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Money Is Overrated: Ownership Is Everything · Money And Wealth With John Hope Bryant

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant, a
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  Speaker 1: production of the Black Effect Podcast Network and iHeartRadio. Hey, everybody,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: it's John Hope Bryant, and this is the Money and
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  Speaker 1: Wealth Podcast series, podcast season three, shall I say. It
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: is the Money and Wealth series, but it's a podcast
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  Speaker 1: season three on the Black Effect Network and on iHeartRadio,
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  Speaker 1: and this is a special episode that hopes to get
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  Speaker 1: your head, your mind, your spirit pointing in the right direction.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, everybody, for making this podcast the top 75
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  Speaker 1: for business, for entrepreneurship, sorry, in the world, on most
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  Speaker 1: every continent, and top 200 for business on most every continent.
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  Speaker 1: Money is overrated. Ownership is everything. This is one of
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  Speaker 1: those ones that's going to be short, punchy, and sweet
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  Speaker 1: that you really want to make sure you're not listening
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  Speaker 1: to it when you're asleep. It's really sort of smart, simple,
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  Speaker 1: and you can digest this pretty easily, but it is
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  Speaker 1: not a common thought. So I said something pretty provocative
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  Speaker 1: to open this up. Money is overrated. Sounds sort of strange.
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  Speaker 1: coming from somebody who's a host of a podcast called
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  Speaker 1: Money and Wealth. But I'm going to say it again.
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  Speaker 1: Money is overrated. I didn't say money is unimportant. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't say you don't need money. I said we have
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  Speaker 1: overrated it. Because money isn't a destination. Ownership is. So
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  Speaker 1: let's back up and talk about what money isn't and
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  Speaker 1: what it is. Think about the words we use when
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  Speaker 1: describing money. Currency. Something that has current to it, that flows, okay?
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  Speaker 1: That lives in circulation. Currency. And we've got a U.S. currency.
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  Speaker 1: You have currencies in different countries around the world, of course.
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  Speaker 1: You also in America in the 1800s had hundreds of
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  Speaker 1: different types of currencies. I have currencies from the Union
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  Speaker 1: Army during the Civil War. There were currencies for the
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  Speaker 1: Confederate Army, et cetera, et cetera. There were different banks
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  Speaker 1: and cities that had their own currency. Finally, the federal
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  Speaker 1: government had to organize all this and bring this together
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  Speaker 1: with a master U.S. currency backed by the full faith
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  Speaker 1: and credit of the federal government. But let me be
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  Speaker 1: provocative for here for a minute. let's back away from
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  Speaker 1: currency and talk about the money that the currency represents
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  Speaker 1: or the wealth or the value, sorry, that the money represents.
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  Speaker 1: Because technically I could take this operational lapel pin, but
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  Speaker 1: I take this lapel pin and trade it for this
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  Speaker 1: King Center weight pad. And if we agree, if you
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  Speaker 1: own the King Center weight pad and I own the
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  Speaker 1: lapel pin, and we agree that those two things are
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  Speaker 1: valuable and we want to exchange values, that is an
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  Speaker 1: exchange of value. I'll go one step further. I can
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  Speaker 1: take your t-shirt, if you're wearing it, right on the
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  Speaker 1: back of it, or your dress or whatever, pay to
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  Speaker 1: the order of Joanne, date it, put my routing number,
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  Speaker 1: my account number, put the amount, of course, sign it,
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  Speaker 1: date it, take off, I wouldn't do this for the lady,
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  Speaker 1: the dress, take off the man's shirt, take that shirt
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  Speaker 1: to the bank, the issue that he has his accounts at,
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  Speaker 1: and the bank would be hard-pressed, would have to call
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  Speaker 1: their corporate lawyers to determine whether they're under some legal
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  Speaker 1: obligation to cash that shirt because the written check is
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  Speaker 1: nothing more than another way to transfer a value. I
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  Speaker 1: was going to show you a check, but you guys
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  Speaker 1: are so smart out there. Criminals are so smart out there,
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  Speaker 1: not you guys. I might take a photo of one
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  Speaker 1: of my checks and do something crazy with it. So currency,
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  Speaker 1: cash flow, something that flows, cash flow. Income, something that
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  Speaker 1: comes in. You could also have outcome, outflow, which is
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  Speaker 1: a bad outcome. As I often say, if your outflow
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  Speaker 1: exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be your downfall.
