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Why Financial Literacy Is the Real Path to Freedom Through Real Estate with Stuart Berryhill · The Academy Presents podcast

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Did you know that 90 % of the world's millionaires
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You're already taking the first step. just by
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joining us here today. Why I want you to be financially
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free, getting into kind of the why, is to me,
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first of all, I think the American dream has
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shifted a little bit and not in a positive way.
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The American dream, what it has been, is you're
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able to come to America, people have migrated
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to America, to be able to create whatever lifestyle
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they want. for themselves because they're able
1:28
to start a business, they're able to work hard,
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whatever it is. And you see success stories all
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the time of how someone's, I don't know, first
1:37
generation who moved over here worked hard and
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gave their children the opportunity to maybe
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start a business, things like that. And then
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they've grown to whatever their American dream
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is now. But the American dream, excuse me, the
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American dream was to be able to build. basically
1:54
centered around you can build whatever lifestyle
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you want for yourself. And to me, you know, I'm
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with a lot of millennials, Gen Z, I am a millennial,
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and I'm around a lot of Gen Z people, young people.
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And I think what the American dream has shifted
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to is not how can I build something for myself,
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but how can other people take care of me? And
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to me, there's so much more that you can do.
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I know that the more financially I guess, literate,
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the sharper my money vision became, the more
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I was able to see these opportunities that the
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wealthy were seeing. And so one of the reasons
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why I want people to be able to be financially
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literate and ultimately financially free is because
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I think it's empowering when you're financially
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literate. Because now you can start to see the
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opportunities the way that wealthy do. when you're
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not financially literate and you're kind of held
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down by whatever the circumstance is, it's really
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hard to see a way out. But the more financially
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literate someone gets, I think the more empowered
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you feel. And so that's one reason I want you
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to be financially literate and financially free.
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And the other, ultimately, is I think when you
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have people that are financially free, you have
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better philanthropists, you have better families,
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you have better fathers, you have better wives,
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because you're more free in the two currencies.
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There's two currencies. One is money that we
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know about, but the second is time. You treat
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time the same as the currency of money. You spend
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it, you invest it, and financially free people
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have both of those currencies. You have more
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money, you have more time, so you can invest
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more money into whatever philanthropist things
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you want to do, or more time into people. and
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the more time may actually be more important
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because it's something that you can't get it
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back. And so those are the two reasons why I
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want you to be financially free. Actually, here's
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a little clip. I'll shut up for a second. And
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here's a little clip from Alex Camino in our
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podcast. I think it's episode 55 if you want
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to listen to MoneyVisionU. But he talks about
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kind of the pay now, play later concept. Which
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by the way, you said you're still living in your
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garage. Is that what you said? Yeah, man, I'm
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in it now. So yeah, so still house hacking and
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you're making, I mean, you're financially free
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making 10 grand a month is what you're saying.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's it's. It's nice, man.
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And I'm obviously this is like, I'm not saying
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like, you know, I'm going to be here forever.
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I'm probably going to move out of here within
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a year into probably, you know, a new city, get
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the nice apartment, get a new car, all that kind
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of stuff. But I understand his levels to it.
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Like in order for me to get here, I had to do
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this. I had to delay gratification. Most people
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that graduate college with, you know, the salary
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I had all that they're going to get that new
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BMW. They're going to get the nice apartment,
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which I got the nice apartment too, but. When
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I woke up, I realized this is what I need to
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do. But the car, people are going to try to buy
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that dream house as soon as they can. Come on,
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man. It's delayed gratification is the most important
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thing along this journey to financial freedom.
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The most important thing. Love that clip. Dude's
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a stud. And remember, this is the dude that's
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making, technically now he's grossing $50 ,000
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a month. So it's probably more like a net cash
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flow. Call it $10 ,000 a month. But what do people
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do with that often? Move on to the next thing
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they buy the next thing but this dude still house
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hacking living in his garage Because he's just
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trying to delay that gratification So he can
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have more more assets build up his asset column
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to be even bigger to pay for all the liabilities
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that he wants and so I love that clip love that
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mindset because it really I'm gonna talk which
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by the way You said you're still living in your
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garage Oops, user error. I think too, like it's
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important to differentiate between not delayed
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gratification to your 60. It's delayed gratification
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long enough to build up some savings so that
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you can start getting some passive income. Because
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once you start getting passive income, now you've
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got extra passive income to create more passive
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income. Yeah. And it kind of just snowballs after
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that. And you start to learn the game. and you
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just see more opportunities than you did at the
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start. So there's momentum on that education
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side as well. And so I wanted to show that clip
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too, because I'm going to talk about three steps
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and kind of setting yourself up for financial
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success, but it really does all start with mindset.
