Oh man, I love this question. Are you ready for this one? Is it wrong that I don't want to be an entrepreneur? I'm told that with saving, I could retire well, but I'll struggle to be financially free between 40 to 60. Can I invest less for retirement and some for earlier? I don't understand the second part of his question, but I think this is what he's saying. I've heard that, in order to be wealthy and retire early, I've got to be an entrepreneur. I even saw some folks saying that wealthy people have like seven streams of income. Well, I'm just a guy. I've got a job, a check-in, I get my W-2. Is wealth not something I'm going to have until I'm old and gray? Is that the way this thing works? What would you tell Jacob?
By the way, to, when I love that stat that people give about having seven streams of income, it doesn't... You've got to have one before you get to seven because everybody has their launch point to reach escape velocity into crossing into millionaire status. From our own research, we interviewed, and we actually sent a survey out to all of our millionaire clients. It was high 60s, I even think it was around 69%, attribute saving and investing as their launch point moment that they reached escape velocity that led to... And remember Ramsey Solutions has that research out there that 80% of millionaires' first count across seven figures was their 401(k)s or their employer retirement plan, typically around age 49 years of age. So that's the actual norm. It's not... It's not screaming from the rooftops because I think it's just not the sexy sizzle that sells. Most people are just savers and investors. So I think there's nothing wrong with that, Jacob. Bo, I want to send it back over to you because one of the things I've always loved about you is that you and I met many, many years ago. You came into my business, and you've always been an entrepreneur. The fact that you've made my business into our business, I think that is a tremendous opportunity for a lot of people out there in the workforce to figure out how to make your mark. What do you think, Bo?
I think what's amazing is we're sold this idea of entrepreneurship; it's amazing, it's wonderful. And don't get me wrong, it is. It's a wonderful thing, but it's hard. There's a lot of risk associated with it, and there are a lot of things that come with the buck stopping at you. So what I tell young people all the time is, hey, if you are enterprising, you don't have to come up with a brand new idea, and you don't have to come up with something that no one else has done or created. There is nothing wrong with coming into something good or something really good and putting your mark on it to try to make it great. That's an entrepreneurship opportunity where if I go to my job every day, maybe I work for an organization that has a hundred people or a thousand people. But I treat that job as though I were an owner, as though I were a stakeholder in it. It's amazing how often that sort of thing can lead to financial success when I add so much value to an organization that I cannot be ignored. You stop being ignored in those situations. But maybe that's not you. Maybe that's not even what your question is, Jacob. Maybe you're saying, "Hey, I don't want to do any of that stuff. I just want to do my job, do it well, go home, hang out with my family." That's awesome too. It does not require starting a business, inventing something, or having some huge cataclysmic event to be wealthy. What it requires are the three ingredients of wealth creation: discipline, money, and time. If you can sacrifice just a little bit of today, and you can create margin where that money gets applied over a long period of time, you get to impact how wealthy you want to be. Now, if you want to accelerate that because you said, "Oh, well, I think I can be free in my 60s, but what if I want to do it earlier?" Then you just have to really ramp up that discipline part. Maybe instead of having a 20% to 25% savings rate, maybe you want to save 30% or 35%. Maybe you figure out how to get your expenses low enough that you're able to replace those expenses much earlier in life. That's the entire idea behind the FIRE movement. So don't think that to be wealthy and to be able to live life on your own terms, you have to go start, create, build something. If you can just go earn an income, sacrifice a little bit of today for a better tomorrow, you'll be amazed at how hard that money can work for you.
I love it. It's one of those things where just be purposeful because the sooner you can save and invest and have financial independence so that you work for the joy of it versus the obligation of it, I think you'll be happier. But I love this because Jacob, every business, I don't care the size, they're looking for people to come make their mark. So go make your mark. And let me go ahead and tell you the rest of the story. I love when we do that survey is because just like I had my path into seven figures, now I can look at it. And yes, there are multiple streams that happen. That's where the complexity of where the abundance cycle fulfills. Just find your path. It's okay to be an entrepreneur at a company or a business, and then those other streams, you're going to notice your portfolio will start creating income. You might inherit some assets or something, or you move out of a house, and one becomes a rental property. That stuff all comes. You've just got to chart your path and grab the opportunity to maximize and create the best version of yourself. Because there is a better way to do money. For more information, check out our
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