Latest / Money Grows on Trees / #298 - 85 Million Jobs Gone In 2026 (Who will pay the bills?)

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#298 - 85 Million Jobs Gone In 2026 (Who will pay the bills?) · Money Grows on Trees

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What if the job you've spent your entire life building could be made obsolete
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in the next 24 months? Well, according to the World Economic Forum, that's
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exactly what's going to happen and be the reality for 85 million people.
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And while the government and tech billionaires are telling you not to worry, that they'll
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just pay you to exist with universal basic income, they're
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hiding the real cost. It's a financial trap designed to make you a permanent
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dependent of the state. But here's the secret they don't want
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you to know. This disruption is also the single biggest wealth building opportunity
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of our lifetime. if you know how to play it. So
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I'm not here to give you career advice. I'm a finance guy. My job is
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to make you financially indestructible. So in this video, I'm gonna show you
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the three financial moves you must make to not just survive
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the AI revolution, but to come out of the other side wealthier than
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you ever thought possible. Let me take you back through history for a
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moment because this fear we're all feeling right now, this
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panic about AI taking our jobs, it's not new. It's,
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you know, we've been here before, many times. When the steam engine
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was invented, people thought it would destroy the economy, right?
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Manual laborers rioted. They smashed the machines. They
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thought their livelihoods were over, right? But what
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actually happened? The Industrial Revolution created more
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wealth, more jobs, and more prosperity than any
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other period in human history. It lifted billions out of poverty. When
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electricity came along, people thought it would eliminate millions of jobs, factory
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workers, lamplighters, manual laborers. But what actually happened? It
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created entire new industries. It made factories more
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productive. It created demand for technicians, appliances, and manufacturers. And
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it expanded the economy exponentially. When computers
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arrived in the 1980s, if you can remember, some of you guys will remember, people
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thought that white-collar work was over. Secretaries, bookkeepers, typists,
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all gone. But what actually happened? Computers created the
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information age, a whole age. Software development, IT
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support, digital, marketing, e-commerce, hundreds of
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millions of jobs that didn't even exist before now existed. And
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when the internet came along, people thought retail was dead. Brick
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and mortar stores would collapse and close. Millions of jobs would vanish. But
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what actually happened? E-commerce created an explosion of
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new roles. Digital marketers, app developers, logistics coordinators, content
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creators, influencers, customer service specialists, and retail, as
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it used to stand, still exists. It's still there. You can still go to the shops. The
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economy didn't shrink. It actually exploded. So here's the
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pattern. Every major technology wave looks
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terrifying at the beginning. Every time, people focus
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on the jobs that will be lost. And every time, they ignore the
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jobs that will be created. And every time, they're
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wrong. AI is no different. The same World Economic Forum
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that reported that 85 million jobs will be displaced also
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predicts 97 million new jobs will be
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created. It's a net gain of 12 million jobs. It's
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not job elimination, it's job transformation. That's the difference. But
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here's a critical difference. The speed of change is unprecedented.
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The transition from horse and buggy to car took
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about 50 years. The transition to AI
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is happening in five. And that speed creates massive risk
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of what economists are calling a skills mismatch. The
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jobs will be there, but will you have the skills
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to do them? And if you don't, what actually happens to you financially? That's
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the real question. Now let's bring this home to Australia because we
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have a unique situation here. We've got a massive
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skill shortage. There are people in our country that can't even work apps. And
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right now with the social media ban for under-16s, it's going to get worse. We're
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going to raise an entire generation that don't have the skills to
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leverage AI. You watch. Businesses are going to get desperate for
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workers, but they're not going to be able to find people who have
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the right skills. So according to a 2025 report by the National
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Skills Commission, Australia will need an additional 1.2 million
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skilled workers by 2030. That's 1.2 million jobs that
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we don't have for people to fill who
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live here. And according to the Tech Council of Australia, the tech sector alone
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already employs over 935,000 people. That's more than mining, more
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than construction, more than agriculture. And it's growing at
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2.5 times the rate of the rest of the economy. The
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demand for tech skills is insane. Companies
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are offering like, you know, multiple six-figure salaries, remote work, equity. This
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is crazy. And they can't find enough people because really what's
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happening in Australia is we're immigrating half a million people a year, but
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we're immigrating non-skilled people in this sector. That's the issue,
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right? So the whole idea that AI is going to create mass unemployment in Australia is
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absurd. The real issue is that we don't have enough people. with
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the skills to fill the jobs that already exist here, let alone the jobs that
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AI will create. We're very technologically non-advanced
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in Australia, and we're bringing the wrong people to advance it. We're not
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innovating. We're not putting ourselves in a position to leverage AI.
