is that? Probably about that. million dollars in commissions wasn't much um in la i guess yeah yeah i would say 10 homes what is that probably about that uh i would say in a year i would have maybe 20 and i'm like years this is like five years like six years i don't know how many years ago this was um i would say on average i probably had about 25 transactions a year a lot of those would be high-end leases and of those sales. Rentals. Yeah. And then sales would be, I don't know, five to 10. But usually it would be like, I'd have a whole bunch of one and a half to $3 million homes. And then I'd have like one a year that was like 5 million or like 8 million. And that would boost the bar a lot. Or sometimes I'd get really good lease commissions. There would be some properties for lease that would make more commission than

the sales just because let's say it's $30,000 a month and I'm representing both sides and we get like an 8% commission on top of that for a two-year lease. That's pretty big. Monthly. You get a commission monthly? No, I get one check. Sometimes they'll say, well, we'll pay you for the first year and then we'll pay you, which is fine. But a lot of them would just pay up front. That's amazing. What would you say the top three physical investments that you've made that have paid the best dividends over the last five to 10 years? Probably a good computer, a fast faster i was like on this little mini macbook for a while that would like pause for minutes and i didn't want to spend money i finally got like a

new macbook at the time and like it helped my video processing like a ton like that has probably been one of the best investments probably good camera for youtube videos uh besides that though it's a real estate has been has been a fantastic. That's always been like the core of everything I do. It's like that's the foundation. It's like good real estate, rental properties, and that's like the foundation, I guess, to fall back on, if that makes sense. How much real estate do you have now? It is, I'm just trying to, I think it's six properties total. One is my primary in Vegas.

But then five rental properties? Yep. And then the rest is mostly index funds at the moment? Yeah, index funds and cash. I pretty much almost got a 30-30-30 split between real estate, cash, index funds. Really? When did you feel like you were able to break through mentally and emotionally of you see these bigger homes, you see individuals who have made it essentially in

a certain way financially. When did you start to realize, hey, maybe I could break through this financial level as well and get to a certain level? Was that when you were 18 getting started or was it more in your mid-20s? I'd say immediate. Yeah, immediately, just like seeing and being around these people. I just felt like I could do that too. At 18, 19. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Even though I didn't achieve that just like seeing and being around these people i just felt like i could do that too at 18 19 yeah wow yeah even though i didn't achieve that immediately it's just i guess it was a feeling like i felt like i i dressed the part too like i'd see how they dress and go to h&m and like try to replicate their style for like 50 bucks um and so just doing that a big change for me to came when I sold my first house and I do what I tell everyone not to do

Spent pretty much all of it on a car and I think my Commission like after Everything like 50 grand something like that like after I said the grand. Yeah, like after all House that first house. That's huge. Yeah, three point six million dollars. How old were you? I had just turned 19 or I was just turning 19. That's a massive commission. Yeah, it was. Um, and that buyer I met doing an open house. I'd done an open house every single Sunday for nine months. And then just a buyer happened to walk in. We had a great conversation. He was a doctor and straight up just gave me a chance. Like that was one of those things where he was like, I remember when I was 18 and someone gave me a chance and I want to do the same for you

that's cool, I want you to help us find a house and I did like I have so much to him, but I spent all that money buying a Lotus Elise and You know the car thing was like 30 grand plus like taxes and stuff like that And then you also have to pay tax on the Commission So I was left over like nothing afterwards but that car i started taking it every weekend to these car meets like early in the morning like early sunday wake up at like 6 a.m go to a car meet and i meet like car friends there like people driving like ferraris and lambos and here i got in for the cost of a

new honda accord um and so like being around those people like getting into those groups I got in for the cost of a new Honda Accord. And so being around those people and getting into those groups, and I loved it. It was just fun. I'd take the car and go to car meets, and then right afterwards, I'd go into an open house and park the car out in front, and people would comment. It helped.

So what sounds like you said, what you tell people not to do, was actually a great investment. In hindsight, yeah. It was a bad investment, do is actually a great investment. In hindsight, yeah. Right. It was a bad investment, but it was a great investment. Could have gone the other way too, I think, had I been reckless with it or maybe not used it. Like if I was like, oh, I'm going to go pick up chicks in the car now. I'm like, not worked. But I just used it as like a passion and a networking tool at the same time.

What's the best invisible asset that you've invested in for yourself? Oh man. That continues to pay dividends today. What do you mean invisible asset? Like not a physical thing, but more of a skill set, a learning, something you've developed, a relationship that you've invested in, something invisible that is not a tangible. that you've invested in, something invisible that is not a tangible thing you've invested in? I would say just great people and mentors around me. Jason Oppenheim, I say this all the time, has been one of the best parts of just learning, I guess, not how to be more assertive, but like being able to convey what you want and being able to basically give a direction in a way that people will understand and seeing him operate on such a high level. Just watching him, like I just go into the office and just listen to him speak and see how he negotiates and like those sort of connections and just being able to learn

from those people has been invaluable yeah that's beautiful man what's your plan with this year with the recession potentially going to happen you're talking a lot about this on your channel what's your plan to do with the cash what do you what do you plan to do with it over the next six to twelve months if everything crashes. If real estate crashes, if the stock market crashes, what will you do? Well, I'm buying in dollar cost averaging into the index funds every day. So every day the market's open,

it's a habit of mine to wake up every morning and to buy the same dollar amount every single day. How much is that every day? Five grand. Five grand a day. It's right in there. Always index funds. It's just like my morning routine is just like index funds.