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  Speaker 1: That's a new kind of rap. Wages. Wages. Money you
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  Speaker 1: receive in exchange for your time and labor in real time.
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  Speaker 1: An exchange of value. And it doesn't matter, by the way,
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  Speaker 1: how much in wages you earn. So you can, under
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  Speaker 1: a contract of wages, you can get rich, but that
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  Speaker 1: doesn't mean you're wealthy. So if you have a contract
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  Speaker 1: for wages of $ 30 an hour or $ 3 an hour
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  Speaker 1: plus tips or $ 3, 000 an hour, a really high-priced attorney,
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  Speaker 1: or $ 3 million a year, a professional athlete, and that
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  Speaker 1: contract ends for whatever reason, but your bills do not,
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  Speaker 1: everyone equally weighted can go broke because if you're outflow
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  Speaker 1: exceeds your inflow, then your overhead will be your downfall. Again,
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  Speaker 1: we obsess on, give me that cash, give me that dollar,
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  Speaker 1: give me that bag, give me that money. It's irrelevant.
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  Speaker 1: It's overrated. Stop focusing on this thing that only really
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  Speaker 1: poor people and struggling people really struggle to focus on.
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  Speaker 1: Focus on wealth creation, ownership, and we'll get to that
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  Speaker 1: in a minute. Paycheck, a payment for a particular period
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  Speaker 1: of work tied to wages, okay? You notice something about
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  Speaker 1: all these examples? Almost all of these words describe movement. Okay? Movement.
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  Speaker 1: Not ownership. Movement. Money comes. Money goes. Money flows. Money circulates.
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  Speaker 1: And then we wonder why somebody can make $ 100, 000, $ 200, 000
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  Speaker 1: even a million dollars a year and still not be wealthy.
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  Speaker 1: Or worse, like 70% of those who win the lottery
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  Speaker 1: go bankrupt in five years. You can be an NFL,
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  Speaker 1: NBA football player, basketball player, and be bankrupt five years
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  Speaker 1: after retirement. Because income is based on an event. Drop
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  Speaker 1: the mic. Wealth is a condition. Pick up the mic
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  Speaker 1: and own it. And wealth comes primarily from what you own.
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  Speaker 1: Stop asking only, how much money do I make? Start asking,
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  Speaker 1: what do I own? Money is a means, not a mission.
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  Speaker 1: We confuse a scoreboard with a game. A salary is useful.
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  Speaker 1: Cash is useful. Liquidity is essential. But cash itself is
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  Speaker 1: generally not the wealth-building machine. Imagine two people. Person A
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  Speaker 1: earns $ 250, 000 a year. Nice house, nice car, great restaurants,
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  Speaker 1: great vacations. But every dollar comes in and basically goes
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  Speaker 1: back out. Person B earns $ 80, 000 a year. But every month,
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  Speaker 1: person B systematically acquires assets. A retirement account. Stocks, equity
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  Speaker 1: in a home or an investment property. Maybe a small
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  Speaker 1: business or an interest in one. Maybe an investment property.
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  Speaker 1: 20 years later, who is actually wealthy? See, it didn't
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  Speaker 1: hinge upon who was actually making the money It's not
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  Speaker 1: what you make, it's what you keep, it's what you
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  Speaker 1: do with it. You can't answer the question by looking
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  Speaker 1: at their salaries. You have to look at their balance sheets.
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  Speaker 1: That is one of the greatest misunderstandings of American life, people.
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  Speaker 1: We've taught people how to make money. We haven't taught
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  Speaker 1: enough about how to convert money into ownership. The money
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  Speaker 1: to wealth pipeline. Human capital, that's you. Income, what you produce. Savings,
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  Speaker 1: what you do with some of the income. Investment, what
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  Speaker 1: you do with the savings. Ownership, what comes out of
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  Speaker 1: the investment. Appreciation and compounding, what happens with ownership over time.