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We're not building data centers. We're just so
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far behind China and America. It's a real joke. Lee
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Kuan Yew used to be the leader of Singapore.
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He used to say that Australia is the redneck backwater
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of Asia. And he said we've been very lucky, the
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lucky country, because we have
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all these incredible minerals. We have so many resources in Australia to
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last a thousand years. And they
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call us the lucky country, but the reality is We're not really that lucky
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because those resources exist here. It's
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prevented us having to skill up and become a very dynamic economy. We're
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one of the most simplified, non-complex economies.
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I think we're number 104th in the world because we've been unblessed
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with these resources. It's a little bit like a trust fund kid
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having all this money. That's Australia, right? So there's a
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financial risk here if we don't step up to the plate and leverage what's
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going to happen in AI. In fact, if we don't get our energy right, if
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we don't get our AI skills up, we're
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going to get left behind by China and America. And there will be a day, because
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of that, that China will be able to just walk in here and take us. It
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will happen. And so we're really not doing ourselves any favours. If
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you're in a job right now that's being automated and you
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don't have the skills to transition to one of these new roles, you're gonna be
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left behind like us as a country, right? On a smaller scale, if you're already seeing
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that and experiencing that, you're gonna be left behind. There are people here right
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now in our country, a large percentage that don't know how to use
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Microsoft Excel. Fact, they don't know how
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to use basic technology, right? And so if you're in
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that boat, your income will stagnate, your wealth will stagnate, and
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you'll be vulnerable. In fact, you're probably vulnerable right now. And that's why
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the next three steps I'm about to outline are so critical. You
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need to build your financial safety net now, or you still have
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income. Because if you wait until you lose your job and start preparing, it'll
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be too late, okay? So, Before
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I jump into those things, let's talk about universal basic income. The
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idea that if your job gets automated, the government will just send you a check
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every single month. It's being pushed by tech billionaires like Elon Musk and
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politicians and, you know, as an inevitable solution. But
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as a finance guy, as an entrepreneur, I've got to tell you, it's
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a deception. It's a financial trap disguised as a safety net, right?
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First, the economics are a fantasy, right? To pay for it, you either
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print money, which leads to hyperinflation and makes your UBI
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check worthless, or you tax the hell out of the productive economy,
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the works and businesses who are still creating value. This destroys
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the incentive to work, to innovate, to build, and
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it's economic suicide. And that's already happening. So universal basic
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income, if we zoom out a bit in Australia, Where
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is it already coming from? It's coming in forms of a pension. It's
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massively coming in the form of NDIS support. And it's already
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making people dependent on the government. It's already happening. It's already putting a ceiling
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on your financial potential. It's putting a ceiling on your skills. And
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it's effectively creating a golden cage, right? So
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universal basic income, or UBI, is already really
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being implemented through welfare
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systems in our country. And what happens when
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you become dependent on a government to give you money? Then
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they control you. Very much like when you were younger and you had to
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ask your parents for 20 bucks to go and buy whatever you wanted to buy, right? They
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controlled you. So if you want to be controlled by a government, go
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and get universal basic income. And I know Elon's spoken about this and he's one
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of the cleverest guys ever. But You
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don't want universal basic income because then you're super dependent. And
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of course, hopefully resources become super abundant. But how I
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see that playing out is not in income. I see it playing out in cost
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reduction. So for example, you wouldn't pay electricity anymore.