Anything above that, obviously taxes, I can take that into consideration, goes into the cash pile. And in a perfect world, I want a really good commercial property that's triple net, ideally in Las Vegas. But I believe we have a ways to go in that because right now I have that money parked in treasuries and it's earning about 4.4%, maybe 4.5%, 4.3%. It's not bad. Yeah. And I just keep rolling it over. That's not bad. So if I'm making 4.4%, but I'm looking at commercial properties making 4.5% to 5%, I don't see the risk premium there yet. So I think if I could find something at seven,

seven and a half percent, to me that gives enough of a buffer where like if the market continues going down, I've locked that in, but I've yet to see those deals come up yet. So I'm looking, I look every day, and I think it'll get to a point where I could start making offers,

but some of the properties that come up, they're great, but I don't want to be like their first week on the market. Here's an offer for 30% less. It's like, I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot. It's offensive to them. But if it's been listed for six months, four months, whatever, then I'd consider making an offer. Yeah. I know you get asked this question a lot, but if someone had between 20,000 in cash or100,000 in cash, and I know you're not a financial advisor, what would you be suggesting as options for them to do to invest it as opposed to holding on to it in the bank and they wanted to invest it somewhere? What would you suggest?

Between $20,000 and $100,000 of extra cash laying around that they want to invest in somewhere and make an interest. The biggest thing that's made a difference for me is house hacking. One of the best things that I've done is buy the duplex. I moved in one side, I rented out the other. Not every area has a duplex that you could go and buy. But I found that if you could reduce your housing, because housing makes up 25% to 35% of your income it's just a third of it is gone just for a place to live but if you could find a way to reduce that by using that down payment leveraging that for you know a duplex or a triplex or anything where you could rent out the

other units ideally it'll cover your overhead but even if it covers half like to be able to save an extra 20 percent of your income by building up equity in a property that you could rent out, I think that's tremendous. But you also have to be okay with being a landlord, putting in the time to like managing a property. Yeah. Fixing stuff, everything. Yeah.

And you also have to be careful about what you buy, that it's a good deal. It's like just because it's a duplex doesn't mean it's worth buying. So if you're willing to put in the work, I think that could probably yield the highest results. Yeah. What's your thoughts about owning a home in general? I know there's different real estate experts that talk about, you know, only rent where you live and own the thing that you rent out. So it brings you in passive income. What's your thoughts? You own your home. You live there. Do you think people should buy a home or should they rent and use their down payment as an investment to bring in cash somewhere else i think it really depends on the

area um places like los angeles generally are cheaper to rent the difference becomes if you plan to live in the house for like 15 20 years and you know it's a place that you're going to be raising a family or for the peace of mind of being able to like not worry about rent increases. But like Los Angeles is an area, for instance, where renting is so much cheaper. The majority of the city is rent control. Your rent's going up usually three to five percent a year at the very most. It's cheaper. um just it's cheaper 13.9 i'll say that again 13.9 back in your pocket because plenty of my listeners already signed up for masterworks and they delivered a 13.9 net return just last month masterworks three last sales returned 13 17 and 21 net all in the last three months. Masterworks deals in fine art, not NFTs or crypto, but the same stuff you see in museums from legends like Picasso. It sounds

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I mean, it's more expensive right here than it is anywhere in the country. Yeah, true. True. A lot of other places. It's cheaper to rent versus owning here because it's so expensive to own. I would say generally, if you plan to live in the house for seven to ten years, it's usually cheaper to own. But you have to factor in also, know your closing costs commissions maintenance now in la there's there was a whole like mansion tax coming out did you see this in april yeah i saw that

trying april five percent if you sell it i don't think that passed did it i'm pretty sure in april if your house is over five million i don't i don't think that passed i think it did it passed i have not kept up i think you're in vegas now i think it did so it's. I have not kept up. I'm glad I moved out. You're in Vegas now. I think it did. So it's like if you had a $5 million home, 5% on the mansion tax. On top of it. I think it's stupid. It's crazy, right? My issue with California is that their solution to everything is tax.

Let's not fix everything that's broken here. We just need more money. But they make so much money to begin with. Where does it go? Who knows? Where does it go? So their thing is just let's tax the rich people. Let's drive everyone out of state.

But then let's tax the people who stayed even more. It makes no sense to me. I think, you know, California is such an amazing state with so much to offer. Why did you move? You grew up here. Yeah. You grew up in Cali and L.A. Why go to Vegas when the weather is perfect here 90 of the time you've got the ocean you got the mountains you've got

industries here why move away i think the quality of life deteriorated to a point where it was better somewhere else and i never thought i would leave but what really kept me here was doing real estate and like up until 2020, I was going to the office every single day to the Oppenheim group and I would do real estate on the set. Like I was like 85% YouTube at that point. But if a client came around, like I was, and they were looking for a $4 million house, like I'm going to help them find a house. Anyone else? I had, you know, a cool little referral business within the office of like, I'll give that to so and so and I'll give that to this. And it worked really well. And I'd be involved in the

phone, like throughout the process, but they would do a lot of the stuff and it worked really well. But when COVID happened and I was just like home making videos, I realized how much I loved just like being able to make videos and like do that. I just had so much fun doing that. Then I realized you don't have to be in Los Angeles to do that. Just checked out Vegas, realized how nice it is in some of these areas of like Henderson and Summerlin. Yeah, Henderson's nice. Really liked it. I'm inside anyway.

Like, you're talking about like going to the beach and the mountains. You don't do that. How many people in LA really go to the beach? No one goes to the beach. Like, sure you go to the mountains every now and then. I'm inside anyway. Might as well save on property tax. Might as well save on all these things.

The quality of life there was so much better. The house was way less expensive. Way bigger. Twice the square footage. I was able to have a larger office. My office in Vegas was four times the size of my office in LA. I was able to also have a podcast studio in my house. At the time Jack was living with me, he had a bedroom there.