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And I hate being cliche saying that's like a
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number one step because I'm a really practical
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dude. I'm an enneagram type one. If anyone knows
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the enneagram test, but it really does all start
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with mindset. Like I said at the intro of being
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consistent, doing gratification, knowing your
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goals, and just taking steps towards those every
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day. But let's talk about really the three steps
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that I see. And this is from countless, you know,
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I've got a podcast, I do a lot of networking.
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And when I ask people what their, you know, they
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think are most important or what they would advise
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to people starting out on their financial freedom
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journey. It's these three things. It comes down
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to these three things outside of kind of the
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mindset. So the first one is to invest in your
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financial literacy. You know, a lot of people
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want to get rich quick, whether it's hit the
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lottery, being in the right crypto, you know,
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whatever crypto is going to the moon, things
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like that, NFTs, et cetera. Not that any of those
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things are bad, but a lot of people I think are
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that that's not pursuing your financial literacy.
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That's more gambling, not investing. Just because,
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I'll say this, just because you invest in the
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stock market doesn't mean you're investing. You
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could be gambling if you don't know anything
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and you're just hoping to get lucky. A lot of
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people have done with crypto and it's burned
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them. They found out quickly that there's ups
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and downs in the market and in crypto, it is
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more volatile than really any of the other asset
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classes. And so that's more gambling than investing.
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And so even still, though, many people may have
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heard of the ESPN documentary called Broke, where
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it's about athletes who make a lot of money and
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then lose the money. Or you've heard of lottery
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winners who win the lottery and then they go
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bankrupt. See what happens. They don't have the
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financial literacy to be able to sustain that
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wealth. And when you're financially literate,
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you understand how to make manage and multiply
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money. When you're not financially literate you
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just hope to get rich quick and then say you
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have 10 million dollars it ends up not being
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invested into assets properly whatever it is
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and it's gone and we've seen that plenty of times
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from lottery winners and unfortunately athletes
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or not even athletes trust fund kids whatever
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it is people that you know maybe their parents
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had a lot of money They didn't have it and they
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lose it all. They spend it all. They go broke.
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And so got to invest in your financial literacy.
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I'm going to skip this clip actually, but that's
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a good episode. Tell someone what the difference
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is between that's a good episode. He's a MMA
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financial coach. So, and he actually spent like
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two years. playing blackjack and counting cards.
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And so he talks about the difference in investing
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in gambling and how to not get caught. Oh, holy
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night. But that's a fun episode for sure. But
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anyways, I'm a Dallas Mavericks fan, by the way.
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I was born in Dallas, Texas. So I don't know
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if you knew that angel, but it was big Dallas
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Cowboys or I am a big Dallas Cowboys, Dallas
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Mavericks. fan, yada, yada, yada, but I love
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Mark Cuban and he's always cracking me up. But
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I bring up this slide to say financially literate
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people can create wealth over and over again.
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So if you stripped Mark Cuban, for example, of
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all of his wealth and all of his connections,
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but he was able to keep his financial literacy,
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he would be able to be back where he was very
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quickly in a year or two years, whatever it is.
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He'd be able to find ways to start businesses,
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make the right connections, grow a business,
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and be back to where he was. Why? Because he
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is financially literate. And I know a lot of
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people may get frustrated with this, but if you
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took all of the money in the world, however many
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trillions of dollars it is, and divided it among
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the billions of people that we have, equally.
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Let's say everybody had a million dollars. I
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don't know how much it would be. Zero idea of
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the math there. But let's say everyone had a
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million dollars. What would probably happen is
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the people that didn't have financial literacy
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would fall to the bottom, and the people that
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had financial literacy would rise to the top.
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Because it's not the money that you have in your
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bank account, it's the knowledge that you have
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in your brain that brings you to wealth. And
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so that's why I think the first step of investing
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in your own financial literacy is so important.
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And here's kind of an extension. This is real
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financial literacy 101 stuff right here. Financial
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literacy also helps you align your investing
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with your goals. Whenever I'm with a lot of young
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people and whenever they ask me, oh, what should
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I invest in first? My first question is always,
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what are your goals? That's my first question
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always. Do you want cash flow? Do you want stability?
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Like, what are you going for? And so there's
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five different asset classes, business, real
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estate, commodities, paper assets, and crypto.
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and each one of them have pros and cons, and
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certain ones of them are more for certain stages,
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maybe in your financial freedom career. For me,
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I'm not investing in commodities. That's more
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of a hedge against inflation and something that
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is really like insurance for my wealth. It's
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to protect my wealth. I want cash flow. If you
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want financial freedom, well, to get that income,
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that cash flow, you need to be invested in something
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like businesses, maybe you start your own business
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or there's ways to invest in businesses as well
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to where you get dividends from that or real
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estate. Those are the two asset classes that
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I'm in. You can get dividends from paper assets
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like you invest in Coca Cola or Apple and you
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know, they pay dividends, but it's very small.
