What’s Poppin’,

This is the Master Money Newsletter. We give you the topics that make you sound smart when you jump on your zoom call too early. There is nothing more awkward than small talk with strangers while you wait for your boss to join.

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Here’s what we have on deck today:

📰Read: The 4 Lever to Build Wealth

📺Watch: How to Build a Perfect 3-Fund Portfolio

🎧Listen: 22+ Investing Lessons from One of The Best Investors

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Numbers to Know

💰The 10 Most In Demand Skills to add to your Resume ​

💻 How much you need to save every year to spend $70,000/year in retirement.

📈7 Ways to Improve your credit score.

🤔Crypto hackers stole $3.8 Billion last year.

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📈 CHART OF THE DAY (Powered by YCHARTS)

The difference between Apple stock and the S&P 500 since 2005. If you invested $1,000 into apple it would have grown to $112,302! If you invested $1,000 into the S&P 500, it would have grown to $4,641.

YCharts is where I get my investment data. If you want to check them out with a free trial you can HERE.

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The 4 Levers of Wealth Building

There are 4 levers to wealth building that you can pull.

Most people typically will do 2-3. But if you do all 4, you can create a viscous wealth building snowball rolling downhill.

The hard part is building the snowball.

Today I am going to show you the 4 levers of wealth to build.

Let’s get jiggy with it.

Lever 1: Increase income

Your income is the most important lever you can pull to build generational wealth. The problem for most is they never build the skill to handle that income.

Think about this for a second. You can only cut back so much, but what you can earn is truly infinite.

If that is the case, why live on rice and beans when you can live the dream?

(I used to be a rapper in another life.)

The way to do that, is with you income. Building the skills to earn more, then taking that income putting it to work. Until one day you hard earned dollars are outworking you.

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When this happens you are financially free.

How to increase income:

• Ask for a raise at your job.
• Start a side hustle.
• Build career capital to accelerate your earning potential.

​Related Podcast Episode: The Step By Step Framework to Making 6-Figures per Year​

Lever 2: Cut Back Expenses

Everybody just rolled their eyes. This is the one we all hate. Every personal finance “guru” starts here.

I don’t. I would rather you earn more first.

But, the truth is, if you are overspending and looking to generate more disposable income, you may have to cut back until your cashflow can catch up.

I don’t want you to focus on cutting out your daily latte. That is a complete waste of time for most. Instead, I want you to focus on the things that move the needle.

Don’t focus on the $10 decisions, focus on the $100,000 decisions. We cover them here. ​

What moves the needle? Here are some examples:

• Your asset Allocation
• Housing (Most peoples greatest expense)
• Food
• Transportation Costs ($4 million lifetime)
• Mortgage Interest
• Investment Fees

Lever 3: Deploy your accumulated capital and invest it

This is just a fancy way of saying INVEST YOUR MONEY!

If I could shout this from the rooftops I would (Well, I guess I could, brb).

You will never, ever, EVER, retire if you do not invest your hard earned dollars.

You need to start investing today.

You may be asking: Do I need a complicated investing plan with 4 different computer screens showing weird looking charts?

No.

Should I hire a super fancy financial advisor with 2% fees?

Nope.

You just need a simple plan to get your dollars working. I like investing in index funds and ETF’s consistently over a long period of time. You may like something else. What matters is finding investments that you can stick to.

Here are some examples:

• Stocks
• Low cost Index Fund and ETF’s
• Bonds
• Passive Real Estate like REITS

Lever 4: Create assets

Assets help you diversify your income streams.

They generate good ol’ fashioned cashflow (I need it on time).

Why does this matter?

Cashflow creates options. Some options may include:

• Lose your job? Your cashflow can help make up for the difference.
• Want that fancy new car? Buy an asset that cashflows the payment.
• Want a more flexible work schedule but it pays less? Let cashflow make up the difference in income and take that lower paying job.

You have heard me talk about the importance of more that 1 income stream. This helps you get there. And, helps protect you when times get tough.

Here are some examples:

• Buy cash flowing businesses
• Rental Properties
• Car Wash
• Laundromats
• Ice Machines

The Wealth Building Quadrant

If you are struggling to decide which lever(s) to pull first. Use the Wealth Building Quadrant as a guide.

1. Lots of Time But No Money

Then you need to focus on increasing income and cutting costs.

2. Lots of Money but no Time

Then You need to focus on investing your money.

3. Some time and lots of money

Buy cash flowing assets or invest in the market.

4. Some Money and Lots of time

Increase Your Income, buy assets you can afford, or invest you money.

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📈 Quick Tip Of The Week

Just a friendly reminder: The deadline to put money into *last year's* IRA bucket is April 18th. If you didn't max out your 2022 IRA contributions, I recommend doing that before making 2023 contributions.

TIP: Work on maxing out your Roth for 2022 now!

If you are looking for a place to open your Roth IRA M1 Finance is great!

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High-Performance Book Club 📚

I get a ton of questions from listeners and readers as to what I am reading. So we decided to let you know via the newsletter. The High-Performance Book Club will be a way to share this. If you want to be Elite in your career, business, or with your wealth, then welcome to the club. If you would like to see our previous picks, you can find them here.

Check it out here.

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The Personal Finance Podcast 🎙️ ​ ​

​How to Become Financially Whole with Tiffany Aliche (The Budgetnista!)​

​20+ Investing Lessons from One Of The Greatest Investors of All Time!​

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Youtube

How to Build The Perfect 3-Fund Investment Portfolio​

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