So like, I would say half the house was an office. And that was like an entirely separate part of everything. Like, you know, walk in, you have the kitchen, everything. And then this left side was office. It was like Jack's room, he was editing, he was doing the podcast podcast like it was perfect setup but then also it's like there's no potholes in the road there's no traffic everyone is really friendly it's a really great community i know all the neighbors and like in los angeles

you might know the people on either side of you and that's it it was so like closed off vegas was like very friendly and it's been perfect for you yeah so immediately i knew like this is the right choice and i i would say every now and then i do miss uh the weather the weather here is obviously better yeah but i don't mind the heat um you're inside all the time anyways i would say the biggest difference though i like the people here i feel like here you get a wide range of people perspectives ideas um it's like this this melting pot of different cultures that you don't get as much in vegas and i miss this sort of like free spirit entrepreneur there's something different here than you get in vegas and sometimes i feel in vegas you get in your own little world of just doing one thing,

and then I come back here and get to meet and see other people who are doing much bigger things, and it's inspirational for me to see. Maybe you're moving back out in the next year or two. No. Just come out more. But I could come back for work, and I could come back here for a few days and then jet right back home. That's cool. I'm happy with that.

That's good, man. I'm curious about what is the psychology that happens for you when money comes into your bank account? When you get a check, which I don't know if you get checks anymore, but when money enters the bank account, and you get paid on the 20th or 21st on YouTube money every month or whatever it is, sponsors come in. When it enters and you see it come through, is there an emotional connection you

have to that dollar amount yeah or is it neutral is it is it no is it exciting is it fun is it scary what is the feelings that you have so immediately because it's really hard to separate what i have my bank account versus what i'll have left over after tax so whatever money is in there i just mentally will do. And I do quarterly taxes, but like anything that comes in, I just multiply that by 0.6. And I just assume 40% is going to be gone for taxes, accounting, miscellaneous fees, just random stuff, just average 0.6%. And then I take what's left over of that, and then I multiply that by 4%. And that, to me, is how much that money will last for the rest of my life.

And so I do that with everything. So for every $100 I get, I have $0.60 left. Or sorry, $0.60. For every $100 I have, $60 left, 0.4. I think that works out to be like $2.80 or whatever it works out to be. That's my passive income. And like that's, I'll never go below that.

And so that's what, I invest everything. I mean, my actual personal expenses and cost of living is very low. Like everything I do is either for the business, discretionary, personal is like almost nothing. So it's just like everything gets invested for the most part that's left over from that and uh and how do you how does it how does it feel though when you're analyzing this you see the dollar amount come in you multiply you do all

these things does it excite you do you feel abundant do you feel like okay everything's on the right track do you feel scarce ever i I'm sure, I'm sure I definitely, everyone tells me I've got like a scarcity mindset because I'm so much like when I get something, I don't wanna lose it. But I've also been very conservative in terms of like building wealth, saving money, in terms of like investment returns, like everything.

I'm like, if I just can average 4%, like I'm fine. Or even three, usually 3%. But no, for me, I just think like I've always increased my lifestyle based on really the 3% rule of like, I could spend 3% of what I have invested every single year, uh, regardless of how much it makes 3%. What can I buy with that? And then even of that, I'm like, okay, well, I still want to save half. So it's like really the one and a half percent rule. But it gives me something to look forward to that I know it's sustainable.

Like whatever I want to do, as long as I stick with that, I can get new experiences. I can work my way up to something else in a way that I don't have to worry about it running out and just feel safer that way. Because at least what I've seen from real estate, so many people just like blow all of their money. I remember this one person who was well known and was making $5 to $10 million a year. And they were having difficulty qualifying for a house, making $5 to $10 million a year

because they spent it all. Now, their view, I'm sure, was I'm I'm just gonna keep making money like it's not an issue And they've gone on to have a successful career make a lot of money But for me I could never be at a point where like I'm spending that much I'm like that's the threshold like you have to because you never want to go down. I think it's really hard to scale back It's very easy to scale up. So I've always made sure to like be very careful of once you get want to go down. I think it's really hard to scale back. It's very easy to scale up. So I've always made sure to like, be very careful of once you get used to something, like it's hard to go down and it's very easy to go up and you don't want to set the bar too high, just in case. So I've always been like really cautious about like what I do and just knowing

that, you know, lifestyle inflation is a thing and how could I curb that in such a way that is sustainable but still gives me something to look forward to. How often do you make emotional purchases? Almost never. I don't think there's any purchase that I make that's emotional. Really? No. I mean, the only thing that I bought without money in mind was my aquarium.

That was the only thing that I did not. Yeah, I didn't look at the price tag, I don't care about how much it costs, and I'm not getting any return on my money. That was the only thing, but I built that into like what I have invested. I'm like, okay, if I have X amount invested, that'll pay for the aquarium,

and X amount invested in addition to that will pay for all the maintenance, all of that stuff. So I just like factored it in that and worked towards that being a goal. What were the three biggest lessons that doing real estate sales taught you about life and business in general? Yeah, I would say not giving up. Because with sales, it's like you have to stay on it. And learning how to differentiate between like read people, I guess is a big one, Because I got fooled so often. Like, as a young agent, you don't realize how many fakes there are out there.

Like, people who will just waste your time and pretend to be buyers. I had this dude. And I was so naive. And looking back, I was an idiot. He walked into the open house and told me that he was in the market for, like, $25 to $50 million homes. The guy wasn't, like, you know, representing himself in such a way where he could afford these houses. for like 25 to $50 million homes. The guy wasn't like, you know, representing himself in such a way where he could afford these houses.

Nor would a guy of that caliber, realistically trust an 18 year old kid who's like brand new to show up. Yeah, show me 50. Like chances are they have business managers. They don't even show up to the houses first. They have assistants do it first and then they have people vet it

and then they show up and they're very discreet. This guy was very flashy about like, oh yeah, I did this and my company does that. Like they're talking about, I had no idea. So I'm sitting there showing him houses and every agent is looking at me like, is this guy pre-qualified? Blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, oh yeah, he's good. qualified, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, oh yeah, he's good. Idiot. And I remember one agent, I would consider her like, not a mentor, but she really took me under her wing. And she had a listing and she's like, bring him to my listing and I'll feel him out for you. And she was there anyway. And so he came there and she started asking him questions about like his proof of funds. He literally goes into his car and his trunk and pulls out papers and hands it to her and she's like this is proof of funds it was like a

word document the guy just printed out saying like x amount company blank this this and afterwards she's like this guy is fake he's not real he's not a real buyer um and then but you'd already spent 20 listings showing him 20 listings yeah but then you also ruin your name in the process of like any time you bring a buyer by. These agents remember that. They know, oh, this is Graham. He's the kid who brought by this like really bad buyer. He wasted my time.