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You got to have a very large chunk of change
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to be able to get the right amount of dividends.
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So for me, I'm heavy in business and real estate
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because I need cash flow. So those are the five
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different asset classes that people say there
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are but I like to put an asterisk by that because
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to me there's a sixth education class or sixth
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asset class and that is education because remember
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what's the definition of an asset? An asset is
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anything that you invest in that puts money into
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your pocket. Well by that definition education
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into your financial literacy falls into an asset
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class or the definition of an asset. The only
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difference is to invest in your education, now
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it can cost money, you can invest in mentors
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and things like that, but most often when you
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are investing in your education, the cost isn't
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money, but the cost is time. And remember there's
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two currencies, money and time, and you can invest
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either one, but some people may have more time
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than money right now, and so you know especially
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if it's maybe a younger crowd, maybe you don't
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have a family or something right now, maybe you're
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single. I don't know what different people's
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stages of life are, but you got to invest in
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that sixth asset class because it's free. You
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can go to YouTube, you can go listen to podcasts,
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you can read books, and you are investing The
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only difference is you don't see money come in
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immediately. Well, if you invest in businesses
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as real estate, you're probably not seeing money
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come in immediately either. Maybe you do if you
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buy it really right. But it often takes time
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regardless. So I like to always define that there's
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a sixth asset class going by the definition of
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asset. And that's something that everyone can
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invest in because you can find time, whether
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it's working out every time. Every morning I
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work out and I listen to three hours of podcasts.
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I don't work out for three hours. I put them
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on 2x speed. And so it goes bam, bam, bam, but
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I'm getting the concept. I'm learning every single
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day. I'm growing. I just basically got so hungry
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that I stopped listening to listening to music.
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And I just listened to financial podcasts and
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a little fantasy football podcast. That's kind
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of my, my two, my two things, but I talked about
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what's your goal from investing. You got to be
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able to align your investing with your goals,
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understand your goal, where you want to be, and
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align your investing with that. And financial
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literacy shows you how to do that. That's why
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I think it's the number one step in aligning
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investing with goals. And here's another clip
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from Alex. Let me play this one. More gems dropped
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from Alex here. The reasoning behind things,
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because like you said, people will tell you give
15:13
your money to a financial advisor put money in
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a 401k well why i never put a dollar in my 401k
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and my literally the hr lady she was like are
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you sure you want two dollars like yes i don't
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want to put a dollar in my 401k i need that money
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because i know because here's the thing it's
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like why am i gonna and look if people that's
15:31
listening you have a 401k i know most people
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have a 401k it's cool it's totally fine but for
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me it was like I know I'm not going to be working
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until I'm 65. Why am I going to lock up my money
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in an investment thing I can't touch for the
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next 40 years? I'm not going to lock my money
15:44
up there when I can go put it in something like
15:46
real estate or business and immediately get the
15:49
RRI from that money. And so to me, it just didn't
15:52
make sense. And like you said, financial literacy
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aligning your investment goes with your knowledge.
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And so for me, my goal is freedom. So I'm not
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going to put my money in a place that doesn't
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lead to freedom. And let me say time out, time
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out right here, because I know that clip could
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be offensive almost, because everyone's heard
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you're almost naturally taught to put your money
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in a 401k. I'm not saying that's wrong at all.
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That may be the complete right move for you to
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do. The whole point here is aligning your investing
16:23
with your goals. This dude, Alex, he was hungry
16:26
for financial freedom. He wanted financial freedom
16:28
by the time he was 30. So naturally he was like,
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why should I tie my money up till I'm 60? So
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he figured out how to align his investing with
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his goals. And as funny as HR director was like,
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you sure you really want to do that? Like, what
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are you doing not investing into your 401k? You
16:42
know, we're going to do 100 % match and things
16:45
like that. And I'm not against 401k, I'm not
16:48
against IRM, I'm not against any of those things.
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Right now, my purpose is simply saying align
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your investing with your goals. And that's why
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Alex decided not to go into 401k. and he was
16:58
hungry. He figured it out. Now he's financially
17:00
free at 25 years old, but he probably wouldn't
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have got to that place of where he wanted to
17:04
be if he was maxing out his 401k. But again,
17:09
that wasn't his goal of stability, really passive,
17:14
not have to worry about it, completely enjoy
17:16
your job. You're not going to go anywhere. That's
17:18
a different goal than what Alex had. So I wanted
17:21
to clarify that because that can almost sound
17:24
offensive because it's so backwards. you