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You wouldn't pay for running costs of a car. If we look at how Waymo is coming through, and
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if they use driverless cars and technology with renewable energy, I
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think transport costs will go down to next to nothing. In fact, right here
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now in our city, I'm pretty sure, I don't know if you can
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still do it, but it's $0.50 to get places. And I think that energy costs
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will fall, transportation costs will fall, food costs
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will fall. So I think universal basic income won't be an income,
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it'll be actually a cost reduction. That's what I think will happen
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mostly. So it means the money you are making will go a lot further. Now
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you might be thinking, what the heck is Lloyd smoking because we're going through massive inflation. But
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I think as we develop two things, AI and robotics,
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we start to get to access services
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and value at a very cheap level. In
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fact, that's exactly what's happened over the last 100 years. We live six times better
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than the wealthiest person 100 years ago because of the fact that things are
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just cheaper now, even though it doesn't feel like that. So the quality of
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life goes up. However, your income may not go
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up, and also it may not become basic universal. But
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I think we'll reap the rewards of abundance in AI and robotics through
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the cost reduction and things. So I actually don't think universal basic
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income will be a thing, because I don't think all the jobs will be
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replaced. I think those who choose to skill up and
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choose to work will be able to make more money and those who become more dependent
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on the government will make less money and less skills and you have a huge disparity
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of wealth happening which is what's happening now. So if
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you want to become financially indestructible don't rely on
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universal basic income at all. I don't know whether it's going to be viable economically
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because of Adam Smith laws of economics, that
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you're always going to have a supply and demand for a specific good or service. There's always
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going to be a value exchange. It may not be an income, it's going to be in the exchange of what you
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can do for someone else. So I actually don't think it's going to be as fast
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coming as what people think. I don't think it's going to be like you're going to receive money
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and sit on the beach. I wouldn't be
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looking forward to it. You want to place yourself in
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a position where you don't need it, where
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you don't need a pension, where you don't need welfare, where
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you don't need government assistance. That's the
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type of position you want to be in to be financially indestructible. And
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that requires you to skill up, work, and get on
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with it. And that's exactly what I would encourage. Instead of waiting, which
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might be 50 years or longer for universal basic
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income, just to then be told what to do by the government. It's
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like a social credit score. And I know how many people in this country hate the
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thought of even government ID. So if you're someone who hates the thought
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of government controlling them, why on earth would you be looking forward
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to universal basic income? You
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wouldn't. So what are the three steps to fortify your position
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and so you don't have to rely on the universal basic income? So
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step one, escape velocity. Escape velocity is a speed an
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object needs to break free from a planet's gravitational pull. But
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in finance, it's the point where your passive income from assets
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is greater than your living expenses. It's the point where you no longer need a
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job to survive. Your assets pay you, not the government. Assets,
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right? This is your number one financial goal. Not a bigger house, not
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a fancier car, escape velocity. So
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how do you get there? Well, you need to build your asset base with productive assets. I'm
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talking about things that generate cashflow, that work while
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you sleep. The most straightforward for those people is high quality driven
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paying stocks, good quality deal driven real
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estate and small business, yeah? Companies
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out there in the stock market, you know, like, Railroads,
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for example. Big companies like Google, that's basically a monopoly. Apple.
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These are very, very hot. Coca-Cola. These are very high quality businesses
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that are almost indestructible. They earn income like a toll bridge, yeah?
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They're effective. Small business, like I mentioned before, we've got a small laundromat.
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I use that as an example because it's so easy to understand. Small businesses
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produce cash flow. And of course, at the right time
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with the right set up, certain real estate can
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also produce wonderful income at the same as protecting value,
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okay? So you want to start doing that to
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prepare or build your escape velocity, okay? Now, I know
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you don't have a lot, you may not have a lot of money, I get it. But you've got to start, every
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thousand miles starts with a single step. So the whole idea is just take the step, yeah?