I spent an hour setting up this house. And like their time is valuable. My time, I got nothing to lose. And this guy, meanwhile, was just, I think he was just dreaming. And he was using it as inspiration. And he would spend like two hours at the house just like laying back. my gosh i was an idiot oh man okay so learning learning to read people uh never giving up being consistent yeah but you can't but you can't never give up unless you know how to read the right person right know what their really intentions are what's another big lesson

you think you learned from real estate i loved it i don't know there's something about it where i just felt i could do this 24-7 and it never felt like work. It's just like what I enjoy doing. I got so excited every day to wake up. Like you know the feeling sometimes where you had just like a really good day and you can't go to sleep?

Or like, I don't know. You're so excited, yeah. Yeah, or like maybe like a Christmas morning where you can't wait to wake up. Like you know you're going to Disneyland or something like that. That's how I felt going into work. I just enjoy it.

Like, I would wake up early and, like, be excited every day to be able to go and do real estate and, like, learn and be around these houses because, for me, it was so foreign to, like, walk into a $5 million house, get to be around people who could afford that. And, like, everyone I saw was like,

what can I learn from this person? I just found it really inspiring. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, it really opened up my mind in terms of like what's possible. And so I really believe that like having access to Los Angeles just gave me that worldview of like,

it's insane the possibilities that are out there. Yes. And just believing that, hey, if these guys could do it, why can't I? And you would see that they're nothing special. It's just, they've got good at a skill and you don't need to be like the super human person. I'm curious about your thoughts on money and relationships.

How has been living an extreme frugal financial lifestyle supported or hurt you in intimate relationship with your girlfriend? I don't think it's ever hurt. It's never hurt? I don't think it's ever hurt. Even like just dating in general, I think there are cheaper ways to do everything. And people that know me in general, like they kind of would know what they're getting into. Right, right.

They're not expecting you to do something. Yeah, it shouldn't be a surprise. But like I would say a lot of the things that you would do like in a relationship, they're either free or they're very inexpensive. Like, I think it's more important to spend quality time with the other person versus like, hey, we're going to go to like this fancy restaurant. I think there's a time and a place for that for sure. But I think at least for the first, like the dating period, it doesn't have to be expensive at all. And with Macy, it's been really nice because she's, I don't want to say she's as frugal as I. She's okay with spending money on certain things if she feels like the value's there versus I'm always like the cost.

Like, oh, but the value might not be there for this. We could get 80% of it. You know, I want to say with her, I've definitely loosened up because I could afford it. But a lot of the things still, it's like she enjoys contributing. I appreciate that. I think some of our trips, it's like, you know, she's got credit card points. She's like, I opened up these credit cards. I got the sign up.

I was like, it's a free trip, you know? So a lot of things like this, they don't have to cost money. But I will say I have loosened up with Macy's just in the sense that I don't fret over like a $60 dinner anymore. Like five years ago I was in that $50 dinner and be like well we could do that for cheaper over here. I'm going to eat a little bit at home and I'm going to go there and get one. Oh my gosh.

It's bad. It's really bad. Do you wish you would have changed that if you could go back? Would you have done it differently? Had more balance? Probably not. I mean, I'm sure there are things going back where I'm like, yeah, I should have done that. It was stupid.

Like one time, I know I'm going to get hate for this, but there was a car meet and I had budgeted. And again, like it's different if you're making like 20 grand a year. I was probably making a hundred grand a year. And I had budgeted that day only for gas. I didn't have enough for the food and they're all driving through Malibu and they're going to like this fancy place for lunch. I got a Subway instead.

And, you know, we sat down at the table and I asked this really nice because it was like a row of like 20 people. Like, can I eat my Subway here? Oh my God. And they were totally cool with it and i figured the tip that i'd leave them is way less than what i would have spent on this meal that i didn't need i wanted a subway i didn't want to spend 50 dollars or

anything so i just left the tip instead there you go and i ate my subway they were totally fine with it i forget what it was a restaurant in malib There was, but there are 20 people at the table. I don't know how big the bill would be. But, you know, anyway, like that's the stuff that I, you know, in hindsight, it was cringy to do. Oh, the other thing I would do all the time is if I were out with friends and there's extra food and they weren't taking it home, I would be the one being like. You would take it home. Everything.

Box it up. Everything. But I would get a whole meal out of that. That's great, yeah. A whole meal. I need to take more stuff home. That's what I need to do. Oh, yeah.

Nothing would ever go to waste. That's good. Even when we go out with the Oppenheim group, it was usually the six of us. Oh, they had lots of good food then. And Jason was the type, order everything. And then you'd say, you got a meal for a week. Yeah, but because he likes to be like, I'm going to have a few bites of this, a few bites of that, a few bites of us. Oh, they had lots of good food then. And Jason was the type, order everything. And then you'd say, you got a meal for a week. Yeah, but because he likes to be like, I'm going to have a few bites of this, a few bites

of that, a few bites of this. And then there'd be like half a meal there. And he would just, oh, I'm going to get it. I'm going to take it all home. And that, like I'd put it in the fridge and I'd live off that for days. So that's a lot. Like when I made one of my how much I spend in a week videos, I think my like grocery bill is like a hundred and something dollars a month for food. But now

a lot of that was subsidized by like eating really good food, but taking it all home and then divvying it up throughout. Like it's like a meal prep, but like it's food that would have gone to waste. I'm curious, what do you think are the biggest money myths that keep a lot of people broke? Money myths that keep people broke. I don't know. I always feel like that you could die tomorrow is a common thing that I would hear a lot of people say. Like I'd rather just live now, then my perspective is that you can always live tomorrow too.