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  Speaker 1: You make money during the day, you build wealth in
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  Speaker 1: your sleep. This translates into wealth. Most people stop around
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  Speaker 1: step two. They say, I got paid. I got that bag,
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  Speaker 1: got that cash, got that dollar. Great. What did the
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  Speaker 1: paycheck become? Because if all your income becomes is consumption,
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  Speaker 1: you're running on a treadmill. You can run faster, you
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  Speaker 1: can make more money, but you're still standing in the
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  Speaker 1: same place. My mother, Juanita Smith, for whom there is
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  Speaker 1: now an AI app, an AI agent called Juanita AI,
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  Speaker 1: download it, check it out. It's free from Operation Hope,
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  Speaker 1: our first AI Hope Inside location, and I hope you
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  Speaker 1: like it. It's amazing talking to her. It's like, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it is like talking to my mother, and she'll answer
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of questions for you and then lead you
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  Speaker 1: to Operation Hope when you're ready. My mother was not
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  Speaker 1: a Wall Street executive. She wasn't making $ 500, 000 a year.
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  Speaker 1: She was making $ 15 to $ 18 an hour. She wasn't
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  Speaker 1: running a hedge fund. She worked for roughly $ 15 to
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  Speaker 1: $ 18 an hour, and yet my mother ultimately built a
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  Speaker 1: net worth of approximately $ 1 million. How? How? She understood
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  Speaker 1: something that millions of people making substantially more money never understood.
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  Speaker 1: The objective wasn't looking rich, people. The objective was becoming
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  Speaker 1: financially secure. She understood ownership. She understood savings. She understood
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  Speaker 1: not consuming everything she earned. She understood, and she had
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  Speaker 1: great credit, by the way, she understood that you can
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  Speaker 1: take ordinary income over enough time and turn it into
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  Speaker 1: extraordinary Stability. So here's Juanita's lesson. My mother didn't control
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  Speaker 1: what somebody was willing to pay her per hour, but
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  Speaker 1: she could control what happened after the money hit her hands.
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  Speaker 1: That's power. That's financial literacy. That's dignity. That's capitalism when
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  Speaker 1: capitalism actually works for ordinary people. You don't necessarily have
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  Speaker 1: to start rich to build wealth. You need enough income
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  Speaker 1: to create some margin. Certainly, you got to pay your
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  Speaker 1: bills and have enough to live and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Just a little bit over the line to pour into
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  Speaker 1: your tomorrow. We should absolutely fight for better wages and
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  Speaker 1: economic opportunity. Absolutely. But once money reaches your hands, another
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  Speaker 1: question begins. What are you going to turn it into?
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  Speaker 1: You see, I keep separating the money from everything else.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm going to get to a drop the mic
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  Speaker 1: before I finish this podcast today. That's going to blow
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  Speaker 1: your mind. My mother turned wages into assets. She also
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  Speaker 1: started a side hustle business making handicrafts and cooking food
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  Speaker 1: that she sold, and candy, by the way, which she
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  Speaker 1: sold to her coworkers mostly and her friends. Assets turned
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  Speaker 1: into net worth and net worth into security. Juanita Smith
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  Speaker 1: converted labor into capital. That may be the entire drop
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  Speaker 1: the mic right there. Now let me get to the
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  Speaker 1: real drop the mic of this episode. I call it
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  Speaker 1: the airplane window theory of wealth. I need you to
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  Speaker 1: pull out a pen and paper or pull out your
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  Speaker 1: iPhone or your iPad or your Android, your digital notepad.
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  Speaker 1: Let me give you another way to think about ownership.
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  Speaker 1: Next time you're flying into New York City, I want
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  Speaker 1: you to look out the window. I want you to
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  Speaker 1: look down at Manhattan. Look across at the five boroughs.