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So that's the first step, okay? That's step number one. You want to start
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building your escape velocity. This concept of escape velocity is
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the most important financial idea I can teach you. It's the central theme
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of my book, Money Buys Happiness. And on page 73, I
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walk you through how to calculate your freedom figure, your magic number, the exact
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amount you need to achieve escape velocity. Knowing that number
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changes everything. It gives you a target, a purpose, a
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reason to say no to the things that don't matter, and yes to the things that
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do. The link is in the description of the book. It's the first step to
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building your own safety net, but a safety net is useless if
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it has holes in it. So once you know your target, the next
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step is to build a financial foundation that can withstand any shock. Step
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two, build your antifragile stack. In a world of
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rapid change, you need a financial life that's antifragile, indestructible.
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That means it doesn't just survive shocks, it gets stronger from them.
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So what does that look like in practice? Well, one, the first part of
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building the antifragile stack is to eliminate debt. Debt's fragile, it makes
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you vulnerable, it reduces your options. In a world where your income could disappear
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overnight, you can't afford to be in debt. especially
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high interest debt from credit cards. Yes, personal loans paid off aggressively.
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It's a guaranteed tax free return in terms of investing. Second
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thing, build a cash buffer, you want to widen the gap between you
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and the streets. So you would need or want at least three months
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of living expenses in cash covered first as a first step. And
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so having a high yield savings account, you can access don't invest it, it's got to be liquid
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accessible. It's not your investment. This is your emergency fund. It's sleep
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at night money, right? It's your I can
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tell my boss to shove up money. Which is what I did once, even
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though I didn't say that to him, because you've got to leave the door open, don't burn your bridges. Third
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step in building your anti-fragile stack or your indestructible situation
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financially is to own productive assets, right? As we discussed, the key is
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diversification. Don't have all your eggs in one basket. single
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basket like BTC. If you decide you want to be in stocks, own
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a few. If you decide you want to be in real estate, don't own one door, own
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a couple. Yeah, that's all right. So especially if
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you're a lot of your income is wrapped up in your employer's stock, you
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want to make sure you've just got enough diversification. to
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make it not fragile, yes? So, no debt,
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big cash buffer, and a diversified portfolio of productive assets. This
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is a place or a situation that can survive the storm, right?
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You can lose your job and not panic. You can take a year off and reskill and
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not worry about paying bills. You can, depending on how much
15:53
your emergency fund is and how much, but basically, it
15:56
puts you in control, okay? The third and final
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step is to, of course, invest in yourself. The ultimate asset.
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This is the final piece of the puzzle and it's the most important. In a world of AI automation,
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right, and shift and change that's
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so fast, the most valuable asset you have
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is you, your skills, your knowledge, your adaptability, your creativity, your
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ability to learn and pivot, right? Because as I see it, the real risk isn't
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the job loss. It's the skills mismatch, right?
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The world won't run out of jobs, but it will run out of people with the right skills.
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And that's what's happened in the past. You don't wanna be the proverbial blacksmith in
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the next 20 years. So you need to invest in yourself. This is how you skill
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up. You learn more and you do more and you lift your experience, right? You need
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to become a learning machine. You need to dedicate a portion of your time and
16:45
money to acquiring new skills. Skills that are complimentary to AI,
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not in competition with it. Skills that require creativity and critical
16:52
thinking and communication leadership. These are the areas, yeah? So think of
16:55
an investment as it's got an infinite ROI, because the
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more you can learn, the more you can earn, the more valuable
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you become as an asset, the more opportunities you
17:05
then create and can cultivate, and the more opportunities you'll spot and
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see, right? And here's something most people don't understand about AI, it's not about
17:12
replacing jobs, it's about amplifying productivity. A solo
17:16
entrepreneur with AI tools can now do what used to require an entire team. You
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can write copy with AI, you can design graphics with AI, you can analyze data with
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AI, you can automate your marketing with AI. It's just incredible.