Like your chances of living tomorrow, knock on this, much higher than passing away. So I think plan for tomorrow is a probably better approach statistically. I feel like you can live just as easily like in your 30s and early 40s as you can I'm sure the experiences during 20s are different um looking back I still feel like mentally I feel like 23 to 25 I don't think I've grown up since then mentally I still feel the same age uh except

I need more sleep now but I feel like now like I've i've done so much saving throughout my 20s that now i can finally like loosen up to a certain extent buy an extra piece of sushi it's one piece yeah i still i still look at prices like we went out to sushi today i saw a 28 roll and a 15 roll i'm like 15 i get two of those versus one of those. I'd rather the two, so I got the two. If you had to go back and just imagine your 18-year-old self, how old are you now? 32. 32. So imagine 14 years ago.

And imagine that you, in a hypothetical world, you had to become a millionaire in half the time. So you had to hit your first million in revenue and sales coming in in half the time from 18 to that time, right? As opposed to when you were, I don't know how old you were. I was 26. 26. You had to do it at 22, 23, right? Let's just say hypothetical scenario, you had to. What would you have done differently in order to get there?

Would it even be possible? It would have been YouTube. For me, yeah, because every day after real estate, I wouldn't watch TV, watch YouTube. Like that was my version of TV, this was like 2008. Early YouTube. Very early YouTube, but that was like, I would come home and just watch YouTube videos.

Like that was what I enjoyed doing. And I noticed back then that there was no business or entrepreneur content on there. And what really solidified it for me was Rob Dom. He's a car channel. Posted a video about how he was able to buy a Lamborghini Diablo, a 2001. And he made a video in his garage, like, way before, like, the Tai Lopez stuff. Like, way before like the tai lopez stuff like way before but he made a really inspirational video about how what he did for a living to afford a lamborghini

diablo and was so honest about it and there was a guy before him his name was robert uh hilner or himmler i don't know his name uh i can't remember his last name how it's pronounced um I can't remember his last name, how it's pronounced. He drove a green Lamborghini and was selling a program or a course or something about how to get rich or something like that. There was some speculation that it was like family money or something like that. But he, I believe, owned like a car customization shop or something like that. So Rob Don made this video basically saying, I'm going to just tell you what I know for free. I have nothing to sell you. And this is my story.

And he posted it. I was so inspired by that. That for me is like, I wanna do that. And what really hit it off for me was that I sent him a message on Instagram. Like he maybe only had a few thousand subscribers at the time. Or sorry, not Instagram, Facebook. I sent him a message and I'm like,

hey, I love your content. And I could pull it up here if you wanna see it. But my original message back then was like, there's a huge market on YouTube for this type of content. If you double down on this, it could be huge. Really? Yeah. I bet I could pull it up now.

So this was a video he put on YouTube. Yeah. But you mentioned him on Facebook. He was just doing a couple of videos. He wasn't doing it consistently. Correct. Hey, Rob. Message from a fan and fellow car enthusiast.

I've been watching your videos from before you had 10,000 subscribers and love your videos. I'm so happy how far you've come. You'll be hitting 100,000 subscribers shortly. You've definitely been a great inspiration. I have two questions for you if you have the time. And then I ask like what camera and mics you use. And then what did you find give your biggest break?

Was it uploading content regularly? Was it car videos? Was it inspirational? And then I said did you find give your biggest break? Was it uploading content regularly? Was it car videos? Was it inspirational? And then I said, just a comment. I believe you could have a great career in motivational speaking in business. There's a big market for young people who don't relate to Tony Robbins and who have never heard of Napoleon Hill before. Just food for thought.

This would be a big opportunity. And then he responded back. He gave his answers and said, I want to be a motivational speaker without actually being a motivational speaker. Ha ha. And then I said, you know, I think you could take these very, very far in that direction. But that was more than 10 years ago. But I wanted to do that, but I didn't have the courage to do it. Why didn't you have the courage? I didn't have a Lambo. I know how stupid it sounds, but I felt like who would listen to me?

What did I have to, like Rob had a business and a Lamborghini? He was credible. Yeah, what did I have? You know Looking back it's stupid because I could have like I felt I needed either a million dollars a Lamborghini Like something a show of success because back then that's what you had to do on YouTube it was like Lamborghinis just got clicks and you know me starting my career in real estate with you know 150 grand in savings or like still a lot like looking back could have said like how to make 100 grand by like 20 something um i didn't have the courage i felt like i would embarrass myself and but had i started back then i would have been so early. And it was just a feeling.

I wanted to do that, but I just didn't put it off for years. So I'm really excited you're talking about this because I think a lot of people don't have the courage to do the thing they really want to do because they don't feel credible or ready to do it. So what would you say to people who are like, well, I don't have the money. I don't have the credibility yet.

I'm just getting started in this thing, and I want to start talking about it or creating content or doing whatever, writing a book about it. But who's going to listen to me? What would you say to those people? You just got to do it. It got to a point for me where I guess the intuition of like, I want to be doing this. Why am I not?