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  Speaker 1: Look at the surrounding community. Look at the density. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: what do you see? Buildings, buildings, buildings, roads, infrastructure. Not
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  Speaker 1: a lot of white spaces, not a lot of green spaces.
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  Speaker 1: Real estate that has been developed and redeveloped for generations.
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  Speaker 1: That's wealth created before you got there. Okay, now let's
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  Speaker 1: fly into Los Angeles. I want you to look down.
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  Speaker 1: What do you see when you look down in Los Angeles? Homes, buildings, roads, freeways, infrastructure.
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  Speaker 1: For as far and wide as you can see, there
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  Speaker 1: is economic opportunity already built out. An enormous built environment
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  Speaker 1: stretching towards the horizon far deep and wide. That's wealth
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  Speaker 1: already created well before you got there. You can make
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  Speaker 1: income in New York. You can make income in Los Angeles,
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  Speaker 1: as an example. Again, all this is in my book,
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  Speaker 1: Capitalism for All. I lay all the economics out of
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  Speaker 1: these two incredible places. And they are incredible. I lived
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  Speaker 1: in one and fly to the other one all the time.
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  Speaker 1: But the wealth, the pioneering wealth, the big pops of
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  Speaker 1: wealth creation have basically already been created. When I moved
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  Speaker 1: to Atlanta, and the next thing I'm going to tell
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  Speaker 1: you about the flying in Atlanta. When I first flew
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  Speaker 1: into Atlanta, I didn't look down like I'm about to
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  Speaker 1: tell you to do. but it's going to come to
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  Speaker 1: you in a minute. No, I'm going to tell you this.
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you what you do first, then
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you my story. I want you
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  Speaker 1: to fly into Atlanta the next time. Sit at the
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  Speaker 1: airplane window, the seat closest to the last view, and
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  Speaker 1: look out and look down as you're beginning to land.
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  Speaker 1: What you will see, as far as the eye can see,
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  Speaker 1: are massive green spaces. Not buildings. Not endless homes and
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  Speaker 1: roads and infrastructure and systems and freeways. They are there,
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  Speaker 1: but it's not dense. Most of what you see are
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  Speaker 1: green spaces, open for development. And then you look a
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  Speaker 1: little closer at the data, and what you find is
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  Speaker 1: that there's more people moving into Atlanta, greater Atlanta, than
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  Speaker 1: moving out. So you have population growth. People are attracted
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  Speaker 1: to this place of Atlanta. It has a big economic engine,
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  Speaker 1: $ 600 billion in the seven county areas. It has good
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  Speaker 1: quality of life, vibrant economy. But what you see in
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  Speaker 1: front of you is not pre-built economic activity. It's happening
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  Speaker 1: as you're sitting on the plane. Most of it yet
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  Speaker 1: to be done. undeveloped or underdeveloped areas, then some buildings,
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  Speaker 1: then more gross green space, then another development, then more land.
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  Speaker 1: In my entrepreneurial brain, when I started flying into Atlanta,
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  Speaker 1: when I moved here in 2009, it saw something different
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  Speaker 1: when I looked at that. You see, I see possibilities
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  Speaker 1: because wealth isn't just about what something is worth today.
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  Speaker 1: So quick story. When I moved to Atlanta, I went
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  Speaker 1: to go get a license plate for my then 420
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  Speaker 1: SEL Mercedes. And I asked for the license plate, the
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  Speaker 1: custom vanity plate, entrepreneur. And to my utter amazement, it
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  Speaker 1: was available. So I got this plate. Now, I still
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  Speaker 1: have that plate. It's still on my current car. If
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  Speaker 1: I wanted that plate, requested that plate in Los Angeles,
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  Speaker 1: in New York City, sorry. I'll go to the older
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  Speaker 1: city first. My guess is that plate was gone 40
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  Speaker 1: plus years ago. Somebody got that plate entrepreneur 40 years
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  Speaker 1: ago and you want to buy it from them if
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: they would sell it to you, it's six figures. These
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  Speaker 1: plates are very much in demand. They're part of your identity.