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And this has happened in the last 18 months. It's the biggest unlock
17:30
in human history. And technology is democratizing the
17:33
ability to build wealth. You don't need a big company. You don't need a
17:36
huge team. You don't need millions of dollars in capital. You just need the
17:40
right skills, the right tools, and the right mindset. This is the shift
17:44
from being a consumer to a creator. From being a passive observer
17:48
to an active participant in your own life. It's a mindset
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and it's a choice. In my book, I talk about the creative versus
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consumer framework. It's a simple but powerful way to reframe your
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relationship with the world. And it's the key to unlocking your
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full potential in the age of AI. The link's in the description. Let
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me paint you two pictures of the future, two different paths. You
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get to choose which one you take. This is a choose your own adventure. Path
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one, the UBI trap. You lose your job to
18:16
automation. You apply for universal basic income. The government
18:19
sends you a check every month, let's say $3,000, just
18:23
enough to cover your rent, your food, and your basic expenses. You're surviving,
18:27
but you're not thriving. You've no savings, no investments, no assets. You're
18:31
living paycheck to paycheck, except the paycheck is from the government.
18:35
You have no control, no autonomy, no freedom. You're
18:38
a dependent, a ward of the state. And
18:41
over time, you lose your edge. You stop learning, you stop growing,
18:45
you become comfortable in mediocrity. You tell yourself it's
18:48
fine. This is just how the world is now. But deep down, you
18:52
know you've given up. You've traded your potential for a
18:55
government check. Or path two, the wealth path. You
18:59
see the AI revolution coming. You prepare. You
19:02
build your escape velocity. You eliminate debt. You build your cash buffer. You
19:05
invest in productive assets. And most importantly, you invest in yourself. You
19:09
learn these new skills. You adapt. You evolve. When
19:13
disruption comes, you're ready. You don't panic. You
19:17
don't need a job to survive because your assets are generating income. You have
19:20
options. You have freedom. You can take a year off and reskill. You can start a
19:23
business. You can travel the world. You can do whatever you want because you're
19:27
financially independent. And over time, you thrive. You use
19:30
AI to amplify your productivity. You build wealth. You create opportunities.
19:34
You become a creator, not a consumer. You become a leader, not a
19:37
follower. You become the person you were always meant to be. Which
19:41
path will you choose? So
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the headline says 85 million jobs will be gone by 2026. But
19:51
the full story says that 97 million new jobs will be created. The
19:54
real threat is not AI, it's financial unpreparedness. It's
19:58
the refusal to adapt that's the risk. It's the temptation to
20:01
take the easy path for government dependency. People are already doing it right now. It's
20:05
already happening. It's already happening. And you might be praying for
20:08
it, but you're praying for the wrong thing. Don't wish it
20:11
were easier, as Jim Rohn used to say, wish you were better. And AI
20:15
is commanding you to be better or get left behind. And
20:18
not just you get left behind, potentially your kids too. What if you're teaching them all
20:21
these old ways of becoming the old proverbial blacksmith? In the next 10 years,
20:25
the whole world will be different for them. How is that setting them up? How is that helping
20:28
them? Your inability to learn more, your
20:32
apprehension to technology and AI, because, oh, that's tech stuff, I'm not
20:35
good at it, that's hurting the next generation. You must step up and
20:38
lead. Start learning it. You have accessible information.
20:42
You have it at your fingertips. Pick up your phone and start using it
20:45
to produce, to learn. Don't just sit there and sit in the scroll
20:48
hall every day. The opportunity is massive. Australians need 1.2 million
20:52
skilled workers here to take advantage of the boom. The
20:56
tools are there, the jobs are there, the wealth is there. The only question is, will you
20:59
be ready? Will you be there? So stop listening to the fear mongering
21:02
headlines about AI taking your job and start focusing
21:06
on the financial moves that will actually make you indestructible. Achieve escape
21:09
velocity, build your anti-fragile stack and become indestructible. And
21:13
most importantly, invest in yourself, your skills, your experience, your mindset, your network.
21:17
Do these things, no matter what happens to your job, no matter what happens to
21:20
the economy, no matter what happens with AI, you and your family
21:23
will be secure. The future is not something that happens to you,
21:27
it's something that you create. So go out there