Started getting to a point where I just felt if I don't do it now I'm never going to do it and then I thought to myself would I look back in the future and regret not doing this and then I thought yes and so I just I secretly made a YouTube channel and filmed the video during an open house and I'd like just with my iPhone one taped it and uh well I did multiple takes trying to get ready for it because people would walk in the house I'd like but I just posted one video and I was like I'm gonna post up see what happens and I had no idea what I was doing but I learned like as I was doing it you know I had the window right here so I had like realized if I shoot against the window like I look to like you know dark and if I go here

lighting's better, minor things. Then I looked on YouTube, like how to edit a YouTube video on YouTube. Learned iMovie through there. How to edit a good thumbnail. I could just see what's working. Daryl Eves was a big one for me, learning about SEO and stuff like that,

like how to rank. Michael back then was just to rank on the first page for different key search results. So like I wanted to rank first page for passive income, how to be a millionaire, real estate. The first one I ranked was 2008, it's so niche, 2008 Lotus Exige S240. And there were like 20 videos on there

with like 20,000 plus views. And I was like, I wanna be on the first page. So I made my video Lotus Exige S240 review, you know, 2000, like something like that. And I slowly wanted to just climb and I shared it online and like that didn't help. But like over time it just kept doing better. Yeah. So I just, you just got to start. Do you feel like you have a scarcity mindset or an abundance mindset? I don't know.

Probably a degree of both, I would say. I don't like loss. So I'm really risk-averse when it comes to stuff like that. I'm okay losing a certain percentage because it's like, okay, if you have $100, if you lose a penny, it's not that big of a deal. So it's like things like that in terms of a percentage don't phase me. But just in general, I'm really against loss. So like whatever I get, I'm very conservative with it because I want to make it last. So in terms of that, I would say a scarcity mindset. There is some abundance though, in terms terms of bigger opportunities and pursuing, I would

say, passions. I'm not afraid to do that anymore. But yeah, financially, I'm just very conservative. Yeah. What's the investment you've made that had the biggest loss? Financial investment. Like in an asset class. Oh, an asset class.

Like stocks or crypto or real estate. Did you ever lose a bunch of money that you're like, man, I put $100,000 in and lost it all? Are we talking dollar amount or percentage? Yeah, dollar amount. Very stupid one. I bought Robinhood stock. That was probably the worst loss I've done. Individual stock.

That was an individual stock I picked. What did you put in it, roughly? $200,000. $200,000. $200,000. How much did you lose? It was down like 60%, 70% by the time I sold. So $150,000 or something you lost. Yeah, that was stupid.

It still was in the ratios of what was acceptable to me in terms of like a percentage but it was stupid i mean it was just like that was a gamble was that an emotional lost it was when their stock dropped like they saw a substantial drop and i'm like people are still posting their screenshots on wall street bets robin hood has a lot of cash they're not going anywhere there's so many places to pivot um take a risk on this and i think i put a hundred grand in that and then it dropped even more i'm like i'm gonna double down on this because oh man stupid that was stupid but again like in the big picture we're talking about uh you know if the portfolio size is let's say eight million bucks like we're talking about like you know 200 grand total of that so in a percentage it's like

not that bad but when you think of the dollar i don't think of the dollar amount like i really want to throw up it's like uh it's the worst that was just that was a stupid one now i do have others that make up for it sure on the other side i think end phase at one point was up like 400 and something percent the original tesla i bought was up two thousand percent so like i had winners on that that's big um and i sold almost all my tesla too back in march the high which was luck because i sold it to buy a tesla roadster and then i just kept selling it afterwards because I was like, well, now I sold this.

I may as well just reinvest it in the S&P. And I'm like, I'm still getting an equal exposure in the S&P to putting it there and it's safer. And that was just luck. But I also had the opposite of that. I sold my original half. I, my original half, i think i sold in 2020 um when it had increased like threefold really quickly looking back i mean that's still way

cheaper than it is today like oh well you win some you lose some so that's why it's like individual stocks such a tiny part of my portfolio but like looking back it's a stupid i would have been better off just putting all of it but yeah i mean you get it out of your system yeah of course i'm curious you've been talking about your prediction on your channel for what's going to happen this year a lot of financial experts i've been talking about you know the prediction of a potential crash, crisis, all these different things in 2023. If you could, based on all the information you have, all the research you've done, you do so much research in every video and you know a lot of these experts and what they're

talking about. If you could have a magic ball and see what is going to happen in 2023 over the next six to 12 months, what do you think is likely to happen gosh i have no clue i mean anything that i think is going to happen just like the opposite does always so i've just accepted that the best thing that i could do is like look at historical data and just extrapolate based on that over the next 10 years i think 2020 has shown us like everyone is wrong like No one could have predicted what would have happened. No one could have predicted the Fed turning around as quickly as they did. It was like... Popping in that much money. Yeah, like all of that was so sudden that like there aren't models that exist to account for stuff like that.

So I just think, yeah, in terms of that, I have no clue. Yeah, what are the experts saying? Are they saying there's going to be more inflation? What's funny is that whatever you want to see, you could find experts saying exactly that. So when you look at S&P 500 estimates, there are people guessing for the S&P to end at 5,000 or to end at 28. And so you could find reasons for and against anything, I think the general consensus seems to be the S&P is probably going to be like 34 to 37 by the end of the year. That's like the average. So I think a lot of people take the approach,

well, if the downside risk is that, but the upside is right now I can make 5% of my money in treasuries, like that seems like the better option. From my perspective, this is just what I think, I think if treasuries are paying 4.5% to 5% risk-free, it makes it very enticing to put your money there over stocks. There has to be a risk premium that's built in where people find more opportunity in stocks to take that risk to make it worth it. I think the same thing also applies to real estate. If properties are generating 5% but someone's making 4.5% risk-free, locked in for the next two years,

that's more enticing. So I think there's got to be enough of a divergence between the two. Stocks have to be so cheap to want to take the risk in that versus like, well, I get 6% guaranteed. If the S&P was trading at 1,500 right now, everyone would be like, oh, I'm 6% guaranteed. Like if the S&P was trading at 1500 right now, everyone would be like, oh, I'm going to buy that. Screw treasuries. So I'm interested to

see how that'll play out. I think a lot of people are waiting for the Fed to pivot, to pause or to maybe even reduce. I don't think they're going to come out and say that that's their plan because as soon as they do, then the market goes up and everyone starts spending again. So I think the Fed has just like got to play their hand close and like i think a lot is they're looking at that yeah and a lot has happened the last couple years with crypto nfts and now ai coming in a lot of around ai uh what's your thoughts on crypto nfts ai in terms of building wealth for the future, when it seems like there's been a lot of scams and all these different things and get rich quick schemes and people losing a lot of money. How can people use these tools or should they even consider them

to build wealth in the future? I never understood NFTs. that was the one thing that i i really tried to like get into it i wanted to buy a crypto punk but i just didn't i thought it was kind of neat to have like kind of the original but crypto kitties was like the original one i never really understood i never got into nfts uh crypto i've had an on and off relationship with because I bought Bitcoin originally 2017 from 7 16 5 17 and I like day traded it because for me it's like everyone is talking about Bitcoin and at the time it went from basically a thousand dollars from when I started making YouTube videos to 17 and so that whole rise people people were calling me, make a video about Bitcoin.