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  Speaker 1: Come to Los Angeles. Go to the DMV, Department of
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  Speaker 1: Motor Vehicle. Go to California and try to get that
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  Speaker 1: license plate entrepreneur. My guess is that plate was taken
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  Speaker 1: 25 years ago So 40, 50 years ago in New York,
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  Speaker 1: 25 years ago, my guess is, or more, in Los Angeles.
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  Speaker 1: But they were gone a long time ago. And once again,
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  Speaker 1: you'd have to spend $ 50, 000 to $ 100, 000 minimum to get
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  Speaker 1: somebody to part with that custom plate. Because entrepreneurship was
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  Speaker 1: a live part of the ecosystem and part of people's life.
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  Speaker 1: I got that plate in 2009 in Atlanta, in Georgia. Boom.
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  Speaker 1: I knew it was a land of opportunity. I saw
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  Speaker 1: million-dollar homes across the street from a $ 15, 000 teardown with
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: no sidewalk. I remember I told this brother, I lived
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  Speaker 1: in this private development called Nisky Lake Falls, and there
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  Speaker 1: was 22 beautiful homes, million-dollar homes, black community, upscale, high
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  Speaker 1: credit score, high intelligence, education, IQ, kids playing on the streets.
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  Speaker 1: It's really beautiful. And I would drive out the gate
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  Speaker 1: and turn left, heading toward Campbellton road. And on my
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  Speaker 1: right was a, just a burned out teardown with a,
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  Speaker 1: you know, tree in the roof. And I saw it
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  Speaker 1: for months and I checked, it was $ 15, 000 purchase price.
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  Speaker 1: The owner went at 15,000. And so I told my
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  Speaker 1: next door neighbor about this just in passing. Can you
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  Speaker 1: believe that there's a $ 15, 000 house across the street? And
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: about two weeks later, I, uh, I go past this
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  Speaker 1: house because I was going to buy it. And I
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  Speaker 1: see a Mercedes on the front lawn. They bought the house.
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  Speaker 1: My neighbor did. It's cool. Fair exchange, no robbery. I
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  Speaker 1: should have kept my mouth shut. I should have kept
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: my mouth shut and told him about it after I
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  Speaker 1: bought it. But I can't get mad at him because
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  Speaker 1: I was running my mouth versus walking my feet to
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  Speaker 1: to the office, the brokerage office, to make an offer
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  Speaker 1: for that property. And he moved. PhDs are good, PhDs
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  Speaker 1: are better. He moved before me, and God bless him,
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  Speaker 1: he developed that house, put a quarter million dollar house,
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  Speaker 1: more on it, sold it, and then made a beautiful profit.
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  Speaker 1: And this is what I want you to look at
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  Speaker 1: wherever you are, is a place as opportunity and possibility.
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  Speaker 1: Because wealth isn't just about what something is worth today.
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  Speaker 1: Investing is partly about asking, what could this become tomorrow?
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  Speaker 1: What are people moving? And where are people moving? For
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: what reason are people moving? In other words, is it
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: an inflow of jobs? Is it an affordable place? And
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: where are people moving? What cities are hot and growing?
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: I went to Salina, Texas with Walmart and my brother,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Anthony Anderson, to do a book signing for Capitalism for All.
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  Speaker 1: And I never heard of this place. They must not
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: like me very much asking me to go to Salina, Texas,
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  Speaker 1: only to find out This is the fastest growing city
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  Speaker 1: in America. Over $ 100, 000 annual income for every resident. Very diverse.
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  Speaker 1: No ethnic group is the majority. Everybody is a minority,
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  Speaker 1: but they all seem to get along. White, black, Latino, Asian,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: everybody gets along. And the place is thriving. And that's
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  Speaker 1: why Walmart put their bucket down there. So where are
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  Speaker 1: employers investing and hiring? Where are businesses opening? Where is
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  Speaker 1: infrastructure being built? Where are airports expanding? Where are universities
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  Speaker 1: producing talent? Where is housing demand growing? Where is there
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  Speaker 1: still room to build? Where are young families going? That's
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  Speaker 1: a good one. Where are the good schools around where
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  Speaker 1: families are going, by the way? Where is capital flowing?