I just didn't get it. I'm like, I don't understand it. And I thought when I made that video, I'm going to buy a Bitcoin and see if I understand firsthand what it's about. And maybe me buying into it, I could just feel firsthand what everyone else is feeling. That helps. Sometimes when I'm talking about something, it's hard to talk about something like objectively without

having been in it and then once you're in it you could kind of see like like you put on the goggles and you see like wow this is what everyone else sees and experiences like this is why they feel this way uh so i bought a bitcoin but i was like i had so much fun trading it because it was like 24 7 it's like you could be there at like and i was just having so much fun like two o'clock in the morning like checking it going up but i was making like these little 20 30 dollar like profits like it went up and i just sell and then i place place a limit and then buy and do this. But I just trade it. And then from there, I just spread it amongst a whole bunch of crap coins just for fun. But I don't just really focus just on Bitcoin, really.

What do you feel like AI is going to be coming now for building wealth? Do you think anything is there around? I think it's probably too early. I worry AI is going to become like the next hypey sort of thing. And I could see it going in that direction. I don't know how that'll come about, but I could totally see like a year or two from now, like AI become the next like crypto boom, NFT. Web 3.0 and all these things. Something like that.

crypto boom nft 3.0 and all these things yeah something like that i think like with crypto i could see there being a huge future in that in terms of like the blockchain and like its use cases i think i'm surprised they haven't created a digital dollar yet like i think that's coming i think it's going to get to the point where everyone like you get a social security number you get a wallet right now and they know exactly how much goes into that wallet, how much goes out, where it goes. Like imagine every dollar has a tracking device in it. And they can see like, wait a second, you received this dollar, you got paid from this person,

but you paid it out to here. Why wasn't there a tax? Why didn't you claim this? Like I think it's all going to get to that point in the future. There's going to be no privacy. They can't get away with like without physical money at all For probably quite some time. It's always gonna be legal tender Like imagine trying to like scrounge of dollars from it like you're not gonna do it.

Well there's some restaurants that don't take physical currency, you know in LA Yeah, it's like it's getting that way where it's only through the app. Yeah, just don't I think it's just gonna they're gonna make it so convenient and They're gonna build so many walls around using cash that people are going to go, oh, I'm going to pay attention to it. So I think cryptocurrency is going to provide an option for them to do a digital dollar to track everything. And they'll know. They'll try to curb anything and just track it.

So I could see it going in that direction. So I think it's a ton of opportunity. I also think someone else had mentioned mentioned this it makes sense to me like verifying luxury goods like if you want to buy let's say ferrari you have something on the blockchain it says like you are the owner this is built by ferrari here's all the details buy louis vuitton bag and like the replicas are getting so good you want to verify it's that here's a. Here's a little NFT thing that comes with it. You can scan it and you are the owner. This belongs to this.

So I could see that. That's interesting. So that's where I think it's going, but I think we're just in that initial boom phase and it's going to develop and I think the potential is huge. And that's why I don't know if Bitcoin, Ethereum is going to be something that stands out like an Amazon of the dot-com bubble,

or if it's going to be like a GeoCities where it's like nobody uses that. So I don't think we know quite yet, but I do think there's a ton of potential in that. AI, I don't know. I'm not smart enough to understand it. I don't know anything about it either. Yeah. I think it's really cool. Yeah, I think it's really cool.

What I was saying in my video yesterday, I think it's going to get to a point where AI is going to be able to create any video you want. Like imagine you searching and getting a tutorial for anything you need and it's created in AI. Like here's an example. Yeah, like here's an example. But it's going to be so lifelike that you're not going to know this isn't a person making a video.

Like imagine you're changing a car in a 2006 Toyota Prius. You type in YouTube, how to change tire, 2006 Toyota Prius. You're going to get videos of people who have made that, but it's not going to be a 2006, it's going to be a 2005. It's not going to be the same color. There's going to be an intro, fluff, all that sort of stuff. But imagine if you typed in AI. You could create that video based on the blueprints of that car how to change a tire and it shows your exact car a 2006 Toyota Prius how to change the tire here's what you do

here's where the tool is here's this here's what you do and if you have a question how do I get the lug nut on when it's too tight and it creates a video how to get the lug nut off that's too tight but But that's, why can't it do that in the future? I think it can. I've got a couple of final questions for you. What's your money goals? If you could predict, it's 2030, seven years away. Seven years, yeah.

Where would you like to be in seven years with your money goals? With your investments, cash, assets? You know, obviously there's so much that could happen in the next seven years with your money goals, with your investments, cash, assets? Obviously, there's so much that could happen in the next seven years, so many new developments that probably will happen that you're not even aware of. But if you could have a goal in mind in seven years, where would you like to be financially? I mean, I feel like I'm already there. But it would be cool to be able to make a million a year

in passive income. I think it would be really cool just from investments. I think it would be a neat goal to have. I think it's doable. What do you need to make a million dollars

a year in passive? How does the calculations work for you? Probably about 25 million invested in relatively safe investments. Real estate, index funds. Yeah, I'm talking net.

So like net of all mortgage payments, just like purely profit, a million a year. Do you think you need $25 million in assets? Maybe less if it's real estate. You could probably do that with like $15 to $20, depending on the property you buy and if it's triple net and how much work you're doing on that um so i think it's it's doable depends on the investment just depends on what's the opportunity at the time but i like having a split between like index funds and real estate because i feel like yeah they're different enough where i'm not too concentrated sure sure that's cool but that that would be just a goal if i'm to say anything a

million a year probably yeah passive income it's anything. A million a year. Probably a passive income. It's pretty inspiring. You could have a lot of sushi with that. You could, yeah. Would you start spending more with that million in cash? Would you look at it as like, now I can spend on whatever? Or what would you think about then? I have no idea.

I'd probably get a bigger aquarium. Bigger aquarium, yeah. Realistically, though, I would say traveling first class, which you could do with credit card points, but being able to do that more frequently. I do want to travel. I think that's a goal of mine to do one day. I really want to do van life at some point.

Van life? Yeah. Get in a nice van and go around the country? Yeah. I think take the podcast on the road and do van life. I think it would be so fun. I'd visit all 50 states. I think it would be really cool.

Spend six months doing that. That's cool. Travel I think would be a lot of fun bigger aquarium um but for the most part like i'm i think at this point i just want to buy back my time and just be able to enjoy the things like the other day it sounds stupid but like it was a weekday and i just wanted to read a book like i never wanted to read a book like i don't i'm not a reader necessarily for books like i'll read anything online like it's on reddit i'll read the whole thing but i just felt like reading a book like i never wanted to read a book like i don't i'm not a reader necessarily for books like i'll read anything online like it's on reddit i'll read the whole thing but i just felt like reading a book but i was like well but i got so much work i need to do and like i'd feel better getting caught up and like ahead than i would reading the book but i really wanted to

read the book so i think i'll probably lean more in the direction of like taking more time like even doing a trip like this like a year ago I wouldn't have done it because I'm so focused on I just need to make videos and anything that distracts me from that. I don't think I was my happiest doing that because I just felt so stressed. There was just random things that I was not fully in the moment for because my mind was constantly thinking YouTube videos. What would be a good title for tomorrow's video?

Like people around having conversations and I'd be there and I'd be present. But like there's like that 20% of my brain that's thinking like YouTube in the back. It's always there. I don't think it's going to go away, but I would like to scale back from that a little bit. Just be more in the moment. We'll have to get you out here once every couple of months then for couple days you know i think so that's good man yeah um graham stefan show on on youtube you've got some amazing content over there i love it um you've got the podcast as

well which is really exciting how can we uh iced coffee hours podcast you guys can see it both on youtube how can we be of best service for you you got over four point something million subscribers now what can we do to serve you i don't want anything i would just say uh if you want to subscribe that would be cool um subscribe to your channel i don't know i'd just say just i'd subscribe to your channel. I don't know. I'd subscribe to your channel at this point. I'm fine. I would rather just subscribe here on this channel. It would be really nice. Subscribe to both of our channels. Yes. One of the questions I ask everyone at the end is called the three truths question. So imagine another hypothetical scenario. It's your last day on earth. You live as long as you

want to live. And you accomplish everything. Your money goals, life goals, they all happen. But for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your content with you. So no one has access to your information, your content, YouTube, whatever else you create. It goes to some other place when you die in the future.

So it just gets deleted. It gets, well, maybe it's just, we don't have access to it. It's somewhere else. So it's private. Yeah, it's private. It's unlisted. But for whatever reason, you have the opportunity to share three final truths with the world. Three things that you know to be true that you would share as lessons to the world.

And that's all we would have of your content left. What would be, again, off the top of your head, those three truths for you? I don't know. I don't know if there's like any absolute truths out there. Or just lessons that you would want to share. Three? I would say, gosh, like probably self-belief.

Like believing you can do something is very important. I think people are drawn to confidence and so if you could learn how to be your best self and accept that i think that would go a long way and i think um the less concerned you are with what other people think usually the the better they think about you because you're not afraid to be yourself. I think everyone is scared to be themselves. And so when they see someone else just like, you know, not caring, other people look up to that in a way that so many people can't do. So I would say like those things universally for me have been true.

That's cool, man. Final question for you before I ask it, I want to acknowledge you, Graham, for your commitment and dedication. It's been incredible what you've created over the last five years on YouTube. Every week you show up and give something inspiring, informational, and entertaining. And I know it takes you days of research and days of work, and you're doing a lot of it on your own and you've helped a lot of people educate them learn and learn about a scary subject for a lot of people which is money in a fun way so i really acknowledge you for how you keep showing up thanks and i know it's a lot of work and i know it's uh you know you're probably gonna have to figure out how to make it happen in the future at scale but what you've created in the last four or five years has been really inspiring

so i acknowledge you for your efforts your intelligence and your creativity it's really cool at scale but what you've created in the last four or five years has been really inspiring so like now for your efforts your intelligence and your creativity it's really cool thanks final question what's your definition of greatness oh man i would just say honestly to help others i think if you make an impact on someone else's life and it's a positive impact and you could they they have a good feeling towards that i think there's nothing better than that yeah anytime i meet somebody who's like you know i bought my first house because of you and my credit score is great then i turn my finances around now i have like 10k in the bank and i was broke like just the impact because i know like how that would feel for me

like for me like meeting rob dom for me would be one of those moments where i'm like dude you have no idea how much you've helped me just like your video on how to buy a lamborghini it was like set me off like and i'll remember that for the rest of my life and so just like having that for other people i think is so insane like it's it's hard to put into words but it's it's so neat and then you feel like you've got a friend. And so everyone I meet who's like, if they watch my videos, I know they're like into personal finance, investing, building wealth.

Chances are they're an entrepreneur. And so like we're instant friends because of that, like no matter what their background is. It's just, it's neat. And I've never had that before. I hope today's episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today's show with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me, as well as ad-free listening experience,

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And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.