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  Speaker 1: This doesn't mean every piece of Atlanta real estate or
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  Speaker 1: every asset in a growing city is automatically a good investment.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, you may have recessions. You may have a
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  Speaker 1: recessionary environment. You may have environments where the whole country
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  Speaker 1: temporarily takes an economic dump. and pulls back. That's exactly
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: what a recession is, recess to recede. And then it resets,
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  Speaker 1: in my opinion, above the line. It's been the history
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: of America since the beginning of America, is that ultimately
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: real estate values, stock market values, and GDP, gross domestic
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: product for the country, ultimately go up. It may go
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: down when the economy is mismanaged or the economy gets overheated.
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  Speaker 1: I think we're maybe entering a period like that now.
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  Speaker 1: But there are opportunities in the middle of that crisis
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  Speaker 1: with properties go down. That's what I did. I bought
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  Speaker 1: when values were down. I bought almost 700 single-family homes,
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  Speaker 1: rental homes, when values were down, and then waited for
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  Speaker 1: the country to reset and rode the prices back up
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  Speaker 1: and sold those homes for four times value, or three
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: or four times what I paid for it. I wasn't
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: a genius. I just practiced these principles. The home didn't
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: get up and move somewhere. The home didn't grow in size.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: It was the magic of compounding and going where the puck,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: investing where the puck is going, so to speak. So
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: price matters. Location matters. Debt matters, but good debt versus
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: bad debt. Good debt is something tied to something that appreciates.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Bad debt is tied to something that depreciates. And good
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: credit allows you to get good debt at good pricing,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: which is important. Timing matters. Cash flow matters. Growth doesn't
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: eliminate investment risk people. But here's the principle. Own where
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the future is being built. Atlanta is but one example.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: Tenth largest economy in the entire U.S. The home, the city,
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: the international city that my mentor, Ambassador Andrew Young built.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: The only lieutenant of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ever
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: to run a city. And boy, did he make this magical.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Look at the growth quarters around Dallas-Fort Worth, where my
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: brother from another mother, Bishop T.D. Jakes, is. Houston, Texas. Charlotte. Austin, Phoenix, Orlando,
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: San Antonio. Different economies, different risks, different valuations. But the
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: same question, where's tomorrow becoming today? Don't just move to growth,
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: own the growth. People will hear that Atlanta is growing
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: and say, great, I'm moving to Atlanta. Okay, my brother T.I.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: is like, no, stay where you are. But that's not
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the question that wealth asks. The wealth question is, what
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: are you going to own in Atlanta? You're looking down
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: off that plane. Do you own some of that land?
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Do you own some of those buildings? Do you own
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: some of that businesses and that growth? Because if 500,000
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: people move into a region and you simply rent an apartment,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: buy groceries, go to restaurants, and spend money there, you're
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: helping make somebody else wealthy. You're renting your own life.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: That's going to be a podcast episode. all by itself,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: renting your life. The landlord owns, the developer owns, the
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: supermarket shareholders own, the restaurant entrepreneur owns, the bank owns assets,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: the technology company owns intellectual property, the investor owns equity.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Everybody owns something except the consumer. The consumer is in
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a trap if that's all they do. You don't want
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: simply to live inside somebody else's appreciating asset, people. You
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: want participation. Maybe that's home ownership. Maybe that's stock. Maybe
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: that's a 401k at your employer. Maybe that's a small business.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Maybe commercial property. Maybe intellectual property, you creatives. Again, it's
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: going to be my podcast, Rending Your Life. But you
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: don't even own your algorithms. You don't own your social
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: media accounts. The real owners can shut that down on
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you at any time, even though it has your name
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: on it. Hello? Hello? Maybe equity in the company you
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: work for, like Delta Airlines and UPS and others, GM,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: where they're giving their employees equity in the company. That's
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: a good thing. Maybe investing in businesses, building the next economy,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: like AI. The specific asset will differ by and with
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: the person. The principle doesn't differ. Go from consumer to owner.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Ownership changes your relationship with inflation. Very important. People say
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: everything costs more. They're right. Housing costs more. Food costs more.
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: Insurance costs more. Education costs more. Cars cost more. Inflation
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: is real. But there's another side of inflation that doesn't
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: get discussed enough. What if you own the thing whose
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: price is increasing? Drop the mic. If housing appreciation increases,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: or if houses appreciate and you're trying to buy your
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: first house, rising prices hurt. But if housing appreciation is you,
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: if houses appreciate and you already own a house, your
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: equity may rise and you're the winner. It becomes a
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: company and not a consumer asset, your company. If companies
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: become more valuable and you don't own stock, you watch
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: somebody else's wealth grow. If you own production assets, are
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: the productive beings of a company through stocks and bonds
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: and other elements of the stock market and the free
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: enterprise system, you participate in that growth. This is why
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: two families living through the same economy can experience it
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: completely different ways. One primarily owns liabilities and bills. The
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: other owns appreciable, appreciating assets. One experiences rising prices primarily
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: as pain. The other may experience some of those economic
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: forces that partly through appreciating assets give them gain. So
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: that's why financial literacy without ownership literacy is incomplete. But
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: that's also why financial literacy, I believe, is a civil
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: rights issue of this generation. Money makes you comfortable. Ownership
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: can make you free. Your paycheck requires freedom. your continued participation.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Please pay attention, people. You stop working, eventually the paycheck stops.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: That's human capital. But capital can work when you're asleep.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: That's my brother, Tony Rustler. Listen to his podcast episode here.
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. You make money during the day, you build
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: wealth in your sleep. A stock doesn't ask whether you
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: went to work that morning. A property managed business or
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: property management business even can produce value without ever depending
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: on the immediate dollar or your personal labor. Real estate
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: doesn't ask whether you're on vacation. Intellectual property can continue
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: generating value after the original work is finished. Working for
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: money or putting money to work for you. This is
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the question. Having assets working alongside of you is the answer.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: This is not about being lazy, people. It's the opposite.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: You work hard enough and intelligently enough to acquire things
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: that can eventually work with and for you. That's how
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: capitalism is supposed to become democratized. Not by telling poor
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: and working people work harder forever. No, it's by teaching
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: them work, save, invest, own, compound, rinse, repeat. That's a wrap.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: Here's the ownership test. Tonight, I want you to take
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: out a piece of paper. Draw a line down the middle.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: On one side, write what I earn, salary, business income,
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: side hustle, bonuses, whatever. On the other side, write what
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: I own. So one was what I earn. This one's
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: what I own. Home equity, retirement accounts, stocks, business equity,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: investment property, intellectual property, cash reserves, other productive assets. And
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: then you can have personal assets. I mean, let's add
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: jewelry and personal effects. Then ask yourself, which side have
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I been obsessing over? Because America teaches us to introduce
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: ourselves by income. And then we ask the stupid question
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: I hate, which is, what's a payment? You never ask
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: what a payment is when there's an interest rate attached.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: You don't ask what a payment is when there's a
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: car or a house, five, six figures. You want to
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: know what the interest rate is and the terms. So,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: What if we flipped this script a little bit? What
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: do you do? How much does that pay? Did you
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: get that raise? Did you get that bonus? That's what
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: people normally ask. But wealthy families ask another set of questions.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: What's the asset worth? How much equity do you have? Oh,
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: I love that one. What's the return on capital? Return
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: on investment, ROI. What do you and what do we own?
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: That's a partnership, we own versus what do I own.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: How can we pass it down? That's generational wealth, that's inheritance,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: that's a trust, things like that. That is completely different
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: language and conversation. I want you to own a piece
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: of tomorrow, people. So I started this episode by saying
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: something very provocative. Money is overrated. And I meant it.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Maybe now you understand what I meant. Money matters. You
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: need income. You need liquidity. You need an emergency fund.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: You need to pay your bills. And you work someplace
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: like Delta where they give you a $ 1, 000 emergency savings account.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: If you go to a financial literacy course like Operation Hope,
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: we're the Hope Financial Coach for all 100,000 employees at Delta.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: That thing is really cool. But they also give you
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: this emergency savings account so that you have a rainy
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: day fund. They also give you proper participation, proper participation
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: when they are successful. So they're helping you to sort
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: of have not an either, but an and conversation. So
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: these are good things. And I want you to have
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: an emergency fund and I want you to pay your
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: bills on time and have a good credit score. But
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: money was never supposed to be the destination. Money is
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: the bridge. In fact, I'd argue the credit score is wealth.
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: That's another thing. Ownership is what you're trying to reach
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: on the other side. My mother, Juanita, understood this. $ 15,
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: $ 18 an hour, and ultimately approximately a $ 1 million net worth.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: A credit score of 854. It doesn't even go that
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: high anymore. She didn't become wealthy because she had extraordinary wages.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: She became wealthy because she understood what to do with
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: ordinary wages. To stop being hypnotized by somebody else's salary
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: or that card. When my mother said she owned a Mercedes,
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: it meant cash. She had roll-up windows in her Mercedes
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: and did not care what it looked like to you.
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: She paid cash for that car and drove it till
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: the wheels fell off. Stop confusing consumption with prosperity, people.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Stop measuring success by how much money moves through your life.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Start measuring how much money value remains in your life.
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Because income is temporary. Cash flows, currency circulates, wages stops.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: But ownership can appreciate. Ownership can compound. Ownership can produce income.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Ownership can be borrowed against. Ownership can create opportunities. Ownership
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: can be passed to your children and ownership can change
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: a family's trajectory for generations. That's the third reconstruction. The
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: first reconstruction was about freedom. The second was about access.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Ambassador Andrew Young, Dr. King, reconstruction. The third reconstruction,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: the one we're in right now, must be about ownership.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: Not just getting into the building, owning a piece of
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: the building, not just sitting at the counter. but owning
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: the store. Not just getting the job, but owning stock
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: in the company. Not just cashing the check, but learning
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: to write those checks. Not just moving into the neighborhood,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: owning something in the neighborhood. Not just participating in the economy,
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: having equity in the economy. People say they hate rich people. No,
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: you don't. You hate rich people until you become rich.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: What you hate is a game system that no matter
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: how hard you work, No matter how hard you hustle,
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: you can't seem to get ahead. And so the people
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: on these episodes you see on TV, these halfwits making
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: worth a half a billion dollars, they must be crooks,
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: you say. And some of them are. But some of
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: this is you're looking for love in all the wrong places.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: No one's ever taught you this system. I want to
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: help you ungame this system with this teaching in this podcast,
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: with this book, Capitalism for All, with the work at
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Operation Hope, with my other six books on top of
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: this seventh book. in the series of the civil rights movement.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: So here's a question I want to leave with you.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: 20 years from now, what will you be glad you
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: owned today? Don't just earn. Don't just spend. Don't just consume. Own.
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: Own a piece of your future. Intellect. Knowledge. Capital comes
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: from the Latin root word, loosely defined, capitas, knowledge in
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the head. Credit comes from the Latin root word, credit. Credito,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: which means credibility. And banking is a trust business. So
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with money, people. Knowledge, credibility, trust, accesses,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: capital at scale. I want you to own not just
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: a piece of your future. I want you to own
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: a piece of America's future. And I say that on
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: the 250th anniversary of America this year, 2026. And wherever possible,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: own a piece of tomorrow's before everybody else realizes tomorrow
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: has arrived early today. Looking out a window, landing in
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: the ATL. This is Money and Wealth with John Hope Bryant.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: And remember, money passes through your hands. Wealth stays on
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: your balance sheet. Get the book, Capital and For All.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: Tell your friends about this podcast. Send them to Operation Hope.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Pull up one of the AI, the AI agent. Learn
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: from her. Talk to her. See you on the road
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: for the civil rights movement from the streets to the suites.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: Let's go. Money and Wealth with John O'Brien is a
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: production of the Black Effect Podcast Network. For more podcasts
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: from the Black Effect Podcast Network, visit the iHeartRadio app,
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.